Marie from Make and Takes is celebrating apple season with a supercute craft project. All you need is yarn, pipe cleaners, and a piece of cardboard to create your own crop. See step-by-step photos and instructions.

When I was little, we packed our school lunches in boring brown paper bags (and walked to school uphill both ways). But this week, Kate Pruitt came up with a gorgeous DIY embroidered lunch bag, which moms can stitch up in an hour. (As Kate says, the hardest part is deciding what to write.) Wouldn't it be a treat to pull this out in the school cafeteria?

P.S. Hungry for more? 30 ideas for packed lunches and one adorable lunch-box surprise!

See more from Nesting contributor Joanna Goddard at her blog, Cup of Jo.

Morehouse Yarns has been making crafty Critter Knit Kits for some time--we love the alligator scarves! But these new Critter Backpacks are the perfect mesh of cozy handmade and functional design.

The kits come with everything you need to make your own: yarn, eyes, and the pattern. All you need are the needles and, of course, a little skill. Available in green frog, owl (shown above),  snake, loon, and hippo with cute white teeth (shown below).

Back-to-school shopping? Check out our adorable lunch box and backpack pairs.

Remember the day you got your very own set of house keys? When I was growing up in Michigan and got my first keys, I finally felt like a grown-up (even though I was wearing a ponytail and had two scraped knees). Well, we're loving these animal key chains, which would add a sweet touch to that special step.

-- Joanna Goddard, Cup of Jo

Crazy how popular Star Wars still is with kids decades after the first trilogy came out. If you have a Yoda-obsessed someone in your family, we're loving these adorable felt finger puppets from Heather on Make and Takes. Find the instructions here.

Sometimes, it's useful to know your own limitations. I had lots of big, fancy ideas about slip-covering the third-hand Graco carseat we got from friends (I wanted something a little more summery and cottony; I don't want the baby to suffer swamp-ass in August, perched in a January-ready car seat).

That said, I knew my skill set was neither as big nor as fancy as my visions. So I turned to Etsy, where a simple "custom car-seat cover" search yielded pages of results, including one from the super-straightforwardly named Yourcarseatcover, based in Washington State. It's run by a lovely woman named Heather, mother of five, and she offers the unique service of sewing a cover--she only does Gracos--with fabric that you send her. (She also sells some premade--but again, my visions: big and fancy!)

For the bargain price of $38 (plus to-and-fro shipping), within three weeks, I had the cover (including canopy and infant headrest). Both Jamie and I were overwhelmed by how beautifully and carefully made it is. I'm glad I realized my limitations, but I'm even gladder that Heather's talents seem to have no bounds.

I know it's hard to get past how cute this sleeping puppy is, but how cute is that collar on the cute sleeping puppy? The incredible SouleMama and her sweet kids recently added pup Nellie to their family, and she has some amazing ideas for pet-related kids' crafts--like this ribbon collar. Check them out (plus more adorable pictures of Nellie). And, if you missed it, see our tour of SouleMama's home for more creative inspiration.

The youngest of four, and the baby by more than six and half years, my little sister Alex had a pretty cush and indulged childhood. One of the best examples of this is how our Grammie dictated we play Milton Bradley Memory with her. 

We had a very old version of the game—from 1966, when my oldest sister was born—with little illustrations and some images from Charles and Ray Eames' "House of Cards" photographs. There were two or three pairs of little girls, adorable little pony-tailed moppets. And whenever anyone won the "Memory" and took that pair, they then had to give them to Alex, and take in exchange, just some random match (smokestack, anyone?).

Understandably, then, when our Grammie died in 1994, Alex inherited the game. And in so many ways, those little drawings are seared into our (real, grey-matter, non-Milton Bradley) memories as the indelible images of our childhoods. When I went to my parents' in Massachusetts last weekend, Alex showed up bearing gifts for this unborn baby--a whole bunch of onesies that she decorated with iron-on transfers of the Memory cards. She scanned about a dozen cards, and then printed them on iron-on transfer paper (made especially for stretchy fabrics), cut them to size, and ironed them onto a pre-laundered onesie.

For good measure, on the butt of each little shirt, she ironed on a heart made from the  this-side-up side of the Memory cards. She scanned only the seemingly gender-neutral images, because I don't know what I'm having. That was her excuse, anyhow—I think she's just still hoarding those ponytailed girls, after all these years!

 

You know we love super site etsy for the wealth of handcrafted goodness that can be found with only a bit of determination and a few clicks of the mouse. Here we've rounded up a few of our current favorites:

-Vintage Alphabet Art Print by Sweet William

-Little Elephant Jingle Toy by Letter M Design

-Throwing Paper Planes Coinpurse by Pocket Carnival

-Kitty Fifine Pirate Print by Junker Jane

-Stitched Balloon Girl Card Set by Polkadotshop

-All Occasion Sticker Label Set by Boygirlparty

See more of our favorite things.