Dream Home

Valentine's felt heart garland

2012-01-23T19:46:00.000-08:00

I thought I saw something similar to this on Pinterest, but couldn't find it anywhere when I was looking. It was like this one, but with the hearts closer together and some X's and O's in it. Anyone seen it? Know what I'm talking about? Hello? I thought I had pinned it.

I cut out a bunch of hearts- I didn't worry about them being the same size or anything- and then just ran them one by one through the sewing machine. I didn't worry about exact spacing or anything, either. I never do.

I mostly used felt I already had, but figured that if you cut 15 hearts out of 9"x11" sheet (which is totally possible), then you could get a garland this long for about 75 cents. Sweet.

Don't mind the clutter on top of the piano. It's the most convenient (and the only currently available) place that my oldest daughter can't reach.

One last thing- sorry about the lighting in these pictures. It was all cloudy and my camera's just a little point and shoot that can't handle those kinds of conditions. :( Poor little thing. Up side- it's all cloudy and we're finally getting SNOW!!

++UPDATE++

Thank you Julie! She left a comment with a link to the exact picture I was thinking of. It was on Etsy and has now been sold, so there's a good reason to go out and make one of your own. Here it is.

DO YOU WANT TO SEE MY NEW COLLAGE WALL?!

2012-01-23T19:34:00.000-08:00

YOU DO?!
OK!

This has been in the works for awhile. Mostly because of laziness, since I had almost everything that went up there. It was actually mostly blank for a few months, when the clock fell down for some reason and knocked down the majority of the stuff that was there. (It was kind of scary, I was on the couch nursing the baby at the time and the clock actually hit me.) So for several months, this is how it was:

{My daughter took this picture. Not bad for a 2 year old, I say. Oh, and for reference, the keys haven't moved.}

Kind of sad that I left it that way for so long.

Before that, it was like this (minus the banner, that was up for Mim's first birthday almost 2 (!!) years ago.

And again, its current state (as of this morning):

It's not a huge difference, I know, but I like it so much more. About the stuff: the plates are ones my mother-in-law gave to me. The blue diamond one and the white one belonged to her grandmother and the dark blue rimmed one was part of my father-in-laws mother's china collection. I think. The keys are from Pottery Barn, the number 15 is from Hobby Lobby, as is the doorknob key plate thing. The frames and clocks have all been around for a long time.

I'll probably still do some tweaking, but here's the other thing I'm loving about this wall- I'll be able to!!
Our house was built in 1950 and has plaster walls. For those of you that don't know that pain- lemme tell ya. Hanging things is terrible. The walls are really hard and nailing things in doesn't work very well. Push pins don't work at all. The best way to hang things is to drill a hole, hammer/push in a plastic anchor, then use a screw in that to hang things on. See? Not something you want to do for every little picture.

I had a brain wave a few weeks ago. Command hooks! I had a few but needed more so I sent Mike to the store for some more. He came back with these:

AMAZING!! It's sort of like velcro. You stick one to the wall and one to your frame and then stick the frame to the wall. It's brilliant, way better than the hooks. I can't believe I've lived for 3.5 years in a house with plaster walls and have only just discovered these. I can move things around on my walls again. (Well, I could before, but it involved puttying and repainting all the plaster that would chip off when removing nails.)

I love discovering awesome things like this. Another of my new favorite finds:

They're really good. And Costco has a coupon on them that goes until Friday, I think.

And by the way, I'm not being paid to endorse anything here. I was just thinking about awesome stuff and these came to mind. Because they're awesome.

Tummy time mat, all the rest

2011-12-29T09:55:00.000-08:00

Well, I got it done for Christmas. I sure didn't get step by step pictures of the rest of the making, though.

Here's the finished product, complete with baby:

The play gym above her is from Ikea. I find it not nearly as obnoxious as a lot of the other ones I've seen. I love babies, but I hate the baby land feeling that comes when you have a newborn and your whole house is just covered in blankets, bouncers, swings, burp clothes, and all the rest. Am I alone there? Anyway, I feel like the Ikea play gym is a lot less baby-ish than a lot of others, so I don't mind it so much.

Now for some details. Here's the other vision quarter:


{Don't mind my feet there at the bottom}

Just a child mirror attached to a wedge pillow and two loops for attaching toys.

The mirror is one of those ones you can get for your car to look at rear-facing children.

The mirror sticks to the mat with velcro. The wedge pillow actually has two sets of velcro on it- one set on the short side to make the mirror stand up at a steep angle, and another (in the picture above) on the opposite long side that will make it be at a low angle, for when the baby is sitting up and looking down at the mat. I feel pretty smart about that.
I also felt smart figuring out my pillow dimensions. I used the pythagorean theorem and the sine function to get things right. I always liked trig, and as it turns out, it's still actually useful!

For the last quarter, the sound/hearing one, I had a bit of a dilemma. A lot of store bought play mats have squeakers in them, or buttons that play music. I thought it would be really cool if I could DIY that, but I never figured out anything that was actually doable. Thus, for this quarter, I just attached a bunch of loops.

I'll use the rings to attach things that make noise. It's nothing too special, but it works. My parents got Elle a bus that lies flat and has a bunch of buttons that make noise and play songs, so that works.

After I finished all the quarters, I pieced them together and then put the grey square down over the center and just like that my quilt top was done!

I quilted it quarter by quarter, too. My original plan was to use different techniques in each section, like a grid in one and stippling in another, but that proved to be a bit ambitious. I just did wavy lines instead. I kind of wish I had done them a little closer, but it was Christmas Eve night and I just wanted this thing DONE.

I machine bound it using this tutorial and it worked out pretty well. It's got some problems, but I'm not embarrassed of it as a first try.

{The backing is the same grey as the middle square and the binding}

{This was by far my best corner. The others are a bit wonky.}

Here it is, all finished. It was such a great feeling to get this done. The littlest miss likes it, too, if drooling and chewing and spitting up on everything is any indication of fondness. I'm pretty sure it is. If you're less than a year old.

Making it was nearly as frustrating as I thought it would be (my expectations of frustration were incredibly high, but still). Working on it in quarters made it pretty manageable- I definitely recommend it as a strategy.

I hope everybody else got all their handmade projects done in time for the holidays!

Tummy time mat, part 2

2011-12-14T21:39:00.000-08:00

The mat is organized by senses (it was the easiest way to think of things to put on it) and yesterday I finished the touch quarter.

So, the big thing is like a little touch book. I took a bunch of different fabrics with distinct feels, used Heat n' Bond, zig zagged the edges together, then put eyelets in. I just used normal 3 ring binder hoops to put it together. The fabrics I used include velour, burlap, denim, terry cloth, minky, satin, felt, monk's cloth, suede, flannel, cotton with puff paint on it, and corduroy. I thought I was going to have a hard time thinking of more than 3 or 4 fabrics, but then I couldn't stop thinking of them. I already had all of them, too. Nice.

The book attaches to the mat like so:

Those little bits with the trims on them are detachable, too:

One of the goals I refuse to sacrifice with this mat is that it NEEDS to be washable. Pretty much everything will be detachable.

Again, I know that the book might be a little advanced for her at this age. Mim will be there to help, though. The little tassel bits will be perfect for Elle, though. She loves grabbing and pulling right now. My hair, Mim's hair, faces, everything.

That's part 2. Here's part 1.

Tummy time mat, part 1

2011-12-13T21:24:00.000-08:00

So it's possible that previously I've mentioned the tummy time mat that I'm making. Maybe here. And maybe in my last post. Things are moving on it, though. Today I actually remembered to take pictures of some progress, so here you go:

It's my little picture flap quadrant. Now that it's done, it doesn't actually seem like enough, so there might be more added to it. Maybe like pockets on the tops of the flaps for more pictures. I'm not sure. Maybe some simple appliqued shapes.

The details:

I first sewed the flaps down while they laid open, the folded them over to cover the pictures and sewed them down again. Also, you might notice the tape on the vinyl. That's what I was using to hold the vinyl in place while I sewed. I didn't want to use pins. I thought the tape would just rip off, easy as that, when I was done and it would be awesome. It was not.

I just used a zig zag to sew the vinyl on. Don't make the stitch length on the zig zag too short, or you might just make it really easy for the vinyl to rip along the perforations the needle makes.

And there it is. A drool proof little pocket for pictures so the baby has a little something extra to look at during tummy time. I realize the actual opening and closing might be beyond her at this age, but I want her to be able to grow into it a bit. I'm betting that her big sister will be more than happy to help her until she can do it on her own, though.

Stay tuned for part 2!

Sweater stocking

2011-12-12T13:33:00.000-08:00

I've seen stockings made from sweaters all over blogland and on pinterest. Since I needed a new stocking for little miss Elle, I decided to upcycle an old sweater of my husband's. It was just plain red, so to give a little detail, I did my pretend embroidering (as seen here and here) and added some snow flakes. Here it is!

{It's not lined, the cuff is just a bit of fleece that I sewed on. I'd explain how, but I didn't take pictures and I don't think I can do it with just words.}

{I used a yard darner and a fuzzy off white yarn to add the snow flakes. The yarn was left over from this project.}

{Here it is with the rest of our mismatched stocking collection. Mike's is his from when he was a kid, mine is one I picked up at Target two or three years ago, Mim's is my old one from when I was a kid.}

It still kind of makes me do a double take when I see four stockings up there. I kind of love that they don't match, too. Maybe I won't ever end up making the matching set I've been planning for three years.

Also featured on the mantle: my old school paper chain advent calendar. I was going to use those paper maché boxes from craft stores to make a fancy one this year, but I just won't have time. This one is good for us for now, anyway- Mim totally gets a kick out of tearing the links off everyday. And since we made it, she hasn't asked every day if Santa is coming.

I'm more excited for Christmas this year than I have been since I was a kid.

Happy holidays to all!

Thanks for reading.

Polly Pocket Beds

2011-12-08T10:26:00.001-08:00

For Christmas, my side of the family does a name drawing for all the cousins. Mim drew the name of her cousin Ari, who is really into Polly Pockets (so different from the Pollys of my generation). Anyway, my sister in law told me Ari really wanted Polly Pocket beds and bedding. So here they are:

The beds are popsicle sticks and some wood craft circles cut in half. You could save yourself some gluing by getting the balsa wood pieces in the width you want from a craft store, but I had popsicle sticks on hand, so I went with that.

The bottom "sheet" has a few layers of batting underneath and all the layers are secured with modpodge.

I put the quilts wrong sides together and just finished the edges with a zig zag.

There you have it. My niece lent me a Polly to make sure everything was to scale, so here she is all tucked in.

I actually quilted the blankets a little bit because I wanted some practice with my free motion foot, but I didn't do that until after I took the picture above and now they're all wrapped up in their box. Ahwell.

Anyway, I think these would be an awesome gift for the Polly enthusiasts in anyone's life. They were also free for me, as I had all the materials, and they weren't even that time consuming. My daughter was even able to help a little bit (since the gift is from her, after all) by painting and picking the fabric out.

There will be more posts soon, I promise. I've just been mostly working on a more involved project for my youngest- a tummy time mat. Part one of that will hopefully be done by tomorrow!

Dress um ups

2011-11-30T19:36:00.001-08:00

That's how my daughter says dress ups. She's been talking a lot lately about how Santa is going to bring her "pink dress um ups." Although yesterday she was talking about purple ones. I hope she changes her mind back to pink before Christmas, or she might be a little disappointed. Here's what I've done so far:

No pictures of the process- it's all after bedtime work, which means pictures would be so crappy they're not even worth taking. I snuck down to the basement this morning to take these.

I'm so excited to give these to my girl. She wears dress up skirts all day, every day. And to bed. "Look mommy, I a pin-cess!" There will be at least one more, made of chiffon. I'm thinking either a circle skirt or a gored one. Something more on the long and flowy side of things that will be good for spinning. I might do a bubble skirt, too. Now that I've started I can't stop- there's just something so addicting about making these super easy skirts.

So, although I have no tutorial, I do have some tips. The top skirt is costume satin- finish your edges before you gather anything!! I didn't for the bottom layer and it was just fraying everywhere. That satin stuff is crazy. I zig-zagged all the rest of my raw edges before messing with them and it was a lot less messy. One tip for the no-sew tutu: if you want it to really stick out, stick some netting in there.

Piano bench!

2011-11-26T22:20:00.001-08:00

It's out of the garage and in the house! This is a big deal. I've only ever done one other big painting project, and this turned out well (although spray paint is pretty fool-proof) and it's my practice for an even bigger project that I might just have done before the new year.

So here's the before. I know I posted a picture of it before, but then I realized it didn't look so bad, so I went back and took some pictures of how crappy this thing was before I took care of it.

{I suppose it wasn't that bad...from a distance.}


{The glazing or whatever that the previous owner attempted was a really ugly brown. And they definitely didn't prime before they painted, because it was chipping off like crazy in a bunch of places.}

I had originally planned to just do a light sanding and then priming and painting, but because of the paint chippiness, I ended up pretty much taking it all off.

{I got it down to its original stain or bare wood almost everywhere. The upped left corner in this picture is white because of sunlight.}

As I took off the paint and uncovered the original stain color, I got kind of annoyed, because the original stain looked really close to what my husband had used on the piano.

An aside: Here's why this project even happened. For our first anniversary, my husband got me a piano (he's awesome). Of course, cash was tight, so he was looking forever on Craigslist for a piano that worked and was in our budget. He found one a week before our anniversary, but it was ugly. He bought it anyway and then worked with a friend on it, stripping it down and re-staining it. They got the whole piano done in week, but not the bench. He was wiped out on refinishing furniture after that week, and so when he gave it to me, told me the bench was going to be my responsibility. I was ok with that, and now after almost 4 years later and about 3.9 years after the leftover piano stain was lost, it's DONE!

Here it is now:

I did some light distressing that you can't even see in the photo, and might later go over it was a bit of stain or possibly stencil the top, but for now I have a real place to sit when I play. It's great.

A detail I love:

I mod-podged some fabric over the bench bottom before I nailed it back on. I love it. Bonus tip: When mod-podging over a large area, start in a corner and move out ward a little bit at a time, smoothing like crazy. Worked like a charm.

I hope everyone had an excellent Thanksgiving and for those of you not in the States, I hope your Thursday was totally rad.

Appliquéd ornament pillow

2011-11-22T10:24:00.001-08:00

I love this pillow. You probably won't, if you really love good embroidery. Because I'm not an embroiderer. I know the name of like 2 stitches, and I'm not very good at either. However, I like my very imperfect, informal style of embroidering, at least on this pillow. Here she is:

I used a combination of all the stitches I knew how to do and did some machine embroidering/appliquéing as well.

{Machine zig zag around the edge, hand sewn buttons.}

{Blanket stitch around the edge plus a running stitch to attach the vintage lace.}

{All machine.}

{Running stitch}

{Running stitch plus back stitching}

I used gray flannel for the pillow body. I had wanted to use burlap, but then realized that would be really hard to embroider on it.

It was fun to make this. I'm no hand sewing expert, so it was just kind of fun to try whatever and just kind of mess around on this pillow. All the unevenness adds charm, right?

Let the Christmas crafts commence- Ornament trees

2011-11-18T09:20:00.001-08:00

I haven't done anything original in awhile, so it's about time. I thought of doing something like this last year, but was too sick/busy finishing this to make it happen. So this year, when I saw these mini ornaments at Walmart, I decided it was time.

They were about $3.50 each. Not bad, but I'm going to check out the dollar store (that was my original plan, but by the time I got out last night, it was closed) next time. I started by hot gluing some ornaments in a ring about 6-7 inches in diameter. Then I just kept building up, ring on ring, leaving the middle empty so I could get maximum tree out of the ornaments I had.

See? It's hollow.

I like it. It's going to be perfect on the mantle in a week or so, with Christmas lights all around it and reflected by it. Mmmmm. I'm going to make a few more, I think, in different metallics. It's about a foot tall, but I might put it up on a candle stick or something..

Here's to the beginning of Christmas crafting!

Big plans

2011-11-17T20:26:00.001-08:00

I have a few things I want to make for gifts this Christmas. The picture above is my plan for a play mat for the little one (from Santa). I'm going to make it in four sections.

The first section, the red oval, is going to just be a mirror (one of those child safe ones) propped up on a triangle pillow that will attach to the mat with velcro. When I say "propped up" I actually mean permanently attached to the triangle pillow. The reason it will be attached to the mat with velcro is so the mat can be washable. I'll also put some fabric loops where I can attach toys with those rings you get at the store.

The second section, with the blue rectangles, will be little flaps that cover pictures that I can remove. I'm going to make some kind of pocket with clear vinyl so I can just slide them in and out. This idea, to have pictures of family on the play mat, is pretty much what's driving me to finish it, because I'm pretty sure it'll be a big pain and I'll regret not just buying one. I'll probably be clinging pretty hard to how cool it will be that the mat is customized with our pictures.

The third section, the pink square, will be kind of a fabric touch book. Burlap, fur, minky, fake leather, etc. I'm not sure if it will be a book, I'll have to see what works. Whatever happens, that quadrant will be about the sense of touch.

I'm unsure about the green circles right now. It will be about the sense of sound. A squeaker, a bell, crinkle flaps, more fabric loops to attach things that will make noise, etc.

I'm putting the plans up now for a few reasons. I'm just excited is a big one. I also want to share with anybody who might be making something similar, and I want to give myself time to incorporate any advice that I might get. So if you have any, all you have to do is click on "comments."

ONE WEEK UNTIL THANKSGIVING!! WHAT?! I wish luck to any of you that are making any of your gifts to give!

Thrifted sweater to baby sweater dress

2011-11-15T13:56:00.001-08:00

For this, I used this tutorial. I swear, there's nothing at Make It and Love It that I don't want to make. And all her tutorials are so easy to find, too!

I got the sweater at a local thrift shop. I used one of her little dresses as a pattern and put it together, as per the instructions on Make It and Love It. The neckline on mine went a little funny because I didn't leave myself enough width to bind it like I had planned. Good thing this baby has 3 chins and no one will ever see it.

{See the furry pillow behind her? I've gotten started on my winter pillow making!}

I love sweater dresses on my girls. I'll probably make several more before it gets warm again. And the little one can wear them with these little booties. I'll probably make several more pairs of those, too.

I think I might unpick a bit of the side seams on the dress and sew in a ribbon or some kind of tie to put a bow in the front.

{Sorry she's flipping you off.}

Coming soon...

2011-11-11T12:14:00.001-08:00

Last Saturday I got to start sanding it, hopefully I'll get to finish sanding and start painting tomorrow. I'm using one of the Krylon paints that's for plastic, so we'll see what happens. Also, will it be weird that the bench won't match the piano? Seeing as having it match the piano is not an option, I hope not.

Happy Veteran's Day!

Little princess cape

2011-11-10T10:01:00.001-08:00

My daughter loves dress ups. So when I saw this dress in a bag of clothes my sister-in-law gave me, I immediately thought of a cape.

(This picture was in my October of 2010 folder.)

The dress is that stretchy velour/velvety stuff, so there was no way I could work with it on my machine. Ahem. My old machine (technically my mom's, but whatever). I finally got to it yesterday in my cutting frenzy.

First thing, I measured my daughter from shoulder to floor and then cut that length plus a couple inches off the bottom of the dress. The couple of inches was because I wanted it to still be long on her in a few years. Then I opened up one of the side seams on the dress. It was pretty much a big rectangle. I didn't cut any of the width off because I wanted it to be nice and full.

For the cape/cloak hood, I used the top part of the dress. I found a hood template online and then just eyeballed it. I made it much taller than my daughter would need because I wanted it to be all droopy and loose. Like this:

So here's my hood pattern piece:

I ended up cutting of that little tab to the left of the red line, so go ahead and ignore that.

Then you put your two hood pieces wrong sides together and sew along the curve (the green line in the picture).

And that's the only picture I took of the process. Nice. I didn't get to sewing until after dark, so I didn't even bother taking pictures because I knew how poorly they would turn out. I am not a good tutorial-izer.

Then I took my cape piece and sewed a basting stitch along the top, about a quarter inch down. I gathered it until it was the same length as the bottom part of the hood, then pinned wrong sides together and sewed. Maybe this picture will help:

Then I hemmed up one side, up and over the hood, and down the other. No bottom hem needed because I used the existing one on the dress. Done.

Here's the finished product on my little uncooperative model:

Then she started to get into it a little.

She was pretty sold when she found out it was good for twirling.

It's a good addition to her dress-ups, I think. Even though right now it's definitely in second place to either of her princess skirts, I'm betting it will get a lot of use over the coming years. I know I would have loved a cloak like that when I was little. My husband said he probably would have thought it was pretty cool, too.

I'm so excited.

2011-11-09T09:49:00.000-08:00

Look at what UPS dropped off for me yesterday:

IT'S MY NEW SEWING MACHINE! It's the Brother XR-7700. I've had a little envelope in my sock drawer for about a year now where I've been squirreling away money for a sewing machine. I wanted a Bernina or a Pfaff, but at the rate I was going it was going to take about a million (or at least 5) years to have enough for one. My mother-in-law sent me a link to this machine on the Costco website and I got it the next day.

I don't anticipate it lasting me the rest of my life, but for $150, I don't mind. And now I have a decent machine to work with while I start saving again for my dream machine.

All weekend I was obsessively watching the tracking website, refreshing every hour or so. Whenever it was scanned somewhere new I would announce it to my husband, who thought I was being silly but was still happy for me.

So, here's the biggest reason I was so excited:

This is the machine I was using. It's my mom's backup one. Very sturdy (it's old and all the parts are metal), but also very basic. And very finicky. The tension has been crazy since I got it, as has the stitch length. Lately the bobbin has been tangling and stalling the machine almost every time I start sewing. Needless to say, I haven't been sewing much lately. I did these and this at my mom's house, on her lovely Bernina.

So here's my new little beauty:

I finally got to try it out last night and so far it's been awesome. It came with 10 feet, including a free motion foot and a walking foot!! I can do my own quilting now!!

There are also 70 stitch options, which is fun. I'm mostly excited by all the feet, though. I've never used a buttonhole foot and now I just want to make things with rows and rows of buttons on them.

I can't wait to sew knit things, either. Doing that was almost always a disaster with my old machine. But now... The possibilities are endless. I'm going to make leggings! And refashion shirts!

I've been cutting stuff out all weekend to sew, and I think I'm in for some more of that today. In fact, I think I'll get to that right now.

More leaf art

2011-11-07T20:30:00.000-08:00

Here's my fall mantle:

See the empty frame? My plan was to get a print of some fall leaves for it. That didn't work out, because as it turns out, my Costco photo account had been cancelled because I hadn't ordered any pictures for a year (whoops). So I emailed them and they emailed back saying it would be 2-3 weeks before my account was reinstated (really?). So I came up with something else.

I did these last year and I still really like them. My idea for the mantle frame was similar and first involved going on a walk with my girls to collect leaves. It was fun. Then I pressed them. Then I glued them to a 5x7 sheet of paper (I actually used the paper that came in the frame):

I did a few layers and made sure the paper was covered entirely.

Then I trimmed the edges:

Then I put it in the frame:

I love it- simple, natural, and it adds a bit of color to my kind of bland mantle:

Spiderweb Soup

2011-11-04T15:17:00.000-07:00

A little late for a Halloween-type post, but whatever.

Two years ago I was watching Rachael Ray and she did a black bean soup with sour cream that looked awesome. The thing that really caught my eye was how she did the sour cream- she had it in a squeezy bottle and did a swirl on top of the soup, then used a toothpick to pull from the center to the outside edge in a bunch of places, like the spokes on a wheel. Then and there (two years ago) I decided that I wanted that to be my family's traditional Halloween meal. I also decided right then that I would call it "Spiderweb Soup" and be the coolest mom in the world.

I finally made it this year, although I'm not certain the recipe I found here is the same as the one I saw on her show. I seem to remember that one being darker than the one that resulted from this recipe. I made it on Wednesday but next year I am DETERMINED (all caps-it must be true) to actually have it on Halloween. I will also make the sour cream lines thicker, so you can the "web" better.

Woot for new traditions!

Baby booties!

2011-11-03T09:58:00.000-07:00

This last week was full of sewing for me- I did the baby's costume as well as a few little things I was making by hand for our family pictures. One of those things was some baby booties. I had initially planned on crocheting some, but then abandoned that plan when I realized we only had a week until pictures and I still hadn't bought a pattern. Luckily, I saw this pin on one of my sister-in-law's boards. The pattern is from her other sister-in-law's Etsy shop. I bought it almost immediately, because I can't crochet baby boots in a week, but I can definitely sew some in that same amount of time.

No tutorial, since the pattern isn't my original to share, but here's how they turned out:

I used a brown faux velvet for the outside uppers and wool felt for the lining. I love how they kind of look like spats. You can see a bunch more fabric combinations here, at my sister-in-law's sister-in-law's blog.

My unsolicited opinion of the pattern: It was great. There was one pdf with just that pattern pieces and another with step by step instructions with lots of pictures. I will definitely be making more of these for my little one.

Here's how many pictures I tried to take of them on my littlest's feet:

Two month olds are so wiggly.

My new favorite headbands

2011-11-02T09:31:00.000-07:00

My "tutorial:"
Buy a half yard of crocheted lace. Tie some ribbon around either end. Put it on your head.

Seriously, I love these. They go with everything.

Do-do-do dodododo do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do

2011-11-01T08:46:00.000-07:00

If you couldn't tell, the title of this post is the Mario theme song.

So, most of these costumes are a repeat from 2 years ago. (This was last year, if you're wondering.) I knew I wouldn't get around to making new costumes for everyone this time around, what with the new baby and all. Elle's is new- all I did was make a little turtle shell that strapped onto her back and some booties. Mim's is improved- I cut off the flat foam bottom and did a gathering stitch around the bottom edge. I also improved my costume- lace on my gloves, a Princess Daisy hair style, and earrings that I made with buttons and nail polish that I forgot to wear. I didn't let Mike grow his mustache out for this year since we got our family pictures done on Saturday and he looks like a creeper when he has one. We also forgot to draw one on him, like we did for our family party on Friday. Ahwell.

Hope you all had a safe and candy-filled Halloween!

I learned how to crochet

2011-10-25T16:16:00.000-07:00

I wanted the baby to wear a crocheted hat in our family pictures that are coming up and I didn't want to buy one. I looked on Etsy, and as adorable as they were, there is just something in me that can't handle paying for something I know I could make myself. I used to know how to crochet, so I decided that I was going to relearn and then learn how to follow a pattern and then buy a pattern and make it happen.

It pretty much went as planned. I was even feeling confident enough in my abilities that I abandoned the pattern I bought towards the end and went for something a little more like this. It worked out pretty well.

I don't have any tutorials or anything for crocheters out there, being only a beginner myself, but I do have this bit of advice: If you've ever, ever crocheted in your lifetime, you probably still remember. It's been 10 years since I learned, I only made one thing, and I hadn't touched a crochet hook since that until 2 weeks ago, but it all came back once I started chain stitching. Also, it turns out that crocheting patterns are not as intimidating as I thought. At least the beginner ones aren't.

Lacy scarf

2011-10-23T15:40:00.000-07:00

I saw this, loved it, pinned it, then made my own yesterday.

Our family pictures are on Saturday and I'm using a skirt I got for my daughter as a jumping off point for our palette. There's a bit of mustard yellow in it, which I DO NOT look good in. Not in any large quantity, at least. I thought if I made that lace infinity scarf with the goldy yellow underneath and a dense lace over it in white or cream, maybe I could pull it off. Here's the result:

It's still a maybe, so far as it making into the family pictures. Still, it was a lovely tutorial and my fabric only cost a total of like 4 bucks, so I feel good about it.

Baby blankets?

2011-10-23T15:31:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure these count as actual baby blankets, but "baby swaddlers" makes it sound waaaay too complicated and "baby fabric squares" could mean almost anything.

As with many of the things I do/make, this little project was sparked by a desire to not spend a ton of money (she outgrew these weeks ago and I didn't want to spend $30 on the three of the next size up). And a bit of a dilemma. The dilemma: Since she outgrew her swaddlers, there were exactly 2 blankets we liked to use to wrap her up- one very thin fleece one and one very thin knitted one. They're both stretchy, which allowed me to pull them tight around her, which I think is the secret to getting a swaddler to stay swaddled. She always kicked her way out of the flannel ones within moments, it seemed like. It's possible I'm just not great at swaddling (I think I've used this word in every way possible now).

Anyway, my solution was to buy a yard of stretchy knit fabric, cut it in half, and serge the edges.

Oh, I rounded the edges, too.

I bought 2 yds of fabric, one of each color, so now I have 4 blankets for a total cost of under $10. And I won't have to panic when one of them gets spit up/pooped/peed on, since I'll have more than one acceptable swaddling blanket waiting in the drawer. Ah.

You can freeze everything

2011-10-21T14:58:00.000-07:00

First, my disclaimer: I'm no food expert.

Freezing food is great, especially if you didn't get around to canning anything this year. Like maybe you had a baby right around the time the whole canning season rolled around...or something. It was always my plan to go big on canning once we had a garden, but it didn't happen for me this year. However, our garden was still kind of planned around canning in future years. We had 6 tomato plants. And I don't even like tomatoes (in their unaltered form- I love salsa, red sauce, ketchup, etc.).

My mom totally saved the day when she told me you can freeze whole uncooked tomatoes. You just wash the tomatoes, cut off the top, and stick them in a freezer bag. Awesome, right? I had no idea. They're great for using in sauces and soups, apparently. You can even use them in fresh salsa in the winter, but you need to make sure that those frozen tomatoes are blemish free, since you're not cooking out any possible germs.

{These will be sauce.}

Another of my recent favorites when it comes to freezing food: pesto. I know you can freeze fresh herbs (though I've never done it), so it made sense that you could freeze the finished pesto. I especially love it when I'm making a creamy pesto sauce, because it removes half the process. I should have done this with more of my basil before it all flowered.

{I freeze it flat, breast milk style. It makes thawing it so fast.}

Your own pie crust. The pie crust recipe I use makes 5 single crusts. I don't often need that much at once, so I freeze it like they do in the store- I roll it out on top of wax paper, then roll it up. I wrap that in saran wrap, then aluminum foil. Another way to freeze it- if you have any of those disposable pie plates, you can lay the dough in those, trim the edges, and seal it up with saran wrap. They don't take as long to defrost as the rolled up ones.

{They remind me of Christmas crackers.}

As well as freezing this stuff, I also froze broccoli and cauliflower. We planted more than we could eat fresh, so I just blanched the excess and stuck it in freezer bags.

That's most of my new freezer-ing. I need to go check out the frozen foods aisle for more ideas.

Itty bitty flowers

2011-10-17T10:20:00.000-07:00

My baby was blessed in our church yesterday and in honor of the occasion, I made my first baby hair accessory. I won't bother with a tutorial here, since there are so many out there on the interwebs and many of them are way better than I would put up here. This is a good one, and it's simple, too. I didn't go for 100% wool felt (so expensive!), just a wool blend that I got here.
So here's my darling in her Sunday getup:

The smallest flower level is actually a fake flower that I pulled off a dollar store stem a long time ago. I had done it to a bunch of them and used the loose flowers as a vase filler.

A note about the dress and accessories- it's actually a christening gown that my husband wore when he was blessed (yeah, I tease him about it). There are two blankets in the pictures, one made by Elle's great-great-grandma and another made by her great-grandma (her middle namesake). The little sweater she has on was made by that same great-grandma. There was another sweater and some booties that were made by the same great-great-grandma, another pair of booties made for my older daughter by a different great-grandma (not the middle namesake one), and a bonnet made by my mother-in-law. My husband's family has a lot of heirlooms. It's neat.

There will be more little girl accessories in the future, I'm working on making them for our family pictures.

Oh, and I didn't jinx myself about the basement; it totally looks awesome right now. I'm just waiting for my husband to sort through his junk and consolidate it down to two storage bins, then I'll have an awesome before and after.

I can park in my garage again!

2011-09-28T13:16:00.000-07:00

Great news, right? Too bad I didn't get it done before Mim had to suffer through hot car seat buckles all summer, but at least I won't have to scrape the car this winter.

I also didn't get any before pictures. Too bad, because it was sooooooooo awful. It was still a huge mess from Mim's Christmas gift and it just got worse this spring- we put a lot of stuff in there and un-put away a lot of things that never ended up being put back.

Here's what it looks like now:

That dresser there in the back, that's going to be awesome someday. I got it for $60 (I think- it might have been $80) on KSL (a local classifieds here in Utah). So just you wait, it's going to be excellent. Eventually.

Remember how I said "Next up, the basement!" like a year ago? I would say it again, but I don't want to jinx anything.

Until next time!

The thing I said I sewed

2011-09-21T15:25:00.000-07:00

It's a car seat cover! Nothing original and mine in particular is nothing fancy, but it works. I got the basic measurements here. I wasn't going to bother rounding the corners at all, but then I realized after I cut my fabric there's a practical reason- if you don't, your corners will drag on the ground. Gross. Even then, I didn't round them because I'm lazy. I just cut them all off at an angle. The same angle, at least.

My fabric on the top is a vintage sheet I got off ebay awhile ago and the bottom is just some yellow flannel. I did a decorative scallop stitch around the edge, but other than that, there's no embellishment. Lots of people do the flowers or bows on the velcro tabs, but I saw myself getting really annoyed with those really quickly. Plus, I'm lazy, remember?

A good idea that I had but didn't do: Weighing the corners or bottom with pennies or drapery weights. In the planning stages, I was thinking about using just two cotton layers but I was worried about the wind blowing it around and messing with it, so I thought I'd put weights in it. With the flannel on the bottom I decided it was definitely heavy enough to stay put on its own, so I didn't bother. I still think it might be a good idea if you did do two lightweight layers, though.

So I've dubbed this summer The Summer of NO Energy, but I think it might now be The Autumn of Doing Things Again. I've actually already done quite a bit of organizing around the house, maybe I'll take a picture of some closets and drawers to prove it. This happened after I had my first baby, too. It's like all that nesting business doesn't kick in for me until after the baby comes. Is it that way for anyone else?

The littlest is almost 4 weeks today, check it out:

{This picture is actually from a week ago, whatever. Her baby jowls are even more developed now, hooray!}

Thanks for reading!

Not pregnant anymore!

2011-09-14T07:55:00.000-07:00

Little Eleanor came along on August 25th, right at noon. She weighed 9 lbs 4 oz and was 19.5 inches long and just perfect.

I've already sewed something for her, so maybe this will also herald the return of projects/crafts/DIYing over the next bit. It probably means that I'll at least get my fall wreath up.

40 weeks and 2 days

2011-08-23T08:28:00.001-07:00

Still pregnant. Still to hot/tired to do anything except occasionally clean the house. I hope you're well!

Using what you have (and where I've been)

2011-07-18T13:14:00.000-07:00

I had some surprise morning glories come up a week or so ago and realized I needed a trellis sooner rather than later. Instead of heading to the store to look around, I decided to see what we had in the shed that might work. I found several antique gardening tools that I thought might be kind of neat, so I propped them up all together and voila!

Also, a note about morning glories- I'm talking about for-real morning glories, not bindweed. This variety that's coming up here is Star of Yelta. Now let's talk about the tools I used. Can you see the little claw hand on the middle handle? Here's a close up:

What is that? I thought it was kind of crazy, so I left it at the top instead of just the handle. It looks like a creepy little hand.

I thought my improvised trellis went well with the super old ladder I'm using as a plant stand on the other side of the front door:

Before we got our new awesome ladder, Mike would actually use this one to get up on our roof. Yikes. I'm much more comfortable with it as yard decor.

And now, where I've been:

Weeding. And potty training. And having down time on the couch when I overdo it and my back can't take it.

Why weeding has taken over my life: We have a lot of perennial flower beds at our house. Like a lot. And with the recent lawn stuff that's been happening, I added even more (my dad thinks I'm crazy- he might be right). Regardless of my sanity, they're lovely and they really add to the cottage-y feel of the house:

That bed in front of the brick raised bed is a new one, that's why it's so sparse right now. Just give it a year and it'll fit right in.

I'll spare you pictures of the potty training process (I'm pretty sure I don't have any, anyway) as well as pictures of me laying on the couch looking super pregnant and pathetic. Speaking of pregnant- I'm 35 weeks now! Just a little over a month and I'll have a brand new little girl! I have a lot of sewing planned for her- mostly onsie dresses. We'll see if I actually get it done before I go into labor, though. I wouldn't bet on it.

Thanks for reading!

Sidewalk chalk fun + learning

2011-06-17T13:59:00.000-07:00

I'm sure I'm not the first person who has ever thought of this, but my mom thought it was really great and wasn't something she'd done before (and I have 5 siblings), so I'd thought I'd put it up here.

Mim is big into hopping these days, as well as shapes and colors. So now when we go outside to do sidewalk chalk, it turns into a learning game where I draw a bunch of different shapes on the patio and then ask her to jump (or stomp, or stand on one leg on) the shape I name. It's really fun. We've tried it with letters and numbers before, as well (she didn't like that as much as just the shapes or colors).

Here's what I mean:

In this variation, I only drew circles (her favorite shape- "Mo kirkle, pees?") and then had her find all the ones of the same color. Anyway, there's about a million ways you could adapt or modify this and if you're looking for something to do with your little kids this summer, give it a try!

Fun fabric flip flops

2011-06-14T15:06:00.000-07:00

Sigh. Now the whole blogging world (because I assume everyone reads this blog) knows that my feet are totally shaped like flippers. Seriously. I have a skinny little heel, but by the time you get to my toes, my feet are overflowing a normal sandal. Ahwell.

I found the tutorial here. So awesome and comfy. I'm going to make more pairs, too. For $2.50 (I got the flip flops at Old Navy), why wouldn't I?

Vegetable garden!

2011-06-14T14:52:00.000-07:00

Here's the best advice ever for vegetable gardening: find someone who's a very experienced gardener and then have them plan and pretty much plant your entire garden.

That's what my dad did for me this year, bless his heart forever. Now I have onions, radishes, carrots, peppers (which I'm incredibly excited for- they've been a big craving all pregnancy), yukon gold potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, butter crunch lettuce, cucumbers, acorn squash, yellow zucchini (another craving), peas, tomatoes, watermelon, crenshaw melon (Mike is sooo excited for those), and pumpkins, all in various states of growing.

Like I said, my dad planned and mostly planted everything, but I've learned a ton. For example, I didn't even know before that to harvest lettuce you just pull up the whole plant. At least that's how it works for butter crunch.

And now I just have to share some pictures because I'm so proud. (Don't mind the weeds- they die tonight.)

{One of the tomato plants}

{Lettuce! We'll probably eat this one tonight.}

{Brocolli! We're definitely having some of this tonight.}

{The crenshaw melon.}

{The acorn squash. It hadn't even sprouted on Saturday.}

{Two rows of potatoes. I love potatoes.}

{The onions. We have a bunch of these, too.}

Something kind of cool- my dad grows almost everything vertically. Tomatoes, melons, winter squash, and cucumbers (although it might be normal to grow those up in cages, I don't know). It's because he had really limited space in the first garden he grew and he wanted to get in as much yield as he could. Anyway, even though we have a lot of space that we could devote to a garden, I just think it's convenient to grow things vertically- it makes finding and picking the veggies really easy. That's why my tomatoes are planted next to stakes; we're training them to grow up.

Hooray for fresh veggies this summer!

Yard metamorphosis

2011-06-14T14:09:00.000-07:00

So the reason I've been MIA so long- the yard. We've tried to get some major work done this year, and with the help of a lot of family, it's coming together. I was going to wait to post about this until it was all grown in and perfect, but I just can't wait anymore.

Our house when we first moved in:

{Summer 2008}

A little red house, so so cute, but with some things that we wanted to change.

Goodbye huge tree that was wonderful in many ways but too close to the house and hello new windows:

{Spring 2009}

Goodbye to the curb that bisected the property:

{Spring 2010}

Goodbye grass (we had to take it out so we could level the yard and give the entire property a nice grade):

{Early summer 2010}

Not pictured: the ugliest non-lawn ever. There's a gap in between these two pictures of about 4 months. We spent the rest of our lawn budget on getting an air conditioning unit for the summer (so worth it), and so after the grass was removed, the weeds came up like crazy and everything was bumpy and awful. It was the crappiest lawn ever.

It's flat! (It mostly was, at least. We still had to work on the grade in several places. Oh, and we still have to fix the back.)

{Fall 2010}

A new sprinkler system as of this spring (this is where the process started feeling more constructive and less destructive):

{Spring 2011}

The last of the stump gone, a final grade, and grass seed!

{Spring 2011}

My picket fence. I adore it. Also, you can't tell in this picture, but there's a green tint on the dirt now that is actually the grass sprouting:

{Early summer 2011}

And finally, grass:

Coming in late summer 2011.

Still a lot to do. The back has definitely suffered with all the focus on the front, but hopefully we'll be able to make some progress on it before winter. Hopefully. The biggest lesson I've learned from this is that everything yard-wise takes at least twice as long and costs twice as much.

Other yard progress includes a vegetable garden, which I'm going to post about now.

I did something!

2011-05-09T12:55:00.000-07:00

I know, right?! My project list is still growing all the time, and lately I've knocked out some big yard landscaping stuff (and by "I," I mean my family), but I'm waiting for that to be ready for some dramatic after pictures before I blog about it.
Anyway, I was inspired Saturday by the awesome weather to get out and get one of my little projects done that I thought of a long time ago. It also helped seeing all those painted rugs out there in blogland. My front door mat before:

Yeah, I just got the cheapest one there was when I bought them 3 years ago.
But now:

It's much better. I was going to do a multi-layer stencil, with leafy branch stencils in the background, but I thought I better keep it simple to make sure it would even work. I used my Silhouette to make a vinyl stencil and just used spray paint. I was worried that I would get lots of seepage around the edges because of the texture of the rug, but it turned out ok. It probably helped that I stepped on the stencil once it was positioned, to really seal the vinyl to the rug. I'll have to see how it holds up, but even if it doesn't last the summer, it's not like I'm out anything.

Here it is in position. I like it. You'll have to imagine some bright flowers in the planter and some sweet potato vine coming down on the other side, where I have another planter you can't see in the photo. Looking at this picture makes me want to go paint my other outdoor mat right now, but alas, it is raining like crazy.

Open kitchen shelving

2011-04-11T20:06:00.000-07:00

I have a dilemma. Here's the setup: I love white kitchen cabinets, but mine aren't. I would have no problem sanding them down and painting them up if they were crappy old ugly cabinets, but they're not. They're solid oak. And not that old. See?

Definitely dated, though. For my temporary, non-committal solution, I took the cupboard doors off to see what it would look like.

It was just to give me an idea of how much more open the kitchen would be if there was less oak. I kind of like the open shelving, though. If I do put doors back on, they'll be ones with glass panes.

So besides my painting/not painting dilemma, I have a question. Is it weird to just have this one section of cupboards with no doors? Should I remove more doors?

A great PB knockoff

2011-03-29T20:58:00.000-07:00

Almost a year ago, Sir Johnson and I went to IKEA to purchase this lovely thing:

We were desperate for more clothing storage and this one (plus its tallboy cousin) made it happen. I loved the farmhouse style and the color (it's really not just straight up black like it appears in the picture) and the price was just right (we got it in the as-is for $250, it's normally $300), and it's solid wood.

Given all that, I was pretty happy when I cracked open my spring PB catalog and saw this:

It was even the same color as the IKEA one in the catalog. So, the happiness came when I realized I had inadvertently gotten myself an excellent knockoff for 1/5 (one fifth!) of the price. Few things give me the happiness and satisfaction of an excellent bargain/deal/sale.

Another oldie but goodie

2011-03-08T19:56:00.000-08:00

First, some good news- I feel better sometimes! I may, in the near future, do actual crafty things again.

The post title is referring to my St. Patrick's day from last year. Maybe I posted about it then, but I don't remember. And I'm so lazy I'm not going to check.

Anyway, I seriously love it. It's so tacky. I figure St. Patrick's day is a good holiday for gaudy kitschy awesomeness.

Coming up: organizing the basement. Oh man, it's such a mess.

Ta-Da!

2011-02-24T23:18:00.000-08:00

So, my big project?

GESTATING!

This is only my second pregnancy, but looks like I'm not going to be much luckier with this one than I was with the first- I get hit HARD with morning sickness.

So that's why nothing much has been happening here. I haven't been down to my sewing machine in the basement for about 2 months now. I have done a few things with my brand new lovely Silhouette, but nothing too big.

Hello, new followers! I was so surprised the other day when I saw that I had made some new friends. I thought pretty much everybody would have abandoned me by now.

So for Valentine's I did one of the most awesome/worst things ever for decorating. My husband even commented on how much he liked it, and he never notices anything home decor related (which I'm totally cool with, by the way).

Yeah, I decorated with candy. You can already see how it's not awesome- that hurricane on the far left had been full of peanut butter M&M's. Like the day before. And in this picture they're almost gone. Nice.

I did stuff with my Silhouette, too. My favorite was this:

Just vinyl and paper. Heck yes.

And because the awesomeness of this picture makes me laugh and because I actually do have big project plans coming up in the spring, when I might actually feel better.

These are my Paint skillz. We'll also be putting in a lawn (thank heavens, I can't wait to let my little bug play outside). As you can see, I have big yard plans that I'll probably be posting pretty often about on here. TONS of diy opportunities, that's for sure. If you have any tips for balancing a big yard with a little house that's situated in one corner of that big yard, feel free to let me know. Because really.

Also, please note the tree that I erased by using blue and white squiggly lines. It's my husband's favorite part.

Well, until next time. Maybe by then I'll have done something. Maybe.

What's my deal?

2011-02-07T10:35:00.000-08:00

This is my deal: I've been working on a big project and haven't done much superfluous crafting. And just barely I was going to take a picture of what I have done, but the camera battery is dead. So, here's something I did last year that I still just love.

The original idea was here, I believe.

Anyway, I'll post about my big project sometime soon, once I've made a little more progress. For now, thanks for still reading (you know, if anyone actually still is).

Oh, I almost forgot! Some awesome crafting news for me- I won a Silhouette from I Am Momma Hear Me Roar!! I love that blog and I'm loving the Silhouette, as well. I'm still figuring some things out, but I have some ideas for it. By "some," I mean a billion.

Itty bitty ruffle apron tutorial

2010-12-31T14:50:00.000-08:00

I made Mim a little apron to go with her kitchen. And I took a bunch of pictures, so thought I might as well make a tutorial about it.

I cut all my pieces first. A top, a bottom, straps, waist band, and bottom ruffle. All the gingham strips are 3.5" wide. The top is about 11" by 9" (in the picture below it's folded in half). The top of the bottom is twice the width of the top section (so, 18 inches) and then widens out about 3 inches on each side. (The bottom is also folded in half in the picture below.)

First thing I did (because I just wanted to get it out of the way) was fold the waistband and shoulder straps in half (right sides together) and then turn them all.

After they're turned, I pressed them with the seam down the center in the back.

Then I did a rolled hem on bottom of the bottom ruffle strip (which was about twice the length of my bottom piece, around 48" or so).

Then I folded the top piece right sides together and sewed around the open edges, except for between the pins (about an inch and a half).

Then I turned and pressed it, making sure the raw edges were pressed under in the openings I left.

I inserted the shoulder straps into the openings, pinned, and then top stitched around the top and sides of the top piece. I was at the top of my game. (C'mon, that was solid!)

I didn't take pictures of the next bits- a rolled hem along the sides of the bottom piece and a gathering stitch around the top.

Then I was ready to attach the waistband piece (I think it was like 36" long or so- I wanted it really long so I could make a big bow in the back). I pinned it across the top, then top stitched.

Then I attached the top and bottom. I had to be a little weird about this because my machine is old and crazy and has a really hard time handling layers and ruffles all at once. If you have a good machine, you could probably simplify my last couple of steps, but you work with what you have, right?

I don't have a picture of the back, but the top part overlaps the messy ruffle bit, but isn't sewed down over it. The top is connected to the bottom because it's top stitched to the waistband.

I don't have pictures of the last few bits- doing a gathering stitch on the top of the ruffle strip, gathering it, and then attaching it to the bottom (right sides together). As for the shoulder straps, you could just tuck the ends under to finish them and then leave it and tie it onto your little one, but I went with d-rings. I won't explain it without a picture. I'm pretty sure it says how to use them on the package, anyway.

And there it is! She loves wearing it around, so I'm counting it as a success.

Mim's Christmas

2010-12-31T14:01:00.000-08:00

A kitchen set! My parents' have one at their house that my dad made (from scratch) for my older sisters and when ever Mim's over there, it's the only thing she wants to play with. So I decided to make her one for Christmas. I've loved this idea ever since I first saw it out in blogland- this post, via Ucreate, was the first one I'd ever seen.

First I got my nightstands on KSL (a local classifieds). They were 20$ a piece each, solid wood, and had the scallopy look I was hoping for. I intentionally didn't want them to match- I figure if I ever add on (like a tall nightstand for a fridge), then I won't have to worry about the one of these things is not like the other look.

Here's what I started with (I didn't take these pictures until after I had begun the deconstructing process):

I love the hardware on this dresser. I'm saving it for something else, though.

The other dresser:

This one wasn't as lovely, but was perfect for the stove/oven combo.

See?

Mike put in the acrylic window so she can see what she's baking, and you can't see it, but there's an oven rack (cooling rack) inside. The knobs are craft circles with half a heart glued onto the top, which, besides giving it that real knob shape, hide the screws drilled through the circle and through the door front, so they really turn.

The sink unit was easy- the thing that probably took the most time was making the nightstand structurally sound. I was lucky with the faucet- my dad had an old one out in the garage that he had uninstalled years ago that I could have. The sink is a dog dish. The curtain covering the front is on a little tension rod. Easy.

Also, the sink is intentionally off center; it wasn't some horrible accident. I put it off to the side because of a conversation with my sister in law I'd had a few days before- she was talking about her daughter's kitchen set and how she wished there was just some counter space. So with the sink off center, she has the other half to put her cutting boards and stack her plates.

Mim loved it. It was all set up for her to see when she got up and she headed straight for it asking "Wha is it?" over and over, then she filled up cups in her sink and gave them to me and Mike to drink.

I love it, too. Mim has a toy she'll play with for years (size-wise, it'll be at least another two or three years until she's proportional to it) and that subsequent kids can play with for years, too.

Great day @ DI

2010-12-18T23:30:00.000-08:00

I gave my last batch of students their final this morning and stopped by the DI (for those of you not in Utah, it's pretty much a Goodwill). I never find good stuff there (with the exception of this one chair I found and will someday make a slipcover for and then will blog about), but I think I totally scored today.

I didn't find the one thing I was looking for (nightstand for Mim's Christmas), but wandered and found some other stuff I got really excited about:

Little milk jug, two super awesome candlestick holders, an apothecary jar and a pedestal vase/hurricane thing.
The design on the milk jug:

I was thinking I would spray paint it white and use it in the spring, but I don't know anymore- the design is really growing on me. What do you think?

The candlesticks are already spray painted and on display- they're what I'm most excited about, probably. I have been looking/considering buying candle pedestals at a number of places, but always balk at the price (even when Hobby Lobby had them half off). I really wanted some for my mantle, though. So here these are. The crappiest spray painting job I've ever done (when it's warm again, I'll redo them), but I still love it.

So, a week from Christmas, my mantle is pretty much the way I want it to look. I bought some little sparkly stuff from Hobby Lobby awhile ago and want to put it in the new DI glassware, but I CANNOT find it ANYWHERE.

Oh, I also got the crystal platter in the background from DI on my trip today, but forgot to put it in the first picture. It reminds me of a snowflake.

The tarnished brass plate is also from DI, but a few weeks ago.

You know how PB and Ballard always have gorgeous white birch or aspen branches they use for decorating? I don't have any white-barked trees, but I found out that a light coat of white spray paint on a normal gray/brown branch makes it look naturally white. You can see a bit in the picture below:

PB baby trees

2010-12-18T23:05:00.000-08:00

Last year, PB had these little live trees that you could buy in burlap sacks (I didn't see them this year). I liked them, but failed to plant seeds several years ago to grow my own live ones. So I hacked some branches off our juniper tree (that I usually hate that that's coming down in the spring), stuck them in mason jars full of water, and tied burlap around the jars with ribbon. And so you see:

I love any excuse for more greenery, especially the real stuff. I might go back and actually sew the bags, so they have little corners, but the odds of that aren't really great; especially with all the Christmas presents I still need to make. (I can't wait to show you what Mim's getting!)

The back door wreath

2010-12-09T21:21:00.000-08:00

After seeing the ornament wreaths everywhere last year, I decided to make one. I used some old ornaments that I wasn't using on the tree anymore and went for it, but I didn't have enough to make one as big as I wanted. So I bagged it (literally, all the stuff that went into the making of it was all together in a garbage bag when I unpacked Christmas this year). I brought it out and thought about getting more ornaments to finish it. Bah. Then I was at the dollar store and I saw the tinsel and I thought of the cover of the Martha Stewart magazine this month and WHAM:

Tinsel glitter ornament wreath!

The wire that I strung the ornaments on was not up to holding this business up, so I wired a big embroidery hoop to the back to reinforce it and it's holding up great. And I totally love it.

It was really easy, too. Since I had all my ornaments strung up on the wire already, all I did was close the loop and then wrap garland over the wire and between the ornaments. Three garlands is all I used, but I might go back and add one or two more to chunk it up a bit. We'll see. I'm definitely going to go get more garland- I might go a bit tinsel crazy.

Anyway, that's the conclusion of my wreath craziness- I made this one and the ones in the previous 2 posts all in one night.

From last year...

2010-12-09T00:42:00.000-08:00

I saw this last year:

Totally love it. I loved how simple it was and how it fulfilled my need of making cards into something (I hate just throwing them away, but I also hate just having them around with no official place). It's like last year, when I made a garland of my baby's birthday cards to decorate for her party. Anyway, here's the card wreath, my version.

It would probably look more wreathy if people would send me tiny Christmas cards, like they do for Martha Stewart. I still like it.

Cheapo wreath to awesome

2010-12-09T00:22:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile. Thanks for not unfollowing me. I haven't done anything since the embroidery hoop ornaments because of a few things- writing tests for my students and my husband herniating a few disks (or was it discs?) in his neck. He was in the hospital for 3 days but he's home now and doing well. I'm just glad it wasn't any worse (because it could have been paralyzed-worse). We're almost back to normal, actually. The biggest difference to me is that he can't drive (big neck brace). The biggest difference to him is probably the burning nerve pain in his arms (which is a bummer, but at least now we can joke about it).
So, just today I got back on the craft wagon. I probably won't be getting some of my bigger projects done this year (felt nativity hand puppets and stockings) but it's cool. I'm on track for finishing Christmas shopping before the 24th, so I'm happy with that.
And now, what this post is all about:

This is my front door wreath. Yeah, it's a little cheapie one I got somewhere and then glued pinecones to it to improve its look. My crafting in the past year has come far, if I do say so myself.
I also dug my old centerpiece from my Christmas stuff yesterday. It was kind of a bough swag that had 3 taper candle holders in it- on the formal side and just not what I'm going for anymore. However, it was made of some quality fake greenery. I took it apart (you can see pieces of it on the left hand side of the picture), basically disassembling it into picks, then stuck it all on my sad wreath with hot glue (reinforced by twisting wires together).
And now:

It looks so much more expensive, right? I love it. I toyed with adding a bow or maybe a sign nestled in there, but I decided to go with au naturale for now.

Embroidery hoop ornaments

2010-11-22T22:55:00.000-08:00

I made some pseudo ornaments with embroidery hoops the other day. For now they're hanging on our mantel hooks, but they'll be distributed elsewhere once I break out the Christmas decorations for reals and I make new stockings.

Super easy and I really like them. I spray painted the hoops, put some fabric in them and gussied it up, then twisted some wire wrapped some wire around the top and bent it into a hook. Maybe this will get me back in my crafting grove.

Sad face shirt fail

2010-11-16T20:44:00.000-08:00

After the old man shirt skirt, I wanted to make myself more stuff. It didn't go well.

There's the fail. I very carefully removed some ruffles, but it didn't go well. Well, I started started removing ruffles carefully, but then after I made a bunch of little but noticeable holes, I gave up and ripped the second ruffle off (those are the bigger holes you can see).

I'm pretty sure the real root of the problem was not having a clear idea of what I wanted it to look like. After I realized my original idea wasn't going to happen because I wouldn't have enough shirt left over, I didn't take time to adapt my plan.

It started off well, at least:

I've learned my lesson- next time I'll make sure I have a doable plan. There will be a next time, too. I realized I can make a whole army of embellished tees from knit shirts from the thrift store, and I want to do it.

Some headbands

2010-11-16T20:09:00.000-08:00

I made these awhile ago. They were presents for my sister-in-law that I repeatedly forgot to give to her. Simple to make, but I really like how they turned out (hope she does to!)