My New Hobby

A few Christmases ago, I tackled my first embroidery project and made my sister a pillow with ferns on it. I hope she's thrown it away because it really was terrible. 

And honestly, these are things I'm going to look back on one day and wrinkle my nose at, because I think they're very much the work of a beginner who googles embroidery stitches and tries to imitate them, making it up as I go along. 

But it's fun, and fairly cheap. Hoops are inexpensive, and when I was in Washington we found bulk embroidery floss for $1 a packet of several different colors and bought 10, so for $10 I now have lots and lots of floss that I've dutifully wound onto spools.

So here are a few of the things I've made lately! 

I made this for my friend Jillians birthday.  

And I worked on this one for Emily's baby, Tirzah. The satin stitches are something I think I'm getting better at but still need to improve.

I saw something on Pinterest with a rainbow of French knots, and the first time I tried French knots was on the hoop for Tirzah, so I was feeling confident. I did the knots too close to each other and don't really like how it was going so I stopped working on this after a whole bunch of those stupid knots. I think I've got the hang of them now though :)

I made this one for Morgan's sweet Grayson. The lighting is SO bad, but I really liked this one. 

It also occurred to me that I could stain the wooden hoops, so I grabbed some leftover stain from our rocking chair project and brushed on one little coat on some of my hoops. I wasn't totally sure how people kept the hoops secure when they were all finished, so I hot-glued them  in place. The back isn't pretty, so maybe I should also work on that in the future :)

And last, I've been making these little patchwork states. They've been fun to do and they're helping me practice that satin stitch. If you're a friend of mine, I might have made your state too! 

Burlap Pillow Cover

Something I'd like to do, particularly in these miserable colder months, is to keep myself busy with projects. I decided to do a project every week this year and post about it. I might have some lame little projects, and might have some a little better, some that work and some that fail, but I thought it would be a fun thing to do to keep my mind off of how gray it is outside. 

--

In Spokane, we owned the ugliest chair in the universe. And for some reason, we  moved without the chair but took the pillows. They're scratchy polyester and nothing we'll use. 

That's basically an invitation to make pillow covers. 

I gathered:
burlap

other fabric to put under the burlap that you'll never see

patterned fabric for the back of the pillow

scissors

old pillow to cover

pins

First I measured my pillow and cut my backing fabric accordingly, with a 1/2 inch of leeway all the way around.

I cut the burlap into strips about 2.5 inches wide. I didn't hem the edges but I did stitch along the sides to hopefully limit fraying.

Then I lined 'em up like this and pinned them in place. NOTE: What I would do if I were doing this again would be to sew them to the pillow one by one. But I didn't so I did it by hand later. Lesson learned.

Once pinned, I grabbed my backing fabric, cut it in half and hemmed each side to make an envelope pillow. Then I put both right sides together and sewed all the way around.

I flipped it right side out (thanks to the envelope, I didn't have to leave room)

And stuffed my pillow inside.

And there she is. I don't know why I don't try to make them look pretty before I take the pictures.

I took my pictures before sewing my strips totally in place. Looks better after that.

Tutorial: Fabric Flowers

My Productive Weekend.

This weekend, Carson went to Michigan for a conference. After I dropped him off at the airport on Thursday morning (his flight was at 6, so we left at 4:30am - yes, I was a bit grouchy), I realized that I had an entire weekend ahead of me and only one day of work. So all weekend I worked on things I'd been meaning to do. I took pictures of some of it (you probably didn't need a picture of mopping or laundry, so I didn't take one) just to remember what was probably the most creative and productive weekend ever. I re-arranged, organized, brainstormed, decorated, baked and shopped (mainly for groceries) until I left for the airport again on Sunday morning. I'm pretty proud of my accomplishments, so take a gander: 

1. I painted my nails. Bright pink, since it was a rather rainy and gloomy afternoon.

2. I wanted something to hold my stud earrings, so here's what I did: I snapped the top off one of these pencil boxes. I think I could still use it again if I wanted to, but it was empty and had been sitting around with my craft stuff since approximately 1998. I then folded burlap accordian style and put it in the box. My burlap didn't go all the way to both ends of the pencil case, plus it was a little ugly, so I cut two pieces of paper to fit over that. It looks better than I'd anticipated, and now my vast collection of pearl studs is sorted out and not one big mess to sort through.

3. I found this little key rack at the craft store, so I just painted it and put it on the wall by the door we use most frequently. Now I won't run all around looking for my keys, only to discover that they were in the tiny pocket in my purse the entire time.

4. Our kitchen was needing some curtains. I didn't really care if they were pretty (that's why they aren't), but since that window looks right into our next-door neighbor's window, and since that window provides a great view of the stairs, which we descend in our early morning hair-everywhere-sloppy sweatpants, I thought that a curtain might not be a bad idea. We only want those neighbors seeing our best side. I made these to hang over the cabinets with no doors in our Spokane apartment (click here for a glimpse...it's photo 12) since it was the largest amount of fabric I had, and they were the right length for this window. I used a dowel rod to hang these up, and they're way too full, but it's unlikely that it will bother me enough to make new ones.

5. I used glitter nail polish on my keys. Why? Because it's a beast to get off, and now I know which key goes to which lock.

6. I painted these to go over our bed. I finally solved that dilemma. It's not what I wanted, but it was my cheapest option (four frames from the $ Store and paper and paints I already had).

7. I've had this empty frame sitting around with intentions of making an earring holder for over a year. I finally did it this weekend! I just stapled burlap to the frame with a regular old stapler, painted my first initial in the middle, and hung it up. Easy - I should have done it a year ago!

8. I made these when Carson came home. It's a Crockpot Chicken Caesar sandwich recipe I found here. I added bacon, since we had it and since most Caesar sandwiches have bacon - excellent addition. We'll make this again for sure. Very easy, not very healthy, and makes great leftovers.

9. I found this old shelf at Goodwill and painted it red. It will go above the stove in the kitchen (as opposed to the one in the bedroom?). It's not the prettiest, but that space needed something and I think a shelf will do the trick.

10. I don't think any non existent guests will have trouble finding it, but just in case, I hung these up on the door. I felt like making a sign of some sort and this was the only option that came to mind. I received the tags as a gift and LOVE them. If I had more, I'd label everything. I really enjoy labeling.

11. Our fall table. It's evolved a little bit, but these branches of fake leaves were $0.50 so I stuffed three of them in my pretty blue mason jar.

12. Hung this up in the bathroom. I'll show a picture of the whole room soon so you can see where it is, but I  wrote this C.S. Lewis quote on a piece of paper and cut burlap as a mat. Very simple. And by the way, yes, I did have a ton of burlap on hand.

13. I made breakfast sandwiches to freeze. The eggs were baked in muffin tins, which I'm for sure trying again (I had visions of exploding egg on the side of my oven, but had no problems) I haven't tried one, but I doubt you can go wrong with English muffins, cheese and egg. I may fry a little of that bacon to put on top. These will be great to grab and go.

14. This isn't going to stay on the wall, but we have a long, empty wall in the living room that just looks so WHITE and sad. So I grabbed a bunch of pictures and made a collage. It's too cluttery to keep forever, but the pictures are fun to look at, and it was free. Eventually, I'd like a big painting here.

15. I cleaned my makeup brushes using vinegar and Dawn dish soap - it worked better than brush cleaner and they're so soft now!

16. I made pumpkin bread. I'm actually not sure if this is cake or bread, but here's what I did: a spice cake mix, a can of pumpkin, one egg and a dash of milk. I threw it in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes and it was perfect! I hadn't baked in a long time and this was so easy that I'll probably do it again!

Rainbow

When we got married, we got a TON of kitchen items. Bowls, plates, serving platters, little gadgets. There are some things still in the packaging... that's how much we got. One of the things we have a lot of are wooden spoons. We have them in all shapes and sizes and we use them all the time. But you know, those wooden spoons are great, but they're boring. I had some paint and some time, so I decided to make a little rainbow. It was only after that that I found a very similar project on Pinterest. 

All I did was tape off the spoons, using scotch tape (it was most accessible). After that, I sanded a few of the spoons with a shinier finish and then painted away. The spoons soaked up the paint, so I did two or three coats before deciding that they were colorful enough. I haven't done this yet, but my next planned step is to buy some food-safe finish for them to keep the color from chipping. I think that a nice, shiny finish on them will look great and probably protect the wood! 

It only took about 20 minutes to get out my supplies, tape them off and paint, so it's totally doable. Plus, how cheap are wooden spoons! This would be a really fun gift for a kitchen shower :) 

Camping

So, it's been pretty hot here. In the high 90s and even in the triple digits.

Because of this, we built a tent in the living room (in front of the box fan). We meant to sleep in it once and call it a day, but sleeping in front of the fan in the cooler air proved to be a really great idea. 

So we've now taken the tent down (it was getting in the way), but we're still sleeping on the floor. Well, I mostly sleep on the couch since it's comfier, but our heads are really close. 

Either way, thought you might be amused to see our most recent sleeping arrangements:

Sewing Day

Molly and I had a sewing day. We've had "craft day" before, where we make a small project, but as we browsed Pinterest for ideas that weren't too expensive, we landed on this idea:

Our projects were based on these two tutorials:

(from here) 

(from here)

Molly began with a pillowcase she had sitting around, but I bought fabric (a yard of knit from JoAnns... with a coupon it was about $5 for a yard... I didn't use the whole thing... I had about 1/4 yard left over).

We basically made a pillowcase shape (two rectangles) - hers was whatever standard pillowcase size is. We didn't measure it because we didn't need to. Mine started out wider, so I found that what worked best was to cut it to 21 inches wide. I'm not sure how long it was, but when held to my shoulders, it came to my mid-calf. I had intended to make a shirt, but when we saw how long the fabric was, I decided to just make a dress... if I ever wanted it to be a shirt, I could just trim off the extra fabric!

You sew a casing for the neck tie, then sew up the sides... not all the way, because then you won't have arm holes. Measure and mark with a safety pin to figure out the best place to get arm holes and sew up to that point. 

One of the tutorials I used said to use a zig-zag stitch, but my fabric kept getting stuck in my machine when I tried, so I used a straight stitch and didn't have one single issue with the machine or the fabric. It wasn't a super-thin knit, so that might be why.

Then you thread the ribbon through (mine was a satin sash from an old skirt, and Molly's was a ribbon) and tie it on! Both of us had to sew our arm-holes up a little higher, but it all worked out. After we tried them on, we hemmed ours. Molly's was easy... she just had to seam-rip the bottom and sew over the line of the old hem. I measured where I wanted my hem to be and then just sewed it up! My fabric was knit, so I really didn't need to sew a hem at all, but I can't really cut straight lines well, so I didn't want to risk it. 

 I didn't get a picture of Molly in her shirt, but she wore it home! I didn't have anywhere to go, but I tried it on anyway... I can  either belt it or leave as-is.

This project did take us a long time, mostly because we didn't know what we were doing. The sewing machine created problems, and Molly had to take the time to seam-rip parts of her pillowcase. All-in-all this project could easily be accomplished in 1-2 hours, possibly less depending on the skill level! I have some extra fabric sitting around that I might employ to make similar garments this summer :)

DIY: Painted Verses

So one of the things I've taken up more recently is painting. I say "recent" but I guess that I'm actually talking about the last year and a half or so. But anyway, I thought that I'd share some of the recent verses and Scripture related things that I have painted. By the way, I'm planning to give these away or sell them at some point, so if you'd like something specific, speak up!

This is one of Carson's favorites. This was supposed to be our original house
color scheme, which he chose... so he loves the colors here.

This one was fun. I painted a gray background, then made my blue paint lighter
and darker to make an ombre effect.

This was for Easter. Not crazy about it, but it fit the season.

Gave this one to my nieces for Christmas, at Carson's
suggestion (hence the pink). It's a little softer in color in person.

flower power

I pinned this pillow recently. I liked the cluster of flowers against the linen background. 

It seemed so springy and happy and pretty and I wanted to make it. 

But I didn't have any linen and since we're hoping to move soon, spending money on linen isn't in the budget. 

Bummer. 

And then I remembered the disaster pillow from six months ago

(click here for a reminder)

So I went digging for it (it was with linens that aren't being used... we don't have a linen closet so I keep them in a bag under the bed... whatever works, right?) and pulled it out. 

Not the biggest fan of the fabric all by itself because I prefer more of a pattern but I wasn't being too picky. 

So I pulled it out and started sewing flowers on. 

The flowers were really easy to make. They'd be a fun thing to do during a movie (which is what I did) because they're simple and keep your hands busy. That's when I do most projects... otherwise I'd sit in front of a movie and eat or read a magazine article or paint my nails. I don't like to watch a movie and do nothing at all.

 For most of them I cut three concentric circles and held the edges near a candle flame to burn them and made them curl (too close and yes, they catch on fire). Then I just sewed them onto the pillow. 

The other flowers (the ones that look more like roses) are a bit more difficult to get the hang of, but they're quicker to make (no burning or cutting!). I did find a tutorial online, just by googling, but the process is similar to this, just with ribbon or a thin strip of fabric instead of paper.

So, yeah. That's all. Just wanted to share how I turned my own crummy project into something a little more beautiful :) 

Flowers and Easels

One day, Carson came home from work with flowers. 

It was a nothing-special kind of day, which always makes flowers more special. 

Later that afternoon, he told me which dress to wear and how to do my hair. This doesn't really happen regularly, so I was surprised. But it took the guesswork of what to do. 

He also suggested taking a picture before we left at 4:30 (yes, it is that dark at 4:30 here). This was also a surprise. 

The plan was this: Backwards Date. He wanted to go to coffee, then dessert, then dinner. 

We went to the Service Station for coffee. We didn't really want coffee, so we shared a large hot chocolate.  Fun fact: We went to this coffee shop the day after our first date, Moody's Spring Formal. So this was our first ever by-ourselves date spot. Good choice, Carson.

We decided to do dinner next because we knew we'd be much too full if we had dessert first.

Olive Garden was on the menu for dinner. It was SO busy but we got seated right away because there was an opening in the "over 21" area. Carson had the Chicken Marsala and I had Seafood Alfredo. I always intend to get something else, but I can't resist the seafood.

(my teeth really aren't yellow)

After dinner, we went to Coldstone for ice cream. For some reason, Carson thought that they only give you enough ice cream to fit in the cup at Coldstone, so he ordered a large to share. Instant regret. 

We rolled ourselves home, where Carson had something else planned. 

First, he took a picture of us

And then he brought out these mini easels. So cute!

We pulled out my paints and started working. His idea was that we each paint something for the other person.

Our finished paintings. He placed the penny there for size. 

It's probably obvious, but the one on the left is Carson's and the one on the right is mine. 

These are proudly displayed by some picture frames and whenever anyone comes over, Carson directs our guests to look at our works of art. 

This was an excellent date. Eating and creating things are two of my favorite things to do! Even better that we did it together :)