Thankfully, spring has started to "spring" around here!! We are starting to see blooms!! So happy! I know we don't have a whole lot to complain about down here in Texas, but the trees are about a month late budding out! Such a strange year! But my little project made it feel a bit more like spring whether the weather cooperated or not!
I haven't made many wreaths, but I'm thinking this could quickly become a favorite craft!! It wasn't that expensive to make and came together quickly as well! It sure has been fun to have something cheery on our front door (it had been empty since I took our Christmas decorations down!) I got a lot of inspiration from Pintrest, no surprise there! And the supplies came from Hobby Lobby. Oh, and my mom actually did the bow. She's the expert bow maker! :)
So, yes, I have had a couple of minutes here and there to squeeze in some crafting! Little "Joy" is sleeping for looong stretches at night - usually at least 8 hours!! YAY!!! She is such a sweetie and we are so very blessed! :) Not sure when I'll get the next bit of craftiness in, other than hair bows for my little one. I've had fun with that! Maybe I'll do a post of bows sometime... :)
Until then, feel free to link up here with a project!! Maybe you've had a minute to put together something springy?!
It is very hard to believe, but one little sweetheart turned one a couple of weeks ago!! And believe it or not, I had a little time to sew something fun up! (I actually did most of the sewing while we were still staying with my parents. I had a lot more extra time then as well as crafty energy.)
What I didn't take the time for, unfortunately, was to get out my actual camera... You may have noticed that most of my blog posts recently have been with mobile pictures. It is just so much easier to post straight from my phone! (And I actually get blog posts up!). But I still have pictures!
Here's the super fun outfit! The whole thing was so easy and fast to put together! So fun! Just a quick basic bow with a flower button to match the skirt, and a "1" ironed on with Heat 'n Bond. I used this tutorial for the skirt.
Here are a few pictures from her birthday celebration showing the outfit in action:
First cupcake!!
Yep, that was pretty good alright!!
Opening presents:
Of course, the paper is the best part!
The skirt seems to look super long in these pictures, but it really isn't to her ankles. I did make it a tad long for her age so that she can hopefully wear it on into next spring. Here's a baby toes shot!!
Such a sweetie!!! I'll be back tomorrow with more settling in. My mom came over for a little while today and helped me. It's wonderful to have someone to help me get in there and get something done!
But now it's your turn to share what you have been up to!! :) Maybe you all have had more time than I have for fun fall projects.
Hard to believe it is the second Friday in September already! We will be moving into our apartment very soon. Mark and I are so thankful to have parents that have shared their home with us for these interim weeks while we waited for it to open up! While we have been here, we have, of course, done a bit to help around the house - normal things like dishes, cleaning and yard work. However, last Saturday, Mom and I snuck this little project in.
My mom teaches piano lessons (and has for over twenty years!) She loves
her little "teaching chair." (isn't it darling?? It's called a
"Hepplewhite" chair - one term I DO remember from my interior design
class...) ;) After quite a while of continual use, it needed a little
TLC... as well as a bit more padding...
Ah... much better!!! And so much more comfy too!! There is a slight flaw that we have discovered, however... the chair looks so much better, that Mom doesn't want to sit on it! ;)
Here is part of her studio, complete with recovered "Hepplewhite" chair!
This was a pretty quick project. We didn't take the seat down to bare bones... just took off that nasty vinyl. (which we discovered did actually have some pretty(?) gold swirls on it.) And thanks to the sweet lady at Hobby Lobby who cut a generous sized piece (to make up for the test swatch that was hacked out of the end), the whole project cost less than $15.00. Not too bad! And so pretty too!
What little projects have you snuck in lately? I know we aren't the only ones with a hectic schedule around here! :)
Our church recently finished up our vacation Bible school. I headed things up this year, and I think somehow it was one of the biggest jobs ever!! Whew! I did the lessons mostly myself - the main reason being that I had already thought out what I wanted to say and it was easier to just teach it rather than pass all that info along! ;) (Ok, that sounds really strange when I type it, but I'm just so grateful to God for His leading in what to teach!)
This was one of the most technological VBS's we've ever done. Not only did I use Power Point for each day - including slides for songs and the lessons as well as fun space facts, but we also collaborated a LOT on Pinterest!! I love the group board feature for group projects!! If your church ever does a space theme, you may want to check out our board! We used ideas here for crafts, decor and snacks!!So.... I wanted to share just a few pictures to show you how some of our "Pinterest-y" things turned out!
I'll start with the cute food!! Saturday was our big picnic! I made these cute cupcakes for dessert.... Nothing like a cute little bear on the moon!!
I also used photoshop to design our invitations, name tags, snack
labels, digital frames for pictures, award certificate.... you name it!!
I'm glad that the template for all of that was something I got done
early on! I was able to just reuse the template and size it for whatever
I needed.
Probably the things I worked hardest on were our moon rocks!! (And a BIG thank you to my Sister-in-law, Mary, for helping! It had been ages since I did any paper mache!)
And here's what the rest of the sanctuary looked like when we got finished!!!
See all those planets!!! (And you can't miss the sun!)
A dear friend crafted each of them for us!!! Thank you, Miss "M," for all your hard work!!!! And she did every single one of them - yes! Even dear little Pluto!! (I'm not ready to exclude him from my list of planets!!)
Although we are all glad to have VBS over for another year, we all did have a blast!!!! The kids had fun and hopefully learned something too!!! (I know I learned a LOT!! I think the teacher usually ends up learning more than the students!) We are already starting to plan next year's VBS!! ;)
How about you? Have you had time to do anything "crafty" this summer? It seems that the year is just flying by!
...and I do mean quick! This little project took me maybe five minutes to do!
The hardest part was finding navy knit! I wanted a navy scarf to go with an outfit, but the main fabric shops in our area didn't have navy knit! (Hello? All they have to do is get on Pinterest to see how big the color navy is right now!) ;) So instead of finding navy fabric, I went to one of my favorite clothing shops and found a navy top! All I did was cut off the bottom and top to make a circular scarf!
Easy peasy!!! It's not perfect, but it sure is fun! And worked great for our mom/daughter night out at a concert!
Now it's your turn to share!!! I'm a little late this week, but not quite as late as last month!! ;) Our summer is off to a busy start and I'm heading up our VBS starting in a little over a week! Yipes!! We are excited about it though... Should be a lot of fun!!
Ok... So FOF is only a couple of weeks late this month, but that's just how it goes sometimes... ;) Thank you all for your patience!
I actually made this little apron back in November for one of my little friends. I didn't share it intentionally because I had another one to make!! :) Piper got one too!!
I cut out the main part of both the aprons at the same time. I just used a cheap child's apron I had bought for a pattern, basically just to get the proportions right. I've done this, I believe, on each of the little aprons I've made. I just rounded off the corners for these, invented a fun little pocket pattern and then used seam binding for the ties. They are both fully lined with the polka dot fabric. Super easy!
This little girl is such a joy. She has quite the personality! You aren't around her long before you have to giggle! She is a wonderful little helper too, and loves her baby sister so very much! It's hard to believe that she was this small not very long ago!
Ok, now it's your turn!! You've had two extra weeks to be "crafty" this month! ;)
Hmm... I'm thinking that I should rename this "Finished Object Weekend!" Or maybe work a little earlier in the week to get posts set to publish... Thursdays are always busy for me, and by the time I get sat down, I don't always feel like writing. BUT... It is still Friday, so I'll share! ;)
WAY back in August I made a little something that I planned to share. However, I wanted to be sure that my little project would work out ok before I shared it with you. Good thing that I did! But you'll find out about that in just a minute. I made one of these:
I'm sure you've seen them around quite a bit. They are nothing new in the blogging/Pinterest worlds. :) I snagged a jar out of my mom's cabinet and used a pump we didn't need from a new bottle of hand sanitizer, so the project cost me basically just a bit of time.
Oh, and I made it to give my mom, so she did get her jar back! ;) The trick for me was drilling the hole. I ended up making a bunch of little holes with my little hand drill. Really there has got to be a better way to do it, but I'm sure it requires differnt tools than I had on hand. Here's what I ended up with - with the addition of some hot glue to try to seal it. (and that's where the time comes in...)
Nope. It didn't work so well... the lid ended up rusting from the water that got trapped under the pump and the glue fell off inside. Yuck. So a few weeks ago, I brought it home for a repair job - I just used some silicone calk we had on hand and sealed it up really good - both sides of the lid, and I even sealed it a bit where the ring meets the lid. And, I'm glad to say, even though I didn't get a new lid, it seems to be holding up really well! So the trick is to calk it - no hot glue. Live and learn. :)
Glad it works now! I think it's pretty with the blue dishsoap - my mom's favorite color! ;) Has anyone else made one of these? Maybe you did better than I did the first time around! I'd love to hear what you did! And I'd love to see any other projects you've been working on!
Well, I haven't done a whole lot of crafting recently. Our life has been very busy with so many other things! But I did sneak in a quick little skirt redo. There are so many amazing modest fashion blogs, I don't even try to compete! One friend from college has done some amazing things refashioning clothing - she is even finishing up a book on refashioning! These people inspire me to try something different and fun with my clothing!
Sooo... when I saw this skirt on the clearance rack of one of my favorite stores, I figured I could make it work:
(Not the best pictures, I know... sorry, but we were a little late for church... oops!) ;)
So, what did I do to it? Well, it was just a little big, you might say...
This picture also gives a close up of the pretty lace!
It is a very comfy skirt, and after simply taking in the elastic, it also fits great! I like the gathered look a little better with this anyway. So flow-y and feminine!
So have you been up to any little projects recently? Or maybe even a big project! We'd love to see!!
Wow! This Friday has flown by!! Thank you, Brittany, for reminding me that today is Finished Object Friday! This week has been a little different for me with my hubby just getting back from a flying business trip.
So... while trying to think up something to share (I haven't been very crafty lately...) I remembered that I never shared one of my little Christmas crafts with you! I made lotion bars! (And given the shape, they are a great craft to share for February!)
These turned out so very nice. I love using them! I used this recipe, and they were very quick and so fun to make! I bought the scent from Hobby Lobby - the one I picked is called "Grapefruit Blush" and is so nice - not over powering at all. I did buy a soap mold, but most of the ones I made, I put into some silicone "molds" I had - brownie pan and ice cube trays. I only used half of the block of beeswax and it made plenty! The big heart is from the brownie pan - it made a really nice size.
I gave these as gifts to the ladies at church the night of our Christmas program, and also gave them to family and friends I got to spend time with over the holidays! :) The fun thing was, when we opened our stocking gifts with Mark's family, my sister-in-law had made each of us beeswax lip balm!! Great minds think alike! :)
Sorry this is so late in the evening, but feel free to share during the next week - we can enjoy this longer than just Friday! ;)
Well, not real fire.... unless you are counting the candles. As I mentioned earlier, Mark's brother Ryan turned 30 on Saturday and we had a little party for him. I can't resist a new challenge for a cake! Ryan has worked as a volunteer fireman in one of their local communities. He still has a fireman's heart, so I made him a fireman cake.
I did "cheat" just a tad - the fireman is actually a toy that I found. However, I was glad just to get it pulled together - I was still recovering from that nasty sinus infection. The "fire" idea was from a cake I pinned a while back. Unfortunately, the "fire" did cause some structural damage to the rice crispy house. It eventually fell apart (Much to the joy of several of the guys... they gladly ate the damage!) :) I recommend letting the rice crispies set up more before trimming, and maybe it would be helpful to cut the spots for the flames with a knife before shoving them in. Live and learn I guess. The fireman was pretty pleased with his cake.
How do you like that fire truck? I discovered that it isn't easy to find a simple fire truck... even in the biggest toystore in town!! I actually found this little toy set - fireman, truck and a few signs - at a closeout store. How random! I had a blast with that truck - the lights lit up and a siren went off when you pushed the button!!
The cake was made of my basic chocolate cake recipe... in retrospect, due to the popularity of the "house" I probably could have made the whole thing of rice crispy treats and everyone would have been just as happy! :)
The second cake for last weekend wasn't quite as detailed. In fact, I don't even have that great of a picture of it. However, the attraction was more in the flavor anyway... Mark requests his Mocha Truffle Cheesecake each year. I've never made him a "fancy" cake because cheesecake is his favorite. I must say, it is pretty yummy!!! (This is the recipe I use, although I make the crust quite a bit different.)
Happy birthday to my wonderful hubby!!!!
How about you? Anyone else got a project to share? (You even got a bonus week to post something this month... aren't I nice?) ;) Maybe you've got some secret Christmas project you couldn't share until after the big day? (Or if you're like me, you did very little Christmas crafting this year... Here's big hopes for an earlier start for that next year!) ;)
I finished the Christmas star ornament!! :) It was a very quick knit.... you, know... when I actually took the time to do it! :) I used this pattern, and only went to row 9 - I think... after a year of resting, I wasn't sure WHAT row I was on! :) But I'm really glad I stopped when I did, because it was quite big enough already.
I wasn't sure about the "stiffening." I've never used that much starch before, but it turned out really cute!! Hmmm... maybe I should make more of these! ;) I did use some pins to block it nicely. (Instead of just doing it by hand. The yarn has a little sparkle to it... it shows up a little better in the picture below:
Ok, it's your turn! Any little holiday projects that you have been working on??
Last Saturday, we went to a wedding... Friday night I still hadn't figured out what to wear! (Yes, closet full of clothes and NOTHING to wear...) So I did what any girl would do...first, in a panic, text a friend with some fashion know-how (Thanks, Brittany!!) ... then I remade a skirt I had on hand! (well, maybe not every girl, but it reminded me of Kristina...) First the "after:"
I have had this skirt for years, and couldn't bear to let it go. It is such a classy print. Before I messed with it, it was a Talbot's wrap skirt that (ahem) was just a few sizes too small... Wrap skirts, in or not, are pretty annoying to wear, or maybe it's just me.... They never seem to lay right, and I'm always worrying about "gappage..."
SOoo... I cut off the top, made a new seam up the back and put elastic at the waist. (Cutting off the top was so much easier than trying to hem the skirt and lining - and it took care of the darts that hit at the wrong spot. And it shortened the skirt to a more "modern" length. It was much more comfy and less worrisome... Of course Saturday morning, I had to make a quick shopping trip to find a matching tie for hubby! Here we are in our "wedding guest finery!"
The wedding was very sweet! I'm so glad we were able to go! It was fun being able to catch up a little bit with friends! So glad Melissa (and all three of her littles!) were able to come!
(The smallest two "littles" aren't real visible in THIS picture... but they are there!)
So anyone else done some crazy last minute altering? Or maybe you've done something a little more relaxing...
Funny. It seems like when I was doing FOF every week or even every other week, I hardly had any projects to share... now - when I do it once a month - I have a hard time picking WHICH project to share!! This one wasn't too hard to pick though. Such a fun and exciting time for our little church family. We got to welcome a new little member! :) My friend Regina just gave birth to baby girl #4 a couple of weeks ago!! Welcome to Baby "D!" (or "Love" as she will be known here...)
Last year my mom, with her nose for bargains, found a Cricut machine at a local Goodwill. My sister and I snatched it up and we share joint "custody" of the machine. And.... since she's off at college, guess who gets to store it!! :)
A while back Melissa made these shirts for Brittany's boys. I had heard that this kind of project was easy with the Cricut, but I wasn't too sure until I got into it. (It is EASY, but even easier if you know how to run the machine... I'm learning!) :) I used this tutorial - great explanation!
So Regina came over one afternoon and we started working on these. I finished them up and made a little surprise for baby "D!" I also made bows to match.
Here they are posing with their shirts right after they got them:
And here are the three big sisters posing with the little sis!!
Yep... they are ALL smitten with this little one!!!
And wouldn't you be?? This is a picture I took of her just this week:
She's growing and changing so fast!!
Maybe you have a project to share? I'm excited to see what you all have been working on!!
~PS. Just FYI, Cricut doesn't know I exist... not an advertisement, just craftiness at work! :)
Well, the second Friday in August just flew past me! I did think about this poor neglected blog, but just didn't get any posting done. Nope today is not Friday, but tomorrow is! :)
Part of my busy-ness last Friday was helping to plan a 40th Anniversary celebration for our pastor and his wife! What a wonderful thing to celebrate!!! Basically all of my Saturday was spent baking and decorating a cake for them. ("Thank you" my friend Clara for her help!!)
It was my first time doing a cake like this - I've never done tiers before, and I enjoyed it! Each tier was a different flavor - starting with red velvet on the bottom than chocolate and strawberry on the small top tier. I love doing those frosting roses - so easy and yet, it looks so pretty!!
I assembled the cake "on site" so it was hard to get a good picture of just the cake... ;)
Happy anniversary to a wonderful couple!!
And of course, a cake cutting picture:
Now it's your turn!! Maybe you have some fun school project or fall decorating! :) It's hard to believe that it's that time of year already! Where, oh where, did the summer go?? :)
Yes, today is Finished Object Friday! and No, I didn't give you a heads up... sorry about that.. It has been a very busy past few weeks. It seems like summer should be a slower time of year, but then things start piling up again. This week a friend is visiting from the Dallas area to do some intensive piano lessons with my mom. I've been joining in, but got a little behind so I'm just holding in there and listening, knowing I can catch it again later as well as pester Mom with questions... :) THEN next week is our VBS!! Whew!! and I have a list of things I need to finish up for that... but it doesn't all need to be done this week. I'll have time during the week for that.
But none of those has to do with my biggest Finished Object!!! This:
Yes, this is my "Finished Object" this month and a biggie it is... It was my first project using Photoshop Elements... and What a learning curve!! :) But really, you probably don't care much about how I made it, but WHY and WHAT in the world it is... see my next post for answers to those questions... ;) (Because a special announcement deserves it's own post, don't you think?)
For now, here's where you can link up to share your projects!!
