Busy Little Bee

Over the past month or so I have gone baby crazy. I've been making all sorts of different things I'm going to need for when baby comes!

Project 1: A Diaper Bag

Front View

 Back View

Inside and Side View

I used a Simplicity pattern that I got on sale for .99 cents. I needed 1.5 yards of both the outer fabric and the liner fabric, and accent ribbon. I already had on hand elastic and thread. In total, this bag cost me about $12 and about 5 hours of time. 

Project 2 : A Nursing Cover

 Front View

Secret Pocket View

I had to share the pattern of the fabric because I am just so in love with it!

For this I also used a Simplicity pattern that I got for .99 cents! The great thing about Simplicity basic craft patterns is that there are 5 or 6 patterns in one envelope! This pattern was basically a square, but I used the pattern just to make sure I got everything cut straight. All I needed was 1 1/4 yard of fabric of the patterned fabric, 1 yard of the liner fabric, 1/4 boning, and 1 package of 1 in. D rings. This project cost me a total of $10 and about 1.5 hours of time. 

Project 3: Panel Book

Front View

Inside View

I swear, sometimes it is a bad thing I work at a craft store! This came up to the cutting counter and when I saw the price of $2.99 for a single panel, I just about died. I have been wanting to make one of these panel books for a long time, but I just couldn't justify $9.99 for a single panel/book, no thanks. Like I said, I picked up the panel for $2.99 (plus my employee discount), I already had interfacing, batting and thread. So, this project cost me $2.50 ish and about 1.5 hours to complete.

Project 4: Baby Bow Ties

I saw this tutorial on Pinterest and HAD to make some lil bow ties for my lil guy! The tutorial is very easy to follow, totally doable even if you don't have a sewing machine! I didn't buy any new fabric for this project, I used my scraps for each and every bow tie I made! Once I got the hang of making them it took me about 10 minutes to whip one together.

Project 5: Baby Blessing Outfit

To make this cute little vest I used this tutorial. The vest looks complicated and time consuming to make, but I promise you it ISN'T! For this project I already had the buttons and all the fabric I needed so again, this project was something I made purely from my scraps! The vest probably took me 30-45 minutes to whip together. This was such an easy project and I can't wait to make more for all occasions.

Date Night Jar

I am so sick of Friday or Saturday night sneaking up on me and when I ask Jordan what sounds fun to do, neither of us can come up with something so we end up sitting on the couch and watching TV all night. I cannot tell you how many hours we have logged watching TV and movies...too many in my opinion. So, out of desperation I got onto Pinterest to see what everyone else in the wide world of cool ideas was doing and I stumbled upon the idea of creating a date night jar!

The concept of a date night jar is simple enough. Come up with a bazillion ideas, write them on sticks and when you are ready to go on a date just pull a stick and BAM there is your date....right on the stick! I looked at probably 10 or 12 different blogs to a) get a wide range of date ideas and b) to find the best way to organize the dates.

I ended up creating a date jar with three different levels or colors of date ideas.

The blue sticks are dates that cost little to no money and require little planning:
- Live local music
- Movie marathon
- Chick flick & popcorn
- Homemade pizza & an Italian movie
- Sodoku & Pancakes
- No electricity night
- Create a bucket list
- Look at dream houses
- Plan a trip (even if it is impractical)
- Take the Color Code test or Personality test together
- Wander around downtown
- Walmart Bingo (free printable found here)
- Go for a hike or nature walk
- 1,000 piece puzzle & pizza
- Blanket fort & movie
- Have friends over for game night
- Picnic at the park
- Window Shopping

The green sticks are dates that require an average amount of money and require little planning:
- Pottery painting
- Swimming at the YMCA
- Geocaching
- Dessert only date
- Dinner & Ikea
- Mini Golf
- Zoo Trip
- Studio Movie Grill
- Go to a comedy show
- Melting Pot
- Dinner & a movie
- Art museum visit
- Ice skating
- Bonfire & S'mores
- Top Golf
- Aquarium
- Arboretum
- Sporting event
- Drive-in movies
- Laser tag
- Hot cocoa & bookstore
- Bowling
- Reunion Tower
- Go play racquetball or tennis

The pink sticks are dates that require a higher amount of money and require planning:
- Weekend Getaway to Dallas
- Couple massage
- Dinner cruise
- Horseback riding
- Purchase a $50-$100 Groupon and use it
- Road Trip
- Dinner & a show (theater, concert, etc.)
- Dinner & the symphony

I had so much fun making my date jar and I discovered a ton of stuff there is to do in the Dallas area. Check around in your area and if you have white water rafting or paddle boarding or hot air balloon rides or sand castle building available and it is something you have always wanted to do....put it on a stick! You should tailor your date night jar to things you and your better half would enjoy!

Have fun ya'll!

Gone Crafting Crazy!

I was supposed to start training at Joann's last week, but it turned out that there weren't enough hours for me to come in and work a few days, so I had the whole week off! Long story short, I went craft crazy!

Wednesday afternoon I got together with one of my good gal pals, Amanda, and we tried our hand at making homemade lotion bars. They turned out pretty well!

** A couple of notes for future use: 1) I would highly recommend using silicone molds versus plastic or metal ones. 2) Next time I'm going to use raw cocoa butter or raw shea butter and not the cocoa butter that you can buy from Walmart. 3) I'm going to try a few different scents.

** I got my coconut oil from Kroger, beeswax and scent from Hobby Lobby (but if you can be patient and get it off the internet, you can probably get it cheaper and much better quality!), the body butter and Vitamin E (not pictured) from Walmart.

Thursday I woke up, ate breakfast, cleaned up the kitchen a little, and then went. to. town! First, I put up a decorative shelf in our bedroom and put pictures and little knick-knacks we've collected from trips on it. Next, I rearranged my living room (which was no small feat) and then took out all my extra decorations that were shoved away in my laundry room. I knew I wanted to use most of them so I re-vamped them to better incorporate each piece into my new rearranged living room.

This is what I came up with! *Deep breath!* Here we go!

I originally saw this idea on Pinterest, of course. I couldn't find any print-outs for the background, so I just made my own. I created mine in Photoshop, but you could easily create one with some cute scrapbooking paper and scrapbooking stickers/supplies.

Jordan and I see a ton of movies and since the tickets are small, I liked the look of the 8x8 shadow box rather than a larger 8x10 or 10x10, plus it is what I had tucked away in the laundry room.

In addition to a shadow box, there were also some of those collage frames. It took me awhile to decide on the pictures I wanted to put up, but eventually I decided on some older photos from vacations past and the reliable last name word art. 

Among other unused frames hiding in my laundry room was this bute!

Originally I liked the frame because of the dark accent it created, but after it being empty for almost a year, I decided to re-vamp it so it would be better suited for the color scheme I'm trying to develop in my home.

Boom baby! Silver can of spray paint + unused frame = delightful new decoration! I still wasn't quite sure what to put in the frame, so I had a major brainstorming session and decided to jump on the "subway art" bandwagon.

Voila! I'm so proud of how it looks! Quite eggcellent I'd say! Tee hee!

My last project of the day, in no way related to my home decor projects, also turned out to be fantastic! Again, I got the idea from Pinterest, however the website it originally came from was in a different language, so I pretty much had to go off of pictures and my own experience with sewing.

I had an old pair of jeans lying around that I didn't wear because the unflattering straight leg cut on me. I thought this project would be perfect for that pair. I was so excited about this project that I wanted more than one pair and I actually tried my luck at Goodwill and miraculously found a pair of jeans for $6.00 that fit perfectly!! My laced jeans turned out really well and I'm so excited to wear them around!!

 These were the jeans I had already and just cropped off. 

These are the jeans I got at Goodwill for $6.00!

I'm really happy I was able to reuse and recycle many items already at my disposal and that I was able to turn them into things I now adore. Here's to creativity! *Fist pump!*

Paper Rosette Tutorial

I recently posted a picture of my most recent craft project...my Valentine's Day wreath! There was a ton of interest in it and so I figured I'd repost the tutorial in case any of my readers wanted to also make a Valentine's Day wreath similar.

 

HERE is the complete tutorial that I found. It is very thorough and I found it easy to follow.

I did a few things differently than she did.

1) I accidentally bought a foam ring with a 14 in. diameter instead of a 12 in. diameter and that is why my wreath doesn't look quite as full as hers, but if you want to add a banner or some kind of something else the 14 in. is perfect.

2) She used a spray adhesive to apply glitter all over...I used modge podge and applied it to individual rosettes and then dipped the flower edges in glitter. Total creative freedom here, glitter all over, glitter here and there, or none at all....your call!

3) She did not do any extras, like I did with the LOVE banner. Honestly, I was going to stop with the rosettes, but once I was done I didn't think it looked full and I was scrambling to find something else. I was inspired to do the banner by this tutorial. I liked the banner, but I just didn't have the desire to go back out to the store to get some felt and blah blah blah, so I took a look in my collection of craft supplies and pulled out my white burlap (from a lamp shade I made), my reliable old puffy paint, and some old yarn (from a failed scarf attempt)...I would have liked to use twine, but I didn't have any. I opened a Word document and typed up LOVE, large print, basic font, and printed. I measured my burlap based on the size of the letters, leaving a little extra on top to be able to fold over the yarn and hot glue. I put the burlap over the printed letters and, since the burlap is semi-see-through, traced the letters with my puffy paint, let dry. Then I took each letter and, like I mentioned earlier, made a little fold of the burlap, placed the yarn in the crook of the fold, and glued the edges down to hold the burlap in place. Repeat for all the letters. Then I measured the yarn to the wreath and glued.

I'm not good at explaining myself, so I hope that wasn't confusing....it was easy for me, but I know some people have a harder time at conceptualizing things without pictures. Maybe one day I'll try my hand at a real tutorial.

Some advice I would give when you are crafting though....let the supplies that you already have inspire you. You bought each of those items with a purpose and because you liked them. You spent 30 minutes in the ribbon isle because you wanted the perfect color ribbon, you looked at at least 100 panels of fabric for just the right color scheme, and you certainly didn't just pick your craft tutorial willy nilly. For example, the white burlap I used for my lamp...yeah, I've used it for about 3 or 4 other projects. Anyways...the point is, let yourself use what you know you already like and go from there. Don't be upset if something goes wrong, unless it is with paper...then you're done for. Haha! Be inspired and just go with it!

Happy crafting!

My T-Shirt Quilt

I'm going to start off by saying that this is NOT a tutorial, but I will make links to all the tutorials I used to help me piece together this project.

After Jordan and I got married we didn't have all the furniture we'd hoped we have, so we had to go out and purchase those plastic drawer sets from Walmart. It turns out that you can't fit a whole lot in those things so I had to truly downsize my "collection" of shirts from high school. I could not bear to get rid of them or throw them out because of their sentimental value so I just put them in a plastic bag and hid them in the closet. There they sat for a year, then we moved down to Texas and again...there they sat.

After Jordan and I took over the business I was working at our drop location, which provided a lot of down time, so I finally made up my mind that I would FINALLY start working on my quilt with all that down time.

The first step was to cut out squares from my T-shirts. Once my squares were cut out I ironed on a fusible interfacing. 

The next step was to lay out my shirts and decide on how I wanted the top of my quilt to look.

It took me a few attempts to get it just right. Once the layout was what I wanted it to be I sewed each square together horizontally, ironed the seams, then sewed each row together, ironed the seams again and my top was complete. The next step was to sew my border, put on batting, and sew on my backing. The tutorial I used suggests cotton fabric for both the border and the backing, but I used flannel for my border and a minky/ furry fabric for my backing.

Once I had my border sewed on to my top I then used a basting spray (it is like a glue spray that holds the batting in place while you sew and then comes out once you wash your project) to temporarily hold my batting in place while I got my backing situated and sewed on. Hooray! My quilt was almost done! Once my quilt was turned right-side-out I sewed the turn hole shut. Next, I needed to make sure my back and my front wouldn't separate in the wash or while in use so I sewed along the border and also along the seam of each square just to secure the fabric and voila! I'm done!

This was my very first quilt I started and finished and I'm really proud of my work. Yes, there are a couple mistakes and a few things I would do a little different next time, but overall I'm so glad I saved my sentimental shirts and made them into something I can snuggle up in and share with my children in the future!!

This site is a REALLY great source of information. I followed this tutorial almost exclusively. If you have any questions on how to do something or want to do things a little different I would search for other tutorials, there are lots. I liked the one I linked because she did a really good job with all the details and pictures. There are so many variations to this quilt, so if you want to do a T-Shirt Quilt do a little brainstorming and figure out what you want your quilt to look like and search for a tutorial from there!

Whew, I can FINALLY check that project off of my list!