I made something tonight

I've been pining over reusable shopping bags ever since reading this tutorial. There's something about the square handles and the fact that it's reversible that I just love it. So tonight I decided to make one. I'm not crazy about how it turned out, I should've been able to match up the handles better and my topstitch could've been straighter. I wasn't even going to share pictures but hubby was so crazy about it that I decided maybe it wasn't so bad. He just kept saying, you actually *made* this??? I put it together in about an hour and a half from my first cut to my final topstitch. I was pretty sloppy with it, I could definately have been more careful to sew straight and I didn't trim anything or really do a whole lot of measuring even. One thing about a reversable bag though, it all gets tucked in the inside so you never see! One thing I did do that the tutorial didn't recommend is I put a topstitch along the bottom seam when I got done so the two layers of the bag wouldn't come apart. I'm amazed at how strong this bag is, I used cheap quilting fabric so I wasn't expecting this to be strong enough for a load of groceries, but I would feel comfortable with it. So here's pictures without further ado.

Merry Christmas to all

And to all a good night! Please remember the reason for the season. Even if you aren't a believer in God, remember those less fortunate and those who may be struggling worse than you with the economic times. Be generous and above all, be kind.

Confession

I could not stand David Archuleta when he was on American Idol. I was a Cook fan from the start and I could not stand the lizard lick or the eye thing that he did and he just drove me crazy! Dang I really like his song though. Like crank up the radio and sing along like it. Like putting it on my mix cd like it. Listening to it right now like it. Don't tell anyone, k?

another wreath gift

So I finally finished this fishing lure wreath I'd been working on for a month. Sam and I made the 'lures' out of salt dough ages ago and painted them and yesterday I embelished them and sprayed them with clear poly and today they became a wreath. This is a gift for my cousin who loves to fish, and she loves Christmas decorations. I don't think I could make one of these to sell, it was way too involved, too many steps. For the right price maybe. I'm not in love with it though. John gave it a solid *cute*. I trust him to tell me when he doesn't like something, so that means it's probably ok.

Finally! I can show Karen's birthday gift

I've been dying to show you this picture but I haven't been able to because it's a gift for someone who reads my blog. This is Karen's birthday gift and it was inspired by someone who made one on craftster. They were inspired by a wreath at Starbucks. Their wreaths were made on styrofoam bases but when I priced those, they were about $8 each, this vine wreath was about
$3 and I love the rustic look it gives the wreath. Super super easy, just time consuming. Wraping the yarn around the balls is the most tedious part. You can use full yarn balls, but since I had plenty of styrofoam balls, I wrapped the yarn around those and pinned it down to conserve the yarn. I have just been totally smitten with this wreath for about the last week while it's been hanging in my craft room. I hope Karen is now equally smitten with it, yarn freak that she is!Oh, something I learned from my skein of yarn. Did you know Vanna White is a spokesperson for yarn? You know you're getting old when you're advertising yarn, right? I mean, what little girl didn't want to be Vanna turning those letters when she grew up?

another sunday

Didn't do a whole lot today, just laundry and such. I have been catching up from yesterday. I worked for John yesterday all day and man did he wear me out!!! We were supposed to hook up a guy's computer first thing, then deliver and install a tv. Well, after we got those done and got back, we had a call for someone else who wanted a tv hooked up. Got out there and she decided she wanted another one done! So I didn't get home til like 8:30. That's okay though, work is work!

Hubby gave me an early christmas gift this morning. We aren't even really exchanging since we usually get what we want all year anyway. But this was on my morning paper this morning when I got up. It's a fancy cutter. He thought it would be good for leather or carpeting if I decided to get into upholstering.

This afternoon John decided he wanted to *build* something. He hadn't been doing much woodworking with the siding project and he had the itch! Here's what he came up with.Pictures can't quite show how beatuful this bench is. The frame is oak and the seat itself is black walnut, so it's quite a contrast. I am totally in love with this!!! I don't know if he's going to build a matching table next or a couple more chairs.

Couple gifts...

My candle colors still haven't come in! I was really hoping to get some more made tonight but unfortunately it doesn't look like that's going to happen. I sent my supplier a not-so-nice email already. So, I finished up Karen's Christmas gift. I can't show you pictures obviously because I want it to be a surprise. I took plenty though because I'm quite proud of it and because I've been working on it for 3 nights now.

I wanted to make a couple memo boards as gifts so since John cut out the boards for me a couple weeks ago, I figured I would go ahead and knock those out. Have I mentioned that an electric stapler is an arthritic girl's best friend? I've heard you can make these using just hot glue, but I get a 3rd degree burn just thinking about it. Sorry to all you single gal's out there, I'm so glad I have a husband who shares his nifty tools! These things go pretty quick with the staple gun in my hand, what usually takes me the longest is laying out how I want the ribbon.

So here's the one I made for my girl Sam. She's a redneck girl at heart, she's starting to get more of a girly girl side to her though. I thought this butterfly camo just screamed her name! Isn't it precious??? The browns would go with my office, I'm thinking I might make one for me too (provided I'm still working there in a month, more on that later).

Ironed, starched and ready to be cut:

All ribboned and hung:

I found this fabric at JoAnn's last week on clearance (!!) and it just screamed my Mother in law's name. Boy does she like cocks (okay, that was just rude). This is going to go perfect in her dining room though. She is doing a red wall and she has the gold in her attached living room so I really hope it pulls it together. If she loves it as much as I do, I might make her a couple plain boards with the fabric on them to hang in lieu of pictures (she has issues with decorations, you've got to know her).

Ironed and starched:

Ribboned and ready:

I didn't intend with the pattern to make it look like the cocks were caged (okay, that's the last one) but doesn't it kind of look like chicken wire? Too cute right? Did I mention that this was a remnant and it was like $2!! Totally keeping my eye on their remnant rack. I got another one too, I'll be sharing it soon, promise! On both of them I put a dab of glue periodically under the ribbon so it will hold cards and pictures properly. Not bad for a couple hours work.

Since your night isn't complete without a dog belly. The lighting was bad, that's why her color is so sickly. I was sneaking up while she was asleep. Hilarious with her head on the pillow though! Life must not be so bad for that old stray doggie!

Happy Friday!

For the first time, in my 29 years...

I had a nose bleed. And boy, was it a nose bleed! I finally made it to work, I feel like I should drink a carton of liver or get a transfusion for breakfast or something. Ugh.

candle making again

I'm so excited, my votives popped right out of their molds after 5 minutes in the freezer. I was afraid that it would be more than a notion but that was not the case! So tonight Sam and I made some more votives. I tried to make brown colorant because the colorants I ordered haven't come in yet. Yeah, Brown and orange make a funky green, not brown. Oh well, Cinnamon can be green this time of year! Oh, and in my box o' scents that I've gotten randomly from people, I found the (wait for it) WORST.CANDLESCENT.EVER. Any guesses as to what that may be? BACON! What frightens me is you can use it for soap too, in case you've ever wanted to marinate in a tub full of bacon.

Actually.... I was never a girl scout.

So today I baked cookies. Sorry, no pics of these, they were plain ol chocolate chip, you know what they look like anyway. Diane hosted a cookie exchange this afternoon and it was really a lot of fun! There must have been 40 different kinds of cookies there. Even though we voted on our favorites, no way could anyone taste them all! The ones I had were all delicious! If I didn't thank you earlier, thanks Diane for doing this today, it was great!

So driving home with all these cookies, because I still had a few of mine that hadn't been taken and tons of other cookies since I was the next to last to leave, I was thinking that there was no way I'd ever eat them all (I was feeling a little sick from all the cookies I'd already eaten!). So I stopped and got some little tins. I was thinking about baking cookies for my neighbors, we don't exchange gifts or anything, but I do appreciate them and I do have some awesome neighbors. So here they are, all packaged up and ready for their doorsteps tomorrow morning. I was telling Karen that I was doing this and she said: You're just a grown up girl scout aren't you? To which I believe I replied, fuck you, I was in 4-H. She thought I would be offended by the 'grown up' part of the statement, and the more I thought about it, maybe I am.

Anywho, got home and it was still fairly early. I got some Stearic acid last week and I wanted to make a batch of molded candles with it to see if once they set they would be solid enough for votives and pillars. So I whipped up a batch of candles, just 1 pound so they can be curing and hopefully I'll have my answer tomorrow. I'm really learning a lot about this whole candle process. The stearic acid really takes a long time to melt. I was gentle with the heat last time because the flash point of wax makes me nervous. This time I was more confident with the heat and cranked it up! It helped a lot with the colorant mixing but it took a loooong time to cool to the point where I wanted to pour. I still don't think I waited long enough. Next time I will try to be more patient. Here's what I made though. The silver pots are the votives I poured tonight and the blue mold in the back is an oval I poured tonight as well. The glass jars are candles John and I made last weekend that I never got a chance to post.

Here's my faithful helper Starsky.

I promised a coworker like a month ago that I would make her a wine cork board. I don't know why I've put it off so long, it only took about 20 minutes (and one giant blister from my very hot glue gun). Here it is though. I made some little cork tacks for it too, it looks very cute on my wall, she still might not get it any time soon. ;o)

Finally, I wanted to do something *different* and I saw these sequins sitting around. Wow, glad my balls are only 2" (heh heh). This took for-freaking-ever. Yeah, it's pretty damn cute, but I don't think I could make these to sell. I'd make them for friends, but I'm feeling all whiny now after making it. I should have used a thimble. Each of those sequins I put in with a straight pin. There's like 4000 sequins on that little ball I swear! I do love the different shades of green and since I do a lime green tree, I think it will look lovely on my tree. Don't know that I'll be making any more of these though.

Hope everyone had a great weekend and let's hope that next week is better than this past one!

All ya had to do was ask...

DH is so wound up about wanting to make candles. We really had a good time making them last weekend and our house smells quite lovely. I've been holding off buying more soy though because I hate to keep buying it a pound at a time. However, the first major price break you get is with a case (50 lbs) and the shipping is really high. So this morning I decided to sit down for a few minutes and do some research and put it all in an excel spreadsheet. I feel like I've finally acomplished something now. I found the cheapest supplier with the best shipping price. Now I can go back to work.

I'm an ebayer!

I've bought an awful lot of stuff from ebay in my life. I've probably sent someone's kid to college somewhere along the lines. Today though, I have started selling. John got a call this morning about a storage unit sale he might be interested in and so we're digging through the stuff that isn't useful to him and ebaying it. Funny, listing the stuff doesn't go nearly as quick as buying it does. Oh well, hopefully I'll get through my pile of stuff tonight!

Hope everyone has a great week!

candle makers!

Hubby and I poured our first candles tonight (I still feel like shit though thanks for asking). They turned out pretty good and it was a lot of fun! Pictures to come!

We're passing the flu back and forth. It's back to me, he's settled in with a cold. We aren't a whole lot of fun this weekend.

Weekend Cat Blogging #182

I just discovered Weekend Cat Blogging. This week it's hosted by Diamond Emerald Eyes.

Here's a picture I took of Molly about 30 seconds ago, sorry it's kind of crappy but I had to be quick! She's tying to go fishing, note the paw in the water.

Probably not a post for the dudes...

Because I'm going to talk about birth control and dudes don't like to talk about that stuff... normally. So I've been going to an ear, nose and throat doctor about some problems I've been having, yesterday was my second appointment. The first appointment, no personality. I tried to be witty, but mr. ENT was not having it. Well, yesterday must've been an off day or something because homeboy was cracking me up. So, on to the birth control. He's reviewing my medical history and the medications I'm on and he asks what kind of bc I use. I say Nuvaring and he snickers a little. Of course I shoot a little evil eye in his direction. He said that one of their drug reps there used to be a Nuvaring drug rep, so he asked the drug rep what kind of words he could use associated with Nuvaring. Could he say shove? No, the rep said they were forbidden from using words like shove, thrust or poke. To that, I cracked up! He said the drug rep kept a straight face the whole time!

Sunday

Still not feeling 100%, but definately a lot better than yesterday! I thought since my craft room is nearly ready for me to move in, I would use the big empty space today to make some french memo boards. I kinda put a twist on them though because I want to use them for Christmas cards. Now, in all honesty, I read my cards over the trash can. I know it's not nice and I do save the ones with the pictures, but what am I going to save them for? I usually hang them around a doorway, but this would be way neater. Cute no? I like the way the snowman one turned out, I wasnt' sure where I was going with the ribbon pattern but thankfully it worked itself out. I'm also having to put a dab of hot glue on the ribbons to hold them together so the cards don't fall out. Thank goodness I tried it first! Hubby hooked me up with a new bff for making these too. An electric stapler. Those manual things are hard on the hand, I can whip through these things with the electric deal.

Oh, and we got another early Christmas gift this morning. Right under my desk. I'm so glad I looked first. Access to the cat door has now been limited. No Karen, I absolutely did NOT pluck it and eat it. I returned the little guy to nature.

Sick Day

I was supposed to do some Christmas shopping today, but I woke up sick as can be! Yuck! I finally rolled out of bed at like 1 because I just couldn't sleep anymore. Watched Bad Santa (funny as shit if you haven't seen it) and worked on some stuff. So here's the progress for the day:

I made one of these before with construction adhesive and I wasn't thrilled because the adhesive dries white and at least the hot glue is somewhat clear. I really like the red ribbon in this. It's a candle ring, I'm not sure if it needs something else or what. Some red berries would be awfully cute on it.

Lots o' stockings! I stuffed some tissue paper in these to make them look fuller, I'm pretty pleased with them though. I finally got my bobbin to load so I could sew these up and the embelishments I just hot glued on.

Are these too precious? I could make these little things all day I swear. Little button tree ornaments. Can you tell I have a little button obsession? I am just eat right up with these little guys. I finally had to tell myself to: step away from the buttons. I kept coming up with cutsie color combinations I wanted to try and I just needed to leave it alone. There's a pink and green one in here that I'm totally in love with though!

Oh, and a funny little story. Thursday when I got home, I found some feathers next to my desk. I asked the kitties and nobody had much to say about it. I had a bird experience a few years ago with a still living bird in the house that someone had brought in. Anywho, I thought maybe someone just brought in feathers to show me since I couldn't find any other evidence of a bird. Well, the dogs have been very interested in the door that leads from our kitchen to my new craft room. this door always stays pushed open and earlier John checked out what was behind the door, yup, an early Christmas gift for us. I guess Molly heard that birds nests in your tree were good luck so she thought a real bird would be even better... thanks.

All cracked out on pictures...

You've probably realized by now that I love posting pictures. I enjoy looking at posts though that have pictures. I don't read books with pictures though. Anywho, I have a lot of catching up to do so I'm going to mostly do it with pictures.

Here's the progress on the craft room. The paint swatch looked lovely on the paper, on the walls, not so much. The yellow is a little... blinding... So we're going to tone it down this weekend. Makes for a nice base coat though.

Almost threw the sewing machine out of the window last night. I could not wind a bobbin to save my life. The thread kept winding *under* the bobbin which made for a gigantic clusterfuck of thread. I left for a while, came back and damn if it didn't wind perfectly the first time. In the meantime I made this stocking with hot glue. Ghetto I know. Just wanted to give you an idea of what I was going for here.

Another styrofoam wreath project. I got this 7" wide red ribbon from DG and wrapped it around and secured it (hot glue of course). Oh, the wreath was a whole dollar, the ribbon was two.

Added corks and some berries and viola! I am actually really pleased with how this came out. It took a very few minutes and it's quite festive. I put $10 on it to sell just to see if I have any takers.

I had a doorway in my craft spot that I had to decorate so I wanted a Christmasy garland to go over top. I had seen these made with wooden spools so I thought I would try a country kind of rag garland. It was surprisingly quick to make. Once I cut the strips of fabric I could really go to town with it.

You can see here how I alternated with some Christmas ribbon and beads. Again, I was pretty pleased with this.

This is probably the first thing I made that is really *me* I can totally see this on my front door. Very simple. Just took the cheapy wreath and sprayed it with some spray snow and put different silver balls around it. Top it off with a silver ribbon and bow.

Button Icecicles. The hardest part about these was digging through the buttons to find the right sizes. I think they're terribly cute though.

Do you have any ideas as to where I can find cheaper tassles for these? I think the're adorable and I would make more of them, but the tassles were like 2 for 1.50 and that makes these cost more to make than they really should.

I believe I showed this before but I still thought it needed something. I think the solid red ribbon to hang it does it for me. If I did anything else to this it would be to put a couple buttons on the ribbon, but really I'm quite happy with it as it is.

Last and least... This little button tree. I just don't have big love for him. I kept trying to make him better but it just wasn't working. I must've replaced the top 5 times. Oh well... I guess I can't be in love with everything I make.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!!!

odd experiment, interesting results...

So last night we were sitting on the sofa watching 'House', our favorite show. I had a kitty on my lap, John had 2 dogs on his. My kitty (Shorty) rolled over and I noticed that even though his paws are white, the pads of his paws are black, like his nose. Well, I commented on this and that meant John had to pause the TV and off we went to catch all the kitties to see if the pads of their feet match their nose. Sure enough, we have 4 cats, they each have a different color nose and all of them, their paw pads match their noses. So you cat people out there, catch the kitty and flip it over and see if this holds true for everyone.

some cute kids, as promised!

Here's a couple collages Peggy made for me, I am tickled with them!

freakin adormable, right?

So... I did make more stuff today...

Did I say earlier that I was done making stuff? If so I lied... I really am slightly nervous about this whole craft space idea. Mostly because I'm scared I don't have enough stuff to fill up any amount of space and she's giving me a lot. So I've been trying to take stuff I already have and make stuff out of it. Because I'm broke and I guess when you're in a pinch, that's when you're the most creative, right?

So I bought this styrofoam wreath at the Dollar Tree last week. I knew I could find a use for it. I also have a massive bin of buttons that I bought off ebay cheap. So, I thought it would be supercute to glue red green and white buttons to this styrofoam wreath for kind of a kitschy crafty project. Well, my bin apparently has a shortage of red buttons, I did come up with a few though. Well, I glued them on first and I decided it was too cute with the red 'polka dots' to add the green in, so I just did red and white. Here's a couple pics. I'm torn now as to how to hang it of course. I'm thinking hanging it from red ric-rack would be adorable, of course I have none here though.

I've been kicking around with this project for a while. I work on it when I'm watching tv (which isn't much!). Today I finally just sat down and finished it! Obviously it's garland, but can you tell what it's made of?

How about now?

Wine corks! I may do another one with green and red beads, or maybe just red, I thought the browns accented the different cork colors for this one though. I'm quite pleased with how it came out. I wasn't sure how to finish it with the loops, but I knotted the fishing line, slid a bead over the knot and then glued the hell out of it. It's holding very well!

I can't believe I forgot to post this earlier! I asked hubby to pick me up glue sticks the last time he went to Lowes. Too funny right? Feel free to be as graphic as you want with your comments.

Another too short weekend!

Well, yesterday I watched Beth's kids. I have a surprise planned for Beth and her husband Brian that I tried hard to pull together yesterday. Since I know she doesn't read my blog, I can share it with you. I had a friend who is a budding photographer come over and do some shots of the girls. I was so scared it was going to be pouring! I had a backup plan that involved galoshes, rain coats and mud puddles, but I wasn't sure I wanted to go there if I didn't have to. Luckilly, it cleared off to be a gorgeous day, aside from the tornado force winds. Peggy got over 200 shots of the girls and has sent me a couple previews, I'm so excited! I know I can't wait til Christmas to give them this gift because I would like for her to be able to use a picture for her Christmas cards. I'll share my favs this week, I promise!

So, I've got this back room on my house that's never really had a *purpose*. It kind of catches junk and the dog food is out there, and it's where hubby built my pantry earlier this year. We used it as a 'dog room' for both of our dogs while we were house breaking them but that's not necessary anymore. So hubby decided that since I've been working on crafts and stuff so much he wanted me to have a craft room (I really think he wants the dining room table back). So yesterday while I was out, he started working on it for me, got some paint and when I got home we got a coat of primer on the walls. I should've taken a before picture, duh, but that never quite works out. The walls previously were very dark paneling. We realized after the primer started turning brown that the paneling must've originally been light and it was stained dark. Either way, it did not make for the bright, sunny room I want. So here we are after one coat of primer. John and I decided at about 1am that the current color should be called 'stale piss brown'. Hopefully my 'peach tickle' (your eyes aren't fooling you, it's not peach at all) will make the color a little prettier.

I've been kind of thinking in the back of my mind how I'm going to hang my newest snowman wreath that I made. It's going to be the first addition to the shop I'm renting space in so I want to try hard. I don't want to use the white ribbon like I did on the first one, the fabric scarves on these snowmen make it a little too country for organza ribbon. I had some more of the fabric so I cut a length for the hook and then I woke up this morning with an idea for a bow for the top of the loop. I need to figure out how to stiffen it, I thought I had some spray starch but that's not the case. I think I'll be making a walmart run tonight or tomorrow so I guess I'll have to wait til then to find out if it works like my plan.

I basically cut a bunch of 4" strips of the same fabric and put them on a needle as I went, when I was happy with the amount of strips, I pulled the needle through and stitched the hell out of the center to hold it in place. It almost kind of looks like a snowflake doesn't it? I wonder if I used white fabric and stiffened it and tossed some glitter.... hmmm...

must share!

I just rented a little space in a thrift/craft shop today for my crafts. Now I need to get to makin stuff! Wish me luck!

week in review

Had kind of a crappy week at work. When you're in IT and something goes wrong, for some reason it always goes VERY wrong. I'm at the bottom of the totem pole, and since we all know shit flows downhill, it all lands on me. Ugh. I understand people's frusteration, but when things are broken, they don't understand that I didn't break it on purpose, believe me! It makes my day hell, the last thing I want to do is screw something up. In this case I wasn't the cause of the problem, but hopefully I will be the cause of the solution. Let's hope next week is better.

I'm watching a girlfriends kids tomorrow so she can get some Christmas shopping done, so I won't have much time to craft this weekend. I worked on a couple things tonight though. First, I found some of the fabric that I had given to Karen, and then she gave some of it back to me, well, I thought it would make cute bows for my next snowman wreath, so I chopped it down tonight since I had everything else ready to go for the little guys. It gives it more of a 'country' look, which isn't really my thing, but it definately complements the whole idea a little better than the plain red did. Most of the time when people are into snowmen, they're into country stuff so we'll see how this works out.

Secondly, I had seen these cute little cupcake ornaments on etsy and when I read the description, it cautioned very strongly: DO NOT EAT. Hmmm... got me thinking I wonder what they could be made out of. After studying them for a minute, I realized it looked like 'great stuff'. If you're into home improvement projects, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's this yellow spray foam that you put in the crack around doors and windows before you put your molding up and it kind of insulates that gap. Soooo... I asked hubby theoretically tonight if you could paint great stuff, of course he says. Well do you have any? Yes, he says, I happen to have a half a can left from the windows. Well here's some cupcake liners brother, get to it! We decided they probably needed a pan too to hold the shape. No friends, I won't be making real cupcakes in this pan anymore fyi. They haven't fully expanded yet, probably will by tomorrow morning. I can definately see where they're going though. Maybe Sunday I'll get a chance to put some paint on them to see how that works out.

Did I mention hubby finished up the siding project Tuesday? I think it was Tuesday. It's been raining ever since so I haven't had a chance to take pictures, I will post some soon of the finished product. It's so cool to pull up to a fresh, clean, gray house!

Have a great weekend!