Geranium Dress

I made a few handmade Christmas presents for my friends and family, this is the only one I remembered to take pictures of. I made the Geranium Dress for my friends baby. It's made of super soft corduroy. The dress was very easy to make, It's very similar to the Washi Dress, but smaller.   

This turned out much better than the other dress I sewed for Baby H, it actually fit. I still can't get over how small some pattern pieces are for baby clothes.

Now that Christmas is over I have a stack of fabric (purchased with Christmas money) ready to sew items for myself. First up is the Staple Dress.

Lauren

Safe Ornaments + Holiday Decorating

Since Blaze is a bit of a terror in terms of destroying things left out, we figured a whole Christmas tree full of handmade (priceless) ornaments would be too irresistible for him to stay away from. It really made me sad to think about having Christmas without seeing all of our (my) favorite ornaments. In order to see them, but keep them safe we came up with a solution.

I bought a few yards of velvet cording, tied knots every few inches, strung the ornaments on the cord and hung it up from the ceiling. 

Now I can see all of our ornaments and they are safe from destructo dog. And in case you were wondering there are 34 ornaments and I made 19 of them. 

Don't let his pretending to be calm in this picture fool you. He chewed a hole in my mitten moments later. Since I wouldn't be Christmas without a tree we do have a small potted Norfolk Pine tree. It has small white lights which is huge for me since I've always had big colored bulbs. The branches on this tree would not hold the big bulbs though, so small lights it is. Please don't call me a traitor Mum. We use my cookie cutter ornaments to decorate the little tree.  Those are not appealing to a dog apparently because he has not messed with the tree once.

Blaze also seems to be afraid of the pellet stove because he has stayed away from the stockings we have hanging up. 

That's pretty much all of our holiday decor. It's been really fun to decorate (although minimally) our first home for the holidays.

What's your favorite holiday decoration?

Lauren

I Made A Wreath!

If you don't know that I am obsessed with milkweed pods then you don't know me very well. Last years project HERE and two years ago's project HERE. This year I went with the same idea as last year and then attached them to a plain wreath we bought at a craft fair.

I really like it.

To make one you'd need milkweed pods, spray paint, a hot glue gun, red berries, a wreath, and wire. Dried flowers optional. I glued the pods together into stars then spray painted both sides gold. Next I glued berries and dried flowers inside. Then we added tons of glue to the back and stuck the middle of a long piece of wire into the glob of glue to dry. After the glob has dried, wrap the sides of the wire around the wreath and tie them off. Then, stick red berries sporadically into the wreath. Lastly, hang and enjoy. Easy. I didn't even burn myself with the hot glue gun, which has never happened to me ever.

And just because I think it's really pretty, here is a kissing ball we bought the other day and hung at the bottom of the driveway.

It has snowed twice since we got it so it has a pretty layer of snow on top.

Lauren

Wooden Log Slice Christmas Sign

That's not a very inventive name. Oh well. I saw this idea on Pinterest and sent the picture to Charlie asking him to cut me some log slices. It was not a problem given all the trees he's been cutting down. It also gave him a chance to use his vice grip and hand saw, and spend more time in the garage with his tools. I don't think this project bent him out of shape like some of my other projects do.

He cut me a bunch of log slices and drilled holes through the slice near the tops. I painted them and left them to dry. In the morning some of the pieces had cracked from drying out so quickly in the kitchen near the pellet stove. I brought the bag of left over log slices inside to dry out. Blaze brought it upon himself to inspect the bag and drag all the wood around the house while we were working. He just wanted to see which ones would withstand his test. The ones that did not crack due to drying or Blaze's gnawing were then used to replace the ones that had cracked.  

After drying for a few days I used lace and some red embroidery floss to hang the slices. Thumb tacks secured them to the window casing in the dining room, and voila!

Not even 4:30pm and it's dark!

Log slice Christmas decor! I am not sure how these will stand the test of time due to all the drying/cracking, but it was a fun project and I like how it looks for now. A co-worker recommended letting the slices dry a little, then putting them in water, then drying again. Since I have little patience I obviously didn't do that. But maybe if you want to make something like this you should do those steps too.

Lauren

Christmas Purse

Are you tired of hearing about my Christmas sewing? Here's the last post. I made this purse for my friend Lorelei. She likes when I send her my old purses, so I figured I'd be nice and make her one specially. I've improved a great deal in my skillz since I last sewed her a purse. Side note: not only have my sewing skills improved, so have my blogging skills apparently. What was with the spacing? Also, I still have the headband and the shirt I'm wearing in those pictures. You probably didn't click the link until now to see the shirt did you? I knew it. 

It's a modified version of this pattern. I made it square, not rounded, and the bottom is flat like a tote bag so it stands up on it's own. The fabric is fake suede again. I bought tons of it. I like the way the purses turn out, but get nervous I am going to burn it into my expensive iron. I'll be glad when my stock pile of this type of fabric is used up.

Since Lorelei is super cool she has an iPhone so I made her a pocket that hopefully fits an iPhone, I even looked up the measurements.

These are my new tags. I like them. Same font as before but on a fatter tag. Sorry for the blur. I'm still getting used to the different lens for my camera.

Okay, that's all for Christmas handmades. I promise.

Lauren

Feather Pillow

I finally figured out what to do with my pieced feathers. I did what I originally planned to do, make a pillow. This one went to my other sister in law. She's spunky so I figured she would like something with some pizzaz. 

 I tried to quilt the feathers with silver thread but it kept breaking so I settled for purple thread.

Check out this invisible zipper. The first one I accidentally broke/melted so this one is white. Only the pull showed though so I am quite impressed with myself. I tried to paint it with dark nail polish so it wouldn't show, but that did not work. So alas, the white zipper pull it is.  

Since Danielle lives in Las Vegas and has to travel with all of her presents I just gave this to her unstuffed with a $5 bill inside so she can buy stuffing when she gets home. I'm so dang smart, how does my brain not explode?

Lauren.

Embroidered Pouches

Merry Christmas peeps! I went into an embroidery kick this holiday season. Here are the two things I embroidered. 

The first is a camera accessories pouch for my brothers girlfriend Jaimie. I bought her some cleaning tools and a few lens leashes (a must have if you ask me) to go inside. I had fun embroidering the camera on the front. Jaimie likes bold colors so it was nice to use colors I wouldn't normally use (orange, neon green).

                 

I wrote "snap" "flash" "click" in cursive thread on it too. I really liked it, and kind of didn't want to give it away. 

Next up was my sister in law. I couldn't think of what to make her, but I kept thinking about pickles. She likes pickles, she even eats them when she runs instead of "eating" Gu. I decided to make her a pickle pouch. Inside are a bunch of things you would need if you were "in a pickle". Doogy poop bags, tylenol, chapstick, toothpicks, a few hair elastics, etc. 


After I sewed "In a pickle?" I felt like the In and a were too close so whenever I look at it I think it says "Ina pickle?" What do you think?

More soon on the Christmas front.

Lauren 

Salt Dough and Wrapping

Charlie must hate Pinterest. I see lots of cool ideas and then force him to help me make them a reality. Last weekends project was salt dough gift tags. 

I used this recipe, but if you google salt dough you can find 100 recipes, mostly all the same ingredients, just of varying quantities. Some say to bake the ornaments/tags, but we let them dry for 2-3 days and they were fine. Baking them would make the tags puffy, and I wanted flat tags. 

Charlie did an excellent job of rolling out the dough, then he pretended to be busy so he wouldn't have to actually make any. He says he has crafting anxiety and I put him under too much pressure. We/I decorated the dough with rubber stamps. After cutting out shapes with cookie cutters and being sure to poke a hole for ribbon/string, we let them dry for 2 days. This wasn't hard because we were both sick and didn't really go in the kitchen very much. 

Once they were dry I painted them. Painting them makes the stamped effect stand out more. 

Then come the fun part; wrapping. In an effort to be eco friendly I primarily used old newspapers from the library as well as some raffia, ribbon and tissue paper (even though I swore to never touch tissue paper again). 

This one is my favorite. I don't have much else to post, because all the things I've been sewing are gifts and I don't want to ruin the surprises like I ruined my breakfast. 

Lauren 

Christmas Cards

Every year around Thanksgiving I remember that I like making Holiday cards to send to my friends and relatives. Every year thinking of a creative/new idea becomes more challenging. If memory serves me right I talked about this a few years ago. Yep! I did. Pinterest makes this a bit less challenging. The idea for this years card came from Pinterest. Before I show it to though I thought I'd show you the past few years cards. 

2007. To this day this one is still my favorite. Skates and mittens made from paper, blades of the skates are paperclips. My grandmother always e-mails to say thank you for each years card, and then says that this one is still her favorite. She still has it on her bulletin board in the kitchen.

2008. Reindeer thumbprints. I liked doing this one, but the individual painting of each card took a long time, and a lot of space. This was when we still lived in our tiny apartment and I remember cards being strewn everywhere. 

2009. I liked this card too. It was made with paper lunch bags so the back had the opening in it, which is where I put the picture of Charlie and I. This was the last year I used brads (the little star) on cards because I had to pay 20 cents extra for each card since the envelopes were not flat. What a pain.

2010. The next two I cut up to put in a scrapbook so just the main part is saved. This card took a while too. It's made out of four different potato stamps. I love potato stamping, you should try it.

2011. Last years card idea came from Pinterest as well. It's the bottom of a celery stalk.

2012. This years card is made from paint swatches. They were pretty fun to make as well. I always complain about the process but then I have fun making them, and I love to hear from my family that they liked the card.

Here is the picture we included this year. Thank you Jaimie for taking 100 shots of us. Charlie liked it this year because I blamed the bad shots on Penny, not him. And, if you really like us you can read our holiday letter. I'd never done one before, and felt kind of weird writing it because I thought holiday letters were only for people with kids, but it was fun to review the year and think of what was most important. Charlie made me cut out all of the funny parts. He also signed half of them with his full name, like he would sign a check. Jeeze! 

Lauren

Cardboard Christmas Villages

Over the holiday weekend I knew my two cousins would be around, and I decided that it would be fun to do a craft together. Sure beats Black Friday shopping if you ask me. I e-mailed my family members a week or two in advance and requested they save and bring cardboard, cereal box weight, to be used for the crafting. I got inspired by many things; first was Dana's Ghost Town, as well as a dozen or so gingerbread houses on Pinterest, and this Martha Stewart idea.  Here is what we came up with:

Each row of houses is one cereal box unfolded. I drew a rough idea of the house outlines on the cardboard then cut them out before hand. For one I cut the windows out before we started and for the other three I waited. Waiting means you have to cut through a few layers of cardboard and paper. Cutting the windows and doors first meant the houses were a bit more flimsy to work with. I also used another cereal box to make trees to go behind the houses. 

We all went to the movies then came home and started working. Rich was nice enough to let us all work on the floor in the living room next to a roaring fire. He set out a huge piece of cardboard so we would paint, glue and glitter to our hearts content. 

 The houses are painted or were made with scrapbook paper. We decorated each house with paper, paint, glitter paint and or course lots of glitter and snow paint. Then we hot glued the cardboard to a strip of plywood to make them stand upright. I love how they turned out. In the day time they are pretty to look and notice to details. At night, with some electric tea lights or a string of white lights behind them, they are a great silhouette.

This turned out to be a really fun project. Charlie came home from a visit with his friends and said "Wow that turned out way better than I thought it would." He's always underestimating my crafting skillz. The project kept my 10 year old cousin, my aunt, and myself busy and for at least 4 hours if not more. It also kept the rest of the family entertained with watching us. The only trouble was that my back hurt from sitting on the floor for 4+ hours and I still have glitter in my hair from 3 days ago. 

All and all it was a great time. I love sharing my love of crafts with others. We all inspired each other and shared ideas. It was a great time.

Lauren 

P.S. I am officially paying $2.99 a month to continue blogging and uploading pictures. Hope you enjoy these posts people! If I post 4 times that's 74 cents, talk about motivation to blog! 

P.P.S. I spelled "skillz" incorrectly on purpose Dad. I was feeling like a gangsta. 

October Ornaments

It must appear as though I have only been painting around here lately. I have been sewing some as well. Not much machine sewing though. In an attempt to accept that Fall has come I instantly jumped to being excited for Christmas. That meant digging out the felt ornament kit from Posie Gets Cozy that my Mum bought me last Christmas and getting crackin'.

I made the little rabbit.

Then I bit the bullet and actually started working on this mitten. It scared the be-jeezes out of me for almost two years. It looks so complicated so I stayed away. Once it was started though it wasn't too hard, it just took a very long time. I love how it turned out though. I need two in my size.


Lastly, I've been working on this little door. I love it thus far.

Working on these reminded me that I needed to ask my Mum to buy me the kit that had been released this year. I e-mailed her the link and that very day the kits sold out. While I am excited for Alicia (the artist) I am super sad that I won't get one this year. What, oh what, will I do to ease the pain of Summer being over next Fall? You can buy the pattern, without the felt and floss, but it doesn't seem like as much fun to have to buy your own felt and necessities. We'll see.

Off to work on the little door, and watch "The Office" on Hulu.

Lauren

Nerdy Chemistry Artwork

For Christmas I like to make Charlie something artsy and since he won't let me sew for him, or knit for him, and he thinks scrapbooks are annoying, that leaves me with painting pictures for him. The last few years I've painted pictures, one was a Robert Frost poem on a winter backdrop, last year I made him a painting of a song quote I thought he liked but he said he forgot. Now that painting is in our bedroom and he says the reason he likes it is not because of the quote but because the house I painted looks like it's smiling. Geesh! This Christmas I decided not to paint him anything but to do some editing on Picnik (a photo editing website). I followed this tutorial, which was very helpful, and I think the results turned out quite nicely. 

Charlie recently decided to get a double masters degree (I've always suspected he just wants to be better than me...but that's another story), in Chemistry. I found this idea, where else, on Pintrest. It's elements made to spell out "I love you". I just think it's funny that Uranium is used for good in my art not for nuclear weapons. Here is a close up of the one I printed out for Charlie.

If you like it you can download it to print HERE. 

      

You can download this one without the "We've got Chemistry" HERE. 

Lastly,  I made this and printed a 3x5 size of it in a small magnet frame for Charlie to use in his office/classroom someday. You can get that one HERE.

Enjoy!

Lauren

Ornaments

I love homemade ornaments. A few years ago I started asking my mum for kits to make felt ornaments from one of my favorite blogs Posie Gets Cozy. The kits come with pattern pieces, the perfect amount of felt, embroidery floss, sequins, buttons and any other necessities to complete the project. Last year I made two ornaments over one lazy weekend, the year before I made two over my extended graduate school vacation, and this year I decided to get an early start and finish up the most recent kit before we got our tree. Each ornament takes quite a while to make but the details are really what make each one so special. 

This coat reminds me of one I had when I was little, which was not this sophisticated, but it was cute and I did have mittens with strings tied to the coat so I would not lose them. 

I experimented a lot with different pictures of each ornament and this was my favorite of the polar bear. Since the bear is only two pieces of felt it came together much faster than some of the other ornaments which take lots of different colors of felt and cutting etc. The polar bear did come with yarn to make the worlds tiniest scarf though, more on that later, once my fingers stop bleeding.

Last but not least, a lovely mug of hot chocolate. I'd love to spend a few winter nights snuggled up watching a movie sipping hot cocoa from a mug that cute.

There is one more ornament from the kit that I have to finish, the hardest of them all, so hopefully I can finish that up before we get a tree. Oh, and it is snowing out so my polar bear has been complaining non-stop about not having a scarf. Hopefully he'll pipe down once I get it all done.

Happy Wednesday!

Lauren