It's Christmas Time!

It's my favorite time of year!

Cuddled up in sweaters and blankies with my hot cocoa or chai tea reading a good book.... mmmmmm... As long as I don't have to go out and shovel snow, I'm a happy camper!

This is also the time of year that is jam packed full of activities. Christmas concerts, family, traveling, searching for that perfect gift.... It's easy to get carried away... I'm trying really hard this Christmas to take the time to be thankful for the many blessings in my life even though it's been a rough year...

One of the many blessings that I am thankful for is my talent and love for creating things! 

Here's a couple of the Christmas Projects I've been working on! :)

Boss's Day

Tomorrow is Boss's Day!

Now I just started a new job and at my old job we just got a new store manager... sooo... what to do?

Well I do all my bestest brainstorming with my mom (Thanks Mom!) and she had been surfin' Pinterest and stumbled upon a homemade chai tea mix recipe. One of her friends loves chai tea, so I thought, "Hey, let's make a double batch!"

Now I feel really bad because I can't find the recipe we used, but it you search on Pinterest chai tea mix or chai tea recipe you will get a whole bunch of recipes that all are basically the same.

We found some cute jars at Walmart (the lack of craft stores in this area is appalling!) :( 

I made this label using Publisher:

Then I cut some cute vinyl lettering for the jars and slapped on a bow... 

Wah-La!

One cute Boss's Day gift! 

Happy Crafting!

And a huge shout out to all those "bosses" out there! 

Thank you for your leadership!

Be Still...

For a while now the first part of Psalm 46:10 has been playing through my head... "Be still and know that I am God..." A good reminder for anyone... Especially comforting for all the chaos in my life right now...

Since I'm craft and like visual reminders, I thought I make myself a board... Surfing on Pinterest I found a new technique for staining or "ebonizing" wood... Basically it's a way to make new wood look old and weathered... Here's the blog I followed:
 http://ourlittlegreennest.blogspot.com/2013/07/weathered-wood-crates.html

So basically you need:
Wood
2 Jars - I used old spaghetti jars
Tea
Vinegar
Steel wool

In one jar, fill 3/4 full of vinegar. It kinda depends on the size of your project. I had PLENTY left over. It just needs to be enough vinegar to cover your chunk of steel wool. I used the super fine stuff 0000. Then you just let it sit for at least 24 hours.

Is it done yet??

Now some people's vinegar turned brown... Mine never did and I let it sit for days..... It still works...

Oh and you may want to strain the vinegar before using it. The steel wool will disintegrate and leave little pieces all over. I didn't have much to do so I just dipped my brush into the jar... 

ANYWAYS... In your other jar, brew like 3 bags of tea... I let mine sit over night as well... Now the blog I was following said to use black tea. I don't like black tea, so I bought some flavored yummy tea. Did it work any better I couldn't tell you, but it smelled nice :)

So after waiting........ (looks at watch)......

You paint your board with your tea and let dry..... more waiting..........

Then you paint it with the vinegar..... and wait......

Some of the websites said you can see if change after a couple mins. I waited a couple mins and nothing happened.... So I thought it was a flop and let it sit on my table. 

HOWEVER!! 

After work the next day, I came back to check it out and it had weathered! Woot Woot!

I did a second coat with the vinegar and here is my board:

TA-DA!!

I realize now I should have taken a before picture of the wood for comparison, but I'm not very good at this tutorial thing yet... So just trust me that it looks awesome! :)

So I cut out my stencil using my handy dandy Cameo and painted the words "I AM GOD" on my board. After MORE WAITING........ I sanded my letters to also give them a worn look.

I think cut the words "be still" from some white vinyl and slapped that on the top... 

And here's the finished product!

Time to organize!

So lately my life has pretty much been in an upheaval. And ever since moving into my apartment I've had little or no time to organize and find homes for stuff - which surprisingly I have a lot of....... 

So I put together a list (Yay for lists!) of things I want to organize and hopefully can tackle them this fall.. so far tackled 3 items! 

My pan cupboard, my growing collection of scarves, and my vinyl!
The best part?  All three projects cost me under $10!

Mom and I like to hit the thrift shops and consignments stores every once in a while and this time around I stumble across this magazine rack for $0.50! Perfect!

Boom! - Organized!

For my scarves, I snagged a broken/mismatched hanger the hotel could no longer use and picked up some shower curtain rings from wal-mart for $1.16! Done!

Shazam! Love it!

And finally my vinyl, which at the time was just sitting around my apartment waiting for me to trip over during the night.... After brainstorming with mom and researching on Pinterest, I came up with this solution :)

All my vinyl rolls will... safely... be hung on my closet door. I used an old sheet from the hotel (FREE!) and had to run to Bomgaars for the door hangers and the dowel ($4.50)

Hooray!! Someday I'll make a second one as my collection of vinyl grows!

Phew... That's all I have for now :) Do you have any easy organizing tips? Please share!

Quilted Tote Bag

This was my first attempt at sewing/quilting together a bag that has round handles and a diamond pattern instead of squares. It was more challenging than I anticipated and should I ever decide to do a similar project in the future - I think I will try a different approach.

However, I do think it will work perfectly for carrying my laptop and notebooks to class this semester!

Colorful Creations

So... I know that I said my quilting was finished for the summer... but on Saturday night I was playing around with some scrap material and ended up with the beginnings of another quilt. As a result, I have decided that this one is going to be my side project throughout the coming semester - when I need a break from reading and homework. I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out. It will be the first quilt I have made without a plan or pattern created beforehand!

Swenson Quilt Finished!

I finished the quilt I was making for my grandparents this weekend.

I will be sending it out in the mail tomorrow - so you only have to keep quiet about the surprise for a few more days.

Sadly, Cassie's husband, Andrew, is no longer with us, but he will always be close to our hearts. Whenever I see his name on this quilt I will be reminded of their wonderful marriage and the love they shared.

The final size of this quilt is 68" X 68" and the back is a dark purple print with roses. I quilted it by hand with purple yarn. Previous posts about this quilt include New Quilting Project and Swenson Quilt.

Wedding Anniversary Picture

Today my husband and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary and started a new tradition. I made a quilt square of the number three and put it in a frame. I made the square out of the colors of our wedding, which were red, black, & white. We took a picture with it to mark the year!

I am hoping to do this every year on our anniversary and make a quilt out of the squares one day!
- maybe for our 15th or 20th.

** Make sure you right a caption with your picture if you decide to do this with an explanation.
Reason - because it is our third wedding anniversary a few people thought this picture meant we were pregnant.. not yet!

Swenson Quilt

Started sewing the squares together for the last quilt of the summer. School will start on August 26th, which means that my time for quilting projects will be replaced with time for homework. This quilt is for my paternal grandparents who celebrated 60 years of marriage this past June. My pattern is located in an earlier post and can be found at New Quilting Project. It is going to be a surprise.. so if your name is on this quilt or you know my grandparents.. your lips are sealed! Thanks!

Letters (purple with a light purple floral design.)

Rows 1 - 6

]

Rows 7 - 12

 Rows 1 - 6 sewed together

 

Getting fit to Graduate!

Last week Monday I started using Myfitnesspal.com (a free website) to record and track everything I eat throughout the day. It helps me to set goals for eating and maintaining a healthy diet, and it allows me to track how much exercise I do each day.


My current goals are 1) to get my weight down to 135 by the time I graduate in December, 2) to make healthier food choices when the options present themselves, and 3) to continue to exercise on a regular basis when school starts at the end of August.

Last week I swam laps on Monday and Friday and ran 1.5 miles on Tuesday and Thursday. I know this coming semester is going to be very busy.. I will just need to get my butt out of bed in the mornings to continue exercising.. which is probably going to be my greatest obstacle. Wish me luck!

Baby Keeney Quilt

I finished this baby quilt a couple weeks ago, but I didn't want to ruin the surprise for my friend by posting pictures early. She got it yesterday in the mail. Surprise! 

My first draft of this quilt (when the idea was still just in my head and my computer) can be found in a June blog post (Baby Quilt) and the flower quilt squares in a July blog post (Quilt Squares). 

Front

Left Side

Right Side

Back

This little girl's dad is a big Superman fan!

Tote Bag

Today I sewed together a small tote bag (11.5" X 7.5" with a 4" bottom) out of fabric left over from my recent pillow covers project. The material is heavy and made for outdoor items - which makes this tote bag weather durable and washable.

Black & White

Yesterday I made a bag with the leftover material from the baby blanket I completed this past weekend. The purple material on the inside of the bag is the only fabric not used in the blanket and was left over from a different project. 

One Flower

Two Flowers

Top View

Handles

Wonder Woman Upcycle

Mom found this little table for my sister... we set to brainstorming right away... my sister decided to go with a Wonder Woman theme... with a little paint and some vinyl, here's what we come up with! :) just need some gold rope for her Lasso of Truth!

Before

Super hero tees

Wanted to do some more super hero stuff.... here are some tees I painted and/or ironed vinyl to:

Captian America is painted on blue tees

LOVE the vintage feel :)

Ironman is glow in the dark vinyl on dyed tees

Superman is layered vinyl on a dyed tee

Still have to perfect the layering of the vinyl. If you look closely the red shrank differently than my black did... not bad for my first attempt... we'll just pretend its supposed to be that way!

Baby Quilt

   

Flowers

Just finished a baby quilt for a friend over the weekend. 

Final size was 36" X 40". 

We got this idea from Pinterest at:

http://pinterest.com/pin/176695985353024482/

Front

Back