Gingerbread House Setup

Gingerbread house setup at the library. The Christmas decorating went very well - a big thanks to my mom for helping with the three 20 ft trees!

Christmas Gingerbread House for the Library

So I get the privilege of decorating the library I work at for Christmas and the holiday season this year! I have the idea to build a book display for a while now and decided I wanted it to look like a gingerbread house. I ran the idea past my mom in August/September and she was excited to help. We drew up some plans and spent about a month shopping for materials (who knew you could buy fake donuts and cupcakes?), cutting and framing (my mom got a jigsaw for her birthday), painting, gluing, etc. Below are pictures of our process and the finished product. I hope you enjoy.

Initial Design

Framing

Windows

Handles

Painting

Shelves and Lights (Thanks Mom!)

Wooden Shingles

Fake Candy & Glitter

Vinyl Sign (Thanks Alissa!)

Completed Project!

I want to give a big thank you to my Mom for all her help on this project as well as to my Dad, Ryan, Kenny, Kevin, Grandpa & Grandma, Aunt Loi, and Alissa. You all contributed to this project and were critical to seeing it completed before the Christmas season. Thank you!!

Once I get it set up at the library, I will post another picture!

Bad at blogging....

So it's been a long while since I've posted anything...
I could blame the fact that I don't have interwebs in my apt and it's hard to do the blog thing on my phone... But mostly it's because I'm just bad at this blogger game! I'm too busy living life to document it. But I have a spare moment so I'll catch you up!

Finally got my hands on a copy of The Fault in Our Stars. Easy read. Enjoyed it. Haven't seen the movie yet....

Been doing some crafting... Here are the latest Projects!

Mom Mother's Day gift - Vinyled the bucket and filled with garden-y things :)

Fun little kitchen arts!

A pallet art piece for a friend's little girl's room

Put frost vinyl on mom's bathroom window.... curtain ideas, anyone?

It is well birdie canvas

Little brother graduation canvas - Football team pictures and football helmet stickers

Um.. I think that's it for now! Always perusing the Pinterest for ideas :) and always have a list of project I need to be working on!! Life is good!!

Til I remember to do this again, Alissa

Painting

So between the packing and the anxiety I have been feeling about starting a new job in three weeks - I decided to paint and give my mind a break from the stress. What do you think?


Idea from: https://www.wineandcanvas.com

Crown Royal Quilt Completed!

Crown Royal Squares

It has been more than a week (sorry about that)... but this past weekend I did get all my squares and rectangles cut. I also have all my black and white squares sewn together.

First two rows and the center finished - only six more rows to go! 

Go to blog post New Quilting Project: Crown Royal Quilt Design to see the pattern for this quilt.

Wishes

Mom and I are addicted to Pinterest as I assume many of you reading this are as well...

Well we stumbled upon this cute print and decided to make our own version...

Forgive me I'm uploading this via my phone and they don't always cooperate. ..

New Quilting Project: Crown Royal Quilt Design

I will be starting a new quilting project this spring for a friend. The current design I am planning to use is on the right.

It is going to be another quilt made out of Crown Royal bags.. but this time I have black bags as well as purple ones. I plan to make the black and white squares 4".

The light purple will not have the gold Crown Royal logo. They will just be purple with gold stripes from the top of the bags.

Once I start cutting out my squares (sometime this week), I will post an update.

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!