Planning for the future

Warning - lots of rambling and bad iphone photos ahead!

Lately I feel like I do way more planning than doing.  

- Planning for decorating/furniture/art projects/building projects/gardening for the new house without getting to implement a lot of it. This, of course, includes many hours of online window shopping and journeying through shops.

- Dreaming about getting a new car since we pretty much have one vehicle (a classic truck is not good for a daily driver) and sometime in the next couple years I'll need 4 doors. I think we've decided on a Versa Note. I love little hatchbacks, what can I say?
- Coming up with new template and logo ideas for the etsy shop.
- Thinking about when we might want to try for kids and ALL OF THE THINGS that come with that. I'm actually thinking about getting this really cute dress from modcloth because I know I could wear it well into the pregnancy. I'M NOT TRYING TO GET PREGNANT. Who plans ahead like this? On the flip side, the last two dresses I bought would probably not fit if I even gained 5 points...

I couldn't get a rug or any accessories for the living room until the couch we ordered arrived. Now I can't because the color of the couch they delivered is SO far off it's not even close (we ordered dark gray, got light beige, lighter than our carpet). We ordered a dark gray to match the cat's fur better... this one isn't quite right for that.



But RC Willey was great about it. We just took in a cushion to prove it was wrong, they ordered us a new one, and we use the wrong one until it's ready. It wasn't even their fault, they put in the order right... it was just made wrong somehow.



I assembled this sweet shelf the other night while the husband slept. Not much on the shelf in this photo as I snapped it just after midnight when I finished it, but It's a bit better now. Some photo frames, flowers, and it's a good place to store our fermenting crock! I think I'll look for some baskets for the bottom shelf. It is also more gray than this picture shows, I love the color!

I have not found one single dining table I like. Add that my husband wants some huge ornate monstrosity (we do NOT live in a castle, honey!). So we are borrowing my parents' old table they no longer need. It's not bad. If I was willing to paint it and recolor the chair seats I would probably love it, but that project would be at least a year out with all the other ones I've got going.



My art room is up and running well! I have a great HUGE storage unit I got at the Youth Ranch (thrift store) months back for $40 that I need to paint and get in there. Until that happens I've got all sorts of furniture cast offs lining the walls and painted fun colors.

Organization: I've got a gold tray for my yarns, purple storage for embroidery thread, a yellow rack and a blue/gray shelf for paints, fabric paints, and paint pens. The white/blue plastic drawer holds felt. Frames, canvases, pads of paper, and things waiting to be hung are in three piles leaning on the walls. The yellow rolling cart (formerly the home of so much booze) is a good wrangler for my fabric bins. The woodgrain box holds clothes that need repaired.
Drawers in the desk hold cutting tool, taping & pasting tools, and other various sewing things. The rainbow drawers hold my drawing pencils & pens, prismacolor pencils, prismacolor markers, and various bits of sketches and random things. Books, scrapbooking supplies, and photos are held on the big black entertainment unit.



See?! So much random furniture. I'll have to keep the pink and silver shelf though. So sweet! I also need to make a few more pinatas to keep my tiny orange one company. It looks so lonely, and I have so much crepe paper left over from the wedding.



And I love my little window bench! I just have a blanket on it until I find time to make a cushion. But I do love that peach blanket. I got it at a yard sale for less than $5, and I always love a deal! And it matches my hair!



See ya next time!

Wedding Details - bouquet issues!

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I love flowers. I love the look, the feel, the scent, everything! I'm gushing, but I have always adored flowers. I even have a tattoo of one! The problem is... my sinuses do NOT agree with my brain. I'm allergic to most everything that I really like. I'm not a rose person, and behold - they don't make me sneeze or tear my eyes out!

As a chronic DIY-er, I kind of wish I could leave the floral part of my wedding up to a florist, have the bouquets be beautiful, and worry about other things. I have so many other things to worry about. But I don't want to spend the whole day sniffly because I just had to have the pretty bouquet.

Now, if I'm not gonna fork out a couple hundred dollars for freshies, what should I do? I could spend the same amount and get a premade brooch, felt, clay, paper, fabric, or really ANY KIND of bouquet.

(via)

I know I could make a great felt bouquet myself, I even started playing around with making felt succulents! It would have turned out better had I ordered some felt in the right green, rather than the generic colors at Hobby Lobby, but even so - I don't think a felt bouquet is for me.

I played with making crepe paper flowers (and I LOVE them), but I don't know if I want this look for my bouquet. They will definitely be all over the place, especially the huge ones (this yellow crepe paper peony is as big as my head!)

Since I've been thinking about this whole situation, I've decided that if I'm going to make my bouquet, I'm just gonna make one giant peony flower (glamelia). I could do this out of felt, fabric, paper, crepe paper, or clay... and my newest goal is clay! I was always good in my ceramics classes, so why not try some mold and dry Crayola clay and give it a whirl?

First reason: Crayola clay is NOTHING like clay. It feels... almost elastic. It doesn't stretch and mold the same way as I am used to. Quite different than what I expected. After about 20 minutes of playing around, I've gotten used to it and I think I can make something fun! I got white, yellow, orange, and red and I'm planning to try to get a fun ombre effect from a creamy white center to a reddish orange color on the outer petals.

Has anyone else tried this? I'll let you know how it goes!

DIY: Lace Embellished Hoodie

I've seen a few cute hoodies around this fall with lace and other interesting embellishments. I decided to take one of my old sweatshirts and add some fun details to it. In this project I just lined the pockets with lace. I'll probably add more to it later when I have some time, but here is what I've done so far:

 

Then all there is left to do is wear it!

I really like how it's turned out so far. I think I might line the bottom edge around the back. I don't want to do too much though, so I might keep it like this. What do you think? If anyone gets down and detaily on their sweaters/cardigans, please show me!

"Moving In" Mini Photo Book

 Cameron and I moved in together a few months ago, and I've been looking for ways to both document our first place and decorate it it with more personal touches.

A few months ago I came across this great Highlights Scrapbook DIY by Elsie at A Beautiful Mess, and I was super excited to give it a try for this occasion! I didn't follow the directions exactly, but I really like how it turned out.

Here's what I came up with:

I cut out the cardboard for a cover first. Then I cut a bunch of scrapbook paper and cardstock for the inner pages. I decorated them, adding photos, text, and embellishments. I wanted it to look like it was overflowing, so I didn't concern myself with 'staying within the lines' of the pages. Once I finished all of the pages I sewed it all together with embroidery thread. I sewed on a button and string for an enclosure and it was done!

I really love how it turned out and can't wait to create a whole stack of these for our life events :)

Herringbone & Chevron DIY Painting

This weekend I set out to create some BIG art pieces for my boring living room. Our couch is brown, loveseat is sage green, the rug is shades of brown and beige. Like I said, it's boring! I really wanted to bring in shades of yellow and orange to brighten it up.

I'll tell you a secret: I LOVE herringbone. It's the background for this blog, I'm making a herringbone wood backdrop for my wedding, and I have been designing a herringbone quilt I will hopefully start soon! Ever since I saw this digital art print from Nancy Ramirez, I've wanted, no... NEEDED one like it.

I picked up a couple of frames at Joann's for 60% off (!!!) and decided now was the time. I didn't want to just do the same old herringbone pattern, so I did switch it up by adding a chevron stripe in the middle and changing the size of the pattern. I like the interest it adds.

For the record, I used a variety of different paint brands, including Martha Stewart all-purpose and the cheap acrylic 69 cent brands like Americana. I couldn't find my nice painter's tape so I used drafting tape. I was also slightly afraid that the painter's tape might pull up some paint from the paper but the drafting tape isn't as sticky. I used Martha Stewart pouncer brushes and a Dutch Freeze from Dutch Brothers to keep myself hydrated. Yum!

 

Now I just need to decide on what to do with the matching frame!

Wedding Details: bridesmaid proposals

In the spirit of my MOH proposal, I made cards for my bridesmaids! I limited the size of the card to just a tri-fold rather than an accordion. I still put fun, ridiculous paper doll-type outfits on one side, but instead of scrapbooking pictures on the other I just wrote out the proposal. You'll remember that on the MOH proposal the actual 'proposal' part was on a separate printed card.

Construction was the same, simply attach the cardboard pieces together with paper on one side, and go crazy decorating. I also made a simple envelope for these cards. Here are some pictures of my sister's:

I'll add pictures of the other soon, but I forgot to take a picture of the front of the card! I'll have to ask Brittany to take one and send it to me.

Did anyone else do something special to ask their girls?

Wedding Details: will you be my...

Maid of Honor?

I knew I needed to ask Hailey to be my maid of honor in a special way... so I decided to make 'paper doll' clothes of some out-there dresses and accessories and put them on a card. On the other side, I scrapbooked pictures of us.

Here's the final package of everything:

The dresses were made using scrapbook paper, colored cardstock, felt (the supersparkly pink is felt, too), buttons, stickers, anything I could find. Sadly, the chrome tights didn't 'go' with any of these outfits, so it will be in one of the sequels: bridesmaid proposals.

The bits of thin cardboard are about 5.5" x 6" and are from various boxes of granola bars, kleenex, etc. I simply cut scrapbook paper in strips to the right height and glued the cardboard together to create an accordion card.

Here is a shot of all of the dress panels (including the 'Houndstooth Horror,' 'Chevron Shocker,' and 'Over-Frosted Blue Wedding Cake' dresses):

And here's a shot of the scrapbook side:

The blue card that actually pops the big question was made in Photoshop and printed on HP photo paper.
The other day while browsing the Offbeat Bride I came across this article about a cute bridesmaid contract. So I promptly copied this idea and made a cardstock contract for fun to include.

I tied the card up with the proposal inside and gave it to her before we went to Adult Night at the Discovery Center here in town. We hadn't officially announced our engagement (I told Cameron I had to tell Hailey before everyone found out), so it was actually a surprise!

I made the two for my bridesmaids later and they are a little different, so I'll show those soon!

Lace shorts DIY

I recently fell in love with a pair of Lacey denim cutoff shorts that Kelli Murray was wearing in this post over at A Beautiful Mess. Unfortunately, I very rarely like the way shorts fit me and I'm definitely not ready to drop 88 bucks on one little pair of shorts. Solution? Make some cutoffs from a pair of slightly-too-short (give me a break, I need a 36' inseam!) jeans and attach some sweet lace!

Materials: Jeans or shorts, lace ribbon (I got mine at Joann Fabric), thread, straight pins
Tools: Scissors, sewing machine

Cut your jeans to length (or start with shorts). I frayed mine just a little, assuming they'll fray a bit on their own each time they're washed.

Pin the lace around the bottom of the leg holes, on the inside of the denim. Leave a little slack in the lace the whole way around. As you sew, the denim will stretch a little.

Sew the lace into the shorts.
Love them!

Retirement Scrapbook

This last week a woman at my work retired. We had a whole day out to celebrate with her (took a limo all day, went to a girly frou-frou tea house, went go-carting and had lunch). She the first official employee in our North American branch, so it was pretty sad to see her retire.

As part of her retirement gift I made a nice thick scrapbook with pictures and notes from all of the employees. It was rushed so it doesn't look super amazing, but I got it done in time!

It's 8"x8", the cover is made of thin cardboard (from a fruit snack box). All the pages are scrapbook paper and cardstock, and the whole thing is bound by embroidery thread.

Here are a few pages from the book.

I think it turned out pretty good for the time I had!

Home is wherever I'm with you.

This weekend I decided to completely ignore my priority list of crafting activities and start a new project! I found an atlas at a yard sale for just 50 cents, so I had to make quick use of it.
Here's a preview:

Tutorial forthcoming once the project is finished.

So many projects, so little time!

Lately I've been working on so many projects in small increments. I really want to get some of these suckers finished!

1. I need to finish my bird cage clutch and get the tutorial up here. [partially visible below]

2. There are quite a few half-finished embroideries that I've had laying around for months as well.

3. I really need to finish up the apron I've been making for my friend Emilie. This one will probably only take about two hours at the most to finish... I just haven't found the motivation so it's been hanging in the closet.

4. I have this adorable dress I started making almost a year ago that I NEED to get done. Its all yellow and white pattern and lime green. It will [hopefully] have a button side enclosure.
Speaking of dresses, I need to finish the brown one I started even longer ago. I messed up with the zipper and haven't had the patients to figure out a fix.

5. I've also got this clock project here. I repainted the main piece, but need to get on to decorating the face. (and finding a missing part that must be in the garage).

6. Half-finished cameo painting below.

7. The gold metal tray visible under the above magazines is also a project. It will be great for hanging jewelry when I'm done!

8. I've spray painted this blue tray I thrifted, but it's just not done yet. I need to do something to add more interest to the bottom. I went wild with the spray paint, so I've also got a lamp and some random glassware that may be needing a bit of personality.

9. Which reminds me, I never finished painting my cute birdie lampshade.

10. I'm very nearly finished with a mini scrapbook I made of my recent move. Just need to print some pictures for the cover and last page! I can't wait to have a whole stack of these laying around the house.

11. Even my art desk is a project. I've sanded most of it down, but I need to decided how to paint the monstrosity.