My First Craft Project for the House

Ta-da! My first craft project for the new home. So easy one can barely call it a craft project. I combined this dry erase board idea from paper n stitch with this adorable menu printable via How About Orange. Now if only I could start using it regularly and sticking to it. ; )

Week in Review: 4/30

A DIY lamp via Mod Podge Rocks.

I can't wait to have a desk and office space again once we move. I might need to craft this mail sorter in celebration from My Sweet Savannah.

I just came home from Home Depot with 13 color swatch cards and the vaguest of ideas about what to do with them. I do see an affection for robins egg blue as seen on Apartment Therapy.

How to have a classy modern beehive from Jessica Schroeder at What I Wore.

Despite living in Louisville, my Derby plans involve Netflix and getting some projects wrapped up so I can focus on packing moving home decorating. Have wonderful weekends!

And if you're into nitty gritty house purchasing details: Inspection went well and we've reached an agreement with the home owners about the few things that need to be fixed. The only thing I think can go wrong at this point is the appraisal and that should happen in the next two weeks. I'm hoping we can close around the end of May.

Pretty Papers

Over the weekend I used some adorably patterns from lovelydesign to be easily crafty. Like play in Photoshop Elements, print, cut -- that easy-peasy. (Okay, anything with Photoshop isn't that easy but still.)

First, I made a little something for Lee for Valentine's Day. For V-day and anniversaries we tend to spend our money on the date and just exchange cards, but I wanted to get him a little something. I couldn't find any Valentine's Snickers, so I made Lee a Valentine-themed Snickers with lovelydesign's February pattern.


And I used her November pattern for a note card.

It Is Finished!

Remember back in October (October!) when I started knitting a baby blanket, similar to this lovely pattern?

Well in December right as I was about to be drowned in holiday crafting, I finished the square of the blanket, but it was a pretty wonky square.

I attempted to size it (by wetting it and ironing it into a square shape) which helped the situation some.

Once I recovered from holiday crafting in January, I began to add a border to the blanket.

Then, last Monday, I finished it!

The ends curl up a lot a bit, but it works and is generally recognizable as a blanket!

I declare it a success! Except I think I'm going to stick to scarves for awhile. :)

Week in Review: 1/8

I am not normally passionate about bacon, but I made some Fresh Market last night and it was crazy awesome.

In an update on my camera case situation, Jamie said exactly what I needed to hear ("The fitted is nice to throw in your handbag if you are just going out for the day and know you won't need another lens or cords.") and my fitted camera case should arrive in four days. Thank you to everyone else for your wonderful input! Maybe more and better pictures will come soon since Charles and I will be hitting the road together more often.

In reading Pride and Prejudice with the sister-in-law I find that I can't help buy giggle anytime Mr. Collins says anything. But anyways, lovelovelove these prints, found via AustenBlog.

The Top 100 Tutorials of 2009 will probably keep me busy for most of 2010. 

Lee's parents always get us these special gummy bears for Christmas (see picture below) and we finished them off yesterday (Except for the gummy bear family I'm having a photo shoot with. That's totally normal, right?) and I'm feeling their lost severely. Hope springs eternal that I'll start getting my butt up and doing the 30 Day Shred that we'll have more gummy bears soon since I've found a recipe to make my own gummy bears! (Or there's the ones at Walmart, but it's hard to go back to normal gummy bears after special ones. Of course who knows what homemade gummy bears taste like Walmart or special gummy bears.)


I'm adding this bookshelf to the list of things I definitely need for the house.

I will never have to wonder what to eat again! Thank you flow charts!

Back to "Normal"

Now that the holidays are over, I have no idea what to say here. For so long it was all holidays, and crafting, and holidays, now I can't remember what I wrote about before there were holidays, back when things were "normal".

There is food in the fridge again since we'll be in town all week. I have to actually work five whole days this week. We are starting the house hunt again tonight after a December hiatus. My TV shows have new episodes again. The tree is coming down tomorrow night.

Even though I have no Christmas gifts to make I still have more than enough to fill my waking hours: proofreading cousin's dissertation, returning to the baby blanket project, volunteer writing for a local non-profit, crazy attempt to finish The Two Towers by the end of the week (only 237 pages to go!).

I was a little crafty this weekend. Instead of stamping I took the tech route and designed a birthday card in Photoshop Elements. One of my favorite bloggers does this and it turns out better than my stamping and is less time consuming and less messy. I might have to do this more often.

I'm pretty proud of how the whole gift presentation turned out.

There are cute Etsy hair goodies (this in brown and fuschia and this) inside.

A Crafty Christmas in Review

Christmas was wonderful! But I'm so glad that I have no plans with friends or family tonight. Not that I haven't enjoyed my time with them very much, but I have some catch-up to do, like telling you how I feel about my partially handmade Christmas now that it's over (finally).

The handmade Christmas started because I was learning how to sew, I didn't suck at it too much, it would be tons of fun, and a great way to save money on holiday gifts. My budget numbers aren't super accurate because this year I would occasionally buy craft supplies for non-holiday projects with holiday money (oops ;) ) and I can only find last year's planned budget, not what I actually spent. So I think I saved....

drum roll, please...

$60

Which is six months of Netflix. Three rounds of Applebee's 2 for $20. Twelve tickets to $5 Tuesday at the movie theatre. Not a terribly exciting amount, but better than nothing.

Oh, I forgot that I a couple less gifts this year in general, but let's still live with the assumption that I saved $60. Go me!

Making Lee a UofL snuggie (super easy pattern here) makes up for years of UofL smack talk, right? Both in the past and the future. As I was telling some friends this morning, with everything that's gone on with their basketball program in the past eight months THE JOKES WRITE THEMSELVES!

Were the stress and long nights worth the savings? Yes and no. If I can start early again next year, I think I'll do it again. If I procrastinate and realize that it's December 10 and I two purses, one snuggie, four notecards, and a year of happy to finish, then I'm just going to Etsy. (Should I remind everyone that I started planning my homemade holiday on September 3?! What went wrong?!) I would rather spend the holidays baking and watching Christmas episodes of Friends than cussing at Laura the sewing machine, swearing every ten minutes that if I ever get a machine with a serger stitch I will never iron open another seam again, and pouting about being the one-woman holiday sweatshop. (This is not meant to diminish the joy or heartfelt-ness of the handmade gifts I gave to my friends and family, because you are wonderful and totally worth it, but maybe next year, I won't procrastinate and you'll also get Christmas cards, cookies and a saner wife/daughter/sister/friend.)

I already have some ideas for next year, which I plan to start on in July at the latest. I promise.
magnetic calendar
argyle ornaments
typographic coasters

Note Cards for Everyone!

A lot of this gifts I made this Christmas were note card sets.

These went with the gifts I mailed.


Perhaps this will encourage my friends to write me real letters? I do love real letters. I should send more myself.

The cards were a nice break from sewing. You'll have to wait until next week to see how the totes turned out.

I made my sister some with Texts from Last Night on them. We love that site!

I tend to keep them pretty simple.

Not only is it easier, but I tend to have a clean, simple aesthetic.

I also stamped some simple gift tags and sewed some bags to wrap the cards in.

A Year of Happy

Perhaps the Christmas project I'm most proud of is the one that was the easiest (sort of). For Caitlin, I made A Year of Happy: a jar filled with 365 hand-written quotes (or it will be when I mail her the rest). The quotes are mostly from Caitlin's favorite movies, TV shoes, books and people, along with some happy memories. (Although I might have included a happy memory that was with someone else. Oops!)



Despite the simplicity of writing things on coordinated paper and cutting them out, it took a very long time! I only sent Caitlin the first 195 and hopefully in January (February, March...) I can get the rest done. Surprisingly though, I haven't run out of quote inspirations yet. We'll see how I'm doing once I get to 320.





Mod Podge, more paper and stamps helped to decorate the top of the jar.

Week in Review: 12/18

I discovered Wordle via Ha ha. Wait. What? and it's a pretty fun way to pass five minutes. My wordle is above.

Despite the lack of babies in the immediate future, that doesn't keep me from planning nurseries! (Is this wrong? Creepy? Weird? It's not that I purposely seek out ideas, but if I see one I bookmark it.) Awhile ago I found the perfect piece of art for a boy's room, and yesterday I found the perfect piece for Elizabeth's room at Red Velvet Art! (Yes, I've had my daughter named since I first read Pride and Prejudice eleven years ago.)

Excellent and easy-peezy craft idea from Clever Nesting. Mildly concerned I'll burn my house down in the process, but I'll keep you posted!

My real-life friend Jenn was so intrigued by my brief mention of Krampus this week that she sought out other lesser-known Santa Claus sidekicks and shared her newly acquired knowledge.

Warm winter hats mess up my hair and Sew to Speak has the perfect solution.

Finished

I think I'm finished. I'm sure something little will come up, but I think I'm done.

The presents are all made and I can see my dining room table again.



The gifts are under the tree.



And in about seven hours I will be home-home, snuggled on the couch with some of mom's pot roast (my favorite) and a bourbon slush (another favorite).

Ever since I buckled down into holiday craft mode about ten days ago, I've been going non-stop, staying up at least an hour later than normal. I'm exhausted, but happy. Next week we'll start seeing some of the goodies I made, but first, a nap.

Week in Review: 12/11

Christmas lights + reading = How I would love to spend every day

Lots of craftiness this week. Both in how I've spent my evenings and my favorite links of the week.

I love Colin Firth. A lot. And English Muse got to interview him. I'm just a little jealous. ;) (Actually there would be no sense in my interviewing him. I would only bumble away idiotic mutterings regarding Mr. Darcy and Mark Darcy and those leather pants in What a Girl Wants.)

Such an adorable and simple necklace to make.

Brilliant shirt upgrade.

Love the crochet garland.

In other important news, last night I decided that my love for my camera and my sewing machine is too strong for them to continue unnamed a moment longer and a decision must be made. So my camera is now Charles and my sewing machine is Laura. I know, won't that be confusing, a sister and a sewing machine with the same name?! But I'm not usually talking to my sister and sewing machine at the same time. Or ever. And I was trying to think which Project Runway contestant was most like my sewing machine and I selected Laura Bennett, because they're both older, talented, grumpy at times, and I would wear the things they make.

Super Crafty Weekend!

It feels like super crafty weekend but then I didn't get nearly as much done as I had hoped. I also suspect that those hopes were unrealistic. Anyways...

I finished the square of the baby blanket I was working on, and counseled with Aunt Billie on how to do the border. She's modified it some which will make it easier, but it still seems kinda daunting so I'm procrastinating on it now. Oops.

I used this tutorial to make a check book cover. Although a little tight, it works and I'm super excited since my old checkbook cover was ruined in the great cat-pee-tastrophe of 2009.




And I completed one of the purses that I had planned on making for several people's Christmas gift.

It turned out a little smaller than I thought, and I had toyed with switching to fabric cubes with fun things in them instead, but everyone needs a small purse for some occasions so I'll be churning out more of these very soon!

Thanksgiving is this week which means my free time is now totally devoted to gift making. *sigh* If I had only started sooner...

UPDATED: Oops! Totally forgot to link to the purse pattern which is here. And all the lovely fabric is from Joann!

11/13: Week in Review

 I subscribe to 212 blogs/news sources/miscellany in my Google Reader. Two hundred twelve. I feel like that's a lot. I don't what to compare it to. How many do you subscribe to? Is 212 normal? It's still a lot. So I've decided that Fridays should be "Week in Review" days where I share some blog, Twitter, YouTube goodness from the ridiculous amount of blog reading I do. And maybe some photos.


I got a new Twitter background at ava7 patterns and it is awesome.

Handmade holiday gifts don't get much easier than the hot drink mix.


A much-needed tutorial on bows from Elise Blaha.

I love What I Wore and am so excited that Jessica got engaged and is starting a wedding blog.

I love me some fake Jane Austen news!

These are some keyword search results for this blog. I'm glad I could be helpful with food expiration issues.
 


If you are a twenty-something blogger and like to do good things, you might like this.



I am a huge fan of Kentucky Sports Radio and I am so happy that they now have a lady blogger and she seems to think along the same lines as I do.

Tour Etsy headquarters. Because you didn't want to work there enough already.

I was thinking about trying to wing a journal/planner cover a couple months ago, but a tutorial is much nicer.

I also have a bit of an announcement. I have been a slightly closeted Taylor Swift fan for some time now. Lately, like I since I borrowed a couple CDs from my sister and saw her rock out the SNL, I can't keep it inside any longer. I really love me some Taylor Swift.

Just a Little Crafty

I went to one of my good friend's baby shower last weekend and made her a card (containing pictures of the still in progress baby blanket!).


I think it turned out a little ghetto but mom assured me that it was adorable. And that she knew right away that it was a banner.

Thanks mom! :)

Crafty Progress

The knitting is starting to come together I think! The baby blanket is starting to look more like a blanket than scarf...maybe?


I also made some more progress on another secret project. I think it's a secret. I can't remember what I've said about it before. Hmm...I should finish it this week and it will cease being a secret soon.



My goal is that if I work really hard and finish secret project and make lots of progress on the baby blanket this week, then I should have tons of time in November for Christmas gift making. The hopefully-not-too-lofty goal is to finish gift crafting in November and dedicate December to holiday baking and other general merry-making.

(Caitlin, no this secret thing is not your mysterious birthday present, which I hope to finish in early November.)

Katie Learns to Knit

Now that I've conquered the worlds of sewing and cooking (sort of), it's time for knitting. One more year (or ten) and I'll totally be able to take Martha Stewart in some sort of domestic duel.

After knitting and purling for a couple hours with Aunt Billie last week, it is now my job to take her awesome vintage knitting guide and make a scarf. So far all I have to show for my efforts are the knitting guide, but I'm surely going to have that scarf (mostly) done by 7 p.m. on Wednesday.



I have already ambitious knitting goals, of course. Can I make this baby blanket in time for a November baby shower? If not, I already have a back-up, easier (I think.) plan: baby cocoon.

UPDATE I tried to knit on lunch today at work and the book was of no help. I've had to turn to YouTube and I think I might have figured it out. I have 36 decent-looking stitches cast so now I'm ready to knit-purl-knit-purl-knit-purl-knit-purl-knit-purl-knit-purl...

Things I've Made Lately

I baked a yummy apple pie. (Yes, that is caramel drizzled on top.)



The apple slicing did not take as long as I thought.



I finished my pj pants. Now Lee and I have a matching set!

Although mine have fancy seams and were not bled on. Yay for improvement! This week I start learning to knit.



A pillow for my chair at work.

Excessively Ambitious Weekend Plans

This is just an awesome picture I took at the zoo. It has nothing to do with what is about to follow. 

I've filled this weekend with more goals than is probably humanly possible, because I'm good at that and have a bunch of stuff to do. Perhaps I am most likely to be successful if I break it down into timed segments.

Friday
6 pm   Eat dinner with family
9 pm   Watch my Netflix movie (Crash) because I have been a ridiculous Netflix loser this month and watched nothing and I try to watch at least 4-6 because I'm all about calculating my price per film.
11 pm    Catch up on as many DVRed TV shows as possible: Glee, The Office, Project Runway, Models of the Runway (although I'm thinking that last one is kind of lame).

Saturday 
11 pm   Up and running. Not metaphorically, actually on the street running, during which time I will calculate a plan to start working out more regularly because I haven't been working out much at all lately.
noon   Hopefully it will be a long run, and now I shall do crunches. Then shower and look cute.
1 pm   Lunch
1:30 pm   Drive around town trying to find OPI's Moon over Mumbai. (Long story. For next week perhaps.)
3 pm   Return home successful and paint my nails. Perhaps finish catching up on TV.
3:30 pm   Finish writing My First Pride and Prejudice. Yes, I am turning Pride and Prejudice into a children's novel book/craft project for the cutest toddler in America. Of course, I've also thought about avoiding the whole mess and just buying her the comic book to get her started.
5 pm   Megan and Richie are coming over to visit and watch the UK game! I'm going to have UK fans to watch a UK game with! I'm so happy I could cry! To order pizza or cook? That is the question.
6 pm   Go Cats!

Sunday
9 am   Mass
10 pm   Coffee and donuts
11 pm   Church Round 2 with Lee's family
noon   Lunch
1 pm   Upload pics from Cedar Point. Write some blog posts for upcoming week.
2 pm   Work on children's novel book.
3:30 pm   Work on some craftiness surrounding someone's birthday present.
4:30 pm   Read some Lord of the Rings because I would like to finish it sooner than later so I can officially declare Harry Potter the winner.
6 pm   Dinner
Maybe this exercise wasn't necessary. Maybe I can get everything done this weekend. I probably should go to the grocery at some point...I should have put that in earlier...we'll allow this gap in the schedule because I'll be lucky if I stick to this through Friday evening. 
9 pm   Desperate Housewives premiere! Will Mike marry Susan or Katherine?! I DON'T KNOW!
10 pm   Get ready for bed and snuggle up with some Frodo until I fall asleep.

This seems to be totally achievable! Not nearly as bad as I originally thought. Perhaps I should always specify my schedule like this. We'll see how things are on Sunday night. *fingers crossed!*

Please Come to America!!

Dear Fabric Market,

The fabulous Holly at decor8 brought you to my attention recently. However, you seem to be located in Germany, which is a bit of a trip for me. Please call if you're in the Louisville area, because when I first saw you...my heart skipped a beat.

Thanks in advance.

All my love,
Katie

images: Holly Becker for decor8