craftiness

I sewed 24 little felt hearts on Sunday. An arbitrary number I just chose simply by how many I hearts I cut out. I stuffed them with cotton and filled each with love. I made them so I could tuck them in places that Josh and Jasper would find. Little love reminders… If you ask Jasper what’s inside each, he whispers “love”.

I randomly decided to make a little coffee cup cozy while I had all of my felt out. It was so much fun I’m going to make a few more. Felt is probably one of my favorite materials to work with. It’s cheap, forgiving of mistakes, colorful, easy to work with… I go in spurts of felt crafts. I once made a felt mitten which turned into 15. Don’t be surprised to see a few more cozies pop up in my Flickr stream.

Shortly after taking down my Christmas decorations I put up my Valentine’s Day decor. The house just looked so bare. And even though my mom thought I was “jumping the gun” a little, I couldn’t help it.

The mantel isn’t too much different than last year. I added the red fabric garland and the wrapped letter K (just baker’s twine wrapped around a cardboard letter). I put out my little mini X and O painted canvases that I made. I also put up the bead sprigs that I spray painted white.

I love my little pom pom garland. I used yarn scraps to make pom poms and then thread them through a string of yarn. The little ornaments are just paper hearts I cut out to hang on the metal tree Josh made.

I made some crayon hearts for our window. Just sharpen crayons on wax paper and then iron to melt. (via Martha Stewart)

These adorable little owls were a gift from a sweet blog reader. I got it at Christmas so I hung it on my tree. After Christmas I figured I would just keep them up somewhere. The little heart makes it Valentine’s Day related. After that holiday I’ll just have to find a special place to keep them out.

I decided to be completely unoriginal and make one of the yarn wreaths all over Pinterest. I bought insulation tubing from Menard’s for a couple bucks which is a lot cheaper than the styrofoam wreaths. It seriously took me like two hours to wrap the tube because I’m such a perfectionist. (Note to self: Use thicker yarn next time which will be more forgiving and take less time.) Then I followed this tutorial for the flowers. The flowers were fun to make. I could have kept going with those. Maybe I’ll make a spring wreath like that for after Valentine’s Day.

I sat down at the computer on Tuesday night after putting Jasper to bed. The house quiet, my work all caught up, the kitchen relatively clean, husband at work… I seriously just sat for a few minutes not knowing what to do. Finally I got inspired. I did a little crafting for our Elf on the Shelf and then decided to keep going.

The Christmas season is such a time for happiness and joy in my house. This year has been even more so. Jasper is so darn excited for Santa to come. I cut out the letters for JOY using a cereal box in my recycle bin. I coated them with Mod Podge and then covered that with glitter. I usually shy away from glitter because it goes everywhere but this just seemed perfect.

Sparkly JOY is now hanging in my kitchen and it makes me smile. Joy, I’ve got it. No matter what crappy thing my family is dealing with, we come back together and are happy. Wishing you all sparkly joy this Christmas season.

Josh decided to get in on the Halloween action this year. He dressed as Doc Brown and Jasper as Marty McFly. Jasper thought it was pretty cool that Josh dressed up with him. We went to a few houses this year and Jasper was totally into it. He definitely understood the trick or treating thing. Josh and I had fun taking him around and getting him to say Back to the Future quotes all night. The only bad part was that I bought two bags of suckers thinking we’d be home for a bit but weren’t at all. So now we have 150 suckers that Jasper thinks are all his!

I think it’s fun to come up with costume ideas that are at least a little bit original. I already have an idea for next year but we’ll see what happens. Here was last year and the year before.

After seeing this post about painting pumpkins, I decided to do some myself. Jasper and Josh each painted one too. I was going to do some glitter pumpkins after seeing the pin on Pinterest a thousand times. The problem with glitter is that it just goes everywhere so I decided to skip that one. I’ve been painting a lot in the evenings anyway as it’s a good stress reliever. These were fun little things to paint.

I came downstairs to see Bebo asleep on his back, using a pillow, next to two Buzz Lightyears. That dog is something else…

And no Tuesday is complete without standing at the window to see the garbage pick-up. Jasper always waves and says thank you to the guys that pick up our garbage. A couple weeks ago out of habit he blew them a kiss. Ha. Thankfully I don’t think they saw that.

I’ve always had this problem that I’ll see an idea/recipe/craft/etc in a magazine but never quite get to trying it. I guess the visualization of Pinterest really works because I am actually trying things. Here are a few of the ones I’ve tried recently and how it actually worked out.

Lovely Salted Caramel Sauce – Fail. Twice. First time I don’t think I cooked it long enough. The second time turned out slightly better but definitely not sauce. It was more like a jar of solid caramel. I scraped it with a spoon and put it in a coffee a few times but overall it was a failure. I’m sure it was my fault not the recipe though!

Chai Snickerdoodles – Delicious though I think next time I will do a bit more spices.

Toffee Apple Dip – Oh.my.goodness. Go make this right now. No seriously, right now. Pretty sure it negates the nutritional value of the apple but it’s totally worth it.

Chill Out Jar – The first time I tried this with water, glitter glue and glitter. The glitter sunk to the bottom almost instantly so it wasn’t mesmerizing at all. I read over the original post I found and saw this person used fine glitter. There was my problem. The second time I used three cups of water, a small bottle of Alene’s Clear Tacky Glue and fine glitter. So far Josh and I are way more into it than Jasper.

Here’s how mine turned out:

Glitter Nails – I’m not sure what came over me Saturday night but I suddenly had to try this. I had the glitter from the Chill Out Jar so I thought why not. My nails were already painted with Essie’s Chinchilly so I just used a clear polish on the tips and sprinkled them with bronze glitter. It turned out quite cute though the glitter spread out a little more than I would have liked. I think I didn’t let it dry long enough before I put on the top coat. I think I can do better next time.

Here’s how mine turned out:

And some upcoming projects that I’m already planning:
Bird cage with candles
Sucker pumpkin for Halloween

Dude, I love Pinterest.

I was always frustrated getting Jasper to wash his hands. It’s not that he wouldn’t do it, it’s just hard when you have to try and hold a toddler up to the sink. Yesterday I did a little MacGyvering and crafted this to extend the bathroom faucet. Now when he stands on his step stool his little arms get to the water. Makes it easier for him and me. Not bad for a take-home cup from Olive Garden. I just cut the bottom out, punched two holes on the side and used rubber-bands around the faucet. Maybe I’ll paint it…you know, class it up a bit.

I’ve been feeling pretty low the past week and a half. Between the new night shift job for Josh, worrying about money, and sickness, we’ve had a lot on our plate. It doesn’t help that this time last year is when we found out we were pregnant with Grace. I decided to hurry Spring along and put a wreath on my front door. I got the wreath for half off at Hobby Lobby and added the green berry looking sprigs.

A month ago I found this etsy shop and fell in love with this wreath. I totally overestimated my crafty ability because I instantly thought “I could make that”. As I stood in the floral section at Hobby Lobby I realized I was in way over my head. I had absolutely no idea where to start and I definitely couldn’t make something that gorgeous. So I picked up a premade wreath that I liked and added a little bit to it.

I wasn’t really thinking about the fact that my door is still white even though I’ve wanted to paint it for months. So I’m thinking this weekend I’m going to scrounge up some cash and paint my door. I mean, I can’t very well have a white wreath on a white door for the entire season. Right?

I love having different flavors of coffee on hand. We usually have some Folgers but also one or two specialty coffees. A few months ago I had the idea to get a couple glass canisters and use chalkboard paint to create a label. I finally got that accomplished over the weekend. Now as the flavors change (which they regularly do), I can just write the new kind in chalk on the canister. (For the label I taped off a rectangle with painter’s tape and used the chalkboard paint in a spray can.)

I’ve been trying to keep busy while we sit around the house waiting. I started crocheting again at the end of last week. Last night I finished my fourth scarf. I also did some crafting for my niece’s birthday. I don’t think they are as appreciative of homemade gifts as I am but I think my niece might have fun with this. I made her a baker’s dozen of felt cookies, some with sprinkles and some without. (She’s getting a baker’s dozen because I miscounted when cutting out circles and cut an extra.) I got the basket and a little pink apron at Hobby Lobby. I thought they were pretty darn cute. I might have to make some for Jasper since he was pretty interested in the cookies. Hopefully my niece likes them too!