Seamstress Quest

If you've been a follower of my blog for sometime, then you know about my quest to become a seamstress. Keep in mind, this quest is far from being over.  It's been roughly a year (yes, a year) since my sewing skills have been sharpened. In the past week, I've made two pillows for my living room. We're bursting with pillows over here and I LOVE it. 

Thankfully, there are very talented people on the internet who post wonderful directions for sewing. I've posted the links below. :)

To create an envelope pillow seen below (left) follow this tutorial here. 

Next, I created another envelope pillow but added a fun felt flower on the front. Thanks to V & Co. for posting a fun tutorial here. 

Today is my niece's first birthday! Tomorrow I will be posting pictures of the gift I spruced up for her. 

Happy Hump Day!

Pumpkin Mania!

At the expense of my laundry and the cleanliness of my house.. I'm blogging. I clearly have my priorites in perfect order. Now first, some exciting news!

Wahoo! Casey at Cardigans and Curriculum nominated me for the "I Heart Your Blog Award". Thanks Casey! I'll be nominating a few of my favorite  blogs, soon!

It gets even better! Barbara at The Corner on Character nominated me for TWO awards! This must be what Sally Field felt like when she accepted her Oscar.  They like me! They really like me!

I feel so honored! Thank you everyone for making me feel super special. :)

Guess what season is here? Oh yes, it's fall. The leaves are-a-changin' and it's time for me to whip up some fall crafts. I've been pinning tons of autumn crafts. I've found this little gem and decided to make my own!

Little Things Brings Smiles has an excellent post for creating your own felt fall wreath. I thought it would be fun to dabble in the natural wreath and felt flower craze. 

I bought a natural brown wreath at JoAnn's for $5.00 and my sister picked up some felt for me at Wal-Mart. Then, I had to figure out how to make flowers out of felt. Lucky for me the very same blog (Little Things Bring Smiles) posted a tutorial for flowers at  Felt Fun. Click here to read for yourself!

Felty and Fabulous

The wreath turned out to be a perfect gift for my Grandma. She loved it!

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

I wasn't done there! Thanks to Pinterest, I have easily 10 more crafts I neeeeeeeed to make before October 31. My MIZZOU wreath has been hanging on my classroom for awhile now and I'm needed a little Halloween spirit! Then, I found this...

Pretty Ditty made the cutest Halloween wreath and I knew I had to recreate. While watching Bridesmaids with my sister and brother-in-law...  I started wrapping the 'ol straw wreath with yarn!

I used the following supplies:
-1 straw wreath
-orange yarn
-black yarn
-glue gun
-cardstock

Click here to download her "BOO!" template. All you have to do is download the pattern and print! I had full intentions of printing my "BOO!" letters on a paper bag until I realized I didn't have any. I figured my McDonald's bag wouldn't have the same affect.. so I stuck with white cardstock.

Did I Scare Ya?

In other news....

There was a murder on my front porch. 

I came home from school this evening to find my poor pie pumpkin brutally murdered. Looks like a crime scene on my front porch.

I wish I was making this stuff up.

Crankin' Out Coasters

I have been searching for the perfect coasters to compliment my living room. I can never find any that I like.  Since I'm on this DIY kick nowadays, I suppose I'll make my own! 

Luckily, I found The Coaster Tutorial on The Cottage Home blog and fell in love. 

In order to start this craft, I needed tiles. This meant I had to take a trip to Home Depot. Me and a hardware store is like oil and water. Two things that really don't go together. Imagine a cat trying to swim in the ocean. The few times that I have been to them (alone) I usually wander around aimlessly and ask for help within 3 minutes. Today was no different. I made one lap around the store before I stopped and asked where the tiles were. This was my conversation with the Home Depot worker:

"Excuse me, where can I find tile?" 

"Are you tiling a kitchen?"

"Um.. not exactly..." (ashamed)

"What size do you need?"

I made some awkward movements with my hands and spit out, "small!"

"Take a left and you'll be in the flooring department."

I scurried off ashamed! 

Once I stumbled upon the small pieces of tile that I needed, I was SHOCKED by the price. I literally shouted, "WHOA." Hopefully no one heard me. Although, at this point it was no secret that I was a first timer. Anyway, I loaded up with cream tiles at 13 cents a piece and felt like a champion as I strutted to the check out. 

In order to complete this project, I also had to purchase Mod Podge. It's okay, you can laugh. I laughed at the name of the goo too. Whatever it is.. it's great! 

Once I was home with all my supplies and PODGE (hehe), I riffled through my scrapbook paper and got to work! I made 3 different sets of coasters. I wasn't lying when I said I was cranking out coasters. I made one set with flowers on them. Another set with bright colors and stripes. 

My last set was a special set to replace my poor Harrod's coasters that rest in peace. I purchased them in 2008, but they lived a hard life at the bungalaja (it's a real word, I promise) ... so they haven't really been living a good life. I guess it was either me or the coasters that would survive college. Good thing it was me!

Dry my little coasters... dry!

The set on the right are my special "travel" set! The first coaster is my favorite because of it's London theme. Sorry folks, you won't be receiving this set as a gift!

Ignore my finger. Oops! It's probably hard to do since I brought it up. 

Lastly, I made a special "teachery" (that's a word, too) one for my kitchen.  Cute, eh?

Well, that project was a hoot!

That's all folks!