Gift Ideas

I know that it is still early in the season, but the Holidays are getting closer and closer.  Its time to start thinking about gifts for friends and family.  If you are thinking about making a gift for someone, I have put together a list of all my tutorials as a place for you to get started.

Stormy T-shirt Make or buy a simple t-shirt and spruce it up with this applique and embroidery

Paper Flower Mobile Craft this simple flower mobile for some beautiful home decor or to be used as a wand for an imaginative little girl…experiment with different colors of paper and sizes

Magnolia Shirt Detail Make this neckline detail for an otherwise boring store-bought tank

Grill Tool Carrier Summer may seem far away, but it will be back before you know it!

Reversible Water Bottle Holder Put together this handy water bottle holder for fitness and outdoor gurus

Gardening Apron By Christmas time, spring will be just around the corner…Make a cute apron for a gardener you know.  This apron could also be used as a traditional kitchen apron.

Flower Headband This headband is super quick and easy, and is so cute!

Chunky Necklace This necklace is very inexpensive and simple to put together, but it looks like a million bucks!

Lei Neckline Dress up a simple top by adding this feminine neckline

Bread Linen/Cloth Napkins Monogram some beautiful linen to wrap around fresh-baked bread for the home baker, or use these as napkins for your eco-conscious friend

Corsage Neckline Add detail to a store-bought top

Scrap Tote Sew this simple tote to be used at the market

Emboridered Bookmark A bookmark is the perfect gift for a book addict

Baby Blanket If you have extra time, try your hand at printing on fabric and sew up this beautiful blanket for a baby or expectant parents

Eyeglass Holder Upcycle some old sweaters and make this eyeglass holder, very easy on the pocket-book

Binding Tape Make some patchy binding tape for a sewer, and pair it with some other sewing goodies, like buttons, ribbons, and other trims

Messenger Bag Make this messenger bag for anyone who needs to tote around a lot of stuff…this project is fairly time-intensive, but the results are worth it

Hair Pins This is a quick project that any girl will love

Yo-yo Table Runner This project will take care of all those little fabric scraps you have hanging around.  Make one in Christmas colors, or to match the recipients home decor

Knit Cuff If you don’t have much experience knitting, this is a great project for you…it takes very little time, and very little yarn

Simple Jersey Dress This is a great dress to make because it takes very little time, and it will fit almost any woman, add to that the elegant silhouette and you’ve got yourself a perfect gift

Wrapped Gift Cards If you don’t have time to make anything and find yourself last-minute scrambling to find a gift, get a couple giftcards and wrap them in this unique way to make the gift more special

I hope this list inspires you!

Finished Upholstered Chair

I used the rest of this week to finish up that upholstered chair I was working on over the weekend, and it looks amazing!  I love the fabric, and it goes so much better in the room!  The living room now has the grey loveseat that I recovered a while back, and three yellow chairs.  I feel like I am getting closer and closer to having this place just right.

Next on my list is to make pillow cases to cover some bright red pillows I currently have on the loveseat.  Now that I have recovered this red chair in yellow, I don’t think the pillows go with the room anymore.

When I think back on the two upholstering projects I have worked on, I realize that maybe I should have started with this one instead of the loveseat.  This project went so smoothly, as the upholstery is very simple and basically a “slipcover” to begin with, so there was no stapling, hammering, or changing padding involved.  If you ever consider re-upholstering any of your furniture, I recommend starting with something small and basic, it will help boost your confidence for your bigger projects!

Have you ever done any re-upholstering?  What was your experience like?  Did you start by dipping your pinky toe in the water, or did you dive in head first?

More Upholstery

After feeling sick this week, I decided to take it a bit easy on the weekend. I did get some stuff done, though! I was able to work on reupholstering a chair that I have had for a long time, that needed a little face lift. I am still in the process of decorating our new place, and the colors in this fabric go much better with the other furniture in the room (the chair used to be red). This project is going much more smoothly than the sofa I recovered this summer…it is much smaller and much less complicated! As you can see, I have yet to sew all the pieces together, but my guess is that it will take very little time to finish this up.

What did you do this weekend…did you enjoy any Halloween festivities? Are you happy to be done with October and on to November?

Back Soon!

Hi all, I have been feeling under the weather this week, so sorry for the lack of creative posting as of late!  I will be back on monday, but in the meantime, enjoy these photos Mike took yesterday.  We got a huge snow storm this week!!

Carving Pumpkins

These are all photos from this weekend.  Mike and I had a bunch of friends over to carve pumpkins for Halloween.  For some reason, I always have a really hard time coming up with a design for my carving each year.  This time was no exception…I finally chose to to an owl, which came out fairly well.  You will notice that a bunch of us decided to carve animals this year…we have a spider, a cat, an owl, and a snake.  Another friend carved the words from the One Ring (Lord of the Rings), and it looked really awesome. 

Do you have any Halloween traditions?

Apple Butter

This weekend I was able to get in what was probably the last bit of canning for the season.  I kinda missed out on a few of the things that I wanted to can when I was gone for my sister’s wedding, but thats ok…there’s always next year.  One thing I have really enjoyed is canning with other people.  It is so much fun to do canning with friends, and the tedious parts (like stirring apple butter for and hour and a half) seem to go by quickly.  I have also noticed that it is easier to mass produce jars with more people, which makes canning much more worth while.

Like the rest of the produce I have canned, I got these apples from the farmer’s market.  The farmer recommended using a combination of apple, which ended up being perfect!  There was a great combination of flavors and textures in the resulting apple butter.  An added bonus of the red-skinned apples was a beautiful pink color that turned into a rich redish brown as the apple butter cooked.  Here is the recipe I used for the Apple Butter.  If you have not come across Simply Recipes before, take a bit of time to look through it…Elise has tons of simple recipes, and even has a category for budget friendly recipes, which I have referred to often.

If you are looking for a recipe to use apple butter in, besides the basic toast, try Apple Butter Hand Pies.  I have made these quite a few times in the last couple years, and they are a real hit!  The crust is almost like a cookie, and the sweet and tart apple butter on the inside is a perfect contrast to it.

Bird Carving

The other night Mike had to stay out late to do some mass grading, so I thought I would spend a little time at the thrift store exploring.  I really love taking my time there because there are so many little treasures that could be missed if I am not looking carefully.  I go through each of the aisles looking and touching items until I find something perfect.

One of my favorite finds from that night was this little painted wood carving.  I am a huge fan of natural wood, as well as a huge fan of birds, and this piece combines them both.  There isn’t a hole or hanger in the back of the carving, so I am thinking about putting one on so that I can hang it up on the wall instead of propping it up.  I think that it would look great in a montage of little art pieces and display fabrics.

I hope you all enjoy your weekend…enjoy this last little bit of Autumn before it disappears into Winter!

Working on the Little Things

As you might know, it is sometimes really hard for me to work on the little sewing and crafting tasks that come up.  This is Mike’s favorite sweater, and last year, he wore a little hole in the elbow.  Now, a year later, I finally sat down and patched it up.  By this time, the hole had grown a bit, so I decided to embrace it by making the patch cover the whole elbow, sort of like those men’s jackets with the heavy duty elbows on them.

Mike chose the fabric, a heavy-weight wool houndstooth, and I think the result is very nice.  I am thinking of sewing a patch on the other elbow, though.  It is getting a little worn as well, and that way they would both match.  I’m dreading it a little bit, though, because the patch was really a pain to sew on to the sleeve.  Have you ever tried to sew something on a sleeve that has already been finished?  Not fun.  It is a really hard spot to get to, and I had to rip it off a couple of times because I had managed to fold the sweater on itself and sew.  Luckily my machine has a little storage piece that comes off, so it makes the area much narrower and much easier to slide a sleeve on.  Maybe I should let my frustration die down a little before I attempt the other arm…Now on to the other 20 little projects I have to finish up!

Do you have trouble with the little projects?  Do you let them pile up, or do you tackle them as they come your way?

Pumpkin Pies

This weekend I found myself wondering where fall went, and how I had suddenly stepped right into winter.  We had our first snow, which came a bit early this year, and nothing seemed more fitting than staying home and eating pumpkin pie.

I got the recipe for the pie at Martha Stewart, and made it into a bunch of tiny pies instead.  One recipe of her Pate Brisee made 24 mini pies, and there was plenty of filling left over at the end, which I froze so that we could have pumpkin pie again in a few weeks.  I basically followed the recipe, except for cooking time.  I cooked the pies at 450 degrees F for 5 minutes instead of 10.  Then I switched the oven to 350 degrees F and cooked them for about 15 minutes more.  I kept a careful eye on them, though because they cooked much faster than their full-sized counterpart.  If you don’t have a mini tart/pie pan, you could use a muffin tin instead.

For the whipped cream on top, I made up a recipe as I went along, and it turned out absolutely delicious.  It is so incredibly quick and easy, and the difference in taste between this and the store bought whipped cream is huge.

Maple Whipped Cream

• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Pour heavy cream into a clean glass bowl.  Whip on high until it holds shape.  Slowly drizzle in the maple syrup and vanilla with the mixer on low.  Mix until fully incorporated.

Fluorescent Light Shade

The apartment that Mike and I moved into has nothing but fluorescent lights throughout all the rooms.  I have never been a big fan of these lights, they are just to harsh.  My idea was to hide the ugly lights, and to soften their glow.  The project was somewhat successful.  These shades do help to filter the harsh light, and make the rooms much more pleasant to be in.  However, I am not sure the shade helps with the ugliness problem, as the shades are not much to look at.  It is really difficult to eliminate all the folds and wrinkles in the fabric.  I am actually thinking I might try some heavy duty fabric starch to help it hold its shape better.  Does anyone have any suggestions? 

To make the shade, I used wire hangers, cream  colored fabric, and hot glue.  I cut the hangers to fit around the light, and bended them into a square shape with two little hooks at the top that can hook over the light and hold the shade in place.  I then cut the fabric to the length of the light, and the width of the three sides of the hangers.  I used hot glue to attach the fabric to the hangers.

It’s not too bad for a first try, but I think it does need some tweaking.  Oh, and before I forget, thank-you everyone for the great home-decor resources you gave me.  Already, they have been a lot of help!  I am finding lots of inspiration for my home, and I think it is already starting to look better.  Now, to pick a paint color…