Craft Night AKA Night of Awesome

I love crafts. Particularly in the past year I have become quite fond. Through a period of unemployment, I learned the tricks of the trade...and am still learning. There is SO much in the crafty world to learn.

So when pinterest came out, and I started my wedding board -- I knew I was in for trouble.

At the time I didn't "know"...but now, oh boy.

The DIY bride always takes too much on. Always. I'm convinced. Early on I just decided that I could do all of this expensive stuff myself. Well, let me tell you, its expensive for a reason. 

Wedding decorations are HARD. Wedding invitations are HARD. Everything else wedding related...probably hard. 

Our wedding will probably be a real live pinterest board. I kind of wish I was kidding at this point! 

The funny part is, I instantly shied away from people wanting to help me. Because my sin-laden self wanted to do everything on my own.

For months I have gone back and forth on having people help me with stuff. I just wanted to everything to be just how I wanted. But...God changed my mind and my plans, and pretty much every thing else during the past 6 months. 

I compromised with myself and my sin and had a craft night. A gloriously amazing craft night in which my truly creative friends got to prove to me that they are worth helping out with all of these crazy DIY projects I decided to do.  It didn't take long to prove anything, their creativity BLEW me away. Like blew me to the other room, I instantly felt like a small fish in an ocean of big fish crafters. 

Ok, I'll stop talking and just share with you their pretty faces, willing hearts, and sore thumbs from cutting so many programs.

I'm still surprised Seth even showed up! He was ready and willing to cut programs all evening...and then take breaks to play with Autumn of course!

Em and Cindy: Master Program Cutters and Croppers

Ang continues to be awesome and cut programs while she watches the Olympics!

Ellen and I: Sangria buddies

Hannah: Master heart stamper and master of cuteness

You guys were amazing..and so much work got done. 

This is just a small selection of the beautifully creative jars!

If you come back I'll provide more treats, and Sangria of course. 

And there might be more work to do. Anyone up for a last minute craft night?!

I pay in hugs and  pretty jars :)

xo

Embroidery Hoop Obsession

I have a confession to make.

I've been cheating on my button collection with embroidery hoops. Lots of embroidery hoops.

Lord knows why I hopped on this adorable train so late in my crafting career, but I've surely fallen head over heels. 

It started with this pin:

Swoon.

And then ALL of this adorable madness made me go head over heels:

One afternoon while I was browsing the shelves at Michaels, I looked down and saw that the price for  every size hoop was $1.50.


It was like I had won the lottery and gone to heaven all in the same day!


$1.50?!?!


Welp. You can guess what happened next. I grabbed six hoops in all different sizes and rushed home to see what fabric I could scrape up.

Turns out there were a lot of options at home. But I ended up going to Joannes to get some fabrics that coordinated so I would't be hanging a totally haphazard collection on my wall.

My favorite part about embroidery hoop crafts is that they are so easy. Like, 1 minute easy.  Lay out fabric, place the hoop where you want it, tighten the screw thingy and voila!

After you trim the edges, I glued down the fabric so it didn't hang loose.

Embroidery you ask? I taught myself in the midst of my new obsession I was dying to see how I could make these even cuter. I think I succeeded. 

And this little beauty was a contiuation from something I made as a kid. My dear Grandparents bought my a sewing machine and Grandma Holly tried to teach me to sew with it. I turned out to be a total failure when I sewed an American flag pillow from scraps of red, white and blue fabric but it was so poorly sewn that the fuzz was bursting through my uneven seams. 

My older, steady hands made this little project much easier to complete. I embroidered all of the pieces together and then repositioned the fabric 1500 times to get it centered. It's not perfect, but I do think it's mighty cute.  

So as you can tell, pinterest has done a mighty fine job of creating an obsession.  At least they're cheap, and versatile, and a potential seller when I open back up my Etsy shop. 

Thank you Michaels for your extremely cheap embroidery hoops, I will be back for another ten hoops next week. 


And dearest hoop, I think we will have a long and happy life together.

God Bless the U.S!

Having a holiday in the middle of the week is nice in theory, but it totally screws you up. Can I get an amen? As a kid, it used to not bother me but now I totally see why my mom hates it! 

When Kim and Katy announced their link up for the 4th I was instantly excited. An excuse to craft, is my favorite kind of excuse to make!  This link up was a good excuse to get my food craft on, when I normally prefer fabric and hot glue crafts. I even wore a festive shirt, we are entering a whole new level of patriotism folks.

I spent the 4th with some friends, BBQing and climbing on rooftops to watch the fireworks. It was a fun day and I'm glad I got to contribute to the fun by making festive treats. Here was my original inspiration:

I couldn't choose my favorite so I went for all three. I'm not a huge fan of candy melts, but they were the best option for the project and I didn't have any complaints on the flavor.  They were all easy to make, minus the sprinkles ending up everywhere!

Here was some of the process:


The set up before it got destroyed in the candy melting mess

I loved mixing the sparkles. I originally thought I would keep them separate but I eventually just got messy and swirled them around with my hands. 

The crazy red and purple fingers that followed my baking extravaganza. My nails are stilly slightly tinted pink! 

Drying! The one thing that candy melts do better than regular chocolate is stick and dry. Usually when you dip something and lay it on wax paper, it loses its shape -- but the melted candy stuck right to the pretzel in this case!

Here's what I ended up with:

Patriotic Mallows: Some dipped in candy melts with sprinkles, some dipped in plain sprinkles (dip in water to make them stick). Loved them, so easy to make!

Patriotic pretzels. Also a big hit. 

The whole getup: 

I displayed the pretzels in a short glass so they didn't get completely stuck. 

I made the strawberries last minute...I prefer chocolate covered ones, but you can't deny the cuteness of red white and blue strawberries. 

At the BBQ: I tried to get Seth to take a nice picture with me...he wouldn't close his mouth!

Ok, that's better. 

Erin (our hostess) and her mom made this adorable jello. I wish I liked coconut, it made the jello hard to eat because I was trying hard to avoid the coconut part but I loved the concept! 

My friend David and I. Love his festive glasses. 

Silly boy. We started sending creepy pictures to some of my friends in Washington, apparently I wasn't informed about this one. I'd share with you one of our best, but you might not want to come back after that.

After the BBQ we went back to Seth's neighborhood where the fireworks are only a few blocks away. We all climbed up onto the roof and watched the show.  It was pretty neat watching it from a rooftop, I felt like I was a kid again being all dangerous! 

 I decided not to go outside for the late night VN brothers homemade fireworks show, the potential of getting arrested was just a wee bit high.  Instead I tried to go get pie with friends, which was a really bad idea...because when Seth lives in the town where the fireworks are and thousands of people try to escape at once out of the ONE entrance into the city...things get crazy. 

Anyways, it was a low key kinda holiday, just how I like it. Don't hate me but I kinda love holidays that I'm not obligated to be with family all day!

One last thing..

The 4th of July holds a special place in my history nerd little heart. And I hope it does for you too, Americans.

Besides all of the fun crafts, friends, and fireworks there is a MUCH greater meaning that comes with the Fourth of July. 

In the rush of celebrations, take time to consider the weighty decision that the members of the Second Continental Congress made 236 years ago, as they explained their motivation:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. -- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

They laid out the injustices forced upon them by the king of England and declared at the end that as free and independent states, they would have the power to wage war and seek peace, make alliance and establish commerce.

"With a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor," those brave men concluded.

July 4 should not be a day dedicated to the right to enjoy explosives, but instead as a day when citizens remember the greatness that is possible by pledging to each other to work together to continue to create this great nation.

So thank a service member and thank the Lord for the wonderful country we live in and the freedom that we've been granted.


God Bless the U.S!

Oh and P.S

Wondering about this gem?

 Come back tomorrow and I'll tell you all about my latest craft obsession.

A Rambling Post

There's been a lot going on in life..and when that happens, there's not a lot of blogging.

Since I've been home this has been my week:

- back to work

- finishing invitations

- food poisoning

- eye infections

- apartment searching

- crafting (while unable to move in bed from said food poisoning)

- camp reunion

- meetings

But I miss my little place on the internet.  I'm working on some fun stuff coming up and am exciting to link up with katy and kim for their patriotic July 4th linky party!

Today, Seth and I are headed down to Gilroy where our new life will be in two months. That's just crazy to even think about! I'm so excited for what our future holds!

We will be visiting his school, looking around at the neighborhoods at some apartments that are up for rent, and maybe some outlet shopping. But don't tell Seth that last bit ;)

I promise to be back soon. Cross my heart.

Until then, here are some fun images of my weekend in Wisconsin.

My Daddy and I before the wedding!

Some of the cousins

My Mom and one of her sisters. Don't they look so much alike?!

The bride and groom!


My mom, the bride, her sisters and her brother!

The four Dowse sisters.


See you soon!
xox

PinterTest Kitchen: A Little of This and A Little of That

Are you still in love with Pinterest? I think I'm still "in-like" but I feel like it's lost its luster. Regardless of that, there are still a million things I've pinned and want to try, so I'll keep revisiting my lonely boards!

Thanks Jess for this fun opportunity and challenge to make what we pin!

I have missed being crafty SO much. Last year when I was unemployed for a while I opened up an Etsy shop, because it seemed like I had endless amounts of time to create! But now, my days are filled with wedding plans, going to work, and being with my friends which are finally home from college.

This past Saturday I had quite a headache and spent the morning inside. My friend Haeley had recently gave me two canvases that she was about to donate, and I quickly jumped to save them from the Goodwill pile. I went on Pinterest to find some sort of artsy thing I could make out of these two 8x10 canvases. Here is my Pinspiration.

Source: oh-baby-here-comes-the-sound.tumblr.com via Jamie on Pinterest

I quickly went on a mad search for my brush-on mod podge and had no luck, so following a tutorial was not going to be easy. With two canvases and 5 hours of free time, I had time to come up with something original.

I didn't want to mess up my first run with a blank canvas, so I went with something I had seen before. I remembered seeing the crayon craft go crazy with success all over pinterest and various blogs so I knew that would be a success. 

My first craft was this:

It looks cool..don't get me wrong. But I should have actually LOOKED at my pin before I glued crayons down...because I totally forgot to do one large rainbow instead of multiple rainbows. The colors all ran together and made a brown-ish type mess. 

Now just to go buy another box of crayons and try again!
(update: go to Walmart -- packs of 96 crayons for $2!!)

Here is my second project (the original-ish one):

I recently bought an old hymnal from the local used books shop. I was given my grandparents old hymnals but can't bring myself to ripping out the pages, so I went and got one that I had no emotional attachment to! I will be using the hearts as confetti for my wedding, but I will definitely hire one of my crafty friends to do that on our wedding craft extravaganza night instead of me doing all of them by myself! 

I love turning the pages and seeing old hymns that you never hear sung anymore. This hymnal even had the National Anthem in it! Not sure it qualifies as a hymn though..

Rock of Ages is one of my most favorite hymns, so when I stumbled across it I made sure I didn't punch any hearts out of it. Then I decided I would display it somehow..and this is what I came up with. Not really from a specific pin, but I really like how it turned out. 

I used hot glue to make the hearts stick and double sided tape for the paper. It is really thin so I didn't want to ruin it with something heavy duty. I will definitely be making more crafts from this hymnal, it is such a great way to preserve and cherish the songs that we love!

I look forward to moving in a couple months and decorating our new place with the stuff I create! The one request Seth had for decorating was that our walls are not bear, and that was music to my ears. I LOVE having the walls covered, it makes me anxious to be in a blank room!

Yesterday I went out and bought 6 shadow boxes. Yes, I said 6.

The crafting bug came around my house and bit me again.

Look out world, I've got some creative crap coming your way!

I'm excited to see what you guys have been making and baking!!