DIY Infinity Scarves

As you may know, if you come visit me regularly, I am doing this handmade Christmas thing. So far, I've shared the wristlets and personalized notebooks for my nieces, as well as the rustic jewelry holders for my mom and sister-in-law. Well apparently, I unconsciously decided that my mom and sister were going to get matching presents this year. First the jewelry holders and now these...

DIY Infinity Scarves

I would love to show you a tutorial, but there are already so many out there, and honestly I just referenced a few different ones and then added a little of my own thing. Here's what I ended up with:

Zebra print for my mom.

Pretty flowers for sister.

Another animal print for mom (she really loves animal print).

Here are a few tutorials I suggest looking at:

The Cottage Home

H is for Handmade

Wildflowers & Whimsy

I got awesome deals on some remnant fabric at Hobby Lobby, so each one is a different length, but they all turned out great!

How is your Christmas list coming?

Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday Treasures - Foster Podcast

Hey All! How was your Thanksgiving? Ours was great! We spent time with family and friends, ate lots of food, took lots of naps...and my mom threw me a shower to help us get ready for our future foster kids! It was so great to be so supported by friends and family.

On that note is this week's Tuesday Treasure: FosterPodcast.com. 

Handy Andy and found this foster parenting podcast a few weeks ago, and a we've been powering through the episodes. They are so good, and provide a lot of helpful information and personal experiences!

If you are a foster parent or interested in foster care or adoption at all...or just curious as to what it's all about, I would recommend listening to a few episodes (or all of them). If you only listen to one episode, try one of the following: Episode 16, Episode 23, or Episode 50. There is also a lot of good information about different resources for parenting children with special needs. I hope you listen to at least one episode!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week!

 

A Pinteresting Link Party - Week 67

A Pinteresting Link Party - Week 67

Hosted by Tutus & Tea Parties & Here's to Handy Andy.

Guest Hosting this week is:

Thaleia | tmaher45356 of  Something2Offer

{Hop on over and give her a welcome!} 
(Want to guest host? Fill out this form.) 

Tuesday Treasures - She Reads Truth

IT'S THE DAY BEFORE THE DAY BEFORE THANKSGIVING! 

Yes, I am excited for Thanksgiving. It's really my favorite holiday. This year we are spending it with my family, which we haven't done in several years, and it's going to be awesome. My family is super crazy, but that's what makes us fun...right?!

Anyway, what I wanted to share today as my Tuesday Treasure is the site She Reads Truth.

Okay seriously, I've been in a rut with my Bible reading lately, and I stumbled upon this site through Twitter (@SheReadsTruth). It's a great site where you can read daily devotions, sign up for reading plans, and share with others doing the same.

If you're looking for a reading plan, I highly suggest downloading the YouVersion app on your mobile device or going to their website and then searching She Reads Truth under the Reading Plans section. Once you choose one of the plans, you can sign up for reminder notifications and emails at whatever time you want. The plans take you through different books of the Bible and have a short devotional along with it. I have really appreciated these plans - a lot!

Anyway, right now there is a Thanksgiving plan going on that you can sign up to follow, or just follow along on the blog. Here's a little bit from today's post:

We are broken people, but there is a God who will never let you down. So before we get even further into this season–this busy season–take time to get focused. Focus on Him. Focus on His mercies, His great love for you, and His grace. Set your expectations on Him alone.

Take time to thank Him for each of these things –and ask that He may fill you up, so that you might overflow love, mercy and grace to everyone you come in contact with this season.

  

What a great challenge for this holiday season - focus on Him, when there is so much to distract!

I hope you'll check out She Reads Truth and be encouraged by the community there.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

A Pinteresting Link Party & A Giveaway

A Pinteresting Link Party - Week 66

Hosted by Tutus & Tea Parties & Here's to Handy Andy.

Barn Window Jewelry Holder

Happy One Week until Thanksgiving!! Are you getting excited? Planning your menus? Well I'm doing no planning, since we are going back to my parents' house for Thanksgiving this year, and my mom takes care of the food shopping and menu hoopla. We haven't been at my parents' house for Thanksgiving in several years, so I'm pretty excited.

Also, since I don't have any hostess planning going on right now, I've had some time to get some more homemade Christmas gifts made. This week I made jewelry holders for my mom and my sister. They both love jewelry, I am the odd one out there. They also both have a vintage-y, country-chic decorating style, so I decided to combine those two loves and create country-chic looking jewelry holders for each of them.

I started with two barn window frames that I got from my parents' stock of "treasures," as well as some chicken wire that Handy Andy had (obviously he has that lying around, don't you??).

I removed some old nails that were still sticking out of the window frames, and then sanded the frames down. Then, I spray painted them -- man, I love spray paint, so easy.

 

They were a little splotchy, but that's fine because, after they dried I sanded them again and brushed some dark wood stain over them. (No, I did not do them Christmas colors on purpose, thanks to Handy Andy for asking. Those are colors they each use to decorate with often).

Once the stain dried, I finished them with Minwax Finishing Paste (love that stuff). Rubbing that on them lightened up the stain a bit too, I really like how the colors turned out. After that dried, I added the chicken wire to the back with a staple gun -- I suggest wearing gloves, I didn't and my fingers were killing me when I was done.

To finish them off, I added some lace and burlap embellishments, and some scrabble tiles to my mom's and...

Done!

These were pretty simple to make, and I think they will really love them...AND they are useful - score! I also bought some little hooks to add for them to hang their necklaces on, but I haven't gotten around to putting them on yet.

 

Are you making progress on your family Christmas list this year?

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Tuesday Treasures - Tutus & Tea Parties

Happy Tuesday again everyone! For my second Tuesday Treasure post I wanted to show some love to my bloggy friend and link party co-host Lauren from Tutus & Tea Parties. [If you don't know what Tuesday Treasures is, check here]

Lauren's blog is full of crafts, life, and fun stuff for kiddos. She offers tutorials, crochet patterns, recipes, advice for blogging, crafting competitions, and more. Also, she is one of the nicest people I have met through blogging!

Go check her out to see the following projects, and more!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Pinteresting Link Party - Week 65

A Pinteresting Link Party - Week 65

Hosted by Tutus & Tea Parties & Here's to Handy Andy.

Guest Hosting this week is:

Tammy of One More Time Events

{Hop on over and give her a welcome!} 
(Want to guest host? Fill out this form.) 

Personalized Notebooks

Hello All! Not sure if you saw my post last week, but I mentioned that I'm going to be trying my hand at homemade Christmas gifts for several of my loved ones this year. I continued crafting for my nieces this week and made them personalized notebooks. These are super simple, but are really cute.

I started with these composition notebooks you can get anywhere, I got them at the dollar store.

I also gathered some scrapbook paper, Mod Podge, and some other embellishments. I used a paper cutter and a knife to cut out the paper for the covers.

I brushed a thin layer of Mod Podge on the notebook before laying the paper down, and then another layer on top of the paper. After that dried I hot glued some matching ribbon to edge of the paper on the binding. Then I used some embellishments to decorate the notebooks for the girls.

Here's how they turned out - I hope the girls like them! I definitely like how simple and cute they are.

Thanks for stopping by!

Something New: Tuesday Treasures

Happy Tuesday Everyone! So, I decided to start something new on the blog, and I'm calling it Tuesday Treasures. Every week I'm going to pick something I love and post it here. It might be another blog I love, a cool project I saw in blogland, a wonderful Etsy shop I stumbled on...whatever. This is NOT a sponsoring thing, and I will not post anything on here that I don't actually love. Really, the goal is just spreading the love.

To start I'm am sharing something I think is pretty awesome. Have you ever heard of Mingle Magazine? Well, it's a pretty cool magazine that features some creative ideas for events and such. 

Want to hear something super awesome? One of MY projects was featured in the latest edition of Mingle. WHAT?! 

Yes, those are my Painted Paper Lanterns! AH! How cool is that?

Ok, freak out is over. I promise these posts won't be about me usually, but this is something I definitely treasured this week. 

What treasures have you found lately?

A Pinteresting Link Party - Week 64

Happy Weekend! Thanks so much for coming by to share your project! I love seeing everyone's creativity and getting ideas for new projects -- so make sure to tell your friends to share their projects too!

A Pinteresting Link Party - Week 64

Hosted by Tutus & Tea Parties & Here's to Handy Andy.

Guest Hosting this week is:

Evin from Food Good Laundry Bad

{Hop on over and give her a welcome!} 
(Want to guest host? Fill out this form.) 

[Simple] Wristlet DIY

Normally I'm all about not getting all excited about Christmas until Thanksgiving is over. But this year, I decided to do handmade gifts for most of my friends and family members [which I may regret soon].

Anyway...so, like a good crafter, I scoured Pinterest for some good gift ideas to get my creative juices flowing. I gathered a few ideas, came up with some of my own, and am feeling alright about this handmade Christmas business...for now. So, be prepared, I'll be sharing my handmade Christmas-gifts-to-be with you over the next few weeks.

The first thing on the list was to make wristlets for my two older nieces [ages 8 & 6]. I found some really cute heavier duck fabric on clearance at Hobby Lobby, along with a remnant of cream canvas fabric that I used to line the inside.

I think I spent $5 on all of this fabric - and actually I had a gift card, so I really spent $0 on this fabric! Score. I already had some coordinating zippers from my mom/grandma's sewing box.

Yup, these zippers have been around for a while. Thanks, Grandma, for buying these back in the day...and thanks, Mom, for not sewing much so I could use these today.

Alright, I'll get on with it...

First, cut two pieces of the patterned fabric and two pieces of the off white, 5" x 8" [be sure to cut your long side according to your zipper]. Don't forget to iron your fabric. Layer the lining on the plain or inside of the patterned fabric, pin together.

Now, I had never sewn a zipper up to this point, so I used this tutorial to help me out, so head over there if you need help, because I for sure cannot give you a better tutorial on that.

After sewing the zipper, open up the zipper, then sew the other sides together [fabric is still pattern sides together, lining out, zipper to the inside] - leaving a small opening near the top on the side you want the wrist strap. Opening the zipper is key, so you can turn the pouch right-side-out later without a struggle.

For the strap, cut a strip of fabric, about one inch thick and twice the length of your desired strap length, with a little seam allowance [I cut mine about 10.5 inches]. Fold each cut edge into the middle and iron them so they stay down. Then fold the strap in half where the two edges meet, iron again. Then sew down the length of the strap.

Insert the strap through the opening in the side of the pouch, with the loop on the inside. Tuck the loop of the strap inside, so it gets sewn on straight.

Sew the opening shut with the end of the strap pulled through. Then trim the corners of the pouch, so they will look better when you turn them out.

Turn the pouch right-side-out and...done!

These are far from perfect, but that's the beauty of creating handmade gifts...and creating them for kids! :)

Sorry if that was a cumbersome tutorial! Hopefully it was helpful!

Thanks for stopping by!