Gettin' Ready for the Big Move!

Tuesday is the big day, we are finally getting our own place! Good bye, parents! Good bye, stress! And hello, freedom!  The weather was perfect today and we spent most of it outside preparing for our new home. We pulled out an old couch my dad made like a decade ago, wiped down the wood parts, and shampoo-ed the cushions.

(the sides, which are going to need a little work)

 

(and the cushions. pretty retro, huh!)

Here's our little helper,

 I've also been doing a bit of gardening. We're going to have a little patio and I want to fill it up with plants and make it my little outside haven.


(my soon to be italian herb garden)

 

(and some flowers to give the place some life!)

I scavenged around my dad's backyard and put this together as the first addition to my private garden!



 And by doing some hard searching on Craigslist, I got an awesome deal on our first washer and dryer. Both for $130! And they actually work!

 And one more tid-bit, I found this awesome rug at a Goodwill. Not sure where I will use it but isn't it cool? We shampooed it and it kind of smells funny but I'm hoping that's just from being wet...  

Well that's that! I can't wait to get decoratin' and share it all here!

Valentine Picnic

So, good news! March 1st we are moving into an apartment which means I get to decorate! Which means I get to make a ton of stuff and post about it! I'm so very excited but in the mean time I'll probably be busy, busy, busy. Anyways, I know it's a little belated but here's a few pictures from our family Valentine's Picnic!

We went to a park near our house. 

And set up our picnic, while Eliza got in the way.

Then we chowed down on some sandwiches and chicken salad (which were delicious!)

After that we opened presents.

Then it was time to go...

to the playground!

We went down the slides,

played on the toy cars,

and swung our little hearts out!

Then someone had an explosion in their pants and we had to go home. But all in all it was a very succesful trip considering last time we tried to picnic, we didn't even get to eat!

And I'll end this with my attempt at a family portrait.

Hm, not flattering but this is as good as it gets! Hope you guys had a wonderful Valentine's day!



Cute Glasses Update!

I bought Eliza some sunglasses a little while back because all of ours are this style and I just couldn't help myself. But she's been rockin' them out ever since!  

I kind of want to get this framed, how cute!

my little rasta girl

Vintage and Upcycling

Here are just a few projects that I did a while back and forgot to share.  First up is this apron I made for my niece-in-law from my vintage fabric stash. 

And this is a skirt that my grandmother gave me for my store. Ugly huh?

So I upcycled it into this.

And last is this vintage dress that I found for my store.

I loved the fabric but the long skirt made it a little outdated. So I chopped it in half and voila!

I close my eyes and I see you dancin'

I had this dry erase board sitting on my "craft" desk,  just collecting junk. It wasn't very flattering or useful so I decided to make it into a calendar! Which will hopefully help me be a little more organized.  

I know the picture isn't the best but trust me, it looks a lot better in person. I used black electrical tape, cut in half to make the lines. I also made spruced up my magnets by hot gluing on some fabric roses using this tutorial.

 I don't know about you guys but I absolutely hate cockroaches. My sister gave me some old clothes that she never wears and as I was going through them late at night when a little buggy came crawling out. It. was. HUGE. And being the little girl that I am, I didn't want to get anywhere near it so I trapped it in a cup and made a little sign for my boyfriend in the morning (:  

I cracked myself up so I had to take a picture.

And now for the big news! I know I said I would announce it a while back but I had to wait to get... it. Well, I'm engaged!

And here's an upclose shot.

Ahhh, I love it! It took a while to get used to it because I am not a ring person at all. Which is why I love the size and that's it's simple but not too simple. I had to wait so long because when he proposed, he just gave me the diamond so that I could pick out my own ring (smart man). Then once I picked it out, we had to get it sized and everything before I could actually have it.

So there you have it, folks! We are going to look at a condo tomorrow and we'll see how that goes. I can't wait to move into my own place!



 

Busy, Busy, Busy

Time for school! School just started and I'm already overwhelmed. You know right when school starts, and you have a ton of classes and information being thrown at you and you feel like your head is going to explode? Well that's me! Haha, it's not so bad just kind of.. stressful.  So basically this is where I'm at. I'm going out of town this weekend and I have a bunch of assignments due as soon as I get back. Then I'm going to try to focus on work so I can't start making a full time living. We're going to save up some money and then hopefully get our own place in the beginning of March! So until then it will be work, work, work! And hardly any time for crafts :( So I will update everytime I get around to having some crafty time but I'm not guaranteeing much. Once we move into our own apartment though, you better watch out! Because I'm going to have my own place to decorate and I might go a little bit craft crazy. I've already got a ton of things in my head that I want to make but I'm waiting until we get moved in and I can evaluate.  Anywho, here's a pair of ugly grandma shorts that I just fixed up a little.  BEFORE(long and ugly)

AFTER

(short and sweet)

These, I actually put in my store but I thought I would share. It was super easy, I just moved the crotch up and then chopped off about 5" from the bottom and voila! Hope you like! See ya'll soon!

  

Stamps

I first came across Geninne's Art Blog with a tutorial on making stamps out of erasers. They were so cute and seemed simple enough but turns out finding supplies is not. I looked at all the craft stores around here and no one had anything so I was forced to buy the two main supplies, the linoleum cutter and block online from Blick. To make stamps, you will also need some paper, a pencil, an exacto knife, and either parchment paper or tracing paper.  

There were no directions for the speedball so I'll just describe how to use it here. It comes with all these blades, ranging from 1 (the smallest) and 6 (the largest)

It took me a couple minutes to figure out how to put them in the right way after searching for videos online without any luck. This is what I came up with. First we'll look at the blade. This is a number one, the right side is very small and the left is where you stick it into the handle. You will notice that it is curved and you'll see why in a second.

Ok, here's where the blade goes into. There's a little ball that the end of the blade curves around. You will need to unscrew the top (where the gripping is) to loosen these parts.

The highlighted area is where the end of the blade slides in. 

You stick the blade in so that the curved edge fits around the little ball, and then tighten it back up.

Now you're tool is ready to do some carving! For your first stamp, I would choose something simple. I am a little hard headed and chose something... well hard.

The first step is to draw it out and then pull out your parchment paper or tracing paper.

Place it on top of your paper (it's easier if you tape them both down to avoid sliding) and trace your design.

Next you will take the parchment paper and place it on your block.

Holding it in place and rub the entire design so that the pencil markings stick to the block. Carefully remove parchment paper and if needed, fill in any spots that didn't make it.

It's going to be backwords, but that's ok. That's what we want. Now you're going to want to move onto carpet or a cutting board or something. With your exacto knife, you're going to cut the extra off the block so there's less to carve.

From here it's pretty easy. Start off with a larger blade and I just worked from the outside in, scooping away at the block.

You might have to test it with ink a couple times to make sure only your design is raised. In the end, this is what it will look like!

I also made another one that took me forever because of all the little detail.

And here is what they look like on paper.

It was super easy and I can't wait to make some more! I'm going to test it out on some erasers and see how that goes. Wellll, what are you waiting for?! Go make some stamps!