Staying Busy

All righty, again, it has been awhile since posting.  My excuse is the same as always - busy, busy, busy.  These last few months I have been swamped with work, traveling, working out, crafting and theatering (I know it not a REAL word, but maybe it should be!).  We recently returned from a fantastic trip to Ireland (swoon - did I have to come home?) and a few months ago the husband and I traveled to the east coast for my sister's graduation.  My BFF came to visit last month for my thirty, flirty & thriving birthday (who can tell me what movie that is from?! :)) and we had a blast together.

I have a new obsession with working out - mostly doing a PIYO routine, which is a mix between PIlaties and YOgo; get it: PI-YO.  I think my favorite part of PIYO is the fantastic stretch and limberness I feel afterwards.  As a bonus, my muscles are totally getting stronger from doing it daily!

I couldn't help but to wear my own ruby red shoes to see WICKED!

I have also joined a quilting block of the month club at a local fabric store.  It has kept me busy at my sewing machine and I am learning a ton of new techniques.  Next May, I will have a completed Washington State themed quilt to show off and hopefully a bunch of new skills sets in my sewing repertoire!  :)

Most recently, I have been able to score tickets to two shows in Seattle's playhouses.  The Mister ordered WICKED tickets for my birthday last month and this past week, we saw it.  I have loved the music for ages, but didn't know the complete storyline.  I've wanted to see it for years.  It lived up to it's great reputation!  Just a few days ago, someone gave me a ticket to the show GREASE which is playing downtown because she was unable to use it.  I will be soon heading there to see some Grease Lightning!  I will try not to sing a long too loudly, but with the catchy music, I am sure many folks will be singing along. :)  

  

Spring Cheer

Well, a few weeks ago I finally got around to taking down the Winter wreath from our door.  I know, I know, it was well past the time to do so! :)  When I did remove the wreath, I felt like our door looked so empty and sad.  I guess it is kind of strange to call a door sad, but it was very clear that something was missing and  I just had to do something about that!  I scrolled through a few ideas on Pinterest until I had a general idea of what I wanted and headed to the local craft shop to gather the materials.  Here is the end result; what do you think?

DIY Weekly Calendar

Well, like I had mentioned before, there is a little nook in our kitchen that I really wanted to make more cozy.  The other week, I did my first project for it.  What office area is complete without a calendar?  I wanted to make a weekly calendar to help us keep our busy schedule straight.  It all started after browsing through various Pinterest posts, coupled by a trip to the local thrift store - consider me inspired! While rummaging through the goodies at the store, I found my treasure - a 7 picture wooden picture frame! Hooray!

Making of the Card Book

So here I am again!  The last few days I've spent at home sick - which is never any fun.  However, it is giving me some time to catch up on the blog.  So here I sit in my couch, with tissues, Oreos andTV remote close to hand, while writing this entry.
The last few weeks I have been busy finishing up several half-completed project.   I even found time to take a quilting class, which will be written about later.  One of the projects that I completed is a book of all of our bridal shower cards and wedding cards.  After all of our wedding festivities, we had so many cards full of well-wishes.  With such kind words written in each card, I knew they were something that I wanted to treasure forever.  I decided to make a book out of all the cards so that we would not miss a card by having them scattered everywhere.

Just a few of the many cards...

Love Crayon Art... Literally!

I guess I got a little tired or staring at the blank walls in my apartment, so I knew that I needed to do something to add some color!  Out came the crayons left over from my last experiment with crayon art.  Since I used most of the yellows and blues on my last project, I was left with reds, purples, pinks, etc.  After organizing them in the way that I wanted, I grabbed my handy hot glue gun and glued each crayon to the top of the canvas.

I used a box when using the hair dryer to melt the crayons.  

Finally! An Organized Sink!

I don’t know if any of you have trouble with having too much stuff scattered around the kitchen sink, but I sure do!  Since I have moved into my new apartment, my kitchen is a good deal smaller than I am used to, so I need to have every inch of counter space that is available.  Because of that, all the stuff around the sink does make for quite a dilemma!  It is all stuff that I need on a daily basis, hand soap, dish soap, sponge, etc., but it does leave for a bit of disorganization.

Twisting Turning Twine

Ever wonder what to do with all those empty bottles or cans that you have?  I have found a solution (at least for some :))!!  Hot gluing binder twine to them gives you an easy, handy up-cycle. 

Crayon Art

Who doesn't like crayon art?!  It's fun, bright and always one of a kind!  I've been seeing a ton of them on pinterest lately and decided to try my hand at making my own one-of-a-kind piece.  After my mind was made up, I gathered a canvas, two packs of crayons, my hot glue gun and blowdryer to start on my endeavor!  I decided that I wanted a picture of the sea with the sun shining over it.  And so it began...

[caption id="attachment_183" align="aligncenter" width="276"] Step One[/caption]

DIY Christmas Wreath

I need a Christmas wreath!  Instead of spending money on one, I figured I could make one.  How hard could it be... right?!?! :)

[caption id="attachment_151" align="aligncenter" width="608"] DYI Christmas Wreath[/caption]

Fabric Wreath

A little while ago, I decided that my front door needed a wreath.  I bought a wire flower frame from Hobby Lobby and gathered all my old scraps of material.  I cut the material into strips about 6 inches long and 1 inch wide.  After that, I went to town tying all the fabric strips around the wire frame into knots.  About 4 hours later, this was the end result:

Safety Pin Bracelet

I decided to be crafty today.  I tried my hand at making a safety pin bracelet. The only supplies needed were safety pins, seed beads and a string/cord the would be able to stretch.  To measure out the cord, I wrapped it around my wrist loosely and added about 1-2 inches more, then I cut a second one of the same length.