My first attempt at making a Rug!

So this was a fun project. I used an old curtain that I no longer wanted and now it is a useful kitchen rug! and it didn't cost me a penny to make.

I made the loom myself with wood that was left by the dumpster by my apartment.

TA-DA!

Home Decor

So it has been awhile since I have done a post. It's not because I haven't been crafty...I have been working on quite a few projects actually. I have however been busy and putting off doing posts. I have been slowly working on decorating my apartment since I moved in three months ago. It's a continual on going process but it is starting to come together the way I like...There are still a few things that I want to do and or add to my apartment but nothing too major. Pretty soon I'm going to start making an area rug for the living area, I am excited about doing that. The Reason I wanted to write a blog about decorating is because like most of the people I know I live in an apartment. Decorating an apartment to make it feel like a home can be challenging. I am limited in the fact that I can't make any major changes without having permission. I have had landlords in the past that would not even allow me to paint the walls a different color. Luckily where I live now that is not the case. Not that there is anything wrong with white walls but sometimes color can change the entire feeling of the room. I also wanted to show people that they can make there apartment look nice on a budget. I would say about 70% of all my furniture, decor, and accessories I either made myself, found at a thrift store, or pulled out of a dumpster or off the side of the road and revamped myself. So here are some pictures of my apartment as is looks today...Also some pictures of a few Ideas I have yet to do but will get around too eventually. I hope you enjoy the online tour of my home!

The Kitchen

 I have make all of the curtains throughout my entire apartment...Other than the fact that they are just about the easiest thing to make when you go to the store to buy curtains your options are limited...if you go to the fabric store they are endless. The Pictures frames on the wall I also made.

I also really enjoy to cook and to be honest as much as I hate clutter on my counter I hate not having everything I need right in front of me even more. I have a wine bottle holder that I mounted under the cabinet that I actually use to hold my olive oil, balsamic vinegar and cooking wine. I also have a ton of  spices. I found a really cool idea on Etsy to help organize my spices and get them off the counter too. These awesome magnetic spice jars are rather expensive on Etsy but I'm going to make them myself for way cheaper.

This is Jesse's beer bottle collection which he is very proud of! Eventually I want to get a small kitchen table I have been keeping my eye out for one at yard sales and thrift shops...haven't found a decent cheap one yet.



 Living Area

I found my couch at a thrift store and made a slipcover for it and it is actually a very comfortable couch. Painted the coffee table myself and also made the tray on the table the throw pillows. Found the shelf in the dumpster Which I now love because it makes it so easy to grab a book to read when you are already comfortable on the couch. They circles on the wall are old vinyl records that I covered in scrapbook paper. The curtains in the background keep my messy craft area from being an eyesore!

It is never a bad idea to have extra seating for when you have company over. Again I made the throw pillows and the owl banner hanging on the wall. The end table I got for free. It has picture inserts that are built in and instead of pictures I just used pretty craft paper to fill them. I bought the futon from target but I got a good deal on it.

Most of my accessories I found in thrift stores. This picture frame and bottle/vase were under 2$ and with a little spray paint they look new and also match the room better. I am pretty happy with my living room I think the only thing I wanted to add was an area rug.

The Bedroom

My bedroom is rather large and there is half of the room not pictured that I want to turn into a library/reading nook However right now is is kind of a mess of boxes full of unpacked books which I have no shelves for....and dirty laundry.

The Nursery

I have made so many things for the twins room. The owl pillows, the owl banner on the wall, the birdie mobile(I think I did tutorial on all of those. The bedding was actually made by my grandmother who is just amazing! My grandparents go the crib for me secondhand because they know how much I love to reduce, reuse, recycle! Love them! Oh and thanks again to Ray and Kaleena for the very adorable owl picture that she found on Etsy for the babies! Everything in the nursery was either hand made or secondhand. I think mostly because it is so easy to find and usually in great condition too!

So that is my home. I hope you enjoyed and I would love your feedback or any ideas you have on home decor.  I will leave you with a great home decor site that I ofter visit and get inspiration from so go check it out.
Apartment Therapy

Adorable Owl Banner

I made a post a while back on the birdie mobile I made for the twins. If you can't already guess the theme in their nursery...well it's Owls of course. So I have been wanting to make them a second mobile but I wasn't sure if it would be weird to have two. So earlier today I was just browsing on etsy and looking at owl stuff like I often do and I came across these adorable owl banners. I already had everything I needed to make one. So naturally I couldn't help myself.


You will need:

To make a pattern that looks like this




Various fabrics
ribbon with a thin width
ribbon with a thick width (I went through nearly a whole spool)
White, black and orange/yellow felt
poly-fil
scissors
straight pins
needles and thread
sewing machine
hot glue gun with glue sticks


Step One With your pattern you will need to cut a total of 14 body pieces, 14 eye pieces, 14 pupil pieces, 7 beak pieces. Also cut the thin ribbon in 7 equal 8inch pieces. You are also going to need to cut two pieces of the think ribbon of equal length approximately 7 feet long.






Step Two Okay now that you have all your pieces cut out you are going to take the body pieces of each owl and face the right sides in so that the wrong sides are facing out. Place one of the thin ribbons you cut between the fabric so that there is about a quarter inch is sticking out of the top side and the rest sticks out the bottom. Pin at the top. Continue doing this with all the owls.




Step Three Now you can sew around the edges of the owl leaving a opening in the bottom for turning and stuffing. Be sure to sew through the ribbon at the top and very careful to not sew it to the bottom side. The ribbon on the bottom is hanging out here the opening should be. Once you have them all sewed turn them right side out. This is usually when you would stuff and sew closed but it's easier to do that later.



Step Four Take the two long strips of the thicker ribbon and line them up with each other. Find the middle and mark it with a pin. Then measure approximately 10 inches out from the middle on each side and mark with pins. Continue to measure 10 inches from each mark until you have 7 evenly spaced marks. Now take each of the thin ribbons that have the owls attached and place them and pin them between the two thick ribbons where the marks are in the order you like. It's okay if some of the ribbon sticks out of the top you can trim that later so make sure that the hanging length of the owls are all equal.



Step Five Back to the sewing machine. Now you can top stitch along the edges of the thick ribbon. Stop stitching once you stitch slightly past the last owl on each end. You are going to want to leave at least one foot on each side of the banner un-stitched so that you can tie to things or make bow if you want.



Step Six Now you can stuff and hand stitch the opening closed. Use the hot glue gun to glue on the eyes and beak. Now you can hang and admire! It's so adorable hanging above my baby's crib.

Cute Owl Plushies!

So a friend of mine sent me a picture of these really cute little owl plushies that someone was making and selling on Etsy.com for around $70. Yikes! I couldn't believe that people would pay that much for something that looked so simple to make! So after examining the picture of these cute little owls...and a girls craft night coming up I headed out to the fabric store and got everything I needed to make them. I must say they don't look exactly like the ones on Etsy because I had to make my own pattern for them. (which was simple but obviously not exact to the Etsy owls.) Also I notice that the way I ended up gathering the owls middle is not the way that the Etsy owls were gathered. That part is still a mystery to me and I am now compelled to experiment with it until I figure it out. (I will let you guys know if I figure it out) However they still ended up being very cute perched on my bookshelf.


Here is what you will need!

A pattern (you will have to make one. A good tip is to fold your paper in half and draw one side of the pattern piece and cut then unfold, this will make it symmetrical.



Fabric (I used 3 different fabrics in each owl.)
Some Felt (I used gray for the eyes and red for the heart.)
Embroidery floss (I would suggest orange or yellow for the beak and colors that coordinate with or accent your choice of fabric.)
Embroidery needles
Straight pins
scissors
Buttons for the eyes
Stuffing (I used poly-fil)
sewing machine (optional)




Step One Start by pinning your pattern pieces to the fabric. (body=1st fabric; belly=2nd fabric; wings and bow=3rd fabric)
The eye circles are cut from the felt as well as the heart for the girl owl. Once you have all your pieces cut out you are going to arrange the felt eyes and the belly on the body where you like it and pin down. With your embroidery floss stitch them down. Now you are going to want to stitch on the buttons and the beak. (for the girl owl add eyelashes and the felt heart.)




Step Two Now you can pin the two body pieces together right sides facing each other so that the wrong sides are facing out. You can stitch it together by hand or use your machine. You need to leave an opening on both the top of the owls head and the bottom of the owls body for turning and stuffing. You are also going to want to leave little gaps on each side of the neck so you can do a gathering stitch. Here is a picture to help show what I mean.




Step Three Turn right side out. Add your gathering stitch and gather. Now you can stuff and stitch the openings closed. Now you can add the finishing touches. I decided to make stitches with the embroidery floss around the wings and the bows. I thought it looked cuter. Stitch the wings to the body then give the boy owl a bow tie and the girl a hair bow.





These were really fun to make! I had never used embroidery floss before and I really enjoyed working with it. I'm going to have to use it more often. Maybe I will teach myself to cross stitch! I made both of these owls for under $20 and I have enough of the materials left over to do quite a few more.

Clothing Adjustments

So I bought this dress at Marshall's a few summers ago. I thought it was really cute and it was on sale! Unfortunately it has been sitting in the back of my closet for a while now because when I bought it I didn't realize how easily you could see my nickers through the thin fabric. I pulled it out the other day and thought that maybe if I made it into a shirt by shortening it I would not feel uncomfortable wearing it. So I trimmed up the bottom to the length that I wanted and re hemmed it. After I put it on I realized that there was another issue I had with it! Since having my twins my boobs have gotten a little bigger....It was too low cut for my taste! So I took the fabric that I trimmed off the bottom and used it to make rows of pleats and then I sewed it to the top to raise the neck line! So now I have this really awesome top that I will wear all the time! I know that this isn't really a how to but I just wanted to show off my alterations because I am so pleased how it came out! Plus I thought that if might encourage someone else to dig through their closet and find the things they don't wear, figure out why and then attempt to change the issues you have with it. You might surprise yourself!

Felt flower accessory

So one of my Awesome crafty friends sent me a link to this Felt flower tutorial because I had been doing various Scrap fabric flowers. It is a really awesome easy to follow tutorial.

Here is the URL
http://www.purlbee.com/rose-barrettes/2010/1/23/mollys-sketchbook-rose-barrettes.html#comments



There is even a free pattern for the flower that you can print off!


Personally I thought that the Barrett was a bit kiddy looking. So I decided to add my flowers to a head band. Hot glue works really well. I also added some pretty feathers to make it more dressy looking. But you don't have to. Another Idea I had which I might try is adding little green felt leaves to the flowers.

Fabric Scrap Flower 2

Same idea different way to do it. Still very simple...Actually this flower in my opinion is a little more simple.


You will need

Scrap fabric
flower pattern (It will be very simple to draw your own) I got the pattern a long time ago off of burdastyle.com but it has since then been deleted off the site. Still an awesome pattern site you should check out when you get a chance. Here is the picture of the pattern though.



needle and thread
scissors
a button
a clip or pin or headband...ect




Step One Start by tracing out your pattern onto your fabric. You will want a total of 2 of the large flowers and 4 of the small flowers. Then cut out all the flowers. You can cut where the dotted lines are on the petals this will make your flower flutter. However you do not have to. Personally I prefer to leave the bigger size flowers un-cut where the dotted lines are and to cut the dotted lines on the smaller ones.

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Step Two Take the two larger flowers and stack them one on top of the other. Then take the four smaller ones and fold each of them in half. You are going to want to layer them going in a circle. The best way I can think to describe it is that it should look like a cardboard box when you have it folded shut. I hope that makes sense I tried to change the coloring of the example picture so you can see how I layered it better.






Step Three Now you are going to want to sew the smaller flowers to the bigger flowers. Once you are done sewing them all down you can add the button to the middle and then your clip/pin/headband...ect. and that's it your done.