it's beginning to look a lot like christmas...

The reason for my late post today is...

TA-DAAAAA!  My teammates and I have been working on decorating our little area all morning, and we're not even done yet!  But this guy was my contribution, and I'm super proud of him.  He's even hanging by invisible thread.  Sha-bam.

Some days, I'm mad I didn't join a sorority.  The banner-making would have been my favorite part.

letters!

f you love letters, monograms, and pretty things as much as I do, then I may or may not be getting ready to steal the next half hour from you!  One of my favorite blogs I've ever run across is Daily Drop Cap, which features twelve super cute versions of the alphabet, with letters you can print out or even insert in your blog (like I just did.  Shazam).  I'm pretty sure when I first found it, I rearranged the letters in my name to include every possible combo of drop caps.  This is what I consider productive.

So, if you need letter inspiration or just really want to see how cool your name could look, mosey on over there.

Peace out.

taking on a new project...

... that involves a little yellow seersucker...

...and a cute Donna Karan dress pattern!

Stay tuned!  Happy Friday!

(And if you're checking my blog during the Royal Wedding, I'm a) flattered, and b) probably at the bottom of my second mimosa.  Mazeltov!)

how to make a state pillow

So, my mom got pretty close when she guessed that I made Megan a pillow of her home state, but it wasn't Ohio.  It was...


Michigan!  First, I found a picture online and pasted it into Microsoft Paint.  Then, (and this is going to sound really dorky), I used a tape measure to calculate the proportions of the state in the picture and translate them to the felt.  For example, I measured how far up the state that notch in the right side was in the picture, then put it over the picture length of the entire state.  Then, I put "x" over the length of my felt and did some cross multiplying to see where on the felt that notch should fall.  Yeah, ok, I'm a big dork.  But I'm impatient, and I get mad if I have to draw things more than once.

I usually draw the state backwards on the felt so that my pencil/pen marks will be on the back instead of the front.  The "flip horizontal" command in Paint makes that easier.  Once I cut out the state, I put it on folded white felt and cut around it, leaving me with two white felt pieces that border the state about an inch and a half on every side.

Next, I use fabric glue to attach the state to one piece of white felt.  Even though I always sew the state on later, states like Michigan have little fingers and peninsulas here and there that are difficult to sew down, so glue works better.

Then, I sew the state down to one piece of white felt.  I use a sewing machine now, but I have hand sewn it before.  It doesn't take too long to do it that way, so if you don't have a sewing machine, no biggie!

After that, I put the front of each white felt piece together and sew almost all the way around the edges.  I leave about a four inch opening so I can stuff the batting in after turning the pillow right side out.

Finally, I stuff the batting, close up the hole by hand sewing, cut out a felt heart, and glue it on wherever my friend happens to be from.

That's it!  I promise the hardest part is getting the state to look right... after that, it's smooth sailing.  Michigan is weird because it has a little growth up there in the northwest, but that's cool.  Extra pillow.

I know some of you have requested pillows of your own, so don't worry!  They're coming!

Yay sewing!

home improvements

Our home is getting homier!  About a week ago, Molly and I ordered about twenty of our favorite pictures from Snapfish and bought a bunch of $5 frames from Michaels so we could create a giant photo collage on the wall near our kitchen, and we love how it turned out!  Not gonna lie, I had a really hard time being ok with the random amounts of space between each picture (I really like consistency and order and tape measurers), but Molly put up with my crazy long enough for me to adjust, and I just adore it.

That wall used to have three Ikea mirrors with raw wooden frames hanging up side by side, so we painted those robin's egg blue (Martha approves) and distressed them a little before hanging them in the corner opposite the TV.  They open up the room a LOT!

Making these little changes keeps it feeling like "our home" and less like a place we just rent.  I'm sure there will be quite a few more!

Also, we already have six inches of snow, and the temperature is really low, so I'm pretty sure today is going to be full of lots of warm and cozy things.  Excited!

tricia's birthday present

One of my friends at work, Tricia, had a birthday shortly after Christmas, and since she's been so good to me since I've started my job, I decided to make her something no one else had... a Florida State dry erase board!  Since she graduated from FSU and I lived in Tallahassee for a little while, we share a little bit of love for the school, and she really did need to start decorating her office.

Those of you who are familiar with my office decorations know I love my cardstock-and-picture-frame dry erase board, and I just think it's a must for everyone, at home or at school or at work.

So, to give you some background, here's the FSU seal...

I just glued some off-white cardstock to the cardboard backing that was already inside the frame, then drew and cut the seal pieces out of cardstock also.  I decided not to write any of the words on the seal since it would look busy if she actually used it as a dry erase board, but I may change my mind later.  Anyway, here it is!

Go Noles, indeed.

southern weddings ornament swap!

I know y'all want to see pictures from Amanda's wedding, but I'm still organizing and editing them, so hold your horses!

In the meantime, I may not be anywhere near marriage, but I've said before just how much I adore Southern Weddings magazine.  And they've updated their site since the last time I wrote about them, so make sure you visit!

Anyway, they host an ornament swap for their readers every year, so I sent in my info back in November so I could participate.  Then, one of the editors sent me the names of three other girls to whom I should send ornaments, and they would each also send me one!  How awesome is that, considering this is my first year having my very own Christmas tree?  I knew I wanted the ones I sent to be crafty and personal, so since the girls I had were from Texas, New Jersey, and Virginia, here's what I came up with!

The heart was placed over each girl's hometown.

Southern Weddings is based in Chapel Hill, so I sent them a North Carolina ornament for their tree!

I also sent each recipient a card with some holly berries glued to the back for a cute little touch.

I made sure I sent one to my family, and I sent a Georgia-shaped one to Bekah, and a Florida-shaped one to Tricia!

If you're wondering how I made these, they really weren't that hard.  I bought some red and green felt at Michael's and drew each state backwards on the back of the green felt (just so the black marker outline wouldn't be visible from the front).  Once I cut them out, I also cut out some red hearts and super glued them on the states.  Then, I filled each ornament with some fake snow and a few artificial holly berries.  Next, I sewed some transparent thread through the top center of each state and the two holes in the top of each ornament's hook, keeping the ends together by securing them with a crimp bead.  Then, the states were able to stand up by themselves!  In order to get the states in the ornaments, I had to roll them up like burritos and push them through the top, but once they were through, I used a pencil to push them against the sides of the ornament and flatten them back out.

Here are the ornaments I received from the other girls!

From Angelica in Austin, TX...

From Southern Weddings (a snowflake made out of one of their magazine pages!)

From Janice in Falls Church, VA...

...and from Stacey in Midland Park, NJ!

Aren't they all just so cute?!?  It has been so fun getting so many packages in the mail, and now our tree feels even more homey!

my (almost) party favors

I still can't believe I did this.  I drove to Raleigh last Friday afternoon to start preparing for Amanda's shower, and I decided it would be fun to give out party favors at the end.  But I don't do little boxes of candy... that's way too easy and cliche.  I have a small obsession with mason jars, so I decided, at 99 cents each, the favor needed to involve a mason jar.  Soon, the whole idea came together...

First, I filled each jar with about twelve jumbo marshmallows.

Then, I lashed together three cinnamon sticks with twine, leaving quite a bit of twine on either side of the sticks.



Next, I printed a recipe for Cinnamon Hot Chocolate using "scraps" of 4"x4" off-white cardstock and some fun fonts from dafont.com!  I punched a hole in the corner of each one.

Then, I threaded one side of the twine through the hole and tied the ends in a bow around the jar.

TA-DAAA!  Easy, inexpensive party favors, and I got all my supplies, except the marshmallows, from AC Moore!

Here's the bad part: I totally forgot to give them out!  So, now I have about twenty marshmallow-filled mason jars sitting in my room, but I figure I'll either pass them out to my coworkers as Christmas gifts or I'll write a Bible verse on the back and pass them out to my neighbors.  Either way, they're not staying here!

And if you're interested in the recipe, here it is!

Cinnamon Hot Chocolate

Ingredients

1 ¾ cups nonfat milk powder

1 cup icing sugar

½ cup cocoa

½ cup nondairy creamer

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¾ cup hot milk

As many marshmallows (jumbo or itty bitty) as you like!

Preparation

In a large bowl, thoroughly stir together milk powder, sugar, cocoa, creamer, and cinnamon.  Gently stir in marshmallows.  Pour Cinnamon Hot Chocolate mix into an airtight jar.  Can be stored in a cool, dry place for about three months.



p.s. i made this.

Molly and I have a new favorite book!  Well, that may not be entirely fair to say, because Molly devours books and probably has a million favorites, but this one is definitely my new favorite!  It's called P.S. I made this (hello, my life motto), and it just happened to be featured last week on Martha Stewart's Craft of the Day, which, of course, lands in my inbox daily.  The craft from this book that passed Martha's discerning filter was this awesome and completely unexpected bouncy ball necklace, which is not as ugly as it sounds!

It's made with black hosiery and basic bouncy balls, all stuff that you can find at the dollar store!  Anyway, Molly and I got the craft itch Wednesday night and decided to venture out and grab supplies to make some.  Bouncy balls are actually kind of hard to find these days because of the choking hazard (lame, my generation survived), but fortunately, the Dollar Tree already had their Christmas decorations out!  So...

...we grabbed these and just yanked the tops off of each one.  It worked beautifully!  Once we grabbed the hose, the whole process took no more than thirty minutes.  We just cut the waist off the hose, cut the toe off, then knotted one end, dropped each ball in and followed it with more knots until we were happy!  And this is what we got!

So cute!  To visit the P.S. I made this blog, click here, and to buy the book, click here!  It's the weekend, get crafting!

bridal shower invitations

I realize these last two posts have been 100% wedding, but I can't help it!  At least this one is about something I did myself.  I sent out invitations to the shower I'm hosting for Amanda this past Wednesday, and once I got past the frustration of creating a printing template from scratch, I really loved them!

I bought the cardstock pieces from Swoozies during their liquidation sale back in April, so I got a great deal!  Putting together your own invitations instead of buying pre-designed ones adds a little work to the process, but y'all know how I feel about crafts.  It was really hard to wait six months to put them together!  Plus, that means they're one of a kind, and I love that!

And, just in case you missed the post on my old blog, here's the invitation from her bachelorette beach party a few months ago... I think I'm even prouder of that one!

Happy Friday!