Hand-Painted Pillows and.. No Internet?!?!

I know...it's been a while!

My husband and I decided to try getting rid of TV/internet for a while. Our apartment complex has a business center (that has FREE lattes), and so we've been using their internet for the time being.

It may sound archaic, and it's definitely a little inconvenient, but the benefits we've seen make a case for not getting it back again anytime soon.

We may change our mind during football season, but for now it's looking good. We don't waste as much time on facebook, email, hulu, and watching pointless TV. We spend more time together, and we have to walk whenever we want to check our email, blog, or other things. Now, my husband does have a smart phone, so important weather or news updates we get that way (and he has access to his work emails). That may be what makes this a little more do-able. But in any case, I do like not having internet and TV at home. Being a housewife there is always huge temptation to spend time watching TV or wasting hours on the internet. Now I have to plan my internet time and that makes my work more efficient!

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Okay, now onto the fun, crafty stuff:

Recently I made some pillows for our living room! We were so blessed to be given furniture when we got married! Though it didn't all match, and wasn't necessarily our style. So I thought I'd paint some pillows to help tie things together. I really loved this process and so I captured a few moments of the creating!

These are the fronts to the big blue ones:

And this is mid-painting of the monogram pillow:

Here are the fronts laid on the couch (to make sure I liked the size):

In this photo you can see the reason for the big blue pillows! -- A big blue futon! :)

And now for the stuffing and sewing!:

I don't like limp pillows, so I stuffed them REALLY full!

I used a sewing machine for 3 sides, and the corners of the 4th side.

Used safety pins to hold the opening closed while I hand sewed the last bit.

And Viola!

An this is the monogrammed pillow.

And one of them all together!

I absolutely loved making pillows! I have them for sale right now on my shop, if you're interested in something like this.

Okay, that's all for now! Soon I'll have a fantastic bagel recipe for you, and pics. from our anniversary road trip! (Yep, this time we managed to bring out the camera every once in a while!)

Have a great Wenesday!

Dusty Days

This weekend we cleaned out my husband's old things from his childhood home. He reminiced while I listened to tons of funny stories that were being exchanged over old clothes, toys and pictures. We had a great time! We brought all 5 bins back to our place, complete with 15+ years of dust. Needless to say our apartment smelled like basement, and itched our eyes like one too. As one could only assume, getting these unpacked and dusted was my first priority the last couple of days.

I managed to find a place for all but 2 bins of things in our small first apartment! Took me a while, but today I finally got to dust and vaccuum since we brought the basement home with us. It feels (and smells) wonderful!

We've also been listening to the Real Marriage sermons lately from Mark Driscoll. It's been humbling to hear the ideas he's teaching about friendship, unity, and marriage. We've only been married 6 months (and are still firmly planted in the "honeymoon" phase) but it's always good to be working on your marriage, just like it's always good to be growing in Christ. (It's usually when you think you've got it figured out, that you need the most help.) Anyways, I highly reccomend them, even if you're single.

Today I also managed to create a new save the date. I've been swooning over all the chevron patterns lately, so that's what this was inspired by! As always, critiques are welcome!

(view in the shop)

New Items on Etsy!

I posted a few new items to my shop this morning, here's a sneak peak!

 

Two-sided Crocheted Infinity Scarf

{click to see in the shop}

3 Color T-shirt Necklace

(Teal, Plum, & Rust)

{click to see in the shop}

Mint Green T-shirt necklace

{click to see in the shop}

Georgia Tech (White & Gold) T-Shirt Necklace

{click to see in the shop}

Beaded necklace/earring set

{click to see in the shop}

Mint green set

Mint Green braided t-shirt necklace

{click to see in the shop}

Working a Latte

Lately I've been slacking.

I realized the other day, when we had my husband's grandparents over for dinner, that on a normal day, I can accomplish a basic clean of our home in 3 hours. (That's putting stuff away, sweeping, dusting, vaccuuming, cleaning counters after cooking, doing a couple loads of dishes, making up our bedroom for people to see, cleaning toilets, wiping down the tub/shower, cleaning the bathroom counters and mirrors and a couple loads of laundry). 

So why then, on a normal day, does it take me 8 hrs.? Because at the very core of it, I procrastinate. I take breaks. Nothing is rushed, because I have all day. 

Life at home didn't start this way. It really did use to take me 8 hours to do all of that, and cook dinner. But now, by the power of God, I've seen real progress! Which is great! But I don't think God would have me grow in this area just to sit around once I'm done with that part of my job.

So after talking to my husband, we decided I should put 3 hours a day towards my Etsy shop goals. This shop is something I started just for fun, and we aren't using it for income, but I have a long term goal of growing it as well. 

Creating this shop will, hopefully, help me learn to be proud of my work, and not shy away from saying "yes, I DID make that" when people ask. I started this blog as a part of this long term goal. It helps me think about marketing my shop, and myself. It helps me stand up for the lifestyle I believe in as well.

So today began my first day! :)

(I made myself a caramel macchiato -- ya know just to get the creative juices flowing)

Caramel Macchiato:

10 oz. of your fav. coffee, brewed
4 oz. of your fav. milk, steamed
A dash of caramel creamer (in the milk before steaming)
Caramel sauce to taste

Steamed Milk:
I don't know if this is the correct way to do this, but it seems to get the job done taste/texture wise.

• Put milk in a saucepan on high heat. 
• Whisk until a nice thick foam forms on top.
• Pour milk into coffee (will be liquid not foam)
• Spoon the foam off the top of leftover milk (in pan) to on top of the coffee. 

I did the cleaning before 11am today, so then by the time my "3 hrs." of design work were up, I felt like continuing! So I probably spent 6 hrs. working on stuff today.

I gave my online shop a makeover, and made business cards:

Then my dear friend, who is newly-engaged, called about ideas for wedding crafts, so I spent the rest of the time grabbing inspiration for that, and then of course writing this blog post.

Today feels way more productive than my recent days. I didn't watch any TV at all! :)


Praise GOD!

DIY Farmhouse Vase...

This is a cute vase you can make very easily from left over beer/glass soda bottles and yarn. They would make really awesome (& cheap) centerpieces at a wedding or shower! The wildflowers help it look even better! (c/o my mother-in-law).

I used rolled-up tissue paper as a spacer to keep the bottles the same distance from each other. This is only needed if you're going to wrap multiple bottles together, and you may be able to get away without any kind of spacer, it just helped me.

Start with the bottles sitting on a table in the configuration you want them to be in. 

Tightly twist the tissue paper until it is a dense shape that will fit the space between the bottles. You may want to use scotch tape to hold the tissue together.

Make a loop around one bottle with the yarn, and make a knot to hold it in place.

Begin wrapping the yarn around each bottle in a way that creates a triangle around the tissue in the middle (this creates the cool weave-like pattern on the sides of each bottle.)

If you want, you can do the same to the neck of the bottle.

I apologize for the short, non-detailed instructions! I hurt my thumb this week, so typing has been a little troublesome, but if you want more detailed instructions, leave a comment below, and I'll put them up once my thumb is better.

Tis the season...

...for weddings!

With wedding season right around the corner, I've had the opportunity to design a few "Save the Date" postcards.

The people I've worked with all loved this one design, and the guests that have received them rave about how good they look!

Check it out for yourself! I've listed some below here:

(Personal information, of course, has been changed)

Writer's Block

So I haven't had time to write in, well, quite a while. The holidays were very busy.

I'm actually not sure I have time to write much but here's a re-cap:

• I made the pumpkin pie, and it was a hit! Though I tried to make two, and messed up the 2nd pie a million times! So I only took one.

• Saw lots of loved ones, and had a blast going to two different Thanksgiving meals as newly weds!

• Got a table and chairs for an early Christmas Present! Our house is looking homier every day it seems!

• We're going to be more intentional about working out/ prayer times/ and eating right.

• The book "A Praying Life" By Paul E. Miller, is really good! I'm almost done, and will give a full book review when I am. But we're going to work on some of the prayer cards it suggests in the book.

• Made homemade honey-wheat bread for sandwhiches, and sundried tomato french bread for hour Italian dinner last night! All of which tasted amazing-- I love bread!

• Got books on crocheting, upholstery, gardening, and yoga. They're on loan from the library, so I only have them for 3 weeks! There's no way I'm going to learn all that I want to from the books before they're do back!

• Had dinner with some new friends! They're our first married couple friends. (not the first friends that are married, but the first couple we met as a couple, if that makes sense) anyways, they go to our church. We have a lot of fun with them, even though they're U(sic)GA fans. :)

• I finally learned how to make the right consistency cookie!

• I made butternut squash / kale casserole (really yummy and gluten free)

• I made butternut squash soup with the other half of the squash (also gluten free)

• I finished one of the scarves for Christmas presents!

WHEW! Okay, that's about all the writing I have in me for today! Hopefully I will learn to manage my time better and incorporate blogging into my life. It's not something that comes natural to me, in fact I've started several blogs in my life and always deleted them within a month. I just haven't been able to get into it. But I decided with this one I wouldn't delete it, and if time went by with nothing written, that was okay. 

Alright, well off to clean my house! After doing all of those things, you can imagine it's a wreck!