Gettin in the Holiday Spirit

I made these ornaments a while ago, but just now am getting around to posting about it.

These are sooo easy I cant stand it!  For years I have been making ornaments by marbling paint.  They look amazing but its so wasteful of paint and took so long to dry.  For the new ornaments all you need is a clear ornament, picks (those sticks of fun things in the holiday craft section), scrapbook paper, wallet size picture, tweezers.  Be careful when you decide on the picks you want, you have to make sure they will fit in the opening of your ornament.  Now comes the fun part...getting your pictures ready!  I forgot to do cool stuff to my pictures before I printed them, but you can always add the year or a phrase on the picture using a photo editing program.  I have picasa, but probably any program will work.  I printed 6 pictures on 5x7 photo paper and those sizes seemed to work well for me, but I dont know for sure how big they were, I just eye-balled it :) .  After you cut out the pictures tape them to your scrapbooking paper.  I did a red/white/green theme, but there are endless possibilities for you to do.  I didnt make the border around the picture too big because I was worried about it fitting in the ornament, but you can always play with it to find what works best for you.  I also used a glue stick at first but that didnt stick when I went to put them in the ornament so thats why I recommend using tape, that seemed to work well for me.  Before you put the picture in fill the ornament up with the pick you decided on.  It took almost a whole pick for each ornament, but that was very full so depending on how full you want the ornament will depend on how many picks you need.  Once you have your ornament full roll your picture up in a small tube and slide it into the ornaments.  Using the tweezers, unroll the picture and try and flatten it back out.  This was the hardest part of all this and does take some patience, but if you are using long thin tweezers you should be fine.  Once you get your picture in a good position, put the top back on your ornament and you are finished!!  I decided to not put a ribbon on my ornaments this year since the inside was already so colorful but you can always add ribbion if your heart desiers...mine usually does :)  Happy crafting, I hope yours turn out fantastic!

Project Housewife Out!

Oh Christmas Tree!

Today is shopping day for my weekend project.  This weekend I am going to be making my own advent calendar.  When I was a kid my mom (supremely crafty woman) made us an advent calendar with all these cute little ornaments that you stuck on a tree, one each day.  Well, unfortunately I cant sew a stitch so I had to be a little more simplistic when I decided to make mine.  Through Pinterest I found this great idea to have "christmas experiences" rather than christmas treats.  Since I dont have any kids I thought this would be a great mix up from the original advent calendar idea.  Although this post http://kimmccrary.blogspot.com/2010/12/activities-advent.html had mostly ideas to do with the kids it gave me a stepping stone to make my own ideas (which I am still working on).  Now I just had to find the perfect calendar idea.  After much searching and finding a few very LAME calendars (and when I say lame, I mean they were out of a cupcake tin).  I came acorss this awesomeness... http://shannonmakesstuff.blogspot.com/2009/11/felt-advent-calendar.html .  On first glance this looked like it would be perfect!  Ornaments on a tree how easy...boy was I wrong!  This was sewing at its finest, but I decided that the bare bones of this project was perfect for what I was looking for and went on making my adjustments.  Rather than sew I will be using my trusty hem tape.  Rather than handing each ornament on the tree, I am going to use said hem tape to "sew" the ornaments to the tree and make pockets for the "experiences" I come up with.  Other than those slight (*cough* major *cough*) changes everything else will be the same.  So today the shopping begins for my many shades of felt and some ribbon.  Stay tuned as I update on this hopefully easy project.

Omaha Conclusion

Today is the last day in Omaha, and I have to say Im happy to be going home!!  Everyone in Omaha is nice, and there is NO traffic compared to Houston, but if is 40 degrees in November, I would hate to see what the weather is like in January...there is a reason I live in Houston people!! 

Last night we had the pleasure of staying in the downtown district of Omaha, and while they only have 2 buildings tall enough to be called skyscrapers, it was a cute charming little downtown.  And I do mean little, is about 6 blocks total.  My co-worker has been to Omaha before and remembered a quaint little restaurant that she had a great time at and wanted to go to again.  This place is called Upstream http://upstreambrewing.com/ and I have to say it was pretty darn good.  There was a wide variety of food on the menu and they also had a very cool brewery that you could see from the restaurant.  Now Im not a beer drinker so I can attest to the quality of the beer, but there was fair amount of locals there so that has to tell you something.  I had the Mac and Cheese...now I know what your thinking, why get Mac and Cheese when I can have that anywhere.  Well Ill tell you, this Mac and Cheese was DELISH!  It was also the recomendation of the waitress and it lived up to the hype.  Creamy goodness with chives and ham...yum yum yum.  My co-worker had the filet mignon which looked delish but I cant say for sure because eating off someone else's plate is nasty.  I also finally gave in and had myself some dessert.  They had a lemon whoopie pie and while it was tasty, it did not have blue bell icecream so it will never be as awesome as it could be...Blue Bell makes everything better.  For those of you who have never had Blue Bell, you dont know what you are missing and need to fix that problem quick fast and in a hurry!! http://www.bluebell.com/
Go now!  Quick!!

Overall, business wise Omaha was a success and a trip well spent.  Now its time to get home and rush to Target to get the new Harry Potter...

I love Harry Potter and cait WAIT to see all the special features!!  I have a project in mind to show my love of Harry Potter, but I cant sew so Im not sure how well it will turn out, stayed tuned on that. 

Project Housewife Out!

40 degrees and FREEZING!!

Hello from Omaha Nebraska!!  Stepping of the plane it was a chilly 40 degrees.  A HUGE change from the 80 degree weather I had just left in Houston.  On the way to the hotel the cab driver (from West Africa) said it was suppossed to snow last night...WHAT...snow...in November!  Dorothy I dont think I'm in Texas anymore.  Well I didnt believe this man (why should I he has only lived here for 8 years, lol) so I checked the forecast and sure enough there was a 70% chance of rain or snow.  So I set my room thermostat as high as it would go and prepared for a white morning.  Unfortunatley the 70% chance was fufilled with rain and not snow so I didnt get to wake up to snow, but there is always tomorrow.  I dont know how many of you have been to Nebraska but it is very windy...I felt a little like I was in Chicago as much as I was being blown around.  Thank goodness for short hair otherwise no brush would have saved my life.  Since I dont have much to post on today in way of a new project Im working on, Im going to share with you a project I did a few weeks ago.  Below is a picture of the finished product.

This idea I have to say came from pinterest but it was so cute I had to make my own.  This is a 11x14 picture frame with a piece of fabric as the backgroud and the wording is printed on a transparancy.  You could print on the fabric directly but unfortunatley I dont have a printer that is large enough to handle 11x14 paper.  I taped the fabric to the backing of the picture frame, put the transparancy in front of the fabric and put it all together.  The point of this is to take a dry erase marker and write something cute to your significant other each day or whenever you have a chance really.  So this whole thing took 10 minutes and is a great quick and easy way to add a cute twist to any space.  I put mine in my bathroom (the fabric was leftover from the curtain I made for my bathroom) and its the perfect fit.  If you would like to see how to print on fabric here is the link I would have used if my printer was larger http://moderndaymoms.com/make-it-yourself-monday-printing-on-fabric/ and honestly if you print directly on the fabric it will look better.  On a side note, you can also use scrapbooking paper for this, I just used fabric because I had some great fabric scraps that were perfect for this project.

Project Housewife Out!

Finally Finished!!

The dresser is finally finished and I have to say it looks great.  Joe did the painting on it, because I honestly dont have a steady hand and cant draw a straight line to save my life.  Here is a picture of the final product.

 The design came from a picture I saw online and was flipped for the right side of the dresser.  To make things easier on yourself if you ever try to do a design I would recommend getting a projector to get the design on the dresser if you want a perfect pattern on each side. 

I have to say it is so nice to finally have this dresser done...it only took 2 weeks!!

To see the whole process check out the paint post, and the take apart phase. 

This week I am going to Omaha Nebraska for work so I wont be working on any projects, but I do have a few updates saved for when I get back so stayed tuned!!

Project Housewife Out!

Im Linking Up!  Come check me out at The Rooster and the Hen

Run Away with Me!

Yesterday was craft night for myself and my friend Lauren.  We decided to tackle making table runners since neither one of us could find a runner that matched what we were looking for.  So thank you pinterest.com for having articles on how to make a table runner!  Im going to walk you through my 2 hour table runner night of fun!

First things first, you need to go out and get your supplies!  I bought 2 yards (too much is better than not enough!) of a fabric that I thought would best fit what i was going for.  I also bought 2 packages of fusable hem tape beacuse I cant sew to save my life, and 2 tassles for something fancy on the ends.  All the supplies can be found at Hobby Lobby or Joanns, although Joanns has by far the larger fabric selection.  Other supplies you will need is an iron, fabric scissors, and fabric pins.  All of the supplies I used are in the picture below.

To get started you need to measure out the length and width you want your runner to be, add 2 inches to each side to be sure you have enough to make the hem.  Cut the fabric to your dimensions.  I didnt double the fabric up to make it puffier since mine was just going on the dresser and I honestly didnt want a thick table runner, but you can leaver the fabric doubles if you want to.  Once you cut your fabric now we can make the triangle points on each end.  I just did a freehand triangle from the sheet of 8.5x11 plain white paper, but you can always do something more precise if you are a perfectionist (if one day I sell these then I will but since this was just for me and I didnt have all the right tools I made do with what I had).  To cut the triangle out, I taped the template to the back side of the fabric (always make the cuts on the backside, well at least thats what I do) and cute about 1 inch away from the actual template.  So there was a black edge all around the triangle so that I could make my hem.  Below is a picture of the "finished" step

You can see I already pinned, but here is how I pinned the triangle:  I left the triangle template in place and folded the fabric over the template.  Carefully slide the template out from under the fabric and pin the edges together all the way down the edge, do the same for both edges of the triangle.  Now repeat this step for the other end of the runner.  Now you are ready to do the length of the runner.  I do have to admit that my lines were not as straight as they could have been, but again I dont have a fancy table with lines like some major crafters do so I just made do with a table top, but if you have one of those big boards with all the lines on them, I would suggest using it as it will help you make great straight lines.  Remember from earlier you have 2 inches of extra fabric on each side of your runner, fold over 1 inch and pin in place all the way down the runner.  Repeat that step for the other side of the runner.  Now with everything pinner you are ready to iron.  This step is really important because once you remove the pins, if you didnt iron your fabric, it will just flip back over and you will have to do your work all over again.  Now take your iron and iron down all the edges, removing the pins as you go.  I always keep my iron on high heat so I make sure it gets pressed down really well.  Run your iron over the fabric for about 10 seconds each lengh and that should be good.  Once you have ironed the whole runner and taken out all the pins you are ready to seal your hems.  Cut the hem tape in strips that fit the triangle tips and the entire length of the runner.  Hem take has a sticker like backing that you have to remove before you iron it on so make sure you remove that before you iron.  Once you have your strips of hem tape and the backing removed, stick that between the bottom of the fabric and the folded over edge of the fabric.  Once all the hem tape is in place you can start ironing.  Make sure you give about 30 seconds per each section of the iron so the hem tape gets melted in place.  If you feel like 30 seconds isnt long enough then leave it on a little longer.  Below is a picture of the sealed edges, its not perfect but hey it looks good to me!! 

Once you get all the way around and all your edges are sealed you are ready to put the tassles on, if you decided tassles were the way to go for you (and why wouldnt you they are so much fun!)  What I did, since like I said I cant sew to save my life, I used the hem tape again to seal them to the runner.  I make 2 strips of hem tape the length of the ribbon that was attached to my tassle and ironed it to the runner.  The ribbon that was on my tassle was not satin ribbon but the kind where the glue can come through, so I let that sit for about 10 minutes to make sure it was dry before I did anything with it.  Once your tassles are on, you are ready to put your beautiful runner wherever you want!  I hope this was easy for you, and if it wasnt, let me know how I can make it easier!!  Below is a picture of my runner before it went on the dresser (the dresser in the previous posts that is getting a makeover, come back for the completed project soon)

Project Houewife out!!

Until the Paint Dries...

A whole week has gone by and still the dresser porject continues!  We had a slight hiccup with the sprayer we used for painting the dresser...that hiccup being we didnt know how to use it.  Thankfully my dad is a handyman and was able to help out.  A good tip from him that I will now forever remember for thinning paint is this: you thin it with what you would clean it with.  Wow did I have a light bulb moment!  Unfortunatley for us we had already thinned a good amount of our while high gloss white paint with paint thinner so we had to throw that out.  For a gallon you only need 1 cup of water to thin paint out enough to go through a sprayer, if you over thin the paint it will be runny and leave bubbles on what you are painting so less is more in this case.  Anyway, once we got the sprayer going it looks great!  Now we are off to painting the design on the drawers, waiting for my glass knobs to come in the mail, I need to make the table runner and lastly I think I want to get some contact paper to put in the drawers for a complete finished look.  So needless to say I dont have any great pictures, except for the pretty glossy white dresser put back together...enjoy.

Now, since I dont have much to share today I wanted to introduce you to my baby Oreo.  He is a beautiful Border Collie we adopted from Texas Collie Rescue.  I love this organization, they are the nicest people you will meet and truly love Collies.  Linda heads up the organization and she is just as friendly as can be, so if you are looking for a dog, please please please consider adpotion.  These dogs need just as much love as all those cute little puppies do.  If you are interested in rescuing a Collie you can visit Texas Collie Rescue at http://www.texascollierescue.org/ .  I feel like Bob Barker from the Price is Right when I say adopt a pet, but he always said to spay and neuter them so I guess its a little different.

So here is Oreo:

My loveable little puppy...well not really a puppy come on all of us dog lovers always call our full grown dogs puppies!  Oreo is so smart, we are thinking about teaching him agility...I think someone trained him in the past because he has a lot of actions that make me think he did some training.  If  anyone knows how to train a border collie in agaility please let me know I would love any and all suggestions!!
Project Housewife signing off!