Camera strap covers....

Ever since I got my Nikon, I have been eyeing those adorable camera strap covers you see on Etsy. And I have a beautiful and wonderfully talented photographer friend that I needed to get a gift for, so I decided to try and make them myself.

First I had to find the right fabric. That was by FAR the hardest part. Seriously, I've been looking for the "right" fabric since Christmas. I finally settled on a damask, and a cherry print.

The construction of this could not be easier. Basically, you cut a strip of fabric the length of your strap. Cut a piece of felt the same size, and quilt it to your pattern fabric. The quilting isn't "necessary" but those cameras are kinda heavy so I thought the extra padding would be nice :)


Then you sew it, and turn it right side out. That's IT!!!!! Well, actually, in our case, we side stitched them so that the seam would always stay on the back of the strap. But that is a completely unnecessary step...so don't feel like its a must.

They turned out rather well, and I was pleased to package them up for my friend Liz. Check out her photography blog...shes quite talented!!!!!!!

As I see it...

My very FAVORITE project to date...

This is the story of a door. A lonely door that I spotted on the side of the road one day. I brought said door home with me (ok, that's a lie, I actually took it where all things I don't have a plan for go...my moms house.) The door has sat there for the past 2 years.

Then, one day while perusing one of my fav craft blogs JSIM, I came across a tutorial for reverse window painting. GADZOOKS, could that be the answer to my door dilemma?!?!?!?

So, I brought the door home from moms and got to work. I have to tell you, this whole reverse thing MESSED WITH ME....I just could not wrap my head around it. But I did it. Got the whole thing done, let it dry and then realized, I had painted THE WRONG SIDE!!!!!!!!! I wanted my pictures to be to the right of our name, and I had painted it with them LEFT. UGH. I need to express tho, that this was NOT the techniques fault. This was all user error. If you look at the tutorial link I gave above, you'll see that Miss Cathe has NO problems rockin' out some window signs!!! So if you don't have a Cricut, I do HIGHLY recommend the technique! :)

Whats a girl to do? I thought about another tutorial I read, about a lowly breadbox turned fabulouso, and I knew what I needed to do. I must buy a Cricut. Bought myself a Cricut Expression, and some vinyl and fell in love! The process was relatively easy, although, I used painters tape instead of transfer tape, and I wonder if the transfer tape would've made the process smoother? Maybe some of you Cricut wonders can fill a newbie like me in?

Once I got the vinyl applied I dirtied it up to match the rest of the door (I had purchased white vinyl and it was wayyyy too white up against that dirty door.) Then I cut out card stock to use as backgrounds and used the smaller windows to frame out some photos.


I HEART my Cricut, and I HEART vinyl!!!! This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship...

Oh, and I HEART this door. I love that I took something that someone that thrown out with the trash into something so wonderful. Makes me smile every time I look at it... :)

Anthropologie pretties for...FREE?!?!?!?

Technically, this post should be called "confessions of a former dumpster diver." But that's a whole nother post...so, instead, I will share with you one of my greatest dumpster diving treasures. We found this filing box in a dumpster and when I tried to pull it out I noticed it was rather heavy. It was FULL of vintage costume jewelry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In the past few years my mom has added to the collection, but when I saw this on Anthropologie's website today, I knew just where to go for supplies...


I already had the stretchy cord on hand so I just needed to de-construct and re-construct some broken strands of pearls


Once they were all re-strung, it was simply a matter of pinning the brooch onto the pearls. Yup, that's it. Which is AWESOME because I can switch the brooch out depending on what outfit I'm gonna wear!!!!!!


So whaddya think? I think I just saved myself $58!! :)

I'd like to thank the academy...

I can't believe that someone (Kelly Howard over at chickncharge) would give little ole me a BLOGGER AWARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOO FLIPPIN HOOOOOOOOOOOOO, I'm over the moon about it!

Now the rules of the award are this:

1) Post the award

2) Thank and mention the person who gave you the award

3) Pass the award on to 7 other bloggers who you feel are deserving of the award

4) Tell 7 things about yourself that others don't know

5) Be sure to tell your 7 about the award and post links to their blog :)

So, here's my 7:

1) Mad in Crafts...for several reasons, 1)her background is killer, 2)she was the first blogger to feature me, 3) her Dollar Barn Easter decorations are UH-MAZING :)

2) Centsational Girl...she was the very FIRST craft blog I started to read, and I LUVVVVV her before and afters!

3) Dollar Store Crafts...this goes without saying, but I could live at the dollar store, so I LOVE their ideas!

4) Fireflies and Jellybeans...I always find the COOLEST links on her blog, I have gotten so many ideas from there!

5) All thingz related...cuz shes a new blogger just like me and shes brilliant. Check out what she did to this dresser!!!!!!!!!!

6) The tip junkie...this chiquita knows how to PARTY (link party that is...) Tip me Tuesday ROCKS!

7) Poppies at Play...LOVE her projects, in fact, this project simply forced me to buy a cricut :)

Welp, there you have it...

As for my 7 facts...

1) I LURVE mullets, and midgets.

2) I do NOT lurve turkeys and squirrels (they freak me out).

3) If I could re-make the food pyramid, there would only be one group...ice cream.

4) When I was a kid I wanted to be a photographer, now I don't even know how to work my camera.

5) In high school I had a cross dressing neighbor who appeared on Jerry Springer. (You need to know that the reason that was a big deal is cuz I grew up on a farmette out in the country and NOTHING interesting happened there...EVER. Well...not till Jake/Debby moved in...)

6) I absolutely LOVE New Kids on the Block...I've been to 4 of their concerts, including one last year ;)

7) My 1 celebrity obsession that my husband thinks is funny...NICK LACHEY......um, hello, YUM!!!!!!!!!!!! Followed closely by Channing Tatum, and Ryan Reynolds...

You could be the next Picasso...

We crafters all have an endless supply of paint, but how many of us actually paint? I mean, like as in a painting?

I have all these blank canvases and one day I just decided to give it a go.

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOO sick of the snow, and I'm totally obsessed with birds right now, so I knew I wanted a bird/springy looking painting.

I looked up some videos on you tube about different techniques I wanted to try and then I got to work.

All in all I think it turned out alright. I am OBVIOUSLY not the next Picasso...but still, not too terrible :) I'm just glad I decided to give it a try. I took 4 years of art in high school and painting was my absolute FAVORITE thing. But I forgot how truly therapeutic it is to sit down and just run with it. Give it a try this week, you'll thank me later!!!!!!!! :)

Ballard Design does it again...

Did you see these beauties in the Ballard catalog? I am ALL about phrases randomly placed around my house, so I loved them as soon as I saw them. But $49 per letter?!?!?!?! At that price I could barely afford an exclamation point! So, I set out to copy them.

It started at the Dollar Tree, where I found these foam wreath things. Then, while at Michael's, I found these foam letters for...you guessed it $1.




Again, black spray paint, I LOOOOOooooooOOOOOVvvveeeeeee my spray paint. After I painted them up I took some white muslin and cut out circles. After that, it was a simple matter of hot glue. They turned out great, and for under $10, I got a $200 word! I will say you can see a bit of the foam texture, but I'm not afraid of a little texture, so it doesn't bother me any :)




As for why I picked that word...I'm currently in the midst of fertility treatments, and Hopeful is how I'm trying to remain... :)

Ghost town headboard...

You can make a headboard out of anything. Literally. My post today is proof of that.

I believe I may have mentioned a time or 100 that my mom is a pack rat. Comes in handy tho, so I can't complain. 50+ years ago, my grandfather owned a trucking business. They hauled lots of things, but mostly livestock. So, one day while rummaging through my moms outbuildings, I came across an old gate used in one of the trucks to keep the livestock separated. It was ugly. Filthy, ugly to be exact, but a light bulb went off in my head.

You see, my little man, LOVES horses, cowboys, and anything to do with the wild wild west, his room is even decorated in a wild west theme. And when I saw this gate it reminded me of something you'd see in a ghost town. So, I knew I must have it. The assembly was simple, bolt 2x4's to the frame of the bed and then use about a billion screws to hold the headboard in place. It turned out great, and I get a TON of comments on it when people come over!

Necklace, take two...

OK, so today's necklace (I swear, I'll get off my jewelry kick soon) is brought to you courtesy of Cathe over at Just something I made. Here's the tutorial on how to make one of these darling little nests.

Though she used hers for different projects, I knew instantly I needed this as a necklace! Right now, I'm in my typical winter funk, and for whatever reason, my desire for spring has put me into a complete aviary obsession!

As for supplies, I got these gorgeous beads at Hobby Lobby along with some copper wire. I know Cathe used silver in hers, but we all know how I feel about brown and turquoise so I knew mine must be copper! :)

If you haven't checked out Just something I made yet, you need to. You'll be glad you did! I have another project going currently cuz of her expertise...but thats another post...

I'm on a jewelry kick...

I'm on a jewelry kick this week, and what started it all, was this $1 belt I got at wally world. Maybe its cuz I secretly wanted jewelry for Valentines Day and didn't get any. So back to the belt, cute in theory, way too flashy for me. So, I thought, "I can't NOT get this for $1, but what the heck am I gonna do with it?"



Enter a chain from Hobby Lobby for $1.25, and it hit me...NECKLACE.......

I love it, just can't decide whether I like it vertical or horizontal better...

Vintage frames for your vintage photos...

Well folks, its time for another installment of "My Mom's Basement." This week, these um, er, lovely? frames are brought to you courtesy of the black hole that is my mom's cellar. OK, so, they aren't so lovely right now, just hold your horses. Nothing a little spray paint can't fix. Ahhhh, spray paint, the crafter's Prozac...it hides all the imperfections... :)



After that, I hit the edges with a little silver glaze and then in pops a HUGE bag of brown burlap that I got from freecycle (I KNOW...who just gives away burlap??!?!?!? I mean seriously. I should mention, that the person who gave away the burlap happens to read this blog. And to answer your question Penny, no, you may not have the burlap back now. Sorry :)

After hot gluing the burlap to the back of the large frame, I made a couple of fabric flowers from the burlap, added some cute silver buttons to tie in the glaze and VOILA, magic.


After hanging the large frame on the wall, I figured out where I wanted to hang the small frame and nailed through the burlap into the wall. Then, I hung the small frame on that nail, and I am LOVING how this looks.


This is a photo of my grandmother (still living), and I just love this era. She looks so sassy...and she is, BELIEVE ME! :)



This would work great for any photo tho I think, it doesn't HAVE to be a vintage photo to look great in these frames!!!!

Knockin' off da barn!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I got a brand spanking new Pottery Barn catalog this weekend and I was all too excited to get to recreating. The first project that caught my eye were these lovely mirrored bowls...



Aren't they gorgeous???? Then I saw $79 a piece...sorry, but they aren't THAT gorgeous.

So, I set out to re-create these. Heres my supplies, and I'll break down the costs for ya in a second :)



I got the bowls at salvation army, round total for those $1.79
Liquid nails at Walmart $2.17
Mirrors for small bowls came from the dollar store, in the candle section $4.00 total
Mirror for large bowl came from Hobby Lobby $2.47
Picture hanging kit came from Dollar Tree $1.00

So, with labor, you figure it cost me about $12.00 for 5 of them (considering they took all of 10 minutes to make.

I used liquid nails to glue the mirrors inside, and then I screwed these little picture hangers in the back to hang them by.

I think they make a nice little grouping in my kitchen and since it would have cost me $395 + tax and shipping at the barn, I'm pretty darn excited about these babies...