Check me out on Etsy!

Well I have a new adventure in my life!  My friend Venessa & I have decided to open an Etsy shop & sell wreaths!  A few weeks ago we had a craft night & ended up making the exact same wreath.  We each made one for a co-worker & after having several people say, "you could sell these!" we've decided to do just that!

So check out our shop... 

www.etsy.com/shop/CutestDoorOnTheBlock 

We have four wreaths available right now, two fall and two winter.  Our plan is to add more each season.  Our accessories are all removable so that you can change them out seasonally.  And eventually we want to sell accessories a la carte.  Check us out!

I love wreaths!

I admit it. I have more wreaths than doors in my house. But I love them! A friend of mine & I decided to have a craft night this past weekend & both of us had independently seen a picture of this same wreath & bought all the supplies to make it!  We followed this tutorial.  

All you need it lots of burlap ribbon (I used almost 20 yards, but I made another one tonight & wove it more loosely like in the tutorial & only used about 12 yards), wreath frame & a flower or something decorative for flair. Super easy!  

Burlap everywhere!

What's not to love about poofy burlap?

All done & hanging on my front door!  The flower is a clip on so I can change out the flair seasonally.  Love it!

This Old House

Oh, this old house!  It's been almost a year since I did any major updates, but the time has come!  While my roommate has been away I've been busy doing some major projects this month!  Here's a bit of what I've done!  

When I bought the house in August 2009, every room was a different color...two shades of blue, two shades of green, teal, yellow and pink!  Last spring & summer I painted the teal bedroom light gray (Urban Gray from Lowe's) and loved it!  Then I painted the blue living room the same color and loved it as well!  This summer my goals included painting my bedroom (which was pink!) and the hallway (one of the greens) the same color gray.  And to re-organize my room & closet in the process!  My room organization is still a WIP, so the photos on that will have to wait...but I did finish the hallway!  And hung a gallery of pictures!  

Looking from my bedroom down the hallway to the living room.  

The gallery up close. 

And from the other angle (in case you're trying to see if you made the wall!)  :)

One of my other projects was to get a bench to serve as seating at the dining room table.  I got 4 mix-matched chairs last fall (two stained different shades & two that I painted red & turquoise).  The bench is painted with the leftover red paint.  I love it! 

It's distressed on purpose...not dirty...though that's how it looks in this picture!

The whole mix-matched set!  Come to my house for dinner & you can sit here!

Still on the to-do list: Finish organizing my closet, organize my storage/craft room, organize my garage.  We'll see how much gets done before Erin gets home (June 30!).  

Easter Craft

Outside...tornado warnings!  Inside...craftiness!  :)  One of my co-workers found this idea for making Easter eggs from paint samples online today!  Aren't they fun?!  

The blog she found it on has a template & everything...teeny brads are half of at Hobby Lobby this week & since paint samples are free, this whole craft (which is going to be part of my Easter lunch centerpiece) cost me $1.50!  

{side note: so this graduated color look is called ombre.  Only some places can you find that definition.  Mostly in relation to hair & mostly Drew Barrymore's hair.  Wikipedia & Merriam-Webster define it as a French or Spanish card game.  I can't even begin to think of the 6 degrees of separation that connect those two.}

I used Lowe's Olympic paint samples because I could get two sides (you need four to make an egg) per sample without getting any words on my eggs.  (Though the blog we found this on does have words on theirs & they are super cute!)  They did take a while to make--but what's more fun than catching up on the DVR, listening to rain & cutting out pretty colored paper?  And I'm so happy with how they turned out!  

Happy Easter!  

Idea & template from: http://alittlesomethinginthemeantime.blogspot.ca/2012/03/paint-chip-eggs.html

The last of the summer crafts.

Fall ministries kicked off this week and boy am I glad I finished all my projects last weekend!  There's been zero down time this week!  We took 47 volunteer youth leaders on our fall semester leadership retreat this weekend--the Lord has provided an incredible group of young men & women to lead and love the junior high & high school students of College Station!  I'm so humbled & excited that God has chosen to use me in this place!  So onto the less important things--the non-eternal but more easily photographed things in my life!  :)  

First...I made this t-shirt & onsie for some friends as a gift on the birth of their second child (a boy) and a big sis gift for their first kid.  This is the last 3-6mos onsie I'm sewing!  Too teeny!  I really liked doing the 24mos t-shirt--much more surface area!  

Next...the dining room is (finally!) complete!  I've never owned a dining room table (and still don't actually)--my roommate Erin bought this table from World Market & we decided we wanted to do mix-matched chairs like Monica & Rachel's apartment on Friends.  

Not the best pic, but the only one I could find!  Isn't her mix-matched table & chairs fun & funky?  I wanted a similar look so decided to buy old or unfinished chairs & re-do them.  I looked at a few antique stores around town, but then found some new chairs on sale at an unfinished furniture store (where my distressed book shelf came from).  Two chairs were stained different shades already but two were totally unfinished.  I painted one red & one turquoise, distressed them & and I love them!  

Don't you just want to sit here & eat?  And don't they look great with my new painting by my friend Janise?  I love it & love how great it looks in here!

This one's my favorite--I love how the turquoise turned out over the dark brown base color I did.  

Well, my free time is gone for a while, so I don't foresee any crafting time in the near future.  I am loving the somewhat cooler temperatures right now (well it was 101 today, but a few weeks ago it was 112!).  And I am super loving the fact that Starbucks is serving fall drinks!  I love me a pumpkin spice latte!  

Happy fall!

College T-Shirt Quilt!

Ta-da!  College t-shirt quilt: done & done!

If you're a serious quilter or just a knit-picker, you may now navigate away from this blog.  This was my first attempt quilting, I have NO quilting supplies, I didn't follow a pattern & I had to move my furniture to make room on the floor to be able to spread this whole thing out (I seriously considered asking the fabric cutting ladies at Joann's Fabric down the street if I could rent some fabric cutting table time).  From a distance it looks great & I'm pretty pleased with it considering all my (very legitimate I think) excuses listed above.  :)  I totally understand why these cost $100s to have made & I have no desire to ever do another one of these--for myself or anyone else.  But I am glad I finally did it!  Considering I acquired the first shirt 10 years ago...it's about time, huh!  It's a little bigger than a twin size & a little smaller than a full/queen size.  I think it's a perfect layering size!  :)  

Here's some of the sites I drew inspiration from:

I liked the way this place lays out the shirts: http://www.toocooltshirtquilts.com/

This site had some helpful numbers & instructions: http://www.goosetracks.com/T-Shirt%20Quilt%20Instructions.html

Just call me Miss Crafty McGee

Whew after redoing my living room life got super crazy!  With kids being on summer break we've doing youth events out the wazoo & I've been out of town with my family or had friends come visit on the weekends...been super fun but also busy!  Well there's 12 days until the fall semester at church starts so I've been a busy busy bee trying to get things done before things get hectic again.  Behold I give you the August Craft Collection!

First is a corsage/hair clip combo I made for a baby shower honoree.  I kind of followed this tutorial to make the flower.  I starched the fabric before cutting, gathering & sewing the petals together to give it a little more stability.  I then hot glued a baby hair clip to the back.  I found this great feather hat pin at Hobby Lobby & fixed it so the flower clip attaches to the feather base (and added some feathers to the side to give it some more pizazz).  The mom can wear it as a corsage at the shower & then unclip the flower & put it in the baby's hair!  I think it's brilliant!  :)  I also made a little mini clip since I had left over fabric.  

Can you see how the flower is clipped to the feather base?

Another view--how cool are those polka dot feathers?  

Next, I made/decorated some onsies to give as baby gifts!  I've been wanting to try this for a while & finally got the nerve to buy all the supplies & am really pleased with how they turned out!  I used this stuff called Heat & Bond on the back of the fabric appliques & then hand sewed them on.  Probably could have machine sewed but these are 3-6mos onsies & let me tell you they are weeny teeny!  I did sew ruffles to the back.  What's not cute about a ruffle bottom onsie?!  Love them!  

Gig'em Aggies!  Got to have your game day outfit!  

Who doesn't love flowers & cupcakes?

This is for the baby who's mom is getting the corsage.  Matches the big (and little) flower clip.

Then I made a new wreath for the front door.

The flowers match the pillows on my couch!  

They are also so big that they get squished between the door & screen door.  But I still love them.  

I also made these clothes pins for my desk at work--my desk borders a metal file cabinet & I wanted some cute magnets to be able to hang things--voila!  I modpodged scrap book paper to these clothes pins & hot glued a magnet on the back--perfect!

Lastly, my unfinished project!  I guess you could say I've been working on this quilt for years.  I started back when I lived in Midland (2 years ago).   I collected, washed & began cutting up my t-shirts from college.  Then they all went in some bags until this past month.  I pulled them out, googled some instructions, found a picture I liked & figured out how to do it without buying the how-to book!  In the process I learned why people charge like $400 to make one of these!  I actually have sewed the whole front & now just haven't decided yet how I want to do the back.  My goal (and posting it online is supposed to help keep me accountable to it) is to finish in the next 12 days.  We'll see!  Here's how it looked when it was all laid out right before I started sewing.  It'll be a full/queen size quilt.  I'm actually really pleased with how it has turned out so far!  

12 more days & a few more projects!  Happy first day of school eve to everyone else!  :) 

Living Room Makeover!

After two years I have finally arranged & decorated my living room!

The 1st season of The OC & I did a marathon 4 days of painting, sewing & moving furniture!  I repainted the living room/dining room in Urban Sunrise from Lowe's.  It's what I did my guest room in & I love it!  I washed the white curtains that were left in my house by the previous owners & added tan linen ruffles inspired by Jones Design Company.  The idea for this ruffle pillow also came from there--

My couch is red check with denim trim & belonged to my Aunt Jennifer.  I inherited it when I moved into my house almost two years ago & LOVE how big it is & the sweet memories associated with it, but since it's a little more "country" than the rest of my house, I recovered all the throw pillows in red floral, damasks & toile.  Somehow I think they all work together.  I hope.  If you don't think so, don't tell me.  :)

I got the artwork behind the couch from the Renegade Craft Fair that I went to last weekend with my friend Lynn.  These prints were one of the first things I saw & I knew immediately that they were exactly what I'd been unable to picture for my living room for so long!  The artist is Kate Thomas & her Etsy store is Little Things Studio.  All three prints have verses from hymns & I love them!

I also added a few things in my kitchen!  I recently found a stool that was the perfect fit for a little spot in my kitchen & so this weekend I recovered the seat in toile (same as the couch pillows & also the ruffle wreath that hangs in the kitchen too!) & I love it!  I also hung some cool pictures I got at the Renegade Craft Fair--drawings of pots, pans, knives & coffee pots on old book pages.  The artist is Sara at Girls Can Tell.  

(Sidenote: I think my favorite thing about the art in the living room & kitchen is that I bought them straight from the artist at the craft fair!  It was really a cool place!  Lynn & I went, not knowing what to expect at all & were so pleasantly surprised by how many vendors there were & all the awesome stuff we saw there!  The only downside was that they longer we were there, the less & less crafty we felt.  I mean these people were seriously crafty!  They were also uber hipster.  We were even asked if it was our first time there, we stuck out so much.  But we loved it.  The gal who did the prints in my living room was very lovely & kind and I'm so glad that every time I see her work it reminds me of her & the fun day with Lynn!)

I'm very pleased with how it all turned out.  But unfortunately my Memorial Day Weekend "to-do" list isn't quite finished yet.  Off to mow the yard & clean my room.  Notice my two least favorite things got pushed to the end of the list.  I did all the fun things first!  :)  

Flower Power

I made this felt flower yesterday during one of our cold spells we've been having here.  When it's below freezing all I want to do it stay home & do crafts!  :)

Cute huh?  And super easy!  Took like 10 minutes to make!  Makes for a fun accessory on a cold day.  :)

Ruffle Wreath

Isn't it cute?  When my former college roommie Ashley was here we watched (almost) the complete first season of Glee & made crafts inspired by this website, Jones Design Company.  I'd hung a Christmas wreath on this door in my house between my kitchen & "back room" that leads to the garage & I loved being able to enjoy seeing it every time I was in the kitchen.  After Christmas I missed seeing it & was super excited when I found a tutorial on how to make this one!  And I loved these fabrics for flowers  that go so well in my kitchen!

They just make me happy!  :)  And since I don't love to cook, I need anything & everything to make my time in the kitchen more happy!  :)  

Extreme anxiety, sorrow or pain.

That would be the definition of distress.  And no, I am not distressed...but my newly redesigned guest room is!  :)  Over the last few weeks, I've been painting and scraping & furnishing my guest room & it's been hard work, but now that it's mostly done, it's been so worth it!  Unfortunately I don't have many "before" pictures.  The room had teal walls & the dresser I re-did had been my cousins & then mine as a baby.  I painted it red & blue in high school & so was faced with the task of scraping off all the old paint before my sweet friend Lynn came in to town to teach me how to distress it!  Inspired by this website, I painted it brown, then Del Coronado Tequila (off white-ish), took a sanding block to it & then added some knobs from World Market...and I love the result!  I did the same with an unfinished bookshelf I bought.  I painted the room Urban Gravity (gray), put together a bed, got my grandfather's rocking chair recovered, moved in my grandmother's sea chest & voila!  A guest room!

Don't you just want to come visit me so you can stay in my guest room?  My friend Ashley is in town this weekend & we've been crafting it up!  More on that later!  Stay tuned!  :)  

Coffee Scoop Clips

Here's a sneak peak at the crafts my mom & I worked on last weekend when I went to Corpus...

We ordered the scoop/clips from Amazon, beads courtesy of Hobby Lobby & wire from Lowes.  It was an easy & fun project & will make for fun Christmas gifties.  (Sorry if this is a spoiler!)  :)  

11 days till Thanksgiving & 41 till Christmas!