I'm Still Here

Hey friends!  I know it's been a while since I've posted and I apologize.  I've been busy- moving again, working, and spending time with my big sis.  And visiting family and friends.

Let me clarify on the "moving again."  I moved into a new apartment about ten minutes from the first one.  I also transferred to a new Starbucks- the other was not what I had hoped.  My new apartment is much nicer than the previous.  I love the area and the apartment is great.  I have a small balcony, however a couple hundred feet from a railroad track.  But interestingly enough, you do get used to it.

I have been crafting a little.  Here are some things I've been doing:

The bird pillow was quite time-consuming but so worth it!

I also have some photos I took with my phone:

I visited my good friend, Sunnie, in Ohio and she and I went antique shopping in Amish Country.  These are my treasures.  I also found a cool metal coat tree.

My craft corner in my living room.  It actually looks a little different right now.  I moved my dining room table over there for my sewing (it's a small table).  Then that silly shelf kept falling so it was replaced by a smaller one.

Cookie Dough Truffles.  Yum!

 

I found this table in my sister's basement.  I believe it came from my dad.  It was broken.  I fixed it and now I have a small coffee table... for free.  Score!

I made a couple of pillows the other day.  There will be more of these soon.  I love beds covered in pillows.

So, anyway.  I've got a lot going on.  I need to start taking more photos of my projects so I can share them with you guys.  I'm going to start some posts about how to decorate an apartment, since I've been looking for months for some helpful tips and haven't been able to find much.  I think more and more people are moving into apartments and need some tips.

Oh, and I just signed up for Craftaholics Anonymous Summer 2013 Handmade Gift Exchange!  So, that craft will be posted soon as well.

Until next time,
Sarah

My Aparment!

Well, now that I have my own place, I've been decorating like crazy.  I've been buying things here and there.  Mostly at Goodwill, antique stores, and Target.  And some things I've made.

Here are some photos of the highlights (when a room is completely finished I will post pictures):

Nice and mostly organized pantry {more on that later}.

This cabinet was at my dad and step-mom's house and was passed down from my dad's side of the family.  It holds "junk" in the top drawer, table linens in the second, and more of grandma's china in the bottom.

The cabinet above was dug out of my grandparents' basement and it will soon be turned into a bar cabinet.  The sign was from a bar my dad used to go to in Florida- it had a large ear of corn drawn on it and took about 2 hours to get off.

 

 



My sister had left a couple of the plastic bins in the linen closet and a bunch of her leftover "extreme couponing" purchases, so I went and got a couple more bins and chalk wrote on them perfectly.

 

 

Free dresser from Aunt Sandy!

 

Curtains made from a twin flat sheet dyed pink.  Cheap mirror on the left with coffee filter flowers.  And the painting by ME!

{sorry for the blurry-ness} I got this library stool from the Derby City Antique Mall.  I can't decide if I actually like it with books on it like this, but we'll see if I can figure out how to change things around.

Craft corner decor.

 

Well, there is your sneek peak.  I will post more as I finish each room.

Keep On Crafting

In my previous post, I told you guys I haven't been doing much crafting because a lot of my supplies and tools have been packed away.  Well, I realized that's not entirely true lol.

All Instagram pics.

 

Tshirt scarf I made for a coworker.

Bottle top coaster I made for my brother-in-law's "man cave"

 



 

New wreath for the front door (this form as been recycled a few times) and this will be moved to my new place too :)

Crocheted Awareness Ribbon {Free Pattern}

One day I came up with the idea of crocheting an awarenes ribbon for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

 

I made a bunch for all of us to wear at work. 

 

Pattern:

 

5mm hook

worsted acrylic yarn

Chain 24
1) ch 3, DC into the 3rd ch from the hk, 1/2 DC into the next 21 sts, DC into the last st., FO
Twist to form a ribbon, weave a safety pin into the back, or glue onto a pin back.

Easy peasy!

DIY Mint Sugar Scrub

I keep seeing all these scrubs on Pinterest and various blogs, and so I decided to make one of my own.  I work at Starbucks and so I'm on my feet all the time.  My feet get sore often.  And when I'm not wearing tennis shoes for work, I'm wearing sandals, so my feet get dry (ew).  Therefore, time for a foot scrub.

Here's my recipe.

Mint Sugar Scrub

fresh mint- I think I used about 10 leaves
3/4 c raw sugar
1/4 c olive oil
a few drops of body oil, mine was Burt's Bees

I first mulled the mint to get all the oil out of it.

Then just mix all the ingredients together.

 I added a little lime juice to liven it up a little.

Then massage the scrub into your feet or hands , let it sit for a few minutes, and then rinse.  Your skin will feel amazing!

(please ignore my jacked up nailpolish)  My feet were nice and soft.  Can't wait to make more.

Projects



Here are some of the things I've made over the past week or so (all photos taken with my phone):

 



Ohio String (well, yarn) Art for my new apartment

Business card holder from... ME

Earflap hat from Alli Crafts

 

Butterfly hat found here via Pinterest

 

Crocheted coasters from OhMyGoodKnits!

 

This is last is the paper chain I made to count down the days until I move.  I tear off a ring every night before I go to bed.

A small feature on a BIG blog!

So, I'm sure you all know I participated for the first time in the Handmade Gift Exchange over at Craftaholics Anonymous. 

Anyway, she had a "linky party" where she invited all the participants to link up their gifts and they'd be featured on her blog with a bunch of others.  So, I did that.  It was kind of cool to see mine listed on there.

But, this takes the cake!  I was looking through her blog today and I saw she posted some photos with links of some of the gifts.  And mine was there!



How cool, right?

Maybe, I'm just a little too excited about this.  But tons of people read her blog and not many read mine.  At least, I don't think many do (if people do, then you can follow me or at least make me aware of your loyalty :)

I can't wait for the next exchange.  I still need to wear the necklace I received but I'm sure I will.

What to do

I've said in the past that I follow a lot of blogs, however in looking over this post I realized that there are a few missing.  If you want a full list, leave a comment. 

Anyway, a lot of the blogs I follow have one day a week where they do something.  Like on Skip to My Lou, she does "Made By You Mondays," on my sister's blog she does "Music Mondays."  So, I was thinking I need to do something that will keep me blogging.  Since I have a hard time keeping up with posts.

I can't always bake something, because life is just too busy and baking is a little fattening.  And I don't know if I could organize a post with a bunch of other people.  I love music, so I was thinking of stealing my sister's idea.  However, it doesn't really have anything to do with "Sugar and Stitches." 

WAIT!!!!

I've got it!  Future Projects Friday!  I have a board on Pinterest called "Future Projects."  I will pick a project from there once a week and post it on Friday! 

I'm so glad I did this post, otherwise I'd still be sitting here trying to think of something.

Here's a little bit of the board.

Some of it I've already made, so I can post those photos if I haven't done so already.

I'll be back every Friday now, with a new project.

Living Room Craft Nook

I posted a photo collage of some of the things I had made for my craft nook.  I had to give you a little sneek peak of what was to come.  Well, now it's all finished!

The table on the left is dedicated to Nan's scrapbooking, which she frequently uses. 

Then on the right are my sewing things.  I have a Serger and sewing machine. 

Then the cart on the right I got from Ikea and it has all of my fabric wrapped around cardboard to make it look like the bolts of fabric found in the stores (and it's a lot easier to find stuff). 

The boxes under the table on the right have paint, ribbon spools, and other odds and ends. 

Then there's the cake tin stand I made. 

And on the left side of the table is the lamp I made. 

On the shelf above the table are jars full of buttons as well as the bottles I wrapped with yarn. 

Then there's the tie rack I repurposed into a spool rack. 

And the embroidery hoops with various fabrics.  And the "S" is all buttons, and appropriate since my name is Sarah and Nan's is Shirlee.

I think that's it.  I haven't sat there in a while, since I've been making a lot of crocheted baby items, which I can make watching TV.  But I will get back to it sometime.

Huge Canvas Before and After

About 3 years ago I painted this huge canvas with an abstract painting of, what looked like, yarn balls hanging from a string.  I got the idea from when I house-sat for a friend and she had something similar hanging in her guest room.

Clearly, I had it hanging on the wall horizontally I was just having issues taking a picture of it that way.  Anyway, unfortunately the painting doesn't match my decor anymore, but the canvas was expensive and there's no way I'm chucking it in the trash.  So, I had to come up with something.  And I did...



I had an old hardback copy of "The Secret Garden" that a friend gave to me.  I ripped out a bunch pages and glued them onto the canvas.  And that is a quill pen in the corner.  I free-handed it- don't judge!

Anyway, I love it!

A Month of Craft Photos (c/o Good Knits)

I just started following a new blog called Good Knits.  It's pretty awesome.  Clearly, by the title you can deduce that she does a lot with knitting, well actually more crocheting.  She has some sweet projects, but her latest posts have been these Craft Photos.  So, I thought maybe I'd follow in her footsteps.  Also, it will help me blog every day, or at least more often.

So, here goes...

Day 1: Me in Action

Making some pink slippers.

Hand Warmers and More Hand Warmers

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been making oodles and oodles of hand warmers.  I made a pair for each of my sisters, one for my brother-in-law, and a pair for each of my three cousins.  I sent those off last week and my sister, Jamie, posted a pic on Facebook.

I can't lie, those were my favorite to make :)  Oh, and I have a matching pair without the buttons.

So, I learned how to make these from a video on youtube.

I cannot read instructions for crocheting.  I don't understand a single thing the instructions say so I watch videos on youtube.

These hand warmers and the others that I made are ribbed, but now I decided to change up the stitch so that every pair isn't the same.



I love the gray and white, it reminds me of the baker's twine everyone is using lately.

Well, speaking of hand warmers I think I'm going to clean up a little then settle down with a movie and some yarn.

A List

The other day I decided I needed a list to tackle all the prjects I have running through my head.  I admit that I'm a little ADD and have a hard time staying focused on one project before moving onto the next project without finishing the first.  It's annoying to say the least.  Keep in mind, though, that this list is just a project list and not a life list.  If I added these to my life list it would be long, and would therefore scare me :)

I even dated the list so maybe it will help me get everything done in a timely manner.  We shall see.

 I did list all of these hand warmers in my Etsy store.  And I will be adding more soon.

For my new wreath I tried to make a wreath form out of foam pipe insulation that you can buy really cheap at Home Depot, but that didn't work, so I took this old wreath apart.  I like this wreath but it covered the peep hole on our front door- not good.  So I took off the gray pieces and the little sparkly twigs and made this...

I watched the movie "Larry Crowne" while I wrapped the wreath in yarn and it took almost the entire movie to finish wrapping it.  That's a long process.  Then I made the flowers from felt and put them on clips so they come off easy and I can use the wreath for other things too.  And look the peep hole!

Anyway, take a gander at my Etsy store and see if anything jumps out at you.