Rainbow Mittens

Just in time for the snow, I have finished working on my rainbow mittens!  I love how they turned out, and the colour of them is perfect!  I love rainbow colours so much, and these just feel like the perfect amount of happiness on a cold winters day.  The cuffs on them are also double cable which is a really nice touch. I have also worn them out a few times, and they are nice and warm. 

I started them when my husband and I went to Spokane for the September long weekend.  I got the yarn from Zellers on sale, as they are going out of business, and thought it would be a fun quick project.  I used Bernat mosaic yarn in psychedelic.  I could have used just one skein, however I wanted to have matching thumbs, so I needed another skein to get some more yellow for the other thumb.   The pattern I used was top down double cable mittens which I got when I took the course at Make One Yarn a few years back.  (They have new ownership, so I don't know that this class is offered anymore.)  I liked the pattern so much I wanted to make it again.

Lets get Organized!

Ever since I have been out of school, it has been difficult to keep organized and have a structure to my days.  I don't have a place to be daily, or a set things that need to be done by a certain time.  So because of this, I have decided to be a bit more organized, and make up some lists. 
Where to get inspiration?  Pinterest of course!  I found a link to this Rotating Goal List from Cornflower Blue Studio and I had to make it for myself.  I had to go out an buy the right size paper, but made it look just like she had on her blog.  I love the way it looks, and I am finding it very useful to have these goals for each week.  I love that they are written on post-it notes so that the goals can be changed every week.

I ended up liking this list so much I also made one that looks just like this but for cleaning.  Having a set cleaning schedule for the week is a huge relief.  I no longer feel like have to do all the house work in one day, and it is broken up for the whole week so that the house should stay looking cleaner.  I also made this one with post-it notes so that I can change the schedule around if I need to.

I know making lists like this isn't for everyone, but I have been finding them extremely useful.

Pinterest Day!

 Last week my sister-in-law came up with the great idea of having a Pinterest day, as she and my other sister-in-law were both in town.  The idea was we would each come up with a craft that we found on Pinterest and bring all the things needed to complete the craft with enough supplies for everyone there (there were 6 of us, and lots of kids!). 

The first craft we did was decorating a mug.  The idea was originally from Dollar Store Mom using sharpies on dollar store mugs, then baking them in the oven so the sharpie wont wash off.  For mine, I also used the inspiration from Wit and Whistle to give my mugs a herringbone look to them.  I was also going to put mine and my husbands initials on them, but the paint didn't work out so well on the mugs.  I think the spaces I put on the mug were too far apart, but they still look pretty cool!

The next project we worked on were paperclip earrings.  I have been eying these for a while and was pretty excited to do them.  The idea for this craft came from Evie S.  I would like to make another pair of these, but this time using string and not yarn so they will be a bit more finer. I find with the yarn they don't "dangle" enough for me.

The next project for the day was the one I brought.  It was a heart bag from V and Co, made using the eraser from a pencil and fabric paint.  I really like how this one turned out.  I was surprisingly more difficult then I thought to get the dots all the way I wanted them to look.

The last project of the day was a sewing project!  It was a shoulder heating pad from Crafty Endeavor.  This may be the most useful craft of the day.  It is filled with rice so you can heat it up in the microwave so its nice and warm, or put it in the freezer so its cool.  Sometimes I put it on just as it is as the weight feels surprisingly good on the shoulders.  We did not put lavender in ours, which is actually OK as I don't know if the smell would be too much.  We also made it so it wasn't so long in the front.  Again, I think the size we made is perfect, and if it were any longer, it may be to heavy.

 

 

 

I made it with two different fabrics!  So much fun!

It was a super fun day, and I hope that one day we will do this again.  It was a nice way to visit and try a bunch of projects on Pinterest that we have been eying. 

Pinterest

So I am really addicted to Pinterest.  I have been using it for months now, while in school as a welcome distraction, and now that I have the summer off, as an inspiration.
I have tried a number of things that I have found on Pinterest from food to cleaning ideas.  Today I used this idea of putting the nasty stove burners in a sealed bag with ammonia in it to soften the grease so it can be easily wiped off.  It really did work!  It was still a pain to wipe all the grease off the ridges, but I will definitely do that again.  Again with cleaning I used this recipe for a tub cleaner.  It does work well, although I find that its a bit thick.  It could be that I need a better spray bottle that shoots a spray and not just a stream.
For food, I made these Reeses Rice Krispies which were amazing.  I wish I had some right now!!!  I have also made these S'mores Cookies, which were good, but not my favorite.  I have also tried this  diet drink which was surprisingly good!  It was a little weird putting in so much spinach in a smoothie, but I didn't taste it at all!
Now I have also tried some crafty stuff!  I found a picture of a wreath that I thought would look really good on my front door.  Turns out the picture was from this shop on Etsy.  The item was no longer available for sale so I made my own version of it.  I think it turned out really well.  It took forever to wrap the foam wreath with the yarn, but it turned out great.  I also had to come up with a way to make the flowers with the felt.  They look a bit different, but I like them!  I am just hoping that it wont get too dirty hanging on my front door!

Love the colours.  Reminds me of hydrangeas.

I cut out "tear drops" and sewed them together to make the flowers

Long Time, No Blog......

But that is what school does to a person.  So in September I went back to university full time, which means I no longer have free time to do any kind of crafting or blogging.  This makes me sad.  I however have finished projects from before school started.  So I will try to get them up on here sometime, although I did do a bunch of knitting and other stuff over Christmas, I did not take pictures of them, so I wont really be able to blog about them either. 

So last summer I was knitting a pair of socks, again from Socks from the Toe Up by Wendy D. Johnson, the pattern I used was On-Hold Socks.  This is a really nice lace pattern that isn't too hard to do.  I really like the looks of the sides where there is the zig-zag going up. 

For the Yarn I used Yummy Yarn Studio sock yarn in watermelon.  I purchased this while taking my Entrelac course at Make One Yarns last year.  When I saw the yarn I knew I had to buy it.  It is super soft, and the colours were perfect.  I ended up wearing them on Christmas as they also turn out to be the perfect Christmas colours!

Another Baby Birth Record

So going back to the baby shower I threw in June, I had also made a cross stitch baby birth record as well.  I used another Dimensions cross stitch kit, the Birth Record for Baby.  Again when I was done, I took it to Michaels to get framed.  I really like how it turned out, especially all the pink for a girl!

Chair Cushion

We have this chair in our living room by the front door that had a chair cushion that did not match anything we have, and was getting old and ratty looking (I think my mom said she bought it in the 80's!).  So this definitely had to be fixed.  After I made the Butterfly Specimen Case I decided that our living room will have a butterfly theme.  So I found this Micheal Miller fabric Wings of Peace on the online store Tonic Living, and ordered some.  I was going to wing it and make my own pattern, but when I was at Fabricland I found this Burda pattern (#7899) I decided I was going to use it instead.

Of course I had to make some adjustments to the pattern.  The seat of my chair was different in size so I had a few adjustments there.  I also really like the look of piping on chair cushions, so I had to learn how to do that and apply it to the cushion pattern.  I really like how it turned out in the end.

The Chair with the old cushion

The after photo.  The butterfly pattern is so happy looking!

The corner detail.  It fits snugly between the chair back posts

It stays to the chair with a couple ribbons

I had to change where the zipper went to allow for the cording