Pinterest Made Me Do It!

Pinterest might be the worst/best thing since Facebook.  I graduated college in May 2004.  I don't remember when I joined Facebook or how it came about, but I remember that Hannie made me do it. :)

Then, in 2011, Hannie came to CO to run the Bolder Boulder with me.  She introduced me to this new thing...Pinterest.  She showed me hers and told me it was by invite only, but she'd invite me.  At first, I played on it here and there...then it started to take over!  Here's a little screenshot of my pinterest page, and some of my boards were cut off, after I reduced the size of the page!

That's a lot of boards.  I have baby boards, both for a boy and a girl and a general baby board.  I have crafting boards--Christmas, Fall, and general.  I have school boards--Teaching math, grammar, writing, civil war, art, Back to School, and School.  Then I have cooking boards, recipes to try, sweet recipes, crock pot recipes.  I have dream boards--next vacation, next house, beautiful backyards, gifts I'd be okay getting.  And I have a board for my DOG and husband.  I like Pinterest.  Maybe too much.

This year as I prepped for going back to school I dreamed of making the perfect planner.  One that allowed me to plan my lessons for school along with my meal plans and so much more.  But then I panicked that I couldn't do it and when I stumbled into Office Depot one July day and saw a beautiful lesson planner starring at me with rainbow colors and awesomeness, I decided that it would do.  You see, I use my phone/Google calendar for EVERYTHING.  If it's not in my Google calendar, I'll probably forget that I have to do it.  But it's still not enough.  I like writing things down.  I like crossing things off lists.

With the great meal prep of Sunday I wanted that dreamy planner that I envisioned in my head for school/home/LIFE.  So I searched on Pinterest.  I haven't found it yet, but I've found plenty that are inspiring.

So, my plan?  Create the dream planner that I've always wanted. :)

Crafting with Colleen

Monday was craft day!  After making my checkbook holder & skirt-apron I was inspired to continue using my sewing machine for a few more days.  I called Colleen and told her to come over and craft!  She gladly accepted.

I made her an apron & checkbook holder (both which took no time after already once doing them) and she made me a wreath for our front door (which sadly fell down today! [I think it was too heavy for our 3M hook that had been baking in the hot sun all summer, so I'll remount the hook with the other sticky thing that they come with]).  Below are some pictures of everything.

Our first stop on our crafting day was JoAnn's.  Ryan's mom had sent me an email with a 50% off coupon!  I printed two so we could both use one!

Side note:  While in JoAnn's we were in line to get our fabric cut and there was a lady there with three kids.  She was buying gobs of sparkly ribbony stuff (Colleen things she is making costumes for beauty pageants.)  Any way, two of her kids, girls, the oldest and youngest are kind of running around the store.  Two other kids of joined in.  They ran past us and knocked over a bunch of material.  Then she looks at the boy in the cart and says "Do you want to get down and run around too?"  I was shocked and appalled.  I wanted to rip her head off!  Are you kidding me?  This is a store, not your back yard or the playground!!!!!!  The police officer in line behind Colleen and I then went to her and said, "They just knocked down a whole bunch of material."  She was like, "the kids???!?"  No lady, the little old lady in front of us with her cart!  YES THE KIDS!  Then, noting the police officer, she decided to be hard core on the kids and keep them from running, but they still ran.  Except the boy in the cart, who started screaming because she wouldn't let him get down and run around.  *rolling eyes*

 Measuring and ironing nice neat hems.

 Like my awesome snap bracelet/pin cushion?  I was going to use my 50% coupon on it, but it was already 50% off, and the coupon was only for regular price items.  It was helpful and allowed me not to have to sit down and the sewing machine, realize I didn't have a pin cushion and then get up and go to the ironing board--or vice versa.

Sewing away.  Actually at this point my machine was being a pain in the @$$!!!  It used to always have a special bobbin, then one day I used it and BOOM it worked.  Well, Monday it went back to it's old ways.  I think it has to do with the tension, but I don't know how to change it.  (Mom, how do I change the tension?!?)

While I sewed the apron, Colleen worked on painting the numbers for our wreaths.

And then glue them onto the wreath...

She burnt her thumb on my "high-temp" hot glue gun.  After that she wasn't so fond of it.

The wreaths--though not quite finished.  Mine is the burgundy one & hers the baby blue one.

 Cyndi came over in time to model the apron.  It was bright in the house! :-P

All done!  Much easier to make than mine.  Though I almost cut the top part with the pattern going to other direction...that would have been crap-tastic!  I used a ribbon for the ties because sewing two rights together and then flipping them the proper way is a pain in the butt--I only do it for the neck part.

 

Finally, below we have two pictures of the checkbook cover I made for Colleen.  She loves owls, and when I saw this fabric, I knew it would be perfect for her, and it was on sale!  She carries two checkbooks, one for her business & her personal one.  Knowing this I wanted to make hers a little different to make it easier to get them in and out.  I decided to make it a tri-fold.  (Oh, & I bought the interfacing stuff to use rather than an old Hudson Garden's folder.)  I had received a bunch of fun buttons from Lois's sewing supply so I wanted to use one of those too.  [note to self & mom--Learn to use the button sewing function on the machine] 

The loop that I tried, unsuccessfully to hid between the seam is a hair elastic (unused).  I was going to cut the half that wasn't being used off, but I feared that it might slip out then.  I probably should have hand sewed it in, but I just kept running the machine over it. 

There you have it, crafty goodness.  All accomplished in one day.  (Oh, do you like the pretty yellow fabric that the checkbook cover is on?  I bought it to make placemats for our kitchen table.  I made the first one and realized I didn't have as much fabric as I thought.  I tried to find the same fabric again at JoAnn's so that I could make 4, but I couldn't so now I'm not sure if I'm going to make three and keep looking, make two and call it good, or just use the one as a mini-runner?)

Skirt to Apron

So I got this great skirt at the thrift store a few months ago.  I loved it.  The only problem was that it was a bit snug...I thought, meh, for $2, I'm going to get it and maybe it'll fit by the time school starts.

 

I also have been looking for a really cute apron.  We have two aprons here--one from iHOP and one that my mom made Ryan out of snowman material that says "Kiss the Cook" on it.  I wear the iHop one more because it's a bit thicker but it's not cute.  (Because being cute when cooking is important?)

  So I was talking with my mom about maybe making it into an apron.  Well, Thursday I decided to try it.

After cutting it in half I used a plate to trace some scallops.

Good help is hard to find!

I made a few mistakes along the way, but I made it work.  My biggest mistake was when I cut the top I forgot to leave an extra inch all around so that I could hem it properly.  But I fixed it.  I aided 4 inch black ribbon to the parts where I didn't allow the extra fabric and then hemmed that.  I think it turned out pretty darn good.

You can't really see the black ribbon in the photo, but it's there (and not too pretty), but it looks alright for being in the kitchen.  I also had NO idea how I was going to hem the scallops, so I didn't hem them. {GASP!}

I did put a stitch all the way around the bottom and then use pinking shears along the bottom.  Hopefully that will hold until I go home in September and can ask madre' to help me out.  

Crafty Goodness...

I carry a checkbook (though I'm quite positive that in the next 10 years no one will.)  I don't have a check book cover.  Here's what I carry...

Gross, huh?  It's a bright lime green envelope (thanks Colleen!) that holds two smaller envelopes.  One of the smaller envelopes holds my checkbook and the other holds cash and receipts when we travel and take a larger sum of cash with us.  I pulled it out the other day in church to write a donation check and thought that I was pretty much crazy!  I thought "I should get a nice check book cover".  But I don't carry a register, just the checkbook, because I don't balance the checkbook.  We have duplicates (greatest thing ever!).  And, with a typical checkbook cover it can split if it gets caught in something else you've shoved in your purse (I'm a shover).

SO 


I decided to do something about my envelopes.  I had this laying around:

 and had recently read this blog by Colleen's friend, Jan about making cash envelopes for her Dave Ramsey-ness.  Today I thought, I should make a checkbook cover.  So I did.  But up until 2 seconds ago when I found the blog to link it in this post, I didn't go back to Jan's blog for her directions.  I just pulled out my checkbook for the measurements and guessed and by-gollied the rest.  And it worked!

I used a boring khaki fabric to put in the middle and the cute polka dots on the outside.  I knew I wanted it to be sturdy, but I didn't have interfacing like Jan mentioned, but what I did have was a white folder from Hudson Garden's that I was going to throw away.  So I cut a square out it to put it in between the dots and the khaki.  If a seamstress (or my mom [well probably anyone]) looked carefully at it they of course would see imperfections.  I ended up with too big of a square, but I already had such nice edges that I didn't want to do again, so I tucked them in a sewed them.  One side has two lines of stitching that almost look decorative, the other side, not so much.  But here's what it does...

 It will hold my checkbook in a less tacky way than my current lime green envelope does.  And I won't feel quite like a crazy lady with my envelope.  I will probably still carry an envelope of cash when we go on trips because it doubles as a receipt collector, but I never {Big SMILE} go on trips, so that won't be for a while.