WALLA WALLA BING BANG (finally, it's done!)

I told the witchdoctor I wanted to make a patterned wall... or something like that. 

I HAVE FINALLY CURED MYSELF OF MY RIDICULOUS OBSESSION WITH LOVE PATTERNED WALLS (whoa, I am feeling silly and tired. I apologize for whatever may ensue)

And I must say, I think it turned out superduper stellar.

Here is the sneakiest of peeks! I don't want to give away the project that was pictured in front of my fantastic wall, so you'll just have to wait!

Anyway. As I mentioned before, I wanted a patterned wall. Wallpaper and paint are not options since I'm in an apartment. We're also not allowed to put any screws into the wall so we are limited to nails, ergo nothing too heavy for a nail. The silk wall I initially saw was GORGEOUS, but upon pricing silk I realized that my cheapness  financial responsibility   husband wouldn't allow me to spend $300 or more on a decorative wall.

THERE MUST BE A CHEAPER WAY!!!

Ah ha! Paper is the answer. Cheap, and if you get a decent cardstock, it's relatively durable, too.

And so began my humungous project. I purchased some colored cardstock paper for like $4/pkg, and instead of blank stencils (expensive), my mom found "leading blanks" for like $2. I made a perfectly symmetrical shape on my computer using a geometric pattern from the internet and created a template out of the leading blank.

 I traced and traced and traced and traced and traced and traced... and traced.... and traced... and traced... shapes. 

I traced shapes until I was seeing shapes. 

I never want to use scissors again.

And then I started cutting them out. I cut out shapes in my spare time for a good week before I had the 250-300 I needed to complete my wall.

Finally, the time had come. After laying out several possibilities for color/pattern combinations, I decided on one. I wanted something that would be acceptable to my husband but also nice for my photos and would go with our bedspread in our room. 

Oh man, this is the plainest, most boringest wall ever. Thanks, landlord.

So, how did I adhere these to the wall? I needed something removable, so I opted for the adhesive poster mounting putty. One package did my entire wall, so unintentionally got the right amount!

TAHHHHH DAHHHHHHH!

HOW DID I MAKE THE LINES STRAIGHT, YOU ASK??? 

I swiped my dad's laser level, and set it on vertical. I used a small template made from a piece of leading blank as a guide to know approximately how much space goes between each shape. If you look really closely as the pics of me hanging the shapes, you can see a vertical laser. I'd highly recommend a laser level to any handyperson.

My mom and I tag teamed the entire project, and it only took about 2 and a half hours to place most of the wall "tiles". It took me another 45 minutes or so unaided to complete the wall, including "framing out" the area where we keep our ironing board. 

I figured I didn't need to put them there since they'd be covered up anyway. A "frame" looks much more polished.

At the end of the entire project I had quite a few taupe colored sheets left, but I only had 3 of each blue tile. I decided to use them as artwork above the bed to tie in the whole thing.

IS IT ART?

You know you just might want to try it... GO FOR IT.

So in the end, I wound up with a craft space that is beautiful as well as useful -- It will make an awesome background from here on out, as you can see from the following photos. 

I HAD A SUPER BURST OF ENERGY THE DAY I PUT THE WALL UP SO I MADE SOME THINGS!

1. I made a pair of earrings! 

Sterling silver and dyed mother-of-pearl

2. I made a pendant!

Sterling silver and aventurine

My sister in-law mentioned "viking knitting" and I had never heard of it before. It looked super cool and relatively easy to try, so I used a chunk of sterling wire I had around to make a section. When all was said and done, my viking knit was way too short to make into a bracelet or a necklace, so I decided to weave it into a pendant. And I had an awesome aventurine bead, so I went for it.

3. I made another pendant!

but I forgot to take pictures! 

Photos coming in next blog

4. I made a necklace!

but it's not totally completed yet!

Photos coming when I figure out how to end it!

Anyway. Sorry I haven't been able to post in forever. You know how it is. Work, live, stuff, things, veg, etc. It happens to the best of us. I have several little projects lined up for the coming weeks, so I would expect to have another blog post out soon. So STAY TUNED!

Home Improvements. And other improvements.

The husband and I signed a lease for another year in our apartment, so that is one of the reasons why/how I was able to justify this whole "patterned wall" thing. But if I was going to go that far, I figured I want to create my own craft space, too!

Our apartment is only a one bedroom, but the bedroom is enormous for the amount we're in there. So in the last 4 years, we've been storing all of our miscellaneous in there. I realized after removing the stuff to go to our storage unit and the stuff to go to Goodwill that I forgot to take a "before" picture, so I've only got a "during" pic instead. You're just gonna have to power through it.

Pardon the laundry!

And here's a shot of the "after" -- I set up my card table and a bookshelf so now I have a place for all of my craft stuff to live! It had been stashed on top of/next to our kitchen table. I CAN'T WAIT TO MAKE MORE THINGS.

My table cloth is actually a shower curtain I bought at a garage sale for $2. It might also make an appearance as a backdrop sometime, I'm not sure. (Future project: recover the card table - the vinyl is covered in marker and stains... pretty sure I stole this from my brother and/or his friends at least 5 years ago).

Speaking of making more things, I did some!

I totally just realized I meant that to say "Do you like your bra straps sticking out all over the place". Obviously I was not paying attention. oh well.

SO GUESS WHAT I DID ABOUT IT?

I took these things: New strapless/convertible bra, old strapless/convertible bra, needle, thread, seam ripper, and two pins.

I removed the strap loops from the old bra and sewed them into the center front of my new bra so my bra straps don't show in my shoulder-less clothes!

Look how happy I look! [And how bare that wall is! -- See the need for the patterned wall?]

 It sounds really stupid, but I had been wanting to add another "loop" to my strapless/convertible for some time after seeing this:

I can't believe I never thought of this for halters/narrow shouldered tops. Duh. Oh, and males who read this: you're welcome.

There's nothing tackier than going to work with straps showing. Now, I feel completely comfortable and able to wear some of these shirts to work. 

And the other thing I did: 

I shortened the straps on the blue shirt pictured. I had been meaning to for months and finally got around to it today while I talked to my sister-in-law on the phone (shoutout to Angela, lol). I've got various other "fixer-upper" projects lined up, but I don't think I need to post them since they aren't particularly photogenic or interesting (you're welcome).

Overall, a lame blog post, but I had to start somewhere on my enormous project for the patterned wall. Would you be interested in seeing a fast-forwarded video of me applying my patterned wall cutouts? Just and idea I'm toying with. Until next time! 

Methinks My Thinker Be Obsessed.

      I have a huge project in my head. Next time I have a chance, I am going to snap a photo of what inspired me to do what I'm going to be doing in the next several weeks. I'll try to remember to do some little blog posts while I'm collecting all I need for my major project, but I wanted to let you guys know that I might forget...

Anyway, a little tiny brief note about what got me going:

I absolutely fell IN LOVE with a patterned wall in one of the local shops in town, and the owner told me it was silk. I need a patterned wall.
... No, you don't understand.

I NEED IT.

So I googled and googled... and googled.

Crap, I cannot afford silk. Especially not enough to cover a wall. I honestly can't even afford fabric (not that I found any I was in love with). So I have decided that I am going to dedicate a lot of time as well as a huge blog post into covering a wall with a pattern. That will include several things:

1. Troubleshoot the no painting/please don't put holes everywhere in the walls problem.
2. Figure out a pattern/color
3. Create an actual space that is to be used as a background for photos (since every time I need to take some I come up short and use some pretty ridiculous methods for photo'ing)
     [Step 3 will include cleaning out/reorganizing all of the junk that we are currently storing in useable space, to become my craft studio!]

I am justifying all of this because we just signed a lease for another year and I definitely need a place to photo/store all of my craftiness.

So, it seems that this might be a massive undertaking, but I cannot get the image of that fabric wall out of my head.

It was like this, but wayyyy not.

 I can't even find anything similar. I'll just have to make do with loving whatever I make.

Anyway. I guess that's it for now, nothing too exciting, but I have just spent like... 2 hours planning this. Obsessed much? I think so. Now, I will retire for the night since I am going to go GARAGE SALING tomorrow!!! I hope I find some treasures :)

Schmoozy Shoesies

The following might only be interesting to people who love shoes. If you have no interest in shoes and the shallow shoe love that is to follow, stop reading now!

I have several great pairs of shoes, so be prepared to be JEALOUS.

For my friend, Laura's wedding, I had these amazing shoes in my head. I wanted royal blue peep toe pumps and I searched the world over for them, to no avail. I did however stumble upon a super comfy pair of nude peep toe pumps, and needed a way to make them have some sort of color on them. So I came up with the idea to make a little decoration to make them pretty.

Here's what I came up with for Laura's wedding, amazing photo courtesy of Kimberly Neyer Photography . (If ever you need newborn photos, family photos, or engagement photos, please drop her a line! She did my and Laura's weddings last year -- unfortunately she is no longer doing weddings -- and was a blast to work with and the photos were AMAZING... I honestly cannot say enough good things about her and her work -- THANK YOU SO MUCH, KIM!!!).

These little flowers were initially hair clips, so I sewed them onto velcro to wrap on the shoes.

I had gotten so many compliments on these cute little shoe accessories that I decided to share them with everyone and make some more!

So here's what ya get!

These turned out to be a little on the costume-y side, but they're pretty darn cute anyway.

Today, I was just about to take a shoe photo shoot with only my nude peep toe shoes and I realized...

If I used other peep toe shoes, would my "shoesies" (as I've so fondly named my little decorations) fit other shoes? The answer was ASTOUNDING. At least to me. I did a victory lap around the apartment when I realized all my other shoes would work, too. Andrew gave me a disapproving look. Whatever.

HOW FITTING FOR MEMORIAL DAY! I'll admit it, I love geeking out over holidays where I can accesorize, so I made patriotic shoesies!!!

Oh say, can you see? These shoes rock.

I did not realize until well after the fact that red and purple together symbolize the red hat ladies, so it is also fitting that I put buttons on them, too. Since I'm an old woman at heart anyway.

Then I got to try my shoes on and take some foot selfies (wayyy harder than you would expect). I also had to find something to make a pretty background out of since I don't have a yard or anywhere pretty enough for this girly blog. Look at my average feet in adorable shoes!

I'll admit it. Even though I probably will never use the red, white, and blue shoesies, these do look super cute for this weekend. I love them.

And the most painful/cutest shoes award goes to these. SO cute, but SO much discomfort. My ankle veins definitely are making their feelings known.

SO MANY OPTIONS!!!! 

You better watch yourself, people, because your simple shoes will be jealous of my shoesies. You're also welcome to make your own. Or, you can pay me to make some for you by emailing me a request.

Out of my funk. But still funky.

**disclaimer: I seriously typed "I'm back" into google image search and this was the first pic. I thought it was fitting.

I know you've all been eagerly awaiting my next post and it took FOREVER. I mentioned earlier that I was making the most boring scarf in the world. Well... It didn't end up being the most boring scarf in the world -- it's now a super freaking adorable earwarmer!

... I honestly did not have the patience to make it long enough for a scarf... or even a cowl. Man, I am lazy.

The way it all came about is that I was going about my cute little crochet business while watching movies and apparently I have very little ability to multitask effectively. I made about 30 rows and realized that somehow I had dropped 5-7 stitches, so the end was shorter than when I began. I was really really really disappointed because I finally had gotten into my groove and all my stitches were beginning to look really super awesome and even, and in the end it would not look good. So I shoved the partially completed scarf under our ottoman out of sight while I was disgusted with it.

I decided that it was definitely time to start cleaning the apartment, and you all know how cleaning goes -- you're always looking for a distraction! So I found again the yarn project and realized that I had just bought the most awesome box of buttons recently (Thanks, Gail!!!), and HAD to show them to you guys and the mother of pearl buckles might be an awesome addition to the scarf thing. 

So here are  my preciouses the buttons: 

OMG AREN'T THEY BEAUTIFUL!!! 

They will all become something wonderful :) And these are just the MoP ones!

 I realized today that I'm developing an obsession with real mother of pearl buttons so if you have any, I would definitely take them off of your hands to look at forever.

Anyway. I made this thing and I think I might actually wear it someday!

Wow, I'm so fancy and artsy and stuff I was going for "sullen teenager" in this shot. Also, I think it reads very clearly "took this myself and wish I had a photographer".

But really, I do like it. I might actually even use it. Absolutely not now, since it's 90 degrees outside, but I guess I had to finish it sometime. I am THE MASTER of procrastinating. 

Sneak peek...

http://instagram.com/p/X2lgXnlonI/
Hope this turns into a legitimately wearable garment. No failure hurts as bad as spending tons of time on something that you wouldn't even deem fit as pajamas.

Easter Craft Time! (Plus video bonus)

 I mentioned in my previous blog that my friends and I get together around Easter to do what we have named the "Easter Beer Hunt". Each year, we end up learning a little bit about how to play it and adjust the rules to make the game fair/give tips on how to have a successful Easter Beer Hunt. Last year, I thought up the idea to decorate my 6 pack case to show off my Easter "basket". It was wonderful. So this year -- I had to make it better, I had to make it stronger, I had to make it take more time to make! I also [due to poor planning] had to do it without a hot glue gun.

Rule # 1: the "basket" must be a six pack. I suggest choosing a drink that is not a type of beer that everyone else will bring. The majors (Miller, Bud, Coors, etc) may get mixed up with others. You can always decorate your specific beers, too (we thought of that as a "thing" this year).

Rule # 2: There may be some sort of theme. We will release a note about the "theme" of our Easter Beer Hunt a couple weeks before the event. This year, I chose to go with the traditional "basket" theme.

I found a bunch of pretty colored ribbons. That'll do for an "action" shot.

Rule # 3: Votes are accumulated via Facebook. The winner is awarded a ribbon. 

Here's a good shot of the front. I chose to leave the sides open for an unknown reason. I also put a glitter bunny on the front!

And the backside was a little too plain with just the woven fabric ribbon, so I gave it a pop of color :)

close-up of the actual weaving. It was a ton of work. I don't recommend it.

AND NOW FOR THE HUNTING RULES:

1. Someone else must hide your beers in the approved areas.

2. Flashlights are welcome and encouraged since we hide them at night. Subject to your discretion.

3. Try to remember where you hide the other person's beers.

4. First one to find all six of their own beers gets bragging rights!

5. HAVE SOME SILLY FUN!

6. Maybe tell the police that many adults will be wandering the street with flashlights and beer... Forgot to do that one this year...

So I ended up in 4th place for the basket decorating contest. I am confident that if people actually had to score the votes on effort that mine may have won. It looked super great in person. Want to see the other entries? OF COURSE YOU DO!

Winner[/cheater] -- 18 pack Beer Bunny from John & Heather

Second Place - Flamboyant Easter - Mike

Third Place - Pretty Princess on a Pedestal - Kim

Honorable mention - Lucky Cutesie - Jenna (check out the rabbit's foot! awesome!)

Dishonorable mention - NOT REALLY DECORATED - Kevin

And here's the whole shebang together :)

In addition to our evening of silly beer hunting, the husband and I went to our good friends' house and decided to do a Harlem Shake video with all the children. We are all Halloween costume people, so here's what you get when we decide to unite our costume powers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn3qnyWLxwg