A Long Time Comin'

I've been meaning to show y'all my "latest" (I'm using that term loosely) painting project for a while...actually, for about four months. I finished in early January.  Why thank you, I am good at procrastinating! It's an art, really.

I saw a painting done by Ashley at The Handmade Home and decided to recreate her sign:

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She painted hers for a baby girl's nursery, but with some different colors it could really go anywhere. I used leftover wall paint (the tan from our dining room/foyer and the brown from our kitchen) for the chevron which made it very easy to wipe it away to get that aged look. The acrylic craft paint I used to write our name was somewhat harder to rub off-- I actually had to scrape it off since it dried so quickly.
 

(I apologize for the quality, but my phone actually captures the true color better than my camera. The front door is to the right, which explains the inconsistent lighting.)

The painting hangs in our foyer, directly across from the hallway to our bedrooms, so we see it every time we walk down the hall. I contemplated for a while over what to hang in that space because I didn't want to hang something I'd quickly get tired of seeing multiple times a day. So far I'm not sick of seeing it (and Deric hasn't said anything either) but you never know. If need be, I'll just have to switch things around. It's not like I have 144 ideas waiting for me on Pinterest or anything, and at my current pace of approximately four months per painting, I should finish somewhere around never. ;)

Sewing My ABCs

I thought I'd show you how I sewed the alphabet for Oliver's first birthday.

You've probably seen a fabric alphabet before. (If you're on Pinterest, I know you've seen this before.)

Nevertheless, here's the behind-the-scenes for the alphabet according to Ashley (and Chez Beeper Bebe, whose tutorial I used).

1. Find a basic font and print it out. Or do what I did: lay your paper over your computer screen, and verryyy lightly, trace the letters. (My printer's low on ink.)

2. Cut the letters out. (I know, rocket science.) Flip the letters over and trace onto fabric. This makes it so you sew the backside of the letter rather than the front.

3. For each letter, make a sandwich. Two pieces of fabric with enough batting in the middle to make them squishy. Make sure you've got at least half an inch extra fabric and batting around the letter to make sewing much easier. You won't have to worry about running off the edge of the fabric.

I lucked out at the store and found this Christmas "snow" for .94 cents so I didn't have to buy expensive batting. Shook off the glitter and I was good to go.

4. Disregard step two and trace the front of the letter (it really doesn't matter-- I covered the pen with my stitches). Pin the fabric + batting together. You'll notice I don't have much extra fabric around the letter. I had to redo this letter because while sewing I accidentally ran off the edge of the fabric, resulting in the batting sticking through the stitches.

 5. Experiment with stitches. I practiced with the letter L since its a simple letter. I tried a straight stitch and zigzag. Straight stitches were easier, but zigzag looked better. Plus, I think zigzag will be more durable over time. Maybe, maybe not. I used a bunch of fabric from my scrap bin, so I had to learn which fabrics frayed and which ones didn't. Unless you're a master seamstress and therefore aren't reading my tutorial because you know what you're doing, I recommend sewing a few experimental letters.

6. Once you've decided on fabrics and stitches, get going. Twenty-six letters takes a while. Turn on music (or watch Burn Notice on Netflix) and sew away. I did the straight letters first until I got comfortable enough to sew curves.

7. Once you've sewed your letters, cut each letter out. I cut about an eighth of an inch from my seam. I tried to sew the letters so that the batting didn't show, but I couldn't make it work. I just did my best to cut nice clean lines so the letters didn't look sloppy. If you look closely, you can see the batting peeking out. No big deal. Add Fray Check around the edges if you like.

8. Stretch out the kink in your neck and back, and you're finished! If I'd had time, I would have sewn a simple drawstring bag to keep the letters in. But considering I cut out the last few letters on the way to the party, a bag didn't happen. Marissa, I'll let you take care of that. ;)

Like I said before, my tutorial obviously isn't comprehensive. If you're looking for a more detailed tutorial, check out Holly's tutorial-- she made her letters magnets. Or Stitching in the Dark's--she sewed a basket to store her letters.

This is a great project for practicing your sewing skills. Seeing as I still have trouble sewing straight lines, I should probably work on a few more alphabets!

P.S. Mom, I think you should know I used part of my Rugrats pillowcase for the S and the V. It was a tough sacrifice to make, but I did it! ;)

Switching Things Up

You may have noticed a little change in color going on over here...and you may have noticed the change that happened about two weeks ago. At the start of the new year, I figured that was a good time to redo my blog header and liven things up. I'd stared at that same header for a whole year and was kinda sick of its boring look. So a few weeks ago, I used this picture as my inspiration for new colors:

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I love all those colors together (and you may notice I pretty much stole the idea of a circle around the ampersand), and I love the wooden background in it as well. I thought it'd be fun to use those colors on the blog because they're not at all my typical colors. I usually hate orange, and I usually hate purple. But they looked so good together in that picture that I figured I'd try them out.

Two weeks later, I couldn't stand looking at all that orange. So last night I found a different picture that I'd had pinned to my Colors board on Pinterest and used this one for new inspiration:

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Its kinda beachy, but still a little out there for me. Red isn't one of my favorite colors either, but I love the blue and brown so it should work better than the orange and purple. Considering almost our entire house is either brown, tan, or blue, I think I'll be able to deal with this for the next year.

Anyway, useless post about completely superficial stuff. But I thought I'd explain the reasons behind the two switcheroos. But before I go-- if you like that red/brown/blue picture, go check out Design Seeds. Its chock full of color palettes and pretty pictures, and its where I found some color ideas for our living room.

September Goals

I mentioned in my last post that I've recently realized blogs can provide great accountability. So, as clearly described in the title of this post, I'm going to post a few goals I'm making for myself for the month of September. I don't usually make goals for myself-- I don't even do New Years Resolutions. But I'm gonna  see how I do with a few goals this month and see if it actually makes me more productive.

So, my goals for September:
1. Try one new recipe each week.
(Just realized-- that's already done! I just finished making Tidy Mom's Homemade Pizza Rolls. I'm on a roll already!)
2. (Re)memorize Isaiah 52:13-53:12. Its a long passage, but its the story of Jesus and its powerful. I had to memorize it in college for my Prophets class two or three years ago, so hopefully it will come back to me quickly.
3. Refashion one t-shirt (inspired by Pinterest).
4. Finish Couch to 5K training and run a 5K.
        4b. Run at least 4 times each week.

See that? Autumn begins in 22 days!

5 Months, 3 Days

That's how long it took me to finally finish this embellished tee from Make It Love It. Five months ago I bought the shirts...that's sad. But its done and now I'm waiting for the temperatures to cool down (please God! it was 95 at 6:00 last night) enough for me to wear it. 

                            

Now, I'm not sure what happened, but my shirt didn't turn out much like the tutorial. In the tutorial, Ashley tells you to turn the v-neck into a scoop neck by adding fabric to the bottom of the V. I did that and sewed a flower on it only to have the flower bend forward because it wasn't supported enough. So I ditched the scoop neck and kept it to the V. 

The other difference is the layout of the flowers. I tried to eyeball her design and make it the same (which should have worked, seeing as the flowers were all the same size). But my flowers seemed to be too big, so I decided to change up the design a bit and took the flowers all the way up to my collarbone.

Final verdict: I like it and will definitely wear it this winter, probably under a sweater. But in the process I learned a few things and want to try it again, maybe making the flowers smaller this time. I'll be on the look out for more $2 shirts!

Couch Potato No More

Sadly, I'm a total couch potato. I can sit on the couch and do nothing for hours thanks to Pinterest, blogs, and Friday Night Lights. I've always wanted to be more active and I'd love to be one of those people who run because it feels good (versus feeling like a slow, painful death), who run when they're stressed so they feel better, and who get energized from running. I am definitely not one of those people yet, but I'm working on it.

I found out three weeks ago about the Couch to 5k program. Nine weeks from not running at all to running three miles. The program sounded perfect for me. I've tried in the past to just get out there and start running, and its always ended with me in pain and swearing off running forever. Enter the Couch to 5K. Each week, you do intervals of walking and jogging until you're ready to run three miles. These last two weeks were slightly challenging, but I always felt great afterwards. Today was a different story. Today, the program got serious about running and added almost double the running from last week. I wanted to quit, to lay down and never get up, but thankfully I have a very encouraging running partner (who happens to push two kids in a stroller while running, so I need to stop whining).

Melanie and I were meeting up a few times per week to go walking in the mornings. She teaches Stroller Strides and is in better shape than I am. But we'd meet up, walk and talk for about an hour, and then play at the park with her kids. When I found out about the Couch to 5K program, I mentioned it to her and told her I thought we could do it. She loved the idea and mentioned she'd always wanted to get into running, since her husband runs and her sister is training for a half marathon. So for the past three weeks, we've been slowly preparing for a 5K at the end of September, the VMC 5K. Its perfectly timed for the end of our nine week training. I'm excited. I'm nervous I won't be ready in time. I'm doubting that I'll even finish the training and do the 5K. I'm proud of myself for running at least three times each week for the last three weeks. I'm so, so glad to be running with Melanie, who always gives me pep talks and won't let me take a break.

If I've learned anything, its that running with a partner is the absolute best accountability. Its so easy to skip running when its just me, but when I've got plans to meet Melanie, I can't skip it. If I can do this, anyone out there can do this. Find a partner, look up the running plan, and just go!

Motivation found here, here, here and here (but all via Pinterest).

Eat

I first saw the zinc letters in this kitchen (which is absolutely gorgeous, by the way. See the whole kitchen here.)

Later, I saw a tutorial for zinc-inspired letters and it turns out its incredibly easy to make these fake zinc letters. Silver paint over black paint on cardboard letters. Easy, right?

So I went to Hobby Lobby to get letters and paint, and an hour later....voila!

My letters turned out a little dark because I used "Gunmetal Gray" paint, but I still like them a lot. And for under $5, even better!

At the Moment

At the moment, I'm sitting in Starbucks. I'm perusing Pinterest (which is now my #1 time waster, even over Facebook). Deric's at a bachelor party for our friend Isaac, who's getting married tomorrow. I'm using the fourteen hours of travel time this weekend to attempt this project which I found on Pinterest:

source

I've got white buttons, blue cloth, and am going to create an S, obviously for Skinner. I'm really, really hoping I can make an S that doesn't look like a first grade wrote it. The E in that picture is so perfect that my hopes are probably too high. But we'll see how it goes. If nothing else, it gives me something to do in the car. 

(Slowly) Going Green

Spring is slowly, slowly arriving up here in Indiana, so all we've got in our yard is shades of green. No signs of other colors yet-- we did have two daffodils bloom, but the huge storms we've had knocked them right out. Yesterday was the first sunny day we've had in a few days and is apparently the last sunny day for another week, so I snapped a few pictures outside while I had a nice blue backdrop.

You probably noticed they're all close-up pictures. That's because the rest of our yard looks horrendous and is definitely not photo-worthy. The grass has to be at least a foot high thanks to all the storms that keep the grass growing and the lawn mower safely in the shed. :)

As for other things that are slowly going green, I realized the same could be said of Deric and me. (Deep, huh, how it works on two levels?!) I'm certainly no expert on being green, but I try to recycle everything and flip off lights when they're not in use, etc. Small things. I know a lot more can be done and I want to get better at it. If you're like me, the book The Gospel According to the Earth by Dr. Matthew Sleeth is incredibly motivating and will really kick you in the pants. I haven't read the entire book, but what I did read was pretty eye-opening. If I remember correctly (I read it last fall, give me a sec), Sleeth talks about God's command for humans to be stewards of the earth and how caring for the earth is a spiritual act of worship. Its good. Now I'm wondering if the book will be at the library because I really do want to finish reading it and I'm heading there anyways to renew Scrubs...

Anyway, happy Earth Day! Go get your reusable mug and head to Starbucks for a free cup of coffee!

Lightning Fast

That's how fast I was moving on my lunch break today. (That's also how fast I tell my kids to move to clean up, finish their lunch, go to sleep, etc.) I had an hour and decided to check American Eagle for another pair of khakis for work, then return tablecloths to Target that I'd planned to make into curtains. Oh, and eat. Always important.

Ended up that AE didn't have the pants I was looking for, so that saved me some time. I headed to Target, returned the tablecloths and decided to check for khakis there too. No luck once again, BUT! I happened to walk past the 75% off rack and noticed a shirt I'd wanted to buy a few months ago. Nothing fancy, just my typical solid-color long-sleeved shirt. It was so cheap that I bought two...in the same color.

Can you see that price?? I have plans for the shirts-- I'm not buying two for no reason. Ashley from Make It & Love It used two shirts of the same color to create one embellished shirt...

Her tutorial makes it seem easy enough, so I hope that it turns out well when I try it. Even though the shirts only cost $5, I'd still hate to waste it...and a perfectly good shirt. I hope to work on it soon, but after work I usually have no desire to do anything. Then this weekend Deric and I are headed to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to look at a church, so this weekend is definitely out. Maybe next week?

I Sewpose

Good news! I Sewpose is now up & running! You should meander on over & look at all the cute embroideries Christal has up. My new favorite is "The Girls"....and the "Blue Elephant"...and, well, all of them :)

Bonjour!

That's all the French I know. Its also the only way I could think to introduce these incredible photographs from little brown pen. I found LBP while browsing aimlessly through blogs this afternoon, and I love these photographs! Its such a simple idea to do a series featuring one specific color & it looks so great!

                                      

Their story: the couple from LBP lived in Paris briefly, now lives in New Jersey but commutes frequently between New York City and Paris. Their website, blog and etsy are all inspired by Paris...hence the photographs. 

Their etsy shop features collections of photographs in a variety of colors, & every single collection is amazing. It makes me want to whip out my camera & try a collection of a specific color. But then I remember I live in Indiana and its February....so the only color I could do is white:) White ground, white trees, white sky...

There could be potential for some sweet pictures of all the white...if I could brave the cold long enough to take the pictures :) 

thanks, paige!

A few days ago, I entered a freebie on younghouselove knowing I probably wouldn't win (there were about 2,000 entries). The freebie was for custom silhouettes through nelladesigns and they were very cute. My friend from college, Paige, happened to see the same freebie. She didn't enter though, because she and her husband have a photography business so she just whipped out a silhouette on her own. I saw hers on facebook and thought it looked good, so I told her if she got bored and wanted to make me one, she could :) I'm so nice. About an hour later, she sent me an email with my silhouette! And its perfect.

I'm planning to frame it and add it into the photo collage I put in our living room. I've been meaning to share pictures of the collage, so once I add this I'll get right on it. 

I told Paige she should open up an etsy shop or sell the silhouettes alongside their usual photography work. If she does, I'll let you know. For a glance at her and her husband's business, go here. And if you happen to live around Fayetteville, NC, you should call them for a session!

Etsy Inspiration

 For the past few years, I've tried my hand at painting. Nothing great or grand, mind you, but simple designs and words. I'm much better at painting words than any objects, so I tend to find Scripture or other sayings and paint those alongside a simple design. Its been a while since I've painted, what with moving, starting a new job, Christmas, etc. Today I had the desire to start painting again and the verse about God taking care of the sparrows came to mind. I had no idea where the verse is in the Bible, so I Googled a bunch of various phrases. Come to find out I was thinking about verses in a hymn and the actual Bible verses were a bit long for me to paint, but as I Googled all different combinations, this etsy shop came up!

Everything in it is adorable. Turns out the woman behind this shop, Melissa Burger, also has a great blog too (burgerarts.blogspot.com), so I quickly hit "follow" on her page :) She's got printables, crafts, decor, organization...I'm in heaven. In her etsy shop, she's got all kinds of fabrics and prints available, from the alphabet...

...to beautifully illustrated Scripture. I am so jealous of her talent! 

How cute are the aliens?!

I want to buy every print in her shop. 

(above images from Melissa's etsy shop)

So now I've got some serious inspiration for painting, although I'm not sure I can top her designs :) Ah well, if all else fails, I'll just purchase hers! 

P.S. I've been wanting to recover an old bulletin board to put in our office/guest room, but haven't found cute fabric...I think my problem is solved!

fabric from blog