Welcome to My Home

I love decorating and making things "homey," but sometimes that costs A LOT more money than we can afford as "starving college students." I have seen these monogram wreaths all over lately, and really wanted one to make our apartment more welcoming--but it was far outside of our budget. However, as with anything in life, being told no has never stopped me. ;) 

My parents happen to have just pruned their grape vines one week when I stopped by for a visit, so I grabbed an armful and went to work shaping them into a nice round wreath. Next, I used my Cricut to cut out various shapes, sizes, and colors of flowers:

I also used my Cricut to cut out a giant monogram "M" (also to celebrate that I finally "officially" changed my last name--two years later...). I traced my "M" on a piece of cardboard for a more dimensional effect, and cut it out with an exacto knife. I put it all together, and I must say that for something that was so ridiculously inexpensive (aka FREE!), I am extremely pleased with the result:

MUCH more homey and welcoming than just a generic dark apartment door. :)

A Matching Serger Cover to Complete the Set

It took a while to get to (seems like I always have repairs or other projects that need me before I can get to the fun stuff!), I have finally completed my Serger Cover to match my original Sewing Machine Cover! Again, I didn't really have a pattern (although, in retrospect I believe I shall make one, as a serger is most definitely shaped quite differently from a sewing machine!), so I just went with the shape of my serger as best I could, and and voila! The finished product:

Complete with side pocket for scissors, tweezers, and accessories:

Once again I used a paper piecing pattern from sewhooked.com--I love the paper piecing, because I can utilize all those little scraps that I don't have much use for. I'm the sentimental type, so of course I still had a few scraps leftover from my sewing machine cover, and couldn't wait to use them to create a matching set! :)

Pretty Pillows

Over the past several months we have been slowly collecting things for our new little apartment to make it feel more like "Home Sweet Home." Since we are of course your typical newly-wed-struggling-college-students, many of our additions come courtesy of DI and/or homemade. After we found our lovely little couch at DI, my younger brother decided it needed some pillows and was kind enough to purchase some for me (also from DI, we're big fans if you couldn't tell). I dug through my fabric bins to find some home decor fabric and I got right to work on recovering my new pillows!

The first pillow was tricky, as I attempted to recreate "The Easiest Pillow Cover Ever" that I have seen floating around Pinterest, but sadly for me it wasn't so easy... Here's what it's supposed to look like:

However, in retrospect, I think my decorator fabric was much to thick for this particular design, no matter how hard I tried to tie that blasted knot. I gave up and just bunched the fabric together in an effort to strangle the pillow, and one of those miraculous "happy accidents" of creating happened--it actually looked really good like that! So I quickly grabbed a needle and thread and tacked the fabric all around to create a lovely little flower!

For the remaining two pillows I kept it simple, although I did end use extra fabric from the first pillow and made matching piping. The best part was that I made one of these pillows completely wrong-side out, but didn't notice until I was totally finished and admiring them on the couch! I was so bummed out, and probably would have just left it that way, but since it didn't match its twin I had to fix it (my perfectionist gene). In the end though, I am quite pleased with the result:

Home Sweet Home! :)

Oh, and of course I can't forget to mention, my brother actually got me FOUR pillows, but I just couldn't recover the last one--it is perfect just the way it is. ;)

Christmas catch-up--back online! :)

It's been such a LONG time! For the fourth time since we've been married (which has only been about a year and a half), we moved AGAIN! Haha, this time, however, we plan on staying for at least an entire year--for which I am EXTREMELY happy about. :) 

Anyway, because of our move and financial reasons, we have been without internet since October! I didn't think it would be such a big deal--I mean, I grew up without internet, I don't NEED it, right? However, turns out that these days internet is rather necessary in our lives, and at the very least, it is extremely helpful to have. We have been holding out for free internet from Google Fiber (we see the trucks around town all the time!), but they have yet to make an appearance at our apartment complex, so this past week we re-budgeted and made some changes, and now we're finally online! :)

Okay, so after that long explanation (and partial venting on my part, haha), time for a little look at Christmas this past year!

Having our very own apartment this year, you know I was SUPER excited to decorate! I mean, decorating is at least half the fun of Christmas, right?? ;)

Our lovely little sparkly tree:

The weekend before Christmas my husband got SUPER sick, which is very unusual for him, and had to stay in bed all day. I still had some ornaments to finish from a Relief Society crafting activity I had attended with my mother (and of course I didn't actually finish the projects during the activity--haha, I never do!), so I stayed with him and worked on my ornaments. If not for 12+ hours of nothing else to do, I'm not sure I couldn't have gotten them done--thank goodness for silver linings! ;) 

And, funny story, at the time I bought my Christmas tree several years ago, I also bought several things to put together a matching Christmas wreath. Sadly though, I never got around to making it, and had all but given up on the endeavor. This year, however, I decided it was time--I started working on it early in December, but admittedly didn't finish until just a few days before Christmas--but I did finish! (I'm like Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory, I can't NOT finish things, even if it takes me a few years :P)

Along with our tree and Christmas wreath, we continued our tradition (well, decided it would be our tradition now, haha) of getting a new nativity for our collection. Throughout the years I have collected a few nativities from around the world (we love exploring the different cultures). 

My mini-nativity from Mexico (this one fits in the palm of your hand!):

Olive wood from Israel:

Hand-painted from Mexico:

 Last year my husband and I were pursuing at Deseret Book and fell in love with this strange little Celtic Nativity, as well as an Eskimo Nativity; we couldn't afford to get both, so we drew straws and the Celtic won (remind you of FROZEN?):

But this year I finally got to go back and get the Eskimo one! (I have been waiting all year for this).

And now, last but not least, my FAVORITE Christmas decorations from this past year--stockings that my mother MADE for us! Aren't they so beautiful?? They even have our names embroidered on them--I have the best mom in the world! :)

On Christmas morning, Vera was the first to find her gifts under the Christmas tree--and didn't let them out of her sight the rest of the day!

Desk Makeover with the Cricut

Growing up we had this amazing monster of a desk--it was the most annoying yet most amazing thing ever! It's one of those old wooden desks. Annoying, because it was SO HUGE--it took up half of the wall, was super heavy, and somehow attracted shins, elbows, knees, you name it, to be bruised by its solid structure. On the other hand, it was amazing because it was so big--just the top alone provided so much space for work to be done! I have a love/hate relationship with this desk, so when it came time for deciding what to do with it in our new house, I was torn--it didn't fit or match, it just seemed to glare at me in our room! 

But one weekend I decided I wasn't quite ready to part with it--but it needed a serious makeover if it was going to fit a little more subtly into our lovely new home. So, I took a trip to Home Depot for some paint, pulled out my Cricut and vinyl, and went to work.

Before: 

 And after! I painted it a light gray/silver to tone it down a little more (we're going with the oriental look and calming fung shei in our bedroom), white just a hint of glimmery sheen to it (I might be married to a boy, but I still like to slip in my sparkle when I can), and then decked it out with flowers, birds, butterflies, and dragonflies I cut with my Cricut! (first time ever using vinyl--I was proud of myself) 

I was going for harmony--yin and yang--so I need silver AND gold, white AND black--however, I only had silver, black, and white, so I made do by painting the white with gold acrylic paints.

Humming birds for happiness:

Lotus-type blossoms for virtue and balance, dragonflies for passion and energy, and more humming birds for playfulness and joy! :)

I also took the remaining brocade fabric from my lampshade and pillow (mostly just scraps) and pieced together a matching runner to go across the desk, and a mat for my laptop.

The finished product--voila! :)

Canvas Art

I very much LOVE the look of canvas art--you've seen 'em, when people take their family pictures and whatnot and have them printed out on canvas? It just gives it a whole different feel, I love it--a more classy, artsy vibe to the room. So, as I've been making over my new home, I wanted said feeling--but do you know how much those canvas prints cost?! Much more than a newlywed can afford. I was bummed out, until one day while perusing Pinterest I discovered that you can make your own at home! Well of course I was right on board with that, so I picked out some pictures to match my room (photos I took of the gorgeous water lillies at Virginia Woolf's house (while everyone else was touring the house, I was out taking pictures of the pond of course)), and off to Costco to print!

It was SUPER easy--I just printed the sizes I wanted from Costco and glued them onto some canvas I had sitting around from a crazy sale at JoAnns. I painted the sides of the canvas black to match, then modge-podged over the top, and voila!

Upcycles in my Room

So, continuing on our home makeover (why buy new when you can make it prettier for cheaper?), I decided to recover my lovely pink pillow--what can I say, I'm a girly girl. :) --this particular pillow cover was one of my very first "home decor" projects. 

But it is definitely time for a change--to continue the theme of our new room, I headed off to JoAnns and purchased some gold and green brocades (I LOVE brocades!)--and here is the result:

Of course, since that upcycle was so much fun, I decided to try my hand at another one--this time, my little pink bed lamp (again, pink of course, haha). I forgot to get a full picture before I got started on my project, but I did snap one of the lamp shade, so you can see the big difference:

So out to the shed I went for some spray paint:

and painted the base (once pink) brown (but with some glittery top coat, haha):

There's the glittery shine! ;)

While that was drying, I got to work on the lampshade--real high tech pattern making, I know, I just rolled the lampshade and traced, like the kids do with shapes in first grade. :)

Once cut out, I simply glued the fabric onto the old shade with a glue gun.

Then I added just a bit of gold ribbon for the trim, and voila! :)

Toilet Paper Art

Okay, so you all know those Toilet Paper Roll Art Projects popping up all over Pinterest? Yep, I've pinned just about every single one--for nearly a year now--and never actually got around to making one. Don't get me wrong, I loved the idea, but every time I started collecting tubes I'd get a pile of them, then think I just didn't have the time, or that it was more of a "want" not a "need," but most of all--didn't feel I had the time or justification to do something "fun." You see, I have this problem--my husband points it out nearly every day--where I just can't justify doing something fun, or something I WANT to do, or something just for me, until EVERYTHING else in the world is taken care of. Work first, play later--right? Yeah, not so right--I'm discovering that this mentality is more like the formula for a mental breakdown! Haha... 

But, one day I discovered that my sister had made one--and it was beautiful! So I started collecting toilet paper rolls again, because after I saw her creation I knew I really had to have one. :) Eventually I had quite a nice collection of rolls, but I was still having a hard time getting to it--until one day our bathroom flooded and the stress took me over. I was breaking down, and my husband MADE me (yes, MADE me) do something for myself--"ANYTHING babe, just do something that you don't HAVE to do--you'll feel better, I promise." He promised... yeah, Challenge Accepted my friend.

I dug out my stash of toilet paper rolls and salvaged the ones that had been spared from the flood, turned Psych on the TV, and went to work.

I started with flower petals, intended on making flowers, but when I saw all my petals sitting in a pile on the table, I suddenly began creating something completely different than I had planned.

I then found some wire and kept on creating...

Until eventually the project took over my entire worktable! (The worktable which, by the way, my wonderful husband built for my craft corner--boy I love my man)

It needed a little something more--so I spliced another toilet paper roll in half, and with some scissors and wire, made a toilet paper bird!

When I finished, I very carefully (this thing is quite large) carried it to the shop and had fun with some color.

Sparkly, silver butterflies...

 

and a beautiful blue songbird! :)

and the final project!!

Art is man's nature:

Nature is God's art.

~Philip James Bailey

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