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. ;)

Dabbles with Flowers

Back in high school I was the very proud president of our school FFA! (Future Farmers of America, in case you didn't know) Yes, I still have the jacket and everything--one of these days I will have to pull it out for Halloween of something. :) Anyway... what actually got me into the FFA was my wonderful Floral Design teacher, Charles Bigo--that was by far my favorite class! We made all sorts of arrangements for holidays, weddings, or just for fun. I did the flowers for my sisters' wedding a few years back, as well as the flowers for my own wedding--while I don't do flowers all that often these days, it's still one of my favorite things to do. Fortunately, I have had a younger brother or two in high school the past few years, so when Prom or Homecoming comes around, I get to reminisce and get back to work! :)

This year for Prom, my instructions for the floral wristlet were simply: "Her dress is sky blue with silver accents." Not many flower options to match that description, but I took the challenge and was quite pleased to find that the local flower shop had some absolutely STUNNING orchids, and having never worked with orchids I just had to give it a try.

My little brother, all grown up! :)

May the Fourth Be With You...

I was recently introduced to a wonderful new holiday by the Big Bang Theory--Star Wars Day!!

"It's not May the third...

And it's not May the fifth...

It's May the Fourth--May the Fourth Be With You." 

Totally made my day--how clever! So this past weekend we decided to celebrate this holiday by watching all six Star Wars movies.

That's 15+ hours, by the way, and man were my joints sore afterwards--but totally worth it! As suggested by one of my favorite blogs, The Dating Divas, My husband and I turned it into an extended date night, and it was so much fun! We even had Star Wars themed snacks of course--although, since it wasn't planned with a great deal of advance notice, I didn't quite go all out like Bernadette and Amy on the Big Bang Theory--sorry, no fondant Death Star this year.

However, we did enjoy a variety of intergalactic snacks:

My personal favorite was the Yoda Soda, complete with R2D2 cups I made the night before.

And of course, what would Star Wars Day be without some Princess Leia Buns?? ;)

As they say, May the force be with you! :)

Baby It's Cold Outside!

Can you believe how quickly the cold is taking over?? I heard that it was even SNOWING in some places! Crazy... Fortunately, we have our beautiful headband ear warmers in shop just in time to warm up--check them out HERE! :)

Sage Green Rose:

Brown and Blue Floral Fantasies:

Black Beauty:

Beautiful Blue Bow: 

Fresh Fuchsia Pink Bow:

Sunshine Yellow Bow:

Sewing Machine Cover

I was visiting my mom a while back to see her new sewing lesson room; first of all, it is beautiful! (I'll have to get pictures, it's so cute) Second of all, I was very impressed by all the sewing machines lined up in a row, covered nicely with sewing machine covers. I haven't really sewn much since I got married (sad story, I know--I am in the works of remedying that), and decided that my machine definitely needs its own personalized cover to keep it clean and safe. 

I looked for patterns to make one, but couldn't quite find one that would fit my machine or what I was really looking for. My goal was to make a cover much like my Cricut machine cover (made by my amazing little brother for Christmas a few years back--isn't that just the sweetest Christmas gift ever??); however, I wasn't really sure how to do it, but I attempted it any.

Basically, I just measured my machine (height, depth, length), added a bit for seam allowances, and well--just fit it around the machine the best I could. I actually didn't have any fabric big enough to make a cover either, so I pieced together various scraps that I had--in the end, I think it turned out pretty cute:

The sewing machine design seen here is actually a quilting paper pieced pattern I found on sewhooked.com (she's got lots of really cute designs).

Next up, a cover for my serger--wish me luck! :)

What I Wore: Color Block Dress

So, turns out I really haven't sewn much since I got married--my husband pointed this out the other day (he's never seen me actually make a dress--he's just seen all the things I've made, but never seen the process)--I know that getting married is definitely a whole new phase in life and it's taken a while to get used to things, but I didn't realize how much I miss sewing! We went to the fabric store and my husband helped me pick out some fabric and I got to work--and here is the finished product:

I finished it just in time to wear it to the wedding of my husband's friend--What can I say, I'm still a little girl at heart, I just love dressing up. :)

Pioneer Day Boutique

For Pioneer Day last month, I took a chance and applied to be in Provo's Pioneer Day Extravaganza with the items I've created for my shops, Bluebird Blossoms and Tinkeranniebelle--and we got in! So, my husband, brother, brother-in-law, Christian, and I headed down early that morning and set up our very own booth  for the day (P.S. Best family ever, these awesome boys helping me out on my big day).

So, here is our lovely booth (I was so glad I had the boys' help--I couldn't have set all that up without them):

To your right, our lovely hair clips: 

And to your left, aster and peony hair clips, as well as some beautiful flower, yo-yo, and zipper headbands:

A tower of earrings:

Up front, our beautiful necklaces:

And, my personal favorite, Shabby-Chic Head-wraps and Fabric Flower Blossom Rings, Earrings, and Bobby Pin Sets: 

 My amazing husband and brother-in-law spent the entire day prior to the 24th building all of our displays--I especially liked the CD displays and the wood displays for my rings and earrings--they are very creative. :)  

The boutique was a success, and we got a lot of positive feedback. In fact, the woman in charge of the Farmer's Market in Provo approached me and asked me to come and participate with my products. :)

Of course, most of all, it was just a ton of fun--I got to spend all day with my most wonderful husband and awesome bros! :) And it was a ton of fun meeting different people and sharing my passion and creativity with them. My favorite of the entire day was my very first customer, and little girl who couldn't have been more than 7 years old. She came to our booth several times eyeing a fabric flower ring; she finally got the guts up to talk to me about it, when her mother came by and told her she needed to make sure she looked at EVERYTHING at the fair before she purchased anything, so that she made sure she made the best choice. A little while later she came back and said "I just have to have this ring." :)

Another fun thing was seeing one of my best friends from high school, Talisa! I haven't seen her in years--probably since high school--so it was really great to catch up with her and her sisters.

Overall, it was an awesome day! :)

To see all of our beautiful products and items, check out our shops, Bluebird Blossoms and Tinkeranniebelle!

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!

The Best Way to Spread Christmas Cheer

Another printable fresh in shop! :)