Crafting strike ends in less than a week!

The weather here has been amazing. AAAAMAZING. I am a sun worshiper like no other, so everyday I slap on a bathing suit and bask in the glorious sunshine. I can't help it. I do wear a ton of sunscreen, and a hat now, so I'm not as chocolatey brown as I'd like to be, but I'll take what I can get. With this great weather, comes my crafting strike. When the weather is nice, I'm a total slacker. Why sit inside, when I could be outside getting my much needed Vitamin D!?!

SUP :)

and I always bring my co-pilot, safety first!

But, one of my BFFs Severina comes out here in less than a week, so I have lots of cleaning to do, and prep! I've linked her blog before, but you NEED to read it. I've never met a more fabulous, fierce person before in my life, and I honestly don't think North Carolina is ready for her!

In preparation for her visit, I decided to make a list of everything I plan on making while she is here to help myself get some ideas. I don't really want to start on a large project, but some small ones to knock out! Or so I'll tell myself now...

Idea Numero Uno: Reuseable Paper Towels

I go through so many papertowels at my house it actually makes me feel bad. I try to be a "green" person, and recycle everything, and buy enviornmentally friendly items, but I'm a papertowel hoarder. I'm determined to make these so I feel less guilty about my bad habit!

Number 2: Thrift Shop and Make Dresses

I have an old Doors t-shirt that I can totally picture, I want to do this so bad! We are definitely going thrifting while she is here! I really want to upcycle some old shirts into this idea, hopefully the people in NC gift these beauties to the goodwill so I have something to create! We WILL wear your granddads clothes, and we will look incredible! 

Number 3: Giant Vintage Star Quilt
I LOVE the blog that this tutorial is from, the blogger has the cutest fabrics, and she made a quilt out of vintage sheets entirely, which is a fabulous idea! I wanted to do this quilt for our extra bedroom, but I needed a larger one. Now that I want to have a quilt ladder to display all my hard work, I'm thinking about making this one to use around the house. You'd be surprised how much use I get out of these quilts. Seriously!

I also have a few other ideas that I can't post about, because they're a secret! ;)

Alright S, you're up, what do you have planned sista!?! I can't wait to see what you want to do!!!!

Homemade Gifts

This past Christmas I decided to try and make all my own gifts, and definitely bit off more than I could chew. After sewing for days and days, I realized that the best decision is to make something AND buy something. I've had so many people ask me to make them a quilt, and while I'm extremely flattered that they'd like one from me, I don't think people realize how much work it takes. I know I didn't, that's for damn sure. I will get around to making quilts for all my friends and family members, someday, but right now, I think little homemade gifts will do! :)

Anyways, one of my very near and dear friends, Ramona, had a birthday this past month and I wanted to make her something special! Ramona is one of the best gift givers I've ever known. I always tease her and say that I'm just trying to live up to her gifts, because every gift I've ever received from her was AMAZINGLY perfect! Seriously. I need to know her secret to gift giving!

So this year I was a little stumped on what to get her! Her birthday was during March madness (quilting madness that is) when I made the quilt for my extra bedroom. So I was trying to make probably 4 gifts at once. So, we were texting one night, and her gift hit me! (I'm really not making up these epiphanies, they really do come out of left field.) See, Ramona is moving back to her home state of Texas and she just bought a house and we were texting about craft plans, and her gardening. I knew immediately what I wanted to do! So I ran to my sewing cabinet and scoured the fabrics. I bought some gray chevron fabric about a year ago now, and have been saving it for something special, and I knew Ramona's gift would be fab with this print.

So I made her a gardening apron to wear! I didn't follow any pattern, I just sort of went with it because I had something pictured in my mind, and it turned out fabulously if I don't say so myself!

I went to Target and found a pair of matching gloves and cute gardening tools. I also found some adorable copper colored herb markers and seeds. I placed the tools and gloves in the pockets of the apron and wrapped it up inside the apron, I wish I would have taken a picture of how I sent it off because it turned out perfectly! The apron strings were tied like a bow and my label was sitting perfectly on top!

Ramona loves it, and I couldn't be any happier! She is one of my best friends, and I miss her dearly! I can't wait to see what she does with her new home because I just know its going to be gorgeous!

Hope you enjoy the pictures of her fab gift!

Guest Prep & Vacay Pictures

This is a little late of a post since my fam-damily was here visiting this past week! I was cleaning the house like a mad woman, and didn't get a chance to post my last minute decor ideas. Initially, I had a cleaning schedule planned, but then I decided to not even ask Dustin to help me clean, because it wouldn't be clean enough. You know HOW I know this? After he shaved his head, face, and god only knows what else in our extra bathroom, he came out with a wet towel in his hand and said, "Do you want me to knock out the bathroom, and just wipe it down?" God bless him. First, how is "wiping down a bathroom" sanitizing it?? AND sweet Mother Mary of God, how is wiping down a bathroom with a towel you just used to dry off your nether regions a good idea at all!??!? MEN. I hate to think of how the barracks on base are being cleaned if my husband was supposed to have taught marines all they know last year at boot camp. There's probably marines all across the country "knocking it out" and wiping down their entire rooms with wet, ball-sack ridden towels!!!

EEK....

Anyways, I cleaned my entire house, by myself, and little Guido hid upstairs in the F.R.O.G. waiting for my madness to end. You see, I can be a tad bit crazy when I clean. I like to quote my psycho father-in-law and claim that rooms are "closed." So once I've cleaned the kitchen, that shit is closed, don't even think about going in there for a snack or a glass of water. It's closed! I'm the cleaning nazi, honestly.

Anyways, here are some more pictures of our extra bedroom. The decorating is as good as it's going to get until I can devour another antique store. I really miss the Long Beach Antique Flea Market.

I have so many old suitcases lying around the house, so I decided to prop open this green one on the nightstand and fill it with stuff. I put my guest towels, their itinerary (yes, I know), and their welcome gifts. I made everyone mason jar cups, and mod-podged the tops with left over scraps from the quilt, so everyone got to take a piece of our home with them. I also recreated these mugs for them, so they have their own little NC souvenoir. My family is full of coffee drinkers, so the gifts were perfect!

We found this little shelf at a flea market in Murrieta, and I need to start collecting more teacups! It's hard out here because they sell them in sets, and I just want one!

This dresser was my dresser from high school! When I was in high school, my mom and I redid my room into a shabby chic type of room, and I painted my brown dresser green, and my closet for some random reason. I think originally I painted it with that crinkly white paint, and had an epic fail, and then decided to just paint it straight green. When we were moving my mom asked me if I wanted the dresser, and I said HELLS yes! I literally came up with all the decor and quilt on the fly, and it ended up not looking too shabby...chic!

These curtains are hard to see, but they're actually a super cute sage green color, with polka dots! I've never had a curtain in my life, but all of our asshole neighbors leave their outside lights on at night, and they shine directly into our windows, so we sort of need them.

We took my family errrywhere while they were here. I was excited because even though I've been living here for 3 months, I really don't know much about the area still. We went into New Bern, and took a trolley tour, went to the cemetery, Tryon Palace, the whole sheebang.

Cedar Grove Cemetery - New Bern, North Carolina

We laughed our asses off while Dustin played the guitar.

Tryon Palace with my favorite (shhh don't tell anyone) cousin Amanda

New Bern has 52 of these bear statues! We only conquered 6 of the 52, but when my girlfran Sevi comes out, we are going for all 52!!!

The Old Burial Ground - Beaufort, North Carolina

Google this place, AMAZING

I also hit up some antique stores with my mom and Aunt, and look what I got! I'm smitten! I have been eyeing some Pyrex/Corelle plates for far too long on Etsy, and I picked these boys up at the antique store, and my mom swooped in and got them for me. They're the beginning of my soon to be new plate collection. I really want to switch over all my plates and bowls to these!

I also found what could quite possibly be known as the best looking quilt of my life. This thing is in PERFECT shape, and the backing is white. It looks like it was for maybe a girls twin bed, so how it stayed pristine after all these years is beyond me. It's gorgeous, it's perfect, I love it! Thanks mom!!

My aunt told me an idea about getting an old ladder to hang my quilts on display, and I think that's a fab idea! I've also decided to recreate any quilt I buy, so I'm going to attempt to make this quilt this year. It's on my list with all my other projects!

That's it for now, for a while! I am going on crafting strike! Haha! But no, seriously, I have a few more projects up my sleeve, but I need to plan them out and get some fabric. I've also got a few baby projects to make for friends, WINK WINK WINK. You biotches know who you are!

Spring has sprung! Outdoor space revamp.

Nicer weather has finally arrived in North Carolina! One of my favorite things about our new home is the screened in porch. Coming from California, I thought that screened in porches were the epitome of southern living. Random side note, in California, all the southerners I knew would set up shop in their garages. Seriously. They'd have couches, tables, BBQs, and would almost set up a second living room in their garage. It makes total sense to me now, they were just looking for their screened in porch! That has to be the reason because I haven't seen a single person in the dirty south hanging out in their garage like the people in California did...

So, this post is a little bit about a DIY gone wrong, but has a happy ending (no, not THAT kind of happy ending :) See, we have four chairs with seat cushions and back cushions, that looked like this...

Gross right? We bought this patio set at Lowe's probably 4 years ago when we moved off base and into our little beach house. We wanted an outdoor space and paid a hefty penny for this set. I'm disturbed, shocked, and disgusted with how much outdoor patio sets can cost. Even the ghetto ones from Wal-Mart are expensive! Anyways, we left them outside, year round, for 4 years. I'm pissed at myself for letting this happen.

Anyways, what had happened wasssss, I had an idea to just remove the old covers, dye them a darker green, and slap them back on, and laugh at how much replacement cushions would have cost me.

Well, I def messed up, two things:

1. I thought the cushions had zippers, they didn't. I know. I know. I should have looked before I left the house, but this epiphany came to me in the middle of the laundry section of the store, and I just went with it.

2. The covers didn't dye. I'm an idiot. Patio furniture cushions are waterproof, AKA they ain't soaking up shit, Tina!

So, there was I was. With all these chairs, and all these cushion insides taking up valuable real estate on my porch, and no cushions. If you've ever looked at replacement cushions, you know those can be pricey. For instance, the ones I wanted, and didn't even like that much, would have been $300 after all was said and done. Yeah, screw that.

So, I was walking around the store, and saw this rug, and the sky parted, and the angels starting singing, and I KNEW what I was going to. I grabbed this rug, and headed off to the sheet section. I ended up buying two King sized flat sheets in two colors, and came up with my replacement idea. See, since it's a screened in porch, I didn't need to have fancy water proof ish, that stuff isn't going to get wet. In a few years when we move back to California, and have had this set for probably over 7 years, I'll just get a new one. But, for now I needed a quick fix.

So,  I just reused all the old stuffing, which was like brand spanking new due to those fancy waterproof cushions! The old cushions were sewn insides out on three sides, turned to the right side, stuffed, and then sewn closed on the forth side. So, I just measured out the old pillows and cushions, and sewed my own.

As you can see, the dog loves them, that's his chair, but I thought that the chairs just looked too plain, that they needed a little throw pillow or two...

So, I had some leftover red from the pillows and canvas material laying around the house. I drew a paisley print on the canvas material with a pencil, and then went over it with some acrylic paint.

Then I pinned it wrong sides together with the sheets.

Cut it out, and sewed around three sides, turned it inside out, stuffed it, and then used this video tutorial on how to do a closing stitch. I think it's the best sewing tutorial I've ever seen.

Then I was happier with the outcome of the cushions! I think it just makes it look a little less homemade, and ties the colors together.

Here is the whole set! See that weird little metal thing? It's from the fireplace in the house, it vents onto the porch to heat the porch as well. Weird, right?

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, overall it only cost me $30 to completely redo the cushions and create a happy new outdoor space area.

And last, but not least, who's the cutest cattle dog you've ever seen?

That's right Smokey.

DIY - Sugar Skull Ceramic Pot

I'm not going to lie...I saw this pin on Pinterest, and thought it was adorable. So I decided to make my own! It was actually fairly easy. I thought it was going to be a nightmare because I do not have a steady hand with a paintbrush, at all.

What you need:
-Ceramic Pot
-White Spray Paint & a clear topcoat
-Pencil
-Acrylic Paint and Brushes
-Plant and potting soil

I have a lot of this stuff already because I am a crafting hoarder, but if you wanted to make everything, you could go to Wallie World and probs pick up the whole deal for 10 bucks. Seriously. Depending on the amount of colors you want to use, I already had all those colors...

So...

Step One - Not Pictured:
-Spray paint your entire pot white, this took me a few days because I was in and out of the house, and my husband is a spray can nazi. He would only let me gently mist the thing, and it literally took DAYS to get the ceramic orangey color to not show up!

Step Two: 
-Draw your sugar skull with a pencil
-You'll notice I made some mistakes along the way, but I left them because I was going to cover them with black anyways
-The best thing about this project was that I could erase! I erased that damn mustache about 20 times before I got it the way I wanted.
-Also, if you don't feel like making up your own like I did, print one of these out and trace it onto your pot by pressing hard, but gently with a pencil

Step Three:
-Paint!
-I used the smallest brushes EVER for this project, and went slow. I think that's what helped make this project not look like shit. Of course, always start with the light colors first. Here I bounced from yellow to black because I was waiting for the yellow to dry before I added the red.
-I also used the back of a brush for all the dots. I did draw them so I knew where I wanted them, but I just simply dabbed the back of the brush into the paint, and went around the eyes, super easy, and it didn't glob up. Acrylic paint is the shit!

Step Four (Not Pictured)
-Clear coat, so that when you're watering your plant, your sugar skulls face doesn't melt off!
-Slap your plant in!

Step Five: Display
-And enjoy! : )

I might make some more, but I need to check myself, because I can get easily obsessed with something, and then go ape shit crazy and make like 12 for my house... Coughbuntingflagscough

Where art thou Gidgie?

I have been extremely busy lately getting my house ready for my family to visit. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so I've been patrolling Craven County for the best curtains, home decor etc. etc. So, I've been everywhere, but on here. I have been crafting, but I've recently becoming much busier than I was before, if you know me personally, you know why I don't have time to sit around and craft all day anymore. Sadly. :(

But! I did promise to talk about the quilt I made, and I sat and tried to come up with a pattern for this quilt, I really did. I could do it, but it makes me look like an idiot. Seriously. I was drawing it out on graph paper, and just thought, wow. People are going to question your crafting abilities, and maybe your mental state if you post this. So if you really really really want a pattern, let me know and I'll email it to you, so I'm not embarrassing myself with my horrible excel and graph paper skills..

Anyways, here are some pictures of the quilt in my extra bedroom and the process. I'm still having mixed feelings about it, I'm not sure if I love it, or if the colors are a little too, I don't know, off? I think once the room is finally put together, it will all tie together nicely.

I used these 5 prints, that top bright one is the quilt back. All of these fabrics I bought at Joanns on Veterans Day last year, for 50% off, 

so I've had this idea in my head for awhile! 

I always lay out my quilts before I sew them together. You'll notice that the quilt got bigger because my husband kept telling me it was too small, so I kept adding on columns and columns! The little squares are 3"x3", the bigger squares are 6"x6" and the green rectangles are all 3"Wx6"L.

I ended up with: 

*9 - Little Square/Rectangle Columns

*8 - Big Square/Rectangle Columns

*Borders

I find that the easiest way to make a quilt is to sew the columns first. So I assembled anything vertically first (for some reason I always confuse the meaning of rows and columns.) So, I sewed the pieces in column 1 first, then labeled it some masking tape, then moved on to column 2, and so on. After all the individual columns are sewn together, I sew them together. So 1 with 2, 3, with 4, and so on. Then I sew the bigger pieces again, 1&2 with 3&4, if you've ever worked with a large quilt, this helps with the handling! 

I hope this helps anyone who wants to sew a quilt because it makes it go by SO fast. Now that I'm better at sewing and assembling, I look back on my first quilt and laugh at my self. I think I've realize why that quilt took something crazy, like over 24 hours to make.

I always buy way more fabric than necessary. So I had some extra little squares, so I decided to sew them together around the outside for a border. I originally wanted 2 borders, but I ended up almost not being able to use the backing sheet!

I ended up with:
-28 Squares sewn together for the columns
-25 squares sewn together for the rows

Now that I'm done with this quilt, it would have been a much smarter decision to add on the border squares to the actual quilt. I wish I would have sewn them on with the columns from the beginning, that way, when I finished the quilt, I would have been done with the border as well.

I hadn't finished the pressing the bottom of the quilt when I laid this one out, so look at what a difference ironing makes! I always thought ironing wasn't that big of a deal, but I pressed the crap out of this quilt!

I also got a new attachment for my sewing machine! I ordered this free range motion quilting attachment for my simple Brother machine, and it worked perfectly! I was a little scared at first, so I practiced on a piece of scrap fabric. It's really hard to get used to, because the faster you go, the smoother the lines are, but you can't move too fast, or everything gets messed up.

I also used two entire spools of fabric on this bad boy, and did I mention this part of the quilting process took me 10 hours??

I will never be able to make a quilt again without "quilting" the whole thing. This one feels like an actual quilt, it's surprising how much sturdier it seems. I need for it to sit in the wash with some downy for a while so that it gets soft. It takes so long to break quilts in!

Of course I forced my husband into the woods near our house for a picture, I was too short to show the finished product! Here is the top!

Backing

Someone on my Instagram said this is a super hero quilting pose. It sure is! My back was sore for days slapping this bad boy together!

Overall, this quilt was fun. I learned so much, just by having to figure ish out on my own. I hope my guests like it as much as I do!

DIY Rustic Headboard

We recently bought an extra bed since my fam-damily is visiting, and I was disturbed at the prices of headboards and furniture sets. Half the stuff I saw was hideous, and the other half was all boat themed. For some reason here the decor and furniture is all shore themed, we even have a furniture store called "Shore Decor" here, YIKES! Personally, the whole nautical theme is overdone to me, and this is coming from a girl who has anchors in every room. ;)

So, I did some googling, talked it over with the husband, and came up with this bad boy, who only cost us a whopping $18.

Relax girlfran

And here's how you make it!

Supplies Needed:

-4 boards (Ours is 48 inches L, 24 inches H - boards are 48"x6")

-8 Screws & Electric Screwdriver

-Scrap wood to attach to the back (the picture later will make more sense

-Oil based stain of your choosing, I used this one - a true "barnwood" stain I think!

-Sponge for Stain

-Brush & Polystain (Optional)

-Gloves

-Circular Hooks for hanging (see picture)

-Gorilla Hooks

Step One:

Get your supplies. We bought everything at Lowes

Step 2:
-Cut the boards, or get them cut at your local store. You can actually have Lowes cut your wood for you, which is why I didn't include a saw in the supplies needed, we have a saw, and in this case, we bought larger boards and had them cut into 3 at the store, and used the leftover ends for the backing.
-As you can see we have 4 boards because the bed in the picture is a full. If you want to make a headboard for a larger bed, just measure 1 inch on both sides, and adjust your measurements
-Each board is screwed in twice (once on each side) to the backwood pieces, I suggest using the black screws, I think they look better with the stain

Step 3: Distress Wood
-When you stain wood, you'll notice if there is an indent in the wood, or a scratch, it holds the stain darker, since I wanted a rustic look, we went to town on this board. As you can see, thats my lovely husband hitting the board with a military issued Kaa-bar. Yay Marines!
-You can use anything really, most people use a chain, but I didn't have one, so we used the metal end of a dog leash, a big long metal thing that turns the sprinklers on, and the kaa-bar.
-Go hog wild, and beat that board down.

Step 4: Stain
-Get your stain on.
-Staining is pretty simple to me, so I didn't take any progress pictures. You can see in this picture the sponge I used, and how I kept the stain all to one side of the sponge. Don't get that thing soaking wet, and always brush with the grain of the wood.
-I always stain the creases and then go back over
-The more stain you use, the darker it will be, if you like the stain I used, this is one coat of this

Step 5: Not Pictured
-Sanding and Polyurethane top coat (Optional)
-What had happened was, my husband left my paddle board directly next to my lovely project, and it fell over, knocked the can of stain, and it splashed onto the wood ruining my lovely headboard. I was so upset. So we tried to sand it out, and ended up loving the way it looked. You should always sand it slightly before the poly coat anyways, but if you want to do it exactly like me, just sand it pretty good in random places to get it more weathered.
-If you're the type of person that doesn't like the unfinished wood look, sand it slightly, and then apply a polyurethane base twice (directions on the product)

Step 6: Hanging
-Here is an example of the hooks we used, we hang everything in our house with those gorilla hooks. They're amazing, and bizarre. I think they used to be called Hercules hooks? Anyways, we have heavy windows, pallets, etc. etc. in our house, and they're all hung just like this! But be careful, studs in the walls are gorilla hooks enemy!

TA DA, You have a fab new headboard for cheap cheap cheap!

I hope you're digging those sheets and pillows as much as I am. I made the shams, quilt, and Relax pillows all myself. This is a handmade house!

Here are some closer up pictures of the stain, the wood, and how it looks hanging up against the bed.

I hung the wood slightly lower than the mattress top because I didn't want my guests banging their head on the wood above them.

Isn't this a beautiful stain?

I am so happy with the finished product, and it's only nearly 1 week until my family gets to experience it all. My older sister has been threatening me that she's taking my brand new quilt (which I've yet to blog about, sorry!) home with her! That quilt had over 10 hours of free motion quilting on it. It's never leaving my hands, ever!