CALLIGRAPHY

For the past couple months I have been practicing calligraphy thanks to Skillshare!

If you haven't heard of Skillshare, it's an AMAZING site that allows you to take online classes on just about anything creative you can think of. I have taken several calligraphy classes, an Illustrator class and classes on how to digitize calligraphed words! It's so rad!
If you want to check it out, use my link and get a month free. And, when you decide you love it and want to continue, it's only $10/month! It's worth it. Trust me.

Since August I have been practicing almost daily. I went from this:

to this:

 

and now this!

It's obviously not perfect but I am improving and I couldn't be happier about it!

If you decide to sign up and want to know good classes to take, let me know and I'll send you the links!

Yay for modern calligraphy!

Project Life- Week 13

Once again I made my own title card. This week I used card stock and ribbon from Target's $1 section. I LOVE the dollar section! The stripes are from the packaging from a gift I bought for a friend online. (or maybe it was a gift for myself...I can't remember now, haha!)

In Photoshop I journaled on top of a few pictures and THEN resized which was a big mistake. On the left side, on the picture of greek yogurt I journaled about how I made my own and the type is SO small you'd need a magnifying glass to read it! Lesson learned.

The two 6x4 photos on the right side are my favorites. We took Neely to a park and I took sequence pictures of Brett going down a slide. His facial expressions were so intense, when I saw the pictures I started laugh-crying (that is how I look when I laugh so hard I cry)! It's a wonder I didn't wet my pants I was laughing so hard! It was such a fun time, I'm so so glad we documented it and it's in our PL book forever! You can click the picture to enlarge and look at his face up close...it's amazing, lol!

Project Life- Week 12

The card with Mabel holding my arm as she falls asleep is my favorite card of this week! 

I LOVE (as in super super obsessed with) all things Amy Tangerine and the "Pure Sweetness" sticker is from one of her sticker books. 

Also this week I used some Oh Deer Me Kit embellishments as well as some stamps from the Valentine's Day section at Michael's.
The month letters on the title card are SO thick and hard plastic (think alphabet magnets...kind of) and I LOVE them. Pretty much anything hot pink I am all about!

FREE Project Life Card!

I made this today and I'm not sure if anyone is interested in it, but here it is!

I was thinking about how lucky I am to live in San Diego who this year has a perpetual summer and how sad it is for you folks who live in snow!

I printed this out on a 6x4 piece of photo paper & it looked like a bright splash of sunshine! Remember it may not look exactly as it does on the screen.

(click image to be taken to the download spot)

I hope you like it! I plan on making more free downloads in the future.

Project Life- Week 11

This week was a little more cohesive than last week, but still not super matchy matchy. 

Here is a close up of a frame that I built up. I don't love the picture of me, but the girls are sooo cute!

I think that Tim Holtz tiny attacher tool would be perfect on the above picture but I would never ever spend $20 on it! I have to wait for a coupon from Michael's or Joann's and then get it.

Get Organized: Weekly Menu Planner DIY

For the past couple years I have been searching for the perfect menu planner. Being a mom of (now) two kids, one almost 4 and and infant, I find that my weekly menus have to be planned out. BUT I also have found that what I planned for one day may not work out due to time, tantrums, exhaustion, etc., so I needed something versatile.
I was never able to find just the right fit for me so I decided to make my own!

Of course I failed to take step by step pics, but I will explain how I made this menu board.

Materials Needed

Wood- we got ours at Home Depot's scrap area for $4 and cut it at home with a skill saw
Paint- I used leftover paint, but you can get a sample size paint in any color at Home Depot for about $3
Kraft Cardstock- I had tons of this leftover from something so that's what I used
Legible Font- I used Muro Regular
Some Program That Allows You to Print Squares- I used Word (just insert a table and drag it to the size you want)
Paper Trimmer- to cut straight lines
Washi Tape- to reinforce where you will put the wire through the cardstock, also for cuteness!
28 Gauge Steel Galvanized Wire- for the cardstock hangers
22 gauge Wire- to hang up on the wall
Nails

• First things first, paint the first coat so it can be drying while you do everything else. As soon as it's dry, do another one and then a third coat for good  measure. Unless your paint isn't as old as mine. Then you'll probably just need two coats.
• Make a list of ALL recipes that you know. As you can see above I also have a card for Takeout (best night of the month which is why it is so colorful!) and a "try something new" card for when I am bored of the usual. I plan on making a new card upon cooking a successful meal.
• Print them all out from your word program.
• Cut them.
• Put washi tape along the top of each card so they don't rip when inserting wire.
• Measure even(ish) lengths of wire and put through the top of each card. I used an upholstery needle to poke through the washi tape and cardstock, but you could use anything pokey.
• We measured the wood so that we could fit the weekdays into one row. 
• We left an inch and a half measured for the day labels.
• Hammer nails below each day label- we angled ours so the meals don't fall off
• Add something fancy to the bottom for cuteness factor
• Hang and you're done! You now have the coolest menu planner out of anyone that you know!

Here is a close up of the cards:

I hope that was easy to understand and that it helps make your kitchen a little more organized!

More Pinterest Crafting!

I recently made an ornament wreath following directions I found here. She gave great directions!
It was fairly simple but toward the end extremely frustrating. I hot glued most of my ornaments, but hot gluing 70+ ornaments is crazy. I should've listened to her and glued every last one because I've lost about 5 now. They're simple to replace (even once it's hanging) but annoying all the same!

I also made the Santa's beard advent calendar. The template is found here but I didn't love the look for my house so I just drew my own Santa. Starting on Saturday, Santa's beard will get one cotton ball per day until he comes to visit our house!

And last but not least, I made the reindeer found in this tutorial! I LOVE how it turned out! We completely did away with our giant Björk hanging that we had up for the last 4ish years. After Christmas I may take the red off of his nose and keep him up year round!
The HOLLY JOLLY letters I printed on red paper and cut out. They are attached to fishing line with a tiny piece of scotch tape on each letter.
I am planning a whole new wall design for after the New Year and I'm super excited to be decorating again!

Have you made any Christmasey crafts lately? I'd love to see them!

Pinterest Craft Mania

I've been a crafting freak lately. So I decided anything I make from Pinterest ideas up until Christmas will fall under this category:

I saw a similar repurposed tray on Pinterest (which as it turns out is from someone's Etsy store) and I knew that I had to make one! The SAME day I was at a thrift store and saw that ugly tray on the left and knew it would be perfect! I think this tray cost me around a quarter.
I sanded it, sprayed chalkboard paint (from Home Depot) over the entire thing, (which, in hindsight was dumb because it caused me to have to put on a million coats of yellow) and painted it a color called Mustard Seed. It's WAY more mustardy than the pic...I'm not sure why it's so bright yellow there!
I ordered a chalk pen from an etsy store and voila! A repurposed tray! I'm so pleased with it! I will attach wire to the back and hang it up after Thanksgiving.

This area used to have a cluster of pictures of Neely but they looked too small on this 5 foot wall.

Following this idea from Pinterest (of course!), I went to Kinko's and had this picture of Neely printed today. Instead of mounting it I used office clamps to hang it. I like the look and am going to get rid of the plants under it so it's more of a statement. The entire thing including 10 clamps cost me $7.

This is an old slate from the 50's (at least) that I picked up at a garage sale last weekend for $1. I used the chalk pen to write down this dreamy poem by Pablo Neruda. This will be hanging in my living room after we get our couch back from being reupholstered and I take down our giant Björk print. I have a lot of pinteresting ideas for our living room wall...stay tuned!!

I love crafting.

You Make Me Feel Like Dancing

Yesterday I decided to start on the entryway of our house. I had made several prints for it and framed them but it was missing something. I knew I wanted to do bunting (because I love bunting) but I wasn't sure how it would fit with our current framed prints.

For some reason this is the only picture that I can find of our entryway! See on the very right? 4 framed prints? Boring!

I made two lines of bunting using this tutorial (except I used thread instead of nylon string and just cut with straight edge scissors because I don't like the pinking shears look).
I pinned the following picture yesterday because number one I like that song and number two I love the cut out felt!

Then I got to thinking about how I'm repurposing an old book for use as my gratitude journal and I have hundreds of extra pages that I didn't want to just throw in the recycle bin.

Then I had a lightbulb moment! I would cut out letters from the pages and hang them up! Once I cut the letters out I decided to sew on them to make it look extra cool.

Doing this is extremely easy (I may post a tutorial on it in the future just for fun. ).

And here is the finished product!

the tacks are being replace by tiny nails as soon as I can get to the store!

I love crafting days! Have you done anything crafty lately?

Wrapping Presents!

I've been trying to wrap presents differently this year. I (along with 204737 other women) am obsessed with kraft paper so I bought some several weeks ago to use instead of wrapping paper. I have been looking on Pinterest and racking my brain to come up with cute ideas. This is the first year of my life that I've seriously enjoyed wrapping presents! It's more like crafting instead of just wrapping. Next year I'll start earlier and all of our presents will be wonderfully wrapped.
The reason I'm tooting my own horn is because normally my presents look like a third grader wrapped them. My mom is the best present wrapper alive so I have a lot to live up to! I'm on my way, mom! 

Have you done any fun packaging this season? I'd love to see it!

Pinterest Recipe| Penne with Roasted Asparagus and Balsamic Butter

original recipe found here

No news on my grandma as of yet.

Yesterday I was browsing on Pinterest and saw a delicious looking picture of penne pasta. It looked super easy so I decided to give it a go!
Sure enough, the recipe could not have been easier to make and it was SO GOOD.
Not only does Pinterest give me fun crafts and inspiring ideas, it also feeds my family! This is the second or third food item I've made from pinned recipes and they've all been perfection!

Pinterest: Recent Projects

I spent the first half of my Labor Day crafting! It rained all day here in sunny San Diego, so I'm glad I had something to do!
We have lived in this house for about 5 months. For 5 months I have been telling myself to figure out something for Neely's room. It has been BARE. A couple months ago my mom made curtains and that made such a difference, but all of the walls were still bare.
So I went to my trusty Pinterest for help. I created a "Neely Room Ideas" board and have been pinning like crazy for quite some time.
I finally put a couple ideas together, bought supplies and crafted a cute cute cute wall for above her crib! (not sure why her wall looks pink; it's white.)

Pin It

I took inspiration from here, which follows a wonderful tutorial that I used and can be found here.
And of course, the bunting I see EVERYWHERE and I found an easy tutorial here.

I love accomplishing things and I love the final product!! I think my favorite part of the project was choosing fabrics. Her room has always been mostly pink and I want it to have ALL colors. I found and fell in love with a fabric bundle that was all reds, oranges, yellows and greens. I think most people at first glance would have put it away knowing that DUH red and pink clash. But I had to have it. I wished so hard that my mom would magically appear to give me guidance, but that didn't work so I did some quick brainstorming in the store. I slowly walked through the pink fabric section and found exactly what I needed.
I found two fabrics that were not only complimentary to each other, they had red AND pink in them! You can see them in the picture, they're the ones in the largest frames. They were the key to making it all work.
The bunting was an afterthought. I figured it would help to tie all of the fabrics (her curtain fabric included) together, and I was right!
Now when you enter Neely's room you're hit with a splash of color and a happy feeling inside! I love color.

Now I have to start her other giant blank wall! I have some supplies already and will hopefully at least start it this week.
Once her room is finished I'll take more/better pictures and post them!

Pinterest: Recent Projects

I love Pinterest. It is by far my favorite website.
I have made several projects due to being inspired by things I've seen there. It's exactly what I need to get my creative juices flowing! (ew saying juices flowing sounds so...gross.)
The most recent projects I made were birthday gifts for my parents.
Historically I have had a struggle thinking of thoughtful gifts for people. I have a few friends (Melinda, Steph) that are SO easy to buy for because they love distinct things and they often mention what they love. I do that too. But most people don't love one certain thing or they buy everything they could possibly ever need or want, or they are SO picky or only have expensive taste, so it's hard. And that is where I find myself every time my parents' birthdays roll around (they are 6 days apart).
This year I was determined to gift thoughtfully and cheaply since money is not overflowing right now. I thought long and hard about their gifts and was very inspired.
The beauty of Pinterest is that you can pin ideas to inspiration boards and view them later.
The first idea I had was for my mom.
My brother, his wife and kids recently moved to Maui, living their amazing dream, but devastating my parents who desperately miss their grandkids. Brett, Neely and I live in San Diego which isn't as far away as Maui but isn't that easy to visit often either. Both of my parents, but especially my mom actively hurt for the presence of their kids and grandkids.
I had the idea of drawing map of Hawaii and a map of California. I then stitched a red heart over Maui and over San Diego to symbolize where my mom's heart is. I found the perfect quote for this project, "There are two lasting bequests we can give our children: One is roots, the other is wings.- Hodding Carter, Jr." I painted and distressed the matting inside of the frame and voila! Her gift was complete! The ONLY picture I have is below, a cell phone picture, because I thought I would be able to take a picture of it hanging on her wall if I ever visit her. Sadly the United States Postal Service broke the frame into a zillion pieces so the gift is in shambles. But she loved it all the same and really appreciated the thought put into it! And when someone appreciates your handmade item, there is nothing like that in the world!

The second project I did was for my dad. I knew I wanted to paint and frame some quote for him, I just didn't know which one. Since my dad is an author as well as a musician, I knew it had to be something about music or writing. I literally spent over a week googling various quotes, writing them down, and thinking about them, until I searched through my "Words" board on Pinterest and found the perfect CS Lewis quote. I decided to paint several vintage book pages and use those as a background for the quote. My original idea was to cut each letter by hand but with a toddler, time-wise that wasn't realistic. I experimented with running the quote through the printer (on each painted page) and I love how it turned out. Luckily his didn't get ruined in transit and he told me it's in his office.

I was very pleased with how it turned out and in the frame it looks amazing! I should have scanned it before I sent it, but oh well.
I don't know how many more handmade gifts I'll make in the future because it's a lot of work and thought and preparation and when things happen such as the frame getting smashed into pieces it is such a letdown. I was sad on the day they received the gifts, because it wasn't how I had imagined it to be, but I'm pretty much over it now.

Things I learned from these two projects:
- BUBBLE WRAP EVERYTHING BEFORE SHIPPING (which is a huge DUH but for some reason I did not. Hence the smashed frame.)
- Don't build things up in your mind

Have you made any projects lately? I'd love to hear about them! If not, get some ideas from Pinterest and get busy creating!