Be Sew Crafty

Hooded Towel

2011-12-27T17:34:00.000-06:00

So, I finished up a hooded towel a few weeks ago and I just realized that I haven't shared it! This is actually a gift I made for one of my cousins to give to another cousin for his little girl's birthday (which was also last week).

Here's how you can do it. I'm actually a little embarrassed to tell you how easy it is! All you need is a bath towel and a hand towel. If you want to add any embellishments you can used bias tape, rickrack, fabric, etc. All you need to do is cut the hand towel right down the middle. This will leave each square piece with three finished edges. Fold the towel in half like a rectangle. (Sorry I don't have any pics of this). You are going to want to trim the unfinished edge about an inch or two and then curve the corner. Then sew this up. Attach the sewn hand towel to the center of the bath towel. You can stop here or you can add embellishments. On the last towel I added fabric strips to the hood and some applique hearts to the towel. I usually embroider or applique the name. I know this may not make sense without the pictures. Maybe I will create some diagrams to help out...

Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T07:17:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas! Yay! One of my favorite days of the year. Yesterday was my other favorite day... my birthday! I turned 27 and boy was I glad. For months I thought I was turning 28. I felt like I got a year younger when I realized I was only going to be 27. I nearly had a nervous breakdown when I turned 25 because I was half way to 50. I am so freaked out about hitting the big 3-0! Yikes!
But, that's not what I got on to talk about. I wanted to share some Christmas pictures with everyone. Here are a few of the decorations we had at our house this year:

Merry Christmas!

Inspired by Pinterest

2011-12-23T08:42:00.000-06:00

First things first.... This has been a very busy week of vacation. I started off making two different kinds of fudge and some peppermint bark. I was inspired by some pinterest recipes, however I tweaked them a little and ended up with one plain chocolate fudge, chocolate fudge with nuts and the peppermint bark. I looooooove peppermint bark, but I was always afraid to make it (even though most recipes seem super easy). When I found a bag of crushed peppermints at the grocery store I just had to try it out.

This is what you will need:

equal parts of white and milk/semi-sweet chocolate. I used two bags of each.
peppermint oil or extract
peppermint pieces
some sort of double boiler contraption
cookie sheet

I just put the milk/semi-sweet chocolate on the foil & greased cookie sheet and stuck that in a 250 degree oven for about 5 minutes. When it came out i just spread it around in a large rectangle that just about covered my entire cookie sheet. Then, I sprinkled just a few peppermint pieces on top.While that was cooling I made a double boiler out of a medium sized pot and a metal bowl. I got the water hot and steamy, but NOT BOILING. I put the white chocolate chips in for about 5 minutes and I stirred just a few times. Near the end I added some peppermint oil. No, I did not measure it. I just eyeballed and waited until I could just barely smell it. I didn't want it to be too strong, but I definitely wanted to taste it. I took this melted white chocolate and spread it over the milk chocolate and added more peppermint pieces to the top. I placed mine in the fridge to chill. After it was completely hard I chopped it up into reasonable sized pieces.

After all of my sweets were done I sorted them and placed them in these cute little tins to hand out to our neighbors on our street. Yes, we do that kind of thing around here and I LOVE it! Our neighbor just brought over some homemade toffee last night and it was delish!

Now, on to my Pinterest inspired art! All you need is a long piece of fairly thin wood (like one inch), cheap dollar store picture frames, spray paint and some pictures of various letters (I got mine from that flicker site on Pinterest). First, I took apart all of my frames and removed the stuff on the back. Then I painted the frames and the wood the same color. You may need to have your husband go out in the garage and cut your wood down. Mine just happened to fit perfectly. I also made one for my mom and diddles had to cut that one down just a bit... And while he was out there he even routed the edges for me. Fancy!

After I got my pics back in the frame I lined them up to make sure I liked them.

Before I used liquid nails to secure the frames I made sure to put a little hanger thing on the back.

I let it dry for a few hours before I hung it up (just in case). And here it is now:

I pretty much LOVE it! We needed some stuff upstairs. We hardly even use our gameroom, but when I do go up there is is a little depressing. Now it looks so much better, and these pinterest inspired canvases are also going to help make it look awesome. If only I could decide what color I wanted to paint them. Right now I think I'm going back to white. I better decide before tomorrow. No, it will have to be done today I cant work on my BIRTHDAY! I almost forgot that my birthday is tomorrow... Anyway... We are hosting Christmas for diddles' family this year and I want the house to look it's best. I am sooooo excited. Christmas is my holiday and I have always wanted to host the holidays at my house. I can't wait!

And before I go I want to give recognition to my little garage troll that kept us company as we worked on these projects. He isn't accustomed to visitors, so I was very grateful that the little demon didn't bite my arm off while I was in his domain.

AND, one more thing... This is the awesome paint I have been using to paint my crafts. I love the colors. I love the finish. I love the way it covers. Awesome. You can find it at Home Depot.

I'm thinking

2011-12-18T19:10:00.000-06:00

This is just going to be a three months out of the year kind of blog. I really enjoy blogging to share my crafty creations, however I rarely have time or energy to blog during the school year. And if I do have free time I usually spend it doing nothing because I am so worn out! Anyway... These last couple of weeks have been crazy. This is (BY FAR) the worst school year I have had yet. I really need to find a better school closer to home... Despite the stress, I have found time to make a few Pinterest inspired Christmas crafts/gifts. Here are some ornaments I made for my team using floor wax, fine glitter and vinyl cut using my Cricut:

I have a few more things that I made as gifts that I am going to post after Christmas. I'm really excited about them. I think everything turned out super cute! I'm even going to the store tomorrow to pick up a few supplies to do some last minute gifts just because I'm feeling super crafty. I've been done with my gifts for a few weeks now, but I just can't stop. Thanks a lot Pinterest!

Pinterest... It's a love/hate relationship

2011-08-08T17:23:00.000-05:00

So, I've had a Pinterest account for a while now. But, I just recently became addicted. I can't stop pinning!!! I've mainly been obsessed with school related pins. It has really motivated me to get back into my classroom (this is very good because I have to go back to work this FRIDAY). I've found all sorts of amazing things I need to try out for this school year. However, I can't stop pinning to actually get things done!

I did find some time to try out this cute gift I am going to give to my team that was inspired by Nothing But Country.

And I made these awesome scratch off reward tickets using things I already had around the house!

And I've even made a few shirts... like this one:

Hopefully I will get some work done in my classroom this week and I can show more of the projects I hope to do!

Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball

2011-08-07T13:22:00.000-05:00

I've had several friends ask me for this recipe recently, so I thought this would be a good place to share it with everyone. Several years back my family put all their favorite recipes together and created a family cookbook. This little book has seriously become my cooking bible (this along with all my wonderful Pioneer Woman Recipes). This is a sweet dip that is great for parties or other get together. I usually serve it with teddy grahams because they are the perfect size and they wont break when you dip them.

Ingredients:
1 - 8oz pk softened cream cheese
1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup mini choc chips
3/4 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts

Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Mix in powdered sugar, brown sugar and vanilla. Stir in chocolate chips. Cover and chill in the fridge for 2 hours. Shape it into a ball. Wrap with plastic wrap and chill for another hour. Roll the cheese ball in finely chopped nuts before serving.

Little Girl's Dress

2011-08-05T10:06:00.000-05:00

This past week I made what might have been the easiest garment ever! I just bought one of those cheap dollar patterns to make a dress for the same friend's little girl to wear on her first day of school next week. I had it done in no time. I even added some embellishments to make it super cute. It probably cost less than $5 to make and I still have material left over!

Nap Mat

2011-08-04T17:38:00.000-05:00

I am so proud of myself for my latest creation. Thanks to Jenny Garland I was able to make a nap mat for a friends daughter. She is starting pre-k this year. The directions were very easy to follow and I had it done in no time. I know nothing about nap mats, but I thought the buttons and carrying strap were genius. LOL! Here are a few pics of the completed mat!

8 Gallons of Paint

2011-07-16T10:17:00.001-05:00

I haven't had as much time to blog as I had originally planned. I've been very busy around the house. I spent 3 days and 8 gallons of paint to address an issue I've had with the color that has graced almost every wall downstairs. I affectionately call it "cardboard". Don't get me wrong it isn't a terrible color. I might even like it in certain situations. But, I felt like there was soooooo much of it and it really was such a dark color that it made our house feel very cave like. It was practically the same color as our floors. I decided that I wanted gray walls. I have a blue and green theme throughout the house and I thought gray would be a nice neutral.... After spending about a month seriously debating on the exact shade (not too dark but not too blue/purple or beige) I finally commited to Sharkey Gray and got 5 gallons of that crap! I later came to regret that decision. By the end of that day our house went from this:

To this:

And I absolutely hated how it looked against our floors. It was the WORST around our fireplace. It looks sooo blue and UGLY to me. But, it looked amazing in our dining room... I spent about 24 hours staring at it constantly telling Diddles how much I hated it and showing him new paint options. We even had friends over during that 24 hour period and they said it looked fine. Now I know who my true friends are because they straight up lied to me! haha! So, the very next day I went out picked up a green and blue paint chip (the colors of our dining room and kitchen) along with a floor sample that was similar to ours. I went to the light beige section and spent about 10 minutes before commiting to a light neutral shade. This time I only purchased 3 gallons (just in case). I had the entire downstairs repainted by the end of that day. And I can't believe I'm going to say this..... But...... I LOVE MY BEIGE WALLS! Never in my life have I ever liked neutrals. However, with the floors, raised paneling details, fireplace, windows and all the other colors in our house I think it looks great! Diddles seems to think I just repainted it the same cardboard color. But, If you look below you can see that there is a BIG difference.

Below you will see some during and after pics!

During

After

Copy Cat

2011-06-18T09:50:00.001-05:00

It's been a while since I last blogged.... sue me! I hardly have any time or energy during the school year to get anything else done. But, one one of our first days of summer Diddles made me this laundry basket shelf I have been wanting for months! We have a good sized laundry room and there has always been a big empty section and I really wanted a shelf of some kind to store stuff in. We have cabinets above the washer and dryer, but they aren't tall/deep enough for some of the things I needed to tuck away. I added a shower curtain rod above this little nook to hang clothes to try and what not. I think this is the perfect piece to use to store pool towels and such. I originally had a vision of nice green or blue laundry baskets and a white shelf.... HOWEVER, I could only find white laundry baskets and the only paint color we already had enough of was this lovely blue from our bathroom at our previous house. I don't have any during pictures. But here is what we ended up with at the end of the day (try to ignore the excessive amount of hangers that are waiting to be returned to the cleaners)...

And just to prove that I'm not being lazy and just sitting around on my bum... I have been working on numerous shirts - like this one:

Lazy Much?

2011-04-10T08:29:00.000-05:00

I've had big plans to get some craftyness going around here.... But, it just hasn't happened and it really is not my fault. I have made about three dozen shirts within the last couple of weeks (in between all of my busy stuff for work). Today I might actually get some work done. Yesterday I accomplished nothing.

Well, you may see it as nothing. But a trip to the farmer's market, lunch, and lounging in and by the pool all day was a lot for me! We finally got in our pool for the first time this year. It was cold and I ended up with a nasty sunburn. Here are a few pics from our day!

This is one of my favorite turtles. He was so interested in what I was doing in his pen.

Don't let this cute face fool you.... He is evil!

Seven Weeks.....

2011-04-09T08:34:00.000-05:00

I can't wait!!!! We get out for the summer in SEVEN WEEKS! I have been ridiculously busy! Some nights we don't get home from work until 8:00 or 9:00 (and we leave the house at 6:00 every morning). I looooove my job, but it is hard work. We have been doing standardized testing this week and it really made the week drag. So glad that is over. Anyway, I just wanted to share some of the fun stuff we did at school during our "TAKS Camp" the kids (and teachers) had a ton of fun preparing and participating in camp.

We did that reverse bleach effect to make camp shirts. Each class was a different "camp" and had a unique color and camp name. My kids chose CAMP AWESOME.... because they are pretty awesome. I think our shirts turned out wonderful!

Here you can get a look at how my room and hallway ~~was~~ is decorated. We worked soooo hard on this and used just about all of the butcher paper that the school had (and that is not an exaggeration). Therefore, it will be up until the last day of school. And we have a second round of camp before the science test at the end of this month.

We're getting closer

2011-03-18T15:44:00.000-05:00

The turtle pen/pool bench is almost complete. And I'm pretty sure I love it now! It looks sooo much better with stain. Plus, we rearranged the patio furniture and I pulled all of the cushions for the furniture out of the garage (they have been sitting on top of Brandon's old Volkswagen for months now) and scrubbed the crap out of them yesterday. And I do mean CRAP.... literally! We have a very nasty dog that lives in our garage. If you ever thought you wanted an English Bulldog you were WRONG.... and I mean seriously mistaken.

Anyway... Back to the new piece of furniture in our back yard. Here is a little sneak preview. It will be so much better when I get all the cushions in place and the plants start to fill in! We can not wait for SUMMER! It's going to be sooooo relaxing sitting out by the pool EVERYDAY!

And when you look carefully inside the structure you can see some of our box turtle friends...

And because I previously mentioned the English Bulldog issue... Here is our little sweetness, Klaus. You see him and just want to grab his little cheeks. Until you start to approach him and he begins to growl. We've decided it's a bad breed. Don't let the pictures fool you!

I've got a Scentsy party tonight that I need to prepare for.... Tomorrow I have big plans to get some sewing done in the morning. Perhaps I might actually get some new shirts done. We shall see...

Sew Busy!

2011-03-17T21:26:00.001-05:00

Well... It's almost the end of my spring break and I actually feel like I have started to accomplish a few things. Here are some of the awesome things Diddles and I have been doing around our house.... BTW, I think I love our house and our awesome neighborhood more and more everyday! It's okay if you are jealous... I mean, we have plenty of room for all of our hobbies, awesome places to walk and ride bikes, beautiful weather and everyone knows our names (and they always stop to say hi)!!!
Anyway, let's get back to the projects:

This is a little something I whipped up for Parker... Pretty sure she is one of the best dressed kids I know. And about 90% of her wardrobe has been personalized for her!

And this is a shirt I made a few weeks ago for our school nurse so she can support her daughter at basketball games.

This is one of the projects I am MOST excited about! I've been desperately trying to figure out a good way to store my ribbon. As I was sitting in the craft room yesterday I looked in the corner and saw some curtain rods that we used in our old house and no longer had a place to use them in the new house. It hit me... DUH! This would be the perfect way to store my ribbon. So, we put them up and added a couple of cafe rods below for wrapping paper. I am soooo in love with this! I also have a few other cafe rods set aside for a couple more rolls of paper. This uses up some of my blank wall space and it makes everything so much easier to access. Yay!

This is the beginning of our new turtle enclosure/pool side bench. Brandon and his awesomely talented dad finished the building process on Tuesday. Today we stained and added a few plants. The turtles should be living in luxury within the next day or two. This bench is HUGE! It may not look like it from this angle, but I'm sure 20 people could sit on it all a one time. I can't wait until the new plants start filling in.

And finally (I really had more to show off, however my computer is rude and I don't feel like dealing with it anymore)... My new Scentsy tester baskets that I will be using at parties. I have a party tomorrow night and I can't wait to use them for the first time. Thank you Target dollar isle!

Looooong Hiatus

2011-02-27T09:44:00.001-06:00

I have to apologize for the long hiatus. I have been beyond busy with work. We have just six weeks until my kids take the TAKS test. Boo! (I ~~hate~~ loathe standardized testing) So, I've been working really hard to prepare plenty of supplements for my lessons + doing before and after school tutoring. Then, my sewing machine started acting up on me. However, spring break is coming and I plan on getting caught up on the 50+ shirt orders I have. AND I want to work on fixing up our home office a little bit. We shall see...

Valentine's Shirts

2011-02-01T18:55:00.000-06:00

Look what I whipped up for Valentine's Day! So easy, so cute! :)

And don't mind some of the ribbons got ironed funny.... That will easily be fixed with a little fluffing!

Not your momma's iron ons!

2011-01-30T07:39:00.001-06:00

OMG! Have I told you that I am slowly becoming smarter than my Cricut! I can't believe it's finally happening. I've actually made a few gifts and things for my house using the vinyl. And just this week was college week at school. AND we were able to wear jeans EVERYDAY as long as we had on a college shirt! **For those of you who don't know - Wearing jeans to work is a big deal for teachers!** Anyway, I graduated from college 4 years ago and my SFA spirit shirts are starting to look a little worn. So, I needed another shirt ASAP. And Diddles over here didn't have one at all (and he just graduated like a year ago). His only college shirt has now become mine b/c it is much too small for him. Anyway... Thanks to my handy dandy Cricut and some iron on vinyl I was able to whip up these babies in a matter of minutes:

Yes, I know they are super plain. I was in a hurry and this was just my first experiment with the wonderful world of iron on vinyl. I looooooove it!

Scentsy News!

2011-01-23T21:26:00.000-06:00

Ok, I had little time to craft this weekend. I just needed to rest. However, I did find out some rather exciting news from Scentsy. Our new Spring/Summer catalog will be coming out soon with new scents and warmers. I can't wait!!!! That also means many of the scents and warmers will be discontinued to make room for the new products. So here is the discontinued list (make sure you stock up before March 1st):
Scents - Guava Nectar, Sentimental Cider, Central Park Pralines, Christmas Cottage, Christmas Tree, Cozy Fireside, Eskimo Kiss, Gingersnap, Poinsettia Pine, Snowberry, Spiced Grapefruit, Winter Wonderland, Twilight, Vanilla Suede, Peligro, Rustic Lodge, Clarity, Rainforest, Pineapple Paradise, Tropical Twist, Cranberry Spice, Just Peachy Ginger, Pumpkin Roll, Toasted Caramel Sugar, Vanilla Walnut, Maple Butter, and Silver Bells.
Warmers - Wild West, Love Life Hope, Blynken, Wynken, Merino, Give Thanks, Sparrow, Canary, Sendai and Prancer.

I'll post pics and descriptions of the new products as soon as I can! Now it's time to sleep... Another looooong work week awaits! :(

Can We Have a Little Privacy???

2011-01-17T14:54:00.000-06:00

Before I get started here are a few pics of what I've been doing lately. Keep in mind I have about 20 more where these came from. I've been VERY busy!

So, we just purchased this house on November 20th (Yes it's been almost 2 months now!) and we really looooove it. We took our time and waited about 7 months after selling our last house and we totally made the right decistion b/c now we have our dream house at the ages of 27 and 26... actually I was 25 at the time. I've only been old since Christmas Eve ;)

Anyway..... We LOVE our house. It has a place for everything. 3 guest bathrooms, giant master suite, gameroom (that we started transforming into a home gym), craft room, guest room, pool, 3 car garage, music room for the hubs and even an office to hide our computer and his books. I could go on. But, lets get back to this office. We never really considered having an office before, but this house had one and it was an extra feature that we really liked. Now this office is opens up right to our foyer/ dining room/ living room/ front door area. The office is covered in real wood paneling. It's quality stuff... just a little too formal for us. We may change it in the future. But, the even bigger issue is that the office houses our crappy computer desk that I drug back from college.... And right now the office has really become our dumping ground for all of the things that we aren't sure what to do with just yet. So, it really isn't something I want everyone to see as they walk into our house. So, Friday night I had the bright idea to do etching on the glass of the french doors. I sent Diddles out Saturday to get some stuff to spray on there. Needles to say it was slim pickin's. Right now we are on our 1 billionth coating and it still isnt quite where I want it to be. But, I know it will get there. The next thing on my list is to get the outside part of the door primed and painted white to match all of the trim in the rest of the house..... See what we've done so far:

This is the beginning stages of taping everything off.

And here it is with about a can and a half on it....

Here is what it looks like from the foyer right now.... It will look sooooo much better with a few more coats, an nice white paint job and some new handles!

Sweet Magnolia Giveaway

2011-01-08T07:33:00.000-06:00

Sweet Magnolia is doing an awesome giveaway over on her blog. You could win an Expression plus 3 cartridges! Thats a pretty sweet deal if I say so my self.

Here is the link to enter:

http://sweetmagnoliarose.blogspot.com/2011/01/up-dated-giveaway.html

I'm not giving up

2011-01-05T18:04:00.000-06:00

The new super easy t-shirt craft I talked about doing didn't turn out as I had hoped. Don't get me wrong, it's not awful. But, I know I can do much better. I didn't cut out the inside of the R, so it didn't look right. I tried to add fabric there, but that didn't look so good either. I doubt I will ever wear this to school. But, I definitely learned from my mistake. I also believe that the dye method would look better on white (I didn't have a white shirt handy or else I would have tried that). Anyway, sorry for the short post and the lame iphone picture, I've got to get my Scentsy ready for an event I'm doing starting tomorrow evening through Saturday.

I'll leave you with the embarrassing evidence.

Vacation is OVER

2011-01-03T19:40:00.000-06:00

Back to reality today... Sort of. Today was the first day back to work after a wonderful two week vacation. Luckily the kids won't be back until tomorrow. I soooooooo needed this buffer day to readjust to my regular schedule. Trust me, if my kids would have been at school today they would not have learned anything! I tried to remember what we were learning and get everything in order for that. But, I felt like I was just walking around in circles all day shuffling paper (probably because that's exactly what I was doing). It was also a very weird day because there were many tears shed and very sad coworkers. This was because tomorrow is the funeral for little Jonathan Foster. He went to our school until around Thanksgiving and as I'm sure you all know he was murdered on Christmas Eve (my birthday). It's a really sad story and our school has been full of really sad stories lately. Just pray for him and all of those people affected by this.
So, don't expect and craft posts for a couple of days. It's going to take me a couple of days to get going.

BUT -
When you do hear about some crafting it might have something to do with my new CRICUT! Yay! It was wating on my front door step when we got home from work today. I started to play with it, however I don't think I had the brain power to deal with it just yet. That will have to wait until later this week. Hopefully it will really help me out because I have about 20 more applique t-shirts to make ASAP.

This is pretty much what I have just sitting in my craft room waiting for me to have the energy to put it to work!

Now I think it's time for a nap.... And yes, this nap will last until 5 something in the AM.

Cheap Wall Art

2011-01-02T08:23:00.000-06:00

I'm wondering if something like this would work in our living room. You see we just bought this house a week before Thanksgiving (yes, just over 1 month ago). Now, it's our second home purchase so we already had all of the basic essentials taken care of. However, this house is more than twice the size of our previous home. Therefore, not everything fits where it used to. Plus we have this raised paneling effect in our living room that we really liked when we first saw the house. However, now we just aren't sure what to put on the walls in there b/c our one large wall is chopped up into three even sections. It is really starting to make me ~~very angry~~ wonder what to do there.
You can see what I'm talking about here:

This just shows two of the three panels and please, please, please ignore that terrible cord running down the wall and around the corner.... That would be the doings of my hubbers (or as I like to call him "Diddles").

I'm thinking it is worth a try. It appears to be a rather cheap and easy craft - and that just happens to be my favorite kind. I've done something similar with wood frames and I stretched various fabrics over them. However, I've changed decor and they no longer are worthy of my wall.

And while we are at it, take a look at our fireplace. I'm still working on what to do above there also. I don't want to just throw something up there...

I have a feeling I'm going to try a few things before I find something that works. Oh well, I'm sure I'll have fun in the process!

Scentsy January 2011

2011-01-01T15:04:00.003-06:00

I'm sooooo excited about January because of all of the awesome promotions going on through Scentsy. Anyone who hosts a basket OR home party during this month will get double the half off items! I know! I hosted my first Scentsy party this time last year, and let me tell you I really racked up.
Not only is this the best month to host a party, but Scentsy is doing the "Bring Back My Bar" promotion. This is where they bring back 20 discontinued scents for one month only and you can purchase bars of them. Here are the scents:

ALWAYSBurst of fruit followed by velvety vanilla and Sandalwood.
BAKED BROWN SUGARWarm brown sugar mixed with nutmeg.
BERRIES AND BUBBLYSweet Strawberry aroma with champagne.
BUBBLEGUMThe true scent of baseball-card bubblegum-sugar and cotton candy with a hint of mint.
CARROT CAKEIrresistibly sweet, nutty, warmer and spicy, just like carrot cake.
CHERRY CLOVE CHUTNEYCrushed bing cherries, cloves and cinnamon.
CLARY SAGEFresh floral bouquet with hints of lavender and lilac.
FALLING LEAVESAn earthy blend of clove, cinnamon, and patchouli.
FLOWER SHOPJust like walking into a flower shop.
FRESH CUT GRASSLike a freshly cut fairway on a cool summer morning.
GRAPE VINELike sweet grape juice or a full-bodied Cabernet.
HUCKLEBERRY HEAVENLike Grandma’s huckleberry jam.
LAVENDER VANILLARelaxing mix of hillside lavender, vanilla beans, orange zest, and patchouli.
PEARBERRYSmooth blend of delicious pears and raspberries.
RAISIN SPICE TEAEnchanting blend of must, clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, and vanilla.
REDWOOD & CEDARA fresh scent with texture, warmth, and sensuality reminiscent of a cedar closet.
SANDALWOOD AND CRANBERRIESExotic sandalwood, sweet cranberries, and spice.
TOASTED APPLE BUTTERCreamy butter blended with ripe apples accented with rich spices.
VANILLA OAKSimple and classing blend of smooth French vanilla and woody oak.
WASABI GINGERSpicy notes of wasabi blended in perfect harmony with fresh ginger.

Now, I haven't tried any of these scents before and I'm dying to get mine in. I just ordered 6 of them this morning!

If you're ever in the market for an affordable way to keep your home, car or office smelling great check out my website!

FYI: These scents will be available to purchase in bar form only and only during the month of January 2011. This time around there will also be a sampler pack available for purchase that includes one bar of each of the returning scents. Who knows when (or if!) these bars will be back again.

Upcoming Project

2011-01-01T08:12:00.002-06:00

So... My BFF sent me a link to what appears to be the EASIEST t-shirt craft I've ever seen. I must admit I'm a little sad/embarrassed that I didn't think of it first. You can see the idea here or here. Now I went to JoAnn's several times this week and stocked up on thread, scissors and other goodies they had on sale + I used my teachers 15%off ALL purchases ALL the time! Yay! Definitely my FAVORITE crafting store. Anyway..... After being inspired I went back again yesterday and got a few more supplies seen here (and yes I know I really didn't need any more thread, rotary cutters or scissor/nippers, but at 40 and 50% off I just had to):

I decided to try this idea not only on colored shirts with bleach, but on white shirts using dye - I know! I think this is going to be genius idea. So, I got all sorts of fabric dye and I'm still thinking about going back to get more when the hubster isn't with me. I'm sooooo excited to try it out (as soon as my CRICUT comes in that is)! For my t-shirts I drew letters by hand and I have them all thrown in a drawer and I pull them out and trace them every time I need them. I'm hoping my Cricut will help me out with this issue.
And yes I know I don't need a Cricut to do this. However, after years of creating patterns and cutting them out by hand I refuse to do it anymore. That's why I bought myself a Cricut for my birthday.... just one week ago and now I just have to wait a couple more days for it to arrive via UPS. But, I've already got all of the materials laid out and I bought a few different brands and types of dye to test out. Here are the ones I've decided to experiment with:

As much as I ~~hate~~ don't really care for the color red it is our school color so I went ahead and got some to test out for a spirit shirt. I purchased red and turquoise (my fav) in powder form and pink and purple in liquid form. I have really high hopes for this project and I hope it is a success b/c I really think it will be by far one of the easiest crafts ever crafted!!!!

Applique T-Shirts....My BIG Business

2010-12-31T14:02:00.000-06:00

Ok, so I first saw these cute applique t-shirts at Canton and I thought they are the best FridaySpiritShirtWearWithYourJeansTeacher Shirts I've ever seen. Then, I looked at the price tag and I wasn't really willing to pay $25-$30+ for a t-shirt to wear to work. So, I examined them carefully and did a little research only to realize they are sew easy to make. So, I got blank t-shirts, fuseable web and fabric and I was ready to create! After making my own letter patterns to trace I was off and I made myself about 10 spirit shirts for the new school year for about $50 bucks. Not too shabby. Well, when I started wearing them to work all of the other teachers seemed to enjoy them as much as I did. Several people asked me to make them one. I agreed - now I would love to just give these away, but you've got to remember I am a teacher and my husband is also a teacher. I'm sure you understand why that is not possible. So, I decided to charge a reasonable fee and before I knew it I had a list of 30+ shirt orders. And this has gone on for about a year and a half now and I continue to make them. I have a stack of about 15 waiting to be delivered when we come back from the Christmas break and about a dozen more in the works. Plus about 10 others that I have yet to start on.... see what I mean? BIG Business! I love making them too. Here is a quick explanation of how it is done:
1. Apply fuseable web to fabric using an iron.

Now, I did this fabric down b/c it was sequin fabric and if your iron is on that stuff too long it will melt and then when your husband wants to use the iron he might cry when that stuff ~~ruins~~ leaves a just a tiny, little residue on his work clothes....

2. Trace shapes/letters on fabric and cut them out.
Sorry I don't have a pic of this step... I'm sure you can figure it out!
3. Use a damp cloth to wet letters on t-shirt and iron them on.

4. Sew around all of the fabric letters.

5. I apply fray check around the edges of all the letters to prevent fraying and your DONE!

See? Isn't it easy.... Just don't tell anyone - this is my BIG business after all! ;)

Here Goes Nothing...

2010-12-30T10:47:00.000-06:00

Ok, so after ~~months~~ years of stalking everyone else's blogs I've decided I need one of my own. Because I don't have enough things to keep up with already. So far I have:

1. work
2. work
3. cleaning the house
4. dogs
5. work
6. sewing
7. decorating the house
8. RESTING
9. Figuring out what the husband will cook
10. work
11. Other miscellaneous crafts
12. ~~Peddle~~ Provide Scentsy for anyone and everyone https://hsosnik.scentsy.us
13. I'm sure this list could go on forever.... But, now I will finish with my new BLOG!

The purpose of this blog is to share all of the wonderful crafts that I stumble upon and my attempt at what said crafts have inspired me to create! I'll be sharing what I've been working on this week in just a little while. I make applique spirit shirts (mainly for teachers that I work with) and I've been working on about 30 these last few days! Yikes!

In the mean time here is an example of what I do:

But, now I need to run to the craft store to pick up a few things to get some of them finished.