Weekend Update: 2/14 - 2/16

This picture is actually from 2 weekends ago when I went to the Hill Country to visit my Aunt. This is my new friend, Stormy, the only horse out of 6 horses that came to say hello. I love how we are both actually looking at the camera...ha ha.

Now to this past week/weekend...

I finally found almond milk yogurt!!!! I used it in my red velvet pancake recipe. Let's just say I was a little surprised when I opened it and it didn't look like regular yogurt...ha ha. I haven't tried it by itself yet, but I know there will be a night I forget to prep my breakfast for the morning, so I'm saving it for such an occasion.

As we were all reminded every day since Christmas, Valentines day was this past Friday. I didn't have much planned, other than trying not to eat the entire bag of m&m's sitting on my counter, and was completely surprised when I got this special delivery from a very special guy who is currently half way around the world!! I even rationed the 24 chocolate covered strawberries to last me through Sunday night...trust me that is a lot of self control for me!

Saturday, I did my one and only work out for the week, (shame shame) an hour and 5 mins on the treadmill! Two weeks ago, I instagrammed that I actually ran a mile for the first time since injuring my knee and since I was able to walk after that I decided to up it a little this time. I ran for a total of 1.5 miles and could still walk Sunday...woo hoo! After my workout, I let my heart rate monitor run a little longer and was surprised to see over 1000 calories when I finally stopped it! I've never seen the calories burned number that high, but then again most of my workouts are 20-45 mins. After my workout, I went back home to a pretty sad looking lunch...tuna and apple. I literally had nothing else...ha ha...I needed to go to the store bad!

To avoid eating tuna and apple for lunch and dinner, I went to the store and picked up some quick and easy meal items. Since starting the yeast free diet (which is more like 80/20 yeast free now) I crave Chipotle all. the. time. But my wallet just can't handle their expensive bowls :( So I decided to create my own! I heated up some black beans and pinto beans with a little seasoning, put those over a bed of torn spinach, put shredded chicken over that and finally some avocado...Delicious! Was it as good as Chipotle?!?! Of course not, but it didn't cost me quite as much ha ha. I had it for lunch Sunday as well and will probably eat the rest of it for lunch Tuesday.

After a very lazy Sunday morning of watching movies (I watched American beauty...one of two Oscar best picture movies I watched this weekend...the other one was In the Heat of the Night), I started working on a winter mesh wreath for Barrett's mom. His mom gave me a mesh wreath idea book for Christmas and picked out two that she "wanted" ha ha. Since all the Christmas/winter stuff went on sale right after I received the book, I decided to go scoop some stuff up and make one of the wreaths she liked. I think it turned out pretty decent. I'm going to surprise her with it this weekend when they are in town. Hopefully, I'll have two surprises for her, but the other one may not happen/get spoiled...ha ha The rest of Sunday was spent doing laundry and other chores while my dinner was cooking in the crock pot (more on that later).

How was y'alls weekend?

Christmas Crafts 2013: Wreath Edition

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas yesterday!! I meant to post this picture yesterday, but time just got away from me...

Since all presents have been opened now, I can finally share the crafts I've been working on since Thanksgiving!!!

I made two new wreaths and re-made one from two years back that kept falling apart.

First up, a Fall-ish wreath...

My Aunt, who went with me to the ZTA casino night back in October, really liked the wreath I made for the auction and kept saying how she needed a Fall wreath. Of course, by the time I went to get the supplies to make a Fall wreath, all the Christmas stuff was on display. With the help of Elizabeth, I ended up getting this maroon-ish ribbon (I know it looks pink in the picture) and an orange flower and decided it looked Fall enough...ha ha.

Next up, an everyday wreath...

Another Aunt of mine, told me at Thanksgiving that she wanted an everyday wreath to hang on the front door of her new house. Again, with the help of Elizabeth, I decided on this gorgeous black and cream ribbon and cream colored flower. The bow and the flower can be easily removed from this wreath in case my aunt ever feels the urge to seasonalize it (yeah I just made up a word).

And now for the remake wreath...

Two years ago, I made my Mom an ornament wreath by just stringing the ornaments on a wire hanger. It held for about two days before the ornaments started to pop off. So this year she asked if I could work some magic and make the ornaments stay. Well the only way I know of to make the ornaments stay, is to actually glue them. So I took the old "wreath" home with me and decided to make it like the one I made for Barrett's mom last Christmas. I needed a few more ornaments to fill in the wholes, so my Mom chose the colored ones with gold glitter since Hobby Lobby didn't have any regular gold ornaments with a design on them. I actually really like the way it turned out. Now if only she hadn't picked such glittery ribbon, I wouldn't still be getting glitter out of my hair...ha ha.

Fall Mesh Wreath

I know everyone (including myself) is in full on Christmas mode, but since I can't share any of the crafts I've been working on (since they are all gifts) and I never shared my fall wreath...I've decided to share it now!

While strolling through the clearance isle in Wally World I came across orange and brown mesh ribbon. Thinking it was on clearance I put it in my cart telling myself I can make a mesh wreath no big deal (yeah sometimes I get craft cocky...ha ha)

Instead of buying one of the expensive already made wreath forms I bought a 16 inch wire form and added the pipe cleaners alternating between top and bottom.

I added the brown mesh first trying to make even puffs along the way. Then came time for the orange which I filled in the empty spaces with...so where the brown was looped at the top I looped the orange at the bottom. After securing all the mesh, I wasn't sure what else to do. I would have loved to add a cute fall sign, but it was two weeks before Thanksgiving and by then all the fall stuff in the stores had already turned to Christmas.

I remembered I had goldish-orange glitter ribbon that I had bought for a different wreath that didn't workout and when I held it against the shiny mesh ribbon I thought it would give the wreath just what it needed. Luckily I had just enough left to loop it through the whole wreath and make a bow.

I took it over to my Mom's house on my day off to surprise her when she got home! For it being my first ever mesh wreath, I think it turned out pretty good.

Fall Burlap Wreath For Auction

I was asked by my friend/coworker, Heather, if I would want to donate a wreath to the silent auction for her charity casino night. Of course I said yes, but then I had to decide what kind of wreath I wanted to make...decisions decisions. My first thought was to make a ribbon wreath because those are probably my favorite ones, but it was with Erica's suggestion that I finally decided on a burlap wreath.

I purchased all my supplies from Hobby Lobby and since it is the Fall season, everything was in stock! This wreath consists of 4 rolls of burlap that I folded two inches wide accordion style. I used a bronze colored wire hanger as the base and strung the burlap on.  The fall decorations consists of 4 different pieces I attached all together and then onto the wreath. This wreath, just like my personal one which you can see here, here or here, you are able to remove the decorations and change them out depending on the season or your mood.

Also, while making this, I think I discovered I may be allergic to burlap. Ha ha. I would sneeze several times and the day after I finished messing with the burlap part of it my eyes were really red on the sides, almost rash like, and hurt! But is that going to stop me from making more things with burlap?!?! Nope!

What do you think? Would you bid on this wreath? ;)

Bubble Burlap Wedding Wreaths

My friend who is getting married in October was talking about wanting burlap wreaths for her wedding and me being the crafter that I am offered to make them for her! I finally gave them to her last week at her showers so now I can share them with y'all! Let's start from the beginning...

Supplies...two 12 inch wreath forms, 2 yards of red burlap, 2 1/2 spools of red ribbon, sewing pins with the big heads.

I then cut the the burlap into 4 inch strips.

Then the strips into 4 inch squares.

Then it was time to make and pin the "bubbles" on to the wreath form that I had already wrapped with the ribbon. I took the right top corner of the square and brought it down to the bottom left corner. Then you take the right corner and fold it to the center and repeat with the left. Stick the sewing needle through all the layers and then on to the wreath. Repeat until your wreath is nice and full!

Yay! All the burlap is on! Now it was time to start gluing rhinestones onto the wood letters. I gave y'all a sneak peak of this process a month or so ago.

Before I glued the rhinestones on I had to make sure they would all fit right. So this picture that I previously shared is of the unglued rhinestones. Once I figured out the placement of all the rhinestones (over 1,160 5mm rhinestones) I glued them all on using E6000 glue. Unfortunately, during the gluing process some shifted on me so they don't look as perfect as before...ha ha. Once all rhinestones were secured I glued small wood beads on the back of the letters and ran jewelry wire through them and tied the onto the wreaths. 

Drum roll please.....I present you the finished wreaths!

I can't wait to see these hanging on the doors of the wedding venue...I may just have to get my picture taken by them!! ha ha.

All-Star Baby Shower

Yesterday, we had an All-Star baby shower at work for our friend Heather. Below is everything we made...check it out!!



The invitation...Created this using Publisher! Love that program and picmonkey for invitations!

 

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I wanted to make the card look like the invitation. I had to free hand the designs onto the cut out circles and then cut one circle into a football...not the easiest thing ha ha, but I think it turned out cute. For the textured paper I used my cuttlebug and the 'B' I cut using my cricut.



Sports banner...the sports balls came from Heather, I hand cut the pennants using 12x12 paper and used my cricut for the letters. We then taped everything together using packing tape and taped baker's twine to the back to string it up



Same sports ball from Heather...I used a regular foam wreath form and wrapped it in red ribbon. We again used packing tape to secure them on. We didn't want to hot glue anything in case she wanted to use them for something else again



We saw the idea for small diaper cakes on google and decided we wanted to create some as well. We used sizes Newborn and 1. There is one size 1 in the middle, then a row of newborns and then a row of 1's. The balls are taped to Popsicle sticks and stuck in the middle diaper.



Yummy cupcakes from Sams...half white, half chocolate and half whipped icing, half buttercream. That way everyone can get exactly what they want



Desserts galore! Erica brought strawberries with the best fruit dip ever and sugar cookies with sprinkles. I made Rolo Pretzel Turtles (boy and girl versions ha ha). And Elizabeth made cookies stuffed with oreos and caramel. Yum!



Edith made these adorable thank you gifts!

I want to give a big shout out to my awesome co-hosts/friends Erica, Elizabeth, Edith and Angela!

p.s. check out these cute coasters and candle Heather made all of us for hosting!

Ornament Wreath 2012

I made this one as a Christmas gift for the Barrett's mom and I love it so much more than the one I made last year! Instead of stringing the ornaments on a wire hanger, I glued them on to a Styrofoam wreath form (that I had covered in red ribbon) with hot glue. It might have take me longer this way, but at least the ornaments aren't falling off!!!

Happy Halloween 2012

Hope everyone has a great Halloween filled with lots of candy, funny costumes and blinged out spider decor! Unfortunately I'm not dressing up this year, but I will be sporting my new skull scarf and possibly my skull earrings (if I can find them)!

Fall Burlap Wreath

I made a burlap wreath!! I love how they can transition in to any season! All you have to do is change out the ribbon and the decor (if you have decor on it). I forgot to take pictures of the making process, but it's not that many steps...

I bought 3 burlap rolls from Michaels (in the wedding section), then folded them into 3 inch folds and rubberbanded each folded roll so that they would start to crease.

I took a goldish wire hanger and made it into a circle (like the ornament wreath) but this time after I un-twisted the top part I straightened out the hook part.

Then I strung all the burplap on and used pliers to re-twist the hanger together.

Twist and spread out the burlap and you're done!

Since tomorrow is the start of the fall season I decided I wanted some fall decor on the wreath and found the two felt pupkins at Hobby Lobby. I hot glued a saftey pin to the back so that when fall is over and if I decide I want something else on there I can easily remove the pumpkins! Genius...I know! Ha ha...jk.

Happy Labor Day

I did it! I finally made a yarn wreath!!! Using yarn didn't really bug me, but what did was the straw wreath. The straw wreaths aren't all nice and smooth all the way around. They are bumpy, lumpy and messy. But in the end I'm pleased with how the wreath turned out.

I used navy, bright red and white yarn and a navy ribbon to hang it. The stars are from white textured cardstock and I used my Cricut to cut them out. I just have sticky tape on the back of them right now...I need to think of a more permanent solution eventually.

Hope everyone is having a fabulous Labor Day!

Laundry Wreath

I've seen a bunch of different crafts and wreaths made with clothes pins and I knew I wanted one to go above the washer and dryer. I finally got around to making one and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

I used a 12 inch box wreath form and alternated putting the clothes pins on the last row and the second to last row. I made the laundry flags with just regular craft paper and stamps and strung them over kitchen string. Honestly, this was probably the easiest wreath I've made! I like that it adds a little bit of color to an otherwise boring room :)

Valentine's Tulle Wreath

So pretty much the only thing that makes it Valentine's is that it's pink...ha ha. It looks like it should be hanging in a little girls room or used at a ballerina party (rewind 21 years and my mom could have used it at my ballerina party...ha ha), but I love it anyways!

Starting from the top left and going clockwise...

1. I used a 12 inch Styrofoam wreath form (I create all my wreaths in front of the TV usually watching Big Bang Theory aka greatest geek show ever!)
2. I used 1 1/2 hot pink and 1 1/2 regular pink tulle rolls. I cut each tulle color into 50 two feet strips (100 total strips of tulle)
3. and 4. The two different ways I tied the tulle...over and under...I alternated every 2 strips

When you're done tying the tulle, it looks like this! Seriously..if this had fit around my hips I would have danced around my house in it...ha ha

Next, I attached the flower and feathers (all found at Michaels) by sticking the feathers under the tulle and clipping the flower on the tulle (there was already a clip on the flower). I also added a big rhinestone to the middle of the flower.

I glued 110 small rhinestones to the the ends of the tulle using E6000 glue.

The rhinestones kind of look like the are just floating on the strips.

That's it! All done! Hope I didn't overload you on pics...he he.