Wall Art

I've been working on brightening up the living room, which is full of mostly neutral colors. Nate has these geometric sound dampening panels hanging on the walls... which I am not the biggest fan of. I would prefer to take them down and replace them with something pretty and personal, like wedding photos or bookshelves or something. But he wants to keep them because sound quality is a very important part of his life. He compromised by allowing me to cover them with pretty fabric.

Here there are before, in all their boring glory:

Not too bad, but I knew I could make them better. I went to Hobby Lobby and bought some fabric that I've been drooling over for a long time. All I needed was a staple gun and I could put the new fabric right over the old. Unfortunately mine has gone missing, but I have some great friends that let me borrow theirs! 

So my friend Ashley and I had a little craft day. I worked on my sound panels and she worked on a new piece of art to hang in her crafting room. 

Ashley is quite the seamstress. She taught me to waste as little fabric as is necessary. So we wrapped the panels tightly and cut off the extra to use for another project. At first I was nervous to use the electric staple gun, but it worked so well and I got the hang of it quickly.

We wrapped up the corners like a present!

Finishing up stapling the first panel

Here's what they look like before and after:

There's a set on the wall on both sides of the tv. Look how pretty they are! I just love this fabric so much.

I went ahead and hung them on the wall, but I really need to cover the black rectangular ones behind them. I want them to be dark brown to match the small flowers in the fabric. But they still brighten up the room a bunch!

I do like them a lot, but I will be happier when the black ones are brown! 

We actually had quite a bit of leftover fabric when we were done, and we put it to great use on another project. I'll show you the amazing results soon!

But for now, here's what Ashley made while I covered my sound dampening panels. Isn't it adorable?

She got an old painting from Goodwill, put down the letters with contact paper, then spray-painted white over all of it. So peeling off the letters let the painting shine through! So cute. You can see her whole process over on her blog at Quilted Affair!

We had so much fun on our crafting afternoon. Ashley is great with fabric and taught me a lot about sewing. I hope we get to be creative together again sometime soon!

DIY Hydrangea Basket

I've been making a lot of changes around the house lately. Moving things around, throwing out [a few] things. So I have this shelf in the front entry way and I was getting bored of its current arrangement. So I moved some pieces around and put together a multi-photo frame as a new centerpiece. But then I was left with this emptiness sitting on the shelf below where it was hung. I thought a low and wide flower arrangement would be perfect, but everything I could find was too big and blocked part of the photos. So I decided to make my own! Just one [not] quick trip to Joann Fabrics and I had all the supplies I needed.

I grabbed some green floral-arrangement-foam-type-stuff in the size I was looking for and some faux hydrangeas, and from home dug up a paper shopping bag.

Cut the bag to be a little bigger than the foam.

And started wrapping it up like a package, hot-gluing the paper as I went. As you can see, I folded the paper to be bigger than my foam, so you can't see where the flowers are poking into it. It also gives the illusion of a larger piece.

Almost done creating my "vase!"

Be sure to glue down these edges so it doesn't LOOK like it's made out of a paper bag!

And it's done! One side got a little bent in the process, but you won't be able to notice in the end. Now we start cutting the flowers.

I decided it was best to insert the leaves separately from the flowers, so you have more control over how they sit and your final arrangement.

I kept adding flowers and leaves until it was full and I liked the way it looked.

When I was finished I set it in the place of honor on the shelf!



It turned out exactly how I had hoped! Here is my the whole re-done unit so far. The top shelf still needs some work, but I have a few ideas.

It was easier than I thought to do it myself. I bet you could too!

Baby Girl Project

I'm really excited because soon I'm headed to Kansas City to meet my new baby cousin Lizi. She's actually the daughter of my cousin Will and his wife Sami. Will was my childhood neighbor and best friend. Lizi was born less than a week after my wedding and he still flew down to be there for it. He just barely got home in time for her birth. Now I get to go visit him and his family in their new house for the first time, and meet the new baby girl!

I wanted to bring her something special and I've had a thing for Mary Poppins lately, so I came up with this little outfit I wanted to put together. Lucky for me, my good friend Ashley from Quilted Affair just got a new embroidery machine! She hadn't even gotten a chance to test it out yet, being so busy with her Etsy shop and wedding plans. But I asked her if I could experiment with it and try to make something. So she was super awesome and let me come over and play with the fancy new machine!

It really wasn't very easy. We had to keep tweaking the settings and checking the book to learn HOW to tweak the settings, and embroidering tests on a piece of scrap fabric.

There were quite a few issues along the way. We had to change the thread type, use a different type of stabilizer backing, adjust the thread tension, it just seemed like one thing after another! It was a good thing I bought a 6-pack of onesies, because even after we thought we had the settings right using the test fabric, there was a bit more tweaking to do.

A few of the knots and snarls I made on the first onesie.

The first attempt resulted in a tangle so bad we had to cut the onesie out of the machine!

I also managed to get some oil from the machine on the onesie. Thank goodness this all happened to the first one!

Finally I got all the settings right and set up another onesie to go on the machine. Here it is working away!

And here it is after it came off the embroidery machine! It actually worked!! I couldn't believe it!

We were so happy with how the embroidery turned out. For a first project with a machine we'd never used I'd say it was a big success! Now I just had to finish decorating it!

First I ironed some cute patterned fabric onto adhesive paper. Then I cut out a little kite and some bows to go on the tail. Here it is all set up.

It's already looking cuter!

Then I just added some paint trim to finish it off!

I'm so excited!! I can't believe I did the whole thing! I couldn't have done the embroidery without the help of my friend Ashley, and I'm so glad she was willing to let me use her machine. It was so fun working together on it!

I bought the cutest little hoodie and skirt to finish off the outfit. I didn't even realize the hoodie had ears until I laid it out for the picture! How funny. I just love how the whole thing came together.

Isn't it cute? I can't wait to see her in it. By the way, I've got 4 more blank onesies if anyone wants to have a go at them!

Saturday Brewday

This weekend I decided to try round two of making my own hard cider. The time I made it before it came out delicious and I'm not sure why I've waited this long to try it again! They had a great deal on apple juice at Publix last week so I stocked up. We made a trip down to our friend Brock's Homebrew Store and got a few other necessary ingredients then headed home to brew.

The whole process is pretty simple - sanitizing all the equipment is actually the hardest part! That's only true for cider though; Nate made a red ale at the same time and it was considerably more work. I created my recipe to sort of mimic my new favorite store-bought cider, Angry Orchard Apple Ginger. I'm so excited to see how it turns out!

Kayla's Sweet Honey Ginger Cider

5 gallons Mott's Natural Fresh-Pressed juice

1 pound light brown sugar

1 pound clover honey

Cider yeast

5 gallons of juice!

The juice does not have to be heated to make the cider. I only heated one half gallon in order to dissolve the brown sugar and honey, then I added it to the rest of the juice in the primary fermentation bucket. When heating the juice it's important not to let it boil, as this will set the pectins and result in a hazy cider. Not pretty! 

That's all there is to the first step in making the cider. It's fermenting in our kegerator at 68 degrees for a few weeks. After the primary fermentation stage, I'll add another 1-2 pounds of honey, along with some fresh ginger and some dried orange peel.  Adding the honey at this point will prevent the yeast from turning it into alcohol and preserve that great honey flavor. The fresh ginger is a wild card - it has great potential but it's a little risky, so let's hope it works out.

Our kegerator is painted with chalkboard paint, so I redecorated it for our new brews! Can't wait to try it in a few weeks!

Quick Kitty Project

I recently acquired a kitty food bowl from my mother-in-law, who got it from her mother, who meant to give it to her granddaughter, and I don't know how but I ended up with it. It's a handy little thing, but it wasn't the cutest, so I thought I'd spruce it up for my little girl. She has very particular taste. :) So one quick trip to Lowe's, a little TLC, and here are the before and after's!

Before: Red & White

After: Pink & Silver!

I thought it turned out pretty well, but the most important thing was...

Sydney approves!!

New DIY Obsession

I have a confession to make.

I am

completely

obsessed

with MOD PODGE!

[source]

I'm still just getting started, but there are so many possibilities with this stuff! I've begun purchasing supplies for projects I haven't even planned yet. It might be turning into a problem.

Here's my first, impromptu, project:

Necessity is the mother of invention.

I was in need of high-quality, acid-free, pretty pens. "Pretty" is the keyword here, because these type of pens are generally sold for utility only. So to remedy the situation, I dug deep into the crafty recesses of my brain (where I admit some cobwebs may have accumulated), and came up with the idea to mod podge some pretty scrapbook paper to the plain pens.

Photo: Not pretty. Pens: PRETTY!

The caps were the hardest to work with, but the whole project was really very easy. It took me about an hour to finish both pens, and you have to factor in that this was my very first mod podging experiment. I felt pretty successful about the final product! I'm not sure many people are in need of fancy-writing, pretty-looking pens, but I want to find a reason to make these again. I just love them!

I have an even more exciting project to share with you soon. So stay tuned for more mod podge fun! 

New to Homebrew

About a year ago I was introduced to the world of homebrewed beer. Until then, I thought all those self-proclaimed "beer-lovers" out there tightly clutching their Bud Light bottles had a genuine appreciation for the drink. I also believed the more seasoned beer enthusiasts preferred Yuengling or Guiness. Alas, this is not so my friend. It turns out that true connoisseurs of brew can't buy their favorite beer from the store - because they make it themselves.

It all started when Nate saw a Mr. Beer kit on sale and decided on a whim to purchase it. Mr. Beer is the start-up set of choice for rookie homebrewers. The box sat unopened for a while until as a birthday gift, I gave Nate all the ingredients for his first two batches of homebrew. I chose ingredients to mimic his favorite store-bought brand, Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat. Our recipe included wheat malt, clover honey, coriander seeds, and orange peel.

The whole process is quite involved. The first step, and possibly the most important, is sanitizing every tool and every surface involved with brewing. Once the actual brewing has started there are specific temperatures and times to add each ingredient, which vary depending on your desired brew. The whole process can take anywhere from 1-5 hours. Not being a huge beer drinker myself, this is a bit excessive for me, but I definitely appreciate the art (and science) of the process.

I'm not sure if homebrewing is the next big thing (or if I'm just now becoming aware of it), but it sure seems to be gaining popularity. I have a large group of friends that gather together to brew at least once a month. They each make a different type and enjoy sampling each others creations. I don't think any of them would ever again be caught holding a Natural Light can..

The enjoyment of actually drinking their brews is unfortunately lost on me, but I didn't want to miss out on the fun. So recently Nate and I decided to brew our first hard cider. We went the easy route by starting with pre-made apple juice (rather than pressing our own apples). It was a much simpler process than brewing beer. The ingredients included preservative-free apple juice, orange blossom honey, and English cider yeast. The fermenting process works the same as with beer: the yeast consumes the sugar and turns it into alcohol and CO2, which carbonates the drink. Ours has been fermenting for about a month and should be ready to bottle any time. I sampled it after 2 weeks and it was already drinkable, so it should be delicious by now.

Homemade things always seem to taste better. So if you haven't tried a homebrew yet, you should. And if you ask nicely, most brewers are more than willing to share. :)

Gift Baskets 101

Homemade gift baskets became my standard go-to gift about 5 years ago. Since then I have tweaked and perfected different aspects of the basket, and I'm pretty proud of the results I've gotten. No one is ever disappointed when they receive one as a gift. A few people have come to expect them as their yearly Christmas gift, while others look forward to eating whatever doesn't fit in the basket. Planning and creating the baskets has become a fun tradition. Since I've become somewhat of a "basketeer", I thought I would share the things I've learned about making them.

Tip # 1: Homemade = Bonus Points
Everyone loves getting homemade goodies. Sweet treats seem to get the best response, but I like to include something savory as well. And don't forget about crafty house wares!

Tip # 2: Know your audience
Find out your lucky recipients' favorite flavors. Tweak your recipes to suit their tastes. Some people prefer dark chocolate, some love pecans, etc. Personal touches make it much more meaningful.

Tip # 3: Keep it simple
In my opinion, a variety of simple items is nicer than a few really complicated ones. And don't forget you're creating each thing by hand, which can be a free-time vacuum.

Tip # 4: Plan ahead
Know what you're going to make so you can pick up all ingredients at once and save extra trips to the store. Also, you can double recipes to fill multiple baskets at once.

Tip # 5: Supplement a "gifty" item
If you want the basket to seem like a more substantial gift, you can include a small store-bought item. I usually do this around Christmas because I feel a little guilty for skipping out on buying "standard" presents, but I don't think it's necessary. Especially when you add up how much money you spent on ingredients plus the time spent making everything.

Hope you have fun making your own unique gift baskets!