10.28.2011

I dress up for Halloween

and I love it!

Halloween is so fun!
You can dress up and be as crazy as you want!

I made this vest out of a bed sheet as part of my costume
I'm a teensy bit sad I'm going to screw it up for a costume because I'm pretty much in love with it. I might have to make another one....out of real fabric and not a sheet hehe
So what am I going to be?????

You'll have to wait and see...

Much Love~
Meredith

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10.27.2011

Fall Wreath

Yesterday I showed you my BEST wreath trick ever
Awesome right?

Now to reveal my wreath!



I can't use glues on wreaths because my front door is an oven and everything melts...
...so how did I solve this problem?

I stuck those flowers on with sewing pins. There's a pin hidden in the middle of each flower. And the ribbon is held on with pins also.
Pretty smart right??

Now I can finally have a successful wreath on my door!

Oh, I should mention, I hung this wreath up last week and it was fabulous. BUT the heat presented a new problem I didn't foresee....my pipe insulation started to soften and droop. My wreath was more of a sagging egg hanging on the front door. It was sad. So I took it down and thought on it for days. Then I had another genius moment...I poked a wire hanger inside that piece of insulation and ran it all around the inside. Now it has structure and stays in a circle :) Next time I will be putting a hanger in before I duct tape the ends together.

I'm so happy with my fall wreath! 
I'm also happy I've defeated the oven between my doors! Take that!

I sent a cell picture to Mr Perfect of the wreath
His response...wasn't, "looks great", or "I love it", or "I've always dreamed of a wreath like that"....no, he said "There's nothing that says 'a woman lives here' like a wreath on the door"
Thanks babe, really.
Men...

News flash...I'm a woman, I live here, and we're having wreaths from now on!

Much Love~
Meredith

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10.26.2011

The BEST wreath trick ever!

Raise your hand if you like a yarn covered wreath??
ME ME I DO!!

But first, here's my list of problems with a yarn wreath...
A. I can't hang any wreath on my door that has glue. My front door faces south with no shade all day. I tell ya, it's hotter than my oven! I tried hanging a wreath last Christmas and the dang thing melted!!
B. Wrapping all that yarn on a wreath form is TIME CONSUMING...a total drain. I don't like it.
C. Let's face it, wreath forms are expensive!
With that being said, I've seen this trick floating around blogland so I won't claim that it's mine...
...go to the hardware store and buy a 6' piece of foam pipe insulation, and cut it in half. Then duct tape the ends together and presto! 2 wreath forms for less than $2!
Now on to MY new trick!!
If you like yarn wreaths, you're going to LOVE this!
It is the BIGGEST time saver EVER!
Take your insulation piece
 BEFORE you tape it, wrap it! This is seriously soooooo much easier than passing that ball of yarn from front to back of a wreath form. I timed myself, and it only took 12 minutes to wrap this 3' piece!!
 So then go ahead and tape it together. I used duct tape.
 And wrap that little section. I timed myself on that little section too and it took me 5 minutes. Imagine how long it would have taken me to wrap the whole thing at that pace! {longer than I want to spend on it}

Tell me that's not the BEST wreath trick ever!

Tomorrow I will show you the wreath I made from this and tell you how I solved problem {A} from above :)
I feel like a genius haha

Much Love~
Meredith

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10.19.2011

Ruffle Scarf #2

And yet, another scarf tutorial!
This one is made from another ill-fitting, wonky, too small, long-sleeved shirt that I hate, but is soooo soft.


 Start with a shirt
 Trace several paper plate circles on it. I did 2 on the front, 2 on the back
 Cut out each circle. Then cut them into a spiral. It doesn't have to perfect by any means, just make sure you don't cut it very thin. I have about 1.5" thickness all the way around. After you have the spirals cut, stretch them all out. They will be very ruffly!
 Cut a little square. It doesn't have to be very big. I didn't measure.
 Take all your strips and wrap the little square around the middle of them {where the back of the scarf is...hope that makes sense} I hot glued, but you can use fabric glue if you want
 Then wear it! I just wrapped mine in a loop around my neck.

Hope you make one for yourself!
Of course if you use more than one shirt it will be thicker. Just do what you like!

Much Love~
Meredith

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10.18.2011

Crayon Garden

Have you seen all the melted crayon art like this one on Pinterest and around bloggyland??
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Ok I think they are AWESOME!!
However, I don't like the rainbow effect...maybe for a kids room or a playroom, but I need grown up art.
I also don't like the crayons glued on top...again, kinda juvenile.

Here's my spin on it and how I did it.

I used a bunch of random crayons that I stole, um, borrowed from the kid while she was at school {hey she prefers markers anyway} I taped them all to a velveeta box with painters tape.
 I rested the edge of the cardboard on the top edge of the canvas so my crayons hung over the top just a wee bit
 Then bust out the blow dryer and melt away! I'm not gonna lie...it's time consuming...lots of waiting...like watching grass grow...seriously
 I kinda made a mess
 And splattered some crayon on the wall...and maybe my carpet. But it's cool...I'm painting that wall next month and the floors are getting replaced in the spring.
 So here's where I stopped
I flipped it upside-down and added some paper flowers I made.

 And I have a grown up piece of crayon artwork!

I love!

Please protect your walls and floors better than I did if you attempt this :)

Much Love~
Meredith

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10.17.2011

Infinity T-shirt Scarf

Fall is the best time for scarves, don'tcha think??
Yeppers, I do!

So I made that purple ruffle scarf last week and I have 2 more scarves for you that you can make from a shirt or some scrap knit fabric.

I have several of these cheap-o shirts from Kohl's that I've had for years. They are ill-fitting, too short, and have wonky seams...but are sooooo soft. Perfect for an upcycle!

Here's what I started with
{warning: picture overload!}
 Cut off under armpit of shirt
 Cut body of shirt into strips around 1.5"
 Stretch all the strips. The edges will curl up
 Cut 2 squares to cover the side seams on the strips. I just used the cuff on my shirt.
 Line up all the side seams
 Wrap squares around the side seams. I hot glued it shut because it was quick, but you could use fabric glue if you plan on washing it.
 Ta-da!
 Wear it with the cover-up squares in the front
 Or in the back!
 Or wear it long! You pick :)
Go cut up an old soft shirt!
Look for another T-shirt scarf upcycle on Wednesday!

Much Love~
Meredith

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10.12.2011

Progress

How is crochet school at Craftyminx coming along?

Pretty good.

Not the best photo in the world, but whatevs


I think I'm getting the hang of it!

Much Love~
Meredith

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10.11.2011

A Halloween Costume


What kind of Halloween costume does this stack of materials make??
A Poodle Skirt of course!
The kiddo picked this as her costume this year. Thank goodness it was simple and SUPER easy to make!



the shadows are colors are kind weird right here...guess that's what I get for photographing at night! lol

I feel so relieved that I've got it done and I don't have to stress about a time crunch!

Next up, MY costume...

more on that to come...

Much Love~
Meredith

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10.02.2011

Shop Update

I opened an Etsy store at the beginning of the summer. I didn't have much to list, but I did it anyway. It's been a major fail. I've had no sales :( I'm actually kinda embarrassed to even write that. It has been a very discouraging summer for me. I can't say I'm completely surprised though. I didn't do much to promote it. I didn't add new items. I just put it out there and expected it to do it's thing...uh...what was I thinking? Then my busy time at work started and I just didn't have the time to devote to building my shop. Especially when I have been concentrating on building a blog. UGH! So much to do, so little time...story of my life. Well this has all been a nagging in the back of my mind that I'm stressing about. I'm in a position where I loathe my job almost every day (hope my boss doesn't read this) and I want to quit. But I can't do that financially. Mr Perfect is working on making some changes in his job situation, but until he does I'm stuck at my exhausting job. I would love nothing more than to be able to quit my job, but still help support our household through my blog and more specifically my shop. So I've been working my little tail off to revamp my shop! I took all new photos and listed more items. I have plans for some more items and different products to add here soon as well.

I would really appreciate some feedback from anyone that would be willing to take a look at the shop since I made the changes. Do you like it? Does everything look okay? Pricing okay? It's really great to have such wonderful support on my blog. I'm hoping to get some support for my shop as well. I've also thought about doing a giveaway on someone else's blog to get some exposure....email me if you are interested!!

Okay, so go check out the new, updated, hopefully more successful, shop!
Haute To Sew The Shop



Much Love~
Meredith

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10.01.2011

Crochet School

I stumbled upon Craftyminx today.
She's doing a crochet school on her blog for the month of October
AHHH!!

Look at all the awesome things I could make if I learned to crochet!
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Wanna learn to??
Go check it out!





 
 
Much Love~
Meredith

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