Day 103 – Sailor Knot Bracelet

Fail.

I am pretty much a trooper when it comes to crafts. I finish things out to see them through and then decide if I love or hate them. This is the first project in a long time (maybe ever?) that I have quit before I finished.

It was supposed to be a necklace that is repurposed from a tee shirt, and the picture shows it in a pretty pink. It seemed a little larger than I would usually wear, but I am always up for something adventurous. I just did not have a pink shirt that I was willing to cut up, so I decided this would be a project for the future (I pinned it a while ago).

I have been doing a lot of clothing clean-out recently because I have this husband who gets frustrated when I say that I have nothing to wear, but he sees a closet full of clothes. I decided to prove to him that I do, in fact, need more clothes, which meant I have been busy. I have taken some things to a consignment shop, and I have recently made a bag to donate. One thing was too ratty to donate, and as I was walking to the trash can with it, I was thinking about how much of a shame it is to throw a piece of clothing away. I was thinking about how I wish I could repurpose it in some way…and then a little light bulb went off in my head and I remembered the pin about the necklace from a tee shirt and how I have been wanting to have a pink shirt to cut up so I could give it a try.

The tutorial was very good in some points because it had great pictures that showed each step. I could not have done it without that. In other points though, I was left a little confused. I did not know how long to cut the strips, so I had to guess. It was not until later that I noticed in the picture that they cut through the shirt side-seam to get a longer strip. Since my strips were small, I decided to make a bracelet instead. I was able to do the sailor knot without any trouble, but when I tested it out on my arm as a bracelet, I was not impressed. I continued on though, and braided the side and continued to tie the knot in the end as the directions told. I was struggling with what to do with the loose ends, and I was getting a little frustrated. I realized that I really did not like the look of this as a bracelet, and I did not see myself wearing it anyway, so what was the point in continuing. There are too many other things I would rather do with my time than make a bracelet that I will probably never wear.

 

At least now I know how to tie a sailor knot.

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Which is probably going come in handy in zero situations in my future.

 

Total cost: $0

Pin it here

Day 102 – Mustache Cake

So I hate to admit this, and usually when I admit things, I end up getting made fun of for being out of the loop…but where did the mustache phenomenon come from? I have noticed it around for a while, but I guess I just don’t get it. I get Movember, and it is funny to see baby pacifiers that have a mustache attached to it, but I just don’t get the hype of mustache everything. Despite this confusion, I decided tonight would be a good night to make a mustache cake.

I had a thing of chocolate icing left over from a few pins ago when I made acorn cookies, and I really wanted to use it up. I don’t have a good reason for making an entire cake for just my husband and me, but I needed an idea for today and this seemed like a good one.

Total cost: $1

Day 101 – Cutening up a Pen

This pin showed me that I could put a scrap of paper in a pen to make it cuter. I am always a fan of cute things, so I gave it a try.

First I cut my paper too short. Then I cut a longer piece but it was very hard to roll and it kept wanting to fold. Then it was too long, so I had to trim it. Then it was too short so I had to shove it down farther so you couldn’t notice how short it was.

It pretty much looks like a pen with a junky scrap of paper shoved inside.

Plus, I like to see my ink status so I can know when to expect to have the excuse to buy new pens to add to my obsession collection.

Total cost: $0

Day 100 – Reusable Produce Bags

I love love love when things turn out just like I had imagined them in my mind. That happened tonight, it was just a long road to get there.

A very “green” coworker (who doesn’t even read this blog because she “Doesn’t have Facebook,” as if that is a valid excuse) had asked if I could make some reusable produce bags for her and for her to give as gifts. Whenever someone wants to give something I have made to someone else, I feel the pressure to make sure it is perfect. When things are just for me, I can overlook the imperfections, but when they are for other people, and especially other people that I do not know, I get a little worried.

Tonight’s bag was quite simple, but I made the same mistake twice, which involved seam ripping twice. That took a bit of extra time. I have also realized how much more quickly I could do things if my ironing board was kept in my dining room. I spend a lot of time traipsing through the house every time that I need to press a tiny little bit of the fabric. Then I need to stitch. Then I need to go back and press. Then I need to stitch. Then I need to seam rip. Then I need to press again. It is a maddening cycle. My house isn’t really big or anything, so I will certainly be able to deal with it.

I wanted to add an element of cuteness to these otherwise drab bags, so I ordered some fruit charms from Ebay and tied one to the drawstring ribbon.

Pretty cute if you ask me!

Total cost: $1.78

Pin it here

(Wahoo for making it 100 days of Pinterest!)

Day 99 – Thread Christmas Tree

This weekend while I was grandpa-sitting, I noticed my old container of friendship bracelet embroidery floss on my desk. I don’t know where this used to be, but I am guessing my mom had recently used it for something because it most certainly has not been there since the olden days of friendship bracelet making. I looked in and there was a ton of “new” unopened unused green, and I immediately thought of making a thread Christmas tree that I saw on Pinterest.

A long long time ago, I made a few dolls out of some cardboard cones, and I knew my mom had the extra ones stashed somewhere. I dug out the old trusty “Christmas Crafts” box and there they were. My mom is so reliable! I covered the cone in wax paper and then dipped my fingers into glue and smeared it onto the embroidery floss. I wrapped it around the cone and sprinkled a little glitter on it. I waited for it to dry, and then I took it off of the wax paper.

This project was exactly as easy as it sounds. I ran into a little bit of trouble when the glue was quite stuck to the paper, but I managed. I think I might try plastic wrap like the Spanish directions told me I should do in the first place.

My original cone tree was a little tilty, but I trimmed off the part that made it uneven and now it stands just fine. I put it in place of my autumn tree from a few pins ago.

Hooray for Christmas!!

 

Total cost: $0 (Also, hooray for ancient craft supplies!)

 

Ok, so this isn’t the Pin that I got the idea from. It looks exactly the same, but when you click this pin, it takes you to a Russian site. My original pin was definitely in Spanish. I am not sure why, but I can’t find it on my board anywhere, so I pinned it again.

Day 98 – Christmas Tree Tags

Once again, I saw a Pin that I liked, and Pinned it before I checked it out to see if it led to a tutorial. I thought these paper Christmas trees were really cute, and when I went to see how they were made, I was taken to an Etsy page that charged $5.95 for 13 of them. Now, I only made two good ones tonight (and two not so good ones), but I surely could have made 13 and it would have cost me $0.

A friend gave me an old book of music last year for a pre-365 Days of Pinterest craft, and since I did not have any antique book pages like the original Pin, I thought this music would make a nice touch.

I had to take a guess that the shape was made from a semi-circle. I wasn’t sure, but when I tried it out, it seemed to work. My first try was kind of stubby, and I was folding while talking on the phone for my third try, so that one was pretty stubby too. Number one and number four turned out just like I had imagined. I plan to use these for tags on gifts this year. I will probably make a few more, but stay tuned because I have a few other cute gift tag ideas for future Days of Pinterest.

Total Cost: $0

p.s. As I was posting the pin for the link, I realized that the comments said “Vintage Trees made from a half circle”

…guess I didn’t figure it out myself after all…

Day 97 – Thanksgiving Centerpiece

You may be thinking, “Um…Katie…Thanksgiving was 2 days ago…You are a little late…” but not for us it wasn’t. Tonight was Thanksgiving Remix. It was similar to the original version, just with lots of differences.

Since my parents did not get to enjoy Thanksgiving #1, Tori and I decided to make them a Thanksgiving dinner tonight. We had to do a lot of running around to help get things my grandfather needed, so when we finally were finished, it was nearly dinnertime. We wanted to give my parents a decent Thanksgiving dinner, but time was not on our side. Instead of making a turkey or turkey breast, we decided to go with rotisserie chickens. We made green beans in Ziploc steam bags. (highly recommended), corn, cranberry sauce, redskin smashed potatoes, leftover rolls from Thanksgiving #1, and olives. To adorn our table, we decided to create a beautiful centerpiece. Tori assisted me in searching for the Pins while I drove from the farthest point in eastern Maryland (actually I think it was Delaware…Fisher’s Popcorn, which is like 1 block from the beach…I am betting that is pretty much as far east as you can get) all the way to right smack in the center of central Maryland. She found a centerpiece that had cranberries in a vase and then a puffy hydrangea type flower on top. That was great except it would be quite expensive, so we decided to amend it with a Pin idea that had candles in the center of Clementine oranges. When we got to my parents’ house, I was trying to figure out just how I was going to configure such a centerpiece. I found a vase (which I had to empty of its contents) and decided that it would work well to layer the cranberries and the Clementines. Then I put a candle in the top. Tori wrapped the pussy willow stems around the vase and I have to say, I think that this centerpiece is way better than the two we pinned.

Total cost: $5

Day 96 – Black Friday

Who would have thought that my crazy day could be summed up in one pin!

Black Friday

As I mentioned yesterday, my Thanksgiving was not quite what it has been in the past, so I ran with it and made the best of it. For the past bunch of years, I have I gone Black Friday shopping with my mom. We stay at my grandmother’s and wake up early (like 5 a.m.), and shop like crazy until about noon and then we crash and head home.

Well, aside from stupid life circumstances that did not allow that to happen this year, the Black Friday Coordinators really messed all of that up by starting Black “Friday” on Thursday. I really hated the idea of shopping at 8:00 just to get a bargain. I revolted against that and refused to go that early.

So since my regular shopping partner was otherwise occupied, I went with my husband and sister-in-law. Their style is slightly different than my mom’s. I went to “bed” at 8:15 last night and woke up at 11:15. We were out the door by midnight and shopped till we dropped a bunch of hours later.

We had a very pleasant experience the entire night until about 5:00 a.m. We headed to K-mart, which apparently reopened at 5 after closing at 3 to get ready for the 5:00 sale. (Let’s not forget, we are talking a.m. here…never in my life have I shopped in the middle of the night like this…craziness!) There were a few toys that were on sale for the kiddos, so we figured we were right on time to get the things we wanted. We got there about 4:30, so we waited in the car until 5, even though there was a bit of a line. We got in the store among the first 40 or so customers and headed straight for the toys.

I was beyond frustrated to see that the employees of this store did nothing to prepare the store for the 5:00 opening. I was looking for three particular toys. I headed to the Barbie aisle first, and there were no other people in that aisle and it was already a MESS! Things were so disorganized, doll boxes were tipped over, shelves were emptied, and there were zero of the toys I was looking for. I refuse to believe that the few people in front of me, who did not even appear to head to that aisle (although it was the closest to a typical news-worthy black Friday stampede that I have ever been a part of), trashed the store in literally 1 minute. All three of the items that we went there for were not in stock. Now I would like to say, I am not one of those crazy shoppers who is interested in plowing through people to get a good bargain. I just thought that since I was there right as they opened, I should have the opportunity to get something that was supposed to start going on sale at the time that I arrived.

I am considering an online Black Friday extravaganza next year.

Before I go, I will leave you with my favorite Black Friday video…

Total Cost: more.than.your.average.blog.post.

Day 95 – Cinnamon Pull-Apart “Ring”

Happy Thanksgiving!
This has been quite an unconventional Thanksgiving in many ways, but it still ended with a tasty turkey dinner. Earlier today we had a nice little breakfast with some other family that we wouldn’t see for dinner. For that, I made this cinnamon pull-apart ring. Since I do not have a round pan like the recipe people do, I had cinnamon pull apart logs…I put it in 2 loaf pans instead.
It was so delicious and very easy. I highly recommend it!

Total cost: $3

(No picture again today…I will try to get better, I promise!)

Day 94 – Homemade Pizza Dough

As a last minute thought, I decided to change my planned Pinterest project and make pizza dough instead. I will probably have a chance to make the other thing some other time this weekend…I was just not feeling it today.

I have this friend at work who has started using her bread maker to make all of the bread their family uses. They have also started to make their own pizza dough from it too. I am very envious of such an idea because I just love homemade bread. Since we have had conversations about their pizza Fridays, I have been thinking how much I would love to try to make my own dough from scratch. I, however, do not have a bread maker.

I was interested in having a quick pizza dough recipe, and when I Pinterested (is that a word?) “Pizza Dough,” I found one that said she let it rise for 18 hours or something ridiculous like that. I figured anything that said something about 18 hours would certainly not be considered quick.

A few seconds later, I found another recipe that said it took about 5 minutes to rise. With that, I got started. This dough couldn’t have been easier to make. I mixed it in my stand mixer for a few seconds, kneaded it a few times, set it in a greased bowl for a few minutes and we were set. (I snuck in some whole wheat flour to this dough…I don’t know if anyone noticed or not.)

The recipe said to cook it for 20 minutes, so I set it and got involved in doing some other things. I went to check on it when I realized that there were only 20 seconds left and it was a little well done. The crust wasn’t burnt, but the cheese was pretty close. I was kind of frustrated because I feel like now we won’t know its full potential.

I wasn’t really a big fan of this dough. It was pretty plain. I don’t know what real pizza dough has in it that makes it so delicious…like Papa Johns, or some local places around here…whatever it was, this didn’t have it. It was passable, but I will probably need a snack later tonight. Hooray for mini ice cream cones.

Total cost:
50 cents

Pin it here