Combining your hobbies

By now you might have figured out that I like to travel and I like doing crafty/creative things.  So travel related crafts are at the top of my favorite's list. Here's a fantastic gift made by one of my SUPER-DUPER creative and talented cousins (I have a lot of cousins).  I'm not 100% certain, but I believe this is what she did.  She took a canvas and painted it the color of the background on the map she was using.  She then cut up the map (it was larger than the canvas) and modge-podged the sections of the world that I'd visited already onto the canvas.  At first glance you don't even realize that it's not geographically correct (that's how good she is).  Then, because she's so talented, she wrote on one of my favorite quotes.  Had I made such a masterpiece I'd have had to trace out my lettering or something...  Isn't it grand? The perfect gift for a travel junkie like me :)

Now, this craft is for all you tourist T-shirt hoarders (I'm not judging, I have my own stash).  For whatever reason you decide the t-shirt is too great to pass up.  You bring it home, and it sits in your closet.  You don't want to get rid of it because, well, you paid for it, and it was a great trip!  I realize you can only make so  many pillows, but I think this pillow turned out pretty great :)  I'm honestly not even sure why I bought a shirt that said that because I would never wear it....I think the phrase was just too tricky for me to pass up.

a·bil·i·ty  (noun)

1. power or capacity to do or act physically, mentally, legally, morally, financially, etc.

2.  competence in an activity or occupation because of one's skill, training, or other qualification
3. abilities, talents; special skills or aptitudes

Creative Weekend

Lots of thoughts tumbling around in my brain; possible life changes ahead (and some changes that have already taken place)...  But I'll leave all that for another time.

Anyway, I got to do lots of crafty/creative things this past weekend so that was nice.  I love all the ideas that Pinterest gives me, and lately I've taken to redoing T-shirts like it's going out of style.  I'm not very big, so a lot of tshirts just don't fit right, even when I buy a small.  So, I've started making lots of tank tops and making other tshirts more fitted & feminine.  Thankfully, it's super easy (especially the tank tops), because, despite taking home-ec & sewing in 8th grade, I'm not much of a seamstress.  I won't give you a tutorial or anything (there are tons already on pinterest, and I don't really have any new information), but here are some of my favorites (sorry, no "before" pictures).

For some reason I have lots of shirts from Europe that have "funny" necklines.  They make me look like a linebacker and...well it's hard to explain, but despite loving the shirts I would rarely wear them.  Now, this fantastic shirt has a new life & it's soooo incredibly comfortable!!  Besides - who doesn't love Paris?

This great shirt was never my size to begin with - it's a long story, but I got soaked during a rainstorm in Rome and 2 of my friends bought me this new (dry) shirt to change in to (who says chivalry is dead?) after watching me shiver my way through a museum tour.  I never got rid of it, but of course never wore it again because it didn't fit.  You might not be able to tell, but I really should have taken in the shoulders somehow (and maybe I still will at some point).  I really didn't want to have to hem this shirt and I kind of liked the long "tunic" look - so I just decided not to sew the whole length of the sides.  You can sort of tell in the photo that it's split at the bottom....

This great shirt had a hole in the armpit and was a bit big/baggy, so it also got refashioned into a tanktop (the tank top redo's work great for shirts that have armpit stains too by the way).

Why yes, I am standing in front of a door :)

cre·a·tive (adjective)

1. having the quality or power of creating.

2. resulting from originality of thought, expression, etc.
3. originative; productive usually followed by of).

You're a Grand Old Flag (pt 1)

Good Day!  So I pinned this great sweatshirt craft idea from Oh Pish Posh over a year ago and always planned on making one of my own.  I even found a white sweatshirt in the clearence section of Michaels once.  Only to get it home and realize it had BRIDE written across the back in sparkly crystals...yeah NOT going to work.  So I continued to check the thrift stores and craft stores for a white sweatshirt and finally found one I thought would work.  I basically followed her instructions, which were pretty great.  The Freezer Paper stars were a fantastic idea, but sometimes mine didn't stick that well (and other times they did).  Not sure if there's a particular heat setting on your iron that works better, but if anyone figures that out let me know.

I started with the red stripes (I did the torso first and then the arms).  She said to use masking tape, but I used wide painter's tape and it worked great for me.  One strip for one stripe! After I had the stripes all taped I covered everything else that was going to end up blue with plastic bags to protect it.  I found Tulip fabric spray paint on sale so I decided to go ahead and use that. 

I had found a pin once for making your own spray paint (using a spray bottle and acrylic paint + water), which is much, much cheaper, so I thought I'd do that for the blue (more on that later).  Anyway, I used one whole bottle of the red Tulip paint for the shirt and it worked out great, but the end result turned out more pink than red.  So I ended up needing another bottle.
Red stripes all done :)

Time to move on to the blue & the stars.  For the blue I decided to try the 2 parts acrylic paint + 1 part water mix.  I decided where I wanted all my stars and ironed them on (after taping off all the red/white striped section).  I decided to do one side at a time because I was having some trouble with the stars sticking completely. 

So, I'm not sure if there wasn't enough water in my mix or my spray bottle was the wrong kind, but this definitely did not work.  Not to be deterred (I'd already mixed the paint and I purchased it specifically for this project), I decided to sponge it on.  WAY more time consuming, but it seemed to work well.  As you can probably see it was hard to get an even layer, so some sections had more paint then others, but in the end I decided I kind of like the mottled look. 

I'm still trying to decide if I should paint the inside of the hood as well.  I probably won't be wearing it with the hood up much, so you'll see the inside of the hood...  I guess I'll wait and see how much paint I have left.  A work in progress that will hopefully be finished by the 4th of July (yes, I realize it will be too hot to wear it) :)

**Update: You can check out the finished product here.

Flag (noun)

a piece of cloth, varying in size, shape, color, and design, usually attached at one edge to a staff or cord, and used as the symbol of a nation, state, or organization, as a means of signaling, etc.; ensign; standard; banner; pennant.

Self-Awarness

My sister is getting married, and over the course of the last few months, and especially these last few weeks, I've been noticing little things about myself.  Sadley, they're not things I'd really like to notice. It's just so easy to overlook your own faults many times!  I generally get along with everyone, so it's easy to let Satan lull me into thinking that I'm a pretty good person.  But I'm not...  All this wedding planning has made me realize how judgemental and selfish I can be - and it's not pretty.  So many times I catch myself thinking, "it's not about you, get a grip", when I'm annoyed with decisions made (or sometimes the lack of decision making).  It's easy to let all the focus on things pertaining to her and her upcoming "event" make me frustrated.  So, I've been trying to remember 2 Corinthians 10:5 "...we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."  It is far too simple to just let your thoughts run wild (and I'm definitely guilty of that).

judg·men·tal (adjective)

1. involving the use or exercise of judgment.

2. tending to make moral judgments.

Pride & Prejudice

I just finished reading Pride & Prejudice for the first time (which is kind of surprising to me because I love the movie version {with Keira Knightly} and the Bollywood spin-off Bride & Prejudice).  Anyway, I was not a big a fan of the book as I had hoped.  I did thoroughly enjoy it, but not near as much as I had enjoyed reading Jane Eyre for the first time.  I cannot exactly pinpoint what it was about the book that dissapointed me.  Anyway, here are two of my favorite lines from the book (that are not in the movie).

Since I had dearly loved the movie, I decided to watch it again and see if maybe something in the movie could point me to my disappointment of the book.  Alas, all it did was make me dislike the movie a bit.  The flow of the movie makes so much more sense after reading the book, and sadly several sections of dialogue in the movie weren't in the book.  Plus, after reading the book all you can think is, "this scene isn't in the book" or "they don't say that in the book".  Perhaps most surprising to me was realizing that one of the most quoted lines from the movie isn't even in the book!  The "I love, I love, I love you" part doesn't surprise me as much as "you have bewitched me body and soul" part.  The "I love you" part just reminds me of that cheesy scene in Singing in the Rain....

So, there you have it - my thoughts on the movie vs. book conundrum :)  Either way, I'd encourage you to read the book AND watch the movie.

pride (noun)

1. a high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, imiportance, merit or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc.
2.  the state or feeling of being proud

Fernweh

In case you didn’t know, I love to travel and I am fascinated by languages.  While browsing pinterest the other day I saw a pin that said; “Fernweh – ‘an ache for distant places’; a craving for travel”.  The word intrigued me, so I decided to google it and see what else I could find.  The first link I came across informed me that the word isn’t actually English, it is German.  Their definition was different than the one I saw on pinterest, but carried the same idea: "literally, 'farsickness'; 'an ache for the distance'; wanderlust".  Since the word wanderlust linked to another Wikipedia article I decided to click on it and see what it would tell me.  Here’s what I found out: 

“The loanword from the German language became an English term in 1902 as a reflection of what was then seen as a characteristically German predilection for wandering that may be traced back to German Romanticism and the German system of  apprenticeship  (the  journeyman).” 

 

And I immediately thought to myself (as if you can think to someone else – I’m not even sure why people say that), “Do I love to travel because my ancestors are mostly (if not all) German?”  It’s kind of crazy, I always assumed I got it from my Grandmother – she was always on the go.  She always wanted to drive somewhere, or go visit someone, and had visited several countries with my Grandfather before I was born.  She’s of German descent as well, so maybe it’s a combination of the two.  I always remember her telling me, "Home is where you go when there's no place else to go."  Regardless, I found that little tid-bit of information about the word wanderlust to be fascinating.  Makes me wonder if any of my ancestors were gypsies....

*I do not own the rights to this photo*

wan·der·lust (noun)

ərˌlʌst/ Show Spelled 

 a strong, innate desire to rove or travel about.

A Smashing Success!

So my younger sister is getting married and I'm the maid of honor.  Which of course means I was in charge of planning her bridal shower.  I so wanted her to love it and I didn't want it to be chintzy or tacky.  With a lot of his side of the family coming I definitely wanted them to think it was tasteful.  So, with lots of DIY projects, and some help from pinterest, my cousins (the other bridesmaids) and I were able to pull off a lovely shower.  I'm hoping to put together some tutorials for a few of the crafts, but I figured I'd give you a glimpse of your finished product.

Guests were to write a "Date Night" idea for a Date Jar and also leave her a message for her scrapbook.

The star and lanterns were painted the same color to give the
illusion that they came as a set.



The picture frame was painted the same color as the lanterns
and the star to help coordinate everything.



I made the burlap covered H (it had her future last name painted on it).
 Maybe someday I'll get my tutuorial for making your own H finished...

My very talented cousin created the sign over the drinks table.

A coffee filter flower (tutorial found here) - everyone loved it!
Plus, it made a great background for pictures...



Tissue paper flowers and coordinating streamers -
hung from the ceiling in the center of the room

Centerpieces: burlap, kisses & mason jars

Engagement Ring favors

It was a lot of work and took a lot of planning, but everyone seemed to have enjoyed it and the future Mother and Sister-in-law said it was absolutely beautiful. 

show·er (noun)

a party given for a bestowal of presents of a specific kind, especially such a party for a prospective bride or prospective mother: a linen shower; a baby shower.