Day 25- Someone elses suggestion

Sorry for this post being late. That whole not having a computer makes this hard. For today's challenge you will get amsuggestion from someone you know on what to craft!

Day 24- Recycled items

I have started working on finding ways to use up clothing that I would have otherwise donated or thrown out. I took an old sweated that was too brigand made the sleeves into wine bottle covers. I know this sounds weird but I'll post photos as soon as I can... Stupid computer... Grumble... Grumble... Grumble...

Day 24- Recycled Items

For today's challenge you will take something that you would usually recycle and craft with it!

Day 23- Something you've never done before

I'm going to preface this post by letting you know that my computer died again... gah.  Yes I only had it for 10 days and the LCD screen needs to be replaced.  So I'm without a computer for another one to two weeks.  So annoying.

For this challenge I had lots of ideas, but as I was working on stuff yesterday, my sewing machine broke.  Instead of continuing my crafting I took a break to fix it.  I took it all apart, cleaned it out, and put it back together... and for some reason that fixed it.  I dunno.  These things confuse me... technology that is.  Since it was the first time I ever worked on my sewing machine, I'm claiming that as my crafting for the day.  Also I don't have a computer... boo.

Day 23- Something You've Never Done Before

Today we are going to craft with materials or a technique that you've never done before.  Have you always wanted to knit?  Or maybe you've never sewn anything in your life?  Or never picked up a paintbrush?  Well today's the day you're going to get to try it out!

Day 22- Pinterest Finds

As I stated yesterday I love Pinterest, as I'm sure most of you out there do also.  My craft is another Christmas gift!  I bent and glued together old forks and spoons to create this cell phone holder.

Here's the original:

And here's mine!  Their photo is better than mine, but I still think it's pretty cool!

Day 22- Pinterest Finds

 Pinterest is the best thing ever.  If you aren't on it... you should be.  End of story.  For today's crafting go to your boards and pick something.  Though if you're like me, a lot of the previous crafting has already been from Pinterest...

Day 21- Vintage Inspiration

For my vintage inspiration, I made another pencil skirt.  This time it is a gray plaid fabric and is still high-waisted.  I love my high-waisted skirts.  I can wear them with a shirt tucked in and look like I'm straight out of Mad Men or I can wear a shirt over it and it just looks like a nice fitting pencil skirt.  I probably have 1/2 a dozen of these in my closet now...

Day 21- Vintage Inspiration

I pretty much love anything vintage.  So for today's crafting we are going to use vintage finds as our inspiration to make something.  Pick a decade and get to crafting!

Day 20-  Kitchen

For this challenge I cooked up some tortellini.  This one was actually done a bit earlier in the week because I wasn't going to be home during this challenge.  I made some fresh bread!  I got a bread maker from our wedding registry and it has been wonderful.  You can just layer the ingredients on top of each other and hit go!

Day 20- Kitchen

 Use your kitchen as inspiration for your crafting.  Do you need new towels?  Or want to make a cake for dinner?  Or breakfast?  Or you can just pick something in your kitchen to update!

Day 19- For Yourself

For myself today, I revamped another one of my shirts.  This one was also too long like the last one I revamped.  I cut it shorter and added that extra fabric to the sleeves.  And of course added lots of dog hair... because it wouldn't be one of my shirts without having Zoey's hair all over it.

Before

After

And the sleeve detail!

Day 19- For Yourself

After crafting something for someone else yesterday, today your get to make something just for you!  What have you been wanting?  Go out and make it!

Day 18- For Someone Else

I had an idea of what I was going to craft for today, but I couldn't get the supplies in time for it.  And I can't really say what it is in case that person reads this blog...  So I worked on another Christmas gift!  Fruit infused alcohol!

I've got clementine and raspberry rum, pomegranate and blueberry vodka, and cranberry and poblano whiskey.  These have to sit for another week or so to be done, but they look pretty in the mean time!

Day 18- For Someone Else

Today we get to make something for someone else in our life!  Who needs some love?  Or you could make a gift for someone else for the holidays!

Day 17- Look Our Your Window

When I look outside my window now I see the park with most of the leaves gone.  It isn't very green anymore so I'm using my crafting to counter this for the winter.  For my wedding I gave out evergreen tree seedlings as the wedding favors.  I attempted to grow some of these in my apartment afterwards... and they died...

So I planted flower seeds in all of the pots of the trees that had died.  I still have one more tree so cross your fingers that it lives!

Here's what my flowers look like that I planted earlier this year.  Hopefully they'll start growing quickly and I'll have green plants/flowers to fill up the windowsills while outdoors is brown.

Day 17- Look Out Your Window

Take a look out your window!  What do you see?  Is it a brick wall?  A garden?  Snow?  I wish there was snow...  Next, use whatever you see to get your creative juices going!  Craft with what you see out your window as your inspiration.

Day 16- Lighting

For the lighting challenge, I created a "lampshade."  I say "lampshade" because I'm using the term loosely.  I took a balloon and wrapped in it yarn and then glued like crazy.  I immediately ran into some problems when I couldn't get the glue to really hold all of the yarn down.  There was just too much yarn.  I realized that I had some spray adhesive, so I tried to use that to help keep it together... this made it harder to get the balloon out once it all dried... and it also smelled horrible.

But after I was able to get it out I had a lampshade.  I still need to get a light to put inside of it and hang it, but the bulk of the work is done.  I'm not crazy about the color of yarn I used, because it looks like a hornet's nest.... and I fear it might look more like it once I hang it from the ceiling...

Day 16- Lighting

For our lighting challenge, you get to change a light fixture you already own or if you're really crafty create one completely new!  Maybe you need a new lampshade or you want to create a topiary within an old light bulb...

Day 15- Unconventional Tools

This days crafting didn't end up getting finished.  I was planning on using wine corks to make a centerpiece that looks like this...

I started with my ever growing collection of corks.

After I started putting the corks together I realized I only had about 1/2 of what I was going to need.  So this one is put on hold for a bit until I can collect more corks... oh the things I do for my crafting.  Haha.

Day 15- Unconventional Uses

Here's where your creativity gets to break free.  Today you'll use an item in an unconventional way for your crafting.  So don't use your materials how they were meant to be used.  Use them in a new and different fashion!

Day 14- Thanksgiving Themed

I used fall colors again to finish up working on one of my new pencil skirts.  It is a brown pinstripe fabric and it is now a high-waisted skirt.  And maybe I'll even get to wear it for Thanksgiving!

Christmas Gift?

I have found what I want for Christmas this year... I was so excited when I saw these that I had to run immediately to Alex to tell him about them...

I'm not sure where Abed or Shirley are, maybe they will come later.  I want all of these... and if you're confused here's a video from Community (Abed is seeing everyone in stop motion because of a traumatic Christmas related event):

Also there's a Christmas Pterodactyl in it!!! 

Day 14- Thanksgiving Themed

With Thanksgiving coming up next week, you get to make something for the holiday!  Maybe it will be a new outfit to wear or a fantastic dessert item.  Or maybe it's even just using the colors or a turkey for some kind of craft!

Day 13- Fabric

I've been working on revamping old shirts that no longer fit... or have gum on them.  Someone left gum in a washer in the building so I keep finding gum on my clothes... boo.  This crafting involved a black shirt I had that was really long, almost a mini dress.  So I cut it shorter and with that extra fabric, I added a collar.  I also cinched in the back a little bit to make it a bit smaller.

Before!

After!

Day 13- Use Fabric

Today you get to craft using fabric!  You can sew it, glue it, safety pin it together... whatever you want!!!


Day 12- Nerd

For my nerd inspiration, I looked towards my collection.  I collect New York Times newspapers from important dates in history.  I have around a dozen dating back to the 1860s.  And I had wanted to do this one for an earlier challenge.  And it was my birthday yesterday!  Lots of reasons to make this craft.

So I took an old newspaper (not one of my NYTs), and make a bow out of it!  I might end up making all my bows for Christmas!

Day 12- Bring Out the Nerd

This challenge should be pretty self explanatory!  Pick something that brands you as a nerd and craft relating to it!


Day 11- Traditional Anniversary Challenge

I picked the one year anniversary since I'm within the first year of getting married!  For this challenge I was planning on making gift bows out of newspaper... but I didn't have much time... so I just re-crafted an old one where I cut out hearts from newsprint.  I had wanted to use these in the wedding, but that didn't end up working out so I have to find somewhere around the apartment to use them.

Day 11- Traditional Anniversary

Do you remember that list of traditional anniversary gifts that always seemed so goofy?  Well for this challenge you get to pick one that has some personal meaning to you and craft from that.  Here's the list for an easy reference:

Wedding Anniversary Gifts by Year

First: Paper
Second: Cotton
Third: Leather
Fourth: Fruit or Flowers
Fifth: Wood
Sixth: Candy or Iron
Seventh: Wool or Copper
Eight Bronze or Pottery
Ninth: Pottery
Tenth: Tin
Eleventh: Steel
Twelfth: Silk or Linen
Thirteenth: Lace
Fourteenth: Ivory
Fifteenth: Crystal
Twentieth: China
Twenty-Fifth: Silver
Thirtieth: Pearls
Thirty-Fifth: Coral
Fortieth: Ruby
Forty-Fifth: Sapphire
Fiftieth: Gold
Fifty-Fifth: Emerald
Sixtieth: Diamond


Day 10- Use Your Neighborhood for Inspiration

Part of the neighborhood that I live in is an openly LGBT community, so for today's crafting I chose to use the rainbow for inspiration.  Thank my husband for that idea... I had seen a photo on Pinterest awhile back where someone had split the stem of a rose and put each part into different colored water.  It then became a rainbow colored rose.  I attempted this same idea with a bouquet of carnations.

One of the problems I immediately ran into was trying to cut the stem into multiple pieces.  I was only able to cut the large stems into two sections and that was still pretty challenging.  And this didn't end up working out so well.  They didn't take the color!

So I put them in the glasses separately and it turned out ok...

Doggie Treats

Earlier this month I made Zoey some more dog treats.  I like to make my own since they are way cheaper and I know exactly what is going into them.  Zoey has a pretty sensitive stomach so I'd rather not chance anything... She always loves getting food from us, but I've never seen her go so crazy for treats before!  She is crazy about these!

Peanut Butter and Chicken Dog Treats


1/2 cup of peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup oats
2 cup whole wheat flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together peanut butter, honey, oil and chicken broth.

In a separate bowl, combine flours and oatmeal.

Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients. Place dough on flour dusted surface. Roll or press dough out to about 1/4” inch thick. Use a small bone cookie cutter to cut out cookies. Roll out leftover scraps and cut out as many as possible.

Put cut out cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 14-16 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack.

 Here's Zoey going crazy for them!!!

She's sad they are all gone!

Apple Pie!

Apple pie is one of my favorite things to make.  They are so easy and fast, and can look amazing without too much work!

Alex and I tried to go apple picking earlier this year and it was a fail... the place we went to had run out of apples the day before and we didn't know that until we had driven over an hour to get there.  So on our way home we picked up about a dozen apples from a roadside stand so I could at least make some pie.

I ended up making three pies, one that we ate, one went to work with Alex, and the third got frozen for Thanksgiving.

I had a bunch of whole wheat flour around the apartment (it's what I use for Zoey's treats), so I used that for the pie crusts.

Whole Wheat Pie Crusts

1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. vegetable shortening 

6 tbsp. water

Mix everything together!  Double for top and bottom crust.

For the pie I cut the apples into strips, added sugar, cinnamon, a dash of nutmeg, and a little flour.

And I ended up with lots of scraps... 

Here were my end products!

Day 10- Use Your Neighborhood for Inspiration

Today you should look around where you live and find inspiration in your neighborhood.  Maybe you live right by the water so you're going to cook up a big fish dinner, or you live in a city so you're going to make a city out of staples... I've seen this... it's cool.


Day 9- Pets
I made Zoey a new toy for today's challenge.  I cut up a couple of my husbands old t-shirts that we were going to throw away anyways and braided them together.  Ta-da!  New dog toy!  And it sort of smells like Alex too so Zoey is even happier.  I'm not sure how long it will last since the material isn't very strong, but it didn't cost us anything and they are easy enough to make too!

Halloween!

I finally have a computer back after being without one for the past month!!!  Yeah!!  So I can start posting with all those photos that I've been wanting to do for so long.  I'm starting it off with a post about Halloween... it's a little late, but I had lots of crafting for it this year!

To start this off, I am not a big fan of Halloween.  I haven't really enjoyed it since I was in elementary school since I've since always thought I was too old for it.  But this year we were throwing a Halloween party so I went all out.

I baked pumpkin spice latte cupcakes to snack on... they look good... yum....

I also decorated a pumpkin this year.  I had a great time doing this.  I found a template online for a Doctor Who pumpkin, but instead of cutting everything out like the design wanted me to do, I only cut out the parts of the Tardis and carved the outside layers of the pumpkin off for the Doctor.

And then there was my costume.  I didn't want to put a lot of money or work into it, and neither did my husband.  I had been rewatching Doctor Who episodes and realized that Alex could dress like Rory with stuff just in his closet.  I had been planning on doing the Silence hash marks, but I upped it by dressing like Amy Pond.

My inspiration

Alex's inspiration

And of course we couldn't leave the dog out of it, so we found a bow tie for her and she got to be the Doctor.  I wanted to find a big haired wig to make her River Song, but I don't think she would have been a fan of that...

And here's the party!!!  I'm hanging out with Meg the Grand!