A rainy day and a little craft

It's been rainy all day so we spent the day inside. I was looking on Pinterest for a little inspiration when I stumbled upon this. I like the style, but not necessarily the "gypsy" charm.

I like the multiple bracelets grouped together. I decided it would be nice to have a new little accessory, so I pulled out all of our beads. I already had a light blue bracelet, so I just decided to match my new bracelets to that so I wouldn't have to make as many. I made a turquoise one with some gold accents. For the other one I just braided some crafting string together. I was going to do a fishtail braid with it, but I didn't cut enough string, so I just settled for braiding it. I needed a new bright accessory for summer and this was just the thing. I threw it together in about twenty minutes. Pretty easy and very cute.

Christmas Break

Well,I'm back. Sorry that's it's been a while, but I've spent the last several days hanging out with my family and exploring my new iPod touch. (Yes,I actually got one for Christmas!) Anyway, it's been a fun week of games, movies, and family. I've enjoyed experiencing the Christmas spirit. It's so magical and fun. It's my favorite time of the year. Luckily, it isn't quite ever yet. We still have New Years to celebrate. Another fun weekend to spend with family and friends..

 Here are my favorite boots! I've been looking for several years for some boots that I absolutely love and this year I finally found them. They were kind of pricey, but it was definitely worth it.

 We went to this really cool hotel downtown. They have a fun little scavenger hunt. When you find all of the items you go to the toy store to get a sticker. You then take the sticker to the bakery to get a sugar cookie. It was fun. They toy store was really cool. It had all of these fun original toys. They also had huge tubes of gum balls. It looked so cool I couldn't resist taking a picture.

 This is a phone in the calling room in the hotel. I hurried and popped in to get this picture. I like the vintage look.

 This is just a score sheet from a fun game I played with my family. I was playing around with the photo affects on my iPod touch.

Anyway, I hope you had a great Christmas and a fabulous New Year!



Ornaments (Vintage)

I wanted to do something new for our Christmas tree this year. I decided to go vintage. I got out our vintage ornaments from my grandma. I also strung some popcorn to hang up on the tree. I really liked how it turned out, but I want to fing something to put on the top. Right now I have an angel, but I'm not too happy with it.

Anyway, on Thursday there was a huge wind storm. A lot of trees fell down, including one on my neighbors house. A huge pine tree across the street fell down too. Luckily, it didn't cause any damage. It caused the power to go out for 24 hours. That was why I couldn't post.

Have you had any huge wind storms? Any major destruction? I sure hope not.

whew (thanksgiving weekend)

Wow. That was a crazy weekend. I started it out with a great thanksgiving. We had some family over. Even though it was slightly hectic, it was a lot of fun. At midnight I headed over to Kohls for their Black Friday sales. Boy, I'm crazy. There were people running all over the place and screaming. It was crazy. We went to Target afterwards. The line was HUGE, but of course we decided we needed something there and had to stand in it. I got home around 3 in the morning and zonked out. I was exhausted. I woke up around 11. We decided to get our Chirstmas tree. It is still standing, undecorated, in our family room. We've been too busy to decorate it.

Although my weekend was crazy, I'm glad that I have so much to be thankful for. Amongst all of the hectictness, I realized I am very blessed. I'm glad that I have time to give thanks.

So, how was your Thanksgiving? Any crazy Black Friday stories? I hope you had a great weekend!

my dream vacation (europe)

I have always wanted to go to Europe. It looks amazing. I want to go to Paris and see the Eiffel Tower, eat in a little cafe, buy fresh crepes, eat baguettes, visit the museums. Ahhhhh......

Bracelets (para chord)

I have been making some para chord bracelets lately. This morning I made a turquoise one. Love it! They're pretty easy to make too. I'll try to post a tutorial on how to make them. I ordered my para chord off line. It wasn't too expensive. I ordered the buckles from there too. Anyway, we're having family over tomorrow for Thanksgiving. We're planning on having all of the kids make one, so I had to make sure I remembered how to make them. Have fun eating turkey and watching football tomorrow!

My top three (movies)

I like a lot of old movies. I watch them all the time. My top two old movies are "Singing in the Rain" and "What's up Doc?" I have both of them pretty much memorized. Another one of my favorite movies is "Johnny English." It is halarious. I just saw the second one, but I  don't like it as much as the first. It's not as funny, it's more serious. Anyway, if you're ever looking for a good movie, I would suggest these three.

Happy Sunday!

My Crafters Toolbox (the essentials)

I thought I'd share my crafting toolbox with you. All of my essentials and then a few extras. These are the items I couldn't live without. I use them all the time. You can pick all of these up at your local craft store.

 I use scissors all the time. I'm always cutting or snipping something. I would die without my scissors. I also use my fabric scissors a lot. If you don't have any fabric scissors, I would suggest purchasing some.  You can get fabric scissors at your local fabric store.

This is my crafting tool kit. I use it a lot. I mainly use the hammer, the tool that cuts holes for eyelets, and the tool that helps install eyelets. It's really useful to have around.

 

 Here is a very small collection of my eyelets and brads. I use them quite a bit. They add a little something to whatever you're making. I have a lot of brads and eyelets and I'm using them all the time.

 Here are my hole punches. I have a regular sized one and then one that's quite a bit smaller. The smaller one is nice for brads.

 Ribbon. I use it all the time. This is the tip of the iceberg. I have A LOT of ribbon. I tie it onto everything. If you don't have ribbon, you NEED some. I use it ALL THE TIME. (Sorry about all of the capitalized letters. I just wanted to get my point across.)

 I use my vintage trim all the time. I've used it on a ton of crafts. You're really supposed to dye it, but I was too lazy and I liked the color it already was.

 I have a ton of rub on letters and I use them a lot. They're handy to have around. I also have rub on flowers and thank you's.

 My hot glue gun. Use it all the time. I go through a lot of hot glue. I use it on every craft I do. Seriously. If you do not have one, you are really missing out. You need one. They come in handy all the time.

 I have a lot of punches, but one of my favorites is my corner rounder. It adds a finished look to my crafts. It's also nice for pictures when I'm scrap booking.

My other punches that I love are my flower punches. I have the small and the big one. I like stacking them and putting a brad on.

 Surprisingly, I use shipping tags quite a bit. They have a fun vintage look. You can get them at your local office supply store. They come in handy quite often.

 I love this thing! I'm not sure what it's called, but it's practically two sided adhesive that you can just roll on. It's super easy to use. I attach everything with this stuff. It's really handy and useful. When our local craft store went out of business we bought several refills. Sadly, the refills don't fit out case. We found that we can unroll it, stick the adhesive on, and tear the paper off the back. It's a little bit harder, but I still use it all the time. That's how much I love this stuff.

 I use a ton of markers and pens. They're useful to have around to write on gift tags or thank you notes with.

I use modge-podge a lot. I decorate a lot of notebooks with this stuff. It's very useful. I love this stuff. It's amazing!

 And of course, my paper cutter. I use this thing all the time. It's crazy. I used to have this little wimpy paper cutter, but then I got this. I'm so glad that I did. I love it!

I also use scrap book paper and stickers a lot. Other than that, these are my crafting "essentials." If you don't have any of these items, I would suggest you get some. You'll probably fall in love with them as quickly as I did.

So, do you have any crafting essentials? Am I missing out on any wonderful crafting supplies? If so, please fill me in.

DIY Pendant Light Tutorials

I have always wanted to get one of these awesome pendant light fixtures from Ikea.

But since they're kind of expensive I might be willing to make one of these awesome pendant lights. If only I had more time. Amazing! How anyone came up with these I have no idea.

Click here to see how to make the Paper Cup Light
And click here to see how to make the Faceted Paper Light.

50 More Things That Inspire Me (Or Just Make Me Happy)