Crafty Business!

As you all know – I love to be crafty, but what you might not know – I love to see other people be crafty! So today I decided I would show you a little bit of what I’m working on in hopes to inspire you to show ME what you are working on! Be crafty with me today!!!

So today I’m making crocheted necklaces. You might have seen the sneak peak of Emma sporting my first attempt:

She said she was a dragon princess and ran off to play – needless to say that necklace came back with a little pizza sauce and dog slobber on it. I don’t think anyone will be using this necklace but her 😉 thank goodness I made more!!

Now for the part about you! I’d love to see what my readers are making and what better way to get to know you than for you to comment below with a link to your blog post about what you are crafting today!? So bring it on readers!! Let’s start a crafty revolution!

Love Always,

J

P.S. I found this tutorial off pinterest (of course) and since she explains it WAY better than me – I’ll just let you run off to her site and check it out if you are interested in trying to make a necklace like this: Tampa Bay Crochet

Old Jeans into Skinny Jeans!

Welcome to my pile of jeans that need a little TLC! They may have gotten into this pile for various reasons – they don’t fit, they aren’t in style anymore, they got taken in to get hemmed and the lady made them too short and they are now high waters (frustrated voice there), or I haven’t worn them in a few years.

Why did I hang onto them? Honestly – because I don’t know how to get rid of things and thought I could make SOMETHING out of it one day..

Welcome to that day! My sister sent me a pin from pinterest about how this girl made her not so cool jeans into skinny jeans. It took me about two seconds to try on all of the jeans that were in my “I don’t know what the heck to do with these” pile 🙂

Then the magic happened! First I put them on inside out, pulled the sides tight and pinned them so that they would be form fitting. If you’d rather not pin yourself in your jeans you can try using chalk to mark the line.

Then I took them off and ran them through the sewing machine. Be sure that you have a thick needle for this (mine is an 8 for jeans) or your sewing machine is going to take a toll and you might bend or break your needle.

Before you do anything else, be sure to flip them right side out and try them on. It’s going to feel weird having that extra flap of fabric but this is the only way that you’ll know if it fits you right before you finish them off and can’t undo it!

If it’s not how you wanted, rip out the seams and try again! If it is take really nice sharp scissors and cut along the link of your seam without hitting your stitching.

Then you can iron the edges down or let it wash and dry into shape. I like to wear mine around and break them in for the day 😉

What do you think? Actually – it’s probably best you don’t tell me what you think – because after doing this whole thing I realized I hate the way I look in skinny jeans.. oh well!

Love Always,

J

Knit Sweater No More!

Welcome to the knit shirt that I’ve worn for about 11 years … whew this baby has lasted a while! After cleaning out my closet I decided it was time to let go of this top and replace it with a newer version. Instead of getting rid of it though – I decided to revamp it!

I cut off the the sleeves so I would create a rectangle at the bottom. I’m saving the top for another project so there’s no waste.

I flipped the sweater inside out and stitched across the top of the sweater to finish off the edge and create a seam.

Can you figure out what I’m making yet? I’m sure you’ve seen it before – except it’s a little different this time!

Since I’m not exactly sure how I wanted to finish this piece off, I decided to temporarily finish it off with velcro. It’s an easy solution for a temporary fix!

I stitched around the edges to keep it on. If you haven’t figured it out – this is the opposite end of my shirt!

And TADA! A decorate pillow from your favorite top you just couldn’t bare to lose yet 😉

I’m pretty happy with the end result! Even happier that this project was completely free since I had everything I needed in stock. If you are considering doing this project you’ll need:

An old shirt or sweater: free!

A pillow: $5-$10 depending on the pillow and size.

A zipper: $2-$4 depending on the length

or

Velcro: $6 – but there will be extra left over for another project, so cut the price in half for this project and it’s $3

Thread: whatever you have on hand or $2 that will last you a ton of projects.
This project will probably run you between $7-$15 depending on what you have on hand!

What do you think?

Thanks for stopping by!

Love Always,

J

Spending Time, Not Money.

If you don’t know me at all – I’ll ago ahead and let you know that I’m 4’11, around 95 pounds, and 24 years old. Finding clothes that fit me but don’t make me look 15 like this picture below does – is DIFFICULT! A few weeks ago I went through all of my clothes and decided to get rid of all the things I haven’t worn in a while.

This jacket was one of them. The reason I wanted to get rid of? The sleeves were ridiculously too long, which doesn’t help my height factor at all. Other than that, I love this jacket! Would I ever find one that fit me perfectly? Probably not. So instead of getting rid of it, I decided to fix it myself:

First things first, I turned it inside out, flipped the sleeve over to the length I like (A little longer than my wrist but not past my nuckles) and left a quarter of an inch of length for stitching. Pinning this by yourself is not an easy task so it’s nice to have someone handy around to help you with. I didn’t, so I just looked like a goof doing it myself 😉

Then it was time to sew! I used my favorite X stitch to make it as durable as possible. It took me all of 2 minutes per sleeve.

My one suggestion to you is NEVER to cut it until you try it on and are happy with the length. Since I like things on the longer side this seemed perfect for me.

Then I took my scissors and started cutting right at the seam of my  new stitch. Be careful not to cut the stitching or cut through the second layer of fabric. I took my time with this part since I am super clumsy (if I don’t teach you anything, please just remember – impatience is not your friend with scissors!!!).

Once it’s cut all the way around it will look like this (inside out). Then you are done! Fixing clothes is not hard and now I can keep this jacket instead of buying another one that still wouldn’t fit me right 😉

Saving money but spending a little time. Since I have a pile high of clothes I decided to edit instead of trash – this will be come a weekly post. Looking forward to showing you what I’ve got planned for next Monday! It involves an old knitted shirt:

I’m pretty sure this isn’t in style anymore – but I wore it all through high school, and sadly up until now 😛

Thanks for stopping by!

Love Always,

J

Oh Hello Studio <3

Most of you know that I’ve been doing a lot of crocheting lately instead of sewing. Well this weekend is the first weekend in the past few months that I’ll actually have time to be in my studio!! It’s going to be so refreshing to be back in that room with loads of time and a list of things I want to make! Plus Brian will be distracted playing COD with the guys so he won’t even miss me 😉

Here’s a little sneak peak at what I hope to get done this weekend:

I’m going to be sewing buttons on the new cozies. I’m always hand sewn them so I’m going to give my sewing machine a run for it’s money! When these are finished they’ll be up in my shop for purchase.

After my sister’s wedding, we packed up the burlap squares and they’ve been sitting in this pretty box waiting for me. Well, I’ve finally found a project for them! I’ll be making placemats out of these!

I also have a pile of clothes that need some TLC. Since I’m under 5′ it’s really hard to find clothes that fit appropriately without looking like a teenager, so I have collected a pile of clothes that don’t really fit right. There are some jeans I want to turn into skinny jeans, some pants that need hemming, some t-shirts that need to be taken in, and some sweaters that weren’t getting any attention that will be turned into decorative pillows!

I’m going to have some serious fun this weekend. What are you doing this weekend?

 

Love Always,

J

A Fun Filled Weekend!

This weekend was full of surprises and accomplishments! Saturday I spent the day in Front Royal celebrating my cousin-in-law’s baby shower. She looked gorgeous, the party was a blast, and she got so many awesome goodies!!

When I got home I had a little present waiting for me from my sister from Kritter’s Ramblings:

 

She ordered us the Young House Love book for the book signing we are going to! I AM SO EXCITED 🙂 This is one of my favorite blogs and I’m so impressed with how far they’ve come. (A little jealous too 😉 haha!)

Sunday we spent celebrating Brian’s birthday. The boys went to see Skyfall and the girls went to see Pitch Perfect (which was HILARIOUS!), then we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. That place seems to be a family choice when the eight of us go out. After that we came back to our place for brownies and cookies for desert.

As soon as everyone left Brian was so excited to play with his big birthday present:

 

We rigged up a system of tables and chairs for him to play with it, which made him want the chair to go with the driving set even more. I’m not looking forward to storing that sucker but I know he’ll get his use out of it so I’m biting my tongue 😛

Surprisingly with all the things we had going on this weekend I got a lot accomplished too! I made a bunch of new cozies to list in my shop:

 

Loving all the color options that would be great for Thanksgiving dinner tables 🙂

I also started on making some boot cuffs:

It’s almost done and then I have to make a matching partner 🙂 I’m excited to pass these around to my friends and family to try them out and let me know what they like and don’t like about them.

On top of all that I’ll be starting to sell some of my cousins newborn hats in my shop! She’ll be sending me her creations soon – check out some of her goodies:

 

 

How cute are they!?

What a weekend! I hope you all had an eventful weekend as well.

 

Love Always,

J

 

“Twine” Wrapped Wine Bottle

As you know I have been playing with leftover wine bottles from my sisters wedding and I decided to try a “twine” wrapped wine bottle. I’ve seen these around on pinterest, facebook, and other blogs but I’ve never really been much of a fan of them. That is, until I spotted a gorgeous natural tan colored twine that looked so elegant my jaw dropped!

This comes from from Create Cousin and it made me realize that I do love wrapped wine bottles! I can totally imagine this as part of a table centerpiece for thanksgiving or on a mantel of someone who loves rustic style decor. So I decided to make one myself, but of course if you know me at all – I don’t follow instructions well at all.

I grabbed a wine bottle, some macrame chord and modge podge and got to work! Be warned that this project is not easy to start and kind of messy! I started of slow and let the macrame chord dry before I kept going to ensure it to stay in place.

After that it was quick and easy! I kept wrapping and glueing and wrapping and glueing until I got to the top and realized I needed to stop and let it dry again. Patience is not the easiest thing for me when I’m doing crafts – but in most projects it’s the most important part so I while I was waiting I worked on other projects to keep me busy 😉

Then once it was finished I added on a final bow for that last touch! This project was not only easy, but it was fun! I would recommend this project to anyone and could even been done with school aged children. For the younger kids – I would suggest starting it for them! My next attempt will be to die the macrame chord in other colors – because my Dad is crazy about dying things, so I’ll let him have a go with that 😉

What do you think? If you are interested in seeing some other wine related items that are must haves – check out The Collectionary!

Thanks for stopping by!

Love Always,

J

What A Show!

I’m Back!!! I missed you all so much! After a super long weekend at the craft show and a long week getting everything back to normal around here – I am excited to say I’m back 🙂

Thank goodness for my trial set up or this would have taken ages to figure out. The PVC pipe held everything extremely well! My favorite part was the bar to hang my scarves on. This was my first attempt at having things up off my table and although I’m so happy with the outcome I do want to do things a little differently.

I want to find different hangers to put the scarves on – it wasn’t easy to get the scarves off and on the hangers which I don’t think is helpful for customers who want to try things on. I also would change up the shelves a little differently. People don’t like pulling things in and out of shelves if they have to figure out how to fold them and put them back! I’ve decided to put one blanket in each shelf instead of two and to hang up the other scarves instead of folding them in the shelf.

Other than that I was super happy with the set up!

My most picked up items were my cork keychains, cup cozies, scarves, and burp cloths. It seems like everyone that came through was touching and feeling everything and amazed at how soft everything was. Since comfort is one of my number one priorities when it comes to my items – that made me very happy!

Another thing that was picked up a lot was my business cards. So much so that I’ll be ordering another pack of them as soon as possible! I didn’t expect my cards to go as fast as they did but I am definitely okay with that 😉

For those of you who are considering doing an outdoor show there are a few things I wasn’t quite prepared for! Wind was one of them. Everything was secured tightly with zip ties and didn’t move much in the wind but my frames that were hanging from the lattice weren’t on tight. I’m still trying to come up for a solution for that one.

Another was dust!! We were in a wooded area with lots of dirt and when people walk through it – dust kicks up and gets on EVERYTHING! I wasn’t expecting to have to wipe down my items on a regular basis or have to wash & dry them when I came home. I wish I had a swiffer or duster with me so that I could have continually wiped off my items – that might have made my aftermath of cleaning a little easier.

Prepare to spend a day after the show sorting/cleaning/re-organizing everything!

One thing that REALLY helped during this show was sharing it with a friend. This was Ashley’s side from Leapinlilypads. Because we split the space we both saved on money, as well as having someone to be there when we went to go get a meal or use the restrooms.

It also made it easier on my traveling to share some of what we were bringing. We each brought two tables, our chairs, and our supplies so one person wasn’t overwhelmed with too much packing or unpacking. One thing I didn’t expect going into this was all the last minute spending I’d need to use. I planned for gas money, food money, and extra for spending (of course I’d find something I’d want to buy from other vendors).

What I didn’t count on was all the small last minute things for the show like: cash for change, stickers for my bags with my business logo, chalkboard markers (because they work so much better than chalk), 3m hooks to hang my frames, and a bunch of other little things that add up so fast! Next time I’m going to also plan for an extra $100 bucks on miscellaneous things before the show actually happens.

Some things that Ashley did that I love – used wrapped boxes to create height on her table, used cardboard and ribbon to hang her bows, and found things like baskets and vases to use to hold her items. Any way that you can save money by using things around the house as part of your table design is a great way to be budget friendly!

Some perks from our tent that I didn’t see around other ones – bright colors, hanging things from the tent walls, a dedicated table space to use for working on, clear banners so people will remember who you are, and free goodies just for stopping in (I had dum dums for the little ones).

Finding ways to be remembered is key to future purchases. Just having a business card isn’t always enough – so I like to make as many memorable pieces as possible!

We had a fantastic time at the show and are proud to say we’ll be doing it again next year! Hooray for a successful weekend – and hooray for being back home 😉 because this girl is ready to get back to being crafty!

Thanks for stopping by!

Love Always,

J

A New Set Up

My studio room has been needing a new set up for quite some time but I never got around to figuring out a plan. What I needed was to get rid of that big square table and find a skinnier one to take it’s place. Once the table was out – rearranging the space was SO much easier!

 

I can’t tell you how much this frees up the floor space in this room. With the ironing board able to fold up and be against the wall and the small 4×2 table folded up – it gives me even more floor space. I love being here but one of the most difficult things about it is working up here with Emma. There are some days where I just chose not to come here because I’d rather spend time with her but other times I have her with me and try to get as much work done as I can.

 

Now that there is more floor space for her she can easily play with her toys and not be right at my feet. I also love the fact that I can set her up at the second table and let her color and play there. She loves to imitate me these days so I can just picture her pretending to sew or paint 😉 I’m going to give it a for the next few weeks and see how it goes!

 

One of the things I am most excited about is my new mini shelf on my desk! This is the third one that I purchased that isn’t going with me to the show. As you can see it’s already over-flowing with goodies so after the show I will be definitely using at least one of these to store things in when I’m in-between shows.

Is it just me or do other people rearrange their spaces every couple months?

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Love Always,

J

Shopping Shopping Shopping!

I’ve been shopping up a storm for the craft show coming up and I thought I’d share with you all the things I’ve bought this week!

 

I bought this jewelry holder at Bed Bath & Beyond for $15! I’ll be using these to hold the crocheted bracelets I make at the craft show.

We found these little easels at JoAnns for $1.99 so I picked up a few to display my frames on.

I bought a few more wreaths for my yarn wreaths! Since I have a little extra time I thought I’d make a few more. These are $4.99 at JoAnns.

These key chains and screw eyes are to make more cork key chains with. The key chains are $2.99 each at JoAnns and the screw eyes are $6.99 each at Home Depot.

If you remember from my post about my craft table set up – I said I was going to fix the hangers so that they were angled more forward. These little dots are going to keep the hangers at an angle so they’ll face forward instead of in a line. These were $3.99 at Target!

I also bought some Command Hooks. These are going to go on the lattice behind the second table to hang the book wreaths and extra frames.

Today I’m making an order for more yarn and trying to find fabric for a new tablecloth for my tables!

Phew – this girl has done too much shopping! But the good news is I am almost all set for the craft show 🙂 I’m so excited I can barely contain myself!

Thanks for stopping by!

Love Always,

J