Sweater Re-creation

Isn't the color of this sweater beautiful?

I love the color.

The sweater itself, however, I've grown a little apart from. It's thin (not as warm as I would like) and itchy and about 10 years old. I couldn't figure out why I still own it. I usually thrift my clothes often, and somehow this sweater is still in my possession. I remembered why I had kept it when the husband saw me thrusting scissors through the middle of it and said, "hey, that's my favorite sweater of yours". oh, whoops, no wonder it's still in my closet.

I did destroy that sweater last night.

And here is what it became:

Leg Warmers

 these used to be the sleeves 

 I got this idea from Mountaingirlclothing's etsy shop. She makes a ton of these.

I used the seam around the wrist of the sleeve to hold up the sock above the knee and I just sent a zig-zag seam around the top of the sleeve, which is what you see around my ankle here. It works nicely.

Mittens

well, yeah. they look pretty funky. but i loooooove me some mittens, and I only have one pair that's not made for snow-contact. these will be just a little kiss of warmth during cool winter drives.

It was easy. I just traced my hand on a piece of paper and then cut through BOTH layers of the sweater's body with a seam allowance. I turned the pretty sides to the inside and stitched. That was it.

Hair Rosette

I'm trying to make hair embellishments with almost every type of fabric I can these days. It's fun to try new things. I like the idea of having some sweater love in my hair. 

Coat Rack

About a month ago, I shared a post with DIY Coat Rack ideas that I was collecting. We have nooooooo closet space in this cute little bungalow (seriously only ONE closet - in the bedroom). So I've been on the lookout for cheap coat racks. Like under $20, cheap. And as you can expect, I haven't found anything save a few hooks that screw into the walls, but we need much more space for hanging than a few hooks can provide.  So we finally chose an idea from the list of other peoples' ideas that I found via browsing the blogosphere.

Last weekend Landon collected some BEAUTIFUL fallen limbs while he was rock climbing with one of his buddies to use for our coat rack, which was inspired by one of the ideas from Apartment Therapy.

The weather here has been consistently in the 40's these last few weeks, so we find ourselves in hats and gloves and jackets every day. The winter woolens box has been out for weeks now.

Saturday we enjoyed opening day at Snowbird and came home with wet stuff.

Sunday I couldn't wait any longer. After waking and seeing our kitchen chairs laden with layers of jackets and the table spread with gloves, my procrastination evaporated and I headed immediately to the hardware store (well, not immediately - but right away after the coffee pot was empty).

 I don't know what these things are called, but they were in the electrical isle. With Mr. McBrayer's mad  handyman skills, we got this beautiful stick stuck to the wall.

So now, right next to the back door (where our garage is), we have a coat rack with our most wearable items. Now they are easily accessible and can dry, leaving our kitchen chairs free.

 All the rest are still in the dungeon.

Winter Crafts

I don't want this blog to turn into a craft blog, I really don't, and it's starting to feel like it's morphing into that.
Right now, crafting is one of my favorite things. I especially am enjoying it since I am learning to use my sewing machine and since we have been really struggling financially because of my job situation - "crafts" seem to be a great solution to things that we want and need but can't afford. So, not only do I enjoy crafting a lot lately, but we also sort of need some of the stuff I've been making, in addition to my "going paperless in 2010" initiative that seriously involves a lot of sewing!

And things aren't looking to change much any time too soon, although I'll try to keep including updates and adventures from our lives in addition to the crafts.

Christmas crafts are underway. And I'm so having a hard time not sharing them with you!!! Maybe I'll have to write some posts and make the publishing date to after Christmas because I'm a crappy blogger at that time of the year and I really can hardly keep these handmade goodies a secret. But I don't want Christmas surprises ruined, so my crafty posts about them will have a "do not open until Christmas" publishing date.

Until then, look for posts about these fun winter-inspired crafts:

DIY Coat Rack

Sweater Re-creation

Christmas Stocking

Back on the slopes - Snowbird

Wow, what a weekend!

Saturday was opening day at Snowbird and it felt like Christmas.

Friday night, I had a hard time falling asleep with the anticipation of the next morning - our first day of skiing since April! I nodded off to the sound of Santa Clause perfecting the wax on our skis in the dungeon. 

We slept in Saturday morning and got to the resort in the late morning. We had no desire to stand in line with all the other crazies. After all, since it is early season, there are only two lifts open. And I knew that I wouldn't be able to ski an entire day yet - my legs could only handle about 4 hours.

We parked our car, crammed our toesies into our boots (i hadn't remembered them being that uncomfortable), and carried our shiney-waxed skis to the lift line. We threw our skis on the snow and clicked into the bindings. At the feeling of finally being on skis again, Doons and I looked at each other with huge smiles. Mmmmm, what a great feeling. We were happy.

It was a beautiful day on the mountain and the snow was surprisingly awesome. Not too crowded on the slopes, although we had to wait in line for a few minutes to get on the lifts (very normal but never had to do that at Snowbasin - ever). I was amazed at how easy it was to get back into my old groove. I'm pretty good at keeping up with the husband (or so he lets me believe, which is probably more likely).

Wow. So much fun! 67 inches of snow in the last 3 weeks, and we're lovin' it!

Chair redo

When we moved to Utah we got lucky. My sister had been living at my parents house for awhile and wasn't using her outdoor furniture that she previously used at the townhouse. So she gave her patio furniture to us:

It looks pretty good here in our yard, but up close the fabric is really damaged.

We are very fortunate to spend a lot of time eating outside. In the summer we eat two meals a day outside. It's great. But the furniture is getting old and weathered and quite frankly, ugly. The metal trim is transferring rust into the whiteish-gray fabric and it isn't pretty. 

Here's Doons waxing our skis this Spring. You can see the discoloration of the fabric from the rust.

So I thought that I could easily refinish these chairs. At first I thought that spray paint was the key. But then I realized that the chairs were in great shape besides the fabric. This summer one of the seats ripped, so I finally gave in and bought some outdoor canvas at the fabric store in a pretty paisley fabric. 

These take HOURS to refinish, so I actually only have one of the four completed. My goal is to have them all finished by next summer.

Making Ruffles

Anna asked me to do a tutorial on making ruffles. So, here's the quick. And I learned this all from others through online tutorials.

Making ruffles is easy-peasy. 

First things first: you're going to making a long straight stitch with a loose tension

 You'll cut a piece of fabric as wide as you want your ruffles and make it as long as possible. Then start sewing down the middle of the fabric with your thread dangling off the end, no double-backing. 

Easy.

 Then you will hold one of the threads on the end with one hand and start pulling/gathering/puckering the fabric back with the other hand

 Be very careful not to pull too hard and break the thread.

Once you get to the end of your fabric, you only need to tie a knot with your two threads on both sides since you are probably going to sew it to something else. If for some reason you want only the ruffle, secure your stitches better after your ruffle is achieved.

 Easy.

I did that horizontally across this knit fabric for a little embellishment on this headband.

This flower was achieved with the same technique, only I stitched not down the middle, but about 1/3 of the way across, turned it into a ruffle and then wrapped the fabric around itself in a circular pattern. Very easy.

This is a dark Monday morning. And it shouldn't be, because today's 7am was Friday's 8am, and I know from Friday that this morning should be full of sunshine. And I was so looking forward to waking into a day draped in sunshine. But no.

It's dark.

And raining.

A lot.

(which means it's snowing in the mountains!)

And I am glad to have this morning at home. My first few days at the Aviary last week were great. I am excited about the work there and I am already growing to love those birds. What magnificent creatures. I was asked in my interview by the Executive Director if I could grow to be as passionate about birds as I am about student sponsorship; "are you a bird nerd?" he said. Well, every day for four years I have been looking at the same childrens' faces and children really are my passion. So, I'm not sure if I'll ever be a "bird nerd", but I do really appreciate the role of the Aviary in my community and in the lives of our amazing feathered friends.

I'm excited and encouraged because Landon and I found a church that we both really like. They have soup afterwards and the last 2 Sundays we have stayed for soup and have really enjoyed the fellowship with the sweet people there. Landon wants to make sure that we choose the best church for us, so he's not settled on a particular church yet. After all, this next church will hopefully be our church for the next 3.5 years. AND it will be the first church that we have been able to attend long enough to become members - since we've been married, we haven't been a member of any church. So I'm excited. I can see New Song as our home and the people there as our family during the several years that Landon is at the U. Hopefully we won't have to attend too many more churches.  I'd love to have a home church come 2011.

A Favorite

Orange-Yogurt Cake

Yummiest, easiest, quickest cake EVER

A job

Friends, thank you for your numerous prayers and months and months of moral support. Tomorrow is my first day at The Tracy Aviary, exactly one mile up the road from my house in Salt Lake City.  The pay is not too great and I'll only be working 12-18 hours/week so I'm still looking for something else to do in addition to this. BUT, I am so grateful to finally have a job after these 9 months of searching!

The Aviary is a local non-profit and I love what they do when it comes to conservation and education. It is literally a bird haven here at the foot of the Wasatch! I will be working in their development department. I am so happy to get to continue to work in development - it is really valuable work and I am grateful to be able to have jobs that I think are important and contribute to something great. I have been working in development with ACSl these last 4 years and have learned a lot and I have been looking for jobs in the field so this is great!

From now on you can just call me "Bird Lady"

An Autumn Wreath

My mother bought me the prettiest Autumn wreath while she was in town a month ago. It looks so wonderful and welcoming on my front door. However, the husband and I rarely use the front door because our garage is in the back of the house. So, I've wanted a little Autumn wreath that would welcome us into our home. Mom and I started on this wreath project while she was in town trying to make felt flowers. I wasn't pleased with my limited creativity and shelved the project for awhile. This weekend, I put together some flowers and finished the wreath. It just took a few minutes. I just needed to sit down and stick to it.

I've seen these adorable little fabric-wrapped flowers all over the blogosphere and in etsy shops. I've always wanted to attempt my own, and I finally did with this project. I think I could definitely improve in my technique. Like, I would like to do it without the glue - the hot glue is difficult to hide, however hard I try. 

I found an encouraging tutorial on how to make these sweet little flowers. I've looked and couldn't find it to share with you, so sorry about that. But they are everywhere - search YouTube. I decided to stick a little wooden bead in mine to add a little earthiness (usually you start with a knot at the end of the fabric)

Doons brought home some buckeyes that he found on campus and I have been wanting to find a place to put some of them. I love them on this wreath. I used three different fabrics for the flowers: The reddish ones are canvas, the green are a knit and the brown flower is regular cotton. 

Our back door is made of solid wood - a rare thing these days.  I didn't have a wreath holder for the door so I just took some left over canvas fabric and tacked it to the top of the door to hang the wreath. As you can see, I was dumb and glued the flowers beside (instead of over the top of) the part where the ribbon overlaps. Oh well. I still love it.