Pretty Little Camera Strap

I recently purchased a DSLR camera.  I have used said camera one time because I have no idea what I'm doing with it (this girl needs to take a class big time!!).  But, that one time I used it, I realized that I was not a fan of the strap it came with.  It rubbed against my neck and was annoying.  This had to change, and when I came across this tutorial on Pinterest, it looked easy enough.  For once, I was right and flew through this and had it together in less than a half hour.  I love the fact that there is a little pocket to hold the lens...

 ...and I just LOVE the fabric, as it's in my two favorite colors....green and blue.

This strap looks much prettier and is so much more comfortable.  You better believe I'll be making a Mickey themed one too :-)

St. Patrick's Day

I'm pretty sure I am one of the rare ones that actually decorates for St. Patrick's Day.  This month, with Easter being just 2 weeks after, I am finding myself quite busy with getting decor made and displayed, just to take it down.  But, at least it'll be ready for next year!!

First up was some festive table toppers.  This seems to be a recurring event as each holiday nears.  I have big toppers made for pretty much all the major holidays for my kitchen table, so now I'm tasked with making smaller ones for the living room.  I'm also trying to be a little more creative with the patterns, so for these, I found a quilt that I liked and just made a small portion of it to make it end table sized.

Next, was the mantel.  Ever since last month, I've been obsessed with making a fabulous mantel display.  I have to admit, most of the St. Patty's Day decorations out there are pretty hideous (like the ginormous green shamrock below), but, I think my selections worked.

I made the banner across the front with fabric and my Cricut machine.  I cut 7 triangles out of fabric and then spaced, pinned, and sewed them into a piece of 2" fabric folded in half.  I then used my Cricut to cut out the letters and shamrock from cardstock, and adhered them to the fabric with Mod Podge.  For winging this one, I am quite pleased with the outcome and I'm sure you'll be seeing many more banners following this pattern in the future ;-)

Finally, I made the cute little danglies like I did last month, for the playroom.  Again, I hit up the paint section, took a bunch of green paint swatches, and used my Cricut to cut out the shamrock shapes.  I placed them back to back and stuck them together with glue dots.  Then, fed them through the string I used previously and voila, instant decor.

So that's it!  We are ready for St. Patrick's Day!  Hope you have fun celebrating this fun, Irish holiday.  And just know that next Sunday, it's ok to have your favorite beer or Irish Coffee for breakfast!!

A Simple Slipcover

One of my big project this week has been getting L's playroom organized.  Before, it was a mish-mosh of G's medical textbooks, comic books, and other random stuff he had in there when the room was used as his office.  We got everything out, except one big piece- his grandmother's old record player.  This thing is a beast and it's one of his prized possessions, so moving it to the basement where it could run of the risk of being attacked by leaking water or whatever rodents decide to set up shop  down there (hey! we live in the country!), was not an option.  I also knew leaving it wide open in the destructive path of a 2 year old was an equally bad option, so we came to an agreement....I would make a simple slipcover for it.

I decided to use a heavier fabric from the home decor section of Joann's.  Man....this stuff is flipping expensive!!!  Thankfully it was 40% off.  Jeez!  I ended up getting 3 1/2 yards of it, which was more than I needed, but, it was the best figure I could come up with trying to do math on the fly since I forgot to plan this all out before I went to the store (spoken like a true crafter!!). 

I began cutting it- a top piece, two sides, and a front and back.  I made sure to leave a little extra on the ends to account for seam allowances and to help slip it over a little easier.  There was no need to make it a skinny slipcover!  Then, I sewed the sides to the top piece and the front and back to the top piece.  And then, sewed all the sides together.  It really came together quite easily...less than a half hour!  I think it turned out pretty good (for totally winging it and not having a pattern!!) and is very kid friendly.

Valentine's Day Mantel Banner

This mantel was my inspiration for Valentine's Day. Honestly, I wish I could just somehow magically get all those things to appear on mine.  But, I know that's not possible so I am trying my darndest to recreate them.  My next attempt was the cute banner across the front of the mantel.  I love the chevron and lace.  So...I headed out shopping and didn't think to reference the photo before picking up supplies.  I mean, I have to make this project my own, right?!?!

Basic supplies included fabric (found on etsy), scrapbook paper, cardstock, yarn, glue dots, and dollar store doilies.

Using my Cricut, I found this fun font that had dots all through it.  So, I cut out my letters and stitched white yarn through the holes.

And then took a second pass through the holes because I didn't like the gaps.  I also took grey yarn and stitched it though the pink cardstock to create a framed border.

Then, I glue dotted a doilie to the fabric to serve as a background...

...and layered my cardstock and letter on top.

To make sure everything lined up, I placed the next piece of fabric on top and lined up the edges.

I hole punched holes in each end of the fabric at the top and ran twine through the holes to make the banner.  In the end, I decided I didn't like the doilies, so I took them off.  I also wish I would have done more of a contrast, so the BE MINE popped out.  But, it's done and it looks good (in my opinion).  Ah, another project down.  I still have to start that second topiary.  That might be done in time for Valentine's Day 2014 :-)