Do it Yourself: Framed Fabric

For the three years we've lived in our little apartment, I've had 3 plates hanging on the wall in the kitchen. I love the idea of plates hanging on a wall. I ripped out a page from a magazine several years ago with plates that had various shades of green and gold hung on the wall. But in that case, as in most, there are several plates involved. For example:

Awesome, right?

But, I don't have that many plates right now. It's something you've got to work at over time. (grin)
Hand picking just the right combination of plates from various estate sales and thrift stores till your collection just can't keep itself off of your walls!

You can see my measley attempt at a wall hang in the corner of this picture. 

And again in this picture...

Ok, let's be honest. I just wanted to show you my sweet husband in a pretty apron. :)

One more time...

Haha. Well played, baby. Well played.

ANYWAYS...I have three plates. 

They aren't pretty, hand-picked estate sale plates, and I need the big one to serve deliciousness in from time to time.  

So they had to come down.

I needed something else. Something that would go in the plate holders that I'd already screwed into the wall. (Sorry, facilities!) Something, cheap, quick and round...

Embroidery hoops + Pretty fabric = cheap, quick and round!

I can't recall where I originally saw this idea, but I've wanted to try it for a while.

Here's the quick how to:

#1 Pick out some pretty fabrics. I just grabbed a couple of the small fabric quarters at Joanne's. 

I think they were something like .99 a piece. 

Then I picked up some embroidery hoops at a thrift store, ranging from 50 cents to a dollar a piece.

I laid each hoop on the selected fabric, and then cut a generous square out. 

Then I placed the fabric in the hoop, stretched it taut, and tightened the hoop down. 

I then flipped the hoop over, and cut the excess fabric off with a sharp pair of fabric scissors. 

Flip it over. 

Done! 

I feel silly even making a tutorial. Ha! 

Aaaaaaand, put it on your wall! 

Ding!

This whole process took...abooooout...15 minutes. Tops. 

Cheap. Quick. Effective. 

For more ideas on what you can do with embroidery hoops and 

fabric (like use it as a pinboard!), check out some of these creative crafts on Etsy!

:)

Red, White and...Candy!

Opening Weekend for Biola University is just two days away! It's crazy that all our work in Admissions for this year is about to step on campus in the form of new-freshman-college-students! 

We are pumped. 

And frankly, so is the rest of campus! 

Every department decorates their entrance so as students arrive, they see-a-sea of red and white! 

This year, a couple of girls and myself signed up to be on the decorating committee. 

I put together the table area, and they did the floor, wall welcome, and ceiling.

The paper on the wall is a "Scathing Warning" to our staff not to touch the candy. :) 

It's for our guests!

We are also doing a giveaway for new freshman and transfers. 

They can win their first dorm pet! :)

You can't see the writing very well here, but it says that in order to win 

"Barry the Beta Fish" (named after our school's president) they need to fill out 

a raffle ticket and drop it in the bucket. Yes, Barry the Beta is also a lovely shade of red.

The circle graphic I took of of The Graphics Fairy blog. 

She has some really unique graphics that you can use for all kinds of projects. 

My favorite, though, are the labels. You can use them for so much! 

I dropped the label image into Pages, a program on macs, and added the text. 

It made for easy labels that I think really helped pull the look together. Other than that, I just bought every white and red candy I could find, took random jars from my kitchen and put it all together. 

Alyssa used streamers that she twisted to write a welcome on the wall. 

 

They also made polka dots and lined the floor as well as grass, birds, and clouds! 

Definitely a fun day in the office! :) 

New Additions

This past weekend, The Mr. was out of town and I decided to do a little redecorating. :) I felt the need to get the apartment a little more organized before jumping into this year. We specifically needed an organizer for our mail, computer, etc. as well as some space created on our kitchen counters.

A couple months back we purchased a secretary desk off of Biola Classifieds for $40 and we were in the process of refinishing it. I hadn't yet picked a paint color, so I figured it could wait, we'd use it in its natural state for now, and we could paint it after our next move (whenever that is) to match a future home. So...I brought it in!

 

 It's the perfect size, I actually love the unfinished look (good job, Garrett!), and it closes up so nice and neat and no one has to look at our messiness when they come over! Success!

The second need was a little tougher. How do you create space in a kitchen that just doesn't have a ton of counter room? The only thing I could figure was to take stuff off the counters and put it on something else. So I'd been looking for a kitchen cart type piece for a while. I just wasn't satisfied with what I was finding. Usually they were cheap pieces that were going to run me $75 or more. 

But this weekend, while out on my "find cheap things shopping extravaganza" I ran across 

this little beauty at one of our local thrift stores for $10. I took two good looks at it, set my 

stuff on it and waited for some guy to show up and help me get it into my car! 

Exactly what I was looking for and at the right price! 

This cleared off one whole counter space and we were able to shift other things so that the kitchen counters are a whole lot less cluttered! Our apartment's feeling a little more homey and a lot more organized. I think we're ready to hit year four! :)

$3.00

This is what $3.00 looks like.

The dress was .99 cents.
The belt was $1.95.

True.
I didn't include the shoes in the total cost of the outfit.
That would make it $25, total.
You got me.

Head to your local thrift store, folks.
Do some good searching.
There are treasures to be found!
:)

Do it Yourself: Diaper Cake

I haven't had a chance to write about our summer. Garrett and I get two glorious months off during the summer, and we try our darndest not to take it for granted. It is such a HUGE blessings. Uh-mazing.
Maybe, if I can muck up the motivation, I'll write a post about the highlights of our summer. Two months is just a lot. I'll think about it. :)

But one of the weeks this summer we spent at Rachel and Jason's, the Roanoke Suhrs, enjoying their company and playing with our nieces and nephews. I also got the privilege of doing a project for a baby shower Rachel was throwing for one of her friends.

I've been to a fair share of baby showers, and seen diaper cakes there before. Never did I think I'd end up making one. It was actually very easy, totally repeatable, and pretty cute!

#1 Grab a pack of diapers! I used a pack with 50 diapers and it made a medium sized diaper cake. 

#2 Roll each of the diapers and put a small, clear rubber band around each one to hold it in place. 

#3 Use a paper towel roll to begin building your base. Use more diapers on the bottom, and pyramid your way up. Do one layer around the paper towel roll and hold them together with a large rubber band, or multiple rubber bands tied together. 

#4 Do a second layer of diapers on the bottom. You'll have to figure out how many diapers you want for each layer. I don't remember my exact counts, but with 50 diapers it was something like 28 on the bottom, 14 in the middle, and 8 on top. Notice we tied rubber bands together to make a larger one. The middle level was just one layer around, and the top level, I actually scrunched the paper towel roll together so the top level would be smaller than the one below it. 

#5 Use the colors from the baby shower theme to pick your ribbon and accessories. We used a hot glue gun to glue the two ribbons together, and then we used a small pink paper clip to attach the ends at the back of the cake onto the rubber band underneath. Do this for each layer. *Note: It helped to have a second pair of hands when it came to using the glue gun. Rachel ran the gun down the center of the pink ribbon and I followed right behind, lining up the green ribbon with the glue. 

#6 Gerber daisies were my accessory. I cut one off at the head of the flower, and then cut the others so that when I stood them up in the paper towel roll, they were just peeking up over the top of the cake. I used a cardboard box and cut a stand out, and then wrapped it in corresponding wrapping paper. 

Very easy to do, and with pretty results! If anybody tries this out for a baby shower, I'd love to see the colors you pick and your accessories. For a boy, I think you could do any type of little toy alongside it, or spell out their name, or just use the first letter. Lots of options! :)

$26.50

I don't post outfit pictures much. I don't consider myself to be a leader in fashion or really that great at picking up on current trends. But one thing I love to do is find deals. 

This entire outfit cost me $26.50. 

The shirt was $2.00.

The skirt was $2.00

The belt was .50 cents.

The shoes were the only thing not purchased at a thrift store, and they were $22 from Target. 

I didn't include it in the total price, but I even thrifted the bangle for .50 cents. 

Thrifting is glorious. 

It's a challenge. It's cheap. And it's just plain fun to see what you can find. 

Hoo-rah for hobbies. :)

p.s. My super talented hubby wanted me to let you know, he took the picture. 

Haha. We're so pro-fesh.