[completed] scented sachets, take two

Remember these scented sachets? Well, today I made more! This time, I made them for a care package, for my sister. I used brightly colored felt in fushia, two shades of green and royal blue, and stuffed each sachet with rose-scented potpourri.

ready to be sewn up

I made a total of six sachets, which took me about the length of one (1) Twilight movie. Each sachet has machine-stitched petals and is backed with a cotton print from my stash. One of the sachets was machine-stitched around the edges, but the rest I hand-stitched with either a whipstitch or a blanket stitch. I actually kind of enjoyed the hand-stitching part of the process, which is unusual for me.

pretty scraps

 These will be in a care package with some other goodies, and will hopefully will be well-used!

[life] adam's 26th birthday

adam and his mean balloon

On Friday, Adam turned 26!

the cake

I made this chocolate coconut cake for him, which definitely stretched my baking abilities. I had to do things like temper eggs! Also, baking this cake took approximately all day because so many elements needed to chill at various steps and I needed to toast coconut and stir things for 10-15 minutes, etc etc. I was very afraid that the cake wouldn't be delicious after all that work! And I couldn't taste the completed product until Adam got home from work.

adam tasting the cake

Adam, of course, tasted it first and made a face. I believed him! But no, he was just teasing me, and the cake was delicious. Huzzah!

Adam reports that his birthday was good.

[completed] pigs in mud cake

our finished creation!

While my dear mother-in-law was visiting last week, she suggested that we make a version of this pigs-in-a-mud-barrel cake. So we did!

She made the cakes, trimmed them down so they were flat, frosted them, and assembled the kit-kat barrel around the edges of the cakes.

my mother in law constructed the barrel

While she did all that, I made the pig figures out of delicious marzipan colored with red food dye. This was difficult - I kneaded the marzipan with the food dye and tried to get an even pink color but only achieved streaky red-and-white-and-pink piggies.

I made three piggy butts, one sitting pig figure, and one laying-in-the-mud pig. It took a few tries to get the shapes and cartoon-y realism that I wanted, but fortunately marzipan is a forgiving (albeit very sticky) medium. I used a toothpick to carve out the booty cracks, the smily-face snouts, bellybuttons and the folded ears. I looked at the inspiration photo a lot during this process.

positioning the piggies

Once the piggies met with my and my mother-in-law's approval, I carefully placed the pigs on the muddy cake. And then the cake was done!

proud cake-makers

Adam ended up taking the cake to work. He came back home without any cake! We should be famous around there now! The cake was apparently both hilarious and delicious, which is exactly what we wanted. Even the marzipan pigs were consumed and appreciated.

swimming pigs cake!

That was a fun little project. I'm a little sad that I didn't get to eat the cake or the marzipan (although I consumed a bunch of it while making the pigs), but I'm happy that it was well received at Adam's work!

fabric stack

blue fabric stack

Last night, I decided to play around with my fabrics and pull out a stack. This stack of ten fabrics was the result! I love the colors. I have varying amounts of each of these fabrics, but certainly enough for a project. Maybe a new quilt is in the works? I haven't decided on a pattern, though. I'm not sure what these fabrics are calling for...

Gandalf approved fabrics and book

[completed] embroidered pillow cover

pillow cover!

An embarrassingly long time ago, my younger sister embroidered a semi-original (she stole a little from Shakespeare) poem for our mother. 

my sister's hand-embroidered poem

She used our mother's favorite colors for her bedroom - dark red, light blue, and cream - and sent me the fabric to make a pillow cover. Today, I finished that pillow cover!

hidden zipper closure

I decided to try my hand at a zipper closure. I followed this Design Sponge tutorial (although there are others like it on the world wide web). I had to rip out quite a few stitches because I didn't thoroughly read the entire set of instructions before beginning. Let that be a lesson to you!

I am pretty pleased with the end result. The zipper works and everything.

the back

For the back, I used a subtle dark red polka-dot print, since there was not enough of the blue fabric to make the backing. I like the contrast of the backing against the pale blue of the front fabric.

I cut my fabric 19x19" but I found that to make a loose pillow cover for this 18x18" pillow form, even with a 1/2" seam allowance, so I stitched closer seams to give the pillow cover a closer fit. (This was a good lesson to learn, as I intend to make more pillow covers for my kitchen seat cushions).

kitten approved

This project has the Gandalf seal of approval.

[completed] tea cozy

teapot cozy and pad

For my mother's birthday, my younger sister and I decided to collaborate on a project. She had requested a new teapot and a tea cozy. So I suggested that my sister handpaint a teapot at a local (to her) paint pottery place. Which she did. She was kind enough to measure the teapot for me so that I would be able to make a snug tea cozy. Since she lives so far away, I never got to get my hands on the teapot personally.

I decided I wanted to use tea-themed fabric that would go (or at least not clash) with the color scheme in my mother's kitchen (which is yellow and green). I found this fabulous tea bag fabric on etsy, and promptly snatched up a half-yard. Which then sat in my colorwheel dresser for ages.

I finally sewed up the tea cozy and teapot pad a few weeks ago and mailed them both off. It only took about an hour to whip up both pieces. I followed the directions from a few different online tutorials, and then made the teapot pad using the leftover scraps. I followed a tutorial from V & Co for the heart block, and echo-quilted lines around the heart shape.

I am happy to report that the gifts were well-received - and the tea cozy fits (albeit a touch snugly).

This project had the Gandalf seal of approval.

[completed] successes and failures

So last week I posted about making diy deodorizing disks and bath fizzies. I am here to report back on those projects.

The disks failed. Twice. The first time they crumbled out of my silicone ice cube molds I thought "perhaps I didn't use enough water" so I tried again. No luck the second time either. So I have abandoned that project. Sometimes Internet tutorials just don't work out.

The bath fizzies, however, did just fine. They were more fun to make also because you get to use your hands to mix the ingredients and it felt nice. I've used one of the fizzies so far and it fizzes nicely, scented the bath nicely, and dissolved away nicely. I might acquire some cuter silicone molds and make some fizzies as gifts. I really want some more essential oils so I have different scents (particularly lavender) to experiment with.

So sometimes things work out and sometimes they don't.

[wip] diy bath fizzies

With my newfound essential orange oil (of which I appear to have a lot), I decided to tackle a project I've been eyeing for literally years: the diy bath fizzy or bath bomb. Since I had a lot of the materials on hand (baking soda, epsom salts, essential oil) I figured why not? So I picked up some citric acid and witch hazel (and a little spray bottle for the witch hazel), and some silicone molds. Well, that part was tricky. I couldn't find any cute silicone molds, but for $2 for six, these cupcake molds seemed like they'd do the trick. The giant heart mold was also $2, and I bought it because a) I thought I might have extra bath fizzie mixture left over, and b) it was so cute. I love hearts.

Anyway. I followed these Design Sponge directions. There are approximately a million tutorials and sets of instructions out there, but I chose this set because it was simple and didn't involve a ton of difficult-to-acquire materials.

Mixing and molding the bath fizzies was very similar to making the diy deodorizing disks I tackled earlier today. Except that for the bath fizzies, you get to mix using your hands. Which was a great sensory experience, but might have permanently perfumed my hands with the scent of orange. I suppose it could be worse.

Like the deodorizing disks, the bath fizzies have to dry overnight. Now I have a whole collection of things drying! Tomorrow will be an exciting day.

[wip] diy deodorizing disks

supplies

 Today I decided to try a simple, inexpensive and potentially useful craft: diy deodorizing disks. I followed this tutorial by One Good Thing By Jillee. It was very easy - just the supplies seen above (the orange hot pad represents for the boiled water) - baking soda, essential oil (I used orange), mixing bowls and measuring cups, and a silicone ice cube tray or muffin tin (I used an ice cube tray from IKEA). It's not a very scientific process - "add water until you have a thick paste", so I'm crossing my fingers that these disks will be successful.

It ended up making quite a lot - I need to grab two more silicone ice cube trays, as you can see below. So now I will have starfish, stars, and long tube thingies as my "disks". Because I used ice cube trays, each disk is pretty small. I also added way too much orange by accident. They do smell nice and orange-y now, though! I have to let them harden for at least 24 hours, so we'll see in a day or so how well they turned out. I'm hopeful, though - I'd like to have something nice-smelling to put in the closet with the towels, in my dresser drawers, in the bottom of the trash can, etc.

And the best part is that you can supposedly throw them in the wash with your laundry when they stop being effective.

semi-finished product

[life] sewing room as it really is

Recently I showed you where I sew. Now I'm going to show you where I sew while I'm actually sewing.

It's a bit messier, as you can see. I have a pile of partly-used fat quarters on the floor (because where else can I store fabric flat?). My laptop is set up on the color-wheel dresser so I can "watch" (aka, just listen to) movies while I sew. The pieces of my current project are all set up nicely within reach. My cutting board is also set up on the desk so I can easily sew and cut without needing to leave the room.

My ironing board is also set up so that I can press quickly - the iron is almost always on while I'm in the midst of a project. You can see my faithful (ha. ha.) companion Sassalass under the ironing board. (She's almost never present when I sew, preferring to wait until I finish a project and then lay all over it. Gandalf, on the other hand, is fascinated by the process and tries to live inside the Enterprise's throat and bat at the needle). You can also see the pink scrap basket ready to store any scraps I acquire while sewing and cutting. On the wall, hanging from my curtain rod, is a completed block for my current project so I have inspiration/proof of progress on the wall.

Here you can see where things get messy. There is (another) scrap basket overflowing next to the black dresser, and a pile of recently purchased fabric waiting to be folded and put away under the window. The top of the black dresser is covered in random things. It's just so easy to put things there...

And, of course, Enterprise is all set up and ready to go. The thread catchall that I made last night sits next to Enterprise so that I can easily put snipped threads in there and (hopefully) avoid getting bits of thread all over the room (and myself). And, you might notice, the thread ripper is front and center, ready for use. I hate ripping out stitches, and unfortunately, I have to do it more than I'd like. Hence the easily-accessed thread ripper. (I used to have a prettier, ergonomic one, but Sassy chewed it up, so I just have this basic blue one now).

And that's what my sewing room normally looks like! This is where the sewing magic happens.

[life] gandalf's love for fabric

adorable sleeping kitten... on my WIP

Gandalf in two places he shouldn't be - on the table and on my scraps

[completed] diy kitchen island

DIY island

Today, Adam and I (and a few friends) finally finished our DIY kitchen island! I put the final touches on the paint this morning, and then just now we (and the friends) put the huge piece of granite onto the island body. We definitely needed the extra assistance to move and maneuver the heavy heavy granite.

The process was (fairly) simple. We bought a unfinished sink base cabinet, attached caster wheels to the bottom of the cabinet (which involved adding some wood to the bottom of the cabinet to attach the wheels to), put unfinished end panels on the sides and the back, attached a toe kick to the front bottom of the cabinet, put corner molding around the back and front bottom corner to hide the edges of the end panels and toekick, primed and painted the island three different colors (chalkboard black for the back, Valspar Mountain Smoke for the sides and front, and Valspar Wet Pavement for the drawers and door fronts).

chalkboard back

The granite was purchased from a local rock shop, after looking at multiple granite shops (and getting $800-900 estimates) and the local Habitat for Humanity ReStore (which had $20 granite remnants but no pieces big enough). At the local rock shop, we got a finished piece (64"x34") with demi-bullnose edges for exactly $300. It was so-o worth it - it looks about a million times better than laminate would have, and was not that much more expensive. Our piece came from a remnant. I wanted a lighter piece of granite, since the kitchen is already covered in black, and I liked that this tan-gold piece had flecks of black and grey in it. Also I loved the giant stripe that runs through this piece.

striped granite

Grand total: Less than $600 for a giant custom DIY kitchen island.

Compare that to the $1000+ premade, less than ideal, assembly-required islands, and I think we did pretty well. Plus it was fun to have a project to work on with Adam!

More pictures to come!

[life] where I sew

Today I thought I would share some photos of my relatively recently painted and decorated sewing room! It's not a terribly large room, but it features two big windows and enough room for my 6 foot long desk, my colorwheel dresser, my thread holder, a bookcase, a black dresser I bought for a mere $80, my new extra-large ironing board (thanks to my mother!) and more lamps than any room could possibly really need.

See?

view from the doorway

I set my desk against the window so I could look out while sewing, and have natural light illuminate my sewing machine.

my awesome desk and my dear Enterprise

I recently discovered (thanks to Adam) that most of my 24x36" cutting board fits on my desk. That means I can cut small pieces of fabric, iron, and sew all in the same room! I hung the Sassy silhouettes on either side of the window. ('m going to need to make some of Gandalf. Although he is not so fluffy, so the silhouettes will likely be uninteresting.)

ironing board and quilt display

Recently, Adam helped me to install a 84" curtain rod on the wall, which allows me to hang quilt for photographing and display purposes. The ironing board was a housewarming gift from my mother, and I love it! The fabulous green iron was a present from Adam. The fabrics on the ironing board all belong to my 100 days city sampler quilt challenge. The little pink fabric box holds scraps, and my awesome yellow mesh trash can holds, well, trash.

curtain rod + clips = quilt display

Adam suggested I hang his anniversary quilt because (and I quote) "I like it". Well good! I like it too! 

The clips are actually designed to hold curtains, but they work well for holding quilts as well.

my colorwheel dresser, thread organizer, and artwork

The bookcase (which I've had for approximately forever!) holds my quilting and sewing books and magazines, with photos of my family and a big silver "E". The colorwheel dresser holds (almost) all my fabric, and my wonky-but-awesome thread holder obviously holds all my thread. The artwork on the walls is a combination of photographs of me and Adam, completed cross-stitch projects, Etsy art, a quote an old au pair wrote out, a Swedish quote about life that my mother game me, and a embroidered skeleton on shirt that my dear friend Erin stitched for me years ago and I recently stretched over a canvas for display.

closet, my burlap lampshade, and the door

The closet holds lots of excess fabric, supplies, and works-in-progress. The black dresser holds general craft supplies. My burlap lamp sits next to the "wish" sign and silver fairy statue from my wedding, and the artwork on the wall are photographs from my wedding with a poem my mother wrote about my wedding veil. And then, of course, there is the door. (One day I will paint all the doors white...)

And that's my sewing room! I love it.

giant mistake

see the mistake?

Over the past few weeks, I've been working on a quilt for Adam's cousin's daughter's second birthday. Today I finished piecing the last row, ironed it, and starting trimming... and then realized I'd made a giant, irreparable mistake.
Oops.
I guess little Kinley won't be getting a quilt on-time for her birthday. I plan to remake this chevron quilt and donate this not-so-perfect version.
Sigh.
And just look how nicely all my points matched up...

[life] loving Gandalf

me and the tiny kitten

adam and "his" cat

[life] meet Gandalf the Grey/White

hello there

inquisitive kitten

sleepy kitten

cuddly kitten