Daisies & Dogwoods

Next project in process....

2010-03-20T08:42:00.000-07:00

A friend gave me this frame that is just brown plastic, so I thought I'd paint it to match my room and bathroom.

Here it is before ( with a picture of Doug, Skeeter and PorkChop, part of an inside joke at work)

I taped up 2 of the windows and the glass on the other 2

I painted the 2 non-taped windows the tan of my bedroom walls

After that dries and gets another coat, I'm going to do the other 2 windows the blue color of my bathroom. Now I just have to decide what 4 pictures I want to put in it :)

About time....

2010-03-20T08:29:00.000-07:00

between weather and traveling, I haven't made much progress lately, but today it was finally warm and sunny enough to finish painting the bed. It's still drying, so no pictures of it put together and in the bedroom yet, but here it is sitting outside drying.

I can't wait to get it in the guestroom and all set up :) I'll post more pictures then

Busy Busy Busy

2010-02-23T18:22:00.000-08:00

In the middle of my biggest project ever... painting a beat up bed I inherited.
Here is a before picture:

and in progress:

I'll be out of town this weekend, so finished pictures will probably be sometime next week :(

Grounded!!

2010-02-11T18:30:00.000-08:00

I bet you thought one of the best things about getting out of mom & dad's house was that no one was able to ground you any more. If only that was true. I've grounded myself from crafting until this:

(yep, that's my front door, rotting away)

is fixed. I guess fixing it will be kind of like a craft, just way less fun. Hopefully I'll be able to do it this weekend. I planned to last weekend, but the weather did not cooperate.

Wreath from an old bridesmaids bouquet

2010-02-07T11:21:00.000-08:00

I have this bouquet from when I was a bridesmaid

Here's a better picture of the bouquet

I don't have much of a use for it, but the flowers are pretty, so I haven't been able to bring myself to get rid of it.
I found this plain wreath my mom gave me hiding in the back of a closet

I took apart the bouquet, originally wanting to use the white flowers, but they wouldn't sit right on the wreath, because of their size and shape, so I changed my mind and used the yellow and pink ones.

It really helps perk up my front door, I just wish it was a little bigger.

Ipod/Zune/MP3 case from old sock

2010-02-05T17:47:00.000-08:00

I have always loved the idea behind Ipod socks like these:

but I always felt like the colors were boring, and the $5-$7 price tag was insane.

Combine this with me falling in love with these gloves at Ruffles and Stuff, I figured why not make a glove for my Zune!

So I took a sock I love (I adore argyle, and the colors and the flowers on this one make it the best argyle ever) but never wear

cut off the foot part

cut some felt to line it with ( need a little padding for the 6 times a day I drop it :-/)

then I sewed it up into a nice little pouch for my zune

Looking back, I would probably line it with something thinner (& the pink color of the flowers!) the felt makes it feel and look a little lumpy to me, but other than that, I love it!

Let me know what you think, and if you use this idea yourself, leave a link in the comments!

Simple Lantus insulin pen case

2010-01-31T18:23:00.000-08:00

My cat, Tater (AKA The Sweet Potato) is diabetic, and has to have shots of Lantus insulin 2x a day. Since he has to have his shots, he often travels with me when I go on overnight trips. I usually just throw his insulin pen in my purse, which always ends badly when it gets lost, or 3 weeks later I find one of the (not so cheap) pen needles floating around in the bottom of my purse all nasty dirty.

I took this fun Charlie brown baseball fabric, and made a little pouch big enough to hold 2 pens and a few needles.

So that I wouldn't loose it between trips, I put a magnet in the back, so it can live right on the front of my (very messy) fridge!

I'm going to add a velcro closure to keep it from coming open in my purse, but I'm still snowed in, and don't have any on hand right now.
Submitted to Make Your Monday

Craft room oranizer

2010-01-31T12:54:00.000-08:00

I've been snowed in all weekend, so I've been trying to find projects to keep me busy that use materials I already have in the house. I got the idea from The Fabric Floozie, but I mostly just free handed it instead of following directions (I've always been more of a jump right in person ) I used fabric left over from some curtains I made in college, and some white fabric from my mom's stash. I used a decorative stitch around the pockets, because I'd been wanting to try that feature of my sewing machine.

I haven't sewn the separators into the top 3 pockets yet because I'm trying to decide on what will be stored where, so I can make the pockets the correct sizes, but knowning me it will be weeks before I decide on that.

I don't have a dowel to make a hanger for it, so I'll have to hang it after the snow melts.

Awesome bathroom decoration out of a paper towel roll

2010-01-31T08:45:00.000-08:00

I Started with these cut up paper towel rolls

Hot glued them together (using clothes pins to hold them till it cools)

To make this to decorate a boring wall in my 1/2 bath

I'm debating between leaving it this color, or painting it white for more visual pop.

Sorry about the glare, they are right under my bathroom window.

I love it, but I keep wanting to use more paper towels so I can add to it!

I'd also love to have these on my fireplace, which is very boring, but it gets way too hot, they would probably get all singed in 20 mins :(.

From a tutorial at The How-To Gal ( check out the last one on that page, it's soooo pretty )

Welcome to Daisies & Dogwoods!

2010-01-25T18:47:00.000-08:00

Ok, decided if I was going to change the name, best to do it after 10 posts instead of 100.
Here's the explanation I gave on the old blog for the new name:
So after a little thinking, I realized there were 2 problems with my otherwise acceptable blog name:
1) I think the words Silky & Dogwood are pretty, and they are pretty together, but the actual Silky Dogwood plant, not so much so. Looks wise, it's the unprettiest Dogwood I've seen. So I could get graphics on the page to match the name, but then I'd hate them.
2) Silky Dogwood, being a simple plant name will always have 100000000 research/information items show up in a search before my blog.

Soooooo, in a move that I'm hoping with solve all of those, I'm switching to the prettier to picture, slightly more unique to search - Daisies and Dogwoods!

Ruffle Scarf

2010-01-24T08:00:00.000-08:00

made this ruffle scarf out of an old T-shirt using the tutorial at vermillion rules!

Skinny Jeans (for free!)

2010-01-24T07:49:00.000-08:00

I've been looking for skinny jeans for a while, but for a small girl, I have really muscular legs, and I always end up looking like my calves are about to burst the seams. So I found myself, a girl with not a single pair of fashionable skinny jeans, with a few pairs of flare legged jeans I never wear, because they were too short (not dragging the ground = too short when it comes to me and flares) Since skinny jeans shouldn't be as long, I thought I'd give refashioning my flares into skinny jeans a try.

Here's the before pictures for the 2 pairs I did:

I turned them inside out, pinned them up the way I wanted them to fit, then stitched them up, leaving me with these:

They are both a little too long, but that's been a problem with all the ones I've tried on in the store too. I may hem them later, or I may just wear boots over them so it doesn't matter.

Repurposing More Jewelry

2010-01-23T07:38:00.000-08:00

I inherited a ton of jewelry from my Grandmother that is not my style, but is still very pretty. I have come up with a few ways to use some of it around the house. Here is one of my favorite.

I started with this frame (paint left over from an old unfinished project)

and this pin

I took a piece of paper, balled it up, flattened it back out and sponged some coffee on in, all to make it look like old parchment.

After it dried, I wanted to print some text on it to make it look like an old timey letter. I did a lot of Googling, and had no luck. I finally just Googled old handwriting or something like that and came up with.... the Declaration of Independence. I cropped it a ton, so that the words wouldn't be super super tiny.

I cut out the paper the size of the frame and opening, and Mod Podged it on. It is not as shiny as it looks in the picture, blame that on a cheap camera.

After that, I just glued on the pin, and I have a nice decoration that I think I'll hang on the wall beside my stairs :)

Haiti Person Finder

2010-01-20T04:34:00.000-08:00

This Google gadget to the right is a way to find people missing in Haiti.

It can be embedded on your own page. If you have a page, please add it.

Info on adding it can be found at google public policy

Upcoming post hints

2010-01-16T09:57:00.000-08:00

I'm working on 2 new projects right now, here's some before pictures of supplies I'm using. Feel free to make guesses about the projects in the comments.

and yes, the coffee is part of a project, not me being a slob and not cleaning my countertops :)

Valentine's Crafts

2010-01-16T08:35:00.000-08:00

These were ideas I came up with in college when I had very little money, but wanted to give out valentine's to friends that weren't just little pieces of cardboard that would be thrown away.

I made these cute frames out of candy ( sealed it first to keep the bugs away) I put the valentine message in the picture area, and after the holiday, they can put a picture of them and their sweetie :)

Decorations found around my house

2010-01-16T08:13:00.000-08:00

These aren't so much crafts, as decorations I came up when I was a broke college instructor with no budget, but I thought I'd share anyway.

This one has been hanging over my stove in 4 different apartments, and my house. I love reading it in the morning, helps me start my day in the right frame of mind.

Sorry for the glare. The words are:

IF TODAY...

"If you planted hope today
In any hopeless heart.
If someone's burden was lighter
Because you did your part.
If you caused a laugh
That chased some tears away.
If tonight your name is named
When someone kneels to pray.
Then your day has been well spent."

~Author Unknown~

I printed it out on printer paper with the sky design on it, and put it in a frame I had laying around.

The next one is the picture at the top of my stairs. Ignore the boring white walls, it's on my list of things to take care of.

It is actually a puzzle my family did on vacation a few years back. I couldn't find a frame the right size, but I thought it would be cool to come up with an idea to decorate the white edges anyway. Just haven't found one I like yet. Suggestions are welcome in the comments!

Necklace refashion

2010-01-16T07:57:00.000-08:00

is is one of my Grandmothers old necklaces, with pearls a very pretty color of purple. Unfortunatly, it hung way too long for my taste, and had the huge center piece (I don't even know what to call it) that makes me look like I'm trying to be Cleopatra. Here is a sorta before picture (I took it apart before taking the picture)

I took it apart, took off the big center piece, and turned it into This necklace and these 2 pairs of earrings.

Much more my style, and I have a few purple beads leftover for another project :)

Earthquake in Haiti

2010-01-13T06:47:00.000-08:00

I'm sure everyone has heard about the earthquake in Haiti. The Red Cross is estimating 3 million affected in the poorest country in the western hemisphere. If you can, consider donating to the Red Cross, UNICEF, U.N. World Food Programme, or whatever other charity that you prefer. Every penny helps. Also, check to see if your company does matching, it could double your contribution.

Two-tone vase and coaster

2010-01-10T12:17:00.000-08:00

I saw a purple and white wrapped vase at Someday Crafts and I just had to make one. I made it in blue and tan, and used a square vase to make it a little more unique. I looked for some branches to put in it, but they were so expensive, so I'm going to try to make something myself sometime.

Here is my vase:

I have a lot of yarn left over, so I decided to make over some Christmas coasters. I don't really have a use for ones with a Christmas design, so I wanted to make something I could use year round.

Here is one before:

I used hot glue on the corners to wrap the yarn and create this:

I'm not 100% happy with using hot glue, there has to be a better way. I still have one left to do, so I'm open to suggestions!

Visit my friend Maria

2010-01-09T11:58:00.000-08:00

It is amazing that my sewing skills are as bad as they are, as I have spent an awful lot of time watching one of the best in the world at work. My friend Maria at http://www.MariasHomeDecor.com has tried many times to get me to try more than just sewing a straight line, but when I'm comparing my projects to hers, it's easy to get discouraged. She makes the most amazing window treatments I've ever seen. She has a huge gallery of window treatments and bedspreads now, with more coming all the time. Check them out :)

My coasters

2010-01-09T10:38:00.000-08:00

I'm getting ready to inherit quite a bit of furniture that is in comparison to what I've owned before, very nice. Since I have mostly had Target furniture until now, I have not been all that good about things like using coasters. I have been looking for some for a while, but I've been floored at how expensive they are. $14.95 for 4 coasters? Insane. I decided to make some of my own using rub on decals, outdoor formula Mod Podge and some wooden coasters from AC Moore. Here is the result. It is actually less shiny and more matte, I guess I need to get a better camera setup for blogging my crafts.

My first post!

2010-01-09T09:54:00.000-08:00

Hi, I'm Kim, computer nerd by day, craft addicted new homeowner by night. I'm always looking to share ( ok, more like brag about ) my craft projects, and I'm always looking for ideas to improve them from others.

A little more about me: I start almost every craft with a set of instructions from somewhere, and stick to them for about 10 seconds. I'm more of a jump in and do it person. For knitting, crochet, painting ect, this is cool, because I can usually just undo and try again, or repaint. With sewing, not so easy. It's a blessing and a curse, jumping in and going with the flow has caused some of my best and worst crafts.

Anyway, no one is here to read about me, they are here for the crafts, so here it goes!