Winter Wonderland Projects

Here's a picture of our iced over tree Friday morning.

And this one is the same picture but with snow falling. It snowed pretty much all day Friday, not sure how many inches we ended up getting. Lately, I've had trouble with losing my work key in the side pocket of my purse between business cards, not good when it's cold outside and my hands are usually full. So when I ran across this fabric key chain tutorial, I knew I had to make it. Now I have one place for all 3 of my keys! I made two, one for me and one for my Etsy.

My nemesis: the brown zebra print curtains. This was a very frustrating project, but in the end, it all worked out okay after several major and minor glitches. I have decided that I prefer to work with fabric one yard at a time. One of the reasons this task felt so daunting was the amount of fabric I had to work with. I had to clean my floor before I could get started so that I could do my pinning and ironing on the hard wood floors. I was really glad that we had these otherwise I don't know what I would have done. I made these lined so that they would have a more finished look and somehow my measurements for my lining fabric came out 2 inches short, so i had to hurdle that obstacle.

The second panel definitely went smoother than the first, so I think in the future should i decide to make these type of curtains again, I could do it more smoothly. But it will be a while before I decide to tackle curtains again, at least curtains this big.

The shears, which are also zebra print, I bought at Target. My friend Karlie has them in her house, and I couldn't resist added them to mine.

This is another tutorial I found online. I thought it was really cute, and it was super easy to make. Literally took maybe 10 minutes to make. I'm going to have to list this one on my Etsy though, because my head was too big for the pattern. It's all those brains I've been blessed with. : )

Recent Projects

I saw this cute shade idea for the window over the kitchen sink in one of my weekly HGTV emails.
I plan on adding a 2x4 valance in the same fabric at the top of the window frame so that you don't actually see the top and the back of the shade. I didn't think of that until we hung it up though. :)This is a close up of the trim detail at the bottom. If you look close, you can see the white sleet in the backgound on the flowerbed outside. I'm hoping for a day off tomorrow so that I can do more crafting!

This idea I saw in a magazine. I can't remember which one. I was looking at it at the doctor's office.

I found these letters at a local scrapbook store that is going out of sale. I don't have any valentine's day decor, so I thought this would be a good start. I'll have to do Holly's craft along so that my one V-day item doesn't look out of place.

Super Cute Free Give Away

http:cassieandcompany.blogspot.com/2010/01/favorite-things-friday-vintage-pearl.html

You can enter yourself on my behalf if you wish :)

A New Year, A New Beginning...

I have received several requests to hear more about my new job, which I mentioned in passing in my last post.

Starting Friday I will be working for Sunbeam Family Services as a Senior Accountant. I am very excited about becoming apart of Sunbeam. It is a non-profit organization that has programs for young kids and senior citizens. Some of their childhood programs include: various foster care programs, early head start, which is a daycare program, and counseling services. For senior citizens, they provide a mentoring program for those living at home that could use some assistance and a shelter for those being abused. Their web address is www.sunbeamfamilyservices.org if you would like to go read more about it.

The thing that excites me most about my new job is that I will be working for a cause; I will be apart of an organization that is doing so much good. It's not about the money, it's not about tracking your charge hours (for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, charge hours are the time that you spend working on a client), and it's not a ton of hours. I should be working about 40 hours a week, which I am also really looking forward to. I won't be working weekends, which means I won't be confined to the OKC metro during my traditional and sporadic busy seasons so I can see my family as often as I want!

I think it's going to be a good change for me, and I know that Josh is looking forward to it too. He won't have to lose me for months at a time anymore. : )

I Have Been A Sewing Machine!

With the new year and the excitement of having more time to myself after I start my new job on Friday, I have been re-energized over the past week and have started to put a dent in my project pile. For those of you who don't know what a project pile is, it's a pile in the bottom corner of my craft room closet that is littered with fabric and patterns that I have bought, but have not had time to make. My sister found a scraf similar to this one while she was out shopping one day. She figured out how to make them and gave one to me. My friend Lori, pictured here, saw my scarf when I wore it to work one day. She really liked it, so I made one for her. They're really easy to make, the worst part is the type of fabric that you have to use. I only had to use half of the fabric to make hers, so I might make myself one like this too...that or I'll post it for sale on my Etsy. Although, I haven't had much luck with my Etsy.

These are some insulated flat iron travel cases that I made for two of the ladies at work. The three of us worked long hours mid-October through mid-December, which gave us lots of bonding time. So I made them these as a "we survived" gift : ) As of Friday, we all have turned in our two weeks notice....coincidence?...i think not.

And finally, this is my cupcake apron! I bought this fabric back in MAY, while I was in South Padre with my mom's family. I think it is sooo stinkin' cute! It doesn't really look that way in this picture with my black sweater, but it really is. This was my first time to make something with a ruffle. It was easier than I expected.

3 down 10 to go....along with a ton of scrapbooking...to the tune of about 3 years.

**Special shout out to my hubby for finding me software that I can view and edit my RAW format pictures in so that I could make this post!**

New York, New York!

Josh and I went to New York a week before Christmas for a get away. Our hotel was 3 blocks south of Central Park and a few blocks from Times Square, right in the heart of all the action! We did all of the major sight seeing things including those that are special to the Christmas season. The few things that we didn't do include: going to the top of the Empire State Building, taking the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, and going for a ride in a horse drawn carriage. Here are a few pictures from our trip in no particular order:

This is the US Stock Exchange building.

A lego Batman at FAO Schwartz

The big piano featured in the movie "Big" featuring professional piano dancers at FAO Schwartz.

New York style Pizza. I obviously forgot to take the picture before I started eating it. Oops!

Josh and I waited in the freezing cold for an hour and twenty minutes to buy half price tickets to the Broadway Show "Mary Poppins," which is one of my childhood favorites! We had really good seats in the orchestra section.

Ice skating in Bryant Park...it was bigger than the rink at Rockafeller Center.

The Christmas tree at Bryant Park.

A nice picture of the New York sky line.

It snowed while we were there. If you look closely, there's a car burried to the left of the big snow pile.

A picture of Times Square.

Josh won us tickets to the David Letterman show by correctly answering what color the announcer's hair is.

A picture of Josh and the Triceratops at the Museum of Natural History.

You won't believe the amount of Christmas decorations that businesses, not just retailers put out during this time of year. This is just one picture of the many different holdiay displays that I photographed.

And finally, you definitely cannot go to New York without having a piece of New York style cheesecake!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of Year!!

Josh and I put up our Christmas tree after I got off of work last night. Here's a few pictures of us hanging ornaments and a picture of the final product.
Josh actually started hanging the house lights the day before Thanksgiving so that his little sister could see them when she came to our house that night. We have a row of color LED lights and a row of LED icicles lining the front of the roof. Then Thanksgiving night I wraped our mini chrismas trees in the front yard with colored LED lights and put up the white swirl christmas trees. And finally, tonight Josh and I finished off our decorations with the deer in our front flowerbed, which were a black friday purchase from Garden Ridge (the only black friday purchase that I actually made this year since I over slept).This is a picture of our beautiful tree that we have in the front yard. This picture does not do it justice. It's leaves are so vibrant in the fall when it changes colors. When I took this picture, it had a little bit green, yellow, and orange.
I took these two pictures for possible computer background wallpapers.
And finally these are pictures of the flat iron travel case that I made for my sister Jennie for a late birthday present.