YoCP: Frame and Hang Art

Technically, this was a July YoCP project. Technically, I'm still working my way through some of August, September, and October. Technically, it is actually November. But technically, as of July, YoCP is on hiatus (according to an email from our fearless leader, Jolie Kerr), so I don't feel quite so badly about being behind.

But YoCP was a promise I made to myself, if not a commitment to the greater Clean Person Community. And I created these projects with a purpose, and I do plan on completing them. Even if it takes me all year. Which it might, because there are only 6 weeks left in the year. Holy shit, did I just say that? Is that true? Jesus.

Ok. Back on track, here. One of my projects was "Frame Art. Hang Art." We have quite a bit of artwork, both personal mementos and arty posters, and since we're likely not moving any time soon, I figured we might as well take them from "big pile in the guest room" to "things that actually hang on the walls". Turns out, it wasn't as simple as I thought it would be. Many of the pieces were oddly-sized, requiring custom mats and very specific frames. Framing delays meant it took longer to assess the stash, and busy schedules meant delays in actual hanging. But as of a few weeks ago, all of our art is framed and hung (ok, there's one poster that I framed that's due to be hung in the guest room, but I haven't quite figured out where I want it to go, so it's leaning up against the wall, but I'm just not going to count that one, ok?).

In the bedroom, I finally have the art wall I'd been envisioning pretty much since we moved in. There's a little room for more artwork if we have it, but overall, I really like it. It's a collection of pictures from trips we've taken, or of special or meaningful things to us (like the "Going to the mountains is going home" John Muir quote print I found totally randomly, and then just happened to find the perfect frame for when I wasn't looking). It's really lovely to wake up and go to bed looking at things that make us happy.

Have you completed any projects lately? Are you still YoCP'ing? What's the most complicated framing job you've ever done?

Drawerganization

This weekend was a big one in terms of productivity and home organization. If this isn't your bag, you may want to stop reading now. If you're like me, though, you might be excited to live vicariously through a weekend of drawerganization.

My gal pal Dina came over, having offered to help me organize the craft cabinet. It was in dire need of help, which has become clear to me when planning recent Crafternoons and realizing I can't find thing I know exist. Now that it's time to start planning Holiday Crafternoon (and pull my knitting needles out again), I figured I should take some time to get the lay of the land, supplies-wise.

Before: It was a mess in there
Not pictured: middle drawer, since it's just yarn

After: Two drawers, organized easy peasy!

Special Thanks to the IKEA drawer inserts, without whom this would not have been possible. But bigger thanks to Dina (and Reed, and baby Parker) for their moral support as I got rid of things I've had for 15+ years. Like the plastic office supplies cart (like this, but black) and scrapbook supplies drawers I've had at least since college, possibly longer. There's now room for almost everything from both (which used to live in the guest room) in the craft cabinet, because I also got rid of a grocery bag full of school supplies (spiral notebooks and folders that I clearly do not need). I put the two plastic organizers and the school supplies out on the street, and they were gone within 15 minutes. Magic. I also threw out two grocery bags of trash, and bagged up boxes of old checks to take to the bank for free shredding. A little more progress made on Mission: Get Things Out Of The Guest Room!

Oh, and I also put together my new laundry sorter, finally replacing the one I've had since 2006 (one of those flimsy mesh-and-plastic ones where the poles always detach from the corners). The new one is super sturdy, and I love how I can just pull the bags out to carry them downstairs. The fact that the bag is compact, with handles on top, makes it super easy to carry them down our narrow, winding staircase (when I carry the plastic hamper, I have to hold it over my head to see where I'm going). It has a smaller footprint than the mesh one, but the bags hold the same amount of clothing. So far, I'm in love.

oooh fancy!

See also: I am obsessed with the Target Threshold line. The end.

CrafternooOOOOoooooOOoooOooon

Today I hosted my semi-regular, ladies-only, we-only-sometimes-end-up-making-things event called Crafternoon (or Crafterdark as the case sometimes is). Admittedly, there was minimal crafting. But there was wine and food and cider and thematic decorating and movie watching. And, well, maybe I should just let the pictures speak for themselves.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies.
As good as they look.
A little more complicated than most recipes (thanks, Irvin)
that I usually make, but oh so very worth it.

Using the buffet for the first time since we
moved in...two years ago.
Better late than never! 

The spread in the living room...

And of course, cider (with bourbon) and wine.

We also decorated the front lawn for Halloween, and in keeping with the theme, watched both Teen Witch and Practical Magic. Although I had high hopes for organizing my craft cabinet and maybe even taking care of some sewing projects (fixing holes in socks counts as crafting, right?), sometimes Crafternoon goes the way of the wine and that's just the way it goes. No complaints here. Those brownies were delicious.

We actually did craft (sorta).
Sonja, showing off our lawn-stake ghosts.

Thanks, Sonja, Dina, Brenda, Dana, Andrea, and Reed (and baby Parker) for coming! Time to start planning A Very Special Holiday Crafternoon...

Crafternoon: January Edition

So, I totally failed at photographing today's Crafternoon (all I photographed was chubby baby cheeks), but it was a big success!

Projects included couch cushion cases, mod podged glitter jars, buttons, a purse closure, fabric flowers, wedding thank you's (ahem, it hasn't been a year yet!), a little seam-repair, and lots of knitting!  The food was excellent, the company grand (hello, new friends), the baby adorable, and the flicks chicky.

All in all, a great afternoon of crafting and lady time.

Did you take a picture of your craft today? Attach the pic in the comments (here's how you do it) - CC, I'm looking at you!

Thank you, ladies, for a wonderful Crafternoon yet again!



*this blog post is kind of boring, but I wanted to document Crafternoon as best as I could. Please, friends, add your pictures!

Holiday Crafternoon

I'm torn between cleaning up from last night's awesome party and treating myself to a pedicure, so instead I'm catching up on some blogging while I catch up on Once Upon a Time (is anyone else sort of addicted to this show?).

I recently hosted a very special Holiday Crafternoon, and I do say it was one of our most productive yet!

Mandy turned a bicycle wheel into a wreath!

I made a wreath out of ornaments!
This baby is my pride and joy.

I made a village of ball jar snow globes!

Sprinkle ornament + double mirror ornament!

A junk food feast.

Not pictured: many, many more ornaments, fabric-covered letters (for a friend's nursery), a tshirt with iron on letters, and printed photos. So much success! Ladies, did I miss anything?

Crafternoon: Festive Fall Style

Classy Halloween
Cheese Things

So, I like to host this occasional little gathering called Crafternoon. It's a chance for my lady friends and I to get together without dudes, without kids, without pets...without responsibilities, really. It's a time for cheese and onion dip and chocolate and wine and movies and girltalk. And occasionally, crafting. Basically, it's awesome.

I've decided that now that I have this great-for-hosting home, and it's finally in a place where it's easy to host people (aka: the living room is not filled with boxes), I'm going to make Crafternoon a more regular occurrence. Maybe even monthly. Watch out.

This Saturday, I hosted four girlfriends, most of which had never actually met each other, and it turned out to be the most fabulous Crafternoon yet! Y'all know I love a theme, and I went with "Classy Halloween"/"Fall.  I kept the food and decor to colors that seemed appropriate, especially the cheese (sage derby, chocolate cheddar, brie with an orange-colored rind, cinnamon toscano, goat with fig jam...and pumpkin fondue). And of course, I included my classic onion dip with carrots and potato chips. I even baked bread (garlic rosemary, more on that bread later this week), which turned out to be delicious with the fondue. Not that that's too surprising ;)

The spread.

The fondue. Baked in a pumpkin. 

The pumpkin brownies.
And the 2nd table centerpiece.

There was hat-knitting and photo-printing and art-framing and and secret-gift-sewing and jewelry-making and Halloween-costume-creating! I'm seriously impressed with us for the amount of crafting we accomplished. Oh, and we watched Magic Mike. So there's that.

I think the next one will be at the end of November, to work on the post-Fall, pre-Winter crafts. I have this in mind, myself (though I have a ton of ideas right now).

Quickie Crafting

I have this cute little set of picture frame bookends. I've had them for years. And for years, the picture frame area has held this stunning little drawing of Edgar Allan Poe. And tiny text that says "your 3.5"x5" photo here". Oops. 

When I organized my cookbooks over Labor day, I stuck one half of the bookend set up on the shelf to hold up our collection, and Poe peered down at me, and everything was fine and dandy.

However. I recently I saw this super cute print on Pinterest, and hunted down the downloadable version  through a series of clicks (love ya, internet). I think it's a good message for the kitchen...things don't always go right while you're in the kitchen, and sometimes you just have to go with the flow. You know? You know.

Anyway, I decided to print it out on photo paper and stick it in the frame. The ratios weren't quite right, so it's not perfectly centered in the frame, but I made it work well enough (it's not quite as crooked in real life as it is in the photo). And it's a nice reminder to stay flexible in the kitchen.

Before:

After:

Cute, no? 

Weekend Warrior: Lavender Water

My friend Emily and I met at BlogHer '11 in San Diego. We were both attendees of the "Birds of a Feather: Modern Marthas" session, and I'm pretty sure she was wearing a cute cardigan.

She's doing this Weekend Warriors link party thing on her blog right now, where she posts a weekly roundup of other bloggers' crafts and weekend projects, and it's inspired me to get off my butt a little and start getting stuff done. Luckily, the Weekend Warriors thing coincided with the end of our several months of weekend plans...I'm really looking forward to a few weeks of productive weekends!

I already posted about my diaper cake (though that was a few weeks ago), and since I spent much of this weekend recovering from the Disqus officewarming party on Friday night, I didn't get as much done this weekend as I wanted to. However, I did put away the camping gear, and I sorted the mail, got a car wash, did a bunch of laundry, watered the houseplants, unpacked from BlogHer and camping, took out the trash/recycling, organized my shoes (tres important!), made bolognese from scratch (this cookbook), and started a baby hat (which is actually about 2/3 done now).

And then I decided to make lavender water. Guess I'm a better Weekend Warrior than I thought.

Our Western-facing bedroom windows don't have screens, so we don't leave the windows open very often. The room tends to get a bit stuffy, and while I did have a chance to leave the windows open all day today, I've been thinking it would be nice to make a spray bottle of lavender water as a little all-natural air freshener. 

It was super simple -- I used a free 3 oz spray bottle (not even sure where it came from), 3 sprigs of lavender from the front yard, and water from the sink (was that information necessary?). The whole thing took about 30 seconds. Getting a decent photo for this blog post took much longer.

I highly recommend trying this easy-peasy solution to your stuffy room problems. Don't have a stuffy room problem? It also makes a lovely calming spray for your pillow/sheets before you go to bed, especially if it's hot outside. It's a nice perfume or "body mist" as well. If you don't like lavender, try using your favorite herb -- I bet basil or rosemary would be nice for the kitchen, and of course, lemon is always a winner. Just remember to change the water frequently so you don't get nasty mildewy plant water. Because ew.

I'm honestly shocked that it took me so long to do this. Like I said, super easy. And chemical free. And free free. Winning.

How to make the cutest diaper cake ever!

Do you know my friend Dana? She is one of the craftiest people I know (see: here). So when I was called upon to help out with her baby shower a few weeks ago, I knew I had to bring my A game. Her family was planning the food and decor, and I handled the shower games (the old standard "taste the baby food" and "how many toilet paper squares go around her belly", and a "my first mad libs" book I wrote, about the baby having adventures with his big sister). 

And just for fun, I decided to throw in a little diaper cake. Because, well, come on. Any excuse to combine babies and crafting is fine by me. Having never made a diaper cake before, I decided to turn to Ye Olde Google for some tips, and Alphamom did not disappoint! Her instructions were clear (and hilarious), and she suggested using a bottle of champagne as the center instead of the traditional receiving blankets. This genius tip basically ensured that she would win the "whose instructions will I use to make this thing" award. Note: award may be fictional.

Anyway, on to the construction! Major props to my dear friend CC for helping out - I couldn't have done this alone (quite literally; there were times when four hands were absolutely necessary).

Step 1: Roll up approximately one billion tiny diapers (per Alphamom's suggestion, we used size 1 instead of newborn). I used Target brand, because Dana mostly registered for cloth and fancy organic diapers, and girlfriend, I love you, but I'm not going to spend that kind of money just on diapers for a diaper cake. Seriously, the amount of diapers this thing required (I think we ended up using about 90?) meant that I was going for the cheap ones. I figure they'll come in handy for "emergency" diapers, or "leave a few in the car" diapers. And I did google them on my iPhone at Target just to make sure they weren't, like, horrible or something.

Step 1, note: Since I had decided to go with a bubble bath theme, I was excited to see that the diapers kind of fit my design scheme (check out those "bubble"-like circles!). Not that anyone would see them once the thing was finished, but still. I love me a theme. Note that we even used green and blue rubber bands. And champagne with a blue label. Because like I said...theme.

Step 2: Stack yo diapers around and around, shoving extras in the middle for superior cushioning, and rubber band the whole damn thing together. If, like me, you didn't realize how big/stretchy your rubber bands would need to be, have your brilliant friend CC tie rubber bands together to make one huge one that will stretch over your base layer. Don't have a brilliant friend named CC? Too bad for you!

Step 3: Wonder why your diaper cake base layer has way more diapers than Alphamom's. Are my diapers smaller? Am I rolling them too tight? Did I buy a platter that was way too big? Is my champagne bottle too small? After doing far too much thinking (and even far-er too much comparative counting), decide it doesn't matter, actually. Moar diapers, FTW!

Step back and admire your handiwork.
It almost makes up for the amount of crap
on the floor in the background!

Step 4: Cover the base layer with tissue paper, and use another "magical CC rubber band creation" to hold it down. How did I get it to go over the bottle like that? I folded it and made some cuts, mostly how Alphamom suggested I do it. I think. Either way, it worked. All you do is fold your paper into a square and snip some snips into the center so that when you open it up, you have slices/a hole. Sort of like when you make paper snowflakes. Makes total sense, right?

Step 5: Cut off any excess tissue paper around the bottom, so you don't have paper hanging over the edges. If you cut too much, that's ok. You'll cover it with ribbon later.

Does having a picture make it easier to
imagine? I hope so.

Step 6: Remember what you did re: the diaper rolling and rubber banding, like, 10 minutes ago? Do it again! But make a smaller layer! Make sure to question the diameter of your circle way too many times! This is very important!

Those diapers are so darn cute with their
little dots, amirite?

Step 7: Cover your middle layer with tissue paper, the same way you did with the base layer. You'll cut even more excess paper off this one, and probably have to do more cutting later. Especially if you're like me and you didn't think to use smaller sheets of paper for smaller cake layers. Wastefulness!

Step 8: Do that whole roll-the-diapers, question-your-diameter, cover-with-paper thing again for the top layer.

Your cake should look like this!
Sort of wonky, totes fine.
I like to think of it as "topsy turvy".
That's a trendy cake thing, right?

Step 9: Decorate that shiz! I went for the bubble bath thing, because obviously, that is super adorable for a baby shower, and I was really going for that "omg that is soooo cuuuuuuute" reaction upon arrival at the shower. Duh.

Mission: Accomplished.

Step 10: Realize that it took you almost 3 hours to make the diaper cake, and that you totally don't even care, because it was so much fun to make. And because jeez, it's cute, right?

If you're comparing my cake to Alphamom's, you'll notice that she went the route of extra beautification through an additional ribbon layer (white, to be sort of the "fondant"). I skipped that, because I couldn't find the right white ribbon at Michael's, and also because...eh. The blue and bubble ribbon was so damn cute on its own, I didn't want to mess with other ribbons. It's kind of hard to see, but the solid blue ribbon has little white stitches around the edges. Ugh. So cute. And that rubber ducky? Makes me want to die from cuteness overload. Especially with that bubble ribbon. Seriously, that bubble ribbon, you guys. I just about squealed in the ribbon aisle when I found that. 

So there you go! How to make the cutest diaper cake ever! Or just how to make a diaper cake. No, who am I kidding? Cutest ever!

Know anyone with a baby shower coming up? This is a super awesome way to contribute to the party, and give the parents some bonus gifts. Like champagne. For after the baby is born, duh. You don't even have to be super crafty...this is both fun and easy for the lazyish crafter. 

Have you ever made a diaper cake? Do you have any questions about anything I wrote?  Comment away, friends!

Less Than A Week...

This time next week, we'll be married. That's totally crazy, in that "it makes perfect sense, of course we're getting married, this is a huge deal, I'm not sure what it will feel like, will it even feel different, soon I'm going to call him 'husband' and he will call me 'wife' and it will be for real, forever, like adults or something" sort of way. Every so often, he looks at me, and says "soon we're going to be married," and I get that warm, fuzzy, happy feeling inside.

There is still a bit to be done (finalizing programs and table assignments, dress fitting/pick up, emailing some guests, ordering Top Dogs, picking our ceremony songs, and Reed's knitting one more tie and crocheting buttons for cowls and finishing boutonnieres, and Aly's picking up more jars and printing table assignment signs), but I'm confident in our ability to do it.   It sounds like a lot, considering we're leaving for Tahoe in three days. THREE DAYS. But we can do it. We can.

So what's a bride to do when she has so much happening?  Why, she throws a small Super Bowl party (because we needed to be home, taking care of business, and not out at someone else's house all day), complete with filet mignon and baked goat cheese ('cause we're fancy), and bagel bites and pigs in a blanket ('cause we're not that fancy).  A few friends, some football (and some Puppy Bowl), and some booze, of course. It turned out to be a lovely, un-stressful day, and I'm glad we took a little time to lay low and chill out a bit.

Ah, but in addition to the chilling out, there was also boutonniere-making, hairstyle-testing, house-cleaning, bouquet-fixing, and print-material-typing.  And just now, at 11:30pm, I decided to make myself a "toss bouquet". For those not familiar, a "toss bouquet" is a separate, sometimes smaller, bouquet that a bride throws during the bouquet toss if she doesn't want to throw her bouquet (usually because she wants to save it).  My bouquet, while totally awesome, is a little...not great for throwing, since it's a little heavy and a lot delicate, and I'd like to save it and not let it get ruined by being thrown through the air and probably landing on the floor and being grabbed at by crazy women :)

I was proud of myself, using the techniques I observed (learned? maybe?) from Reed during the bouquet-making. I think it turned out nicely! It's a decent weight for tossing, it should hold up well, and it looks pretty, too. I even used up all of the leftover flowers! Woo! I wonder who the lucky recipient will be...  ;)

Top view

Side view - the lighting is weird, so it's hard
to tell, but the stem is wrapped in silver
ribbon and yellow yarn, a slightly different
version of what my bouquet looks like.

Have you ever had one of those burst-of-inspiration moments, where even though you should maybe just go to bed, you decide to make or do something?

Bonus Crafting Post! Guest Books!

Earlier today I promised you a bonus crafting post...and like I said, I don't like to make promises I can't keep!

Inspired by this pin on Pinterest, I decided that we should have one small guestbook on each table, rather than one big guestbook in the entry/lounge area.  I love the idea of having a special book to open on each anniversary for the next twelve years, a little memory of the wedding for the first twelve years of our marriage (twelve tables, twelve books, twelve years, and whoa just realized, getting married in 2012...ooooh spooky?).  We're going to provide a stack of card stock and pens at each table so guests can write messages to us and put them in the books.  

Some of the books - Andrea came over and helped me trace
the numbers from a stencil and color them in with silver
Sharpie.  It actually went a lot faster than we had
anticipated, and they turned out really well!

I decided to go one step further though...the books I bought are art portfolio display albums (yay acid free!), and we're going to put a disposable camera on each table so people can take pictures to go with their notes - we'll print the photos after the wedding, and have friends help us insert them into the right places in the albums (so we don't read the messages until the appropriate anniversary, of course!).  It should be really fun to look back on the photos people took of themselves as the years go by, a nice balance of unprofessional/silly/lower-quality photos to have in addition to the undoubtedly gorgeous ones Em and Aaron (her husband and co-shooter) will be taking (which will go in the fancy shmancy wedding album I'm making from Photobook America, thankyougroupon).

Aly found these "classy" black disposable cameras that
turned out to be cheaper than the standard yellow or
green ones anyway! Score!

We might print labels or photos to go in the spines of the albums, so that when they're standing on our shelf, we can easily grab the one we want.  You can kind of see the empty spines in the picture at the top - the paper included for the label was such a bright white that it seemed a little jarring.  Looks better without.  Maybe I'll just write on the plastic with Sharpie to mark the books if we don't think of a good idea for a photo/label insert.  Maybe we'll print little labels with the art from the invitations.  We'll see!

All that's left to do is print up the little signs to explain to people what to do and gather the pens and cardstock :)

PS ooh! idea! We'll also take a picture of us on each anniversary, print it, and put it in the book that year.  oh, I am a genius.)

Crafternoon: Wedding-Style

Today was a big day in weddingstuff, and craftstuff in particular.  In fact, I'm even adding a new label for this post (partially in hopes that it will push me to craft more often).  Today, my crafty girlfriends and I made the bouquets for the wedding.  "But Kim! Won't the flowers die?"  A-ha!  No!  We are awesome!  Magical, in fact!

Ok, not magical.  But we did get all fancy with the flowers, using wooden flowers and dried filler, (inspired by Brit's post on her bouquet, here) which actually feels more appropriate for our winter wedding in Tahoe than fresh flowers would.  They turned out beautifully, and we had a ton of fun (right?) assembling them.  Rather than bore you with big long explanations, I'll just tell you with pictures :)

First, we used hot glue guns to glue wire stems to the wooden
flowers, poking holes in them to get them to stick better.
(Thanks to Brit for the hole-poking tip! Worked great!)

Our supplies, spread out in various vases.

Don't forget the most important crafternoon supply: wine!
And an awesome team of can-do ladies:
Emika, Andrea, Rachel and Reed

Emika and Andrea, assembling small bunches of flowers,
later to be bundled together to create my bouquet.
Many small bunches put together = one lovely bouquet!
(note: while Brit did 3-4 bunches of 10, we did
several bunches of 4-5, and then added more flowers
and filler around the outside as needed to make it bigger)

Reed works on a boutonniere.
Pinecone, mini flower, knit flower "poof".
And yes, it says "wire cutters" on her hand,
a reminder to me to buy them at Michael's.

Emika, with a few nearly-finished
bridesmaid bouquets. Tiny and adorable!
All that's left is to wrap the stems with yarn!

I based my supply list on Brit's list: Natural Cedar Roses, Sola Shell Flowers, and Sola Roses, but my preserved Caspia arrived smelling rather fishy.  No, literally, it smelled like rotten fish.  Fast forward to this morning, when we found some fantastic replacements at Michael's -- white Caspia-looking stuff, some ivory Caspia-looking stuff with dried thistles and paper-thin flowers, and these crazy things that kind of looked like pussy willow, but with tiny papery roses instead of pussy willow puffs.  The little roses looked very similar to the Sola Shells, and worked perfectly in the bridesmaids' bouquets and the boutonnieres.

A finished boutonniere.
Freaking adorable.

Bridesmaid bouquets and two boutonnieres.

And ta-da! My finished bouquet!
My stem is wrapped in silvery gray ribbon,
and I'll be winding yarn around it
to tie my wooden ring to the stem.

I'm really pleased with the way they came out, and I love that they'll last for years and years to come!  

And as for the rest of our wedding-crafting?  Reed's going to make the remaining 4 boutonnieres (oh shoot, I think it's actually 8 more.  Forgot about boutonnieres for the parents), finish my hand warmers and start on the dads' ties.  I have to finish Will's scarf and make the neck warmers/cowls for the moms, maybe make my dad's tie if I can, and stencil the numbering on the guest books (one for each table, more on that later).  And soak the labels off some jars.  And buy some more jars/candles, probably.  And...something else I'm forgetting?  Good thing we have almost 4 weeks to go!