Wednesday, November 23, 2011

I'll Have a Glass of Pinot with My Christmas Ornament Wreath, Thank You

So I decided to make a Christmas ornament wreath...because I saw it on Pinterest.


"No Wire Hangers! (Well Maybe Just One)"-Original pin from Eddie Ross

Wow...isn't that wreath amazing?  I love it so much, I'm thinking about getting it printed life-size and taping it to my door.  Because after the last 24 hours, I am convinced that is the only way I will ever have a beautiful ornament wreath out there!  And I'm sure as heck not trying to make another one!

Here we go.

I have been dying to make this wreath in red and gold for Christmas.  But I am allergic to paying full price, so I was waiting for the ornaments to go on sale at Hobby Lobby.  Well, they were finally 50% off this week but most of the colors were sold out.  I got the last tube of red.  The only other color left was brown.  Surely there MUST be some gold somewhere.  Right?

So I'm looking around the store for some flipping gold ornaments.  And the whole time I'm thinking, "Where da gold at?  I want the gold!"


Now, if you're from Mobile, AL you are probably laughing out loud right now.  Maybe even holding your sides you're laughing so hard.  If you're not from Mobile, you're probably wondering what the heck I'm talking about. 


And there you go.

Sadly, I never did find da gold.

This project got off to a bad start.   Maybe you'll have better luck.  This is what you'll need if you decide to make your own wreath.


The burlap is just for fun.  I foolishly thought I could make a pretty burlap bow with which to hang my wreath.  But, as it turns out, burlap is not really into making bows out of itself.  Nope.  Not at all.  It is, however, into making your nose twitch and your skin itch.  Yep, it sure is.


Anyway, start by bending a wire clothes hanger into a circle.  Easy.  Then untwist the neck so you can thread the balls on.


I swear, every time I would move a glue stick out of the shot, Miss P would throw two more in.  And I had the WORST case of Dead Arm Disease in the history of America from carrying her sweet sleeping self all over Hobby Lobby for an hour!  Me and my one good arm finally just gave up.  So there.  Glue sticks in the shot.

Lack of perfection is probably a good theme for this post anyway.

I read all of the directions on Eddie Ross's site.  I really did. I just thought it was kind of silly to go to the trouble of removing the tops of the ornaments just so I could hot glue them back on.  Especially since only one of my arms was working properly.

Lazy is a really tough hurdle to clear isn't it?

So I didn't hot glue the tops.


Things were going so well.  I was just sliding those balls on so fast with my one good arm.  And everything was fine until I tried to twist the hanger back together.  That sad little worn out arm just couldn't hold it.  There's a lot of tension in the wire after adding all those balls.

The wreath flew out of my hands and across the table.

I think I sat in the chair with my mouth hanging open for a good minute.  Just thinking.  About not being lazy, mostly.  Because when the wreath landed across the table, nearly half of the balls detached from their tops.  Yeppers.  Sure did.


Nothing like 25ish ornaments bouncing around your dining room at midnight.

Hello, old friend.

Sipping and thinking...

What's that old saying?  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?


So I took every last ornament off the hanger and took off every last top.  I glued the flipping tops down and put them all back on the dang hanger.


This guy was taunting me, I swear.  Can you tell?

A little while later...I finally got all the balls back on the hanger.


This time I really focused on not letting go of the wreath while twisting the hanger back together.   Great success on the second attempt!

And here is the finished product:

Ok, it's not that bad.  But does it look like Mr. Ross's wreath?  Not. At. All.

Let's talk about why this might be.  For starters, all my balls are the same size which made little open spaces (smaller balls mixed in would have been a nice touch).  Secondly, there's no glamorous burlap (or satin I guess) bow.  And I only have one color going on (thank you Hobby Lobby).  These are all fatal flaws.

When I finished this monster in the wee hours of the morning, all I could think was, "I'd rather have my $10 back." 

I give myself an L for Lazy on this one.  If I'd just followed the instructions exactly (various sizes of ornaments, glue the dang tops on, make a satin bow), I know I would have ended up with a fabulous wreath.

Instead I am missing three hours beauty sleep and $10 from my wallet!

Lesson learned.

At least until the next project.

Happy crafting, friends!

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Vampires Are Probably Really Annoyed By Scarves...

So I decided to make a t-shirt scarf...because I saw it on Pinterest.

"How to make a frilly scarf from a t-shirt":Original pin from The Pink Peony of Le Jardin.

Unless you live under a rock, you are probably aware that this was opening weekend for Breaking Dawn.  Oh, how I have counted the days until I could see it on the big screen!  I actually just got back from the theater and I LOVED IT!  LOVED IT.

I really wanted to wear something cute to the show.  I feel like I don't get out much these days so going to a movie with my bestie is sort of a big deal.  I saw this amazing t-shirt scarf and thought it would be perfect.  And ironic, right?  Because I'm covering up my neck to go see a vampire movie... I bet vampires get super annoyed by scarves.  

Anyway, I noticed a serious lack of green in my wardrobe so I chose a t-shirt that was an amazing shade of green.  Not grass green or lime green but somewhere in between. I will call it chartreuse! I got it at Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon.  They are only $3.50 regular price so less than $2 after coupon.  You can print one of your own here.  (Some weeks they don't have the 40% off coupon.  It changes every Monday.)  Or you could always recycle an old t-shirt you already have as long as it's big enough.


All right, so gather a t-shirt (in a size XL or larger), scissors, and fabric glue or hem tape (and an iron if you use this option).  And you all know what happened to my fabric glue, right? 

This scarf ruffles because you cut out circles and then cut them into curls.  So you'll need a guide for cutting your circles. You can trace them out using a paper plate.  I ended up just cutting them out freehand (but making sure they were at least as large as the plate).  

I mean...am I really too lazy to trace my circles?  

Yes.

The original post recommends a 9in plate but mine was more like 11in.  The larger your circle, the longer your scarf will be.  Just make sure you have enough shirt to accommodate your plate as you will need at least 10 circles to make this look nice.  

First you need to cut off the hem like so:


I didn't toss it.  I ended up using a piece of it to tie all the layers together.  But it's up to you. (Pinterest has made me wary of throwing anything away.  How about you?)

Next, I cut under the arms of the shirt and set the top part aside. 


The original post doesn't use this top part but I wanted a really full scarf so I found a way to incorporate it at the end.

The shirt was now essentially a tube.  I stretched it really good and then I cut it up the side seam and made it one long piece of fabric. 


Which made me think...you could really do this with just about any fabric you have!  Like maybe you have, say...9 yards of knit left over from making your child a Halloween costume.  You could totally use that!

I was able to get 6 circles out of this piece of the shirt. I used the plate to measure off the width I needed for each piece I was going to cut.  Like this:


But like I said, I was too lazy to trace the circles so I just cut this piece of fabric in half.  That gave me two squares.  Then I cut each of the four corners off to make it sorta like a circle.  Lazy.  I know.  But it totally worked!  

Then I started on the side and cut about two inches in and around the circle.  Like in a curly-q fashion.  Can you tell?


When I made it all the way to the center, I held it up and was so excited to see that I'd made a ruffle!  I ran my hand down the ruffle to stretch it a little and make it curl.


After I cut all the circles out of the main part of the shirt, I tried to figure out how to use the top portion of the shirt.  I cut the sleeves off at the seams.  


Then I rounded the edges and cut in a curly-q fashion.  The sleeve didn't make a circle but the fabric will ruffle as long as you cut in a circular motion.  These ruffles are shorter, obviously, but I attached them to the longest ruffles.  You'll see.

Then I cut the neck seam off the top of the shirt and did the same thing-rounded the edges and cut in a circular fashion. 

I was able to get two more circles out of each side of the top part of the neck, so 4 total.  That gave me 12 ruffles in all (6 from the body, 2 from the sleeves, 4 from the top). They were various sizes depending on where I cut them from.  The next step involved piecing the ruffles together in pairs so I made sure to pair shorter ruffles with longer ones.  

I cut a small piece of fabric tape and affixed it to the end of a ruffle by pressing the iron (on the highest dry setting) to the tape for 8 seconds.  Remove the backing, place another ruffle on top of the tape and press it for 8 more seconds.


This is a super important point to make.  Put the fabric tape on the end of the ruffle that is the loosest (the part that was the outside of the circle).  The ruffle gets tighter as you cut into the circle and that is the prettiest part so don't hide it!

After I got all the ruffles paired up, I used a piece of the neck seam that I removed in the beginning to tie the bundle together around the middle.  

I don't have a fancy dress stand to model my creation on.  I did take a picture of myself wearing it under a poster for Breaking Dawn at the theater, but I'm seriously grinning like a deranged vampire-obsessed lunatic...so I'm not posting it.  This one will have to do:


What do you think?

I freaking adore this scarf!  I love everything about it.  I love that it is unique. I love the color!  I. Love. It.  LOVE!

I totally give this project an A+!  It was cheap (could even be free), only took an hour or so, and it turned out AMAZING!  So go make yourself one.  You can do it!

Monday, November 14, 2011

You Want Me To Put WHAT On My Face?

So I decided to clean my face with oil...because I saw it on Pinterest.
"The Oil-Cleansing Method"-Original pin from Simple Mom.

I have Ugly Face Disease.  It's true.  And I've had it for a really long time...  

Luckily, I'm able to keep this fact a secret and blend in with the rest of the world thanks to Estée Lauder and her magic face paint (also known as Double Wear Stay-In-Place Foundation). 
Thirty-five dollars and worth every penny!  Thank you Estée!

Anyway, I'm having a really bad case of ugly-face right now and I'm pretty desperate for it to go away.  I can't figure out why my skin is betraying me so badly at this age.  I mean, I thought I'd be past this by now.   Sigh...

So when I saw this pin about cleansing your skin with oil...I thought, "That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard!" But then I read the original post.  And it actually made sense.  

In chemistry, there is a principle regarding polarity.  Basically it boils down to 'like-dissolves-like'...so oil dissolves oil.  I actually have a minor in chemistry so I can't argue the logic.  And I really don't have anything to lose at this point.  

Except my marriage!  (Husbands are not fans of Ugly Face Disease, though they are too polite to mention it.)

So lets get that oil on my face like...now.

Here's what I'm working with:

Now, Simple Mom doesn't mention anything about Witch Hazel.  But she also doesn't mention that she has Ugly Face Disease so I'm just going to use this as an added precaution. 

This is my official before picture. Cannot believe I'm doing this...


And there you have it...Ugly Face Disease.  

Grrrrrr...

Let's get started.

Simple Mom advises that you should use 1 part EVOO to 3 parts Castor Oil if you have acne prone skin (aka UFD).  That means 1 teaspoon EVOO for every 3 teaspoons Castor Oil.  Easy peasy.  

Except I don't have a container worth using yet. (I mean, those amazing glass jars from the pin are so artistic!  Shame on me for not having some of those lying around.) 

So I just put a few drops of Castor Oil and a few less drops of EVOO in my palm and mixed them together.  (That's lazy-speak for a 3:1 ratio.)  And while I was doing this I had the hot water running in my sink to get a wash cloth really warm.  

Then I did what I can't believe I did... I totally rubbed this stuff all over my face.


Yep.  Oil.  On my face.

I worked it in (gently) for a minute and then I took the wash cloth from the warm water and laid it on top of my face.  

What?  You want to see a picture of that too? OK!

Heehee...

I left the towel on for about a minute and then I used it to gently wipe the oil away.  I didn't remove my makeup before starting this little experiment (that would defeat the purpose!) and I was really happy to see that all my makeup came off.  Easily too!  Fab!

My skin felt clean.  And soft.  Wow.  Wasn't expecting that!  

So what's this about Witch Hazel?  

If you aren't familiar with Witch Hazel, it's a really great natural astringent.  It shrinks blood vessels back to their normal size to reduce redness, it decreases oiliness, and it is a natural skin protectant.  

I need all of that. 

So after I wiped the oil from my face, I put some Witch Hazel on a cotton ball and swiped it all over.  

And I'm sitting here, three and a half hours after doing this, and my face still feels amazing!  It isn't oily like it would normally be this long after cleansing (probably due to the Witch Hazel).  It's super soft (definitely due to the oil).  And it just feels good

I can't grade this one yet because I need to give it a while before I can know if it is actually working.  But what do you think?  

Would you rub oil all over your face in the name of curing UFD?  

Let me know and look for an update in a few weeks!


Update: I'm 6 days in and I don't see myself going back!  I love this.  My skin feels great.  No new breakouts (yet).  I even found a cute bottle to store my oil mixture in.  See?  

I'm working on getting some info up about how you can get all the supplies you need for this for free.  Check back later in the week if you're interested!

Here's the info on purchasing your UFD cure supplies for less than $5 shipped!