Friendsgiving

It's been a while since we've seen a bunch of our friends, and since we can't see everyone on the actual holidays, Ryan and I decided to have our first Friendsgiving.  I think that when most people do Friendsgiving, they probably end up making Thanksgiving-like foods such as turkey and stuffing.  We were a little different and Ryan made chili, spicy meatballs, and cookies.  Our friends brought over pizza, brownies, peanut butter bars, oreo truffles, etc.  The theme was probably more of a Friendsmas, because we already have up all of our Christmas decorations.  And my Friendsgiving sign had a Christmas tree and snowflakes on it.

Shockingly, I took very few pictures throughout the night, but I did manage to get a get one of everybody who was there.  Here is my best friend dani and her boyfriend Anthony, who hates getting his picture taken.

And remember Andy and Heather from their recent engagement shoot?



The guys disappeared for a while, but we found them downstairs in the "man cave."

Did I mention that it was 60 degree day in November (in New England), and Ryan wore shorts and flip flops?  He kept trying to make all of us sit outside on the deck, and swore it was warm because he lit the chiminea, but I didn't believe him.  It was warm during the day, but it got really cold at night!

It didn't end up being a super late night. Everyone left a little before midnight, and by that time, I was ready for bed!

Tutorial: Making your own chalkboard

BEFORE:

 AFTER:

I've been seeing cute chalkboards all over Pinterest, and I've been wanting to make one for a while.  Since I didn't have a picture to use, I searched for a cheap option at the Goodwill store on 2 different occasions but didn't have any luck.  I ended up finding a mirror at Marshalls on clearance for $10.00, and it was the size and shape that I wanted, so I bought it!

***If you like this tutorial, please make sure to FOLLOW my blog!***


MATERIALS

• A mirror or picture with a solid back (some are cardboard, and you don't want cardboard)
• A can of chalkboard paint ( I got mine from Michaels)
• Frog tape (or painter's tape)

DIRECTIONS

• Tape around the frame of the picture
• Spray the chalkboard paint to cover the mirror or solid back of the picture
• Allow it to dry for 24 hours
• You might also wish to paint the frame of the picture (I think I might paint the frame of mine white)

I've heard that Home Depot sells chalkboard paint in a can and that it works better than the spray can kind. My husband's friend has some left from an old project so I plan to paint over my chalkboard with the kind from the can.  In order to keep your chalkboard looking good, I've heard that some people put an extra coat on there every couple of weeks. I haven't had to do that yet.

Here's the spray paint I got at Michaels:

 I put the mirror on a sheet outside and followed the directions on the can.  My cat was intrigued by what I was doing. I had to scare her away. Could you imagine the disaster if she climbed onto the mirror?

We're having a bunch of friends over for Friendsgiving, and so I got to decorate the chalkboard for the first time!

Tutorial: Pinecone Ribbons

MATERIALS:

• Pinecones
• Ribbon
• Hot glue gun

DIRECTIONS

1.  Tie a bow and hot glue it to the top of your pine cone

2.  Cut another piece of ribbon that is double the length of where you want your pinecone to hang.

3.  Put 2 dabs of hot glue on your pine cone and put each end of your ribbon in them to form a loop.

If you want your ribbon to be straight on, you can first glue your ribbon loop and then glue the bow to the ribbon.  It will look like this:

Decorating for Christmas

I know that Thanksgiving hasn't even passed yet, but I had today off and couldn't wait any longer to put out our Christmas decorations.  This is our first Christmas owning a house, and I have been waiting forever to be able to decorate the way that I have wanted to. 

I started outside with decorating our window boxes.  I bought fake balsam fir from Michaels, as well as  4 large red bows and a few fake pointsettias. I'm not sure how they'll hold up in the rain and the snow, but here is how they turned out.

I spent the next 3 hours raking and hauling leaves and pine needles out to the woods. I had to stop when it got dark outside. I left a few very large piles of leaves for Ryan to pick up while I am at work tomorrow.

Inside, I decorated our buffet server with some decorations that I got at the Christmas Tree Shops. I also put out a Santa figurine that Ryan inherited from his Nana.

I think that it's interesting that Ryan has a Santa from his late Nana, because I also have a Santa from my late Nan.  We lost them both within months of each other this year, and this will be our first Christmas without them.

Next, I decorated our fake mantle.  We have a fake fireplace cabinet that holds our television.  I got the garland from JoAnn Fabrics, the stocking holders from Kohls, and the stockings from the Christmas Tree Shops.

When Ryan got home from work, he didn't even notice that I had raked up the yard or decorated our window boxes.  It was dark outside, so I don't really blame him.  But, he didn't even notice the candle lights in each of our windows!

We spent the next hour or so assembling our fake Christmas tree and moving around furniture in our living room to accomodate it.  We've lived together since 2007, and this is our first year having a tree!

I started a tradition a couple years ago.  Every year, we get a ornament that represents something special or significant for that particular year.  My favorite is our Las Vegas ornament that we got on our honeymoon.  Las Vegas was the first placed we lived together as a couple.

I finished up the night with making some pine cone ribbon decorations. I got the idea from Pinterest.  I'll post a tutorial tomorrow.  I hung these on the curtain rods in our living room and dining room as well as on the door knob to our front door.

So far, Fergie is the only present under the tree.



Now it's time for our Friday night ritual of watching Dateline.  If I don't fall asleep, I'll read more of the book I picked up at the library yesterday...The Pilot's Wife.  I read nearly 100 pages of it this morning before forcing myself out of bed to start my holiday decorating.  It's such a good book that I swear, I could have read the entire thing today.  

Tutorial: Felt Rosette Hair Flower

This hair flower measures 2.5 inches across and it matches the felt rosette earrings I recently made. It would be cute as a barette for a young girl.


***If you like this tutorial, please make sure to FOLLOW my blog!***

MATERIALS

• Felt
• A CD for tracing
• Scissors
• A pearl
• A hair clip
• Hot glue gun

DIRECTIONS

1. Place a CD on top of the felt and cut around it.

2.  Cut a spiral aournd the felt.

3. Cut off the sharp corner to make it more rounded.

4.  Begin at the center and dab your hot glue around the flower overlappy it.



5. Hot glue a pearl to the front/center of rosette, and a hair clip to the back.

Here's a rosette I made in hot pink:

Crafted Accessories

Last weekend, I used a gift card to get a few new supplies and I spent the day making stuff.  I think my favorite item is the button anchor ring.

 Nautical Stripe Earrings

Nautical Rope Toggle

Nautical Button Ring

Beaded Button Ring


Felt Rosette Ring
Tutorial to make rosette here

Santa Baby Tutus

I recently made a Santa Baby tutu and hat set for a newborn and posted my creation on facebook.  Ryan's friend has a newborn baby and text messaged him to say that he was interested in buying the newborn set as well as 2 other santa baby sets for his 2 year-old and 7-year old girls.  He wants to use them for their yearly Christmas picture.  I was a bit nervous, because I've really only made baby tutus, and I wasn't sure how long it would take me to knit a hat and put together a tutu for a 7 year-old. I wasn't even sure what size to make the hats or tutus.  I ended up having Ryan ask his friend to measure his girls. For the hats, I had him measure the circumference of the girls heads and length from crown of their heads to their eyebrows.  Then for the tutus, I had him measure the girls waists and the length that he wanted the tutu.  I haven't given him the final product yet, but hopefully, I'll be able to share how well the tutus and hats fit the girls based on my method of measuring.

My tutorial for how to make a baby tutu can be found here.

Tutorial: Resin Rosette Earrings

I've been wanting a pair of Retro Rosie Earrings from Modcloth.com, and at $9.99, I wouldn't really be breaking the bank by ordering them.  But, instead of buying them, I wanted to find a way that I could make them.

One way to do this would be to buy resin, resin dye, and flower molds and create these completely myself. I didn't end up getting all the stuff for the project, but if you're up for that, then check out Ris C Handmade's tutorial.  My original plan was to venture out and collect all the materials for this project, but then I found packages of already-made rosettes at Michaels.  Each set of 8 (total of 16 flowers) costs $3.99.  I also picked up some earring posts and earring backs.

I got a few different colors.

All you need to make these is what you see here as well as a hot glue gun.  Just glue the earring post to the back of the flower and it's done!  With the duplicate colors in the package, you can make some for your friends.

Tutorial: Ribbon Headband

***If you like this tutorial, please make sure to FOLLOW my blog!***

MATERIALS

• Ribbon
• Hair elastics
• Hot glue gun
• Scissors

DIRECTIONS

1.  Tie your hair elastic together as shown in the picture. I used a total of 4 to make the headband more snug, but all you really need is 2 elastics.  If your elastics have metal on them, try to tie the elastics together so that the metal is positioned on the outside.  This way, your ribbon will hide the metal.

2.  Cut your ribbon. You want to measure it around your head and have it be snug. Add about 2 inches to each side to glue. My ribbon was 21.5 inches long.

3.  Wrap the ribbon around each end of the elastic and hot glue it.

If you didn't tie your elastics to positon the metal on the outside, then your headband will look something like this:

The elastic won't show, but if you can get the metal to be positioned on the sides, it will look better and the metal won't dig into the back of your head.