December

I've been so busy this last week that December truly snuck up on me and slapped me in the face. I have about zero presents bought, 20 blog posts that are half (OK 1/4 written) and decorations pulled out, but not done. It doesn't help that I damaged my foot so running, my true stress reliever not to mention a way for me to be less strict with what I eat, is off the table for now. The saddest thing is my latest injury didn't have anything to do with working out, it happened while I was getting the mail and slipped on a curb. What a crappy story.

This weekend I spent time at home, tending to my foot and finally getting some decorations up. I even managed to make some holiday cards. I have been messing around with Photoshop and wanted to make some fun cards based on ones I saw a couple years ago. It took me awhile to get the hang of it, but I am finding my way around and pretty pleased with how they turned out. Thank goodness for the Internet and all the free information you can find to navigate software issues.

Speaking of the Internet I also enjoyed watching Game of Thrones season 2 courtesy of it. Now if I can find a way to multitask and read the books while doing all of the fabulous things needed to be done this month that would be something. Until then I find the HBO series a great substitute and a much watch if you haven't already.

Stockings hung and fire lit!

I love this sparkly wreath. It's the perfect combination
of holiday and glitz!

Sneak peak of my cards!

Stayed tuned because I have my list of handmade gifts you can make and give this year in the works. Some pretty fabulous things if I do say so myself.

She's Crafty...or not

As much fun as I have on Pinterest, I had to take a break. Not only was it a time suck* of epic proportions, but I started feeling bad about how lame I am in the craft department. I used to be a social event planner (re: wedding-ish planner, I did a ton of weddings in my day) and thought I had some creative ideas up my sleeve for all occasions. Apparently everyone else has taken those ideas and added a crap ton of glitter and twine to it to make it rustic chic or the like. Does anybody work anymore or are we all on Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook trying to out do one another?

Either way I have decided to up my crafty factor, and if not come up with my own crafts, at least attempt to do a few of the more interesting projects that have been sitting in my Pinterest craft board. The goal is one a week and some may be a food driven craft, but either way I am going to make it happen. Here are just a few of the items I am thinking about tackling.

These are totally easy and fun necklaces to make. Plus
I love a good upcycle project.
via R29 and Grace Atwood of Stripes and Sequins

The doily bowl. It's so easy and so cute!
via The Thrillz of Hillz

This is not a tutorial, but I am thinking I could
do this using some canvas and painted letters. I would
change the wording though. To cheese for me.
via Not on the High Street

I have been wanting a good way to do this (and not poke an eye out)
for awhile. Not just for a vase, but for other things as well.
via Picklee

I could go on and on, but these are the top contenders. So tell me what Pinterest crafts have you pinned and have actually wanted to do and not just think about doing?

*As a side note to further prove my time suck statement, during the writing of this post I got distracted by Pinterest for an hour looking at new crafts to do and ended it with pinning dresses for a formal occasion that I most likely will never attend. No lie.**
**This has now turned into two hours, because I closed the post to finish later after the first Pinterest detour and then opened it up an hour ago to finish and got re-sucked into Pinterest. This is why I am not running the world.

Check out this to see how bright I can get.

Rainy Day

Yesterday was a rain day here in South Holland complete with thunder and a little lightning which I decided to use as an excellent excuse to get a little crafty indoors. Since I am in Europe I don't have all my trusty craft items that I have in the US so I needed to find something simple that didn't require much more than old t-shirts and possibly some glue. After hitting Pinterest for a whole three minutes I found a super easy jersey knit bracelet tutorial here that completely fit my criteria. I had seen a similar bracelet on a style blogger site a while back (unfortunately can't remember where) and had been meaning to try and figure it out, but this tutorial is even better. There are a few changes/adds that I did that differ from the the original post. In the tutorial she uses jersey knit strips from the store I opted to up cycle a cotton jersey tank (the green one) that had a few holes in it and loved the results. The second shirt I used was a ribbed cotton tank (brown one) and while I was piecing the strips together I wondered how it would turn out because it's such a different material. I actually ended up liking it even better than the first one, so much so that I made two of them! The ribbing added a great texture to the bracelet that gives it an earthy, bohemian feel that I am totally digging. I also used less total length of the strips than in the tutorial, but I have freakishly small wrists so maybe that is just me! The other thing I did is that once I finished with the bracelet I noticed there were a few ends sticking out from where the strips were pieced together. To give it a slightly cleaner look I ended up tucking and stitching a few of the strip ends back into the bracelet, but other than that the bracelets came out great. I think this would be an excellent project with kids not only because it's easy, but if you have an old t-shirt hanging around the project costs nothing. Hard to beat that!

Shirt, ruler, scissors. That's it. 

I cut the shirt across starting from the bottom in
strips, snipped off the seam and then pieced the strips together as she describes in the tutorial.

Finished product using two finger weave.

Finished product with ribbed shirt using the three finger weave.