In Stitches

Shortly before my semester was over I somewhat impulsively purchased a sewing machine. I've always had this subtle longing to channel my inner Martha Stewart, but lately it has become an obsession. $150 later, a brand new Brother arrived at my door while I was studying for finals. I took a short break, removed the machine and all its many parts from the gigantic box, my dining room table quickly becoming covered with about a dozen objects that I had never really seen before. I had never once in my life touched a needle and thread, let alone a sewing machine!

Over the past two weeks, my machine and I have gotten ourselves somewhat acquainted, worked on a few basic projects, and even found ourselves in a couple fights. I'm quickly learning the perfection is a bit far-fetched, and thankfully-due to my expectations having since been humbled-I have yet to shed any tears, and have duly invested in a seam ripper.

For Christmas Carson bought me, among other things, Amy Butler's Style Stitches and a fat quarter of an assortment of her fabulously delicious new fabric. I couldn't wait to pick out a pattern and get going!

Deciding to start small (or what thought was going to be small project) I chose the adorable Key Keeper/Coin Purse.

My starting point:

What to do with all of these pieces?

And....Voilà!

Unfortunately, for me, it wasn't as easy as it looks. I'm hopeful that as I become more experienced, that which now takes me several hours, will only take me 1 to 2! (I certainly hope so, because on ETSY they run a mere $18!) Nonetheless, I'm excited about the end result and can't wait to show it off!

Now, on to the next pattern?

don't throw it all out the window. . .

It seems that everyone is making shabby little creations out of old windows lately.

Carson works at a project manager at the VA, and at the VA here in town, there are many historic buildings. I asked him to bring me home an old window if he ever came across one, and within a week there was big one sitting on my back porch.My goal was to get crafty with it before classes started in August. Yet there it sat for several months. 4 to be exact. Nonetheless, after being an eye sore for oh so long, I finally figured out what I wanted to make of it, and it is finished!

Here's what I needed:

-an old window
-sandpaper
-benjamin moore: fairview taupe (leftover from painting our dining room)
-valspar weathered crackle glaze
-twine
-wall-hanging hardware
-hot glue gun
-staple gun
-mini-clothes pins
-antique buttons
-6 8x10's



So, basically I gave that old window good cleaning and a good sanding. Carson has experience with the weathered crackle glaze, so he offered to paint for me. You paint the window with the glaze, wait 1-2 hours, then paint with the top coat of your choice. The glaze causes the paint to "crackle," revealing the color underneath.







After the window was dry, Carson installed wall hanging hardware on the backside. I then took some silver twine, wrapped it around the back of the window, and secured it with a staple gun on both side, for both rows of panes.

On this twine I attached the 6 photos with the mini-clothes pins, which were spray painted white, and then I hot-glued "antique" buttons on them (purchased at Michael's).

There ya go.









***the photos in my photos were done by phillip crum. www.philliphcrum.com

welcome!

Welcome to my blog!

I decided to jump on the bandwagon, and here I am!

Here I plan on sharing little tidbits of my life-everything from simply maintaining updates on our lives, to sharing our home projects, travels, baking and cooking pursuits, thoughts and ideas, and so on and so on...