Easy Peasy Pretty Pair

     Yay! I am finally doing a for real craft post! Inspired by this and this on A Beautiful Mess, I was so excited about this one. I dragged Taylor to the store the other day with visions of the loveliness that would soon reside over our bed, and I'm so happy with the finished product. It took me the entire afternoon, but I was also doing laundry and waiting on my birthday flowers to arrive, so I was taking longer than I could have. I totally think you should make one for yourself -if you're against the lovey-dovey stuff, then how about just you or an adorable pet?

Supplies: Five (or more/less) colors of scrapbook paper, one piece of white poster board, photo of choice (printed out of course), embroidery thread, ribbon, paper doilies, decent-sized frame, gold paint pen, needle, glue stick, scissors, and a measuring tape.

One: Print out your favorite photograph and take your scissors to it. Make sure it's an image that can be easily cut out, nothing with crazy backgrounds and confusing lines -it just makes the whole process easier. Cut allll the way around it (and in the middle if there are parts like mine between the arms, where the background of the photo shows through).

Two: Cut out your piece of poster board so it will fit into the frame.
Three: Snip out equilateral triangles from your scrapbook paper. Mine were 2.5in. on each side but you could do bigger or smaller depending on the frame size. I ended up with about seven of the colorful pieces and fourteen of the neutral and it was just enough. You could also add more colors, less colors, use paint swatches instead, the possibilities are kind of endless.
Four: Place those triangles in a pretty pattern on your poster board. Make sure you like the layout before you glue anything down and try to keep the triangles as close together and straight as possible. Glue, and then trim around the edges.

Five: Figure out where you want your doily and photo placed, and then glue those down as well. I liked mine with one doily as a sort of halo effect, but you could certainly add more. It could be cute to do two different images and then halo them both; get creative!

Six: Once everything is glued into place, thread your needle with a length about twice as long as the area you want to cover. So for mine, I doubled the length around the doily section that was showing and then used that much thread, and it worked perfectly. Another tip is to poke your holes where you want them, first, giving you a guideline to follow. Then go about your sewing. I just did a simple backstitch on mine but you could always get fancier.
Warning here: Be careful! The paper and the doily are way more fragile than fabric, so go slow and don't pull too tightly. I managed to feel really dumb and ripped part of my doily, oops! Luckily you can't really see it once it's framed, but you have been warned.

Seven: Embellishing time! Glue a pretty ribbon across the top and add some lyrics with a gold pen (mine are from "Birds of a Feather" by The Civil Wars!) Another mistake I made for you that you can avoid -don't write too close to the edges, as the frame will end up covering some of your words up.

Eight: Frame it and hang it on the wall! Bonus points if you cut out extra hearts to place around it. Triple bonus points if you make your bed for the sole purpose of photographing it! And if your puppy hides under the bed all day because you're busy crafting, then you win automatically.

      I really hope you enjoyed this because I've got a few more crafty things up my sleeve. Go forth and create, my beautiful readers! XO.

Sweet Nothings: All Shook Up

And not just of the Elvis variety.. har har har. Har. Har?
Alright, lame joke, but for real. My life is so topsy-turvy right now, my clothes are still not unpacked, I'm trying to organize and organize and get everything well, organized. From school to money to vacations to the house, I've been thinking a lot and worrying a lot and doing a lot. And you see.. it's a lot. So I'm finally updating ya'll real fast with a couple little pictures. My Sweet Nothings for the week:

This is our room right after I moved all of my whatnots into it. If you can believe it, there's even more on the other side of the room. Eek! Most is unpacked and put away, but there's still a lot left to accomplish before it's up to my standards.

And our room after! Much better with the super industrial bookshelf that my parents got me. I can fit all of my books on just two shelves now with room to spare for knickknacks. Sorry about the ridiculously bad photo quality, I thought of this post last minute and our lighting in the room is less than stellar. You know you're a college kid when the main lighting in your room comes from upcycled Christmas lights!

I'm trying real hard to maintain a sense of girly and Viking balance in our room. My flowery pink quilt takes up quite a bit of the visual space, but his posters take up the majority of the wall space, so we're fairly even. One thing that won't be even? Our closet space. While his clothes fit on a few hangers and one hanging shelf and a small dresser, mine are currently taking up two thirds of the closet! I need to have a clothing intervention soon I suspect..

I've had a lot of free time here with no job yet and Taylor working and in class so much (added to my clothing purge procrastination), so I've been making friendship bracelets to keep my hands busy. They're so terribly easy once you figure the knots out. I love the tutorial on PurlBee for making them! Her's are so beautiful and such an inspiration.

Something else keeping me super busy around the internet? Pinterest! Such an amazing photo site, I love it for making boards and as a lovely idea keeper. Follow me and I'll return the favor!

I drove home over the weekend and encountered this massive storm. The power of nature constantly amazes me. (The weird reflections in the corner are my Ariel and duckie dashboard friends!)

I had such a wonderful time back in my home town. My parents and brother and I did so much and unfortunately I didn't take many pictures of my own. Thursday was Pat's Place Tuna Greek Salads (the best you'll ever have!) and lots of shopping, followed by homemade pizza with my dad's family. Friday was a long day with dentists and visits with old friends, then dinner at Skewers, a scrumptious Mediterranean restaurant beachside. Saturday we celebrated my Granma's 70th birthday at the Kiwi Tennis Club, complete with a delicious meal and good company and followed by a hilarious trip to Wendy's for Frosties and a ride on my dad's new Harley motorcycle! And now I'm back in my new home sweet Jacksonville apartment, staying up way too late writing this! I miss my cute little home on the internet, and really hope I'll get to write write write some more in these next few busy albeit exciting weeks.
XOXO.