December 2012

December was a busy busy month for me.  My best friend got married on December 8th, I finished up my Fall semester, and of course had many Christmas festivities.  I know its a little late to update you all, however I don't have many projects going on now due to school. (And I must keep busy otherwise I will worry too much about Grad School.)

Bailey and Travis were married on a gorgeous day.  I was blessed to be the Maid of Honor in this lovely marriage.  As you can see, Bailey was a lovely Bride.

 Top Left: Helping Bailey into her wedding dress so she can marry her other best freind.

Bottom Left: Bailey with her Bridesmaids and Flower Girl at the Groom's Supper.

Right: With my best friend on her wedding day.

Top Left: During my Maid of Honor Speech at the Reception.

Middle Left: Hugging the Bride after I bawled my way through the entire speech.

Bottom Left: The wedding party outside in the snow!

Right: The amazing Bride and Groom.  What an wonderful couple.

After the wedding of the year, I went off to the library to study for finals.  Dreaming of my Christmas break. (Crazy how that time flew by).  I was busy scrap booking {I printed off 555 photos to be scrapbooked), sewing, making goodies, and working on christmas presents.

I also visited my favorite 4 year old in the world..  Ava and I played "Santa" and watched movies.  I just love spending time with that girl.

Since all of these are from December, I must update you soon about the present.  Next week I will be on Spring Break, which will consist of sewing, learning how to knit, and scrapbook with the greatest, Kailee.  I will also be traveling to Hillsboro Oregon with my mother to scope out the school there and hopefully nail my interview.  Stay tuned for photos!! {Hopefully those will be up within days or weeks and not days}

-M

Cutting Fabric on Cricut Mini

Hello All!!! I recently received a Cricut Mini for Christmas.  I LOVE this, not only for scrapbooking, but for cutting fabric.  I did not realize it was a process to cut fabric.  Thanks to {this}youtube video I learned how to cut fabric perfectly on my mini.  I learned a few things from trial and error and now have it down to a T.  So here are a few tips for you all :)

What you Need:
Freezer Paper
Cricut Mini
Fabric
Cutting Mat
Iron
Rolling Pin
New/Sharp Blade

I used Reynolds Freezer paper, but I'm sure you can use other brands

 Step 1:
Tear off enough freezer paper in order to FOLD it over the fabric. Make sure the waxy side is touching the fabric.

Step 2:

Iron the pieces together.  This creates a crisp sheet.  Be sure to iron it long enough so that your piece is crisp and not flimsy.  I held the iron in an area for about 10 seconds and moved to a different spot.

 Step 3:
Use a rolling pin the be sure the paper sticks well onto your cutting mat.  Be sure the edges are not sticking up, otherwise the blade with grab the paper rather than cut it.

 Step 4:
Place your mat into your Cricut and begin cutting!!  I chose to cut mine twice with the pressure and depth on max. I found that if you place the folded side on the side where it starts the cut, it will not catch the edges as easily.

 Step 5:
Peel your paper off the mat and finish cutting the fabric.

 Mine came out this way, the top piece got tore off during the second cycle of cutting.

I did a lot of trial and error.  The main key is to be sure the blade is sharp.  I've been using a new one for cutting fabric.  I hope this helps everyone out.  Check out the video that I linked, its great!

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!!

-M

coffe cup sleeves

Hello All-
Most of you know that I am obsessed with sewing! I have been making wallets and coffee cup sleeves. For Christmas, I made quite a few for friends and family.  Here are a few of the ones I've made.

I learned how to make a buttonhole over Christmas break so I have been working like crazy making all of the sleeves with buttonholes! These were made for Nichole, Meghan, Deb, and Molli-who sent me hers in use! {I love the Christmas tree in the background}

Stay tuned for a better tutorial on how to make the coffee cup sleeves!

-M

more pillows

WOW!! I have not been good at blogging lately.  I have been busy studying and preparing for grad school.  Next weekend I will be taking my GRE (fingers crossed).  Two weekends ago I went antiquing and wine tasting with my mankato girls.  Wine tasting was awesome, I can't wait to go again sometime.  Antiquing was fun, but I had no luck finding anything.

As I mentioned before I made pillows for Geoff.  He had told me that he wanted some pillows for his room, so I let him pick out the fabric he wanted.. {btw Geoff does not know how to match} He chose striped pillows thinking that that would match his bedroom.

 He loves them so even though they don't match, that doesn't matter.

 The small blue one was one of the first pillows I made

 Geoff's early birthday gift...I believe he was more excited about this than the pillows I made him.

At Indian Creek Winery in Jainsville.  It was such a gorgeous night to relax on the patio and sip wine with these amazing girls.

Hope everyone has a great week!! I will hopefully have time this week {in between study sessions} to upload my recent photos over the last couple weeks.  Wish me luck on my GRE!! 

pillows

After receiving my sewing machine from my grandparents I have been practicing and trying new patterns.  I finally feel that I have mastered the sewing machine. {sort of} After moving I decided that my black and white room needed some accent colors.  SO I decided to tie in my latest obsession with my craft making! The latest obsession I have discovered is now pillows..so I decided to make some pillows and pillow covers!  My first pillow was for Geoffrey of course {that way his were the trial and error pillows ;)} I've been looking for purple fabric but I couldn't find any I really liked.  So I used some old fabric that I had to make mine.

 I figured they don't match my room....but I'm trying to get out of my matchy matchy problem!

 The lighting in my room isn't the best but heres what it looks like so far...As soon as I find the purple I want I will make more and update you all!  More pillow pictures to come of Geoffrey's!!

Still waiting to go antiquing and wine tasting on Friday! Hopefully I will find some great buys to show you all!

Iphone photos

I realized that I have not updated any of you with my recent photos.  I haven't been too busy with crafts lately.  My newest addiction is Netflix....which is not helping me get homework done.  {I'm waiting for it to do itself.}  Anyways...heres a few photos of the end of my summer.. :(

Meghan Ava and I hanging out at the pool after swimming lessons.

The jar filled with swedish fish and octopus that Ava made me for teaching her how to "swim like a fish." She also chose Little Mermaid stickers remembering how much I love those movies!

The notecards that I had made over the last two semesters of school...I'm hoping that I do not make nearly as many this school year.

My newest sewing project is pillows!!...more to come on that later!

Hope everyone has a great week...I know I'm already for my weekend.  I will be busy antiquing and wine tasting!!! :)

coffee cup sleeves

I recently received a sewing machine from my Grandparents for my birthday.  I have been wanting one for years, so I was super excited when I opened it up.  I have only hand stitched before so I needed some sewing lessons before I really knew what to do.  Thank goodness my grandma is a seamstress and gave me some quick lessons.  I then pondered my first sewing project.  I decided on coffee cup sleeves.  This is the first one I've made so it isn't the best.

What you need:

fabric

lining - I used an old blanket that we don't use anymore

button

tooth picks

elastic

I had cut out the fabric and inside lining according to a pattern I found on the internet.

 I then sewed as close to the outside of the fabric as I could.  I'm still learning so I didn't quite sew in a straight line.

In order to sew on the button you need to place tooth picks in between the button and the fabric, in order for the elastic to fit around the button.

 You also want to make sure that the elastic is matched up perfectly with the button, this one isn't quite matched up well..but it is only my first one :) I decided to hand stitch my elastic on the backside.  I'm not quite talented enough to use my sewing machine for that part. 

I'm hoping to get better at sewing...I'm practicing quite a bit! I also am hoping to learn how to sew a button hole on it.  I think a button hole will look better on the sleeve than the elastic.