My Favorite Projects Of 2015

I thought I'd take a look back at some of my favorite projects, that I've shared here on my blog, from 2015.

In January ~ Winter and Valentine Vignettes.  It always looks so empty around my home after I've put the Christmas décor away, so bringing out the Valentine's Day decorations and keeping some Winter themed items around help.

Bringing in red accents is always nice in our home because the main décor is neutral.

In February ~ we redecorated in our master bathroom.  We added a cabinet and framed out our large builder mirror.

In March ~ getting in the mood for Spring and making a pillow cover for a friend. 

In April ~ I had a good time sewing up needle books, for myself and to sell in my Etsy shop.

In May ~ I was a little more productive.  I had wanted to makeover our knife block for a while and finally got around to it.

I also made an Atelier sign for over my craft/sewing room door.

In June ~ I did a quick makeover to a purchased burlap shade.

In July ~ I made a couple of sundresses for my granddaughter using pre-shirred fabric.

In August ~ I made a grain sack cover for a lumbar pillow that I already had sitting on our living room sofa, using fabric I've had for a couple of years.

In September ~ I welcomed a new granddaughter and decorated for Fall.

I also marveled over the growth of one of my potted urns.

In October ~ I repurposed part of a pair of jeans by making a pocket purse for my oldest granddaughter (5 years old).

In November ~ I didn't blog at all.  Sorry about that. 

In December ~ I shared my Christmas decorations, which were the simplest I have ever done.

Happy New Year!

Kathy

Christmas Decor ~ 2015

It’s been awhile since my last blog post, but I couldn’t end the year without sharing some of my Christmas decorations for this year.  I think this is the simplest I’ve ever decorated for Christmas.  It is one of my favorite seasons/holidays to decorate for and I usually go a bit overboard. 

I started out our decorations with a new artificial Christmas tree.  I went with something smaller and the coloring on the branches gives it a little bit of a frost-kissed look.

I have it sitting on one of those decorator tables with an additional large wood round (purchased at Lowe’s) and topped off with my tree skirt.

I totally copied Mary Englebreit’s mantel from The Cottage Journal magazine. 

From the Jingle banner to the Santa hats on the boy and girl busts.  Ms. Englebreit had many more busts on her mantel sporting Santa headgear, but I only have the two. Those hats are from holiday cat costumes, by the way!

 

I interspersed some of my carolers in between.

My little pick-up truck now holds a small bottlebrush tree.

I also picked up a small red VW beetle and tied another small bottlebrush tree to the top of that.  Can you tell that my 5-year-old granddaughter enjoys playing with them?

I also did a craft with that same granddaughter.  I found a gingerbread man template on Pinterest and, using that and paper grocery bags, cut out gingerbread man shapes for both of us to decorate.

I pulled some scrap trim, buttons, googly eyes, glue, a little fiberfil, and red pipe cleaners from my craft room for us to use on them.

Hers now hangs on her Christmas tree at home and I have mine hanging out by my cookbook in the kitchen.

A few other random decorations around the house.

Hopefully, I’ll have the new laptop, Blogger, and Live Writer issues sorted by the new year.  It has been very frustrating!

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 

Repurposing A Pair Of Jeans Challenge ~ Project 1

For this first repurposing project, I’m going easy and using one of the pockets.  The jeans I’m repurposing are carpenter jeans and have these really nice sized back pockets.  One thing some of you may like about this project is that there is no machine sewing involved at all!  Just a bit of hand sewing, as well as some fabric glue and some iron-ons for embellishments.

I decided to make a little purse for my 5-year-old granddaughter.  I cut out one of the back pockets and included the portion of jeans that the pocket was attached to.  I also cut along one of the binding seams so that I could use that as a strap for the purse.

I hand sewed the strap piece on to the pocket.  Keep a thimble handy as it helps to push that needle through this thick section of fabric. 

I had some pink iron-on letters in my supplies and just made it to do my granddaughter’s name, which fit perfectly at the bottom of the pocket.  She loves animal print, so I used some of this leopard print ruffle trim I had gotten at Hobby Lobby on clearance a few months ago, knowing I would use it for different things I make for her.  

I attached the two pieces I used here with fabric glue (Aleene’s is the fabric glue I like).  I usually stick a piece of cardboard between two pieces of fabric when I’m using fabric glue, it keeps it from seeping through to the fabric behind.

Then because I didn’t want anything she might put in it to fall out, I went with a large snap closure, which I also hand sewed in place.

In about an hour I had this cute little purse all done!  I did leave it overnight for the fabric glue to dry fully, before presenting it to her.

I looked on Pinterest to find some other items you could make with the pockets.  Pot holders. 

Source: Simply Soares

Coasters or mug rugs.

Source: Hunted Interior

A phone charger holder.

Source: Wonderful DIY

Organizers.

Source: DIY Enthusiasts

Or how about a gift card holder.

Source: Art By Wanda

And here it is being modeled by it’s happy recipient!  With a new baby photo bomb.

So there’s one project down and I still have (practically) the whole pair of jeans waiting to be transformed!  I have another easy project coming up for next week.