Make Something Every Day- Why did I think this was a good idea?? Just kidding, I'm having fun :)

About 2 weeks ago I told my husband I wanted to make something every day and he laughed at me. So, I decided I was going to do it, just to spite him. Just kidding, I love him. I decided to do it to make him proud. Yup, that's it. That sounds more like me :) I decided to subject my facebook friends to this adventure and have been posting pictures of something I make every day. Actually some days I skip posting and have to post 2 or 3 things in one day. In fact, the real challenge is posting a picture of something I make everyday. And now I think I'm going to be able to blog. Yeah, right! Let's see how long this lasts ;) 


So here is a quick recap of my projects since I started... 
Day 1

Cowboy cookies- Mmmmmm. This was a hostess gift for the lovely Amy Reilly. I had seen these often and always wanted to make one, but never had. Then opportunity came- we were going to their place for dinner and I hadn't picked up flowers or wine or anything to take with us and BOTH KIDS WERE NAPPING. Which is fantastic!! Who would wake up kids to pick up a hostess gift?? Not me!! So, I decided surely there was something I could make. I had a pasta sauce jar from the night before- spray paint from the chandelier project, these cute spoons were a dollar (hollar!!!) the other day at JoAnn's so I had picked up a few just because they were cute and I knew I'd use them someday! Next time, I'll layer it differently so it's cuter in the jar- and add pink m&ms or something...

Day 2

S'mores bar- yuck! It's only day 2 and I already forgot to take a picture!! I remembered before they were all gone. These were not as good as they should have been. I cooked it for too long, they should have been cooked closer to the 16 side of 16-18 minutes. And they MUST BE EATEN PRETTY MUCH IMMEDIATELY. Like, have your peeps gathered round the oven, just like you'd gather them round the campfire. Sing songs, make it fun. 


Directions: Mix a package of betty crocker sugar cookie mix (in the bag) with 1 cup of graham cracker crumbs and 1 stick of melted butter until it forms a dough (a VERY crumbly dough) and press it into a 13x9 pan. Cook at 350 for 16-18 minutes. I did more like 20 and it was too hard! Let it cool for a minute then throw on some milk choco chips. Let them melt then spread them out to make a nice layer on top. Then cover with marshmallows and return to the oven under a low broil until the marshmallows are all puffy and golden (I missed this by a second, they brown fast!) You have to make these when people are standing around ready to eat them- they're best straight out of the oven! Kind of like the real thing :)


Day 3

This was all I could muster on day 3. The night before I hosted craft night at my house and we made necklaces (you'll see some later). It went pretty well, except some of the girls wanted to make the necklace with individually wrapped beads and the fabric was too thick, blah, blah, blah, so I couldn't prep the materials to make that kind that night. It bothered me. I felt like I had let them down.  I was bummed. And tired, but It was only day 3- I couldn't quit now. So here it is. I made a card. Then we went to bed to watch a movie. I was still irritated about the dang necklaces, so I ended up making a necklace in bed. 

Here is the quick explanation I posted on FB: Each bead is wrapped individually. Use unfinished wood beads- 1" work best. Cut a piece of fabric that is long enough to wrap around each bead + 1/4" and as wide as the bead +1/2" on the sides. Cover the fabric with glue stick really well. Fold the top of the fabric over about 1/8" just so when you wrap the bead you'll have a finished edge- does that make sense? Wrap the fabric around the bead lengthwise, then push the sides into the hole- you'll need a tool for this. The backend of a crochet hook works well. You'll have to smooth and shove, smooth and shove, your fingers may or may not bleed. Thinner fabric works best, thick fabric won't work at all. There are beads with larger holes, but I haven't tried them because the ribbon would then slide through and I like it knotted in between beads. Let me know how it goes! Oh, let it dry before you try to string it on the ribbon. Then scream your face off when you shove the ribbon through (you'll need a large needle, btw) and the fabric comes all undone! hahah! Very tedious!!


Day 4 
This is the sleeve version we made at the craft night...

Here are quick instructions I posted on FB: The average bolt of fabric is 45" in width, cut off a piece that is just wide enough to wrap around your bead + 1/2 an inch (so you end up with a piece that is about 45" long and 4" wide if you are using 25mm/1" beads). Fold in half lengthwise (so it's looong and skinny) right sides together and stitch closed (with 1/4 inch seam allowance). Now, turn it right side out (this takes patience). Now you should have a nice sleeve. Start in the middle and insert a bead, tie a knot and pull as tight as you can, then knot the other side and again, pull very tight to get the knots very close to the bead. Continue on both sides until you have knotted in all but your last two beads on each side (if you're using 25mm, you'll use 9 total). Now before you put in the last bead on each side, fold the fabric inside itself about half way down. String your ribbon through the last bead, as long as you want your tie to be + a few inches because it will be inside another knot and shorten a bit. Slide in the bead WITH the ribbon so it is hanging out your end of fabric that is tucked into itself, so you no longer have a rough edge. Now you tie a knot- the last and hardest one! It's going to take some pulling and a pair of plyers might help to grasp a tiny bit of fabric and pull it through, but you don't want a giant fluff of material hanging on the end and you want to keep the folded in part IN the knot so it doesn't come undone. Now repeat on the other side. Trim your ribbons to the desired length and burn or fray check the ends and your done! Voila! Fabric covered necklace :)


Day 5 
Wyatt's mobile! 

Here is the picture I posted and another I took a few days later. It hangs above his nursing chair. I found the laser cut wood cowboys on etsy and painted them chocolate brown, the wreath was $2 at Michaels. I used ribbon to hang the cowboys and hang the mobile from the ceiling. Super simple, but it looks pretty cute in person. 

Day 6

Wyatt's pillow (also pictured above). 

Hand-stitching isn't really all that fun. At all. Had to do it by hand because I used a pillow we already had. My thumb hurts!! This was cut out on double sided fusible webbing, ironed on and blanket stitched by hand. 


Day 7
Q's apron! 

 Two sided apron. I used a sheet of printer paper and cut a curve out on one corner to use as my pattern. Then I folded my fabric and placed the straight edge of the paper on the fold and cutout the apron bottom. Twice- both fabrics.  I used the tulle "ribbon" that is like 8" wide and folded it in half, ran a long straight stitch and scrunched it up into a ruffle, pinned it around the edge one piece, fanning into the apron, pinned the other piece to it (wrong sides touching), sewed it, flipped it right side out and top stitched. Basically the same idea for the top, minus the ruffle, but add the ribbon for the neck strap; connected the two pieces and topped with a ribbon waist band. Whew, how was that for abbreviated? :D Oh, and melted the ribbon ends- always :)


Day 8/9

Cards! 

My sweet friend Heather had me over for craft night and we played around with her new sewing machine. She had never used one before the other night when she tried mine and now she's hooked! She found one with all the accessories for $40- what a deal!!! Anyhoo- went over to give her the rundown of sewing machine basics and decided to make a bunch of cards. We had a great time (always do!) and then I thought I should check my phone to see if Shannon had called. When I opened my phone I said "hmmm. That's funny. My phone says it's 1:15" We checked the kitchen clock- sure enough!! 1:15 in the morning!! We got a little carried away in our crafting and visiting :P I had plans to meet up with another friend to garage sale at 6:50 the next morning and still needed to do grocery shopping BEFORE then, oops!! So, the point of that rambling was that the top cards were finished on day 8- bottom cards were day 9's accomplishment. Considering that I slept for 4 hours, went grocery shopping at 5am, met up and went garage sale-ing at 6:50, came home, cleaned, cooked and entertained (that's debatable) 2 couples and their boys until almost 11pm- finishing the cards totally counts as making something that day! I also made carrot cake with a buttercream/cream cheese hybrid frosting, but forgot to take a picture!! It was yumm. 


Day 10

Aislynn Rose was born Aug 7th!! And this only made it in the mail TODAY, the 19th. Yep, I suck a little. Congratulations to Bethany and Trenton! Oh, and lucky little Aislynn has the best grandma ever. She's super lucky. 


Day 11

Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies. Yumm-o! Recipe straight from the bag of Nestle white chocolate chips. I figure they know what they're talking about, I'll just follow along :)  

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup NESTLE® TOLL HOUSE® Baking Cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1 (12 ounce) package NESTLE® TOLL HOUSE® Premier White Morsels

Directions

1. PREHEAT oven to 350 degrees F.
2. COMBINE flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in eggs. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels. Drop by well-rounded teaspoon onto ungreased baking sheets.
3. BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until centers are set. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Day 12/13

Finley finally settled on Hello Kitty for her birthday party theme. And I finally settled on a date and time and booked the water slide. So invitations are going out with a WHOLE week's notice for our guests because I'm awesome like that. Shannon had put in for leave and so I decided to book the slide for a Friday- no Saturdays were available until Sept 18th, and aside from being 3 weeks AFTER her birthday, Shannon may or may not have to go to a class in Yuma starting Sept 12ish, so we went with the 27th. As soon as I made the payment Shannon let me know that he is in some other class that whole week and won't be taking leave. Ugh. Silly Marine Corps. Don't they know a very special little person is trying to plan a 3rd birthday!!?!? Oh well, Daddy will come when he can :) I made these invites and sent them to almost every person I've met since we moved here, so it is possible that there will be mass chaos at 100 Deerfield Rd on Friday, the 27th, but what the heck? You only turn 3 once!  Oh, and Finley wants to know what happened to Hello Kitty's face. Sorry kid- you took forever to pin down a theme and this is what I came up with! Love you!

Oh, I was out of glitter, so these were started one day and finished the next. With ALL that spare time I had, sitting around without any glitter, I started the Puppet Theatre Makeover! This was a garage sale purchase from Saturday that was a little bit sad. I took it all apart and spray painted it a muted metallic gold- very regal :) Started one day, finished the next. 30 screws people!! 30!! Where, right? 

Before

After

Day 13 continued...
Apparently Day 13 was just super productive. Mostly because the grunt work was done on Day 12, so in the spirit of finishing projects, I pulled out these butterflies from a container. They never really looked finished to me. Apparently they just needed to be sewn down. I love them much better now :)

But I'm not done yet!! While I was in the container I also came across a shirt that I wanted to make for a friend. Like a year ago. I found these t-shirts for like $3 on clearance and bought two of them. I cut up one into some strips about 3" wide. I placed them around the neckline, flipping and flopping and scrunching here and there and pinned them in place. Then I sewed a couple zigs and voila! Asymetrical ruffled shirt. My husband accused me of being lazy and posting a picture of a "dirty shirt". It's not dirty! It's kind of tie-dyed. I'm not helping, am I? I think it's great, and that's what matters! Well, I guess it matters that the recipient thinks it is great too...

Obviously I think it's great. Look how super fantastically pleased I look alone in my kitchen modeling the shirt at 11pm when I should be sleeping! I look awful. Y'all love me anyway, though, right? And Sweet Pepper loves it, too. Look at her, all up on the shirt! Back off!!! It's not for yoU!!!


Day 14

Soooo, I'm in love with this necklace and it's not even for me. The person I made it for is very special, hence the use of the buttons. These are vintage buttons from my grandmother's stash. I love them. A lot. Hope she does, too ♥ I found the best lobster clasp at Michaels- perfect for chunky fabric necklaces. Must go back and buy the rest of them... 


And, now I'm going to share my other button creation- Marine Corps Ball 2008. This was not made today or even recently, but while I'm on the subject of buttons, and really, if you've been reading this long (this is the LONGEST BLOG POST EVER!!!!) why stop now?  Anywho, my, ahem, "girls" were quite large because I was nursing (and yes, they're large now, because I'm nursing AGAIN. It's pretty much all I do.) Anyhow, I had a VERY hard time finding a gown. But then I came across this monstrosity at ROSS on clearance for 19.99.  I think it's something to make it to clearance at ROSS. That's pretty bad. You can kind of see in the photo just how cheap and tacky the "gemstones" on the neckline were. Yea, I took those off, AND....

I replaced them with BUTTONS! Yea! Buttons!!

Can you tell it was the funnest dress ever? No? Okay, maybe this picture will prove it...

Yup. Can't argue with this picture. Funnest ball gown ever :)

Alright. How was that for starting off the blog with a bang? Anyone? Hello? No, nobody is reading?? Sad day :( Oh well, I had fun. I feel an awful lot like Doogie Howser. Blabbing away to the computer screen with no response. Only my curser isn't flashing. Must work on that... So, today, Day 14- I made a button necklace AND a blog!! Busy day!