Spring, sprang, sprung!

So I have been enjoying the first days of Spring! One the first day I kept singing this song from Willy Wonka as I went for a wonderful walk around the block. Gyspy was very excited to go exploring in the  Spring time air.  Then we had snow for the next few days which was certainly NOT COOL! 

Aside from nice weather time, a few different things have been going on. I have been working on updating our living room pillows. The pillows were kind of blank so I decided to spiffy them up a bit. I used the freezer paper stencil technique and made some arrows and chevron patterns. What do you think? 

After making some pillows, I started working on a new bag. I used some techniques learned from Craftsy and came up with this fancy bag. I like how it came out, however I have to make the from pockets taller. It also features an interior pocket and a TARDIS. This is part of a new line I am working. Its for the fashionable professional geek. Fun fact, I used one of Tim's dress shirts to making the lining. 

I learned this past week that I was featured on the Crafts for Kids blog, woo hoo ! Thanks to them for featuring my Sharpie Mug tutorial.  Speaking of being featured, I was also excited to see that one of my bowties made it on a treasury list called Primarily Yours. My crafts are getting around! 

I also did something kind of crazy, I signed up for a 5k.....thats a muddy obstacle course.... and I'll be trying to escape zombie hoards. Yeah you heard that right, ZOMBIES! Its Matt's birthday and this is how we are celebrating. Our team is called Z.E.U.S. (Zombie eradicating utility squad) and hopefully we can escape the grips of walkers! Yeah I don't know what I was thinking but its too late now but hopefully this forces me into some healthier habbits. 

Sunday Snap Shots

 

Yay its Sunday again! I another fun filled week. Let me tell yas all about it. Its another link up so feel free to add your link and check out what everyone else is up to!

Last weekend Tim came across some information on terrariums. So he decided to make one with some succulent plants. It looks really nice and it looks great on our coffee table.

While Tim was making terrariums, I was working on some pillows. Laura and I went to a discount fabric store and stocked up on fabric. I bought some stuff to work on bags and make some new pillows for the couch. After I made the first pillow it was really 'Blah' so I decided to paint some arrows on it to spiff it up. What do you think?

The past weekend we got something pretty awesome, a fooseball table! It was a dream realized for Tim. I however am horrible at the game. It was a gift from my Mom's boyfriend. They have a tiny house and don't have room for it so they offered it to us. We also got a sweet new dart board, a nice upgrade from our crappy electronic one.

Laura got me hooked on a new app. Iconmania is an addicting fun app in which you have to use the visual clues to guess what it represents. I couldn't help but chuckle when this one came up. Did they really need to include the cigar ?

While listening to Doug Loves Movies one of the guests mentioned that he had a YA novel out. It caught my attention. The guests was comedian D.C. Pearson and the book is called Crap Kingdom. It's about a kid who is upset about how normal his life is and yearns for a miserable existence so that he can be taken to a magical world and be its phrophesized hero. To his surprise he does get taken to a magical world but its kinda...crappy. Its really funny and you should check it out.

This week also marked the first day of Spring. YAY! I took Gyppers on her first walk of the season. She was very excited. It was nice to get some fresh air. Unfortunately it didn't last long! The next morning we woke up to more snow!

Dice Bag

Tim and I have been really having fun playing D & D. We have a rag tag bunch of friends really making it a lot of fun. Tim is taking his role Dungeon Master (DM) seriously and a few days ago he asked if I could make him a bag for his dice. Less than an hour - BOOM! - new dice bag. I was surprised that I figured it out quickly! It came out very snazzy. All of our fellow players were a bit jealous, but I'll probably make them all pouches.

Here is a glimpse of our D & D adventures!

If you also want your own snazzy dice bag just follow this tutorial and you'll have a sweet new dice bag in no time.

Materials & Tools

• Fabric A (exterior) 
• Fabric B (lining) 
• Drawstring (yarn also works) 
• Ruler 
• Tailors chalk (or any other tool for marking) 
• Scissors 
• Safety pin 
• Sewing notions 

Instructions

• Cut the body part of the bag. Take both fabric A and B and cut your size. I made them 5 X 11 inches
• Cut bottom of the bag. Make a circle out of both fabric A and B. I made my circle have a 3 inch circumference. 

• Take fabric A and measure in inch from the top make a mark then another mark a half inch from the other mark. Fold your peice in half, pin and sew along the edge (with a 1/4 inch seam allowance). You will leave a hole on the marks you had just made. This is where the drawstring will be fed threw. Just do this step for fabric A!

• For fabric B and fold in half and sew along the edge (with a 1/4 seam allowance)
• You made a little tubes, congrats! Now take the circle part, pin and sew to the bottom of your bag for both fabric A and fabric B.
• Turn fabric A inside out then place it inside fabric B, pin around the edge and sew, but leave a hole about 2 inches. 

• After sewn up, but the bag inside out through the 2 inch hole. You can press your bag so it looks crisp and nice. 

• Before you insert the string you need to sew another little line (under the open hole) this will help keep the string in place. So start underneath that open hole and sew around the bag.

• Now we insert the drawstring! Take a safety pin and attach it to one end of the string and feed it through the hold until it goes around the bag. You can cut and adjust your string as desired. Give it a pull and see how you bag is now a drawsting sack thing! 

• Ta - da! Be proud you made something fantastical!

 

St. Patrick's Day - Meme for Monday

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day. Its a holiday I usually feel 'meh' about. However, this year was our first year as Rocky Point residents, attendance to the big St. Patrick's Day parade they have in town was mandatory. A few friends came over and we were able to walk down to 25a (the parade route). Afterwards were snacked on some noms and watched Syfy's Leprechaun marathon until our corn beef and cabbage was ready. 

This is also the time of year I share one of my all time favorite meme's which will probably get busted out every year around March 17th. It's an old news report about a neighborhood in Mobile, Alabama that has a close encounter with a Leprechaun (but it could be a crack head) 

Sunday Snapshots - Link Party!

Hello there friends! Its another Sunday! 

We stopped by Tim's brother's house and spent some time with our niece  Lexie. She's at a really fun age and all she wants to do is play. She was having tons of fun with Uncle Tim. 

Our supply of fizzing whiz-bees has been depleted. To avoid going through withdrawal I tried making some of my own! Look for the recipe coming soon.

It was another week of Iron Craft! On reveal day I showed off my fabulous bucket bag made out of scrap fabric. You can read more details about it here. I also met up with Michele and we started working on the next Iron Craft challenge, Peeps! We made some peep sushi. It looks better than it tastes. 

When Michele came over, she came bearing gifts! She brought us some Starbucks K-cups of Casa Cielo. Its pretty amazing and its certainly my new jam. 

I left my nails pretty bare for the last week and didn't plan on doing anything with them. Then my work bestie, Margaret told me about one of my little friends asking about me. There is a little girl that comes to one of my library programs all of the time. I always compliment her on her pretty nails and she does the same to me. When I wasn't there one day she came in and asked Margaret "Where's the lady with the pretty nails!" So I had to paint them for my little friend. 

In a few weeks there is going to be a big Suess-a-bration at my library. One of the activities is going to be 'One Fish, Two Fish, Ring Toss' Here is how it came out! 

This week I am inviting any other bloggers that would like to participate join the link up. Its open to everyone I just ask that you follow these simple rules: 

• Post a link to your blog
• The post must contain at least three pictures with descriptions
• Check out some of the other participants and comment
• Follow your host, mwah, is not required but very much appreciated

a link party invitation

  

I am fully aware that today is not Sunday. Today I am giving you an invitation to a link party!

On Sunday I always recap my week in pictures. I feature stuff from the week that was interesting, including projects I am working on, good food, shopping scores or even silly things I do to my dog (she's really fond of costumes).

I invite anyone interested in joining the blog hop to join us this Sunday to add their blog! The only rule is that you link to a post featuring at least three pictures telling us how you week went. So start documenting your life!

Iron Craft Challenge # 5 - Something 'Green'

Its another Iron Craft reveal day. This time we are up to challenge # 5. Since St. Patrick's Day is almost upon us the challenge was to craft something that was green or 'green'. Crafters could take this in two different ways, either make something with the color green or do something that is going green, like repurposing something or using recycled materials. Green is my absolute favorite color and I have a lot of green stuff, however I am trying to do different things for Iron Craft, so I went for the ladder, something 'green'.

I have been sewing since I was in high school and I have always collected my scraps. Fabric can be pretty pricy so I keep every last bit because you never know when you will be able to use it for a future project. So after sewing on and off for about 10 years I have racked up quite the collection of scraps. Its starting to get out of hand. Since all of the pieces are really tiny to make big project, I decided to sew them together for a patchwork effect. So I had my materials but still at a loss for a project, what could I make out of all these scraps?! 

A while back I enrolled in a bunch of Craftsy classes. A series of free classes were recently released. Some are hosted by Kristen Link (from one of my favorite sewing blogs, Sew Mama Sew). In the classes Bag Making Basics, one of the projects is making a bucket bag. Since it didn't require too much fabric I decide to give it a try.  

Here is the finished product! Its not the most beautiful thing because I had made some odd fabric choices when I started sewing. At one point I used the checkerboard stuff to make myself pillows, I was really into Ska back then. The bucket bag was perfect for all of my knitting stuff. I especially love that the pockets hole the needles and other notions! 

Sunday Snapshots

This week has been fun filled!

Monday night I hosted another craft night at Crazy Beans! This time around we crafted up some tile coasters.  Lots if people came and it was a blast. You can get all the details here.

Earlier in the week I did some gypsy torture, which consists of dressing her in ridiculous things. She's an adorable little bean.

Tim our dungeon master asked me to make a pouch for our collection of dice. I looked at a few for reference and I did some experimenting and came up with this!

That night we had another go on our adventure. My friends joe (Kodiak) and Laura (oak lore) kicked some serious goblin butt and we finished our first encounter. It looks like we are bored and half asleep, but I asure you we had a lot of fun.

I also did some sewing for myself, I made this pretty infinity scarf. This project found me. They day before I found a Pinterest pin featuring this lace infinity scarf and I really liked it and tucked the idea away. I was browsing fabric and came across some lace and jersey fabric and I decided to go for it! I finished it just in time for a night out. It was my friend Laura's birthday and as a present I promised her a shopping spree at the fabric store and a day of crafts!

Read Anything Good lately? - Bomb

Non-fiction is not my favorite thing in the world. Perhaps I am scared from years of loathing text book formats and skimming bodies of text looking for vital information. However if you are in an educational field, you are aware that the new common core standards are placing such emphasis on non-fiction in the classroom. I hope text book authors are learning a thing or two from one of their former counterparts, Steve Sheinkin. He is the author the 2013s Newberry Honor book, Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World's Most Dangerous Weapon and he is also the author to help me discover a new found appreciation for non-fiction.

Bomb is all about the secret war to build the world's first atomic bomb. The discovery of how to split Uranium atoms launched the arms race between the Allied Forces, Germany and Russia. At the time of this discovery Albert Einstein was vacationing on Long Island (a fact I certainly nerded out on) he immediately sent a letter to FDR stressing the importance of this discovery! A crack team of leading scientists were assembled led by Oppenheimer in a remote lab in Los Alamos. Little did they know there were some spies in their midsts and what does the destruction of a German cold water plant have to do with this? We all know what the result of their work, this is the story we don't know, the unclassified story of the atomic bomb.

Sheinkin took an interesting moment in history and crafting an amazing story. Had this been a history channel special it may have momentarily held my interest, if this same story was written by any other author I probably would not have made it past chapter one. Luckily this story was in the capable hands of Sheikin. He admits that he is a recovering text book writer with a background in film, which explains why the book felt cinematic. In the first chapter we meet poor Harry Gold destroying all of his papers when some federal agents are knocking on his door. I was drawn in immediately! What did this guy do, why is he destroying his stuff? What is the story there? I felt bad for Harry Gold because of the context in which his story was presented. These people were all real people from history but Sheinkin developed these characters and made you feel like you really knew these people. I identified most with Oppenheimer. As leader of the team he was driven to get to the bomb before the enemy did, out of necessity but he also had an intense internal conflict with the realization of the devastation these weapons bring. Another cinematic tool Sheinkin mastered is suspense! As mentioned espionage is a factor in this story there are some tense moments when some spies are nearly discovered. (I'd love to tell you about it however I don't want to spoil it for you!)

If you are into history or just a good story I highly recommend Bomb. Sheinkin has a few other historical works under his belt covering The Notorious Benedict Arnold and the Old West (Which Way to the Wild West?) which I plan to check out! His latest is a work of fiction but based in a historical setting, Lincoln's Grave Robbers.

Craft Night Recap - Coaster!

Last night I was back at Crazy Beans for my second craft night! I loved making mugs on our first craft night, however it was post blizzard so we didn't get the huge turn out I had expected. Last night certainly made up for it! It was packed!

For these craft nights at Crazy Beans I have been trying to think of things that would be useful and cohesive with the cafe theme. Our first project was perfect, we did mugs. I have been back since then and was glad to use customers using some of the mugs we had made! This time around I thought coasters would be appropriate. I had done these a while back with Michele and I also used a whimsey box to make some. Here is what some of the madness looked like!

This is a pretty simple project, and here is a quick little how to:

Materials & Tools

• 4 x 4 white tile (gloss or matte finishes work)
• Felt 
• Hot glue gun 
• scrap paper 
• tissue paper 
• washi tape 
• Mod Podge 
• foam brush
• Enamel spray

Instructions

• Use your hot glue gun and attach some felt to the bottom of the tile. This step helps prevent the tile from scratching up your table! You can also use cork. 
• Take your scrap paper, tissue paper and washi tape and arrange how every you would like. You can also print out pictures to use. Go nuts, have fun! 
• Once your stuff is arranged how you like take your foam brush and mod podge over your images on the tile. Let it dry for a few minutes. 
• After your coaster has dried a little bit take it outside (or a well ventilated area) and spray a few coats. Let it dry for at least a day before using it. 

Here are some of the finished coasters from our crafty adventures from last night!