Something for the Boys

As I've mentioned, I see tons of cool projects on Pinterest that I'd like to try. Unfortunately, I don't have room for all of that stuff, so I have to squeeze a couple new things in here and there. Since Jim has been such a good sport about my crafting crap being spread all over the place, I thought I'd make a little something that he might actually appreciate. I saw this one a while back, so I thought I'd give it a try.


So... For Boston! Oops... St. Louis. It just doesn't quite have the same ring to it (pun intended).

Like I said, I saw this on Pinterest, so unfortunately it wasn't my idea. I just kinda winged it based on the picture I saw. I think it came out ok, and with plenty of baseball season to spare!

The foam wreath is wrapped in white yarn and bits of red felt tied with a leather-like cord. I traced the logo onto some card stock to make a stencil, then cut it out of stiff felt. The flowers were the only part I looked for instructions for, and I found those here and here.

I had intended to make one for our door and if he liked it, to make another for him to send to his dad, who is also a huge Cardinals fan. But he is going to visit his dad earlier than I'd expected. So I finished this quick so that he can take it with him (and hopefully keep it from getting smashed in his suitcase), just re-confirming that I work better with a deadline.

When I make the other one, and I'm not in a hurry, I'll take some pictures of the process, and explain how I made the logo since I've already had a few people ask me about that.

On a different note, I did go check out Puppystream.me yesterday. It's so cute! It's basically just your dog's life in pictures. I'm glad I found it while Penny is still a puppy, so her timeline can start from the beginning. It's still in the beta stage right now, but I emailed with the founder and he said that they will be introducing new features in July! I can't wait for Jim to be able to upload pics of her too. He always seems to get cuter ones than I do, haha. Guess he's just faster to react when she does something cute. Even if you don't have a dog, you should check it out. It's like Facebook for dog's. (But better than Dogbook, which is NOT user-friendly) Here is a link to Penny's timeline. http://puppystream.me/beth/penny Go look!

Life with Penny

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, my puppy, Penny, received her first BarkBox for the month of May. For those who don't know what a BarkBox is, it's a subscription service from which your dog receives a monthly package containing, new and/or unique dog accessories. I bought a deal from DailyCandy for three months for $35 (normally $21 a month). It's probably not something that I would have done with my dog before, but then I already new her likes and dislikes. But, since Penny and I are still getting to know each other, I thought this might be a good way to try out some new things and get a feel for her preferences. Before I bought the package, I Googled a bit to see if anyone had had good/bad experiences with BarkBox, and I have to say that I was a little surprised when all I found were great reviews and blog posts. But now I get it. And since reading those opinions helped me decide, I thought I'd share about our first experience, in case it can help someone else someday.

So here it is: Penny's May BarkBox.

First, here is Penny:

The BarkBox came in a cute little box that looked like a present.

Here's a shot of each item alone with a description from the company:
Katie's Bumpers- The Sqwuggie is an awesome interactive toy made from durable, fire hose material. They're great for tug, fetch or any water excursion. Penny loves this! Although it's about a tall as her.

Sloppy Kisses of Saratoga Springs- These Dallas Delights are an all natural treat and the specialty treat of the Sloppy Kisses Bakery. They are made with lots of peanut butter and are a tasty treat that any pup is sure to love. Penny really liked these too. But I wish I had read the description sooner because left in the bag they came in, they were moldy in a little less than a week.

Warren London- Treat your pup! This spa kit by Warren London includes their signature hydrating butter and a paw fizz tablet. Rub the hydrating butter into your dog's coat for a moisturizing effect and soak their paws in the tub with the tablet for a clean soothing feeling. We haven't tried the hydrating butter yet, and she can't tell me if she liked the paw fizz tablet, but I do know that she liked to watch it fizz in the water.

Gulpy- This portable water dispenser is perfect for walks, a trip to the park or whenever you and the pup leave home! No more sharing a slobber-covered water bottle with Fido, this one is all his. She is really finicky about her water, but she did like this bottle better than the H2O4K9 bottle that I bought for her before.

Spiral Bully Stick- These are bully sticks... with a twist! They're odor free, all natural, and sourced from free-range grass fed cattle. Keep your pup occupied AND promote healthy teeth and gums. This was Penny's favorite! She wouldn't put it down. Luckily, since she's so tiny, I was able to cut into about four equal pieces so it lasted a lot longer.

It also came with this little card in the box for Puppystream.me. I haven't had a chance to check it out yet, but since I'm thinking about it, I might go do it right now!

Anyway, so that's the BarkBox. I think it's great. I love getting new stuff in the mail and since I buy so much for her, it's like it's all for both of us, haha. we should be getting at least two more boxes and hopefully they will be just as good as the first!

High Five For Friday

So I'm a little obsessed with blogs. There are sooo many that I read religiously that I don't even know where to start. Something I've noticed that a lot of people do, and I've given some thought to doing myself, is link up with Lauren from the blog From My Grey Desk for High Five for Friday. 

Reasons I hesitate are (a) I'm not that great at this blogging thing (obviously), so I'm not sure that I want to draw any attention to myself just yet, and (b) I'm not sure that I can find five things worth talking about every week, and once I start, I kinda feel like it's something I should continue.

But, here's what I've decided today. What the hell! So what if my blog is kinda crappy right now, everyone had to start somewhere, right? And if I can't find five noteworthy things a week, then I'm obviously doing something wrong and I need to get out more. Plus, maybe it'll help me with Project Life, if I ever get back to that.

So, before I change my mind, here are my five favorite things from this past week:

1. Intuition Beer- I'm not a huge beer drinker, but Jim said the growler that I brought home for him was the best beer he's ever had. And I had fun with Nic and NiCole.

2. Flogging Molly- They put on an awesome show, as expected! And Jim got his picture taken with a Celtic Paratrooper!

3. My puppy, Penny, got her first Barkbox. More on this later, because I think it's awesome! (She also got a new tag and collar, but I don't have pictures yet)

4. My nephew's birthday present came and It's adorable. I'm pathologically worried about ordering anything that says "not eligible for return," but I decided to risk it and I'm glad I did. Sorry it's not my picture, his is still in the box. It's from Rockabye.

5. My first canister of Greens First came in yesterday! I've heard so many great things about this stuff, I can't wait to see what a difference it makes.

And that was my week. Next week is only four days so it should be even better!

Lost But Not Forgotten

So, I started this blog thinking that, now that I was done with school, I had all this free time to work on the projects I've been wanting to tackle and to blog about them in an effort to keep myself accountable to actually finishing some. It turns out that that was not quite the case. Now, obviously "free time" means different things to different people and it's really a matter of where your priorities lie, so my definition of "free time" is probably considerably different than someone with, say, a family or a stressful job. In my defense, I spent the majority of 2011 doing nothing but school work (and occasionally babysitting my nephew), so the prospect of no longer having to write research papers and read 1100 page books felt like the end of a jail sentence. 

Even though I knew in the back of my mind that graduating didn't mean that I was going to have 24/7 free time (I still had to find a job and then go to work), I thought, I'll still have my evenings free, I'll have plenty of time. And technically, I do.

It's no secret that my life revolves around television. It's my escape, and I couldn't be the geek that I am without it. Luckily, since it is no longer 1998, and dvr's are now a staple, I have the luxury of planning tv around my schedule instead of having to tell everyone "sorry I can't go out on Friday, Sliders is on." Also lucky for me, is that most of my projects can be done primarily on my coffee table. It does leave the area considerably cluttered (sorry, Jim), but it keeps me from having to make difficult decisions. 

Don't worry, I know how sad this all sounds, and I don't have any excuses for my obsessions, but I will tell you this, we don't have children, and we're not extremely close with our families, so when our dog passed away a few months ago, tv and crafts were about the only things that got me out of bed in the morning. They kept my mind occupied so that I didn't spend all day being sad. 

I got this sudden urge for things to be different. I couldn't put a finger on what exactly, but something needed to change. If we hadn't just renewed our lease, we probably would have moved. As it was, that was not an option. So I've spent the last few months making changes to our apartment/life, where they were possible and affordable. And I guess that is why I've been too busy/preoccupied to (a) finish many projects, (b) document any of it, and (c) clean up the mess the unfinished projects left behind. 

So, first, the non-creative things I've changed... I got a new car, it was very anti-climactic, got new bedroom furniture (graduation present from Mom), and a couple weeks ago, we got a new puppy. But that is a whole other story. 

And now I'm going to start what I hope will not become a regular piece on this blog:

Lost But Not Forgotten: The Abandoned Project Hall of Fame

Three guesses what the first inductee is. I bet you won't need them all.

Project: Yep, it's the stupid blanket.

What it is: Ugh, I don't want to talk about it.

Why it was abandoned: Truthfully, when I started it a year ago, it was meant to be for a full sized bed. But we now have a queen sized bed (thank god!), so as it was almost finished, I realized that it was going to be too small. Fortunately, I didn't have to take anything apart, I did, however, have to go buy more yarn. More. Yarn. But things have come up and it's gotten tossed aside (literally). I'll finish it one day, it's just hard to stay motivated to finish an afghan in the summer in Florida.

Project: Project Life

What it is: This sounded like a great idea. The lazy-girl's scrap book, if you will. Everything you need to document your life without having to put in the effort to be ultra creative.

Why it was abandoned: I like to think that it hasn't quite been "abandoned" yet. Or at least my bank account does. It turns out you still have to take your own pictures and, like, write stuff. What?!?! Plus, I think I'm just not really in the habit of snapping shots and taking notes on my everyday life. I thought once I started it might become something that I remembered to do, but since I only made it two pictures into the first spread, it didn't really have time to become habit forming. I think maybe I'll just start over.

Project: Plarn
What it is: Crocheting with yarn made out of plastic bags.
Why it was abandoned: This has always been one of those do-a-little-at-a-time projects. Mostly because after a while the plastic starts to hurt my fingers. You know, kinda like new jelly shoes, or cheap flip flops. So I have to take a break and come back to it when my fingers have recovered. This recovery period has just been a bit longer than most. Like months longer. I'm hoping to get a few things made this summer, but I'm not really sure where this falls on my to do list. Believe it or not, there are at least three half finished bags somewhere in this mess.

Project: Boxes
What it is: Boxes I've found, liked, and want save for some future use. Covering with sealant so the cardboard doesn't deteriorate.
Why it was abandoned: I realized that I've been collecting all these boxes, but have no use for them yet. So why bother?

Project: Beads
What it is: This isn't so much a project as something that I need to get done or throw away.
Why it was abandoned: I came across this box filled with smaller boxes of beads. Like tons of them. Most that I won't use anymore.So until I get around to packaging them, taking pictures and listing them on Etsy, they're really just taking up space. I'm trying to decide if it's worth the trouble.

However, I haven't been completely unproductive. I did decide that my living room needed a little more color, so this happened:

and this:

Details on those next time. I also tried unsuccessfully to make those pinata cookies that were going around on Pinterest. All that did was remind me of why I don't cook.

Also, since writing this, I've decided that I don't like the Shag stuff, so that will be coming down soon. I guess it's back to Pinterest for wall art ideas!

Tapestry Crochet- Failure

I’ve been crocheting for several years now. However, I don’t consider myself good at it. I’ve never made anything with fancy stitches or that involves a lot of different pieces. I mostly stick to blankets and skirts. Pretty basic.

About a year and a half ago I read an article/blog/something talking about Tapestry Crochet. If you don’t know what Tapestry Crochet is, it usually looks something like this:

Or

I’ve made simple stuff using this technique, like pot holders.

But I wanted to try something on a larger scale. I couldn’t find any blanket patterns that I liked so I decided to create my own. I found a picture of a simple cherry blossom branch and copied the image into Excel making a cross-stitch-like pattern. It seemed easy enough. I would crochet the image of the branch into the blanket and then add three dimensional flowers on the top.

Unfortunately, when it comes to measuring estimating height and width, it turns out I’m practically incompetent. I really wish I had taken some pictures to show here, but in my frustration, it never occurred to me. Here is a likeness to the pattern I used, to illustrate the disaster this blanket turned into.

This is how it was supposed to look. Right in the middle.

This is how it ended up.

After months spent making and remaking this stupid blanket, leaving it totally off-centered on my bed was just going to continually piss me off. So, I took it apart. Completely. And I had a ridiculous amount of yarn. I’d bought more yarn throughout each iteration of the blanket, so I didn’t realize how much I had used until it was all rolled in balls and I had nowhere to put it all.

Looking at this mountain of yarn, it occurred to me that I’d probably spent an obscene amount of money on this little “trial project,” so I decided to make it into a kind of blanket that left no way for me to take it apart a hundred times. It’s still in progress, but I can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel, so my aggression is slowly wearing off. Here’s where I’m at right now:

Here’s what I have left:

It still looks like a lot, but by comparison, it’s almost done. Jim will be so happy to have his half of the couch back!

Lessons learned:

1)      Follow someone else’s direction before making them up on your own.

2)      Start small

3)      Consider the cost before attempting to make something, it might be much cheaper and less time-sucking to just go buy the damn blanket! Grrr….