Easy Infinity Scarf

Happy Hump Day, All! I wanted to share a quick mid-week post to share a quick five minute project with you.

I have many fabulous fashionistas in my life. On Saturday, I went out with some of my favorite fashionistas from work to celebrate the birthday of one of my favorites, Nicolle.

We had an awesome time being together outside of work, away from kids, and with drinks in our hands.

After a beer or two, we all agreed that we HAD to surprise Nicolle with a fish bowl full of punch accompanied by a huge sparkler. Silliness ensued.

After seeing these very fashionable ladies outside of work, I decided that I need a little wardrobe up date myself.

I have been seeing a lot of infinity scarfs this winter. I am knitting myself one, but decided I couldn't wait for some cold weather fashion.

I started with an old scarf I had laying around. My friend's mom made it for him, and he decided it wasn't quite masculine for him. He passed it on to me, and it was a little too long to become a favorite of mine.

Pardon the picture. I had just returned from the gym. 

So, I decided it was the perfect candidate for my project.

I cut off all of the fringe but three pieces. 

Before and After

Then, I trimmed off all of the fringe on the other side.

I matched up the two sides (making sure the scarf wasn't twisted) and used the fringe to sew the two sides together using a darning needle. You can find darning needles where knitting supplies are sold.

1. matching the sides 2. beginning to sew 3. tying off one of the strands 4. the finished product "wrong side"

Then, just flip it off to hide the sewing.

 Wear it and enjoy!

One last note. Speaking of fabulous fashionistas, Kelle Hampton, the writer of one of my favorite blogs, Enjoying the Small Things is having a fundraiser in honor of her daughter's third birthday. Her daughter, Nella, was born with Down Syndrome. Click here to pop over to add a bit of sunshine to your day. If you feel so inclined, click here to donate to her fundraiser. All donates go directly to the National Down Syndrome Society. 

As you may have guessed (based on my career), children, especially children with special needs, hold a special place in my (and Jeremy's) hearts. The National Down Syndrome Society is a cause we both felt great about donating to this month. 

Until next time, keep crafting.

SB 

Year of Fulfillment

There are certain years I will always remember. "Big years" in my life.

2003 will always be the year that opened my eyes to the world. I graduated from high school. It's the year I went to college, met Maggie, and truly realized the world didn't revolve around my friends and me.

208 will always be my year of growth. At the beginning of that year, I had just returned from living in Germany. I moved four times that year, from my parent's house (where I was storing all my stuff) back to Kalamazoo to finish my student teaching, within Kalamazoo, and finally to Chicago. In Chicago, in a matter of a week, I moved into my first and only apartment where I lived alone, started teaching, and started dating the man I would marry. It was scary, stressful, overwhelming, and exciting. Looking back, I was entirely unprepared and overly confident. 

2011 was a year of change. In January, we lost my Grandma to Alzheimer's. She was an intelligent, kind, and crafty lady. There's not a time when I use her hand me down sewing machine that I don't think of her. In April, Jeremy and I got engaged. In July, we moved in together. In August, we picked up our little guy, Mosby. In December, my sister and Tony got engaged, were about to move back to Chicago, and were quietly pregnant.

As you all may have guessed, 2012 was a big one. Jeremy and I got married. My sister had Sofia. Emily and Tony got married.

To remember that year, I made a Christmas ornament for Jeremy & I, and also one for Em & Tony.

I started with clear glass ornaments and our wedding invitations. 

Then, I cut the invitations into strips. I made sure to preserve the writing by cutting horizontally following the lines of print.

Then, starting with the most important lines of print, I rolled each line around my pinky.

And placed them inside the ornament.

Then, I placed the colored paper of the invitation into the ornament and placed the top back on.

Both Emily and Tony's and Jeremy and my invitation had ribbon. So, I used the ribbon as a way to hang the ornaments.

Here's a look at Emily and Tony's finished product.

And at Jeremy and my finished product.

I used small bulbs, because they were the only ones available. The larger bulbs would work too. I'm really pleased with the result. It was be a wonderful way to remember 2012, our very important year.

Which brings us to 2013. There's no way that 2013 can compete with the significance of 2012. I knew I wanted to make 2013 an important year, in it's own way.

I was introduced to a "New Year's Resolution" form by one of my fellow teachers. She was using it with her 4th graders, but I loved the idea.

The idea is to start with a word. One word, for the whole year.

I chose "fulfillment". I chose this because too often, I find myself "going through the motions". I go to work, come home, eat dinner, and watch TV. I find myself unhappy and dreading work. While work is an important part of my life, where I spend a lot of time, when I start to make work, and the problems there too important to me. They start to become my WHOLE life. And when things are tough at work (like this school year), I begin to feel unfulfilled.

So, here's where the rest of the resolution sheet comes in.

You have four sentences to finish, to help support your word of the year.

It looks something like this:

Word of the Year: fulfillment

What I want in 2013 is: to feel comfortable in my skin, by exercising and eating portion controlled, healthy foods.

What I need in 2013 is: to watch less TV.

What I will share in 2013 is: my blog with more people.

In 2013 I will succeed at: making a least one Etsy sale.

So, little by little, I am working towards feeling more fulfilled by using my goals.

I have been seeing some more of this:

Sorry for the blurry picture. I was trying to be sneaky, no one likes their picture taken at the gym.

And even when it's a little more effort, I've been saying 'yes' to seeing friends and family, instead of hunkering down in front of the TV.

1. Mom with besties Sofia & Mosby, 2. & 3. Phil Vasser concert with Lindsay, Lindsey, & Lauren  4. game night with Kenny, Rachel & baby Evie 5. night out with Stefanie & Mark

As for my other two goals (blog and Etsy), I'm working on making the time and gaining some confidence to share my blog more. A special thanks to those of you who give me such encouraging words & pass my blog on to others. 

I may have overdone the "getting off the couch" part, as I was sick all week. I'm a little behind on my blog, and hope to be back with another post later this week. I have an idea that I'm excited to work on and share.

Until then, keep crafting!

SB

Cork Boards & Memories

Memories

I have had a very important person in my life for a very long time. 17 years, to be exact. She has seen me through all stages of my life, elementary school, middle school, high school, college, and now adulthood. 

My best friend, Haley, is the kind of friend that everyone should have. In elementary school, she was already a wonderful, caring, nurturing sister to her two younger siblings. In middle school, she and I shared countless weekends watching movies, including our favorite, Newsies. (If you haven't seen it, do it. A young Christian Bale is the lead newsie, and can sing and dance with the best of them). In high school, she was just as boy crazy as I was, and we spent hours in my over memorabilia filled bedroom looking at yearbooks and talking about boys. In college, we visited each other and drank way too many beers.

Now, as adults, we live states apart. We have stood up in each other's weddings, still know each other's families and siblings' personalities almost as well as our own (think, "of course your sister said that, Hilary's always been like that"), and Haley still holds the title as the person who I've logged the most hours on the phone with.

So, when her husband, Colt, invited me out to their home in Pennsylvania, I jumped at the chance.

Things went pretty much as you would expect. 

I watched Haley be a wonderful, caring, nurturing mom to her two boys.

1. Haley and Colin cuddling 2. playing Operation 3. Connor eating breakfast 4. Colin with model train

We drank way too many beers while looking at yearbooks and talking about people from high school.

And, of course, we watched Newsies.

But this time, instead of watching the VHS in Haley's mom's basement while drinking Faygo Red Pop, we were in New York City, watching it on Broadway!

And it was AMAZING.

What I didn't mention before was that Colt invited me out to their home as part of Haley's Christmas present. The other part was that we were going to NYC to see the musical together.

Haley cried when she opened her gift.

I have never been to New York City and Haley and Colt only live about an hour and forty-five minutes from the city.

Haley and I took off on Saturday morning. We made the drive through the mountains and Jersey.

We had some time to kill before the show, so we decided to see "a few" sights.

1. Haley & I in Times Square 2. NY Times 3. H & I at Rockefeller Center 4. Radio City Music Hall 5. NBC studios 6. Tree at Rock Center 7. Inside of St. Patrick's Cathedral 8. NY Ruben & NY cheesecake for lunch 

After the show, we took in a couple more sights and had a delicious dinner.

1. H in the subway 2. H & I 3. Ellis Island & Statue of Liberty at a LONG distance 4. Ground Zero 5. Central Park 6. Empire State Building 7. Times Square at night 8. creative beggar 9. dinner

Haley and I decided to call that day my "speed date with New York City". We had such a wonderful time.

The whole trip to see them was just perfect. I love that even though Haley and I haven't spent more than 24 hours at a time together in years, we can always pick up right where we left off. We are already planning her trip out to see us in Chicago.

So, now that I have shared a virtual "cork board", I want to share a literal cork board that I made for my wonderful mother-in-law, Pat. She had admired a similar cork board my mom had made for their bar. I decided to make one for her for Christmas.

I started with the back of an old picture frame I wasn't using. It made a good base, plus it already had nice hooks for her hang it vertically or horizontally. I used hot glue to glue the corks onto the board. I made a two vertical, two horizontal pattern.

I kept the pattern going until I had covered the entire board.

I really liked the way it turned out. I hope she did too!

Until next time, keep crafting!

SB

Jeremy's Christmas Present

Jeremy's Gift

Happy New Years, Everyone! I've had a busy couple weeks since I wrote last. Although my last day of work was the 14th, I spent the week before Christmas "elfing" lots of Christmas presents, which I'll be revealing in the next few posts.

I want to start off with Jeremy's Christmas presents. I decided to do a little extra for him this year. Instead of a present or two on Christmas, I did the "Twelve Days of Christmas" for him. It went over big! (It would have gone over bigger, but I forgot the last four gifts in Chicago, so he didn't get the until New Year's Day.)

With the photos of his gifts, I'm also sharing 12 of my favorite memories from the holiday season. Enjoy!

~one~

The first gift was a gift card for coffee from a new coffee shop in our neighborhood, Gaslight.

The first memory is from my first weekend off. Jeremy and I went to a pie shop in our neighborhood, Bang Bang Pie. We've been hearing great things about it, so we went for a breakfast of coffee, bacon, and 3 Christmas flavored pies (think chocolate peppermint, pear minced, and gingerbread). They were so good and it felt great to sit back and relax into the holiday spirit.

~two~

The second gift was one of Jeremy's favorite chocolate treats.

The second memory was a snowy walk with my mom and Mosby. One of my favorite activities up north,  in any season, is hiking. The snow is such a beautiful addition to the hike.

~three~

Jeremy's third gift was nerd ropes. Like me, my husband loves children's candy.

The third memory is Mosby and Sofia interacting. Both are fascinated with each other. This picture is just one of the countless moments Sofia spent studying the furry creature.

~four~

Jeremy's fourth gift was a cap he has been wanting for awhile. One of his buddies teamed up with friends to create Grassroots. Jeremy loves their hats, we both love supporting friend's businesses, and he had yet to by himself one. He was thrilled and wore the hat through most of Christmas.

 The fourth memory was watching Sofia on her 1st Christmas morning. She was fascinated by the wrapping paper and even helped pull some off. It's fun to think about her during all of the Christmas seasons to come.

~fifth~

Jeremy was instructed not to open the fifth present until he got to work one morning. He opened up his gift to see a mug with our little guy on it. I used one of our favorite photos of Mosby, hiking up north, to bring a little cheer to Jeremy's cubicle.

 

 And speaking of hiking, after opening gifts with my side on Christmas Eve morning, Jeremy and I took Mosby for a little hike. Although we love being around our families for Christmas, it was nice to take a little walk, with just our little family. It may become a Christmas tradition.

~six~

Jeremy also had to wait to open his sixth gift until he got to work. Jeremy had no pictures of us at work, so I gave him one of my favorite photos of us, taken at our rehearsal dinner by my best friend Maggie. I put it in one of the coolest frames I own, given to me by my Aunt Mary Ellen a couple years ago for Christmas.

 

 My sixth memory is especially special to me. My Gram on Christmas Eve. She LOVES her first great grandbaby and she thinks her grandkids are pretty great too. We had a really fun night together.

~seven~

Jeremy's seventh gift was a six pack of beer, dressed as reindeer.

My seventh memory is hanging out with Jeremy's side all day Christmas Day. We had so much fun opening gifts, eating lots of good food, and playing Erica's new dancing games on Wii. Jeremy's sister Liz is the undisputed Wii dancing champion. She has some mad skills.

~eight~

 Jeremy's eighth gift was for him and his coworkers. I baked some candy cane chocolate chip cookies and chocolate covered candy canes for him and his crew. The candy cane turned out especially well. I got the recipe from Pinterest.

The day after Christmas, we went ice skating. This proved to be a bit of a hard work out than expected and the kids may have spent more time on the ice than their feet. Sans a few adult falls, fun was had by all.

 *a bonus memory that didn't get puotographed. My dad and I saw The Hobbit together. It's been a tradition for us to see all of the Tolkien books turned movies together since the first Lord of the Ring movie. It was nice to spend one on one time with him.

~nine~

 Jeremy's ninth gift was a Christmas ornament. This is our 5th Christmas together, and we add a new ornament every year. Since this was also the year we were married, I used an extra wedding invite to make the ornament. More on how I did it in a later post.

The day after Christmas, we also had an outdoor fire with popcorn popping and did some sledding. I sent Mosby down the hill with Ava a couple times. Turns out dogs don't like sledding and he spent the rest of the night trying to get back inside.

~ten~

Jeremy's tenth gift was tricky to pull off. I had started knitting a hat for Jeremy, but stopped because I had gotten too busy. Or so he thought. I was actually knitting whenever I had a chance. On the bus, on the train, befor he woke up. Coupled with two restarts because of size issues, I was quite pleased to have it done.

The tenth memory is going geocaching with Jeremy's parents while four wheeling and/or hiking. For those of you that don't know, geocaching is kind of like a treasure hunt. People hide boxes full of little prizes and upload the coordinates to a website. You use a GPS to find the prizes and sign in that you have found the prize. It was Jeremy and my first time and we had a blast tracking through the woods.

~eleven~

Jeremy's eleventh gift was a new pair of fleece pants. He wore his old ones for two years straight. They've held up, but lost their fluff. It was time for a new pair.

We spent New Year's Eve with our friend, Lindsay and Mosby's buddy Frank. We had a fun, relaxing time. Mosby and Frank did not.  Party apparel and noise makers do not make for happy, relaxed dogs.

~twelve~

Jeremy's final gift was a book/CD that I heard about on NPR. Famous chefs gave a music producer their favorite recipes and types of music. He created the recipe project, and the recipes are sung. It's ridiculous and funny. But, some of the recipes look awesome.

My final memory is my Christmas present from Jeremy. He got me two tickets to Potted potter. It's a two man parody of all seven Harry Potter books, which I love. It was a great show and we had a lovely date night.

I'll be back soon with some more Christmas projects. Right now I'm in Pennsylvania snuggling with one of my oldest and best friends children. More on that later too.

Until next time, keep crafting.

SB