Football Pants...Get Em While They're HOT!

PJ Pants

Hi All! So, I'm breaking a couple of my rules here. 

1. I never post/surf the net while I'm at work (I'm on my prep hour, don't worry).

2. I never try to get my lovely readers to buy anything from me.

But, this opportunity is too good to miss.

My friend, Stefanie, and I just signed up for knitting classes (HOORAY)! But, of course,I have pay for my classes (BOO!).

In a stroke of luck, I received an e-mail from JoAnn Fabrics today. For today only, all NCAA and NFL fabrics are on sale! HOORAY FOOTBALL SEASON! 

I thought I may finance my new classes with some other crafting.

So, here's where my offer comes in. I make some GREAT fleece pants using these fabrics. Here's a picture of the pants I made the groomsmen. I've made them for Jeremy and our buddy, Sean, two Christmases ago, and in the fall/winter/spring, I have to PEEL them off of Jeremy to wash them (Sean's are just as worn in).

If you would like to order some NFL or NCAA fleece pants, I would LOVE to make them for you!

For today only, you can get them for $30 per pair! I will have to wait for the fabric to be shipped (about 7 days) and then can have them made in 3 to 4 days. I'll send them out as soon as they are ready!


If you don't get this message today (August 28th), I'm still more than happy to make you a pair. The price will go up slightly to $35, as they will not be on sale. (If you would just like plain colored pants, let me know, and I'll e-mail prices)

If you are interested, respond to this post or e-mail me (sara.b.gruber@gmail.com) by 10:45 CT tonight for the sale price. Just let me know the team name and quantity (and your e-mail address, if I don't have it). I will e-mail you privately about the sizing, etc.

If you are not interested, see you next weekend with a new post that has no strings attached! 

Thanks for supporting my crafting habit!

SB

Please note. The pants that I have advertised have are not official NFL or NCAA gear. 

Honeymoon Collage

Honeymoon Collage

This week and weekend has been all about playing catch up and getting organized. This was at work and at home. Because we were so busy once we got home from our honeymoon, I never felt like I settled back into home and a routine. I spent a lot of the day yesterday and this morning doing laundry, organizing, cleaning, and writing thank yous for the wedding (they WILL be in the mail this week).

My project this week is an extension on settling back in and getting organized. I lived in Germany for about four and a half months while I was doing my student teaching in college. Of course, I took a lot of pictures and gathered a lot of tickets, brochures, maps, and receipts. When I got home, I made a HUGE scrapbook and included both pictures and mementos.

For our honeymoon, I wanted to again take a lot of pictures and gather a lot of mementos. But this time, I had a slightly different plan for our mementos.

Here's a look at the finished product.

And there's how I got there...

I used one of the Target gift cards from our wedding to buy a 16x20 inch frame.

I gathered all of our mementos.

I cut a map of Heidelberg to fit the 16x20 frame. It's actually facing up and down when the map is read across, but since I just used it as a background, it doesn't really matter.

Jeremy likes the progress I'm making.

Then, I just kept layering different mementos until I got to the look Jeremy and I liked.

Here's the finished product out of the frame.

And the finished product in the frame.

Jeremy and I both REALLY like this project. It's in our dining room, and as I'm typing this, I keep glancing over to look at it. It's a fun reminder of our wonderful honeymoon.

And now I'm off to get ready for the Boulevard Fest. Jeremy and I are heading there with some friends (if it doesn't rain).

Until next time, keep crafting!

SB

Beaches, Beers, and Bragging

Beaches, Beers, and Bragging

Hi All! We're back from the Mitten! We actually got back last night, but Michigan fun is tiring (as shown by Mosby 10 minutes into our trip home)

 so I decided to wait until today to write up my blog. (Please don't mind the iphone photos. Brought my camera...forgot the memory card...ugh)

So, let's start with beaches. As I've shared before, we do a lot of hiking when we are up at my parents. This was my beautiful complete with some of my favorite people (and animals) on the way back from our Saturday Lake Michigan hike. Can you spot Mos romping through the dunes?

Next, let's do beer. We went to Suds on the Shore in Ludington with parents, some friends, and lo and behold, Jeremy's folks and friends showed up too! It was great fun to have so many people to sample great beers with. Here's a couple views from the beer portion of our weekend!

Jeremy and I with our parents

Too much fun with temporary tattoos! 

Wolf's Pretzel Necklaces...coming soon to a beer fest near you!

And last for the bragging. My mom and dad are crafty folks. Well...I don't think you are supposed to call men crafty...so let's go with my mom is crafty and my dad is handy. I asked for their permission to show off some of their finest creations. Let's start big picture.

Here's the view of our lake house from the lake. My parents had a builder put up walls and all, but everything you see here was all them! That includes the siding, steps, landscaping...nice huh??

Those cute little pilings you see are one of the newest additions. My parents got their hands on some old electrical poles left over from when the electric went underground. Then they got some rope and REALLY long screws. They look great in the yard and really go with the lake theme.

Here's the bar! Hooray! We love the bar! My parents had the bar top made from a tree on the property, then put the whole thing together themselves. Don't you look the aluminum siding? Matches the ceiling! Awesome!

Here's the cork board I was talking about in my blog a couple weeks ago. I LOVE how my mom made an alternating pattern.

Don't mind the crookedness. That's the fault of the photographer,  not the picture hanger. 

Now this is one of my favorite crafts. My mom took an old window a friend found in a shed, painted it white, and painted fish on it. So clever!

This cute "DREAM" side hangs in the bedroom Jeremy and I sleep in. My mom painted a board with the blue, then attached the letters. It's so cute and goes perfectly with the colors of the room!

This little button bouquet is one of my favorites of my mom's creations. It's so cheery and cute! My mom has made me one and it sits on my desk at work! I get lots of compliments!

And the best for last! This picture does not do the driftwood mirror justice. It is on a wall that is visible right when you walk in. It's awesome and ties the room together. Plus, it is SO my mom!! She loves the look driftwood and has put up with a lot teasing over the years about it. But, as usual, I've come to see that "mother knows best" and that driftwood is a really lovely look for homes on the lake!

So, that's some of my parent's place. There are many more beautiful projects included in their home, including a table that doubles as a beer cap display made by my dad. It's far cooler and classier than the beer cap tables we used to try to make in college, and I'm really bummed I didn't get a picture. Next time!

That's it for this week! Until next time, keep crafting!

SB

PS I hope you enjoy a video of Mosby's Lake Michigan swim.

A Dollar Spent is a Penny Saved

Balance

This past week I've been thinking a lot about balances. Yes, balances, plural. Stick with me, it will all come together.

First, about balance between "real life" and "escapes". This was, of course, prompted by my first full week of work. 

Real life was a doozie last week. Lots of crying children, crying parents, cleaning up after other schools' messes, hurrying up and waiting, and coming home smelling like a Kindergartener's urine most of the week. When I came home, I was falling asleep before dinner. 

Jeremy and I are also trying to really track our expenses and be very conscious about our spending habits. I had a disastrous encounter at book club with a friend who was taking her bad week out on all of us. I started to feel under the weather as the week wore on. AND to top off the week, both Thursday and Friday, the alarm was set wrong, so I ended up having two very panicky and rushed mornings in a row.  

Needless to say, I needed some time to "escape". While I desperately wanted to go back to summer (my favorite and longest escape of the year), I realized that I needed to get back into my school year escapes, and be thankful that I have mini-excapes built into my life. 

Such as...

I have always been an avid reader. I have always loved books that are in a series. My love for books and series started in 1st grade with The Boxcar Children. But my favorite series of all time, hands down, is Harry Potter. I allow myself the pleasure of reading them once a year. I usually can get through them in the 2 weeks that I'm at my parent's place. However, due to busy-ness, I am still working my way through them. And, I'll tell you, the hour public trans commutes to and from work were the best part of some of my days last week.

Logan Square has a DOG PARK! Mos and I have been there a few times, but Jer came with us for the first time on Saturday. The park's not a lot to look at, but watching Mosby run around off leash is one of the most fun things ever. Seriously, if you can't take pleasure in how happy he is to run, you might be a little dead inside. It's ridiculous.

Then he gets worn out and looks like this. Mosby mini-escape.

And lastly, writing my blog. One of my favorite mini-escape is creating something for our home or someone I love, then sitting quietly to write about it and my week. It's wonderful.

AND here's were the other "balance" comes in. I mentioned earlier that Jer & I have a brand new money plan now that we are married. One of changes it to gives ourselves an "allowance" of spending money. To help us track our spending, we are taking money out and using that, instead of our debit cards. And when you have money, you have change. And when you have change, you need a....(wait for it)....

PIGGY BANK!

We are thinking of using the change collected towards a vacation (or as I'm calling it, escape). Again...balance. :)

So, I headed off to JoAnn's to see what I could find. And, I found something I love. And I love it a little extra because it's so simple.

First, buy a vowel (or any other letter). I chose "G" for obvious reasons. You can find these cardboard letters by the wooden letters at JoAnn's.

Place the letter upright and draw on a slot.

Use an exacto knife to cut the slot out.

And the finished product!

Now, you could be a lot fancier with your piggy bank than I was. I happen to like the look of plain cardboard. I like the simplicity. 

If you don't, here's a couple ideas!

• Paint it! One color, stripes, polka dot, or go all "Jackson Pollock" on it
• Mod Podge it with pretty colors, photos, or pictures of what you are saving up for
• Yarn it. You could use the same technique I used on Valentine's Day.

I also think this could be a cute craft or gift for kids.

Anyway, I'm off enjoy some more HP and a cup of tea out of my special mug.

Next weekend, we're off to one of my favorite escapes, northern Michigan, to spend some quality at a microbrew fest, Suds on the Shore, with my parents. And, if I can pull it off, and very special post.

Until next time, keep crafting!

SB

Ode to Hot Glue

Cork "Board"

Hey guys! Hope everyone had a wonderful week! Mine was...well...full of changes and challenges...Changes, like going back to work (boo!) and challenges like, going back to work on 4 hours of sleep because our air conditioning isn't working (double boo!).

But, overall, it was a really fun week! I saw LOTS of my favorite people, including my new niece, who I saw THREE times this week! My parents were also in town helping my sis out, so we all had some dinner together. Our friends Lindsay and Tyler flew in and out of O'Hare this week, so we saw them TWICE! And I spent a good 10 hours with my bestie, Maggie and her little girl, Gracie! Add in seeing work friends, Jeremy, and everyone else this week, the changes and challenges didn't seem so bad! (Although I did have to cancel on another friend today to get some business done today...boo!)

I did manage to squeeze a little project in this week. I'm sure, based on the title of the post, you've guessed that it involved hot glue. I LOVE hot glue (and incidentally hate poetry, so don't expect a real "ode" in this post). 

So, back when I lived alone, I made myself a cork board, made of real wine corks. This cork was taken apart when Jer and I moved in together, to save for our wedding place card holders. I've been wanting to re-do a board since, but realized that I don't really have that much wall space left.

When I saw the cork board strip (using a yard stick) on Pinterest, I knew just where to put it in our kitchen. We have a lovely home phone jack on our kitchen wall that we do not use. So, it's turned into an eye sore that I've been itching to cover.

eye sore

First, I put a nail in the wall. I had to leave quite a bit of the nail sticking out, so that my yard stick would lay flat against that phone jack.

Second, I put hot glue on the end of the yard stick. I placed the first cork on the yard stick. I made sure to have it hang slightly off the edge, so that none of the yard stick could be seen when it was hanging.

I repeated this process with the other corks. Wine corks are slightly less wide on the end that was closest to the wine while in the bottle. I made sure to stagger the "wine sides" ever other wine cork, so that there were gaps where you could see the yard stick.

Here's a look at the finished yard stick!

Then, I thought it would be cute to dress up the thumb tacks a little bit. The colors in our kitchen are red and black. I grabbed some cheapy buttons.

And, hot glued them onto the thumb tacks.

I put a few of our pictures, cards, and postcards on the corks. Then, hung it up!

Viola! I got my cork board fix and took care of an eyesore! 

I'm off to prepare for my first full week back to school!

Until next time, keep crafting!

SB