A Very Homemade Christmas

It's been forever since I've updated and I apologize for my hiatus. I've been working on starting my own crafting venture and dealing with lots of other things that we'll just call "life." With Christmas quickly approaching, I've begun to decorate my house and came to the realization that while my existing stash of decor worked perfect for our smaller former residence, I have lots more space to fill this year. For most people, this would have a simple solution: buy more crap. I'm not into buying more useless stuff that I'll just have to weed out when we move again in another few years, so I'm opting for making everything I add to my holiday display. I'm trying to make everything from things I've reused, pinecones/sticks I can find in my yard, and stuff that I'll be ok with leaving behind in a few years. After all, Christmas isn't about "stuff," but about celebrating the birth of our Savior. I'll be posting projects in the next few days as I complete them and also posting my not-so-secret product that will be available on Etsy in just a few days!

Felt Flowers

As promised a few months ago (yes, I know, but my life has been anything but tame lately), here's the tutorial for making felt flowers. 

Felt Flowers
Materials:
- Felt
- Scissors
- Hot glue

1. Cut out 4 of the same shaped flowers, about 1" diameter each. I apologize that I don't have a template to share, but I do most of my shapes freehand.

2. Place a dot of glue into the center of a flower and fold it in half. Do this for all 4 flowers.

3. Lay one flower with the flat side pointing down, then place a dot of glue on the flat edge, in the center. Lay another flower down, flat side facing to the left, flowered part facing right and overlapping with the first flower. Place another dot of glue on top of where the flowers overlap, then place the third flower over top of the glue, with the flat side facing up, flower side down. Place another dot of glue in the center and place the last flower on top of the third flower. Tuck the top end underneath of the first flower. It should look like a closed box lid.

(Terrible pic, I'll take a better one next time I make some!)

4. Fluff out the petals from the center after the glue dries. If you're adding a hair clip or sewing the flower onto a headband, now is the time to do it!

The possibilities for these super easy flowers are endless! I grouped some together to make a patriotic headband for baby bear!

Gathered Flower Headband

My little Baby Bear is almost a year old, but still doesn't have very much hair. She recently got a new wardrobe (seriously, this girl literally outgrew everything in her closet), so obviously she needed some new hair accessories to match her summery attire. To be fair, I may or may not have been bored this afternoon as well. This is my new flower type and probably my favorite so far. Hope you enjoy it too!

Gathered Flower Headband

Materials:

- Strip of fabric, 2" by 15" (or wider than 2" if you want to make a bigger flower)

- Needle and thread

- Elastic cut to about 1/2" smaller than head circumference

- Button

1. Run a stitch down one side of the fabric.

2. When you reach the end, pull the thread to "cinch" the fabric up. 

3. Twist the cinched fabric to make a flower shape, secure with needle and thread.

4. Sew button into the middle of the fabric.

5. Sew the ends of the elastic together, overlapping about 1/4" then sew the elastic onto the back of the flower. 

Salmon Worth Salivating Over

Ever try to start dinner and realize that one of your ingredients isn't any good? Welcome to my evening. I'm not a very good cook, so improvising is a little bit scary for me (and my poor hubs who has to eat it), but this  concoction actually turned out to be pretty dang tasty! Paired with baked Parmesan, mushroom and artichoke tomatoes, this salmon made for a healthy, yummy dinner. If you try this out, please let me know if you liked it!

Sweet and Savory Salmon
2 salmon fillets, with skin
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp minced garlic
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp Old Bay
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dried cilantro (probably about 1 tbsp of fresh)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place salmon on greased baking sheet, skin down. Poke each fillet all over with a fork multiple times.
2. In a small bowl, combine lemon juice, honey, garlic, onion powder, Old Bay, olive oil, and cilantro. Stir well until oil, lemon juice and honey are well combined.
3. Brush all of the sauce over the salmon.
4. Bake for 20 minutes for well done salmon.

DIY Extender Duster

I was mighty proud of myself for coming up with this contraption today to reach my vaulted ceilings for dusting. I'm sure many of you have already done this and are going to say "well duh!!" (Mom). I had been using my Dyson digital slim to vacuum the cobwebby ceiling corners, but after doing a few rooms and holding the vacuum up into the air for a few minutes at a time, my arms were really feeling it. Then it dawned on me, we have a lightweight yard stick and an already dirty Swiffer duster, so I could just rubber-band the duster onto the top of the yard stick... Don't judge me for using a disposable duster. The hubs and I both have HORRIBLE allergies, so trapping the dust and getting it out of the house is a must for us. It's the one and only not-so-eco-friendly cleaning thing I use. Anyways, here's a picture of the contraption:

I literally just folded a Swiffer duster pad in half, slid it onto the top of a yard stick, and rubber-banded it in place. This would also work with a broom handle and sock or any sort of cloth. Moral of the story: save yourself the $20 on the Swiffer Extender contraption thingy or whatever else they try to sell you to reach up into high places for dusting and just use what you have at your house. The environment will love you for it :) 

DIY Mini Keg Planter Follow Up

I posted our mini keg planter project a while ago (original post), but since it was winter, I didn't have a picture of one with flowers in it! We acquired a 2012 Oberon mini recently thank you to some amazing friends and the hubs made me another planter out of it last weekend. We lined the bottom of the planter with pea gravel before we added dirt to allow for better drainage. I found some adorable pink impatients at the blueberry farm last weekend, so we now have some pretty flowers on our patio! I was really excited to find flowers that like shade, since our patio is covered.

Reusable "Paper" Towel

Between having a baby, dog and husband, I use lots of paper towel to clean up messes. To be fair, I'm probably the worst offender with the kitchen mess making, especially when the blender is involved in the project. When I realized that we're literally using a roll a week, which is unbelievably wasteful, I decided that it was time to do something about it. Pinterest yet again delivered with ideas for reusable paper towel, modified to meet my needs :) Since my needs usually call for a half-sheet of paper towel, I made mine in half-sheet size. I finished this project early this week and started using the cloth towels, and let me tell you, they ROCK. One sheet of Bounty doesn't have anything on terry cloth! I also made a wet bag to hang on my stove and collect the dirty towels until it's time to wash them.

Reusable Paper Towel
Materials:
- 1 1/2 yards of terry cloth material
- 1 1/2 yards of cotton material or flannel
- matching thread
- sew-on velcro
- scissors
- sewing machine

Instructions:
1. Wash and dry both pieces of fabric.

2. Cut 24 6" by 11" rectangles out of both types of fabric. Set the extra fabric aside for the wet bag. If you want full-sheet sized towels, make your pieces 12" by 11" and only cut 12 of each fabric.

3. Match the rectangles up into pairs, one terry, one cotton. Place the printed side of the cotton face-up, pin together around the edges, then sew all of the way around the rectangles, leaving about a 1/8 allowance between the stitch and edge of the fabric.

4. Cut the velcro into 1" pieces. Lay the rectangle flat, cotton side up, short edges as top and bottom, and place two pieces of the same type of  velcro in the corners on the left side, one on the top corner, one on the bottom. Sew these on. Flip the towel over, place the opposite pieces of velcro in the corners on the left side of the terry cloth, sew on.

5. To make the wet bag, cut two 12" x 14" pieces of each type of fabric. Place one piece of terry cloth down, then a piece of cotton - print up on top of it. Set the other piece of cotton - face down onto the stack, then the other piece of terry cloth. Sew around 3 of the sides, then turn it inside out. Cut 4 16" x 3/4" strips of the cotton fabric. Roll each piece over onto itself 3 times, then sew it together. These will be the ties. Pin two ties into each side of the top of the bag. Sew the cotton to the terry around the top, securing the ties into the seem well.

6. Using an empty cardboard paper towel roll, mark where the velcro from the terry cloth side of the towels is. Glue the opposite type of velcro around the tube at both of the marks.

7. I had to rewash my towels at this point, since the terry cloth sheds a lot while cutting and sewing. If yours are ok, then you can attach your towels into a roll! Woohoo!