Sweater Applique DIY

 I love to make crafts, and the other day Lee pointed out to me that I haven't crafted anything for a few months.  I have a lot of painting crafts that I want to do, but the lack of cooperation from the weather has left me staring longingly outside and even MORE longingly at the pile of "projects" (junk?) that I have set aside in the corner of our living room for future crafts.
I poked around on the internet for a while and found website that showed lots of ways to revamp an old cardigan that you don't wear anymore. This was the PERFECT craft for right now, as it involves no sewing, or painting, or going outside.  (Unless you count going to the store to buy some supplies, but I wore a coat, so, hey, no big deal)

You need:

• Fabric
• Fusible webbing (stuff you iron on to fabric to turn it into a sticker-like thing)
• An iron
• Scissors
• A pencil

 I cut a piece of the fusible webbing

 and I ironed it on the back side of the fabric

(The side I didn't want showing)

 I traced out the shape of some flowers I found online

 And cut out the shape

 After I had cut out several flower shapes I peeled off the paper on the back and pinned them on the cardigan

 And I pulled off the pins as I ironed the different shapes onto the sweater

 The back of the sweater looks like this

 And the front looks like this

Tada!

(Photograph by Lee Black, all rights reserved)

I wasn't really wearing the white cardigan anymore, but now I'm going to wear it all the time!

I love how it turned out!

Thanks Mormon mommy blogs!

Camera Found! Holiday Shwag Created!

My camera has been found.  It was hiding in the couch cushion just as I had suspected.

More importantly, I spent the whole weekend doing Christmas-y things and watching movies (The Sting loved and The Big Chill meh).

I've always known that I love Martha Stewart, and I don't even care about the whole prison thing.  As far as I'm concerned, she left that prison in a blaze of glory with perfectly folded sheets and passed the warden a hand written thank-you note (on beautiful stationary with die-cut corners, no less).  That prison has probably never smelled better, nor experienced such expertly crafted center pieces in the cafeteria.  So, yes, I love Martha Stewart, but I've recently gotten really into her website.  It has delicious, fairly easy recipes, and they are always so cute and creative.

Being that it is nearly Christmas, I opted to make the Candy Cane Marshmallows.  Wow, I never knew marshmallows were so cute or so delicious.  Go me! (Or, I guess Martha.  I love you, Martha.)

 You have to let your marshmallows congeal in a pan dripping with cooking spray.

Delicious.

Then, you cut the marshmallows into a hot-chocolate-flavoring size.

Finally, you store your marshmallows in a jam jar because you wish you were Martha Stewart.

In a less edible endeavor, I've decided that I want to have a lot of home-made holiday decorations.

I saw this garland on anthropologie.com, and I think it's pretty cute.

But do you want to know how much it is?  

$128.00.  

That's a lot of money for some holiday cheer.

Please see expensive garland here.

Not wanting to blow my entire Christmas wad on one home made-ish item, I went on an excursion to Michaels and compiled these materials:

• ribbon
• felt
• bandanas
• hot glue
• yarn

 I laid them all out on my desk so I could take a picture of them for the blog :)

Next, I cut the bandanas into triangles, glued a contrasting ribbon on top for trim, and glued letters that I cut out of felt on front.

Then I hot-glued them to a piece of yarn.

Ta da!

Speaking of my desk...

I found this desk at Excellent Williams (Good Will),

 painted it the color of macaroni, and added cute knobs.

And radioactive desk was born!