See the empty frame? My plan was to get a print of some fall leaves for it. That didn't work out, because as it turns out, my Costco photo account had been cancelled because I hadn't ordered any pictures for a year (whoops). So I emailed them and they emailed back saying it would be 2-3 weeks before my account was reinstated (really?). So I came up with something else.
I did these last year and I still really like them. My idea for the mantle frame was similar and first involved going on a walk with my girls to collect leaves. It was fun. Then I pressed them. Then I glued them to a 5x7 sheet of paper (I actually used the paper that came in the frame):
I did a few layers and made sure the paper was covered entirely.
Then I trimmed the edges:
Then I put it in the frame:
I love it- simple, natural, and it adds a bit of color to my kind of bland mantle:
See? It's a skirt made from an old man shirt. Its beginning:
We had this old man shirt floating around our house and I was going to make a dress for Mim out of it. Then I decided I wanted a skirt. Mim has a ton more clothes than I do, so it's justified.
I cut it up first:
And here's how I put it back together:
I can't decide if I'm glad I preserved the original hem shape or not. My original plan didn't call for a ruffle, and that's why I wanted to preserve the hem at first, but maybe when I cut it off to add the ruffle I should have just done it straight across. I can't decide. Here it is for now, at least:
In reality, I'd wear it with boots.
And from the side:
It's super comfortable. The flannel is all worn and soft- I think this is an ideal fall/winter skirt for me.
It was so stinking hard to take pictures of myself in this. I was bending over all awkwardly, stretching out as far as I could to get a wider angle...it was awesome. Oh, and I was totally in an ugly pink t-shirt and my hair was in a towel turban. It was super.
This one was a miss, but check out those gorgeous leaves behind me. I can't remember a fall in Utah ever lasting as long as this one has. It's fabulous!
Not that there aren't a million contemporary paper crafts. Using paper just felt old fashioned to me, since I haven't done anything much with it (except for the occasional card) since I really loved scrapbooking in high school. These are for an activity my church is having for mothers and daughters. There are a few different crafts to work on, and we thought it would be nice to have a few free options for the people who come.
One of those options are these little paper clip turned picture holder doo dads. I cut paper the right size, then just glued it on, cutting little slits to allow for the holder bits to stick up. While I was doing it, I got to thinking just how adaptable these little babies are. I especially love the thought of them holding food labels at a party- you could just choose paper to match your theme. Simple and cheap. That's how I roll.
We all know that the only thing cheaper than the dollar store is free. I've seen a bunch of crafts out there using dollar store leaves on garlands and wreaths, which is cool- I mean, they'll last forever. But the thing is, I can get real leaves for free, just by going for a walk around the neighborhood. I took some of the leaves I used in this post and stuck them to a grapevine wreath. Like so:
It's not a new idea, by any means, but it's still lovely. It's kind of turning out that my "thing" on this blog is to use natural materials. I was thinking about this post and this post and this post. Maybe it's just a fall thing. Or maybe my decorating style is "make it look like outside if you can." I don't think that's a thing. Whatever. I guess I just love leaves. Especially free ones.
Also, I tried some embroidery (see above). It was really fun, actually. I think there will be more of it in my future. I don't know technical terms or anything, but I think I used a backstitch. I think. Here it is with its other fall buddy:
I love pillows. Maybe I'll get winter/Christmas ones done before the season is actually upon us, now that I know how awesome it is.
When I saw this at Cluck Cluck Sew, I knew I had to make one. I pretty much did the exact same thing she did, but my pillow cover was a bit bigger, about 24" by 20". I wanted to replace my embroidered IKEA (which I love love love but they're very springy/summery) covers with something more seasonal.
{Oooo, I do love them.}
Here's my version of Cluck Cluck Sew's lovely pillow:
My scrap drawer is not as diverse as hers (or as pretty- so many gorgeous fall fabrics), so not every leaf is unique. I tried to make up for it by having lots of textures: quilting cottons (of course), knits, ribbed knits, corduroy, and felt.
I love it. Now I need to make another fall-ish cover to replace my other IKEA one. I was thinking a big acorn, maybe. The original plan was to make another of these beauties, but now that one's done, I kind of think it might be too much.
I just gathered some leaves and put them in there. They’re on burlap, and the big one has a book page layered in there, because it looks a lot more interesting that way than with a plain white piece of paper, which is what was there before. The book page is from my complete collection of Edgar Allan Poe, so that makes it Halloween-y, too. If you look closely. Inside the front cover of the book I found my list of things to do before I die from like 5 years ago. Number 60 is “Do more than one boy-style pushup.” I still haven’t done it. Because I can’t. Seriously, such wimpy arms.
Thank you all so much for the get well wishes. They're working! (Them and the antibiotics, I suppose.) I'm doing much better (although I still sound awful and need to rest a lot), and I thought I'd post some instructions for those of you who requested them for the vine pumpkin. It really was so easy, here it is summed up in one picture (that I drew in paint...ummm...it's not great).
It's an incomplete cross section, just enough to show what the vines are doing. After rubber banding them around the top, you just bend the rest into a circle a few at a time until you've gone all the way around. I'm hoping once the vines dry in that shape, I can get rid of a lot of the floral tape and the rubber band. Hope that all made sense- I looked up all the side effects of my medication and hallucinations is on there, so...hmmm.
{Sorry it's so super pixelated- I could only save the thumbnail image.}
Then I forgot about them. Then I was looking at a grapevine wreath in my craft supplies stash and I remembered them again. My version started out like this:
Yep, a pile of yard waste in my living room. Don't mind my little campout on the couch in the background- I have walking pneumonia. Yeah, it totally sucks. Anyway, all of that turned into this:
Quite a bit more rustic than the Target version, but I really like it. It's still being held together with a lot of floral tape and a rubber band (the white thing around the top), but I hope I'll be able to take most of that off once it dries. I'm not fooling myself, thinking it looks like a pumpkin, right?
**UPDATE**
I've added the how-to for this on a separate blog post
***ANOTHER UPDATE***
I took all the floral tape and rubber bands off of the pumpkin and now I love it more than ever:
Now it's just being held together with a length of picture hanging wire around the middle- I twisted the ends of the wire with pliers so I could get it really tightly. Then I took it outside because the light in my house was being crappy. Don't you love all those little curly vines sticking out of it everywhere? I do.
Still nothing new. I did get out my fall decorations, though. I haven't distributed around the house yet- that'll probably be this weekend. Although it is the perfect weather for it now (those other Utah people out there know what I'm talking about- 75 during the day and down into the 50's at night- lovely, wonderful, perfect). Anyway, I found these when I was going through my fall stuff:
My no-sew fabric pumpkins. I made them at a church activity the fall after Mike and I were married- they were one of the first decorations that I made for our little apartment and they're still one of my favorites. They're also one of the easiest I've ever done. Ready? You take a circle of fabric- for the littler pumpkins I think it was about 18-20 inches in diameter (I'm betting a fat quarter would be just about right) and for the larger pumpkin, about 30-32 inches in diameter. Then you put some poly fill in the middle of the circle and gather the fabric up around it. Make sure it's not going to be to full- you need to be able to maneuver it around to create a flat-ish bottom and a more pumpkin-like shape. Then you take a twig or cut stick and hold that in the middle of your gather and tie it closed with raffia and/or some scrap fabric. And... done! So easy, right? And the possibilities are endless- I'm going to make some with orange and natural burlap, and I'll probably replace the raffia with twine on the ones I've already made. You could make an orange felt one and then cut out jack o lantern shapes and faces on black felt, and then you have a toy/decoration, which are so so useful.
{The rest of my 3 pumpkin set}
I thought of a new craft for tomorrow. That's right, I'm going to make something for the first time in like a week. Weird.
For everyone at my house to not be sick. To get back in the swing of things at school. For the leaves to turn. To make these for Halloween again:
{Owl cookies!}
Mike's grandma (in whose house we now live) passed away about 8 years ago, but she always made these every Halloween before that. I decided last year that it would be a tradition I would like to carry on, so those in the picture above were my first attempt. They're adorable and really yummy, too. In case anyone else wants to give them a shot, here's the recipe:
Owl Cookies:
2 1/2 C flour 1/2 tsp salt 2 tsp baking powder 3/4 C butter 1 C brown sugar 1 egg 1 tsp vanilla 1 1/2 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled 1/4 tsp baking soda
Sift together flour, salt and soda. Set aside. Cream together butter and brown sugar. Add egg and vanilla to creamed mixture and then add dry ingredients gradually. Add baking soda to melted chocolate. Remove 3/4 of the dough to a floured surface and knead in chocolate.
Roll out 1/2 remaining light dough into a 10" x 4 1/4" rectangle. Shape 1/2 chocolate dough into a roll 10" long and place it on the light dough rectangle. Roll the light dough around the chocolate dough and mold them together. Repeat with the second halves of the dark and light dough. Wrap both rolls in foil and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Remove foil, cut the dough into slices about 1/4" thick. Join two slices side by side on the cookie sheet. Place a cashew by the joint for the beak and chocolate chips in the center of the chocolate for the eyes. Bake at 350 for 8-12 minutes.
And that's it. You have to plan a little ahead, what with the chill time, but they're so worth it. Maybe later this week I'll get something new up. It's hard to say. I teach at a local university- just a few classes a week, very part time- and I'm always amazed at how much of my time it eats up. It's fun, though. Geology is awesome.
