I just can't sit still.

Ever since graduating, I'm slowly but surely starting to realize just how much time I used to devote to school. These days, even with re-starting up the blog, working 40+ hours a week, volunteering and actually having a decent social life (gasp!)... I'm still finding myself bored.

I had forgotten what bored felt like.

Lucky for me, boredom doesn't last long when one has a garage full of craft supplies and a 2 hour break between morning shift and night shift!

While in Italy, my girlfriends and I went sight seeing, drank wine, ate fantastic food, drank wine, met some really wonderful people, drank some really wonderful wine oh, and did I mention we tried some Italian wine?

When in Rome... ;-)


So after a few days I started asking everyone t save their wine corks. I had no idea what I would do with them and up until a few days ago, they remained in the very same bag I brought them all home in almost a year ago. Then, inspiration via boredom!

First, gather together your supplies:

• 1 dark colored 4x6 frame (incase there are any gaps in between your corks)
• Approximately 14 wine corks (try and stick to the real cork ones, they tend to absorb less of the glue and stick better than the synthetic plastic ones)
• Quick drying glue
• The sharpest knife you can find

1. Score the cork by cutting horizontally about 1/4 of the way through 
2. Insert the point of the knife into the center of the scored line and push it all the way through until you begin to see the point coming out of the other side of the cork.
3. With a little muscle (and possibly the help of a not-at-all-sharp butter knife) you can now pry the cork apart into 2 even halves!
4. Mix up the corks so that it creates the illusion of 28 whole corks rather than just 14 halves
5. Starting from one corner of the frame and working your way around, lay out your corks to fill the frame
6. Line up the edges of the corks so they are flush with the picture opening (It's ok for the corks to be uneven around the outside, but you don't want them obscuring the photo)
7. One by one, pick up each cork and place a dab of glue on the frame (this creates less mess, trust me)
8. Allow to dry and put in a picture of your choosing!

You can choose to save the corks from a special occasion and frame a memory from it like I did or purchase the corks in bulk if you just can't wait! Makes for a great gift or a neat addition to any gallery wall!

Pinspiration

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So over the last few weeks a terrible thing has happened. I have been left alone to entertain myself pretty much all day, everyday. You see, I work dayshift or I have morning classes. No matter what day it is, by the time 5 pm rolls around, I'm done with the day. Sounds awesome right? Well, it would be. If it weren't for the fact that Nick, all my roommates and the majority of my friends work night shift jobs. Homework, movies and reading can only entertain me so much. But you know what never looses it's entertainment value? Pinterest.

Vintage wallpaper is my latest obsession. I can't get enough of the stuff and all I want to do is mod podge it to EVERYTHING. I'm sure Nick would just love that little experiment... But you really can do so much with it!

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We are still renting and I'm not really sure how our landlord would feel about my taste in wallpaper. So putting it on the actual WALLS is out.

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So maybe I'll make some garland out of it? Or frame it and make a gallery wall!?

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Or perhaps I wont put it on the wall at all? Christmas present tags!

Cleaning And Crafting And Becoming A Red Head

My one and only day off this week and how did I spend it?

Doing. EVERYTHING.

I have never been the type that can just sit around and 'relax.' What other people call relaxing, I call boring. My ADHD doesn't like boring. So, I slept in a bit then woke up and hit the ground running. Well, kind of running. Coffee and then running. I don't know about you but I'm useless before some morning chill time and a good cup of coffee. First, the house got a much needed deep cleaning and I attempted to hang up some prints I received recently. I say attempted because the ADHD kicked in again when Nick woke up and expressed interest in a couple of the craft projects I had mentioned to him.

A few days ago I spotted an amazing tutorial over at Deer In A Bottle and just had to try it. Especially when I already had all the materials needed! How often does a craft project not require a single trip to Hobby Lobby? My book however was a little too small to do follow the tutorial exactly so we had to improvise.

Here's what you'll need:

Any sort of all glass lamp (I used this one)
Mod Podge
An old book (Preferably one you dont mind destroying)
Lighter
Scissors
Sponge brush

1. Burn the edges of some of the pages little by little (length wise) and quickly put the fire out. This is just for effect, dont want anyone burning their house down!
2. Cut the strips to size so that they cover the edges left exposed.

3. Cover the entire lamp in a thing layer on Mod Podge and slowly wrap the paper around.

4. Once you have covered the whole thing in paper, cover the lamp with another thin layer of Mod Podge and let the whole thing dry.

Your final product should look something like this - 

Pssst!! Look! Day 10! Something I made!! (Yea... I know I went out of order...)

I can't wait for these little darlings to dry so I can stick them back and better than ever on my bed side table!! We also did a little fancy foot work and did a project to convert the book we cut pages out into a clock.

But that's for another day! Just like pictures of the red hair. Though that's mostly because it's still wet so I can't decide if it looks alright enough to share with the world yet or not.

After that we went and saw The Help with some friends. Wow. What a great movie! I really can't remember the last time I cried that many times in the theater. It got me thinking a lot about our current culture and the movement for LGBT equality. Oh how history always seems to repeat itself. Did any of you see it? What were your thoughts?

Quick and cute Sunday DIY

Originally, I discovered the idea for this adorable little felt hair clip over at A Beautiful Mess. I got all the supplies and started toying around making my own this afternoon and really loved the results! First, start by downloading this stencil I threw together. It's about 4 1/2 inches so if you want to make yours smaller (or bigger even!!) just throw it into any photo editing program, resize and print!

Click the image to enlarge it to the full size!!!

Once you have that ready to go all the other slides you will need are 

1. 2 safety pins or sewing needles. Just something to hold the paper to the felt. *
2. 1 piece of felt
3. A glue gun
4. 1 28mm button
5. scissors
6. A hair clip or bobbie pin

One you have the felt and stencil pinned together, cut out both flowers from the felt. And then, save the scraps because I have another DIY coming up in a few days that it will be perfect for! Glue the smaller flower on top of the larger and glue the button in the center of the smaller flower

Now, cut out a small rectangle of the felt, place a small dot of glue on each end and stick it to the back of the flower. The key is to create a little pocket to hold the hair clip.

And there you have it! An adorable, and oh so simple, finished product!

Sorry I don't have a shot of it actually being used... between working late last night and a meeting early this morning, I'm kind of proud of myself for getting this up at all! Even though I am up ungodly early on my only day off, I'm pretty excited for everything planned today! After we are finished with said meaning a friend from for and I are headed out to Mt.Dora to do some antique mall rummaging. And tonight Nick and I are going out to Oviedo for one of my favorite things ever...

I'm so excited!! Almost makes me happy that I'm getting such an early start to the day. Of course, there will be tons of pictures (and hopefully on of them will be my Day 3 shot?) so just check back later tonight and I'll let you in on all the fun that was had!

DIY: Life hacks!

• Take your favorite liquid fabric softener and soak an old hand towel or flour cloth completely with it. Wring it out and let it dry completely, then throw it in with your next load. This mega-fabric softener sheet should be good for at least 40 loads of laundry, stretching out softener use and lessening waste. In other words, save money.
• When painting a room, first line the paint tray with tin foil and mold it to the pan. When you're done painting, throw out the tin foil and admire your still spotless paint tray that's ready to re-use! No clean-up required!

• Broke a glass? No, worries! It's happens to the best of us. But dont try and pick it up with your hands, you might get hurt! Instead grab a slice of bread (any kind will do) and use it like a dry sponge, dabbing at the broken pieces until they are all stuck to the bread. Throw it out and move on with your day.
• To put on a tight bracelet by yourself, unfold a paper clip to help hold one side of the chain!
• Since I recently learned it's blasphemy to wash a cast iron skillet (can you tell I'm new to this cooking thing?), I also recently learn how to effectively clean one without Nick having a heart attack. Scrub the pan with course salt and a soft sponge, rinse away the salt and wipe dry. The natural abrasive qualities of the salt with get rid of all the crud, without taking away the taking away from the pan's seasoning!
• If you're as forgetful as I am, you have to try this. Make your own hide-a-key! Just glue a large rock to the top of an empty prescription bottle, place the key inside and bury the bottle with the rock still exposed. Thank Savvy House Keeping for that little gem.
• I never used to like iced coffee until learning this ridiculously simple trick, it just got so watery and I like my coffee like I like my men: strong, sweet and full of non-dairy creamer. Wait, what? Oh, nevermind. Anyways! Make a batch of strong coffee, let it cool and then use it to fill an ice tray. Freeze your coffee cubes and use those in place of regular ice cubes.

(PS) Tomorrow my mom is coming down to visit and she's bringing back my camera! That means... Let the cooking and DIY tutorial's begin! Boy, do I have some fun stuff in store!