Sock Buns

I was just looking on Pintrest, like I do, and I came across this hair style.  Its a sock bun.  I had to try it. I went directly to my sock drawer and grabbed the nearest tube sock.  I cut off the toe and roll it in on it's self (kind of like you are trying to turn it inside out).  After making a high pony-tail you put the end of you hair through the hole and start rolling.  As you roll the sock, spread your hair around evenly to create the perfect bun.  It took like 2 seconds.

Harry Potter 7.5 and Totally Awesome T-shirts

For Harry Potter 7.5 my friend Martha and I decided to make t-shirts.  Why?

A) We love Harry Potter.

B) We love making t-shirts.

It was Martha's idea so I cant take all the credit.  

For theses shirts cut out 8 1/2 X 11 sheets of freezer paper.  

Using an inkjet printer, print out your preferred saying and cut out the individual letters. Make sure the letters print out on the paper side not the plastic side. 

Place the letters on the shirt and iron them on plastic side down. (Don't worry they peal off really easy).  

Put bleach in a spray bottle and squirt around the letters. 

Press the hot iron on the sprayed area for instant color change.

(I usually spray a few squirts then iron, then spray some more then iron)  

When you are content with the contrast, peel off the wax paper letters. 

Wash.

Wear totally awesome shirt.

Me and Martha at the Harry Potter 7.5!!!

My shirt: "Make Love Not Horcruxes".

Martha's shirt: I solemnly swear I am up to no good".

Owl Apron

Recently I decided I wanted to spice up my boring old apron. I didn't have a lot of time or money so I took some scraps I already had around and downloaded this free pattern.
For the bigger owl I increased the "adult" owl's size by 150% and kept the "adolescent" owl the same.
After I cut out all the pieces I used iron on transfer put it all together. It has to be done in layers so just make sure you do it in the right order. I put the wings down first then the body and the stomach, then the rings around the eyes and finished by hot gluing buttons on for the eyes.

It's all glass...

Two funny stories: 

1. If you know me you know I'm a total pack-rat.  I'm convinced that someday I'll be on the show Hoarders, Buried Alive. My friend Tristan is an extreme minimalist (click HERE to read more about that journey) he tries to convince me all the time to get rid of stuff that I don't need.  I took his advice and went through all of my stuff and got rid of a TON of stuff.  I was talking to him later and told him how I got rid of a lot of stuff I didn't need. He was so proud until he found out I started collecting glass bottles...FAIL at being a minimalist.

2. This one has to do with the title of the post.  Growing up my family loved going to yard sales.  To this day if I see a yard sale sign or pass one something inside me says, "Stop... you never know if you are going to find __________ (insert some random item)."  

The code word in my family for a bad yard sale is, "It's all glass."  This phrase expanded to all bad yard sales, even if there is nothing glass there.  My father coined that phrase because who would ever want to stop at a yard sale with a bunch of glass.  Well father, the "all glass" yard sales are now my favorite. 

Easy Hair-do:

Me trying THIS:

Headbands

For these headbands you will need: 

fabric

wire 

needle and thread

scissors and ruler or rotary cutter and mat 

fabric measuring tape (or some way to measure your head) 

sewing machine

Begin by measuring your head from the base of your neck to crown, (mine happens to be 24 inches) then add 10 inches to get your total length (my total would be 34 inches).

Cut your piece of fabric 6 inches wide and the length that you figured in the step before.

(Mine would be 6"x 34").  I like using a rotary cutter and a mat but you can use a ruler and scissors.

Fold the cut piece of fabric in half length wise and with wise so both ends are together.  

Cut a triangle off the end so both ends taper. Cut only the open sides!

 AVOID cutting any sides that have folds!

(The cut doesn't have to be specific. Just make sure you

 leave enough room to turn it inside out later on.)

Put right sides together and begin sewing. Sew up one end then along the long side.

 Line up the fabric with the outside of the presser-foot. 

Sew ONLY ONE end shut.

When you get to the other end, REMEMBER to leave it open! 

Turn your fabric around and sew a second seam just inside of the first seam.  

This is making an area for the wire to go.  I just line up the first seam with the edge of the 

presser-foot and follow it all the way back to the other end.

Use the open end to turn it inside-out.

At this point you have a big fabric tube.  I like to iron mine (using my hair straightener :) so it is flat and easier to wire.

Take your wire (I just asked for wire at a craft store) and make a loop at the end.  

Slide it between the 2 seams.

When the wire is running the full length of the headband cut it and loop the end.

Fold the raw edge inside and sew up the end.

There are a lot of really fun ways to use this headband.  My personal favorite is to tie 

it in a knot to look like a flower. The wire it will hold pretty much any shape so be creative!

Divine Caramel Apples

  If there is one thing I love in this world it is caramel apples.  These apples take caramel apples to a whole new level.  Apples dipped in caramel, dipped in chocolate, dipped in your favorite whatever... YUMMMMM.  Here is how to do it:

 

Large Granny Smith Apples.  You can use whatever kind of apple you want but I love the green-ness and tartness of the Granny Smith.

 

 Put a popsicle stick in each one and dip it in caramel.  I just used the caramel wrapped in those little plastic squares.  On the back of the package it says to add water but I found that it sticks better to the apple if you do NOT add water.  Melting in the microwave is fastest.

 Set on wax paper to set up... about 20 min.

Take the carameled apples and dip it in chocolate (either white or milk).  I like using Almond Bark because it is easy to melt and re-melt and it goes on really smoothly.

This is where it gets tricky. The chocolate has to be set up enough so the toppings wont drip off but not too hard or it wont stick at all.  Just watch until the chocolate is done dripping and is starting to set up around the top.

Fun toppings: 

Cinnamon sugar (my personal favorite)

Coconut

M&Ms

Cocoa Powder

Any candy bar (cut up)

Toffee

Gram Crackers

Oreos

 

 If you are doing the one with the chocolate flipped over the solid background, just wait for the base chocolate to dry completely. Then use a fork to flip the chocolate on top.

* These are pretty much impossible to eat off the stick.  Its easiest if you cut it off the core.

What Van Gogh would have done if he were a stamp collector ...

       

        

 

One day my roommate and I were looking around DI and we came upon a really great stamp collection. We bought it, no questions asked. What was the obvious step after that??? Make a Van Gogh. 

I have to give most of the credit to my roommate.  She was the master mind behind the whole thing.  We bought a large canvas and borrowed some Mod Podge from the neighbors.  We organized the stamps into: flags, fruits/flowers, pictorial, foreign, Christmas, and presidents.  We then just did a color by numbers.  

Flags with white background- sky

Flags with dark background-hill at the bottom

Foreign- swirl in the middle and the moon

Pictorial-peak in the middle

Fruits/Flowers- stars

Presidents-Streak through the middle

The Christmas ones didn't make the cut, but I did use them later.

While we were working on our project we watched Charade. It seemed like an appropriate film while working on stamps.  I have to admit about 3/4 of the way through this project (like 3 hours in) I never wanted to see another stamp again.  It took a few days before I could feel good about it hanging  in the apartment.  Now I love it!

 Attached to one of the stamps was part of a letter. We could only see a few words but we thought it was an appropriate signature for our work of art