Puff...puff...puffin!

At the craft show in Seward, we were approached to see if we would donate to a charity auction for the SeaLife Center in Seward AK.  Because we had another show, we said we would think about it. In the back of my mind, I knew we would. I asked the organizer what they were looking for, and she said anything that remotely relates to the ocean. Could be swirls, could be something in sea colors, it was up to us.

Fast forward and the organizer emailed me to see if we were still interested. I had been thinking about what to make or donate from our inventory. Since our birds were such a hit this year, I thought it would be fun to make a bird that was more Alaska themed. And you can't get much more Alaska themed, sea life themed than a puffin.

So Tuesday night I drafted out a puffin to make. Can I just say, puffins have weird beaks? Cause they do. Took me a while to get it right.

I looked in the sweater stash and found some white and black and some orange and yellow, because that in my mind is what the color of a puffins beak is. Wrong. Puffins actually have a weird reddish orange beak. But being as I didn't want to go back into the abyss that is my craft room, I stuck with the yellow and orange. Call it artistic freedom...cause that's what I'm choosing to say it was:)

I put the bird together and I think that it looks great! Its a cute little puffin! I hope that it goes for a lot of money and raises some good funds for the SeaLife Center!

Sarah

Linked To Chic on a Shoestring Decorating

another project completed

 As I mentioned before I have a plethora of onesies from a baby shower gift that never made it past the planning stage. They are cute as is but it's fun to spruce them up a bit and after seeing lots of ruffled onesies on Pinterest I decided to make a few myself.   Once again I had all the supplies on hand so it didn't take long to finish.

 

 I made one with ruffles on the bum which I think is pretty cute....

 not too sure about the purple one though...but it's always fun to mess around and try something new.   To be honest I like my owl onesies (in previous destash post) better. What do you think?

 I also quickly finished sewing a previously heat bonded heart onto another onesie while I was at it. It's great to tick off yet another project on my very, very long to do/finish list!

Happy Sewing
Nathania

Challange #3...clothing revamp

This was this weeks challenge:

Wardrobe: Go look in your closet, find something you don't wear, is stained, doesn't fit, out of style and remake it or use the material to make something. Take a before picture of the garment and then what you've done to refurbish it. For this project, the old wardrobe garment should make up approximately 50-75% of the project.

Challenge #3 - So for this challenge I had many options to choose from but decided to go with a very quick fix that wouldn't require extreme measuring or sewing! I grabbed a pj top Aria had just received for Christmas that was ridiculously small for a 4T!! She's 3 and not crazy tall so the pants were a little big and long but the top was tight and a belly shirt!! Tell me who sizes toddler clothes??!! She wore it once but was not into showing off her belly...I hope this preference lasts a long time!! :-)

 The top is made out of fleece so I grabbed some purple fleece I had in my stash and started off by opening up the arm and side seams. Then I cut the purple fleece into strips for the arms and sides, sewed them together and inserted them to make the top bigger. To lengthen the top I simply made a purple fleece band and attached it to the hem and I was done!  I love that it only took me 20mins and while it may not win any awards for precision sewing my daughter is thrilled with the results!

Happy Sewing!

Nathania

For this weeks challenge, I tried two different projects...one with success, the other well it's okay.

I have this sweater that I've had for years. I think like 5...I really like it, it is cozy and actually fits my long arms. The only problem was that it was getting dingy and the cuffs had some stains.

So what did I do? I busted out the teal dye.  I used plain old RIT dye, which I've use multiple other times with success.

I soaked it for about 50 minutes. But being acrylic, I knew that it wouldn't pick up the dye that darkly. That's why it soaked so long. If you're not sure what to do when trying to dye things...look on the box. They have great directions.

(Quality Iphone pic)

After is was washed and dried this was the outcome. What you can't see in the picture is that the dye was not distributed evenly. I'm thinking its because of the age of the sweater...but I dunno. It's kind of a mottled look. Not sure if I like it but, I'll probably wear it:)

My second project was to use this old t-shirt. I really like the color of this t-shirt but it had one too many holes. So I cut the back of it off and made my very own buff.

What is a buff? Its a knit fabric tube that you wear in the winter to cover your face, or use as a headband, etc. Its super versatile. I have one, but when living in Alaska in a normal winter--not this winter as we've had 30-40 degree weather for the past 2-3 weeks, and all our snow is gone...boo!--it's good to have more than one buff!

Super easy project but I love the outcome! Don't mind my terrible pictures but I'm pretty excited about using it! And what's even better? It was free...didn't cost a thing.

That does my Dutch heritage proud!

Sarah

Now...its your turn! Tell us in the comments what you're up to or leave a picture on our facebook page! We always love to see others projects.

Next weeks Challenge:

 Winter: Make something for winter out of recycled/refurbished materials. It could be something to keep you or your house warm. Is the house drafty? Think of a cool way to block the draft. Need a scarf? Make one. Like those cute boot cuffs everyone has...totally doable.

Linked up to:
Frugally Sustainable

Walk in the woods

So while you all down there in the lower forty-eight are freezing, we in Alaska are having a really depressing winter. Why? Because you took all our snow!

The last two weeks have consisted of 30-40 degree weather with Chinooks blowing through. Boo. That means all our lovely snow is melting into ice and we've had rain for the past two weeks. Ugh.

We have to laugh up here when people are complaining of the snow and cold...cause we would welcome it with open arms. We like our skiing in these parts.

Not wanting to be cooped up, and having a rambunctious dog that gets into mischief when she hasn't been outside, I have been taking walks in the woods nearby.

Even with the icky snow/ice its still very pretty.

The trail I like to take is often traveled by the moose. The slushy snow made for great tracks to be made all up and down the trail. I was just glad I didn't run into them while on the trail!

 

 

Highbush cranberries.

Lots of sticks on the trail...no good for skiing, but very good for a project I have in mind.

Anyone want to send the snow back? That would be great!

 

Stay Warm!

Sarah

Challenge #2 Bathroom...say what?

Who loves computers? I'm pretty sure Nathania and I would not be on that boat today....we just deleted today's post with a flick of a button....silly blogger.

This weeks challenge was to re-use something from the bathroom to create a project OR to re-use something to make something for the bathroom.

I bet when you read that you thought I was crazy. Not crazy...just thinking outside the box:)

My project this week was to make something for the bathroom using something recycled for the bathroom. Yup you read that right, I did both parts of the challenge! Woah!

Now to the project, I have three bathrooms in my house, which all need to be decorated. Being the cheap girl I am this has taken awhile. In our hallway bathroom I have a brown rug with a gray, black and white shower curtain. Match? Not so much so this week I made a rug that goes well with the curtain.

I used a old shower curtain as the base for the rug, and found a black and grey sweater from the stash to make the ovals. I then hot glued the ovals on the base.

I was running out of glue so I didn't glue the entire oval down...which I may go back and do, because when it's stepped on the ovals can flip up revealing the bright green base.

Overall I like the look! How about you?

Oh and I also framed some prints from a local artist and put them up...they look great in there!

Sarah

Nathania here...

I made a hairclip holder for Aria to use in the bathroom.

I had a wooden plaque in the stash as well as the scrapbook paper--which is vastly unused and I have a plethora of. That including a bottle of modge-podge, I was good to go.

 I first modge-podged the paper to the wood and scraped it with a straight edge to get all the bubbles out. Then it was flipped paper side down to dry over night with a weight on top to make sure it dried flat, cause in the past it has turned out nice and flat:) The next day I took some sand paper and removed the excess paper off--this makes it smooth on the edges. To finish the hairclip holder off I used some bias tape that Sarah had in her stash that was attached with some thumbtacks on the back. Pretty easy project that will hopefully keep the pins I find all over the house organized!

 

Next weeks challenge:

 Wardrobe: Go look in your closet, find something you don't wear, is stained, doesn't fit, out of style and remake it or use the material to make something. Take a before picture of the garment and then what you've done to refurbish it. For this project, the old wardrobe garment should make up approximately 50-75% of the project.

 

Remember that we would love to see what you're doing! Leave a link in the comments!

Challenge #1 DeStash the Stash

Our challenge this week was to DeStash the Stash. I needed to make something from my stash of materials etc...and nothing else. No going to the store for anything...just making something purely out of the stuff I already had.

A couple at church just had a little boy. As I was looking through the stash I decided that I should make something for them rather than buying a gift. I found some really pretty brown yarn that I bought on clearance for who knows what. It was in the disaster room I call the craft room, and I decided that a crochet blanket would be just the thing. 

Now, being the expert crocheter I am...not...I made the pattern up. I'm pretty sure what I did was this, 

single chain 130

double crochet 2, single chain 2

repeat until its the size you want or run out of yarn.

I then found some cream and a mutlicolored brown for the border. I used the same pattern around the edge: double crochet 2 single chain 2 I did three rows of this.

And this is what it turned out like:

It measures about 3 feet by 3 feet, and has a little stretch to it.

I count this first challenge a success. I used up 3 and 1/2 skeins of yarn, and I didn't spend any extra on the baby gift! I hope they like it.

How about you? What did you make out of your stash?

Next Weeks Challenge:

Bathroom: Find something in the bathroom to repurpose into something else OR make something you've been wanting to make for the bathroom. Use at lease 50% recycled/hoarded materials.

Sarah

 

Challenge #1 - Destash the stash

I love Sarah's challenges for 2014!  Some will be more challenging than others, like the upcoming bathroom one, I have no idea what to do but making something from my stash, easy...it is a large stash with many options. The half finished project will also be easy as I have far too many to choose from and while I don't get as bored with projects like Sarah, I do have a more finite amount of time available with a rambuntious 3yr old running around wanting to "HELP" me in all things! :)

For my first challenge I decided to add finishing up a project to making one from the stash. I have an unusually large collection of onesies that never made it out of the planning phase for baby gifts.  One of my plans had been to make a set of onesies for 2 baby girls numbered 1-12 so pictures could be taken every month for the first year and I got as far as collecting some cute fabric for the numbers and fusible webbing. I made it further on my onesie necktie project but lost steam when Christmas Bazaar season came around. I had seven fused necktie onesies that only required some final sewing so I quickly finished those and got started on my actual stash project. I grabbed 3 of my girlie onesies some coordinating fabrics, my fusible webbing and an owl image I found online and went to town making some cute little owls. I think they turned out really cute! However sewing in a circle is decidedly harder than straight necktie lines!! :-) So please don't look too closely at my owls eyes!

The upcycle.recycle.reuse.refurbish.repurpose....challange.

I am going to be challenging myself over the next couple of weeks to pull off some projects that have been in my mind, but are definitely not getting done.  I have so much material, fabric, paint and projects on the back burners that I need to change something and do something about it!  I have at least 10 on my list and if all goes well...that list will grow and we will continue the challenge. 

The list is currently:

1. De-Stashing. I collect fabric, yarn, buttons, etc....and I have a room full of them. So this week the challenge is to use something from the stash. NO buying of new materials. EVERYTHING--100% that goes into the project has to come from stuff in your hoard. No buying of new stuff. We're challenging you to actually use the pretty cotton or the soft wool that you have in your drawers.

This is next weeks challenge(and I'm giving you an extra day)...ready...go!

2. Bathroom: Find something in the bathroom to repurpose into something else OR make something you've been wanting to make for the bathroom. Use at lease 50% recycled/hoarded materials.

3. Wardrobe: Go look in your closet, find something you don't wear, is stained, doesn't fit, out of style and remake it or use the material to make something. Take a before picture of the garment and then what you've done to refurbish it. For this project, the old wardrobe garment should make up approximately 50-75% of the project.

4. Winter: Make something for winter out of recycled/refurbished materials. It could be something to keep you or your house warm. Is the house drafty? Think of a cool way to block the draft. Need a scarf? Make one. Like those cute boot cuffs everyone has...totally doable.

5. Project Finish: Look at the pile of stuff you've attempted to make and then gave up...or is that just me who starts a ton of projects, but hates finishing them? You've bought the materials and I'm guessing the project is over half done. So the challenge this week is to actually finish it. You can thank me later.

6. Lumber, sticks, wood: Make something out of a tree. Play with some stain. Go get some free pallets and finally make one of the hundred pallet projects you've pinned. Go to the forest and find some sticks...if the snow has melted...make something pretty.

7. Garage or Shed: Go look in your garage or shed. Find something that needs to be fixed, remade into something pretty, finally make that raised bed for the spring. Declutter some of the husbands stash of nails, pretty wire or zipties. Use some power tools.  Try to use 50% of what is found in your garage in the project.

8. Linen: Mismatched sheets, pillowcases, old towels. Can you repurpose any of it before you throw it out? Betcha you can. I dare you.

9. Food, Glorious, Food! This is for the Food Network Junky who loves "Chopped" Wait until you have to go to the grocery store...and then challenge yourself to make a new and creative dish from the pantry/freezer. Incorporate the leftovers that need to be eaten and create a new meal. You are not allowed to go to the store for this challenge. 

10. Paint: We all have extra paint in the garage/shed from past projects. So what can you make with it? You may use other materials but all paint in the project must have been bought for something else.

So for you crazy cats out there who are willing to join me here are the details:

Every Wednesday I will post what I made for the week, and the challenge for next week--yes I know I listed them already, but this way you can work ahead or if you're like me you'll need a reminder :)  I will be posting success with fails, because like everyone else out there I have my share of failures in my attempts to make something...lets be real people...not all the projects are pin-worthy, house-worthy, and often are trash-can worthy. 

I would love, love, love to have people link up, but have tried that in the past and it didn't work. So if you're in the mood to join in this venture, leave a link in the comments! If you don't have a blog...put a picture on our Facebook page with a description of what you made. I would love to see what you've made. If we have good participation I will definitely do a link up. 

Questions? 

Sarah