Sewing Wannabe

It goes without saying that living abroad allows you to have many experiences you might never have had otherwise.  Most of the biggest new experiences I've had here revolve around travel and the incredible sights I've seen.  Oh, and koalas. 

However, I've also realized that there are quite a few other new experiences I've had that have nothing to do with travel.  While living here, I've had the chance to do things like: be a part of a book club, blogging, working in a completely different education setting than I'm used to, having a standing weekly Saturday coffee date with friends, etc.  These are things that for one reason or another, I never had the interest in or opportunity for before living here.  I think that living in a small town combined with the fact that there are plenty of other Americans here in a similar situation somehow created the perfect setting for some of these things to happen here. 

Another one of these new experiences that I've fallen into recently is sewing.  A few of the girls that I've become close friends with over the past few months had been going to a Monday night sewing class.  They'd been inviting me to come for weeks, and I kept turning them down.  Sewing wasn't something I ever really thought I was interested in taking up as a hobby.  Well, a few months ago, I finally went along with them.  And I actually enjoyed it. It's not so much a structured class, as it is a sort of sewing "study hall."  You can work on whatever you want while having access to a very helpful "instructor" and tons of sewing machines/supplies.  Most of the girls who go are making super fancy things like beautiful quilts and Christmas stockings.  I'm definitely the least skilled of the group. 

I started out by making a very simple pin cushion. 

From there, I decided to make a gift for a friend whose baby shower was coming up.  Growing up, my mom used to make these cute little hooded baby towel things.  I think I even "helped" her a few times.  I figured that would be a simple enough project for me to move on to next. 

I used this tutorial and tips from my mom as my guide:
http://prudentbaby.com/2009/10/baby-kid/diy-hooded-baby-towel/

My friend Alexa is having her second little girl, and she's not a super "pink" type of mom.  So I went with this coral fabric... although for some weird reason, it looks pretty orange in these pictures. 

This project ended up taking me a lot longer than I anticipated, but when it was finally finished, I was very happy with the end product!  It was fun to give someone a gift that I had made myself. 

And here's a photo of some of the girls I sew with at Alexa's baby "sprinkle." 

Nicole, Me, Jackie, Alexa (and baby Sawyer), Colleen, Katie, & sweet little Elise up front showing her belly to the camera :-)

Easy Postcard Project For Travel Memories

I'm not very crafty, creative, or otherwise talented in the DIY arena most of the time.  I get easily intimidated by crafts and creative projects.  However, one thing I do love (and I like to think I excel at) is being a pen-pal... and anything else related to stationery and cards.  I have always loved to write and send letters, cards and postcards, and for as long as I can remember, I've been in the habit of sending at least a few postcards whenever I travel somewhere.  So when we moved to Australia, I wanted to make sure I kept that habit.  Something I also really wanted to prioritize during our time here was keeping track of all the places we've seen and all the memories made in those places. 

So when I stumbled on this simple travel postcard project idea from my all time favorite blog Young House Love just a few weeks before our move, I knew it was a craft/DIY project I could definitely handle!  It's so easy for me, because it involves something I do anyway.  When I'm picking out postcards to send to a few friends/family during a trip, I just make sure I remember to pick out one extra for us!  Then, all you do is write a postcard to yourself describing what you saw, did, loved, favorite places, funny travel mishaps, etc. on your trip.  Then I just bring it home with us, and toss it in this dish on our coffee table.  It's fun to look through them from time to time and it's a great conversation starter- PLUS it looks pretty!

Our collection so far- 19 and counting...



A few of our recent postcards







Postcard project on our coffee table (among the few Fall decorations I have)


Here's the link to the original project idea found on YHL:
http://www.younghouselove.com/2008/08/post-haste/

Deck the Halls!

Christmas has always been one of my favorite holidays.  I love the music, decorations, anticipation, shopping for gifts, and general good moods that seem to take over.  This year though, between knowing that I will be away from family and friends and the strange experience of having to celebrate Christmas during summertime,  it would be very easy for me to get all "scrooge-y" this holiday season.  BUT, I am determined not to.  I've been making every effort to get in the Christmas spirit this year, and one of the things that has helped the most is decorating our house!  And I've got to admit- for as few decorations as I was able to bring with us in our move, I think I did a pretty darn good job!  It definitely feels a little more Christmas-y around here! 

 

 

I started the Christmas-ification with this Pinterest-inspired take on a wreath.  Go here for the original link.

 

 

And what's Christmas without a fake tree?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before and After: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So that's what Christmas looks like at our house this year.  Merry Christmas, everyone!

First Pinterest Craft Attempt

I’m fairly certain that I was one of the last people on the face of earth to jump on the Pinterest bandwagon.  I didn’t join until just a few months ago.  My reason being that I have a pretty addictive online personality- meaning that I get addicted to things like Facebook, blogs, etc. and then end up wasting more time than I’d like to admit.  I KNEW I would be obsessed with Pinterest so I purposely refused to let myself join for quite a while- especially while I was teaching (although now I kind of regret that seeing as how there are so many awesome teacher resources).   At any rate, I finally bit the bullet a few months ago, and I was right- I was almost immediately addicted.  J 

I have been pretty good about trying lots of the recipes that I’ve pinned, but I had yet to try anything crafty or DIY-y.  (Side note: I wish Pinterest would add a label or separate board or some way to mark the pins you've actually tried/created.)  Because we weren't able to bring very many decorations or wall hangings when we moved to Australia, I decided I would try and make a frame that would let me display multiple photos while at the same time covering up some of these blindingly white bare walls in the house.  Here was my pinspiration:

http://pinterest.com/pin/313281717798593690/
http://pinterest.com/pin/313281717798593691/ 

I was surprised to find out that Australia has a few of the same thrift stores we have in the states.  Here in Gladstone, we have a St. Vincent DePaul and Salvation Army.  But in true Aussie fashion, they must be abbreviated as Vinnie’s and The Salvie.  I’m trying not to shake my head and/or roll my eyes at the excessive amount of abbreviations here in Oz as I type this…   Anyways, I found the perfect frame at Vinnie’s for two bucks!  It was a pretty rough-looking white when I bought it, so after cleaning it up, I spray painted it blue.  I forgot to take a before picture.  Oops.  After it dried completely, the rest was super easy.

 

 I just used twine to create three rows for hanging pictures and secured the twine to the back with tons of hot glue. 

 

 Then I used the mini clothespins (or pegs as they call them here) to clip the photos into the frame. 

I like that I can easily change out the photos at any time.  I think it turned out pretty well for a first time Pinterest craft by someone who is not particularly crafty!  I’m thinking about trying to make a Christmas wreath (similar to this one) for the front door next.  You can follow me on Pinterest at username: Meggers315!