Community Garden: Our Mini-Farm

I cannot seem to keep my manicures nice this summer, and it is for the absolute best reason.

Back in December, I did some research and found a community garden program in our area. For those of you who don't know, M and I bought a house back in November. We love it! The house, the neighbors, our neighborhood and the location are all we ever could have asked for. Since we live in the DC area, space is at a premium. We have a small yard, but it is landscaped and it isn't the kind of space we would need to have the kind of garden I wanted, so I found the community garden closest to us and put our names on the wait list for a plot.

I was assured that it would take at least a year until we were called, so I started planning on having an awesome garden in the Spring of 2016. However, several plots came available in May!! We went out, chose our plot, and waited to see if we got the one we wanted. Seriously. It almost killed me waiting. And I am sure that I annoyed the coordinator, because I am ashamed to say that I sent her several mildly-obsessive emails telling her how much we wanted that specific plot.

It worked! M and I were now the "owners" of a very overgrown, weed-covered, unfenced (at least on one side) community garden plot. We saw all the potential, and the fact that it is prime real estate because it is close to the water source.

It was time to get to work! I spent many hours out there, pulling up the weeds by hand and piling them up into huge piles. It was back-breaking work and I was so sore afterward! I found so many interesting bugs hiding under all those weeds too, and I love bugs. A few days later (on his birthday!), M went out and constructed the fence.

Weed-free and fenced, we were in business!

Here is a picture of the plot before we started weeding.

And during the weeding... 

Of course it is still a work in progress, but we are so happy with our little mini-farm! 

We were so pleasantly surprised to find this amazing community garden so close to us. Do you participate in a community garden? If so, I would love to hear about it!

Take a Look at This Gem!!

I recently had the very distinct pleasure of traveling back down South to visit my Granny and hitting up my favorite-ever thrift store while I was there!

I scored some really great refashionables, and I was thrilled!

One of my favorite pieces was this amazing jewel shirt. At least I think those are jewels...

As you can see it is a little bit too big and billowy. And you can also see right through it. Oh well!

Either way, the print is fabulous! Here's a close-up:

I figured that with the cute print of this shirt, it didn't need too much to make it perfect. I shortened the sleeves a few inches so the cut wasn't so 80s, and I took in the sides to make the shirt just a little bit more form-fitting.

The next morning, I couldn't wait to wear it, so I wore it to Costco. :)

You'll have to pardon my use of bathroom selfies...

I hope you enjoyed this gem of a refashion!

Friday Night Project: Wine Cork Magnets!

What better way to spend a Friday night than doing a little bit of crafting while catching up on my shows after a long week?

I have a plethora of wine corks! My parents gave me a bunch of them because they didn't want to throw them away and knew I would put them to some kind of use. Of course!

I started with this bread bag of corks and this package of peel-and-stick magnet tape.

Then I used M's knife to carefully cut the corks in half. After cutting a few real corks, I cut some of the newer, synthetic kind and realized that they are so much easier! So I ended up with a good mix. 

Then I cut small rectangles of the magnet strip using kitchen shears. It was easier to cut than I thought it would be.

Here is what they look like on our fridge!

Have a wonderful, relaxing, crafty weekend! :) 

Socks From Old Sweater Sleeves!

Wow, it has been a while!

Since it is warming up, you can go ahead and add this to your project list for next year! Bad me, waiting until Spring is almost here to post a tutorial about how to make warm socks! :)

You might remember my very original post about how to make mittens from an old sweater. Well, I hated wasting the rest of the lovely sweater I kept since I was 18 (and could still fit in it), and it was such a beautiful color, so I decided to make warm, cozy socks to wear around the house out of the sleeves.

I started with cutting the sleeves off.

Then, I turned the sleeves inside-out and sewed down the wrist cuffs. I also turned down the raw edges, pinned them, and sewed them down. 

I left a little spot for elastic, snaked it into the hole I left, and sewed it shut. 

Clyde really wanted to help. :) 

BAM. Warm socks. 

Old Sweater Mittens (how original)

I am sure you all have seen a million DIY posts about making mittens from old sweaters. Here is yet another one for you. :)

There was this old sweater I found at Goodwill when I was like... 19. I loved the color, I love the kind of mohair-ish look, and it fit me perfectly. Back then. Now, not at all! It is basically a belly shirt.

Somehow I ended up keeping it, all through my time in the military, back and forth across the country, West, East, North, South... and then I found it in some of my old stuff right before we moved. I still love the color of this sweater and with so many memories, I didn't want to just donate it. Plus it is so soft!

I decided to make mittens out of it so I could keep some of the sweater I loved so much.

First, I drew a mitten hand on a piece of paper and then drew another line outside of that, making room for stitching.

Next, I cut out the "pattern" I made and pinned it on the sweater. I used the finished edge at the bottom of the sweater for the bottom/opening of the mittens. 

Then I pinned the pieces right-side-in and sewed them down. 

I had to make a few adjustments to make them even (the chance you take when eyeballing something). They turned out pretty well and are so warm! Excuse the picture, M took it for me, since of course I can't do anything with a touchscreen phone while wearing these beauties!

Since the original sweater had some buttons up on the shoulder, I decided to take those off and add them to the backs of each mitten.

I am really happy with the results of this simple little project!

Have you made these before? Happy New Year!!! 

Santa's bringing homemade sugar and salt scrubs this year!

This year, M and I have been totally stumped thinking of Christmas gifts for our families. Our parents already have everything they want, and our siblings pretty much do too. Because of that, we decided to do a lot of little things for our family members, and to try and go handmade as much as possible. Who doesn't love something handmade that they can use? I hope our families will love these homemade sugar and salt scrubs. 

First, I made a Pumpkin Pie Scrub, and found the recipe here. I added just a little more pumpkin pie spice than the recipe called for and it came out perfectly! 

Next, I used the recipes I found on that page to make a tangerine vanilla face scrub (which can be used pretty much anywhere, not just your face). To make that one, I added 1/2 cup of sugar and almond oil, 1 tsp. vitamin E oil, 1 tsp. vanilla extract, and 9 drops of tangerine essential oil. 

Then I found this recipe, and made both a lemon and thyme salt scrub and a lemon and lavender sugar scrub using it. 

Here is what I used... (sugar not pictured). We even grew the thyme ourselves during the summer! 

I love lemon zest!

I doubled the recipe... so here are my two teaspoons. Smells amazing already!

The final product! Pictured here: lemon thyme sea salt scrub, lemon lavender sugar scrub, brown sugar pumpkin pie scrub, and tangerine vanilla sugar scrub.

The only thing left to do is to cut out some pretty pieces of fabric to wrap around the top of the little jars and make cute little labels to tie on with festive ribbons. 

I used some of the pumpkin pie scrub in the shower yesterday, and it is AMAZING. I smelled like a cookie and it made my skin so soft! 

Are you doing handmade gifts this year? What are you making? I would love to hear about it. :) 

How Much Do I Love Influenster?

...Let me count the ways.

First of all, I really enjoy the new interface. It is really easy to navigate and understand. Plus, all of the surveys (known as "snaps") are really fun to fill out, and I love that I can see all of the campaigns I qualify for right there on my dashboard.

I am always so excited to see that I have qualified for something new and to share what I receive here on my blog!

This blog post is even part of a Influenster's BlogSTAR VirtualVox Campaign!

To anyone who wants to use Influenster and would like an invite, I would love to send you one! I will just need your email address. :)

While you're at it, you might want to check out this post I love on The Hub- 6 Stores that Sell Super Comfy Sweaters. Fall and winter are my favorite seasons- I love staying warm. <3