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

Free the Lumberjack Plaid!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE fall and winter, and I LOVE lumberjack/buffalo plaid. I have pretty girly style, so I find it challenging to wear plaid and still achieve the look I want. However, when I found this dress (FOR FREE), I had to have it.

I found this lovely piece of 90's, Dollar General store fashion at the swap on base when M was overseas. I have been saving it for a year, procrastinating and waiting for cooler weather. I was super motivated yesterday and decided that the cold weather and the occasion were perfect for this cute, warm little number. Yay!

I did not get a "before" picture of me wearing it, but it looks pretty pioneery. I also thought for a minute that it might be pajamas or a house robe (which I would still have worn as clothes, ha!), but the belt told me otherwise. Here it is before I got to it (complete with shoulder pads):

Whoever bought it back in the day paid $5.00 on clearance. I got it for free and it had never even been worn !

So I removed the shoulder pads, shortened the hem, and thought it would be perfect. However, I noticed it was kind of saggy in the boob area and looked boxy up top. I thought adding some darts in the "under boob" area (gosh I am so eloquent) would help, and it did! I also found that the sleeves were very baggy (ah, the 90s) and so I rolled them up because they looked a lot more like pajamas or a pioneer dress rolled down.

A perfect outfit to wear in the cold weather when you're going to Medieval Times for a friend's birthday dinner. :)

Hope you like it! What are you wearing to stay warm? 

Infinity Scarf From Old Tee Shirts!

Fall is coming! Comfy coats, pumpkin everything, cool weather, cuddling, boots, fall colors, and... SCARVES! 

This is the perfect time to start getting ready. Do you have any old tee shirts around your house? Personally, I hate throwing things away when I know they still have a lot of life in them. Why not make yourself a soft, comfortable infinity scarf for fall and winter? :) 

Guess what? I have already made one of these. I made one last fall when I had some of my husband's old tee shirts and didn't know what to do with them. After it turned out so well, I was totally kicking myself for not taking pictures along the way.

Well, this time I did. 

Here are the tee shirts before I got to them with my scissors. 

I cut across the chest, so I would be left with only the bottom part of the shirt. I gave the tops to my dad for rags in his wood shop. :) See? No waste!

I then cut the seams off of the shirts on the sides and the bottom, so for each shirt I would be left with two squares. I pinned them together to make one really really long flat strip. After I sewed that together, I folded the long strip together "hot dog style", right sides in. I sewed down the open side so that I would be left with a long tube. I turned that inside out and fit one side of the tube into the other one and sewed it down. I know that sounds like a lot, but it was so easy!

Here is the finished product!