Recent Craftiness

Thought I would bring you all up to date on some of the recent fun I've been having :)

I bought a carafe at Target the other day.

Isn't it cute?  I feel like a real grown-up, now :)


I've also been slowly building up my embroidery hoop collection in preparation for something Jess and I are planning for next month :)

Aren't they pretty? I almost don't want to use them so they can stay hanging like that.
I've finished a few new embrioderies, too! (pictures coming soon)
Also for what Jess and I are planning ;)

Speaking of embroidery--here is that case make-over I mentioned in an earlier post :D

Isn't it cute? I'm really happy with the way it came out! The red case works well to hold my portable hard drive and iPod, but it was just too plain for my tastes :)

Here is another update on a project mentioned in an earlier post.

Remember the clock I got in Kansas City while visiting Jess?

Well, I finally got around to fixing it up! The clock mechanism was MUCH easier to fix than I thought. Turns out, once I got access to the hands by taking the back off of the clock, I just had to pop it back in place and it worked!

 All it needed was a coat of paint :)

The outside is a bright teal color and the inside between the frame and the clock face is a dark purple. I broke the glass while trying to tape it off for painting, but I'm not too upset about it. Just adds charm :)


Last, but certainly not least, is this little t-shirt make-over. When this shirt came out of the drier, it had a bleach stain on the front. I didn't want to get rid of it, because it's so comfy and fits so well, so I put a little applique on it, instead!

Here you can see the bleach stain on the back of the finished shirt, with all of the stitches from the applique.

Detail of the applique.

Isn't it cute? I was very pleasantly surprised :D

So much in one post!  Thanks for stickin' with me! More craftiness and a big announcement, coming soon!

Keep Smiling,
Alyssa

Thrifting Adventures

Last week I took a morning and decided to check out a few of my favorite thrift stores in Cape, as well as check out a new one I had found and a new sewing shop I discovered near my apartment :)


First stop was the sewing shop.  It was adorable! Small, and therefore somewhat overpriced, but so cute.  It's run by two or three older ladies who teach sewing and quilting classes.  After staring at a pair of Gingher Scissors for about five minutes, I ripped myself away and snatched up some fat quarters of some pretty quilting cotton to use in my newest embroideries.





Soooo pretty :)


After that stop I headed to Teen Challenge, my favorite thrift store in Cape. I don't normally shop for clothes at thrift or resale shops, because I never know if they'll fit, but I almost always manage to find some other fun goodies at Teen Challenge.





First were these awesome Thermoses. I got them for .25 and .50 each! They're in perfect condition and completely usable. I haven't yet decided if I'll use them for craft storage, decoration, food transportation, or resell them, but I am very pleased with this find :)





Next were these mugs and this adorable hot plate :) The hot plate was just too cute to pass up--I'm thinking of hanging it in my future kitchen when I move in with Joshua :D The mugs were only .50 a piece and the "Your the Best" rainbow mug made my day. The sheet in the background of these pictures was also found at Teen Challenge. It is full sized, SUPER soft, and only cost .50! I plan on cutting it up to use as fabric for embroideries or as part of a future quilt.


Lastly were this Jungle Book glass and nalgene bottle!





I was incredibly thrilled to find the nalgene. It only cost about a dollar and is the real deal. I have a metal water bottle that I love, but this one is a much more realistic size to carry around in a bag to classes and work. The Jungle Book glass isn't in the best of shape, but I just couldn't pass it up. For .25 I got a little piece of my childhood--we had the FULL set of these collectible Burger King glasses when I was little.


That's all I have from my adventures in thrifting. Turns out the second thrift shop was a bust. It was about 90% baby clothes and REALLY overpriced (it was technically a resale shop, not a thrift shop). I am ever so pleased with what I came home with, though :) Spent less than $20 all day and all of the goodies from Teen Challenge were less than $5! I was pretty excited :D Thanks so much for joining me today! Craft update coming soon with an update on all of my recent projects and that big announcement I've been mentioning should be made sometime this week! Yay!


Keep Smiling,
Alyssa

Goin' to the Zoo!

On Monday a group of us from the Baptist Student Center went to the Zoo!  It was a little cold and breezy, but other than that we had a wonderful time and got to see some awesome animals :)

This guy scared me.  I was sitting next to the window, waiting to get a picture, and he swooped up from the bottom of the tank.  The water was so murky I couldn't really see him until it looked like he was going to bust through the glass! All the little kids sitting around me thought it was pretty funny that I jumped . . .

Isn't he cute?!  There was a huge crowd gathered while he swatted at the toy dangling in his cage.  It was adorable. 

I love turtles :D

This one is for my little sister.  Snakes are her favorite ;)

Thanks for joining me today :)

Keep Smiling,

Alyssa

Happy Saint Patty's Day!

So, I'm a little late--


Last night Joshua threw a lovely  Saint Patricks Day celebration complete with corned beef and cabbage

(YUM)

After dinner we watched this

We had a great time and ate WAY more than we should have.  

Thanks for joining me :)  I hope you all had a great Saint Patrick's day!

Keep Smiling,

Alyssa

My fingers look like Easter

At least, that's what Hannah thinks :)  Remember that nail polish that I was so excited about? (See beginning of saga here).  

THE SAGA OF 
THE MINT GREEN NAIL POLISH 

PART 1

Ordered polish from company in New Jersey. 

PART 2

Delayed shipping because of east coast blizzards = offer to refund money, or mail a second polish in return for good feedback on Amazon.  

Second polish, please.

(they ship color called "For Audrey")

PART 3

Go to Sally's to see what "For Audrey" looks like, not exactly what I'm looking for.  Buy pretty color called "Re-fresh Mint".  

PART 4

Second package from Jersey arrives-- 


Contains "Re-fresh Mint" and not "For Audrey".  

!!!!!Conundrum!!!!! 

PART 5

Give second identical polish to roommate, who is also searching for the perfect sea-foam color.  Conundrum, solved.

Exciting, I know. They should make a movie.

ACTUAL EXCITING NEWS:


Hannah and I have a crafty date on Monday night :)  I'm not quite sure what I'm going to work on yet, I have a few things on my list and can't quite decide which I want to make first!




THE LIST:


-Cover for DeRohan's camera strap:  I've been planning on doing this for a while.  I want to make a cover for the strap because it's ugly and says NIKON on it in bright yellow, and because I want to create a pocket to hold the un-attached lens-cap.  


-I bought two canvas boards to create art for the new Music Room at the BSC.  Joshua has given me a few ideas about what to put on them, but I haven't exactly decided yet . . .


-I also recently purchased a neoprene case for my portable hard drive.  This may sound a little silly, but i've noticed a couple scratches on it recently, and I'm worried about losing the USB cable.  The case that I bought looks like this:

I want to embroider some sort of something cute on the bottom right-hand corner.  I'm leaning toward a daisy, but I haven't decided yet.  Plus, it probably won't be here in time for the date on Monday, anyway :/

-Another option is fixing the embroidery that is featured in my DIY (here).  After I finished it, I realized that the yellow letters are very hard to read on the small pattern of the material that I used.  I'm going to stitch over them with a darker color to make them more readable.

Opinions on which project I should do??? Ideas for other projects??? I would LOVE to hear what you guys think :D (about that AND what kind of feedback to leave on Amazon after that saga ;)

Thanks for joining me today! Happy Friday!!! Have a safe, and lovely weekend.  No one get arrested, OK?

Keep Smiling,

Alyssa

Oh, my!

I apologize for the lack of blogging on my part.  It has been a crazy week.  I hope you all enjoyed my DIY! It may seem simple, but I know personally I wish someone would have told me about that a loooooong time ago.  My freehanded embroidery just never turns out the way I like, and I don't like to draw directly onto the fabric (you never know if it will actually get covered up by the stitches, and who wants pencil on their piece? Not I).


In other news:


-I finished my website and my professor/classmates LOVED it :) I was very pleased.  Hopefully I'll get some images up soon so you all can give feedback as well :)  The "company" that I used for the site is actually going to be my BFA project as well, so I will probably revamp and reuse the site for that.


- I got a new tattoo!!!

The typeface is Joshua's handwriting and the phrase comes from I Thessalonians 15 :D  I am thrilled with it.  (It's actually not quite as thick and heavy as it looks in this image, the editing I did darkened the lines a bit).

-Joshua, Matthew, Hannah (Joshua's sister), and I all drove to Nashville on Saturday to see Waterdeep play. (That link is to a video from a concert they did two days before the one we went to.)  The show that we saw was a small houseshow open only to those who purchased the special gift package with their new CD that came out in December.  There were about 50-60 people there and the night was full of great music, awesome company, and AMAZING coffee.  It was INCREDIBLE.  The four of us had a BLAST hanging out and roadtripping together, and the music was simply fantastic.

-An office recently cleared out in the BSC and Dr. Gentry gave us permission to use it as a music room :) We've been in the process of moving all of our stuff in to make it a rehearsal/recording space, as well as a little "hang out area" with a couch and a microwave (:D).   It is very exciting :D

-As for my art, I haven't had much time for it lately, except for the stuff I've made for classes.  I'm hoping that after the Berlin Airlift show on Saturday (BE THERE) I'll have a little more time to craft again :)  I have patterns, ideas for projects, and ALL sorts of new fabric that I am VERY excited to use.  I also bought some boards to paint so that we have some pretty things to hang on the walls in the aforementioned music room.  The boys suggested something similar to some paintings that I made for Joshua that have a Bob Dylan quote on them . . . we'll see ;)

Thanks for joining me today! Hopefully I'll have much more to share with you soon :D

Keep Smiling,

Alyssa