Ruffly Scarf

I see these ruffly scarfs everywhere, I actually own one. And it is only one because for some reason I have a hard time shelling out 10 plus bucks for a quarter yard of fabric. I have seen people make them as well. I thought that I would give it a try. I did not use that elastic thread though. Mine was more of that ah-ha moment when you figure out a way to do something.

I was sitting in church the other day and Thing #2 was picking at a fray and it was slowly gathering the rest of the fabric. That was when it hit me that I could just gently pull the threads of the fabric and make it gathered. I got a piece of remnant fabric from the store. I choose this one because the edges were already frayed a little bit so it would be easy to find the threads to pull. Also I thought it would be cute to have a light weight scarf as opposed to my usual thick, chunky ones. I roughly measured out how far I wanted my gathers and then found a thread and started to pull it. You have to do this gently because I got all excited when it was working just like I envisioned and pulled a little too hard on one string and it broke.You can see it here in the picture.

This is me gently pulling on the string to gather it.

So I gathered it all together, I did it the short way of the scarf just to give it a different look. To keep it from coming undone I put a dot of fabric glue when I was done with the gather.  I then did a hem around all the edges and it was done. This picture is of the dot of glue.

And here is the finished product:

I thought that it would be a little cool since the fabric is so light, but my neck was plenty warm when I was out and about today.

Linking up to: Sew Cute, Someday crafts, Sugar and Dots, Sew Much Ado, Little Eme.

A Life Day

Yesterday was one of those days. I had so many things planned that I wanted to do, and then life took over and most of them did not get done. I am going to vent just a little bit about it - more for me then for you, but thanks.

I woke up this morning to run and felt like I wanted to throw up. I thank my kids for that. So I went back to bed until Thing #5 woke up, which was not very long. I then had to hold my breath and get breakfast for everyone and lunch ready for the school kids. Once they were out the door I could tackle my next project - the driveway. Conan had to go to work early this morning and the driveway still needed to be shoveled. However, I had driven on it twice already and Conan had as well, so it was well packed down. However, I was not able to get to it until Thing #5 was napping because when I tried to do it with him, he kept falling over and the snow was too deep for him to be able to get up. In the meantime I sat on the couch and relaxed for a few minutes because I really just had no energy or desire to do anything else. Then there was more laundry that had to be done. I did get it all washed and dried, now it is waiting for me to fold it and it might be for sometime. By this time I had to go and get the kids from school and then the rest of the day is pretty much history.

But on an upside I love how everything looks with snow. It is so peaceful and beautiful. And I am feeling better today, so that is awesome! Here is to getting something fun done today! I had an ah-ha moment the other day at Church for a fun scarf. It is pretty easy and on the top of my list to do today.

I was able to get a little bit of sewing done yesterday. I wanted to make a good dent in my first quilt for the year, but this is as far as I was able to get.

This is from the line Fresh Squeezed by Moda. The pattern is called Framed. It is a very bright quilt, which I love! Maybe today I can also get all of these squares sewn together.

Whole Wheat Banana Bread

cI just have to brag for a little bit. I have been trying to hard to eat less sugar and refined foods and I did so good this week. (Don't you just love how motivated you are at the beginning of the year?) Well, I weighed myself and I lost 5 pounds this week! That is most of what I put on over the holidays, but I am loving it! Here is to another week . . . and another 5 pounds! I can only wish. ;)

Today I have a healthy little treat for you. My kids are finally getting over whatever it was that we had and I was able to do a little bit of baking over the weekend. Because no on was really interested in eating I had a few bananas that were at that perfect bread state. So I made these - and they ended up being for dinner because I did not really want to make anything else. Such is life. Thing #2 is really loving the whole cooking thing, so I let her make most of this recipe.

Whole Wheat Banana Bread

2 C whole wheat flour - I used Kamut wheat and white wheat
2/3 C sugar
1/2 C oil
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
3 ripe bananas
1 C chopped nuts - optional

Mix all dry ingredients together and then add wet ingredients and mix well.  Place in loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. I use this mini loaf pan for everything and it only takes about 30 minutes to cook.

I never really follow a recipe, so each time it turns out a little bit different. But this is the general idea for it. When I first started making this I got my recipe from the Joy of Cooking book. I hope that you enjoy this recipe!

Project 365 -week 1

I hope that you are all having a great weekend. I have been doing laundry, and then some more laundry and then even a little bit more laundry. I have sick kids - every single one of them has thrown up within the last 48 hours. But between switching loads, giving saltines, and telling the kids to take a nap I managed to put all of my pictures into my digital page to share with all of you today.

I am not sure how many of you scrapbook, but I love digital scrapbooking! It is so easy. At first I was a little bit uncertain of it, because I was not sure if I had enough computer knowledge to make this work. However, when I was thinking that I did not think about the fact that I was using photoshop to alter the family photos I took for other people.

Yea, so when I finally took the plunge it was a piece of cake. This is my layout for this first week of Project 365, 51 more to go! ;) I will use this template for the whole month of January and then use a different one for February and so on for March and etc, etc, etc. Nothing too exciting this week - I will be showing you how to make these PB knockoff candles later this week. They are so easy and that small cream one looks just like the one in the catalog! And that one was my friends!

Now I have quite a bit of scrapbooking supplies that I am not quite sure what they will be used for. I have to admit I am a hoarder - but I am slowly finding things that I want to make. For example I am working on a gratitude journal for 2011. I should have it done here this week.

Also there is still time to link up to our Fantastic Friday link party! Show us what you got!

Fantastic Friday #1

Welcome to our first ever FANTASTIC FRIDAY! This is where you get to showcase all of your fantastic creations for us to see.

Rules:
*must link to a blog post, not your home page, another linky party, etsy shop or giveaway.
*link back to this post so that others can join in on the fun.
*visit a few of the links and leave comments, everyone loves comments on their stuff!
*become a follower of Iron Violet Designs. This is not mandatory, but just a nice thing to do.

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Let's get started:

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1. Pizza Puffs 2. Vintage Crate as Table 3. Happy Birthday Blocks! 4. Chunky Love Blocks! 5. New Year, New Calendar! 6. Cayenne table 7. Easy Bracelet Tutorial 8. 5 Minute Earrings 9. Valentine's Crafts 10. DIY Fabric Labels 11. Ruffled Baby Mobile! 12. Chocolate Chip Cookies 13. Hot chocolate on a stick 14. Family wall arrangement 15. Love Letter photo art 16. Zupa Tuscona Soup/recipe 17. Valentine Wreath

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DR. MAG

Do you ever have those projects that you know you will do, but you are never sure when? (This is different from those ones that you would like to do.) I know I am not the only one out there with these. This project is one of those. I knew I was going to make it, and I started looking for supplies, but I never really got started on it until the cold really hit. Once I got started I really wanted it done. I am happy to say that now it is finally done. I am super excited about it because now there will be no more of this chaos. And I took this after I hung up most of the coats and jackets, usually there is only one or two things hung up and everything else strewn across the floor.

And the kids are excited to because they each have their own hook. I saw something like this in PB a while ago and it caught my eye. I started look at thrift store for yard stick and rulers, but all the ones around here wanted $1-$2 for them. So that is when I got the idea that I could just paint my own and make this look just as good. We are going to hang this up at the kids height so that hopefully they will not leave their stuff laying around on the floor. Here is the end product:

 

And here is how you can make one for yourself, and it is really not hard at all!

I got most of my sticks from Lowes and Home Depot, (I liked the thickness of their sticks as compared to some other stores). But I did pick up a few other thick ones here and there. Once I got them - or thought I had enough; I later went back and got 2 more - I laid them out on some newspaper and painted them each with a watered down color. Some of them had a glaze and the paint did not take so well and others the paint just soak right in.

 The third stick down really did not want to take the paint, and the top stick is one that had a glaze on it. I found that if I sanded it a little bit the paint stuck better. But I also liked how it gave it a little uneven look. These dried super fast and so I was able to put multiple coats on in one day. I did a different amount of coats for each one until it was the color I wanted.

 

After I had them all painted, I lined them up on my board that I had got for this. I glued these on with liquid nails, because I just love how well that stuff works.You can see my line of it in the above photo.

I was using clamps to hold it, but I did not want to do one at a time and my clamps would not reach the middle of my board. I quickly scanned the basement and grabbed two of my kettlebells and placed on them to hold them in place. One more reason to love my kettlebells. I then cut the ones that hung over the edges with my trusty coping saw. I sanded a little to remove the rough edges.

 After I got them all glued on I took an antiquing medium paint that I bought in a whim at Hobby Lobby once. I followed the instructions - well most of the way.

 

 It gave it a little bit of that old look - rustic is what I like to call it.

 I then proceeded to lacquer this baby up because I liked the way it looked now and I knew that once the kids started to use it it would look even more rustic and old. Which I guess would not be a huge problem, but I also wanted it to be easy to clean.

 

 Here is pictures of it with the letter hooks screwed and glued onto it. I really want these to stay on. I found these hooks at Hobby Lobby and loved them. I bought them even before I knew what I wanted to do with them, but I knew I could come up with something. And I did! Now I just need to find some time when Conan is home from work and we are not so busy that I can get this thing hung up. I was thinking about waited to post it then, but I just loved the way it turned out and did not want to wait.

There you have it, a cute, fun hook for your kids to help you keep their clutter picked up. This is also my entry for Crafting with the Stars.






Linking up to:Somewhat simple, House of Hepworths, Shabby Chic Cottage, paisley passions, a Little Knick Knack, Sassy Sites, Tidy Mom, craft-o-manic, Skip to my Lou, Sew chatty, Crafts keep me sane, Shanty to chic.

And don't forget my first ever link party tomorrow! I would love for all of you to come and share your Fantastic creations at Fantastic Friday!

Flirty Apron

Yesterday was one of those days. Thing #5 was sick and puking and just wanted to be held all day. Because of this nothing really got done. I was lucky to finish this apron. I was so close to finishing, and I thought I could just whip out this ruffle at the top, but no, that ruffle took me one hour. All because of my lap buddy. But I just love it when he wants to snuggle, it melts my heart. So I was okay with the extra time this took. And sorry about the pictures, Thing #2 was so kind as to take them for me.

To make this apron I took a pattern off of my original Flirty Apron I got a couple of years ago. Except I made this one with darker colors, which it nice because then it can be dirty, but it is not as noticeable. The inside is the blue with brown dots. I have thought about making it reversible, but have not decided how I want to do that. (and it is a little late since I already sewed everything together.)

For the bottom I had thought of doing a ruffle but I decided that I wanted a large scallop edge instead. I just free handed the scallop and it did not turn out very well. As in you can hardly tell there is even a scallop there, but I think that it still looks cute.

Just Sew Sassy did an apron a while back that I copied this ruffle on the top from. I added the rosette because I wanted there to be a splash of color, okay really Conan told me that this needed some color like orange and so I just pulled this fabric from my stash and made the rosette. He then told me that was exactly what it needed. I really did marry the best man in the world.

And don't forget that Friday is my first ever link party! Fantastic Friday! Come and link up all of your Fantastic creations to share with everyone!

Linking up to: Little Eme, Creative Itch, Someday Crafts, Sugar and Dots, Sew Much Ado.