Shabby Chic Birdfeeders

This craft is amazingly easy and fun to make, and could definitely be a collaborative project between multiple members of a household. Because I'm awesome like this, most of the photos I took of the step-by-step process were deleted, but I've included one of the finished product and half-finished.


Step 1) Purchase, acquire, salvage, or build a birdfeeder or birdhouse. Since I actually created this in conjunction with a neighborhood kids' project, I used one of the premade cedar houses purchased.

Step 2) Purchase, acquire, salvage or mix weather-resistant, waterproof paint in whatever colors you'd like to use. Many home supply stores (we bought at Lowe's) can mix sample-sized pots of paints in any color for you for under $4.

Step 3) Paint your birdfeeder with your base color and wait for it to dry thoroughly. Depending on how thick you apply the paint this may take a couple hours. You may also need or want a second coat. You can paint the sides any color(s) you want, or mix it up and choose a different shade for the roof, trim, etc. I picked green for my "walls" and orange for the roof and tray. Whatever works for you!



Step 4) Pencil on your design. I opted for a flowery branch design that had a little bit of whimsy with big blooms that could be easily seen from the sidewalk when I hung the feeder.

Step 5) Paint your design, being certain to let each color thoroughly dry before applying another coat on top. For my design, I started with painting all the green vine, then painted pink petals, then finished with blue centers for the flowers. I also added pink polka dots on the orange tray area and around the vines for no other reason than I liked how it looked. CRAZY, I tell you.

Step 6) Allow to dry (again) then fill with seed and hang outside! Be sure to follow the guidelines of bird feeder hanging- aka, make sure your birds can safely hang out in your feeder and no predators are going to be able to get them. Keep it high enough off the ground from the reach of cats, raccoons, and even kids if yours tend to be destructive.

Step 7) Watch your wild birds enjoy their trendy new feeder or home!

The Shoe Fit

This weekend, my event floral company created these sweet pieces for a "The Shoe Fit"-themed bridal shower.


Because they're so unique, I thought I'd share how I created them with you...in the event that you'd ever want to make your own for that Manolo Blahnik shoe-loving bride in your life. So here's how!

1) Buy the shoes you'll use to create your base. I recommend hitting the nearest deep-discount shoe store if you're only creating one (you'll just need a pair) or the Internet if you're creating multiples. Get the largest size of a closed-toe high-heeled shoe that you can find, trying to find one with as large a "closure" at the front as you can. For obvious reasons, try to find one that's a little more stable than a 6-inch spike heel.

2) Gather your supplies - you'll need a block of floral foam, a roll of Saran Wrap, your flowers, a glue gun, and a stable base to mount the finished product on to.

3) Soak your floral foam taking care to let it absorb as much water as possible. While foam can absorb more at a later time, it's hard to water shoes!

4) Using Saran Wrap, take one extremely long piece and fold it in half horizontally. Use the folded end to create a "bowl" in the toe part. You are using this to catch any water that drips down, so be careful not to tear or leave gaps. Using two pieces of wrap stuck together is going to practically guarantee a leak, so don't cut corners here. Use the rest of the piece to line the inside of the shoe, leaving the ends overhanging the shoe.

5) Stuff the toe with floral foam for stability, then work your way up the inside. As much as possible, use continuous pieces of foam instead of lots of small pieces. Those can be used to jam into the sides for stability.

(Optional Step- Add some decorative ribbon! It's easiest to tie this now, instead of later. You can also use a pinch bow on a pik instead of tying one.)

6) Roll the extra Sarah Wrap around the inside of the shoe. You can pin it to the foam if you wish- just don't tuck it under and leave foam exposed to leak!

7) Starting with your greenery work around the shoe and cover the sides where foam and saran wrap show. Optional (I did) would be to use greenery to create a "cascade" effect on one side.

8) Add your flowers, berries, and so forth!

9) Glue or otherwise adhere your creation to a beveled mirror, photo frame, block of painted wood, or other heavy weight that will sit flat on your table. While it is tempting just to put the shoe out because they may seem quite steady, remember that it is delicately balanced at best!

(Optional step: Add loose flowers to the base, especially if it is a mirror and there is writing on the underside of the shoe!)

10)- Enjoy!!

Creating Flowers!

Remember when I said I made a living crafting?

Yeah, it's still awesome.

A few weeks ago uber-photog Larry Gindhart shot some photos of my work and made this video to showcase them! Check it out!

Knitting Group!

I've just been reminded that one of my lovely neighbors, Jennifer, has started a knitting group for knitters in downtown Indianapolis.

The group meets the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month at 6PM at the Herron-Morton Place Park (on Alabama between 19th and 20th). All are welcome. If you do not know how to knit, helpful neighbors will be on hand to assist and you can bring or purchase materials there.

Can't come? Not from Indy? Check out Jennifer's company, Alpaca with a Twist. They do lovely yarns, and they are available in just about every state. If you can't find a store near you, contact one in your state or the company and they might be able to ship!

After I finish Soon-To-Be-Born-Baby-Girl's blanket with Lambie Pie (and a couple other misc projects using synthetics) I am making the switch to all-natural alpaca!

Baby Blanket Progress!

It's been three months and I've been hard at work on the baby blanket for Soon-To-Be-Born Baby Girl (STBBBG). It's taken a little bit longer than I thought, namely because while Lambie Pie may be one of the cutest smooshiest yarns I've ever used, the stuff is DANGED HARD to knit with. It's basically a whole bunch of teased up fluff around a liiiiiiiittle strand that you've got to catch or your whole row slips. Oh, and by the way, when that happens it's best to just give up and retrace three rows back, because you're not getting anywhere fast.

Not to mention that with tiny yarn, you've got to make tiny stitches. Do you KNOW how many tiny stitches are in a blanket, however tiny that blanket may be? Thirty six stiches per row x about 100 rows in a block x 25 blocks x a border 20 stitches wide on all four sides x about 40 rows of that A BUTTLOAD. Hear that, STBBBG? So I don't want to hear about it when you're all cool and 15 years old and you want to go out with your friends and I need a babysitter for my future kids.

However, I am making progress, woohoo! I've got the entire bottom border done and most of the five blocks that will form the bottom layer. After working on those I got smart, and decided that instead of working on the WHOLE blanket at once (neccessitating switching of colors every 36 stitches) I'd do stripy-scarf rows and knit them all together when I'm done. That's been working much better, and I've got 1 1/2 of the three rows I'm going to do that way done. The other two rows will be done with the border on one side, and then I'll knit them all together at the top with one continuous border.

This might not be technically correct, but it's working for me, dang it.

Here's the progress! Mama of STBBBG, please don't look :)



If you like the yarn and want to try it (don't say I didn't warn you about it being a bit tough to work with) you can find it many places including Hobby Lobby. Just search for Lambie Pie. The colors I'm using, in case it's hard to tell, are 10 Angel, 40 Boo Pink, 80 Chocolate, and 120 Sweets for the border.

Happy knitting!

Because I Could, Like, Totally Just Make That Myself

For the past two weeks I've been sitting at a local fund-raising event as a participant in their "Shops" component. The Shops are intended to be a place where people can buy fun, happy little totally unnecessary items for their homes and/or themselves. The more altruistic ones are Mother's Day shopping.

A lot of the items that various boutiques are selling are locally produced, and some are even handmade. Not "My 5-Year Old Made This" handmade, but awesomely handmade, such as the awesome Ambre scents made by an Indianapolis woman that Twisted Sisters is selling. Or their cool handmade "Bar Scarves" that feature old T-shirts repurposed into scarves with a little zip pocket so you don't have to carry a purse. Um, LOVE THAT.

The Blue Door has adorable hand-painted picture frames from the Magnolia lane line, and three of the booths feature the softest knitted linen scarves EVER.

Even over at my modest booth, we're selling handmade silk wreaths, handmade silk planters, regular planters, and then fresh-cut flowers that I'll make into a bouquet of your choosing.

Here's the thing. Yes, these items are handmade. Yes, they might be made by people you actually know. That does not mean that YOU, necessarily, could make them yourself. Or maybe you are an extremely crafty person and DO know how to make them yourself, in which case, recognize the shops as the idea-generating place they are and be nice about it!

Now, I recognize that being nice about things you have no intention of buying, and therefore do not respect the craftsmanship of, does not appeal to all people. But I REALLY could have done without the unoriginal gems of:

*As the hand comes up and squeezes the head of a gorgeous expensive rose sitting in a bucket directly over a sign that says : WE ARE REAL. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH.* "Are these REAL??" Yes, they are, you dumbass. And now they're really dead. And now you're going to bitch about how much they cost (a whole $2 a stem, because that's only slightly more than they cost ME,and I have to make up for all the ones you and your dumbass friends have killed by not paying attention.)

Me to a woman standing in my booth, staring at the fresh flowers, standing about an inch from me: "Hi! Can I make you a bouquet today?" Her (LOOK OF DEATH BEARS DOWN ON ME): "UM, I'm all-ER-GIC." Me: "Oh, sorry! We do have some silks if you're interested." Her: (LOOK OF DEATH GETS WORSE) "Silks? Ugh. Silks are so awful." Me: "Ohhhhkay, well, I don't know that there is anything here for you, then." Her: "Well, NO, of course. But I am WAITING on my FRIEND." Me: "Right."

Then there's the ones who like to critique your work.

"Can I make you a bouquet?" I offer to a woman who has not only entered my booth, but TAKEN MY SEAT to page through her brochure. She, like other print-pant wearing self-entitled biddies, fixes me with the desperate look of "Dear Lord, why is this low-class desperate worker speaking to ME, Princess, out of turn?" Then she realizes what I've asked, looks at the flowers next to her, and inquires scathingly, "With THESE??? " Guess not!

"I can't believe how much they charge for silk flowers," was another comment overheard- well, not so much overheard as the woman looked right at me and said it out loud *to her friend* next to her. You're right. I can't believe how much they charge for wholesale silks, either. See if you can guess the correlation. No? It's 'cause these are nicer than the crap you find at Michaels!

And of course, she followed it up with what has truly become my favorite phrase to hear all during the show. The one we've all grown accustomed to hearing and only wish we could be around to see the results of (though,goodness knows, most of the mouths that this one flies out of will never actually follow through with it. They just want to express, momentarily, their total distaste at the thought that THEY would want to buy something that YOU had made, and have the complete and total thoughtlessness to CHARGE SOMETHING FOR IT that actually allowed you to recoup your costs and make enough to, say, pay 1/17th of your mortgage. Or 1/2 of your Internet/cable bill.)

"GOD," this woman announced to all in the vicinity. "It's AMAZING how much markup they've got to be making off this shit. Let's go home. Because I could, like, TOTALLY just make that myself."

I'd really, really, really, REALLY like to see that.

Cake FAIL.

Every now and then I get the urge to whip up something crafty in the kitchen. Usually cake. Or cookies, or maybe brownies, or cake. Sometimes cupcakes. Or just a regular cake.

Whatever. I like cake. Quit judging me.

While my creations are far from bakery-worthy, some of them do turn out pretty darn cute, like the floral-embellished one for the last day of Flower School class, or the gingerbread-house cake I made for Christmas this year. Even my Colts cupcakes for the Superbowl turned out well, and let me tell you, I was ready for that to be a fail post.....so much so that I documented the entire process so that I could prove to party attendees that I really had tried when I showed up sans dessert!

But sometimes, despite my best efforts, we wind up with a hot mess on our hands- something that undoubtedly would make its way to the annals of Cake Wrecks if I were a professional.

Here's what happened.

As we packed up to go home on Easter Sunday, unbeknownst to me my boyfriend's mother slipped an ENTIRE UNEATEN BAKERY CAKE into our take-home bag of leftovers. The cake was somewhat of a white elephant gift, since no one wanted to take the whole dang thing home and no one wanted to cut it.

Furthermore, it was a German Chocolate cake, which I have a love/hate relationship with. It starts off amazingly- chocolate cake with chocolate icing, but then you add coconut, which in my humble cake-loving opinion totally ruins the entire top layer of frosting goodness. Find a bakery that also insists on coconut in the icing between the layers and you might even see me cry.

Ahem. Back to the FAIL.

Regardless of how I personally feel about the coconut, the fact is I had an entire yummy cake and a number of people coming over for dinner before the NCAA Championship game, in which the Butler Bulldawgs were playing. So I decided to jazz up the cake with a little bit of blue spray frosting- maybe a paw print, a little "Go B.U.!" lettering, and call it a day.

Things did not so much go as planned.



My blue paw print looked more like, as one friend put it, "a deranged blue flower?" and my hello-I'm-learning-to-write lettering left many guessing as to what I was actually trying to convey.

But it was worth the laughter. Because after all, it WAS cake!!!

Oh vacation, how do I love thee?

....let me count the ways.

1) Cute decoupaged handmade bracelets featuring paper flowers and scrapbook words spotted at a local boutique. Loved 'em. Making 'em.

2) Big floppy fabric flowers for sale everywhere. Loved 'em. Making 'em.

3) Awesome natural flower combinations that make me want to go right out and buy silks to make centerpieces and wreaths. Can't wait.

4) (this doesn't quite count, but hey, I got the news on vacation!) a friend that just became a Creative Memories consultant!!

It's going to be busy when I get home!

How to be the cutest coffee cup at Starbucks

Because I work from home, I tend to spend a lot of time doing exactly not that. Rather, I force myself to endure the hardship (insert sarcasm here) of working at coffee shops. Particularly those that offer free Wi-Fi.

If you're anything like me, you love your Starbucks (and Hubbard and Cravens, and Calvin Fletcher's and others....) but you don't love the constant waste of the cardboard cups and extra cardboard cozys designed to prevent you from burning your hand.

Thankfully, there are a lot of things you can do to prevent this waste. If you're the sort who sits down to enjoy your entire cup in-house, request a reusable ceramic cup and forget about this craft. If you're awesome enough (or carry a big enough bag) to always remember to have a washed reusable travel cup with you, again, this craft isn't for you.

But if you find yourself frequently hitting the to-go cups with nary a reuse in sight- and you've ALSO got some ends-of-skeins yarn at home, then this is for you!

Step 1: Grab some yarn. The great part about this craft is that it doesn't use much, so you can finally get rid of use the leftover ends of other projects to cobble these together. I used all one color, but there's nothing that says you can't splice in different weights and colors for a funky cozy.

Step 2: Depending on the weight of your yarn, cast on enough stitches to create about a 3" wide field. Using whatever kind of stitching you want (I used the simple knit a row, purl a row technique) knit about 8" to create the "wraparound" part of your cozy.

Note: I typically order tall-sized drinks at Starbucks, so I made the supreme effort to have one of those cups on hand when I created this cozy. I found that it was helpful, maybe not totally necessary, but helpful for sizing. I'M JUST SAYIN'.

Step 3: Knit the last 2" with a different stitch, if you prefer, or just keep going with the same. You'll wind up with something that sort of resembles a doll scarf. Cast off and keep the tail on the end- you'll use it to stitch the ends together.


Step 4: Grab a couple buttons from your button-jar. You know, that jar you have with all the buttons for crafting and fixing your favorite shirts. Pick out a few crazy colored buttons and sew them on the last 2" of your cozy. I used green thread, just for kicks. REBEL.

(Don't have a button jar? Take a break and run to Hobby-Lobby. I picked up about 200 buttons for $4.99 - all different sizes, shapes, colors, and so forth - and perfect for crafts like this. )

Step 5: Turn your cozy over and wrap the ends together, allowing them to overlap slightly. Use the tail ends of the knitting to sew the ends together on both the top and bottom.

Step 6: Turn your cozy right-side-out, then get yourself over to a Starbucks for a hot drink and some crafty admiration. Look at your bad-ass, craft-making self!

Big Ideas, Little Time.

Last week during the infamous trip to Hobby Lobby in which I was inspired to start this blog, I picked up the supplies needed for four potential projects- a quick bedroom picker-upper, a cowlneck scarf, a new baby blanket, and felt flower buttons.

Then, life happened, and so far most of those projects are still sitting in the family room basket waiting to be worked on (though I DID, I will have you know, undo the yarn for the cowlneck scarf from the half-inch of regular scarf I had already started to knit with it!)

I have high hopes for this week, as I've got some downtime tonight and tomorrow night (and hours of Olympics to watch!). Check back soon for updates and, if I get REALLY inspired, a quick-craft project inspired by Starbucks that I hope to complete today.

It Begins.

As many crafters know, inspiration usually strikes when you least expect it. Often, that leads us down fabulously tangental roads that start with a statement like, "Ooh! I bet I could MAKE that...if only I had this, that, the other, and maybe a new glue gun."

Sometimes these statements end with the realization that, in fact, it is probably not more efficient to go out and buy four bolts of material, a new attachment for the sewing machine, heavy-duty thread, six-inch double-sided satin ribbon, and industrial sized grommets but rather just buy the danged drapes, especially if they are on sale.

Sometimes other projects, seemingly manageable, have been known to end in frustration, tears, and the occasional cathartic scissoring of a hopelessly knotted ball of yarn previously destined to become fall's hottest accessory.

But sometimes...just sometimes...there are the inspired projects that remain inspired. These are the cakes that rise to the occasion, the yarns that turn into soft wraps and blankets, the do-it-yourself home makeovers that provoke the envy of friends and neighbors alike.

And THAT'S why we craft.

As the daughter of a crafty person, I've grown up embracing the creative side. As a kid, one of my favorite projects was to create an Easter basket using the green plastic woven buckets strawberries used to come in, a little ribbon, some wooden painted one-sided Easter Egg decor buttons, and - you guessed it- my trusty hot melt glue gun.

Today, I'm more likely to be found churning out another knitting project, baking cakes and cupcakes with themes, or - and this is the best one - creating flower arrangements during my daily job as a florist.

(Yep, that's right- I've figured out how to take crafting and make a living from it. And it's awesome.)

But yesterday, inspiration struck- and not just in the form of a new craft. As I strolled the aisles of Hobby Lobby and Michaels looking for a few specific items for projects, I realized that my search, and subsequent craft-creation, would make for a good blog post.

I should have stopped there.

But then I got another idea for another project and I realized that IT would make a great blog post.

I should have stopped there.

But THEN, I got ANOTHER idea for a little project that could even be a PART of the second project and that would be ANOTHER fun blog post!

And then I realized that I had, in effect, doomed myself to start a craft blog - and here we are.

My goals for this blog are that it be a fun place that you can come to see what crafts I'm currently working on, check out the end results, and even try some of your own using the handy "how-to" posts. Occasionally I'll be posting links to other sites where I get ideas or references, and I hope you'll benefit from checking those out.

Now, if you'll excuse me, there are several projects calling my name....not the least of which is to go take some photos to post here!