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Click to Download (it's a zipped file with all three prints)

A little while ago, I wanted to replace one of the pieces in my kitchen. It didn't have any glass in the front (it fell off the wall one too many times--kids skirting too close to the wall and before I wised up and used mounting tape for all my picture hanging needs), and it was all gross, from the lack of glass. Or maybe it just got gross because I have children. Whichever.

It was time for a change, and this is what I came up with: an 8x10 print that immortalizes for all time my love of the camera. It doesn't have the border--that's so the wording would fit.

I hope you enjoy!

(Click to download PDF)

Saint Patrick's Day is upon us, and I realized I have very little green in my wardrobe, which is unacceptable. I searched through three stores, not finding anything green that looked good on me, and finally found a cute green dress at the local thrift store in town, AND it was half off day, so the grand total for this dress? $2.50. Only, it was a bit. . . frumpy? Action had to be taken.


I decided to modernize it by making it into a high-low tunic. It was actually a lot easier than I was expecting and only took me about 30 minutes. I love any sort of thrift store find (half my wardrobe is from thrift stores or consignment shops), and I love all things upcycled and restyled.

Here's my tutorial, so you can try it too.

STEP ONE
First, put on your dress/skirt/extremely long shirt, whatever you are converting. Mark the length of the front hem with a pin exactly in the middle (I would actually use safety pins--one of mine fell out when I took off the dress). Do the same with the back. Obviously, the back is going to be anywhere from 3-4 inches longer to, well, as long as you want. Drama, baby.

Front pin (hard to see with that pattern, but it's there):

Back pin:

STEP TWO
Next, you're going to cut your hem. Remember to leave 1-2" of seam allowance.

To mark the hemline, lay the garment on its side, with the side seams matched up. This should leave your marking pins on the fold lines for the front and back.

Side seams matching and folded exactly along the front and back:

Draw your line for your hem (remember seam allowance). This is probably the trickiest bit. Remember you're going to want to hit the fold at a right angle so you don't create a point, and you're going to want most of the "high-low" movement to happen at the sides, leaving the front and back fairly level.

I used a white fabric pencil to mark my line:

I used a rotary cutter to make a smooth cut. Fabric scissors will do the same thing though. Cut through both layers of fabric at the same time. Once you've cut your line, try on the garment again before hemming, to make sure you like the line. I realized my cut wasn't curvy enough the first time, and cut a tiny bit more off, after I lined everything back up again.

My finished cut:

STEP THREE
Once I had my hem line like I liked it, it was time to iron the hem. Turn up however much you allowed, and iron. You're going to want to finesse this a bit--you've got some curves and that's always a bit tricky to get to iron flat, but most fabrics will adjust if you work them a bit.

Raw edge turned up:

Then turn the raw edge under again, making it meet the ironed fold and press.

Raw edge turned under again towards fold:

Once that's all done, stitch the hem down. You can use a machine or hand sew. I chose to hand-stitch my hem, but a machine will do the job just as well. Just make sure to ease as you go, since you're sewing curves here.

Hand stitching my hem down with matching thread:

Then wear your new tunic with pride! I love how mine turned out.

Hello! It's been a while since I've blogged. I'm afraid to look at how long. If you were reading my blog before, I'm sure you thought it was dead. I meant to keep blogging. I never meant to stop. But, I got very busy trying to be Utah's sole source of actresses between the ages if 17-35. I think I was in every community production In Utah County in the last year. If I wasn't, I saw it or knew someone in it. I got sucked into the vortex of community theater and almost the only crafting I did was sewing my costumes for productions. 

Recently, I was Ms. TeaVee in Willy Wonka. Using a mash up of vintage patterns, I made this dress: 

Anyway, I'm getting distracted. What I really came to post about is this disaster: 

Yep, my craft room. Sad, isn't it? And, this is after cleaning up for a while (a long, long while--and paying one of my kids $10 to help me). A huge part of it is that I have no workspace, so stuff ends up everywhere when I'm working. (Also, I have too much stuff, but I'm pretending that isn't a problem.)

Well, my friends, that is about to change! I recently came into a very cool couch and about $100. I want the couch to fit in this room so people can hang out with me while I craft, and the $100 is perfect for building a huge desk.

Last Saturday, David and I went to the Habitat for Humanity Restore looking for kitchen cabinets to use to make this desk. We got a big fat zero, and they were more expensive than I was hoping. I could have cobbled something together, but it would have eaten my entire budget and nothing would have matched. Nothing would have matched! It was not working for me. So, on the way home I got the bright idea to look on KSL (basically the Craig's List of Utah--no idea why everyone posts there, but we do).

And there it was. Some guy remodeled four matching kitchens and was selling off the cabinets for $10 a piece. And he was home when we called! And didn't sound too eccentric! We were wrong about that last part, but that's okay. 

So, we go to this guy's house (which is upgraded in every possible way--the doorbell chime lasted longer than Beethoven's Symphony No. 9); he makes us remove our shoes to walk across the hardwood floors. Then we ride his elevator (yes, elevator) down to the walkout basement four car garage where he has the kitchen cabinets. We pick out six of them, and pay the guy. We was a perfectly nice normal guy. I'm not sure why he had an elevator, but I'll go with it. Our daughter was with us, and she thought it was cool. 

So, here they are, my new cabinets. 

The dude who sold them to us told us there was nothing wrong with them; that they were just outdated. Dude might have an elevator, but he was wrong about that. They are stinky--like old apartment smell--and greasy and damaged in spots. The hinges have plastic pieces that were breaking apart. There is some nasty gunky on one of the shelves that I am not even going to attempt to clean off. That thing is just getting replaced.

However, they are perfect for what I want them to do. More on that soon. Very, very soon. 

This is Part 3 of my How I Organized My Entire House for $0.00 (Really!) series.
Part 1 (Intro) is here.
Part 2 (Simple Rules to Create Organization that Sustains Itself Plus Master Bath Organization) is here.

This is Part 2 of my How I Organized My Entire House for $0.00 (Really!) series. Part 1 (Intro) is here.


I want to start off this series by giving myself a set of rules (more like guidelines) to follow. It's easy to get carried away and easy to lose sight of your goals, so this will help keep me on-track.

1. Think about how you live your life. It doesn't make sense to have a system that doesn't work with how you live. Have the things you use together grouped together, not always like with like*. You usually use tape and scissors and wrapping paper together. Have them together. You usually use toothpaste and toothbrushes together (if I'm making any weird assumptions here, feel free to educate me! :) )--make it so you only open one drawer or one cabinet to get them. Think efficiency.
2. Have the things you use the most in easiest reach. The stuff you use less can be harder to get to. Make things easier on yourself.
3. Along with number 2, have the things where you use them, or put them where you are more likely to use them.** Don't get too caught up in where things are "supposed" to go. Put them where they work for you.
4. Make things easy to put away. If they aren't (and you are like me), they won't get put away.
5. Make it simple. Don't go overboard labeling stuff. Don't make a tiny compartment for everything. Have a place for everything, but there's no need to make it more complicated than it needs to be. If you want. Simple systems are the most self-perpetuating.***
6. Reevaluate. Organize, then go back a week later and see if it's working. If not, tweak. Just because you organized it one way doesn't mean it has to stay that way. And it's easier to rework it when it's still somewhat organized than when it's completely disorganized because the system didn't work with the way you live.
7. Get rid of stuff you don't use. I've heard if you haven't used it in the last year, get rid of it. But, I think that's unrealistic. I have things I haven't used in the last year that I want to keep and it would tick me off to replace. But, there is a lot of good in honestly evaluating if you are going to use it. Are you holding onto something because of guilt? Because of what it represents?**** When getting rid of stuff, the biggest thing is to be honest with yourself.
8. Educate your family on your new system, but don't overwhelm them. Make it fun. Get their input if it affects them (I've found it works a lot better if ideas come from everyone, instead of my trying to impose a top down approach).
9. It doesn't have to be perfect. It won't be perfect. What you organize now will probably have to be organized again at some point. Hopefully a long, long time from now. But, your life will change. Your needs will change. Don't get caught up in perfectionism or get overwhelmed. One little piece at a time.

*For example, put a pair of scissors in the places where you need them the most--not all the scissors in the same spot. Then the scissors will be where you need them, they won't travel all around the house, end up in tossed random drawers and never make it back to the scissor drawer and then you can't find a pair when you need them. For example, I have a pair of scissors in my bedside table, so does David, a pair in the kitchen for opening food packages, a pair in the office, a pair in the wrapping paper box, a pair in the kids' art box, and then the specialty scissors where they go--do not touch my sewing scissors please

**I have a topical acne medication I need to use every day, but not within 30 minutes before or after showering. When it was in the bathroom, I didn't use it regularly. But, put it by my laptop, and suddenly I remembered to use it twice a day like I am supposed to.

***It's my experience that I will put something box in a drawer, but not necessarily a certain spot in that box in drawer. For example, if I have a box for often-used medicines: works great! If I have a certain spot for Tylenol in the box, it doesn't get put there every time by everyone and I get frustrated. It doesn't work across everything (forks have a certain spot, dang it!), but it's a generally good rule of thumb.

****Sometimes that's ok--you may pry my great-grandma's quilts out of my bloody fingers--but sometimes it means you need to let go of that to get rid of it. I kept some kitchen gadgets for a long time, because if I had kitchen gadgets, then surely it meant that someday I was going to be fabulous and motivated to cook all the time, right? And, it would make life easy, and I would transform into super chef-type "good mom" person. I was invested in seeing myself as "person with cool kitchen gadgets" and invested in thinking that a good mom cooks every night. Once I let go of that--good moms don't have to cook every night--then I could get rid of the clutter that wasn't helping my life. Or my cooking.

Do you all have any other tips? I'd love to hear what has and hasn't worked for you! 

(Also, I need to take my own advice! I am just horrible at putting things away and not always good at setting up things that work for me, but that's the point--right? To take time to set this stuff up; to stop and think about it.)

Now, onto the bathroom!


The main problem with our master bath is that the cabinet storage wasn't being used well. The drawers were working ok, the floating shelves I barely tweaked at all, but behind those under-the-sink doors, that stuff was always trying to escape. I pretty much tossed a bunch of crap in there when we moved in and never looked at it again.

Another big thing was getting rid of stuff in here we don't use. I had old products that were around since Griffin was a baby (six or seven years ago!) or even before that I've barely used. A large part of what was holding me back was being realistic about the products I use. I got rid of a flat iron, a curling iron, four brushes, six or seven or eight bottles of stuff I never use and a whole trash can of stuff. I also removed some things we never use in the bathroom, like some first aid kit stuff. Why is it in here if we don't use it in here?

Because it got tossed in here when we moved in.

I also rearranged some things, and tweaked positions of stuff. Like most of the brushes went under the sink in a bin, except for the two we use most.

This just looks like a messy bathroom. Yeah, pretty much. But, it looks nice and neat afterward. I was able to make the floating shelves a lot neater and all the cleaning supplies are under the sink now.



Where the basket goes:


This is the top drawer of the vanity. It was a drawer of whatever landed in here, but mostly David's shaving stuff (the dude is hairy). So, I decided to make it official, and just put shaving things in here. It's a shallow drawer, so not a lot fits in here. The great thing about this is that after he's done with something, it can just get tossed back into the drawer. (See numbers four and five of the rules--simplicity. This is a system we can keep up.) My razors suddenly had a place to be, which was sweet after roaming all over the bathroom.

It's so much easier to see what is in the drawer now!


This is the second drawer down, where our hair stuff lives. With my short hair, my hair needs are fairly minimal most of the time. This is mostly Aubrey's stuff. I normally do her hair, but she brings me the things I need. Our new ritual is that I do her hair on the bed before she goes to school, so she's been fetching me the comb and hair bands and bobby pins. Now she can just take the plastic tray (the plastic hair bands she uses are in the plastic tray next to the bobby pins) and the brush and bring it to me and we will be ready to go. Everything else that was in here got put in a different spot (under the sink).

Everything is easy to see and easy to find.


The dreaded under the sink. This photo does not accurately portray the horribleness.

I was able to completely get rid of that white basket and one of the teal plastic containers (sweeeeet! empty containers for another area of the house!). All the cleaning stuff is along the right side. Less used hair stuff at the back--I only use that stuff for special occasions (read: theater). The teal container has the rest of the brushes, the light blue one has all the fancy bows, the clear plastic one underneath it has Aubrey's bracelets (she was so excited to be able to reach this stuff, as it had been up on the floating shelves). Then feminine hygiene to the left. I remembered I hadn't included room for toilet paper after I took this picture, so I slid the bows on top of the brushes and moved everything over, and it fit no problem!

Things aren't trying to escape anymore. Again, easy to see, easy to find.


It doesn't seem that impressive in photos, but it is in person. It only took me about an hour and half to sort everything and find it new homes (I also rearranged hair products and some of my make up), but it makes a huge difference on how easy it is to find things. I didn't do too much in the medicine cabinet because the toothbrushes and hairspray and cologne situation in there was working pretty well already.

I told David I organized the bathroom, and he was all like: crap, am I going to be able to find anything? He was relieved to see that everything of his basically stayed the same, except easier to see, find and put away. That's the goal! Mission accomplished in the master bath.

Sooooo, time to dream! If I had some money, what would I upgrade?

• I would buy a pretty soap dispenser.
• I would get a shelf for underneath the sink (actually, I could build one out of materials I already have, so I may do that as one of my future projects).
• Another couple of baskets for the floating shelves. The ones I have came from Walmart, fyi.
• New towels. We have matching ones, but I love fresh towels!
• A pretty scented yellow candle!
• Prettier containers. I love pretty containers. The plastic ones are good for the bathroom though, and they stack well.

This past week, I needed some new art for my living room. I whipped up this print, using Illustrator and Photoshop. I've never done anything quite like this before, so it was especially fun. I've done a lot work in both programs, but nothing quite so much like an illustration.

The poem making the rain is a beautiful one by Walt Whitman called "The Voice of the Rain" from Leaves of Grass. Bonus points for it being out of copyright. (Obviously, I wouldn't be offering it as a download if it wasn't.)

Right now it's 11x14", but could easily be cropped to a different aspect ratio. I hope you enjoy this print--I'd love to know if you end up using it for anything.

They were knitted using this pattern, by Rebecca Danger of Danger Crafts. It's kind of rare for me to use a pattern, but this one was easy to follow and worth every penny. I made my nephew a pair for Christmas that were gray and dark blue. As far as my sister reports, he's still delighted with his!

How could you not love their little faces?? Aubrey will come to her senses after dinner.


I feel like if I don't learn how to do something new on a project, I've somehow cheated. On this project, I mastered stripes. I tried this jogless method (the traveling one--the first one described), and I learned how to change colors, carrying them up and twisting them before changing.

I've got the whole knit stripes down now, and they don't scare me anymore. Take that, knit stripes! I will take you on, any time, any place. I can knit stripes, chew gum, watch TV, check my email, and arbitrate hellish sibling MMA fights all at the same time. I'm pretty sure if I can do that, there isn't anything I can't do. Pretty sure.

 Exhibit A (Courtesy of Aubrey)

Kit contains: 33 pattern papers, 1 set stitches, 1 overlay, 1 sheet honeycomb stickers, tags, 1 mask, 1 torn edge, 2 bee stickers, 2 flower stickers

Ok, here it is. What I've been meaning to write and put up for ages. If I didn't have to keep doing that pesky schoolwork (five more weeks until graduation, five more weeks!), this would have happened a lot sooner.

Once I finished the five embroidered paisley squares (click for pattern), I knew I wanted to make a pillow out of them. I was worried though, because I didn't want it to get too "patchwork quilt." I didn't think that would go with the modern feel of my bedroom.

I wanted to do solid yellows and grays, but the quilt story nearby (Gracie Lou's--sooooo awesome!) didn't have any. This was perplexing. Normally, when I get an idea, there is nothing that can prevent me from doing that idea. I mean, small adjustments, they normally make the project turn out better. Large adjustments like substituting a print for a solid? I will normally not proceed. I think the saleswomen in the shop thought I was being completely unreasonable (although she was very perplexedly kind about it). Like, I had gone into a restaurant and said, "But, these green beans aren't green enough, I wanted more of a Christmas green, not so much an olive green. And I wanted them cut 1/4" longer. Do you have different green beans in the back?" (I did not ask for super-secret back-room fabric, FYI).


However, I did eventually find some fabric I liked. I'm still not sure about it. I think I would like it better with solids, but heck, it's done and it's cute and I adore the embroidery, which is really the point of this pillow. And, it's growing on me.



So, here are the steps if you'd like to make your own and show off your own embroidery. I love this idea, because embroidery just doesn't happen often enough, in my opinion! It's would be cute as just a patchwork pillow too, with regular fabric instead of the embroidery, so don't feel left out if you're not in the mood to embroider.

Sunshine Paisley Pillow

Supplies:
3/4 yard fabric #1
1/3 yard fabric #2 (Four squares of coordinating fabric cut to 5 1/4" and two 45" lengths of 1" wide strips sewn together to make one long length)
Five embroidered squares at 5 1/4"

Square of muslin around 20x20"
Square of low-loft batting around 20x20"
Cording approximately 72" long
Fusible interfacing (2 pieces approximately 13x19")

Step One: Embroider five squares with paisley in any color you like. Embroider within a 5 1/4" square. Once finished, cut to 5 1/4".



Step Two: Cut four pieces of fabric to 5 1/4" square. If your fabric is patterned, you may want to consider cutting the squares so the pattern is symmetrical (this may take additional yardage). Also cut two lengths of the sashing fabric (gray in my pillow) to 1 3/4" wide.




Step Three: Lay out your squares and determine where each square will go. Sashing only needs to go on the inside between the two squares. Pick up the middle squares, leaving the outside squares in place, and sew sashing on each side of the middle squares. I chain stitched mine (shown below). I didn't do mine as methodically, so my photos are slightly different.




Step Four: Once you've chain stitched one side of the three squares, trim off the sashing at the bottom roughly, leaving a tail (we will trim this more exactly later). Iron seams toward the sashing. Then sew sashing to the other side and iron seams again.



Step Five: Now, you need to trim sashing. This is easiest to do with a rotary cutter and clear ruler. Line up sides and trim off excess. Do the same for the other side.




Your finished square will look like this (with only one side done).



Step Six: Sew outside squares to middle squares/sashing. Iron and trim.




Step Seven: Sew sashing to top and bottom of middle row. Iron seams toward the sashing. Trim.



Step Eight: Carefully pin top row to sashing of middle row. I spent some time making sure the corners of the squares lined up exactly. I pinned every spot there was a seam. Sew. Do the same for the bottom row of squares. Iron.

Now your top is almost finished!



Step Nine: Cut two more lengths of sashing 1 3/4" wide. Sew sashing along both sides of square, iron and trim. Then sew along top and bottom. Iron and trim.

Your finished top will look like this:



Step Ten: Next is the quilting. I wanted something very subtle, so I used a very low loft batting. I also knew the back of this part wouldn't show, so I used a cheap muslin. Cut batting to 1 1/2" larger than finished pillow front. Then cut muslin 1/2" larger than batting.



Step Eleven: Pin layers together. You can use quilting basting adhesive spray, but I decided to use pins for mine.



Step Twelve: Quilt pillow. I did simple in the ditch quilting, making a sort of tic-tack-toe pattern along the lines of the sashing, stitching in the ditch along the squares.

Front of my finished quilting:


Back of my finished quilting:


Step Thirteen: Trim batting and backing along pillow edge. (I seriously need a new ruler. One of my kids stepped on mine and cracked it.)



Step Fourteen: Using the 1" yellow strip of fabric, make encapsulate the cording. This is a good tutorial of how to do this.


Step Fifteen: Pin the cording all around the outside of the pillow front, with the cording part toward the center and the raw edges lining up against the outside. Around the corners, clip to stitching so that the cording will turn around the edges, and make them as sharp turns as possible. At the bottom of the pillow, overlap the cording slightly and run it off the edge and downward, so that the ends will be caught when you sew and no raw edges will show (see photo in next step for more of an idea of how this looks).




Step Sixteen: Baste cording in place.




Step Seventeen: Cut 2 fusible webbing 1/2" shorter than height of backing pieces. Fuse to wrong side of fabric. Iron raw edge along top down, so that the raw edge touches the top of the fusible webbing. Then fold it down along the fusible webbing, so that the raw edge is folded in. Pin. Then topstitch. Do the same for both backing pieces.




Step Eighteen: Make sure the back pieces are the same width as the pillow. If not, cut down to fit. Then, pin first back piece on front, right side toward pillow front, with finished edge across the center of the pillow. Pin the second piece, layering over the first piece, with right side toward pillow and finished edge across center, creating envelop. (See photo in next step to see how finished back will look).



Step Nineteen: Stitch back to front. Trim corners. Turn. Insert pillow form. And that's it! You have a beautiful new pillow!

So, I stayed up sewing until 3:30 am on Sunday night. Maxton, really wanted to be Aang, from Avatar: The Last Airbender. I couldn't find any in the stores and for some reason, it didn't occur to me to check online until it was too late. This is cooler, because he's the cartoon Aang, not the live-action movie Aang.

So, of course, I didn't have a pattern, so this is hodge-podged together. The pants I based off a super easy pattern, then I added elastic around the bottom. The cape I sewed in one try, making up my own pattern, and same with the belt.

The collar took me four tries to get right (it's separate from the shirt). I'd never sewn anything like that, and I had to make my own pattern, so that was some serious trial and error. The shirt was a nightmare. The pattern I chose for the shirt was all wrong--the directions did not make any sense (or I was just not getting it, I'm going with the first because it makes me feel better), so I ended up just doing my own thing with it. But, it's done!






The other three children, luckily, found store-bought costumes. It might seem like I favor Maxton, because I sewed him a costume, but really I love my other children more for not making me sew them costumes.










As awesome as Maxton's costume turned out, I think David takes the prize this year. Actually, he literally took the prize. He won the costume contest at his work with Sir Bedivere from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. He got free movie tickets and a gift certificate to Olive Garden. I see a date in the near future. He made the entire costume himself. He even sewed the skirt and the sleeves onto his costume. I told him how to draft the sleeves for the pattern, but he did all the work himself. (His helmet is made from a popcorn tin and a feather duster.)




And I, well, I somehow could not plan ahead for myself. So, on Halloween, I woke up, after going to sleep at 4:30 (I couldn't fall asleep after finishing Max's costume at 3:30) with no ideas for myself. So, I did "girl in tights with mohawk and bad eyeliner." It worked for me. I dig the 80s vibe and I think I got some impressive height on the mohawk.