Sewing with cats, a picture montage

Aeris

Cleo

Jellybean

Is this what sewing with kids is like?

Thrift Store Frame to Jewelry Display! {a tutorial}

This tute is a long time coming! I made it during {Headband Week} in August, didn't write it up till September, and now here we are middle of October and I'm finally posting it! Oops. Onto the tute.

A thrifted frame to jewelry holder is one of the most common projects on a craft blog these days. Right up there with rosettes and an elastic waist skirt! Not that that is a bad thing, (I have BOTH on my blog! Well, now all three!) it's kind of fun to reinvent the wheel! Plus, it's one of those things that just WORKS, so why not give it a whirl? Aaaaaand I saw a million cute ones on Pinterest and I just had to try it. Stupid Pinterest.

See? I pinned it {here}

Or this one? {here} Gah, I almost feel silly posting mine!

Care to see it? Too bad, I'm showing you anyway.

I pretty much love it. Up until now, all my jewelry has been crammed in too small jewelry boxes, plastic bags, and strewn all over my room in heaps. Ugh, not cool. I love that everything is organized now and I can actually SEE what my options are! I kept all my fancy stuff in the pretty jewelry boxes, but the everyday stuff I hung up. Care to make your own?

You will need:

• A sturdy wooden frame, it's gotta thick and it's gotta be wood
• Sandpaper
• Scrap fabric
• Hot glue gun
• Nails
• Spray paint
• A handy hubby that is good with tools

This is my frame. I felt so bad for it. Obviously it had been around for years and years and it never even got used. :( No matter, I gave it a good home and now I love it every day. :) I unwrapped it and sanded the crap outta it.

And covered it with several coats of "oil rubbed bronze" spray paint. Ah, already so much better! And shiny....

Seriously, what is it with cats??

Next I wrapped the back of the frame in some pretty fabric and hot glued the edges down. Pull tightly so it's nice and smooth on the front!

I knew I wanted some lace strips at the bottom to hang my dangly earrings, so I glued some down as well. Pull REALLY tightly because the weight of the earrings will make the lace sag. I also glued it down in the middle so it would be a little more stable.

I marked where I wanted all the nails to be with a crayon I found in a drawer. I marked some at the bottom of the frame for really long necklaces, at the top for short necklaces, and on the sides for bracelets.

This is where hubby came in! He very patiently and oh so skillfully nailed nails (redundant much?) into all of those little crayon marks...and there were a lot of them!

"Thanks honey! Oh wait....can you do one more things puh-leeeeeeeeeeeeeaze??"

"Can you install these knobs I got from Anthropologie (on clearance! Three bucks each!) onto this other wood board I spray painted? No...I don't know how to install them. Use those power tools and figure it out kay? Love you!"

I stuck the back back into the frame while the hubs humored my request. No real instructions there.

Then I hung it up and filled it up! That took just as long as the project itself, oi. Oh, did you notice the headband holder?

Thanks for figuring that out hubs! Now I can hand up all my headbands in one place and not have to search the whole house looking for one. (On a side note, I have many more headbands now. This picture is over two months old!)

Ahh, it makes my little nook so much more organized. I've been wearing lots my jewelry now that I can find everything! If you haven't tried one of these yet you really should, they make life so much better. At least 20% better. (Bro hoof!!)

Kitty houses, a hubby craft

I actually legit forgot about blogging for a few days there! Weird, guess my weekend was so thoroughly awesome I just forgot. Fire pits and s'mores are pretty awesome though.

Oh boy, this post is a long time in the making. Hubby did this back in the fall, right after we moved here. And now I’m getting around to posting it. Oops.

Since I don’t have cute kids to post about, you guys are stuck with our adorable kitties who do equally adorable things, mmkay? The hubs and I have three cats in our lives. Jellybean, my cat that I’ve had since I was 10 and who lives with my parents. I love her more than 99% of the people in this world, and I take at least a dozen pictures of her every time I see her. Cleo and Aeris live in the basement with us, and TECHNICALLY belong to David’s parents. Technically. What they don’t know is that when we leave the girls are coming with us. Uh…oops, guess the cat’s outta the bag! (BAHAHAHA!!!! Get it? Cat’s outta the bag?)

They are ALWAYS getting into things they shouldn’t be. Cleo tends to like small, enclosed, comfy places. Like inside the couch, on David’s swivel chair, and in the super secret basket o’ blankets hiding behind the stereo. But her favorite place in the world is laps, this little kitty will do ANYTHING for love, attention, and affection.

Aeris will plop herself down where ever it is least convenient for you. On the exercise machines, my laptop, the poster board I’m taking pictures on, and ALWAYS on top of my latest jewelry project. She’s got so much personality. I swear to you she is an Animagus that refuses to take her human form, hopefully not because she’s a murderer like Peter Pettigrew. She once scoffed at me, scoffed! Cats don’t scoff! They don’t wink either and she’s done that too. Animagus yo.

You non cat people escape me, how can you not love these faces? How!? Even though Aeris barfed all over the suitcase shortly after the picture was taken. Though I will admit, I like these girlies a little more when they aren’t completely in my way, or barfing of stuff. Cue the hubby and his utterly genius idea (and barf cleaning up skills, but there are no pictures of that.)

David and I each had one of these as our nightstands in our apartment in Idaho. Walmart. When we moved to Maryland, we inherited some nicer ones, in addition to a kitchen table, which became my craft table.

In his infinite wisdom, David snatched those cushions from the kitchen table chairs and attached them to the night stands. And ALMOST perfect fit.

And covered the night stands with leftover moving boxes. An exact science, with lots of measuring and preciseness. Not.

He cut and hole in the box covered, pillow topped night stand. (PS don’t play with sharp knives. Make sure you are closely supervising your hubby.)

Immediately Cleo the Curious stepped in to inspect. Remember what I said about enclosed, comfy spaces?


Which gave Aeris the Afraid courage to give it a try.


(Notice how one hole is a lot bigger than the other? It’s because Aeris not only bigger than an average cat, she’s FAT.) The hubs did this whole thing all by himself, his own crafty idea. What a smarty pants, being all thrifty and stuff. The good news is the kitties still use their little houses all the time. I have to vacuum those stupid cushions every week so people don’t get grossed out by their hair. The bad news is…they still look like this, 9 months later. I know! Me and my crafty self haven’t figured out a good way to cover them, so we have ugly cat houses in plain sight. For shame, Amie, for shame. Got any good ideas to make them more pretty?

Holy frick, my head exploded on account of cute. They’re even on the right ones!

Tutorial Tuesday- How to drive a cat crazy

Start with a piece of felt.

Cut out fun shapes.

Sew 'em together, but not all the way.

Shove a paper cone in the fishy's mouth, and stuff catnip down it's throat.

Practice your evil laugh because you know your plan will go through flawlessly.

Sew up the poor fishy's mouth, and try to decorate him. Then feel bad for the kitties.

Hand it over.

 And enjoy the show!

Giggle a lot when you hear their crazy high meows.

This one's my favorite. Cleo nomming her nip and Aeris in the background scheming to get it.


Happy Tuesday!