No Motivation

Today I had no motivation. I should have been cleaning the living room, but instead I cleaned our stewardess cart and that alone.

At least I finished one thing, though in the bigger picture that is the living room it doesn't count for much.

This cart is going to eventually go in the office, once I get that room organized.  And since my sewing machine is banned from the office for being to loud I decided to put my hand work projects in the baskets.  Now I will have something to work on in the office while Josh is in there.

Little by Little

When it comes to decorating the bland walls of this apartment, finding the time and the supplies for cheap is an upward climb sometimes.

Our living room and kitchen are grey and yellow. Our bathroom is kind of white and blue, but mostly its just a rug and mostly matching towels. Our office isn't completely decided yet, but it is leaning towards black and white with a blue of some shade.  So when it came to our bedroom I needed color! Bright, beautiful color -all of them to be more exact.

I've been working on it little by little over the last couple of months, and this is what I have so far.

I find these frames at thrift stores and garage sales. I usually don't spend more than $1.50 for a frame, but the oval one I did shell out a whopping $3.50!  I have 8 more frames waiting to be painted, but Josh has asked that I take break for a while.  I can't blame him because my painting space is the kitchen floor which kind of touches the living room floor which is my sewing/crafting space -all of which makes for a giant booby trap!

This little guy has been eyeing me at the thrift store for about a month.  He was $3 though and I didn't really need him so I kept putting it off. Then I went with my Bestie and she almost bought him! When she put him back I was relieved and decided at that moment, I really did need him! (It is always a good idea to wait about 30 days before making a big purchase! hahaha!)

He was an ugly brown owl, but a little spray paint and now he is all clean and pretty sitting on our dresser.

The two jewelry trays are also both thrift store finds totaling at $3 plus about $3 in supplies! I'm super happy with the way it turned out!

Last, but not least, the wall above our bed needs lots of work still, but I'm going to do the collage of "S's" so far we have 3.

Minneapolis

The first time I went to Minneapolis I absolutely fell in love with it! I didn't get to see much more than a 3 block radius of the hotel in downtown because I was there for International Quilt Market, but it was enough to win my heart.  I was convienced that within the next 5 years I would move there and build this dream life that I couldn't ever achieve in this small town in Oklahoma.

Of course now, almost 3 years later I am so much more mature. *chuckles* Really though, things have changed and I'm building a life with my Husband that just keeps getting better and better every day.  Now I don't have the desire to move across the country.  I'm content to stay here, raise a family, and just visit all those "exotic" places, and that is what we will do.

Thanks to Josh's flight benefits through work we don't have to pay to fly places so Sunday we took a day trip to Minneapolis.  -I know! It is very globe-trotter-like! haha!











Josh may kill me for posting a picture of him, but I'm okay with the consequence. *smiles*

From the airport we took the train right to the Mall of America!

This was probably the most exciting part of the trip besides the flying.  Tulsa has public transportation in the form of buses.  I've been on the buses before when I was teenager going to the Tulsa State Fair with my mom, and I really don't care to go on them again. Tulsa could really take note from Minneapolis because this train is so efficient  it was pretty clean, and not the least bit scary.

 The Mall of American wasn't impressive at all, in our opinion.

The three most interesting things about the place:

1) The aquarium is built into the mall.  (We didn't go to it because we didn't want to spend $40 for the tickets when we weren't sure we'd have enough time to see everything since we had to be back to the airport by 2pm.)














2) They had a neat can food drive going on while we were there. They had "sculptures" built out of the cans! Pretty fun to see.

3) "Bubba Gump Shrimp Company" the restaurant.  We had to have lunch so this is where we choose because it was so amusing.  I have a really fun picture of Josh sitting on the bench here, but I promised I wouldn't share it publicly in exchange for taking it to put in our family journal.

The reason we were so disappointed with the mall was because we figured there would be unique shops to see. While the Peeps and Lego shop were things we hadn't seen before they were still big box stores. It would have been so much fun to see shops consisting of hand made items from local artist and crafters.

I did buy one little thing though.

Because pineapple gummy bears are the best!

Either way, Josh's parents are included in the free flight benefits so we are going again next weekend with them. Even though the mall wasn't our cup of tea spending time with family is.

Votex Pillow

There is a new shop in town! It is a fabric shop, but its also so much more. Owl and Drum carries modern fabric, needlepoint and cross stitching supplies, other craft supplies, and handmade gifts from local crafters! It is such a unique and inviting shop which is why I'm so excited that I'll be offering class there very soon!

I've been working on this most of the weekend.  The pattern is from Tula Pink's book, "Quilts from the House of Tula Pink".  We will be scheduling classes soon!

In the meantime you should check out Owl and Drum on Facebook. Be sure to "like" their page so you can see all the upcoming events!

Fall Wreath

I try to make a wreath with every season at the very minimum. I do try to get some special holiday ones in there as well, but that isn't always high on my priority list.

For this year's fall wreath I decided to do one like this wreath I found on Pinterest.

I'm not sure how the originator of this wreath did it, but I found that working with the grapevine form was so difficult! So difficult that I doubt I'll use this sort of wreath again.

I tried to hot glue my "S" in place, but it failed because the surface wasn't flat enough.

So then I had to rig it up. You know, nothing says "super classy, crafty wreath" like bottle tabs nailed into the letter and then reinforced with hot glue!

Finally I used fabric scraps to hold the "S" in place, and called it good enough.

I put it on the door and realized that the "S' was upside down!! This was definitely an example of letting the imperfection go because I was so irritated that this didn't go together as easy as it looked.