Christmas Crafts

As I've mentioned before, finances are tight around here.  I could not do my normal Christmas shopping so I had to get a little creative.  Thank goodness for Pinterest! (If you need an invite, let me know with your email and I'll send you one :) ).  I ended up making most of my Christmas gifts.  Here is what I ended up with :)

I regret not taking pictures of my steps but I think I'll still post tutorials for each project.

I have realized how great being out of school is! I have so much more energy and time for the things I love.  I've been a crafting crazy person for the past few months and I've loved it so much :)  To go along with my blog title, I'm calling my crafts "Homemade Adventures."  I may start an etsy shop eventually, but for now I'm content just having fun :)

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Christmas Craft.

I've been eager to try my hand at some crafts showing up on the interwebs here lately.  This craft came from Beneath My Heart and is a fantastic idea! It can be used for any occasion, not just Christmas. She made a pillow out of a place mat!

The entire project took roughly thirty minutes (I was on the phone at the same time. Oh yeah, I can multitask!) and cost around $4.

I bought this place mat at Big Lots for super cheap. It goes perfectly with my color scheme for the year and I knew it would look super cute as a decorative pillow.

 I used cuticle scissors to cut about 5 inches of threading from a seam on the side.  I bought a small bag of filling at a craft store and just stuffed away! The bag I bought was just shy of being enough, but it works. When I make another pillow, I'll be sure to get more filling. 

When it was stuffed, I used some red threat and restitched the seam.  The material made it easy because I could still see the holes from the previous threading.  I did it by hand.. no nifty sewing machine for me.  I love my little Santa pillow and he is oh so comfy and adorable on my couch!

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New toy.

This semester has been pretty rough, and has definitely taken its toll on my emotions. I visited the bestie a few weeks ago, and afterward she told me that her grandmother asked if I was ok. She said "for a bride-to-be she looks like she could slit her wrists." I guess I took that a little hard, but it made me think. (Don't worry, I am DEFINITELY not suicidal. Apparently I just LOOK that way). I am getting married in less than 6 months. This is supposed to be one of the happiest times of my life! School is really affecting that, and I hate it. So I have decided that I am not going to let school do that to me anymore.

Wedding planning should be fun, not a chore. I've been stressing over save-the-dates and trying to find a way to order them. It has really been a pain. So today I made a decision. Call me crazy, but I'm going to make my save-the-dates. Yep all 100+ of them. I'm going to be a DIY bride :) I have messed around on photoshop and actually came up with something, but I found a design today that I fell in love with. I got the picture/idea from here:

Isn't this adorable?! I think I'll put a picture on one side of the tag and our information on the other. My bridesmaids are going to hate me for making them help me, but I think it will be fun. A good chick flick, a bottle of wine (or something a little stronger)... what else could a group of girls need? To help out, though, I ordered a nifty little thing for cheap from Amazon today. So this little beauty should be showing up at my dad's by the end of the week.

This is a cricut cutter. The girls are going to love this because I will be able to mass produce the numbers instead of making them cut each one out individually. Amazon had it for $120, whereas the cricut website has it for ~$180. To make the deal sweeter, I got free shipping! Yay! It was still kind of pricey, but I know I'll use it for more wedding things and for scrapbooking, etc. I'm so excited to get it and play with it, and I can't wait to make my save-the-dates. You know I'll post pics :)

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Basket Case.

It's official.

I've gone basket crazy.

I love those little baskets by my desk sooo much that I started thinking about where else I could use them. Then it hit me. I gathered my stuff and went right back to Big Lots for more baskets.

You see, my apartment is small.It may have two bedrooms and two bathrooms, but nothing says either of those has to be big. Storage is a huge problem, especially in the bathrooms. I have zero counter space in my bathroom. My new little friends help with that a ton! Check it out for yourself.

 Yep. There they are looking all cute! The first one is holding my makeup (which helps clear the sink off a LOT). The next is holding cotton balls, and the last is holding my hair things (bands, clips, bobby pins, etc.) As you can see, my sink space is nonexistent. You can't tell from this picture, but they are hung right below my mirror/medicine cabinet. There was so much space there being wasted! Oh yeah, that is a candle votive holding my Q-tips on the right. I started doing that back in the dorms when we were not allowed to have candles in the rooms. It's super cute and works great!

One last basket thing and then I'm done for the day, I promise! While I was there I saw these huge baskets that are perfect for holding dirty laundry. I picked up two, one for each of us. That should help out too!

 So that is it for my shopping adventures today.  I hope you are getting some use out of these posts as well. If you give these a shot, post pictures for me to see! Also, I'm always open for suggestions/ideas :)

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Inspired.

I have found myself lately with my nose stuck to the computer screen drooling over design blogs. You see, Matthew and I are renting our apartment, so I never thought it could be "pretty" since we do not have too much say in the structure. These design blogs have shown me just how wrong I was.  I have decided that if I'm going to have to live in this apartment for at least another year, I want it to be something I can be proud of.  We have called our landlord to get permission to paint, but until then I  have a few other ideas. I plan on posting pics of my progress.  Keep in mind it will be a very long process, so if you don't see something for a while, that just means I had to put it on the back burner while school or something of that sort becomes a priority.

Anywho, we went to Big Lots today (LOVE it) to scout out some goodies. Oh boy did I find something cool! Part of the remodeling process is redoing my bedroom. The. entire. thing. (I did that just for you Raji!! hahaha). I plan on painting my furniture black, and hopefully painting the walls a pretty lavender color. We will see how that goes.  Anyway, back on track, my computer desk is a disaster. I just don't have a lot of desk space since my computer desk is a corner unit. I had my pens and such in cups sitting next to my computer tower, but my new discovery solves that problem. Check these out :)

Aren't these adorable?!?  I LOVE them :) (BTW, yeah, I know they are a little crooked. Gives them character. And I'm just too lazy to try to fix it...)

So now I have everything I need close to me without taking up valuable desk space! 

I'm going to add a special link list to the side for the design blogs I read, just in case you want in. The Nester is having a lot of really cool giveaways right now, so go check it out!

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