Foxy Friday in Five Minutes or Less

This week I did not have my typical entire day to create something. In the morning I helped my friend, Mindy, clean her new house and in the evening I went to the Tinsley's for our usual shenanigans. Even though I had little time I still felt this overwhelming need to create something. I started with this idea from... you guessed it, Pinterest. I went to Goodwill and got an abandoned tea cup for $0.50 and then ransacked my own stash (as small as it might be) of fabric. I had stolen this particular fabric from my mom when I was home last and is fabric that can only be purchased in Vermont.

I filled the fabric with fluff not stolen from my current place of employment.... I then wrapped a rubber band around the bottom to hold it all in and put a ring of glue around the top of the tea cup and just set the poof inside. There you have it! An adorable pin cushion in under five minutes for $0.50!

(I apologize for the poor photography and messy table.)

Lighting

I was chatting with a friend a few weeks ago and talking about the craft projects that I have been doing. Most of my projects are done on Fridays because that is the day I have off. We decided I should have an alliteration to describe my crafting Fridays so I took out my handy thesaurus app and looked up "craft". Well a synonym of craft, when referring to the definition of deceit and scheme, is "foxy" so we have decided to call it Foxy Fridays. I will try to update you all on my Foxy Friday adventures. :)

This week we focus on lighting. Like mother like daughter, I prefer lamp light to overhead lighting so my projects for the past couple weeks have been making lamp shades. (Which, every time I mention lampshades I feel the need to quote, "I'll bet you a drink or two that I can make you put that lampshade on your head" from this song.)

Anyways, like usual my inspiration started with Pinterest. Here is the first idea I got for a lamp that will go in my bed room. I started by going to the best place for projects to start, Goodwill! I found a lampshade that was due for a change.

I then headed over to Hobby Lobby and got some plain white fabric and wrapped it around the lampshade.

I ripped strips of the fabric and rolled them up to make a flower look and glued them all over the lampshade.

It took awhile but I like the final outcome... ok, so it's not actually finished. The entire back still needs flowers glued on but like I said, it takes awhile but I wanted to show everyone what it looked like. I bought a simple base at Walmart and put the whole thing together. Total I spent less than $10. I found a similar design at Hobby Lobby for $100. I'll take mine. :)

Next I found this pin and thought it would be perfect on my sewing table (when I get one). I also got this lampshade at Goodwill.

I cut all the fabric off with an x-acto knife so all that was left was the metal frame.

I wrapped the top and bottom rings with fabric then took strips of fabric and tied them in between the spokes.

I got my fabric at Hobby Lobby but it would be really cool to do with various scraps from a sewing room (I don't have that much to choose from yet, like my mother). :)

I hope you have been inspired to create some light in your own life. Enjoy!

Christmas Crafting Fun!

Ok, so now that I have given everyone their Christmas presents I can show you all what I have been up to for the past few weeks (similar to what my sister-in-law did on her blog). Crafting!

If you haven't heard of it yet you should all check out Pinterest. I'm obsessed. Here are a few of the wonderful ideas I have found on there.

This is the change holder I made for my mom. We are planning a trip to Greece in a few years and have been saving change but Mom has only had a peanut jar to keep hers in.

I took a shadow box and drilled a slit in the top (with some assistance) and found a wonderful picture of the Greece shore to put in it for inspiration. You could find one pre-made online for about $25 but I find making them is more fun and about half the cost.

The next thing I made were wreaths. I made one for the Tinsley's and one for the Scruggs.

I found the inspiration on Pinerest but there was not one specific tutorial I could point you to. I bought pipe insulation at Home Depot for $0.98 and duct taped it in a circle. One, six foot piece was enough for two wreaths. I then wrapped the foam in yarn then took ribbon I found at the Dollar Store and ruffled it around and attached with pins. It took two spools of yarn for one wreath. I then took bells I also found at the Dollar Store and pinned them on and to complete the look I took ornaments that I found at... guess where... and hung them in the middle. The effect was wonderful. So all together each wreath ended up costing me $4.50. (I would now like to apologize to the people I made these for. They look more expensive than they actually were.)

Another project I thoroughly enjoyed was making this necklace.

I bought an ugly tie from Goodwill (the uglier the tie the cuter the necklace) and took it apart with my dear friend, the seam ripper. I then sewed it back together in a thin tube. I placed large plastic beads inside and tied a not in between each bead. A more in depth tutorial can be found here.

I bought the beads at Hobby Lobby and if you shop at Hobby Lobby and ever pay full price you are crazy. They have 50% off sales each week on different items. If what you want is not currently on sale, go back next week and it most likely will. If it can't wait they have 40% off coupons on their website every week and if you have a smart phone you can pull it up on your phone and don't need to print it off. Well that was my aside to Hobby Lobby. Moral of the story, I got the beads on sale and the cost of the necklace ended up being $2.50.

There are still other projects going on but until they are delivered to their final destinations I can not put them on here. If you have a spare minute (and I can tell you do since you are reading this) check out Pinterest but beware... it's addicting!

I hope all of you had a wonderful and joyous Christmas and have a Happy New Year!