Organizing the Spice Drawer

I love the feeling of a new year, full of new ambitions.  Why not try to make your life a better, healthier, happier one.  Even if you don't succeed on a specific goal, at least you are trying to improve something!

....all that to say, so many of us try to organize and simplify things in January.  I am starting out with my spice drawer.

Well, actually, my husband started this project.  He just couldn't take it one day and decided to label all of the spices in our drawer.  This is when I found out that I buy repeats of spices because I can't find them, or remember if I bought a replacement or not.  ....so 4 jars of curry later I decided to help.

I made these really simple labels for the top of our spice jars.  They are 1" in diameter.  I found this fits most of my spices perfectly!  You can download your own blank labels here!

I printed a sheet of the labels at home.  I don't have a laminator so I put the cut circles in between two pieces of packing tape and trimmed the rest.  I used double-stick tape to adhere the circles to the spices.  This way I can transfer the labels when I buy new bottles!

Doesn't that look so much better!  I can tell you my husband was more excited than I was for this DIY organization project.

Recipes

Sometimes it's nice just to have a handwritten recipe from a friend.  A little piece of that friend's long family tradition can now be yours and passed along to more friends.

I was asked recently for a copy of my favorite dessert my mother often made for us growing up, Pumpkin Dump Cake.  I wanted to give it to her on one of those cute recipe cards I remember my mom having a ton of.  So I made my own.

If you want the best pumpkin dessert ever, here it is!  Try the above recipe.

Do you want to have your own recipe cards that you can hand out?  Click here and print off this onto card stock.

DIY- Embellished Sweater

Last year J. Crew had a sweater like the one pictured above and I loved it.  I just didn't love the price point.  I looked at that beautiful sweater and had the same thought that I'm sure most of you have all the time, "I could make that!"  Well, guess what, I did.  Here is a little how-to for your benefit.

I got this simple sweater at Target, on sale!  It's incredibly soft and I think it was right around $12.  You can't beat that.  It's actually a pretty sweater by itself, but I thought it could use a little something...

So I went to Michael's Craft Store and bought these puffs for about $2.

I lined everything up and decided that for my size puffball, it looked best laod out on a 2" grid.  So there are 2" between each ball.

I marked each section with chalk.  As I sewed on the balls, the chalk already started to fade away.  At the end I didn't even have to wipe away any of the chalk.  If you do have some left over though, just use a dry cloth or the sleeve of the sweater.

I threaded my needle with thread and sewed with the thread doubled up, like the picture above.  I literally just stuck the needle through the middle of the ball and sewed around it, on to a little piece of the sweater until it felt secure.  I wrapped the thread around the ball three times.  I then pulled the thread to the underside of the sweater and tied it off.  You can see the under side of the sweater in the picture on the right.

This year at J. Crew they brought back the same sweater but with smaller puffs.  Guess what?  Michaels has those smaller puffs for the same $2 too!

There you have it.  Let me know if you have any questions.  If you decide to do it too post a picture on instagram with the following tag #fiberinstastyle 

Simple Grown Up Invite

I haven't cared to celebrate Halloween much in the last couple of years.  I'm not sure why, but I'm slowly getting into it this year.  So much of the Halloween decor out there is still a little much for my simplistic taste.  I quickly drew up a little invite that I might actually send out to my friends.  It's definitely Halloween, but just enough and not too much.

DIY Sock Cuffs

I started crocheting when I was 17, then I tried knitting.  I think that's how every knitting fail story starts.  After accomplishing grandmother level crochet skills, knitting came just too slow and was hard to figure out.  If you are sick of trying different scarf methods and too intimidated by actual socks, this sock cuff project is perfect for you.

I started off with the Picot cast on.  Don't worry, I had no idea what that was until I saw this.  Isn't YouTube the greatest?

Then I just knit 2, purl 2 to make a rib for the length of the sock part.  It's only about 4" long and then I stopped fastened off and sewed the two sides together to make a cuff.

It was also a great opportunity for me to use some of my fancy alpaca yarn.  The needles I used are US 8 or 5.0mm.

This whole project took me almost 3 hours!  That's how slow I am.  I hardly ever knit, but I did start to gain some speed toward the end there.

DIY Pearl Collar

I’m getting preppier and preppier in my old age; aka, I just bought a puffer vest!!  

Anyway, I’m loving the studded trend, but it’s just not me.  You know what is 'me'?  Pearls!  Here is a super easy pearl embellishment DIY.

I started out with this chambray shirt.

I started to randomly sew on pearls to the collar.

I had a costume pearl necklace that broke on me and I kept all the pearl beads.  There were a variety of sizes which added a lot of interest on the collar.  

I just sewed them on to the tips of the collar; I think it gives it a little bit of a western feel.

I can't wait until my puffer vest comes in the mail, and then I'll wear the two preppy items together.  I'm also getting a new camera!  So hopefully I'll learn to use it ASAP and get better pictures for all the DIYs!

The Willing Bachelorette

When I look back at my wedding, most things I wouldn't change and am still SO glad that I stuck to my guns and did things my way.  For example, I skipped the bouquet toss.  Who actually likes the bouquet toss?  I know there are a few of you out there, that's why I made this sign.

Through out the ceremony and reception site I had these cute little signs everywhere.  Some said Wedding ->, bocce ball, croquet, etc.  There was one very special sign that was hidden on top of a grassy knoll to the side of the reception festivities.  In the middle of the reception I snuck away and put my bouquet in this wooden sign.  I then happened to wander to a group of my single girl friends that would have been very disappointed with no bouquet toss and told them I had something hidden on that small hill.

I don't remember who won, but that lucky lady on the right was married within the year.  (just sayin') 

Pictures by Stephen Seward

Flowers by Erika Kirkland

DIY sign, by me!

DIY Pinata Card

Giving gift cards can be so boring.  But it's the one gift that everyone likes! So, here is a really fun way to give someone a gift card.  

Here are all of the supplies you'll need to make this really fun pinata card! (except I forgot the sequins!)

Step 1:  Take one piece of card stock, fold in half and cut out the middle.

Step 2:  Line up all of the pieces of tissue paper and cut fringe into one side.

Step 3: Using a glue stick, glue on the sides only and attach the fringe.

Step 4: Make a little pouch for the sequins and glue along the top of the tissue paper.

Step 5: Place glue along the top and sides of the card stock frame and fold over the tissue paper.

Step 5:  Use a hot glue gun and glue the frame with the fringe to the card stock.  Don't forget to include your message and gift card.  Also at this time glue the last side of the tissue paper to the card stock with the glue gun.

Step 6:  Watch in delight, as your friend opens their gift!  I think this could really be good for any occasion.  Make it a shower gift with gold and silver tissue paper.

Friendship Bracelet

I love stacking bracelets around my watch for an arm party, and I've jumped hard on the friendship bracelet trend!  Here's a little how-to guide to make your own.

Step 1:  Find a chain jewelry item.  I happened to be going through my grandmother's unending stash of jewelry and got to come home with this bracelet.

Step 2:  Pick out fresh new colors of yarn or embroidery floss and tie it to one end of the chain.  I chose yarn because my chain bracelet was on the large side and I liked the thickness of the yarn with it.  (PS.  Cut long pieces.  To do this bracelet I used about 2.5 yards of yarn!)

Step 3:  Start wrapping!  If you know anything about the blanket stitch, that's basically what I did.  Just wrap the yarn around the chain and stick the yarn end through the wrapped part to create that line of twisted yarn. (In the picture just pull the loop until the end comes through.)

Step 4:  Wrap and Wrap and Wrap until your are done.  Ta-Da!

Chiffon Flowers DIY

I've been wanting to make chiffon flowers for a long time.  I happen to have a little stash of navy chiffon in my collection so here is what I did....

I loosely cut a bunch of circles out of the chiffon.  These are about 2.5" in diameter.  The trick is to lightly melt all of the edges with a lighter so that they don't fray.  It also gave the circles fun realistic petal shapes.  I then folded each petal in fourths and sewed about 5 of the corners together.

This is what it looks like after you sew them together.  Then you can personalize them any way you want.  I sewed on a big jewel to the center and put it on a bottle of wine for a friend.  You could add pearls to the center, you could do anything.

This is a blurry picture of it pinned to my sweater!

Herb Marriage

Brian made me an herb garden to hang outside our patio.  I'm hoping that hanging it will help little critters not eat them.  Now I need to pick out herbs to plant!

Basil

Mint

Cilantro

Lemon Grass

Parsley

Hand-Made Sunday

I'm making some fabric bunting for the wedding.  I'm making a lot so I wanted to make it in a time efficient manner.  Here's how I'm doing it...

Here was all the supplies that I needed to make the wedding bunting.

After buying the fabric that I wanted to make my flags out of I found this pinking shear shaped rotary cutter.  It would have taken me a full day of cutting fabric to get all of the flags with my pinking shears.  This rotary cutter only took me one distracted hour while watching Gilmore Girls.

I should have taken a better picture of the flags because each pile is about 2 inches tall of fabric!  That's a LOT of flags.

I use this bias tape to sew the flags too.  Double fold really looks much better than the single fold.  I bought this on accident.  It cost considerably less than the double fold, so I'm not that upset about it.  You saw how many flags I have, so I'm going to need a lot of that tape!

It's really too much of a hassle to pin the flags to the tape, so I just take it as it comes.  I line up the end of the flag under the fold of the flag.  I put my needle in it and then line up the rest of the flag.  I used a zigzag stitch because it's cute and I think it will hold well.

I just keep it lined up by holding it together with my fingers.

Here is the end result!  It's a line of flags.  They are going to add a lot to make that wedding atmosphere in my outdoor wedding.