Stationery card

Holly Jolly Wishes Christmas Card

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I absolutely love our Christmas card for 2012! It perfectly captured the vintage feel I was going for. The lesson I learned, this being our first card sent out as a couple, was to figure out how many cards you think you will need and then add 20! I ended up paying an arm and a leg for an additional order of these cards and will not be making the same mistake next year!

Halloween

This Halloween was fun. Thanks to the wonder that is Pinterest I found several spook-tacular crafts to complete the look I wanted outside our home.

The first project was very simple. The original idea came from Country Living. This is their rendition:

http://www.countryliving.com/crafts/projects/craft-ideas-for-halloween-1009#slide-9

My version is more simple, but it actually looks pretty cool. The bats were easy to cut out free hand. Country Living does provide a pattern (click the link above). My overall goal was to create some dimension with different layers and the color orange. It all leads to the front door and that sugary Halloween candy!

I used some small logs that were leftover from our wedding as pedestals and a tin planter bucket from Ikea to add a little height. The large pumpkin was the perfect shape for a monogram and since it's my first Halloween as a Paulson, I decided to do a simple polkadot "P". Ryan got out the drill and we went to work. It turned out to be a very easy process and made for quick carving. It also looked great lit up. 

This is a simple wreath I made using a tutorial I found on Pinterest as well. The felt flowers came together very quickly. No need for perfectly formed circles of the same size here. A stack of felt in whatever color(s) you like, a little hot glue, and a wreath (I actually ripped the burlap flowers off another wreath I was tired of looking at) and you can have yourself something quite lovely.

Here is a closer look. And here is the link to the tutorial I used to make the flowers.

http://www.littlethingsbringsmiles.com/2010/12/felt-fun.html

Add a few gourds to a vase, an antique chair...and some more gourds, and you're done! Just because it's Halloween doesn't mean the decor needs to be scary. This is a classic look that can easily carry over into November with a few minor changes. Hope you liked it!

Artisan Bread From My Oven!

I recently had the pleasure of marrying a wonderful man named Ryan. I received a multitude of fabulous gifts as a result. One of my favorite gifts was a pizza peel, a pizza stone, and the book "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day". The first chance I had I cracked open that book and read. The theory behind the book is that you make a large batch of "wet" dough (no kneading required!), let it rest on the counter, and then stick it in the fridge for use at a later date (up to 2 weeks later depending on the recipe you choose). Once you get the jest of the process, it is pretty simple and requires little effort. Here are my results:

Here is the dough after a 2 hour rise on the counter top. This is a super large Tupperware bowl. You really only need a 6 quart container with a loose fitting lid. 

You simple form a portion of the dough into a ball (no kneading!) and place it onto the floured peel for an hour and 40 minutes.

Here is a pic I took of Ryan and Rhubarb while waiting for the dough to rest on the peel.

Here is the dough ball.

Once rested, I floured the ball and slashed a shell pattern on the top. 

Here is the beautiful baked loaf fresh out of the oven! Amazing. 

Here is a sideways picture of the book. Definitely worth picking up. It's easy to follow and for people who are starting out in the bread baking world, this is perfect. There are tons of blog posts about this book so I am not going to post detailed directions or the recipe, but I am telling you to give this a try. You won't be disappointed. I have a batch of dough for pizzas waiting for me in the fridge and this week I intend to attempt a grilled pizza on our new infrared charbroil grill. Can't wait! 

Free-Hand Embroidered Deer

For Mothers Day this year, I wanted to make something really unique for my wonderful mom. I decided to embroider something that could be hung up in my parents room at their cabin. My maiden name is Buck, so I thought it would be nice to do something with the animal of the corresponding name. I found the picture below and had an idea of what I wanted to do, a sort of stained glass mosaic pattern on canvas.

I traced the deer onto the canvas and began embroidering triangles. I did these mostly free hand and did not feel the need to take the time to draw the lines on. I did draw lines for the legs at first until I got the hang of what I was doing. 

Close Up!

Extreme Close Up!

           I added a little outline of Minnesota to personalize it a bit. Oh Minnesota, my home sweet home.

The antlers were the most difficult, but I think they turned out well in the end.

I alternated colors and did a simple satin stitch for the insides of the triangles.

I left the Minnesota patch empty so that it would stand out and I liked the end result. 

Here is a close up of the filled in triangles. I forgot to take the final picture before giving it to my mom, but will try to get one soon! I framed it in a modern frame and it now hangs in their cabin bedroom. It was a challenging, time-consuming, but rewarding project. Plus I love the way it turned out. Making something like this for my mom made me appreciate her all the more. She definitely deserves more than a store bought gift and I think the hours I poured into this embroidery were well worth it. Love you mom!

DIY Burlap Flower Wreath

After acquiring a cheap grapevine wreath from a garage sale I did some looking around to find options for creating something new with it. There are wreaths galore on pinterest. I decided to use a fabric flower technique that I have used before when making hair clips. I wanted an outdoorsy/rustic look that would be versatile and could carry over from summer into fall.

Here is the finished wreath hanging on the pillar outside our home. 

I started by cutting many circles out of tan burlap. They were about three 2.5 inches in diameter. Each flower  needs 5-6 circles.

Take each circle and fold it in half.

Fold the circle in half again.

Next, on the side where two sides meet (look below my thumb in the picture above), fold each flap back on either side. This is a little hard to show in a picture, sorry! Looking at the picture below, this petal is half finished. The flap that is at the bottom would then be folded back up towards my ring finger. 

Now, thread a needle and tie the thread to a button. The button will not show, so it can be any size/shape. This is so your thread won't slip through the burlap. Pull the needle through the burlap where a point has formed (like a tiny slice of pizza).

I find that it is easier to stack a few of these little "pizza slices" and thread them at the same time. You will want to keep all the pieces stacked so that they do not spring apart in all directions before you have them all on the thread. Next, let go of the pieces and pull the thread tight. Then tie the needle side of the thread onto the button.

This is what the bottom of your burlap flower should look like. Clip any loose threads. 

Here are a few of the flowers.

Burlap sheds like crazy when you cut it. I sprayed my flowers with cheap hairspray which works great to keep the flowers together and stops the shedding. 

I had some green burlap on hand and decided to make a few flowers out of that as well. I then hot glued the flowers to the lower right hand side of the wreath.

Finally, I sprayed the finished wreath with more hairspray. A lot of hairspray actually! This wreath was going outside and I didn't want it to be affected by wind and rain. I can vouch for the fact that this wreath has been up for a couple of months and looks the same as it did when I put it up. Yay!

Here is the finished product. The only thing that I would change would be the color of the burlap. The tan color is a little too close to the grapevine color. It looks very nice close up, but far away, it is a bit hard to see the tan burlap. Luckily, burlap comes in many colors and this could easily be done in colors to compliment your home or for holidays (red/green, black/orange, etc...). So go make your own burlap wreath!! It was easy, fun, and I love the end result. I hope you will too!

Woodland Creature Baby Gear!

These little guys made it onto some baby gear I made for a co-worker of Ryan's. She is having a girl, but loathes the color pink. She and her husband are into the outdoors and more natural themes. So, I decided to go with woodland creatures. I forgot to take photos using my actual camera, so these aren't the greatest as I took them last minute with my phone....

On the left is a pacifier leash with a hedgehog on it. This hedgehog took me waaaay too long to sew by hand. I created the pattern first. I sewed the top layers of blue and tan together first, then embroidered on the cream quills (not sure if that is what they are called), eyes, and nose. then I stitched that piece to a slightly larger piece of brown felt. And finally, I did a blanket stitch to attach a second piece of brown felt to give it some bulk. So cute!

Attaching the hedgehog to the suspender clip was tricky and I need to perfect my methods. You can see the slight dimpling where I stitched through the blue felt which I don't love. 

The second little guy is a fox that embroidered with cream and black thread. I coated him on all edges with fray check, ironed him dry and them sewed him onto the front piece of the bib prior to sewing the layers together. I used a wood grain cotton for both projects and love how it looks with the animals!! Simple, but cute and funky all at the same time. There is nothing girly about these, but they aren't boyish either....I hope!

My tag is sewn to the back of both items as well. For the bib, I did a cream terry cloth backing with an extra layer of tan flannel in between to make it more absorbent and sturdy. It has a snap closure and I still swear by the tutorial I posted HERE.

The real lesson I learned while making these things is that sometimes I need to better manage my time, or do things a little differently in the interest of time. At some point (way in the future) I would love to make and sell things and I will never make any amount of money if it takes me several hours to complete one pacifier leash!! I'll get faster too with time, but still, I could be more efficient for sure.

Wedding Save the Dates!

I designed these Save-the-Dates for my upcoming wedding. I printed them on my home computer and probably saved around $150 by doing these myself. I designed them using Microsoft Publisher and simple photo editing software that comes with every computer.

I love them and they really captured "us". Relaxed, casual, and simple.

Even little Rhubarb made it on! We treat her like our child, so it only made sense to include her cute little mug on the back of the save-the-date.

Star Wars Baby...There is no try, only do.

A friend of mine brought me an adorable Onesie that features the Star Wars logo. It no longer fit her daughter and she wanted to know if I could turn it into a bib for her. As a big Star Wars fan myself, I said yes and set to work. The material itself was a super thin knit and tough to work with. I used fusible interfacing on the back of the knit to keep it from stretching while sewing and to prevent the edges from curling. I backed it with white terry cloth.  Here is the final product, it turned out well despite the sizing and fabric issues.

The neck came out a little on the small side, so I opted to use thin elastic rather than a snap closure.

After making the bib, my nerdiness couldn't be contained. I needed to sew her baby the ultimate girl accessory to go with her awesome new Star Wars bib....Here is what I ended up with.

I am not exactly sure how they will fit a baby's head yet. I wanted the buns to fit over the ears and not having a baby myself, and it being late at night when I made the headband, I couldn't think of a way to test it out at my house. I used scraps of fleece and the buns came together in no time. Two tubes of brown fleece with a strip of scrap blue fleece in the middle to make them more full looking. 

 They took me a little while to sew together by hand, but I didn't trust hot glue when I was giving them to someone. I will try glue on the next one and report back. Hopefully they work out and I will have a picture of baby Princess Leia soon. If it doesn't fit I will take it back and rework it. It was a fun experiment and I think they are hilarious!