So my husband and I were chatting about how much food costs, and asked what is the cheapest two people can eat on for a month. At first I thought $150. Then I got real, and said $200. Looking at what we really spend (maybe three or four times this much) $200 a month will be difficult, really difficult.
So we are going to challenge ourselves to see if we can eat for a week on $50. This means, no Starbucks, no eating out, no drinking soda. It will mean lots of homemade food. We start Monday. We made yogurt yesterday to get us started for breakfast. I made some hard boiled eggs for high protein snacks and we have a mushroom barley soup cooking in the Instant Pot for lunch tomorrow.
Have you every had a really good idea? I mean a really good one. And then you find out you might be a tad bit over confident, overly ambitious? You know, like at the all you can eat buffet. The plate isn’t that big; one little bite of this; just a taste of that… eyes definitely bigger than your stomach. That is me with my new craft project.
My friend showed me her French knitter (knitting dolly), and it looked easy and fun. What an easy thing to do while binge watching Netflix. So I learned how to use it in about 30 seconds and started knitting icord. I made a coaster and it looked great. The I started thinking, “I need a new rug for the bedroom.” I saw some beautiful icord rugs on Pinterest, “I can do this!”
I bought yarn and a bigger French knitter and got started. Two weeks in, I have 9.5 inch rug. I am going for 3.5 feet in diameter. So, I am about 1/10 of the the way done, and hope I can finish in 2017.
Anybody have a good Netflix recommendation? I need a few!
Yesterday I had an hour. So I thought what can I do that is crafty, but quick? Magnets are always quick. So I was thinking about all the cool places in the world and I thought of their subway systems. Have you ever seen the Moscow metro? Gorgeous!!!
So wouldn’t it be fun to make buttons out of metro station maps? That’s what I did.
So it is “Countdown to Christmas” on the Hallmark channel. Did you know that they have two channels? So all day long the play these really awesome (if you like sappy, formulaic, hokey love stories) Christmas movies. You know the kind. A woman meets a man in a ridiculous situation and they do not get along. Sparks fly. You know right away that they will fall in love. Something happens to make them realize that they love each other (usually after a day or two), but they find out there is something big keeping them apart. In the end Santa grants a Christmas wish and they live happily ever after. The last shot is always a kiss.
After two weekend engrossed in Hallmark channel movies, I finally did something. I made ornaments!
You need double sided Christmas paper and a stapler. Cut one inch strips, 2 @ 6″, 2 @ 5″, 2 @ 4.5″ and 2 @ 4″. Start with th 4″ strip put them together with…
So what crafty thing have I done lately? I played with my W R Memory Keepers Alphabet Punch Board and Banner Punch Board. I bought both of these a while ago, but really never used them. We needed a thank you banner at work, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to use some of my stash.
The Alphabet board is really easy to use and comes with a booklet with pictures of each step in making all the letters and numbers. I still made a backwards S as I wasn’t paying close enough attention. The letters a 5″ tall and looked great on the banner we made.
I never rally watched the show Weeds, although I have seen a couple of episodes. I never got into it like my former boss did. She loved that show. Something about selling weed in the suburbs didn’t resonate with me. But, and there always is a but, I did like the theme song. Little Boxes by Malvina Reynolds. It is just a little song about the suburbs and the houses “they all look just the same.” Maybe that is not great for houses, but it is great for treat boxes.
Last year a put up my pretty dress boxes. Last night I got a request to make some boxes in different colors. So I did. So just like the little boxes, there is a red one, a blue one and a silver one, the all look just the same.
Not really the best picture, but it gives you a good idea of what the boxes look like in different colors. Kind of cute, right?
So my husband knows I have a new button maker. He works from home, so he got the package when it came. The good news is that I cleaned up my craft room before the button maker was delivered, so he wasn’t too mad.
Buttons are really quite easy to make. Pick a pretty paper, or stamp something, or use a picture, whatever you want. Punch out the appropriate sized circle. The circle must be bigger than the finished size of the button. I have punches that coordinate with the button makers, so no guessing for me. The button is made of four pieces. The shell, which is the backing for the top of the button, a back, the pretty paper and a mylar cover. I like to make magnets, not pin backed buttons, so I have a fifth piece, a magnet set between the shell and the backing.
The Tecre button makers have two wells and a press:
This picture shows both my 1 inch and my 1.5 inch button makers. You can see one of the wells, and the other well is hidden under the press. In one well you layer a shell, then the pretty paper on top and the mylar on top of that. Once you have the shell and paper set, you press it in the machine. In the second well, you place the back. If you are making a magnet, you put the magnet on top of the back. The start of your button is in the machine, then you swivel around the backing, press again and out comes your button. It is so easy to to and the results are fabulous!
Here is a quick YouTube video I found that shows how these button makers work:
Now I am going to go play with my new toys. Let me know if you would like me to make you any button magnets!
I am very excited because I signed up for a Russian class this term. I haven’t had a Russian class in years. It is a conversation class, so it should be tons of fun. The best part is that it is a community education class, so no grades.
I recently made some cards with Soviet stamps. I purchased these used postage stamps on a whim from a seller on Etsy (I really love Etsy, so much cool stuff), and when I was going through my new treasures I found several stamps with Russian icebreakers. They are beautiful stamps. So I glued them on some card stock, to make them a bit more rigid, and then added them to a blank card. Easy peasy. They turned out pretty good.
Do you think I should give one to my teacher? Since there are no grades, that wouldn’t be brown nosing, would it? Ha!
A while ago I bought a button maker. I love it! What I really like making are magnets. Find a cute paper, punch it out, put the parts in the machine and, bam, you have a cool magnet. I love my button maker so much, I just bought a second one. I have a one inch button maker and I am soon to have a one and a half inch button maker. I can’t wait to get it. Let me know if you need some cool magnets 🙂
Please don’t tell my husband that I will soon have another button maker. I told him I would clean up my craft room last year. Now I know that last year was really only a couple of weeks ago, but I am pretty sure I told him I would clean up my room last, last year; and it is still not clean. This is a problem, because I kind of said I would clean my room before I bought the bigger button maker. Well, I do have Monday off in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. So guess what I will be doing on Monday :-).
Here is my latest card. I used the button maker to make a cute flower magnet. Then I attached it to a card. So when I send the card, it is also a little gift. Pretty cool, right!
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