Self Portraits

All of the bloggers I read regularly make outfit posts.  Some of the ladies I'm loving right now are Elycia over on Love Elycia, Kaylah on The Dainty Squid, Elizabeth on Delightfully Tacky, and Meredith on One Sheepish Girl will occasional post some outfit photos.  Oh, and of course I have to mention Elsie on A Beautiful Mess.  I wanted to do an outfit post, but I just never got around to taking the photos.  I used to be much more dedicated to taking self-portraits.  Actually for a college project I took a photo of myself every morning and evening right when I woke up and before I went to bed.  I did this with a 4x5 camera, and if you know anything about photography, that took a lot of dedication.  

This is a couple pairs from that series.  

Here is another self portrait from college.  This one is with a color 4x5 Polaroid.  Those were fun to play with, an expensive play thing though.  

These are two 35mm colored slides from college.  I love the color in slide film.  

Hope ya'll enjoyed.  We had a long day today!  We sat through a six hour long class on being first time homebuyers, and the programs that are available in Delaware.  We learned a lot, and we are nervous and looking forward to what the future my hold for us!  Now we are going to hang out with our buddies Kristen & James.  Hope you have a great Saturday, and happy DIYing, chris!

Printmaking from my College Days

For this week's Flasback Friday I want to share some of my prints from my college days.  

This I made with rose petals, coins, and paper clips.

Those lead to this type of lino print.  

I love my dollie prints.

this is a lithography print

This is a lino block print, with pen over the top.

Hope you enjoyed my prints.  Happy DIYing, chris.

Owlbow Patches

I've had these Owlbow Patches on my mind since the beginning of February.  I finally got them started today!  

I began by drawing out the template for the owls on card stock.  I drew the body, and then cut it out and kept tracing the body to draw the other parts in.  Then I cut out each piece, so that I would be able to trace the same template twice.  

Now I used card stock templates to trace the parts out on felt in different colors.  I used eight different colors.  I laid them all out as I went, to make sure they looked good.  To keep everything in place I used embroidery thread, before I started sewing though I used a little glue to help keep things from falling off track.  I sewed the small black circles to the large grey eye circles with green thread first.  Next I sewed on the nose with white thread to match the nose felt, and the same for the bottom belly piece.  

For the belly I started at the bottom, and only sewed a straight line across the top.  Except for the top belly felt I tried something more playful.  

I liked the look of the lighter thread on the top stomach piece, so I followed that trend on the wings.  I only sewed the inside, because the outside with be sewn when I sew the patch to my sweater.  

Once I was ready to attach the patch I put on the sweater I was attaching it too and used four pins to secure the patch in place.  

This is how much I was able to get sewn today.  I still have a lot to go!  I hope I'm able to finish this project over the weekend.  I need to go to bed though, because I have an early day tomorrow.  Happy DIYing, chris.

EDIT:  Just wanted to check in to show how the elbow patches turned out.

Oh Happy Day

I'm tired, so I'm going to post about my blogger-love post from the past saturday, that I didn't get a chance to put up.  I borrowed Oh Happy Day's elephant Valentine's Day card and envelop idea.  I love cutout cards, and her elephant is just the cutest thing!  Plus I have some plain orange envelopes I'd like to jazz up.  

I began by trying to stamp an envelope that I already had.  This first attempt smudged.  I have this trouble with this particular ink pad a lot, I'm not sure why I keep trying to use it.  

To make my elephant template I cut a piece of notecard the same size the envelope.  Then I drew an elephant on it like Oh Happy Day's, and then cut it out.  I then picked out a piece of handmade paper to use for the actual card.  I traced my template and cut out the elephant.  I used an awl to make the eye hole, and a razor blade to cut out the ear.  I curled the ear around a pencil to give it some shape.    

Then I stamped 'happy birthday' on it.

This is how the envelope and elephant look together.

This is what I wrote on the back.  Thought it was cute for a belated birthday card.  Hope ya'll enjoyed, happy DIYing! chris.

EDIT: I was extra tired when I first wrote this.   I even spelled my name wrong!  I went back and fixed all my spelling errors, and added a little more detail.  

Hanging your Jewelry

Today I'm organizing my jewelry, because this is what it looks like right now!  All my necklaces and headbands are bunched together in that lunchbox, and my earring and bracelets are in those stacked round containers.  

These are the three tools you'll need to get the job done, oh and you'll need a square of peg board.  My husband and I used an 1/16th bit to drill the thread holes for the hooks.  I bought the mug hooks at JoanAnn Fabrics for $3.50, and that was the only thing I needed to buy for this project!

I marked where I wanted my hooks to go, my husband drilled the holes out for me, and then I screwed in the hooks, and hung the jewelry.  I just filled in the pieces as we went.  I know there are a ton of different ideas for hanging your jewelry on the internet, but I thought this would give me the most freedom to fill in as I buy stuff, or give stuff away.  

Here is a close up of the peg board with my hanging earrings.  I love mismatching earrings, that troll earring and the parrot are two of my favorites (though I'd never wear them together).  This was the most difficult part, but it's still extra simple.  Start with either hook wherever you'd want the pegboard to hang.  Use the level to figure out where to hang the other hook.  

Here's a good view of the hook in the wall.  Don't worry I only hung my fake pearls on the wall. :)

I kept my headbands in the lunchbox.  I also have some pins, my backup hair things and chap stick in there.  Oh and those matches are from our honeymoon, we loved the restaurant they're from, Irene's.  My lunchbox has a lot of rust though, I need to do a DIY on this!!  Happy DIYing, chris.

Roasted Carrot & Pistachio Soup

Happy Nom Nom Monday!!!  I have another tasty soup for you.  I borrowed the recipe from Buried Carrots.  Who better to get my carrot recipes from???   I had a TON of carrots leftover from my root vegetable soup, so I hunted the web for something better than just your average carrot soup, and this is what I found a Roasted Carrot and Pistachios Soup.  

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

- 6-8 large carrots

- 1 large yellow onion

- 8 cloves of garlic

- 1/4 cup olive oil

- 1/2 cup roasted & unsalted pistachios

- 6 cups vegetable stock (I only used four)

- 2 tsp dried thyme (I thought I had some but I didn't so I used 1 tsp of dried parsley & 1 tsp dried marjoram)  

- salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees (F).  Now peel your carrots, onion, and garlic.  Then cut the carrots and onion into 1-2 inch pieces.  Toss the onion, cloves of garlic, and carrots with the olive oil and salt and pepper.  Spread them out on a baking sheet.

Roast the veggies in the oven for 35 - 45 minutes, or until they are slightly browned on the outside.  

While the vegetables are roasting mix together the pistachios, vegetable stock, and dried herbs.  The recipe said, "more or less 6 cups to reach desired consistency", and so I only used four cups, because that was the size of the vegetable stock I bought.  My soup was pretty thick, we watered it down a little bit at the end with about a cup of water.  It's definitely a preference thing, and how many people you're trying to serve.

When the veggies are done scoop them into a large saucepan.  Add the vegetable stock, pistachio, and herb mixture.  Bring to a boil, and then reduce the heat to a simmer.  Let simmer for about an half hour or until the vegetables are tender.  

Now blend everything together in the a food processor.  I was able to fit it all into the large container for the bullet, but if you have a smaller food processor you can work in batches.  Once everything is blended if you think the soup is too thick you can add more vegetable stock (or water) to get the the desired consistency.  

Reheat and serve.  I added some blue cheese to the top of my soup!  Hope ya'll had a good Monday, and happy DIYing!  

Simple Handmade Soap

I was looking forward to this project all week!  I've made soap before, but it's been a LOOONG time.  Probably close to a decade!  It feels kind of like cheating calling this soap making though.  All I really did was melt some soap, added some things to it, and then remolded it.  

All you'll need to make soap is some clear or white glycerin (I bought mine from Michael's), food coloring, essential oils, and a mold.  

The first batch I whipped up I melted three blocks of white glycerin for each heart mold (follow directions on the packaging).  After melting I added in my scents and dyes.  The first three I used three to five drops of the blue dye.  One of the soaps I added a couple drops of eucalyptus, and the other two I used an apple scent.  The other three I used a yellow dye, and for the first one I used five drops, and then the next one I used only three drops, and the last one I used just one drop.  For the scent on the yellow soaps I used vanilla.  Just stir them in with a wooden skewer, and then pour into silicone heart mold.  

The next two soap mixes I got the recipes from Martha Stewart's website.  The second batch I mixed up I used 6 blocks of clear glycerin, a tablespoon of honey, and a sprinkle of ginger powder.  The third batch I used the same recipe, but I also added two tablespoons of oatmeal.  I used yogurt, fruit cups,  and cottage cheese containers for molds with these two soap mixtures.  

This is what all my soap looked like together. 

 I really like the honey, ginger, and oatmeal batch.  Smells nice and it's pretty!  Yogurt and fruit cups make prefect molds.  

I guess I need to make an entry about packaging the soap sometime soon.  I'm sure I have some ideas up my sleeve for that project.  Tomorrow I'll have another tasty recipe for ya'll to enjoy.  Happy DIYing, chris!