A $1 Flea Market Transformation

     I've always loved rummage sales (garage sale, yard sale, whatever you want to call it), flea markets, thrift store, Goodwill, etc. In other words, I like a good deal. It's like a treasure hunt!

    I've been in search of a mirror with a raised edge for a while. I'm not sure if there is a proper name for them, but I'll stick with that. Yesterday, while visiting the local flea market, I found one for $1.00. It wasn't in the best shape, but I'm always looking for a quick and easy project. If it turned out badly, I would only be out a buck, right?

  
   It wasn't very pretty. The person who painted it white, didn't do a great job at it. I decided I'd take off the paint with some acetone and see what was hiding underneath. To my surprise, it was a gorgeous gold color. After removing the paint, I came to realize why it was painted to begin with. The gold was pretty in some spots, but faded in others. Boo.

   I had remembered I had some gorgeous turquoise-ish spray paint that I used on this picture frame:

     It took a while to get all of the white paint off, especially in the little cracks. I realized that it didn't matter much anyway, since it was going to be painted over. I didn't take any photos of the painting process simply because I am messy and accident prone. Here are the before and afters:

 It could probably use another coat of paint,
but for now I'm pretty happy with it. :)

Homemade Soft Pretzels

Pretzels! 
A couple years ago my mom bought me a bread machine for a few bucks from a rummage sale. It sat in my pantry for about a year or so until one day I decided to dust it off. Since last year I have been using it almost weekly. I have no idea why it took me so long. It's an incredibly easy and cheap way to make breads, doughs, pasta and you can even make jam in it! 

One of my favorite things to make, though, are these pretzels. The bread machine does most of the work for me. I toss all of my ingredients in, liquid on the bottom, yeast on top. It takes about an hour and a half for the dough to form and rise. After it's done, I take them out, shape them into little snakes, make them into pretzel form, toss on an egg wash to make the outside crispy and brown, salt and bake at 450 for about 12 minutes. Bam! 

These are great while they are still warm out of the oven, but I really like that they remain really good even after storing them. I haven't yet, but I'm considering freezing these in some ziploc bags. When we want one, but don't want to wait a couple hours for them, grab one, pop it in the microwave and there you go. 

Fairly quick, super easy, cheap and more importantly, yummy!

Quilt update

Hello! I just wanted to post a quick update about the quilt I am in the process of making. You can see the post about it here. 
As stated in my post, I was going off of this photo I found online:

 

Here's the top to the one I'm making:

 

It's quite a bit darker than what the photo portrays. It's turning out well so far and I'm pretty proud of it! Alex is really excited and it feels good to get some progress on it.

Is it bad that I've decided to start cutting out the squares for my next quilt before I've finished this one? Nahhh... ;) I will update soon!

Indoor Gardening

Something I failed to mention in my introduction post, was my love for plants, growing and nurturing, gardening and producing. I have several houseplants. Mainly, Philodendron. It's not the same as growing your own plants and food though. I wouldn't say that this is a hobby of mine, but I plan to change that.

 Growing up in rural area, everyone and their mom had a garden. In fact, some of my fondest memories as a kid were snapping beans with my grandmother after picking them, amongst other goodies, from their large garden. For as long as I can recall, my mom has always had a big garden and canned all of the goods from it for us to eat during the winter. Even with snow on the ground, we were able to enjoy the vegetables and fruits that she worked hard to produce.

As a kid, you don't appreciate the art in this very much. It's work. If I had to pull weeds, hoe the garden or pick tomatoes, it was a chore and something I likely complained about. Oddly, now 27 and living in an apartment in the city, I'd give just about anything to have that back. I don't have a yard or much space in my apartment, so I had just given up the idea that I'd be able to garden or have fresh produce or be able to can. This idea made me sad face, but I accepted it. One day, maybe.

Not long ago, my mom gave me a grow light as a gift. I dusted it off and decided to play around with some ideas. I don't have a lot of room to grow much, but thought of how wonderful it would be to have fresh herbs readily available. I have a walk-in pantry in my apartment, so maybe I can build some shelving and make it work. We'll see! Thanks for reading!

Time taken for granted.

   It's been a while since I first made this blog and posted about all of the things that I had hoped to work on. Life happens though, so things were put on the back burner for a while. I've worked on some little projects here and there but nothing to write home about. I've been working a full time job and going to school full time, as well as taking care of my home and family. As most know, this leaves little time for hobbies. My job was a seasonal job and now the season is over so I'm home again. I'm so excited to have time to clean, do laundry and finally work on some of my crafts (how old do I sound?!). Time is so easily taken for granted.
   I started planning a quilt around 6 months ago. I've had all of the fabric for it but none of the time. About a two weeks, I started cutting out the pieces and slowly planning and pinning. It's starting to finally come together which I am thrilled about. You want to know who else is thrilled? My son. The quilt is for him and it's based off of his favorite game: Minecraft. 
   I've seen this style of quilt online and I thought it was a great idea. I took the face of one of the Creepers from Minecraft. 

It looks like this: 

   The quilt I've pieced together is based off of one I found online which looks similar to this:

  So far, I have all of the front sewed in strips and I'm about to piece them all together to complete the top layer. After that, I have a thin layer of batting I'm going to put between the layers.
  I've already made him a creeper pillow for Alex, but I found this quilted one which I think is pretty neat-o. I think I'll try my hand at this in the future to match his quilt.

  I have lots of other ideas in mind for quilts, crafts and projects I'm working on, but I'll leave it at this for now. I'll update soon when I complete the quilt. Now that I'm home for a bit, I'll be busy working on it and hopefully having much more things to post about. Thanks for reading!

An Introduction of Sorts

Working with my hands has always been something I've enjoyed. As I get older, I find that I would much rather sit at home and work on some projects rather than go out. I change my mind on this quite a bit and halfway through a project, I get bored and decide to change things up and start on something new.

A few of the things I work with and will be posting about are:

• Sewing - I'm currently working on a few sewing projects and a quilt. In addition:
• T-Shirt Surgeries- I've dabbled in this a bit and plan to a lot more.
• Jewelry making- A love of mine for years.
• Electronics - Somewhat new to me, but I instantly fell in love.
• Knitting - Also new, and probably the one I get frustrated with the most.
• Woodworking/Restoring - I'm a bit restricted due to space, but still messing around.
• Cooking - This is something I've done my whole life, but in a basic way. Must change.
• Photography - An absolute love that I need to spend more time doing.
• Anything DIY - I'm obsessed with cutesy projects I find on Pinterest/Craftgawker.

So, just to name a few, these are the things I'm currently about. I'll be posting anything from glitter to ham hocks on a given day. I may post the project with pictures or just a quick hello and what I'm currently working on.

Don't mind me, I have no idea what I'm doing.