craftiness lately 2

Can you believe that I already have another post titled "craftiness lately"?? Me either. Sometimes I think of something so original and then...turns out, it's not. SO, since today's post is all about crafts I've done lately...we'll just throw a  2 on the end and call it a day.


Several times this week I mentioned the craft I did with my friend Jessie last weekend, but didn't have the finalized product ready to show off...well, you shall wait no longer! 

 This is not going to be a step-by-step tutorial like I'm sure you've become accustomed to me doing (haha)...but I will show you some pictures of us in-progress so that you are even more wowed by the final product!

We started out with lots of fabric, scissors, ribbons, needles, and Jessie's brand-new rotary cutter which we ruined in about 15 minutes (who knew you shouldn't iron on that mat thing??).

Then there was sewing, and plenty of it. And it was at least 11pm at this point, so please don't judge my sleepy eyes and greasy face and general troll-like-ness.

And finally-- ta daaaaa!!!!-- we had our trees!

These 3 are actually mine, and they make me very happy!! Especially the tall skinny one!

So the Christmas Tree Craft was like a level 3 craft in my book, because it involved lots of equipment, time, and sewing. I rarely attempt such advanced crafts, but am glad that Jessie encouraged me to- and provided the sewing intervention I require to do such a thing!

These next 2 crafts are much more typical of my normal crafts. And by that I mean: easy.

This is just a little sign I started making probably a month ago. I was just in the mood to paint stuff. :) So I got Mattie to cut me a piece of plywood and I got to painting. I didn't get the tiny brushes I needed until recently so that I could paint words on it...which is why it was a month-long project.

Ya know, just something I need to be reminded of frequently!

Finally: my first CHRISTMAS WREATH! As you know, I went absolutely nutso on the fall-colored yarn wreaths. This is my first foray into the Christmas-colored version, and I'm so happy with how it turned out! My front door is happy, too.

We did do one other craft yesterday, but it's not ready yet (and will never be quite photo-worthy)...we (and I say 'we' because Matt is absolutely the one responsible for looking up and spearheading this project) made our own scented pinecones! When we were at Michael's last week, we saw some...and Matt was APPALLED that people apparently are willing to spend $5 or something on scented pinecones...I mean, they're pinecones. We have at least...I dunno...50 million of them? Roughly? In our backyard? Right. So yesterday we bought some essential oils and made our own dang scented pinecones. Except they have to stay sealed in their bags for a week, so we can't enjoy them yet.

Unexpected cool thing about the project: you're supposed to bake the pinecones (in the oven! on a cookie sheet!) for an hour (at 200 degrees) first, to kill any bugs that might be living in them. And when they were done 'baking'...there were SO MANY little dead spiders on the sheet! It was crazy! And kind of intriguing. So...you're welcome for that factoid.

So that's my craftiness lately. Now I need to finish getting some food prepared for our Vineyard Thanksgiving dinner tonight...I am SO EXCITED because I love Thanksgiving food SO MUCH! Yum!