Craftaholism

Hi, my name is Ashleigh, and I'm a craftaholic. No seriously though, I may or not be thoroughly addicted to crafting. It's been a really great outlet for me these past couple of weeks, with all the stress I've been feeling with work and living in an unfinished space. I'm running out of space in my home for the crafts I'm making, and so I'm hoping other people will let me make crafts for them. Below are some of my recent crafting adventures:

This is a cork board I made for my office. I bought a cheap board from Wal Mart and half a yard of that adorable fabric and hot glued it on. Then I hot glued ribbons around the edge to make a cute border. I found those super cute flowers in my mom's crafting supplies and I just knew I had to use them! I attached them to little clothes pins, which I then attached to the frame of the cork board, so I can hang papers from the clothes pin as well. I'm kind of obsessed with it, and now I don't even want to hang anything on it and spoil it's beauty. Ah, well.... such is life.
This was SUCH a fun project to make! Nikki and I went to Lowe's and bought some wood (which was an adventure all by itself) and then we had DJ cut it for us. We bought those cute paint colors at Lowe's as well. (By the way, they sell "sample" jars of paint, which are a half pint each, for 3 dollars! It was perfect cause I didn't need much, but they still mix whatever color you want, just like if you buy a whole gallon. I'm hooked.) The flooring, counters, appliances and furniture in my house are a combination of blacks and browns, so I decided to go bold with my accent colors, and I'm so excited to see it all come together! After Nik and I sanded, primed, and painted the wood, we printed out pictures on cardstock and mod-podged them to the boards. The ink did bleed a little bit, but it actually looks really cool. Also, there were bubbles in the paper when I applied the mod-podge, but they flattened themselves out beautifully. This is such a fun project, in fact, that DJ is in the process of making his own little wood picture. Naturally, his will be of the Braves, and will go in our "Sports Room" (aka the guest bedroom...and yes, decorating it in sports stuff WAS my idea... I know, how did DJ find such a cool wifey, right?).
Okay, THESE are probably my favorite. Nik and I bought a 2x4 at Lowe's, and brought it home (get this) in her... COBALT! bahahahaha we had so much fun getting a 2x4 in there! And THEN, once we got it home, we realized that there is a HUGE pile of scrap wood in the yard from when the boys have cut wood to finish the basement so there was no need to by more. DUH!!! So we plopped ourselves on the ground and went to town, looking for good sizes of blocks. Oh, it was seriously so fun! We then sanded them, primed and painted them with the same colors as the pictures above (p.s. I still have LOTS of that paint left... that 9 bucks was totally worth it!) After we double-coated them with paint, I got on my computer and chose cute fonts for each letter and printed them out on scrapbook paper. I attached the letters with mod-podge and voila! I have a cute decoration to go on the coffee table DJ made me.
The idea for these wall hangings I stole from a craft blog. The tall skinny frame I already had, but the glass was broken in it, so this was a perfect use for it. The other frames I got at Wal Mart for 3 bucks each. I got my fabric in the same bold primary colors as above and went to town with them. First I covered the glass in the frames with the background fabric. The rose was super easy to make, you just take a long piece of fabric and swirl it around from the center out, twisting it occasionally. For the petaled flower I cut out a bunch of petal-shaped pieces and glued the ends together to make a 3D effect. Then I glued them around a center piece of the fabric, which was just rolled up like a cinnamon roll. These cute hangings will go on either side of my mirror which I'm hanging up to use for my salon, which is really just a corner of my kitchen that will have the mirror and my stylist chair in it. It's going to be so nice to have my chair out and have a good place to do hair!

So, there's my most recent stuff! I seriously want to make more crafts, especially the blocks. If ANYONE wants some, let me know. I have lots of scrap wood I can still use, and I could make it say anything you want. If you pay for the paint in the colors you want, I'll do the rest. Seriously. Or we could do it together, cause it's really fun! One of my cousins suggested I start selling my crafts, but for now I just want to do them for free. I don't have the time to produce them in large quantities because I work over 40 hours a week. Maybe one day I'll have more time to start a little crafting business, but for now, I'm serious here... PLEASE LET ME CRAFT FOR YOU!!!

When you live with teenagers....

..... Things are bound to get a little crazy. DJ and I had to be out of our old apartment this past Tuesday, and our new place in my parents' basement isn't completed yet. SO... We moved in to the space that IS completed, but are kinda living WITH my family.... which is something none of us EVER wanted, but such is life I suppose. Our bedroom downstairs is finished (and currently looking like it belongs on the show 'Hoarding: Buried Alive' because of all our stuff we have piled in here waiting to be put in other rooms of the house... yikes...) and the bathroom is (mostly) finished. My family has been very accommodating, which we're grateful for, and we're all hoping it only lasts a a short time.

Now, there is a story to be told here, I just needed to give some background. Last night DJ, Matt and I watched a movie and afterwards I really wanted to go get a Slurpee. My mom started pulling containers out of her cupboard, telling us it was cheaper to get a refill than a normal Slurpee. So I took the cup that I always took as a kid, DJ took a hospital mug, and my mom got a big water bottle. DJ told Matt he'd pay for his Slurpee if he got a refill in a 32 oz. peanut jar. Naturally, Matt had no problem with this:

Then things REALLY started getting out of control. My dad suggested Zach try to get a refill in a HUGE mixing bowl. We're talking like 2 gallons. I was begging him not to cause I was embarrassed, but he's a 17 year old boy so of course he took the challenge. The 4 of us went down to the sev, and we made Zach wait in the car while Matt, DJ and I got our drinks. The lady looked at the peanut jar a little weirdly, but then told us it was so good of us to be doing our part to save the environment by getting refills. We got back in the car and let Zach go in for the big one... and man I haven't laughed that hard in a LONG LONG time. It took him FOREVER to get the thing filled up, and when he plopped that big bowl on the counter, we couldn't stop laughing. There was a discussion going on that we naturally couldn't hear, but then he came out empty-handed. He asked me for more money and then went back in. He came out, bowl in hand, and here's what had happened:

Zach plops his huge bowl on the counter.

Asian cashier turns around and looks at it incredulously, then says to the other cashier, "You're ringing this one up."

Female cashier: "What in the WORLD?"

Zach: "Refill. Over 32 ounces."

Female Cashier: " I think I'm going to have to charge you for two..."

Zach gets more money from me, goes in and pays, and walks out with a mixing bowl full of delectable blue Slurpee, all for a price of $2.50

Good, clean fun on a Friday night. That's what you get for living with teenagers.