I Love Writing

It's been a long time since I posted here.  I've felt stuck because I felt like an explanation was owed and it was hard to formulate one.  Maybe I'll post one later but I'm tired of waiting to get back to writing again.  Keeping a record about my family and my personal life is something I love doing and is important to me. More than that, I love writing.  I'm definitely not claiming to be good at it at all, it's just something I enjoy.  

Since it's been a hot minute, I thought it would be fun to share some hobbies I've taken up over the last few years (and during quarantine especially).  I always enjoy hearing about hobbies and projects from other people, so if you have any and feel inclined to share, I would love to hear about them.

1.  Rock Painting

Cameron and I followed a YouTube tutorial and painted this rock for a date one time.  It was really enjoyable and fun!

Rock painting is a super fun hobby.  It doesn't cost a lot of money to get started and anyone can do it.  Another fun component is to hide them in parks and other pubic places for people to find.  It is a fun way to be creative and get outside and exercise.  It's also really fun to find rocks that other people have hidden.

2.  Playing Animal Crossing

We used to play the GameCube version of this game as kids.  It is so cool to revisit it as an adult and play around in the new game.  

3.  Embroidery

I don't have any pictures of projects I've done (fail) but I'm hoping to do some more soon.  This hobby is also pretty cheap to start out with. (I know everything isn't about money, however it is waaaaay easier for me to start a hobby if it doesn't cost a butt-load of money).  It is VERY relaxing to stitch away on something while watching TV or listening to an audio book.

4.  Air Dry Clay Stuff

This hobby is still pretty new to me and I am NOT good at it!  I still had a pretty good time working with it even if my project was mostly a fail.  I purchased a cute little kit at Target and so I don't really know what the cost is of truly diving into this hobby...yet.

5.  This one isn't a hobby per se, but more of a hobby portal.  I recently started using Skillshare and it has been really fun to explore new hobbies!  (I know this sounds like an ad, it genuinely isn't!  Just trying to share some new stuff I've been doing).  I watched this really cool video about drawing and am hoping to try that out soon!

Well, that's about it!  I just wanted to share a few hobbies I've been working on.  One thing I've really enjoyed about this blog is being able to look back over the years and see what I (and the people I love) have been up to over the years.  I will never be perfect at this but I can try my best!

Thanks for reading!

Love,

Courtney

PS-Hoping to get an anniversary post out there soon (already late!).

Ornament Exchange 2014

This was so much fun!  Basically, in the middle of October I asked these fabulous ladies to each make enough ornaments for everyone in the group.  Then, we got together the weekend after Thanksgiving and exchanged them!  So each person received about 11 new ornaments.  Here are all the ornaments and the people who made them.

 Gauchay joined the exchange and we were so happy to have her!

I thought it might be fun to share a picture of each participant too!  This is Gauchay! :)

Her lovely ornament.  She actually had quite a variety of different types, but they were all adorable!

My aunt Alysa and her baby Mirren.

She made these super cool terrariums!  I wish there was a picture of each individual one because they were all so fun!

My aunt Wendy.

She made these sweet lollipop ornaments.  They look good enough to eat!

My lovely Mom.

She made these super cute penguins!  She also had a few other cute ornaments.

My sister Miranda.

She made these awesome color swirl ornaments!  Each one was unique and had its own design.

My sister-in-law Melissa.

She made these cute painted wood ornaments.  They were all so intricate and detailed!!  There were a variety of adorable shapes which were all painted beautifully.

My aunt Alyson.

She made these disco ball ornaments.  They are so pretty on the tree when they catch the light.  It is so cool!!

My sister-in-law Jenni.

She made super cute, sparkly ornament shapes out of clay/dough.  They were all so cool looking with sparkles!

My sister-in-law Tawnee.

She made these cute poinsettia ornaments, which are also sparkle-full.  So cute!

My sister-in-law Heidi.

She made these cardinal/dove ornaments!  She painted them and put feathers on them.  They look so, so awesome!  

Finally, these are the ornaments that I made:

I made a variety of different ones, they all involved burlap in some way (love/hate relationship there).  My Mom totally saved my bacon at the last minute!!  Thanks Mom!

Here is a picture of all the ornaments!  

Hopefully you can see all the names!

This kind of allows you to see the variety of different ornaments that people made.

Loved all of the ornaments.

I cannot tell you how much fun this was!  We had some treats, played holiday taboo and admired all the ornaments.  It was so cool to see all the creativity involved in each persons ornament.  Thanks so much to all who participated and helped me out, it wouldn't have been possible without you!  Hopefully, we can make this a yearly tradition!

Love,

Courtney

I Made This For You!

I'm pretty sure that Jeremy doesn't read this blog, so I think it will be safe to post this.  (By the way, if you want to know why I named my post thusly, you can read about that here.)  For Christmas this year I made him a t-shirt using the freezer paper method I showed you a few months ago.  (However, I haven't given it to him yet because I am a slacker.)  Here are the results:

Here is the stencil that I used.  It is of Dwight, a character from a TV show called The Office.

I cut out the INSIDE of the parts that would be painted on the shirt.  I did this using a pair of fingernail scissors.  This was a HUGE pain.  I had to stop and think about what I was doing a couple times.  The glasses were the hardest part. Then I ironed it onto the t-shirt.

After the paint is dry, I removed the freezer paper.  Some of the paper had to be taken off with tweezers (inside of the glasses).

Here is the finished product.  By the way, using white paint on a black shirt was not very smart.  It took at least 10,000 coats to make it pop. 

Here is the stencil I used on the back of the shirt.  I would not recommend using one with so many letters.  It is super hard to 1) cut out all the little pieces, 2) keep track of the insides of letters (o's, e's, d's, a's) and 3) remove all the little pieces afterwards.  Do not do it!  I forgot the one rule of crafting:  keep it simple, stupid.

This is after three coats, do not use white paint on a black shirt.  Seriously, it probably took about 10-15 coats.  Also, I could not for the life of me remove all of the little freezer paper remnants.  It turned out like a big, blurry mess of letters.  That's why there's not a picture.  

Here is the type of paint that I used.  I think I got it from Wal-Mart.  

All in all, this project was easy.  Any hard parts were my own fault.  I love freezer paper stenciling because you can customize your own designs.  Also, it is fool-proof.  Thanks for reading!

Love,

Courtney

Crafting Idea

Today we had this amazing homemaking meeting.  This wonderfully talented lady showed us how to use freezer paper as a stencil.  First, you print out the stencil onto freezer paper. Then cut out the INSIDE of the stencil, keeping the black line intact.  After this, you iron the stencil onto the fabric and paint inside the holes.  You do have to let it dry for a little bit, but after it is dry you pull off the stencil and voila!  There are tons of free stencil print outs on Pinterest and all over the internet.

Also, I just have to tell you about this hilarious older woman who was at the activity.  She was a hoot!  She kept telling stories about how she misbehaved when she was younger.  Then, she told this cute little joke, how do you make a taco stand?  You take away his chair.  What a funny lady.  

I just wanted to share this idea with you, it is pretty cheap and easy.  I really enjoyed making it and hanging out with these fun ladies.

Love,

Courtney

Sewing Projects

Here are some of the sewing projects I mentioned in my last post.  Enjoy! 

This is the first project, a table runner.

This is Wendy helping me to figure out how to pin the two fabrics together evenly.

This is me sewing the two pieces together.  

This is the finished product with the rickrack sewn on.

 The biggest challenge with this project was trying to make everything evenly lined up.  I learned that being a perfectionist about your sewing will just make your life more stressful.

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This is the second project, a  sort of flange pillow with a velcro closure (which I had to unpick a few times, FYI velcro is NOT fun to pull stitches out of).  I also learned my lesson about putting the presser foot down BEFORE you start to sew.  

Thanks to Wendy for her help on these projects.  I know I couldn't have done it without her help and guidance. She has taught me so much about sewing!  

It's Snowing!

Hello everyone!  I hope that you are having a wonderful fall/winter so far.  We are doing very well.  I hope to have an update with pictures soon, but for now you will have to bear with me.
Cameron is doing very well at work.  He loves his job and will start school in January. (That wasn't really much of an update, but what can I say, his life is boring :) )
I am loving school even though it is crazy.  I have actually sewn two projects (try not to fall off your chair) and am learning to make many new dishes in my cooking class. 
Cameron and I are looking forward to spending the holidays with our families.  We also think it is really funny that we had our first snowfall before Halloween.
That's all for now, hopefully we will have an update with pictures very soon.  You can look forward to pumpkin carving pictures, project pictures and much more :)

Love,


Courtney