rainy day quilting therapy

so sometimes i have really bad days. those days are usually associated with "that time of month" but lets be honest. a period stinks for anybody, let alone this girl who wants nothing more than to have no more periods (for at least 9 months anyway). needless to say i had a rough weekend. but i decided i wasn't going to let a little ol' period get me down. so a few months ago i decided to work on things i loved once a month (get where i'm going with this) to make me stop thinking about what a little period means.

this month my project was a quilt. it is a big project but a needed a big distraction. i have wanted to finish a quilt for so long now. mr's family are big quilters so i felt like i wasn't fitting in unless i was one as well. i have started way too many and decided it was time i finished one. i actually bought the fabric months ago but never could get around to getting all my sewing stuff out. this weekend was the perfect time. bring on the basket weave quilt. i hate cutting tiny little pieces so this was the perfect quilt for me. just long strips of fabric. i can handle that. 

i spent a couple of days cutting all my fabric and then yesterday decided to put together the quilt top. spence even joined in (and was a lot better at the weave than i was). it was a lot easier with two people. we actually had a blast working on this. we turned on the disney channel and just relaxed all afternoon/evening quilting. i uses this tutorial but made a few changes.

i wanted my quilt to be a bit larger. so i doubled everything. i also added another color. i used 2 yards of white fabric and a little less than 1 yard of each color fabric. i cut 21 long-way 2 inch strips of the white and 9 wide-way 2 inch strips of each color. i tried weaving one at a time but decided to pull all the white strips down and weave the color into the white. i taped down the white strips once i had them all pulled down. 

the weave took a bit longer than expected (about 2.5 hours) but i was making dinner in-between rows. like i said the mr helped so that was nice. he would weave and then i would go and "clean-up" the rows a bit. 

once we finally finished the weave i tapped everything down. now i have to go try and find freezer paper in chicago. why is it so hard to find crafty stuff in a big city??? for now the cute little top is just hanging out in our family room. 

i'm going to add a little navy boarder to make the quilt a bit bigger. then hopefully the backing fabric and binding will come so i can completely finish. this is the closest i've ever gotten to finishing a quilt. i guess i just needed a good heartbreaking period to get me motivated...haha! 

so yeah, maybe this weekend was hard. but it's okay. and honestly working on projects for just me make it a bit better. maybe i'm not making baby quilts, finding pregnancy workouts or deciding on nursery things but i'm growing in my own way. heck i just made a quilt top (a simple one but hey a quilt top nonetheless). working on this dang quilt made today so much easier to face! 

happy monday. hopefully by next monday i'll have a more updated quilt to show you!!!

just some creativity for a thursday

a couple of years ago i made this little poster for my first niece. well...baby glenn #2 came in january and i figured he needed one as well. after attempting to make one like mya's i decided i wasn't loving it. so...i went with something a little more modern. after a few color options i took some advice from the awesome quilt liz made for baby o. 

i would have to say i'm pretty proud with how it turned out. what do you think?

sure love little owen. can't wait to really hang out with him when he comes to visit in may. can't wait little dude!

the mrs. crafts again

remember these beautiful things....

well i decided to make some of my own

so i made my way to the di and found five gems ($1 each, i know right)

i desk was lacking so i decided to go for girlie (plus i knew if i made something else for the house the mr. might freak out)

here is right after they finished drying

added a button, some ribbon and a wonderful flower (made using the silhouette, which i am still so in love with)

i'm not in love with the flower but i didn't have time to go search for a new one. so for right now it'll have to do

a close up of the bottles. how fun right. and they were so stinkin easy to make. i want to keep searching for great bottles and do this again but this time use more whites and creams!

all in all this craft cost me $7 (bottles and paint) and took about a half hour, super simple!

what should i craft this week???

just another craft for the mrs.

so i've turned into a craft monster....

the other day i was doing my homework but was going craft crazy.

i just had to do something crafty

but  spence told me that if i do anymore crafts our apartment will be overflowing with home-made-ness

so i had to do something small

plus i really had to finish homework

so i got out my fun new silhouette and made a book mark.

i put simplify on it. 

why?

because that's what i need to do and so every time i read i can be reminded.

i started with two pieces of scrapbook paper (i love double sided paper)

thanks to some fun silhouette how to online i came up with my little book mark.

i loved that the silhouette could cut out the perfect shapes for me. this is before i glued all pieces together.

here is the completed book mark. three different layers. i decided on the green last minute and loved how it turned out.

i just got the completed library of jane austin books....the book mark works perfectly!

i loved how it turned out and i loved that it took me only 10 minutes.

my crafting urge was settled for a little while...

but now all i want to do is make cute valentine decorations...

maybe next week after we're all moved it ;-)

unrelated note...

moving day tomorrow. wish us luck. especially the mr. because his wife may or may not be going completely crazy packing and preparing for her internship!

the mrs. and her craft blogs

so one of my most favorite things to do is commonly known as blog stalking. though i like blog hopping much better (i'm not so into the whole stalking thing, it's creepy)

my favorite blogs to read are craft blogs. i have about 10 i check almost every day.
sadly most of these said craft blogs are for those great new mommies.
you know the blogs, the ones that show you how to make the cutest kids clothes, baby diapers, baby bags, little girl tutu's.

i love looking at these blogs but so sad because i book mark all the fun ideas to be saved for much later when i'm a new mommy.

but for now i'm after great craft blogs that have ideas for the non-parental types. like me!

so during my most recent blog hopping i came across two adorable craft blogs that are perfect for the non-mommy me and i wanted to share.

this one.... one charming party
and this one....the hostess with the mostess

these are two super fun blogs for the party planner and crafter.

 this fun idea from hostess with the mostess. i love the blue and yellow yarn.

 and look at this. how cute and easy. one charming party shows how easy it is to make the fun snowman head. perfect for any holiday party.

and you know me, i am in love with anything that involves banners. the fa la la la la banner= perfection.

now i just need a great reason to throw a party.

so do you know any fun craft blogs or party blogs?what is your favorite blog to read?  i want some more great ideas!

mr. and football, mrs. and her crafts

saturday at the barfuss household was a great day.

we woke up (after sleeping in), ate a good breakfast, and took a nap (yep about an hour or so after we woke up....because we could)

spence wanted to watch the byu football game
i wanted to watch the utah football game (but thats besides the point)

so we decided on a relaxing day in. spence watched football and i crafted.
i love crafting and after a hard week it was the perfect thing to get me all relaxed.
and of course the mr. relaxes with football (which i will never understand, it gets me too anxious)

well what did i make?

a necklace holder. thanks to my great mom, mother-in-law and husband my dream came to reality. i have a bunch of necklaces but i never wear them because they were piled in an old plastic bead container. see this....

so i got the cutest knobs (thanks julie!)

and a simple wood board

some black paint

some mod podge

and the cutest scrapbook paper

and lookie here....this is how it turned out!

it's perfect on my wall. now all my necklaces are hanging for easy access....hopefully this means i'll wear them more.

what do you think of my necklace holder? i'm kinda in love with it!

now i can't wait for christmas time because i have the perfect idea for another craft using cute knobs!

thanks mr. for wanting a football day and letting me craft next to you! love you

mr. and mrs. vintage addition

so tonight the mr. and i are going to have a date night in

this morning both spence and i decided that this week had been too long and we were both just too tired to do the massive date we had planned....

so we planned a fun date night in

movies
popcorn
pj's
uno attack
oreos
and a sleep over in our family room

well here i am, on our date night in blogging.
why? because spence fell asleep on the floor after getting home from work
poor mr. he is just so tired. i think our date night in was well needed ;-)
hey mom you shouldn't be too jealous of our night anymore! hee hee

so while spence sleeps i do what i do best....craft blog stalk.
and guess what i found?
do you know those fun vintage posters, you know like the ones here
well i thought our family room could use one and well i know how to work a computer
so i made my own....

what do you think?

don't worry it looks great printed out, not fuzzy. i'm not sure what happened to the picture when i uploaded it. but i like the more formal feel to it

anyways i'm going to start looking for a fun frame to put it in and then i'll take a picture of it on our wall.
but in the mean time i'm pretty proud. i like our mr and mrs vintage poster.

you want one? it was super easy!

so here's to a great date night in!