Tutorial: Ruffled Scarf

Last night I got out my scissors and decided to make something.

Jennifer had posted this link on my facebook and I knew that

I had to try it out for myself. 

The tutorial that TidyMom provides is very easy,

so there's really no need for me to provide steps on how to do it

when you can just click on this link:

http://tidymom.net/2011/how-to-make-a-scarf/

And here's what I started off with:

A shirt with a gorgeous print.

Then I cut out several 10 inch circles from the shirt

and proceeded to cut the circle in a spiral. 

And then this is the final product:

I basically just let is hang from my shoulders but I have

tried to tie it in front like a scarf.  It works, but I like the

way it is in these pictures. 

Thanks Jennifer for the idea!

I can't wait to make more!

One Thing Leads to Another

My blogging has been very minimal as of late.

In the past two weeks I have posted a grand total of two posts. 

And this will make it three. 

I somewhat owe my lack of posting to the busyness of life

and to my attitude towards composing interesting posts.

I had a few ideas that I toyed around with and then I decided

that I will only post things that are worthy of posting. 

So, one thing leads to another and here I am again with a few pictures

of outfits.  Most of what I've worn recently has already

been photographed or not worth of a picture. 

This one was from a couple of weeks ago when the weather was a bit chilly.

Lately, it has been dry, hot, and windy. 

This past Sunday I broke out my white capris to wear to church.

I love the top because it's crazy.

I've been known to call it my Grandma bowling shirt.

I get weird looks when I tell that to people. 

And I will end with a picture of something I found at the garage sale

this past weekend.  By the way, the garage sale we held at church

raised $1500 for our children's ministry.  And I've already started redecorating

the preschool room by bying some great wall decorations and storage containers. 

Those pictures will appear sometime in the future. 

This pasta cannister will one day be displayed in my kitchen. 

I think it's absolutely amazing and funky and totally old school. 

William & Kate

Yes, I have been one of those people who has been

watching every special edition on tv about William and Kate. 

It's really hard not wanting to know what's going to happen next. 

And no matter how many times I hear the same information or

see the same pictures and videos of the couple, it still feels like

I'm watching it for the first time.  It's possible that I could be slightly

"obsessed" with William and Kate, but to me, they're just so fascinating.

They are global, royal icons and we're drawn into their lives,

however glorious or however normal they want them to be. 

Plus, Kate's dress was impeccable.

I mean. Just look at it.

Simply gorgeous.

Watching all the action in London brings back fond memories of Europe.

So many times I caught myself saying, "I've been there before!"

And London was definitely one of my favorite places.

Towering buildings.

Courteous and polite civilians.

Great entertainment district.

Fashion forward boutiques.

Tea and biscuits.

Museums. Museums. Museums.

Clean subways (or as they call it, "The Tube").

And British accents. (Love them)

Oh London. How I miss you!

Book Wreath Tutorial

When I saw this book wreath on one of the DIY blogs I follow,

I knew that I had to try it out for myself.

Ever since I graduated with an English degree and

have pursued a different vocational field than English,

I've been wondering what to do with all my books from college.

Especially all the anthologies from Brit Lit, American Lit, World Lit,

and all the other ginormous books that look important but will never use again.

There's a few options I've considered about the future of these books:

1. Throw them away. But that just seems wasteful.

2. Sell them. But who would buy these books?

3. Repurpose them.  Make book wreaths!!!

So, I obviously chose option #3 and I am very pleased with the outcome.

Here's my tutorial on how to make a book wreath.

1. FIND A BOOK (or two).

I rummaged through several boxes to find a book that I would no

longer use and that would be great for making a book wreath. 

I found a book and as I began to assemble my book wreath,

realized that my book was only going to cover half of the wreath. 

So, it's best to have a backup incase you need extra sheets of paper to make this wreath.  

2. PAINT THE EDGES.

You can choose whatever color of paint you want

to grace the edges of your book pages. 

As you can see, I chose brown. 

I watered down the paint and then took a paper towel

and rubbed the paint on the edges of the book.

The paint will dry in about 30 minutes.

3. RIP OUT THE PAGES. 

This was the fun part, but a little depressing at the same time.

It almost felt like a crime for me to rip out pages of English

Literature from great writers like William Blake and Lord Byron.

But I feel that creating a book wreath out of their writings pays better

homage to them then letting them collect dust on the bookshelf or box. 

So, I eventually allowed myself to rip out all the pages. 

4. FOLD AND STAPLE.

This next step is a bit time consuming, but if you do all this work beforehand,

then gluing the pages onto the wreath won't take so long. 

You want to fold your paper on the edge that has been ripped from the

book.  The ripped side of the paper will be glued to the wreath, so that the

crisp and clean edges can be showcased on the wreath. 

You will fold the ripped edge in an acordian style, folding back and forth every

inch or so.  You can also make larger folds to add some more volume. 

Please note that you just want to fold at the ripped edge.

Don't press down on these folds because the other end will have straight

linesrather than curvy lines.  The pictures will show you what I mean.

After you've folded your paper, you will want to staple the end of paper to

keep all of the folds in place.

5. GLUE TO WREATH.

Once you have all these fan-like pages stapled, you can then glue

then to the wreath.  I left the plastic wrapping on the straw wreath just

because I knew that I would have straw everywhere. 

There's more than one way to glue the fans onto the wreath, but

as you start doing it, you will quickly learn what works for you. 

The started from the back and glue the fans in front of each other. 

I did not complete a full circle with the fans because it was unnecessary

and you're going to want the back to be somehwhat flat so that you can

hang this on the wall without it sticking out several inches. 

This thing is huge and I'm still deciding where I should put it. 

I've also been thinking of more ideas on how to repurpose

the books I will never use again.

I'll do a little experimenting between now and then!

Faith Like a Child

This morning was truly a celebration of Christ's Resurrection at church.

Our numbers soared with all the visitors and families

and I found it difficult to know where to sit.

The most beautiful thing I saw this morning was the faith of a child.

This five-year-old brings much joy to everyone he meets.

As the congregation sang songs together,

I could hear his off-key voice above the rest. 

As the congregation sang songs together,

he raised his hands and I found my heart swell.

With tears in my eyes I will still able to see a glimpse of heaven

through a boy's simple act of worship. 

And though my heart rejoices for all of this,

I desperately want people to see beyond Easter,

to see beyond the cross and understand

that we not only celebrate his death

but his LIFE and the LIFE we can live in Him.

He is no longer on the cross.

He is no longer in the grave.

Yet so many times we keep him there.

And so many times we only bring him out on this day.

Easter is not about filling church pews out of religious obligation.

For why is Jesus more special on this day?

Is he not still alive every day of the year?

I would hope that people's celebration of Easter

would extend beyond the commercialization of it.

He deserves our full worship and should not

compete with marshmallow peeps and jelly beans.

Chocolate bunnies and plastic eggs.

I hope that we can celebrate the life that He is living

and not just the life that He lived.

May we have faith like a child and not care

if we sing off key or raise our hands in public.

For that's the kind of faith I want to have

every

single

day.

Friday's Goodness

This afternoon I took four lovely 4th grade girls out for ice cream. 

We also went to Lakeside Park in Mac and attempted to feed the ducks.

Wow. So much fun. Especially with these girls. 

We all were very silly and used our British accents as much as possible!

People did give us weird looks,

but that only encouraged our odd behavior all the more!

I wore this outfit yesterday. And from pictures that I've taken in the past,

I realized that I wear this outfit a lot. 

I have other flannel shirts in my closet, so I should probably rotate those in. 

And the necklace I'm wearing was actually part of a shirt at one time. 

I decided to cut the shirt for a necklace and use this weaved design as a necklace too. 

And today I wore one of my favorite shirts. 

This is my peacock shirt because I think it looks like peacock feathers. 

Hmm..I should try my hand at making some sort of peacock necklace.

I'll have to see what I can come up with.

Last night I started and finished my first book wreath.

Pictures and tutorial will come soon.

If there's one thing I have to say about it: it's huge!

And I think it's pretty awesome.

Rico Suave

Today at church we got a new color printer because our

current one will let us print in every color except black. 

This is very annoying. 

The brand of our new printer is a Ricoh.

I wasn't sure how to correctly say it,

so I decided to name the printer Rico Sauve.

I'm sure that this will be in many jokes around the office.

The weather was very dull here in Kansas,

but I managed to be very productive today.

And I needed to be.

Plus, tomorrow night is a huge night for me and

for the future of Children's Ministry at my church.

I've been rehearsing my presentation like crazy. 

Skinny jeans: Target, Grey Shirt: Target,

Blue/White Checkered Shirt: Old Navy

Necklace: Target

And for my closing thoughts:

RICO

SUAVE!

(snap fingers)

(repeat as many times as desired)