Busy, busy, busy!

Well, as you can see, it's been a long time since I've posted something. I was supposed to set up an Etsy account to sell the window mirrors but I needed cute photos to show them off. The plan was to paint our ugly sage green walls a more pleasing color and get some display shots but the walls are still a work in progress. There was also a Caribbean vacation, then a semi-lonely Thanksgiving and all of a sudden it's almost Christmas time and I needed to bust out the crafts to make all the cool presents I found on Pinterest.

Ha, you laugh because how cool can homemade gifts really be?

Freaking awesome!! Hello?! I was making them. How could they NOT be totally awesome?!

One idea I had was to make a candle out of a wine bottle. I saw a neat video on Pinterest that shows you how to cut a bottle with twine, nail polish remover, a flame and cold water.

The result you ask?

EPIC FAIL! Not only that but I almost lit Jody on fire. So it was back to the drawing board, aka the Internet, to research a better method.

Thanks to YouTube, I was able to find a safer way to cut a bottle from this video, here. This guy is super informative, the cutter was incredibly easy to make and the bottles turned out pretty good. It took quite a few to get a nice cut without the bottle cracking so patience was key. All in all it was a lot of fun and they look so cool!

Sorry in advance for the poor quality photos, these were all taken with the iPhone.

Filled with wax and cooling.

Next, I made my own stickers to adhere to the wine bottle candles just to fancy them up a bit. Yep, something else I found on Pinterest, but for some reason I forgot to pin it so you can find the tutorial, here. These took quite a bit of time during the paper removal part but they turned out really nice. Who would have thought you could make your own stickers?!

The picture below was found on the web. I can't remember where but hopefully I don't get in trouble for stealing it since this was only for a gift and not for sale.

This one is for my sister. Pretty huh?!

And lastly, I found a neat way to make a canvas portrait. The first one turned out so good that I bought three more stretched canvas but unlucky for me, they didn't turn out well. Meanwhile, I had this pinned for who knows how long so I decided to give it a shot. I got my butt to Home Depot, found the right size plank of wood for less than four dollars, had it cut to size for free, and BAM! I had ten cute little planks of wood to make portraits out of. These turned out the best but unfortunately I forgot to take photos of them. Thankfully my friend took a couple photos of hers when she received it.

First canvas portrait

What a cutie!! This is for my cousin since she was chosen as my Secret Santa family member. (This photo was taken before I sealed it with gel medium.)

Wood Portrait

My friend loved this! Who knew you could ship a regular mail package from Minnesota on Saturday and have it get to Washington by Monday.

So that's what I've been up to for the past month or so. I also bought a snowflake mold on Etsy to make peppermint bark. See cute photos and tutorial, here. Aren't they cute?! I have no idea when I'll have time to make these since I'll be in California next Wednesday visiting family and friends and making sangria, Christmas Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites and/or Rolo Turtles for our Christmas Eve Party. So much to do, so little time!

That's all for now. Hopefully my New Year's resolution will be painting the rest of the house and getting those window mirrors posted. I sure could use some cash for February. I'm going back home for my birthday the weekend my niece turns one year old.

By the way, I'm turning 30 soon. Ugh, I'm getting old.