Will you look at the time...

Yeah... I flaked on my blog for a while.  Sorry about that.

Baby thought it would be super awesome to go into false (?) labor about a week and a half ago, so I've been chillin' and not doing much crafty stuff, IE getting re-addicted to The Sims 3.  Bed rest is on, at least for the next week.  Kind of sucks, but it gives me a good excuse for Bean to pick up the household slack, just a little.

So this false labor thing did not feel very false.  I woke up at about 1 am that night with some mild cramping and an achy back, no big deal.  I got up, got a glass of water, pee'd for the 3rd time, and went back to bed.  Fast forward to about 2:30 am and you'll see me doubled over in pain and crying from the stress of the situation.  I was having contractions, oh god.  They were coming around 20 minutes apart and were lasting for about a minute each.  Thinking that this was probably Braxton Hicks, though mine had not been painful up until this point, I went into the living room and snuggled up in Bean's new leather recliner and put on Tremors 4 (why??).  Seriously, that movie is just the worst.  I love the first one simply because I have so many great memories of my grandfather tied to it.  Why I decided to watch the 4th in the series was beyond me, but I blame my pain-hazed brain for any bad decision making that day.

Anyway, I didn't sleep a wink that night and spend most of the morning hours googling pre-term labor, which was an awful idea.  Not only was I already freaked out, but now I was giving myself more symptoms... I woke up Bean at 5am and told him that he was not going to work that day, I was possibly going into pre-term and we might have a baby later.  Obviously, he freaked out which freaked me out even more.  In a hurry, we packed both hospital bags and made a list of things we still needed to get.  We hadn't packed that yet because neither of us had felt the need, I was only 32 weeks after all.  We not-so-patiently waited until 8, which is when my midwife's office opened and left a message for the charge nurse to call me back right away.  At some point during the interim, the baby started to move down into my pelvis zone, which made the peeing situation like 10 times worse.  UGH.

Because she didn't call us back right at 8:05, we decided that we'd go to Walmart and get some cinnamon rolls.  And the stuff off of our lists, but mostly breakfast.  We are not Walmart people... I do whatever I can to avoid it 90% of the time.  I, again, blame my pain-brain for this lapse in judgement, though I will say that it was much more enjoyable at 8:30 am on a Monday morning, we were one of the few people in there.  The midwife did call me back at about 8:35 and told me to time the contractions and I should just come to my appointment at 1:15 that afternoon that was already scheduled.  Funny thing... around 12:15 my contractions slowed down to about 30 minutes apart, then 40, and by 1:15 they were gone altogether.  Figures.  They did the contraction monitoring thing on us for a while, which was cool because the baby was kicking the paddles and having hiccups the whole time.  While we were trapped in this little room, Bean and I watched a shoe thing on QVC, which was hilarious and really lightened the mood.  All in all, baby was fine, I was fine.  The midwife told us that a) I was officially on bed rest until week 35 and b) that we were not to be intimate in that time frame.  Bean audibly groaned at that last bit, which made me laugh and the midwife feel uncomfortable, which was great.

So that is my excuse for not blogging for the past week, take it or leave it.  I am going to try and pump out another tutorial in the next few days, but I can't promise anything concrete.

Later gators.

Gold and Pearls - A dangle earring tutorial!

Some new earrings have shown up in my Etsy shop and I am in love!  If these do well, I may start doing a lot more pieces like them.

Because I love them SO much, I'm going to tell you how I made them!

Materials

•  5 - 6 inches of 20 gauge gold wire
• 2 Glass pearls, I got some vintage ones for a steal at a thrift store
• Gold earring findings (Or you could make your own with wire)
• Clear Crystal beads, side drilled hole

First thing, I took my pearl and put it on a looped finding.  Then, because I like the look of wrapped loops, I used my round nosed pliers and made a loop a bit above my pearl.  I then wrapped the rest of the wire down until I got to the pearl and I clipped off the excess.

 

Next, I did a briolette wrap on the crystal bead.  I had a side drilled crystal but this process would work beautifully on a front to back drilled one as well.  For a tutorial on how to do a briolette wrap, check out this super informative website!  How to Make Beaded Jewelry

Lastly, the easy part!  I opened the non-wrapped loop on the pearl bead, this should be on the bottom side, and put the loop from the top of my crystal on it.  Close the loop.  Then I opened the loop on the earring post and put the wrapped loop on the top of the pearl bead on that.  Close the loop.

TA-DA!  You just made some super pretty, super simple earrings!  These are sooo cute for formal occasions, but you could wear these just about any 'ol time.  These would also be really pretty with different colored beads and crystals, or silver wire!  Experiment, have fun!

If you are interested in buying some of these lovelies for yourself (or a friend!) please check out my etsy shop by clicking the link in the sidebar.  

**THIS TUTORIAL IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY, DO NOT MAKE THESE AND ATTEMPT TO SELL THEM.**

Have fun and make something pretty today!

 

DIY Laundry Soap!

So some friends of mine make their own laundry soap and just love it.  I've been wanting to try it for some time but finding the time to grate soap is not the easiest... But I figured that with Baby J on the way, I'd probably want something better for their sensitive skin besides Dreft.  Dreft isn't bad or anything, but I'm not a huge fan of the smell of it NOR I am a fan of buying laundry detergent for me and the hub's clothes and a separate one for baby.

So I found this tutorial on Pinterest, it is FABULOUS. The Bobbi over at How Does She has an awesome idea with adding the Purex crystals, which makes the whole thing smell like heaven.  So here is my break-down of the tutorial and my results.

I did not use the Oxyclean or baking soda because I totally spaced it when I was at the store, but I did have 1 box of Borax, 1 box of Arm & Hammer Washing Powder, 1 container of Lavender scented Purex Crystals, and 2 bars of Fel Naptha laundry soap.  I could have used my food processor to grate the soap, but I like to use that for food and didn't want to wash it 18 times to get all the soap residue off of it.  Instead I bought a super cheap metal cheese grater and went to town.  It took me around 30 minutes to get it all grated and I lost some finger skin in the process.  If I were doing this again, I would wear gloves during the grating.  That being said, the rest of the process was totally easy.

I didn't have a 5 gallon bucket to mix in (DANG!) so I had to use 2 large Tupperware containers instead.  I just dumped half of my soap shavings into one bowl, the other half in the other bowl.  Then each bowl got 1/2 of the Purex, Borax, and Washing Powder.  I mixed each with a spoon fairly thoroughly until the mix looked pretty homogenous.  Then I dug around in my craft zone until I found some really perfect and awesome glass containers from last Christmas... they were supposed to be etched glass sugar/flour holders, but I didn't end up making them.  Sorry Mom!  That being said, I used the two containers, which I would estimate at 28 - 30 ounces each (maybe more), the Purex container, 28 ounces, AND a gallon sized Ziploc bag.  The Ziploc didn't get full, but about half way for sure.  If you wanted to do this process a little more organic or fragrance free, I would recommend using essential oils in the mixing process instead of the Purex crystals.  Also, use the white Zote soap instead of the pink version or the Fel Naptha, as those two are scented.  The essential oils will leave your clothes very lightly scented, but they are anti-viral and what not so you are still getting a super awesome cleaning.

I think the most awesome thing about this detergent is that for around $15.00 I made enough to last us a loooooong time, as we'll only need 1 to 2 tablespoons per load.  That is so awesome, because the cost of liquid detergent and fabric softener is the same, if not more, and this will last me at least as long as two bottles of each did, probably longer.  And I did try it today, it smells AMAZING!!  Goodbye Tide, hello DIYSoap!

So get out there and make yourself some laundry detergent!  The price is right and you get to pick the scents and everything!

Go ahead and check out the tutorial, linked HERE.

My craft landfill

I feel like everyone should have their own little corner (or room) to dedicate to themselves.  For me, this is my craft room and office.  I am not one of those bloggers who is going to make my house look like it just flew off the pages of Better Homes and Gardens, but I'm not going to show you my real mess either.

Except this one time.

Yep.  That is my creative chaos... it's a little more messy than usual because we just moved this room over from being our old master bedroom but it isn't far from the normal state of mess.  I know, I need some shelves like crazy and maybe some new forms of organization but when it's semi-clean, it doesn't look too bad.

On my desk you'll see the aftermath of yesterday's tutorial on freezer stenciling, as well as a bunch of other in progress projects.  Oh, and the cat is super awesome and broke the blinds in a fit while trying to eat a bee.  Just an FYI, the bee won...

I feel like everyone should post their real craft room at least once, it makes you into a real person, not some perfect crafty person with a perfect crafty life.