Bouquet of [Yarn] Flowers

I'm not a big flower person. Kevin did surprise me with flowers last year for Valentine's Day which was very sweet and surprising, but I don't usually get all googly-eyed over flowers. However, I do like the look of them around the house. I just don't think they're worth the money because I don't have a green thumb and they will most certainly die prematurely. So what's a crafter do do? I made my own!

You may have seen these yarn balls floating around my blog or other blogs or on Pinterest. They are pretty popular but I'm here to show you how EASY they are to make. And they'll never die :)

(Uhh yeah, I looked REAL creepy lurking around my apartment building picking sticks up off the ground in half foot of snow. I fear to know what my neighbors think of me)

First, you are going to wrap the yarn around your fingers. Hold the end in place with your thumb and let go as you begin wrapping.

You will want to wrap the yarn around your fingers 60-70 times. The more times you wrap, the fuller your yarn ball will be. (I used 2 fingers for some yarn ball and 3 fingers for others to see if it would make a big difference between the size of the balls. Negative.)

Next, slip the yarn off your fingers. You will want to cut a SEPARATE piece of yarn out that is about 3 inches long. Lay your wrapped yarn on this 3 inch piece so it is centered.

Next, tie your wrapped yarn using the 3 inch piece. You will want to pull it tight so the yarn ball is secure. Double knot it.

You have just made a bunch of loops. You are going to cut these loops in half. Don't worry, your yarn ball won't fall apart because you are not cutting the 3 inch piece.

This is what it will look like after you cut all the loops. We're going to trim it down.

Give it a hair cut! Cut until you have reached your desired shape and size!

Finally, put a little hot glue on the end of your stick and stick it into the yarn ball.

Repeat until you have your desired amount! Put sticks in vase and enjoy :)

 (Don't ya love that vase? My aunt got it for me for my high school graduation and I have proudly displayed it in all 6 places I've lived since then!)

I also made a mustard yellow bunch of yarn balls to go in a vintage candle-holder-turned-vase I found at a flea market.

I love the turquoise and yellow color combo. This pretty bunch is prettying up my living room coffee table!

Love those candle votives? See how to make them here.
See that crayon art in the back? See how to make it here.
See those yarn balls popping over the couch? See what they're in here.

Thanks for reading :) Tomorrow's Friday and I *HOPE* I will be able to share the new present I am buying myself.... :)

Cute Things

Hey guys! I am in an incredibly good mood tonight, and I just wanted to spread the love. I did a lot of crafting, had Marshmallow Mateys for supper, and had a great day of subbing today, and will be subbing tomorrow on the day the school is celebrating Valentine's Day!! Happiness all around. AND, I send out invitations for my 5 year class reunion tonight. WEEEIIIRRRDDDD!!!! I remember thinking when I graduated that 5 years seemed sooooo far away! We'd be graduated college, have real jobs, be getting married. Now it's all coming true! I can't come to grips with it. I still haven't realize I've graduated college yet I don't think. Ahh!

Here are some fun things I have been loving on the interwebs lately:

So true!

 Who doesn't love a bearded kid?

This is the only way I will warrant someone dressing up their dog

 I need these for my classroom. Or just for my life. Lord knows I'd wear them!

I would expect nothing less of Kevin's groomsmen

Happy Hump Day!

My First Sponsorship

If you are following Start Acting My Age on Facebook, you may have already read this information (what?! you haven't "liked" me on Facebook yet? Well here's your chance! Click the facebook link on the right).

I magically came to the conclusion one day that I was ready to expand my blog and start sponsoring other blogs to gain readership over here. The way sponsorship works, is each blog charges its own fee for ad space. Depending on the size of the blog, sponsor spots can range anywhere from $10 a month to $300+ a month!

I have been reading and inspired by the Crafted Love blog since I first started blogging. It's ran by a lovely lady named Allison (the best name if I do say so myself). She is a college student, engaged and planning a wedding, and is artsy fartsy as well. We have a lot in common and she has great ideas, thus the connection I formed with her blog.

Crafted Love is an awesome blog and Allison's readership is growing rapidly (20,000 views in December to 45,000 in January! Go Allison!) so I knew she was the perfect fit for my first sponsorship. I know her readers would be able to relate to my blog, and vise versa. Allison's rates are very reasonable and I felt comfortable making the investment. You can find my add on her blog for the next 3 months!

Allison has asked her sponsors to give some blogging advice to her readers, as well as share a DIY/Craft. I have been trying to decide on a craft to share, but it's so hard! I'll be back later to ask YOU to help me decide what craft to share. Or, if you have seen any awesome crafts floating around the web that you think I would enjoy making, send it my way!! I'm always looking for new crafts and now I have extra motivation to create something amazing.

FInally I want to say THANK YOU again for reading. I am so happy with my little blog and enjoy creating things to inspire others to be artsy fartsy as well. Have a great Tuesday!!

DIY Fabric Candle Votives

Hey guys! I'm here with a fun and easy DIY for you today. As many of my crafts are invented, I was perusing the aisles of Hobby Lobby and a lightbulb went off. This is another version of the votives I made for my future sister-in-law, Lindsey, for Christmas. It was hard to give them up so I knew I needed to make some for myself!

Materials:

This is also a very inexpensive project:

Glass- 99 cents each

Fabric- $2 each for a quarter yard (I ended up only using the green one)

Mod Podge- $6 for this giant tub, it will last you forever

You also need a bowl, water, and a sponge brush.

First, make a glue/water solution with 2 parts water, 1 parts glue. Mix it up. 

Next, cut your fabric into strips. You want to cut them long enough to reach the bottom of the glass past the top. You will cut the excess off later, so it doesn't have to be perfect. The width is up to you. Cut enough strips to cover the inside of the class. 

Next, dip your strip of fabric into the glue mixture. Squeeze off the excess. (I should warn you now that this is a slightly messy project! You'll want to cover your surface with newspaper.)

One by one, adhere your fabric to the glass. You will want to use your brush to get it to stick to the side. Try to get rid of as many bubbles as possible. I didn't figure out a great way to do this. They won't be very noticeable once the votive is all dry.

Say hi to Kevin! He was snowed in from work on Saturday, so he worked from home. He audits, I craft. Someone's gotta support my crafting habits (even though he doesn't look thrilled to be doing so.) Oh-- and say hi to "Spanky" the monkey by the TV.

This is what your votive will look like once all the fabric strips are applied. You will have some overlapping in the fabric, but it will look ok once it's dry, I promise! You will cut off the excess fabric once it's dry as well.

Here's a picture of the inside, all covered.

Ta-da! Finished product. What do you think? 

Put your candles in and enjoy! 

While I used flamed candles in these pictures, I would recommend using FLAMELESS tea light candles to err on the side of caution. You don't want Smokey the Bear knocking on your door.

My votives are on our coffee table with my beautiful mason jar candle that is too pretty to use. :) Happy crafting!

DIY Chevron Make Up Box

You know that aisle in hobby lobby with all the blank boxes, jars, letters, etc. that just makes you want to MAKE stuff? I can stand in that aisle for awhile dreaming up things I "need" to make. A few weeks ago I came up with something to do with one of these lovely boxes.

My make up bag is overflowing with make up and it's just not a good situation. (I know, such a terrible problem that needed immediate attention.)

I present to you my new Chevron Make Up Box that I am oh so happy about!

Supplies:

{{Box: Box $2, Paint $1 each, Stamps, $5 after 50% off coupon, Paint brushes $3 for variety pack of 15 brushess, all from Hobby Lobby. I would also like to take a moment to say NEVER go to Hobby Lobby without looking online for a coupon. There are ALWAYS coupons}}

First, paint the box in your desired color. I chose "Pistachio Mint". I also used "Coral Blush" and "Purple Wave" as you will see.

Next, paint your chevron stripes. I used a pencil to guide my stripes to make sure they looked fairly uniform around the box. I just make two little lines and eyeballed straight lines from there. If you want it to look a little nicer and straighter than mine I would suggest using a straight edge.

Next, put the lid on the box and continue the stripe. I have complete stripes with my lid on or off.

 Using a point tip brush, paint on an accent color on the front of your stripes.

I used a lyric from one of my favorite songs to stamp the top of the box. The song is "Moshi Moshi" by Brand New. You can listen to it here. :) This is kind of one of Kevin and I's "songs" so I deemed it appropriate.

It holds my make up much better than my flimsy bag did and it looks pretty on my vanity :)

(I also want to credit Tonia for helping me come up with the lyric for the top. Thanks, Tonia!)


It's snowing like CRAZY here! Perfect day to knock out some crafts. I am hoping to convince Kevin to play in the snow with me later. There is a giant hill across the street that I have my eye on.

Hair Color Inspiration

I have been very into hair color lately so I thought I'd share a few locks that I've been drawn to lately. I currently have about 1 and a half inches of brown regrowth on my scalp and 10 inches of faded red. Needless to say I will be giving my hair a little TLC tomorrow. I had to make a decision between trying out my pastels or coloring my hair (I don't think my delicate hair would appreciate all those chemicals in such a short amount of time) and my ridiculously looking two-toned hair won the battle. Here are some colors and styles I'm crushing on as of late:

Love this hippie look. Easy way to keep my bang out of my face.

I learned how to fishtail braid this summer. Incorporating some extra pizzaz would make it swell.

This model is Maegan from Love, Maegan. I read her blog daily. She has an amazing life and some amazing hair tutorials. If you are semi-interested in this post AT ALL you need to check out her blog. Seriously.

This is my dream hair color. I love love love love it!

I would never do this to my own hair, but I think it's beautiful.

Everything about this is simply gorgeous.

Love this up-do.

 Again, love the hair color. I wish I still had short bangs some days but then I think about how much of a pain it was to style them everyday. I will stick with my wispy layers for now.

{{Click pictures for links}}

IT'S HERE!!!

I don't know if I've ever been so excited to receive a package in the mail EVER! It made it even more exciting because it arrived super early. What is "it" you ask? MY HAIR-DYING PASTELS!! (If you haven't read about me drooling over this look, here is the link to check it out).

Now, if you recall, I was a little hesitant to purchase these babies because the shipping was a whopping $7 on three tiny little pastels that cost $4 each. However, "the trifecta" encouraged me to buy them (fiancé, best friend, and mom) and when all three tell me to do something, I have to do it. So, I was very curious to see exactly what sort of contraption these pastels would come in. Here you have it!

Giant box that is approximately 100x bigger than the contents with two bags of air

Two small boxes (at first I panicked because I ordered 3!)

Phew! All pastels present. Still confused as to why one box wasn't sufficient, but my pastels are here and I don't care!!

(I know you were all DYING to know my thought process as I opened the box. You're welcome.)

YAY! Aren't they pretty? If you're curious and want to order your own, I ordered:
Steel Blue 712
Cobalt Violet 362
Burnt Madder 377

The colors above look pretty true, The orange looking one looks more coral in person. Here is the website again if you are curious!

As much as I am DYING to try them out, I just finished working out and need to shower, so it would be a little pointless. I am subbing all week and I don't want to start a craze with my pastel-dyed hair ;) I think we all know what hair style I'll be rocking all weekend. :)

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(click picture for link)