2015-Live Outside the Jar

I'm going to admit something that is just not acceptable in Blogland-I didn't have a word for 2014.

Nope.

 I wasn't torn between words, I never picked one at all.

I even led a night with my prayer group where we all created little desktop reminders of our word and I never selected one for myself.

I can't say that I have chosen one for 2015 either.

Maybe I will, but as of now I have no idea what word should define this year.

Enter the memory jars.

I saw a pin on Pinterest and decided 2015 was the year of the jar.

I am not always known for being the most positive person. 

In fact, sometimes it is easier to complain or moan about how life isn't fair.

I'm not doing that this year.

This year I will seek out the goodness of life.

The simple delights.

The blessings we enjoy.

The beauty of simplicity.

People who make life exciting.

And I don't want to do this alone.

Jars are headed to friends, family, and coworkers. 

The hope is that we can live with more positivity and more joy. 

And that at the end of the year we can open the jars and read the blessings, gifts, and treasures that defined the year.

So what's been added to the jar thus far?

-The freezing cold night that I rushed under the covers and found that my husband slipped heating pads on my side of the bed to keep me warm.

-We have enough funds to pay for my next semester of graduate school thanks to an unexpected gift.

Want to join in?

You can download these printable tags for your own personal jar of goodness.

CLICK HERE to download the tags.

I used boring old card stock and inked the edges, but you could find some pretty scrapbook paper to jazz them up. 

So print up some tags, grab a jar and start living with joy this year. 

Yes, it's a bit fluffy, but gratitude sure has a wonderful ring to it, yes?

Right Now. February 2013

Planning a bridal shower and bachelorette party – both surprises – for a childhood friend. This is the first time I am a maid of honor (and first time I am in a bridal party) and I am not a meticulous planner. It’s something I happily let anyone else do in my life. I will gladly show up anywhere and set up/break things down, but working with crazy schedules and putting the logistics together are not my strong points. Things are falling into place though, and now I am looking forward to both events.

The shower theme is rainbow, so here are the wrapped gifts and the card - very colorful indeed!

 Shoveling the nearly 30 inches of snow that was dumped on our area. We finally got plowed a little on Monday night - the storm started Friday. It took my husband an hour and a half to drive home from work that day (it usually takes him about 10 minutes).

 My husband is clearing out a car that we already cleaned the night before...

 And here are the steps to our apartment. Snowed in for sure!

Creating lots of fun crafts. I’m back to knitting and made several warm and wonderful scarves. Thinking a nice blanket is in the works for the next couple of months. It must be warm and must be machine washable. I also finished knotting a fabric wreath (thanks snow days!). Took a bit longer than expected, but very fun.

Donating lots of clothes and housewares to Goodwill this weekend. I remember watching Nate Berkus years ago and he remarked that Americans have all their treasures displayed all over at the same time and suggested that we instead: 1-only keep things we love and cherish and 2-rotate what is displayed for special seasons. I’m trying to do that now. Plus, it means less dusting trinkets.

Preparing to turn 30 next month. We’ve been attending 30^th parties for the past couple of months as many of my friends hit this milestone along with me and they’ve been lovely celebrations. With the bridal shower, bachelorette, and wedding for my friend looming ever so near, I’ve kinda forgotten about celebrating my own day, which falls in the middle somewhere. I want to buy myself something special that I can say “this was for my 30^th birthday” (thinking another Hermes scarf, with my parents and in-laws chipping in, but it’s still a pretty luxe purchase) and wear it for the rest of my life. Maybe simple earrings or a necklace from the jeweler who designed our wedding bands? Not sure, I just know I want a special keepsake. My husband went skydiving for his 30^th, and he loves watching his DVD and remembering that day. He loved it! Me, I’m not an adventurous nor experience-loving kind of gal. I always stress about the prep, travel, etc. Much easier to walk in a store and buy something.

Ordering contacts again. It’s been fun wearing the glasses. Really it has. But I have missed being able to see my face and hair when I get ready in the morning. I’ll still wear my glasses and change into them when I get home from work, but for parties and dressy events, it’s nice to have contacts. Plus, my husband would always slam into them when he would kiss me goodbye.

Sipping English Breakfast tea from Adagio. I usually drink their Ceylon blends, but this baby is yummy with scoops of sugar and a splash of milk.

Replacing my windshield for the second time in eight months.

Happy February. I have a feeling this month is going to just fly by!

What I Made Monday 2/6/12

For the past several years I've wanted to make this punch collage by Ali Edwards.

Source: aliedwards.com via Kathleen on Pinterest

Years. Five years of wanting to make this.

After the de-decorating from Christmas I lost a piece of wall art. For most of January I wandered around the apartment wistfully saying "where's my wall art??"

Finally I caved and decided to make the heart punch collage. Just in time for Valentine's Day.

I purged a ton of my scrapbook papers and found some of my favorite Chatterbox sheets, so started punching away. Punch is the Martha Stewart heart punch.

Originally I thought I would mount the punched hearts on red cardstock, but we really don't have much red in our kitchen, so decided to go with white textured cardstock instead.

The sheet was 8x8 and I added pop dot adhesive for each heart. All the years I've used these foam dots I threw away the extra leftover adhesive scraps.  I finally realized I just had to rip it apart and use the background that is still sticky and just as good as the circles.

I bought an inexpensive matted 12x12 frame from Michael's and now the wall art is in its place.

Of course, now that it's hanging, we found the wall art. 

Behind the bookshelf.

Linking up with Conni.

What I Made Monday 1/23/12 and THE Giveaway!

This week I finally finished knitting the infinity scarf  I want to give away to one of my blog readers.

I knit it in a lightweight wool/acrylic blend so that it will keep you toasty but also won't be too heavy if you live some place that is enjoying warmer temps. And it can be hand washed (which isn't always easy, but it's cheaper than dry cleaning I guess).

It's a lovely cream yarn in an elegant moss stitch. 

Plus I like that it has a little texture and drapes nicely.

You can wear it long

or short and with a Pleated Poppy Posy Pin (which is of course, my favorite way to embellish a scarf.

So one lucky winner will receive not just the scarf, but the Posy Pin too (disclaimer: I love the Pleated Poppy and bought this pin for the giveaway. I love everything I've ever bought from Lindsay and am sharing the awesome handmade goodness she creates. In other words, it's my gift to you to enjoy).

So, leave a comment (if your email isn't linked to your blogger please leave that too) and next Monday, January 30th I will announce the winner and send this off.

Linking up with Conni!

Made it in Monday 12/5/11

This week I finally decided to sit down and use my milk glass planters.

I sought them out week after week at the thrift store and was able to collect three of them in the past few months, which was perfect (I have one on my coffee table all year with different flower arrangements).

Originally I wanted to make these:

Source: bhg.com via Kathleen on Pinterest

I love the idea of little sparkly topiaries. But once I actually sit down to read the instructions and remembered the incredible difficulty of making my Starbucks wreath years ago (the hot glue burns are seared in my memory), I passed and made something I was more comfortable with.

Cute paper trees.

Here's the how-to.

I used the largest cone I could find, about 12 inches high and bought it in my local craft store.

I went through my scrapbook paper and pulled out 10 sheets of Christmasy-colored paper. 

I used pieces of My Minds Eye from their Christmas collection a few years ago, Basic Grey Fruitcake and Blitzen, another sheet of Basic Grey (the blue, but not sure what collection), very old 7Gypsies and Die Cuts with a View (the sheets with text) and a random scrap that I don't have a clue who made it (the dark green paisley). In the past I've done these in papers that have nothing to do with Christmas, so you can really use whatever. I think some of the KI Memories with pink and teal would be amazing.

A box of pins was enough for both trees, but I bought two just in case. In the past I used the ones with metal heads, but the pain of pushing them through the paper and cones was pretty intense, so this time I went with the pricier pearl heads. 

A thimble helps avoid that push-the-pin pain.

My cutter is alcohol ink stained...one of these days I'll get around to de-colorizing it.

 For each tree I cut 1''x4'' strips of paper from every sheet. At the end I ended up with a pile of extras. I meant to count, but not really sure how many strips you'd definitely need.

 Then you curve the stips in half, but don't fold them.

Pin them in the top corner at the bottom and overlap the new ones on the earlier added sheets.

 The next layer should cover the pins of the row below it.

You have to think intentionally random placement so it doesn't look perfect, but everything flows at the same time.

 For the top you're left with a blank spot.

In the past I've put buttons on top, and admittedly, that looked sloppy.

 I used American Crafts plastic flowers from years ago, brads from Making Memories and a popsicle stick.

I colored the stick with fast-drying ink. You could paint it, stickle it up with glitter. Anything really.

 I put brads on each of the two flowers that would be sandwiched around the stick.

Hot glue on high heat (cool won't work for plastic I learned) and press em together.

Press the stick into the styrofoam ( you can add some hot glue to the bottom so it's more permanent when added). Then cut one of the medium sized flowers in half and hot glue around the top.

I thought it looked much neater than my older ones.

Place them on the milk glass planters and voila! 

You have some simple paper trees to sprinkle Christmas in your home.

Linking here:

What I Made Monday 10/18/11 {on a Tuesday}

I'm linking up here with Conni to share my latest creation.

This week I knitted this:

 I love French/Martha Stewart blue. It's a recent realization even though my bathroom linens and coverlet in our bedroom are the same color. I just love the muted pop of color.

This was my first time using a legit pattern
 (it was a simple one: cast on 33 stitches, knit row 1.
Row 2: knit one, yarn over, knit 2 together and repeat to the end.
Repeat rows 1 and 2 throughout). 

And with the toggle buttons it can be worn different ways. 

Love the warmth, love the color, can't wait to wear it on chilly days.

What I Made Monday 9/19/11

I'm loving handmaking 'stuff' this year. 

There are lots of jokes about Pinterest inspiring people to spend 30 minutes dreaming about being crafty, but for every hour I pin items, I spend many more creating the awesome crafts I've fallen in love with.

This week featured mustard colored gifts for my mother in law.

A rosette necklace:

I can't wait to make more of these in tons of colors!!!

And a knit infinity scarf/cowl (I may need one of these for myself too).

Check out more fun handmade creations over at Conni's link up.

What I Made Monday 9/12/11

Today I'm guest posting for Conni as she is busy driving the combine on her family farm. 

 Hop on over for I Made it Monday and the cool things created in blog land this week.