Craft Time!

I have been into crafts lately...well, always actually.  But recently I have been more motivated to actually do a few that require more than a little effort.  I am so pleased with them that I decided to share them with everyone.

First off is my wreath.  I bought one plain wreath that I could experiment with...you know the kind that is just brown twigs.  I made it into a springy/summery wreath a while back, but it desperately needed to be redone.  I went to Hobby Lobby and found some fall leaves and berries and such and tried to put it all together one day when Koshka was sleeping.  Now it does help that I have the cutest wreath hanger invented, but I am really happy with how it turned out.  Pretty good for my second time ever to make a wreath!

Then there is the ottoman.  This one was a bit more complex.  See, we got new couches (which we love) but we hated to lose the ottoman.  After realizing that we could break the set apart since it wasn't going to anyone specific, I was determined to recover the ottoman and bring it back home.  I found some old fabric from one of my other undoubtedly great ideas that went wrong and made a prototype before I went to the store and bought more expensive home decor fabric.  I also sewed part of the ottoman together so there wouldn't be crevases...that was hard work and I am not sure how to explain what I did really but lets just say it was very necessary and was very hard on my hands.

When Nicholas went to the Priesthood meeting last night, I headed to JoAnns.  Now the fabric I wanted was $25 a yard and I needed 1 2/3 yd...nuts.  I found some microsuede that would match the fabric of our new couches that wasn't home decor (so just not as thick and nice) that was $13 a yard, but on sale for $5 a yard...but they didn't have black!  I went back and forth a bunch of times in the store on what to do and finally found the black microsuede by the courdroy...clearly in the wrong spot!  I was so happy to find it!  I got my fabric and batting and headed home.  I used my dad's staple gun to affix the batting and then pinned my new fabric in place, sewed it, slipped it on and stapled it to the underside.  Then I reattached the feet of the ottoman and Nick helped me bring it home.  It looks so much better and we are so excited to have our ottoman back!  (Above is the new ottoman...below is what it used to look like!)

I am so happy to be crafty.  It brings me such joy and a great feeling of accomplishment that I can do things and make things...it makes me sad for people who don't take pride in making things or cleaning their own home or just doing things for themselves.  I am so excited that one day (hopefully) this will get to be my full-time job! :)