My New Craft Room!

We're renting this amazing house from some friends of ours, and when I saw this little space upstairs, I knew I had to turn it into my craft room! Prior to moving into the house, I had a little craft wall in our apartment in our living room:

Here was the "craft wall" before...

 ...and after:

 And here is my new craft room in the new house (so far, I'm still not quite done!).

I made the tissue paper pom and fabric bunting banner. I also put up the embroidery hoop with some of my favorite fabric in it (by Amy Butler). Remember the green mirror? I found that baby at a yard sale and painted it green last summer.

I bought this desk and chair at a yard sale a few hours ago and gave them quite the facelift. I painted the whole desk. I originally painted the chair purple but then changed it to white. I also put new fabric on the chair cushion.

I'm pretty satisfied with my cute little craft room. I'm hoping to put up more embroidery hoops and maybe a small felt banner. I'll let you know!

Tissue Paper Poms

So I've been decorating my craft room and I think I'm off to a good start! I made one of these tissue papers poms to put in the corner of the room and I love it! I followed a tutorial by Martha Stewart, here.

First, you stack the tissue-paper (about 8 pieces). I added a pink piece because I thought it would look pretty. Then you fan-fold the tissue paper, so it looks like this.  In the tutorial, it says to use some wire, but I didn't have any, so I used some yarn instead.

After it's tied, trim the ends how you like. Next time I will try scallops, but the points turned out cute.

My tissue paper was used, so it wasn't as perfectly folded as Martha Stewart's, sorry. :)

At this point, you rotate the folds out, like this:

Then you just pull each piece toward the middle. Be careful at this point not to rip the tissue (I did this in a few places). 

 And voila!!! I had to fluff this thing a few times, but I think it's pretty cute in my new craft room!

Valentine's Garland

So, I have been wanting to make this all month, and finally got around to it! I think it turned out pretty cute!

I just cut the hearts out of felt and stitched them together with my sewing machine. The whole thing took me about 20 minutes.

Happy Valentine's Day tomorrow!

New Headboard, New Nephew, Yummy Smoothies

Wow. What a crazy month it has been! Towards the end of last month I flew down to Tennessee to meet my new nephew! Oh he is so cute! Can't get enough of that little guy.

See, he's way too cute for his own good. :)

Niall and I also went to a theater production of Beauty and the Beast at the end of January. It was so fun!

And here is our new headboard! Remember the old door I posted about? Well Niall worked extremely hard for a few weekends, and he is officially finished. He built the entire thing! I am very proud of him and all his craftiness! :) 

 This is before we put the doorknob plate on...

 And here it is with it!

I am so proud and amazed with all his hard work. We love it!

On another note, I've been making these "green smoothies" lately that are delicious! 

All I put in mine is:

-3-4 ice cubes

-A Yoplait yogurt

-Big handful of spinach

-Frozen peaches, blueberries, and/or strawberries

-A few splashes of orange juice

My smoothies turn somewhat purple, I think from the blueberries. And don't worry about the spinach, you honestly cannot taste it at all!!! These are super delicious and really good for you.

Future Projects!

Somehow, I've convinced Niall to make a project for us. I'm not saying what it is yet, but it does involve one of these:

He found 2 old doors on Craigslist for $25. If we don't end up using the second one in the near future, I'm going to make a corner bookshelf out of it. I've seen them at craft shows and they are amazing! Anyway, he should be done with his project by the beginning of February. He is so excited about it and I love his enthusiasm. Who knew that my husband would get so crafty! :)

And I am making a birthday cake for my Mom, since her birthday is on Thursday. I am hoping it turns out well! I'll take pictures and post about it then. Sure is fun to make!

Whole-Wheat Brownies

Tonight I followed a recipe from Homemade Ginger for whole-wheat brownies. I've been wanting to make these for awhile. They turned out to be very delicious, and very filling! I like that they are made from scratch and I know everything that goes into them. Here's the link to her recipe. The only thing I changed was substituting white sugar for sucanat. I will definitely be making these again- they are so easy and a bit healthier.

Mr. Fish is eyeing those brownies!

Christmas, 1 Year Anniversary, and Moving!

It's been a busy time these last few weeks! I graduated, we celebrated our first Christmas together, we celebrated our one-year anniversary, and we moved into a house! I also have started studying for the NCLEX. We've unpacked most of our stuff into the new house and it's starting to feel like home and life is starting to settle down. Niall is helping out in a Special Education classroom at an elementary school for Janterm and will start student teaching in a month! With all of my craft things still in boxes I haven't had time to do any crafts or bake at all since before Christmas. But I did make a few fun things for Christmas gifts...

For Christmas presents this year Niall and I made everyone rice warmers. Yes, he helped me craft!

I didn't get a picture of everyone's, I wish I would have! But here are some of them!

I also made my mom some frilly dish gloves. I'll post a tutorial about this later.

Our apartment right before Christmas.

Stockings hung!

We also made granola for our parents instead of cookies, because granola is delicious and better for you than cookies!

Christmas Eve!

Hanging out with my parents!

Christmas morning! Our first Christmas together.

Our apartment on Christmas morning.

Niall was excited about all the gum in his stocking.

I was very spoiled with my stocking this year!

Merry Christmas!

Moving. What a hassle. We really need to downsize. This was our make-shift dining room table a few days before we finished moving.

And our first anniversary! We stayed at The Davenport, just like last year, but actually had time to explore it. It is so amazing and romantic!!! 

We dressed up and went to dinner at Mizuna's and bought a fancy bottle of wine. Which we won't do again. Ha.

Next morning we went to Frank's Diner, just like last year before we headed to Seattle for our honeymoon.

I love this picture of Niall moving all of our blankets!

I'll get some pictures of our new place up as soon as we're unpacked! :)