The Pinterest Challenge!

I've seen this around the interwebs (mainly here and here) and have been meaning to share my Pinterest Projects with you all as well! Choose a pin or repin from one of your boards and CREATE it! Then document or blog about it, and (if you wanna be like me) pin your creation! Simple as that! And seriously, who doesn't like a challenge!? So, for all of you who are as horribly addicted to Pinterest as I am, let's conquer this challenge together!

One of my very first pins was of a mason jar turned soap dispenser. I fell in LOVE with this! So, when I went back home for a canning weekend with my grandmother, I stuck a few of her super old canning jars in my suitcase! A couple days later....ta da!



A few weeks later we were invited to a 30th birthday party extravaganza! I immediately remembered a fun gift that I had pinned earlier and knew I had to create it. Of course I put my own spin on it and added a classy bottle of scotch and some cigars (hidden in the back). :-) Next time I promise to take a few in-process photos so you can see how I did it....it involved a LOT of hot glue.



Well, my fellow Pinterest-ers, the challenge is upon us! I will be going through my pins and picking a few more to bring to fruition. Boom!

CHI to NYC!

Over the weekend one of my friends had a going-away party. She will be leaving the windy city of Chicago for the Big Apple that is New York City! And of course I felt like being creative, so while I had found some Chicago Cubs paraphernalia and a retro 1950's era Chicago CTA map, I still wanted to give her something handmade.

I placed all of my gifts into a brown gift bag, and got a great idea! Paint a Chicago skyline on it! Well, the idea evolved into a more elaborate project than I originally thought! We were alittle late getting to the party because I was still finishing it! But it was a great afternoon project and she absolutely LOVED it!!

1. It started out as just a bag...

2. Splashed some paint on it...

3. And it became a tale of two cities!
CHICAGO WILL MISS YOU, JUDY!!!
[be prepared for some NYC visitors!]

Corky Name?

While we were shopping this weekend, I spotted a few inspirations. Anthropologie had some interesting decorations using wine bottle corks to celebrate Earth Day. They were large designs hanging in the windows with clothing. Some corks were dyed and others were layered. Really cool effect!


I thought I could take the concept and do something smaller. (I also like to think of things for Christmas gifts!) Plus we have oodles of corks around our apartment...

Framed family names have been popular in the past few years, whether they are crocheted or photographed objects spelling out the name, so I thought why not corks? I took all the corks we had and spelled out our name on a random piece of fabric. Not the best choice of color, but it's all I had. Then I mocked it up in photoshop as if it were framed. I think there is a lot of potential and variation for a project like this. I really want to play around with layering the corks and painting them, but that's for another day. For now, here's my quick idea:

What do you think? Would you hang something like this in your home?
(Sorry, not the best photo)_____________________________________________________________________

On a totally separate note, I'm really ready for summer and continuously enjoyable weather to be here. This rainy, icky junk is starting to get on my nerves....
We were lucky enough to have a few sunny days this weekend while my parents were visiting Chicago. We took a trip to our local Home Depot and picked up a few supplies for my "Porch Garden!" Our landlord had agreed to help us create a rooftop garden, however the access to the roof is too difficult to attempt every day and can't be done easily by one person. So, I think its back to the porch idea, which will hopefully prove successful!

We don't get a ton of sun since our porch faces north, but I put the pots on the west side, so hopefully they will get enough sun to grow. I'm excited to have some working space on the porch now since we created this little bench! I think the grill will have to be moved once I start planting though!

One last photo for inspiration. Easter Sunday ended up being a really nice day, but the Cubs failed to take advantage of it. I do believe they lost this game in the very first inning. Ugh...