Trash

This project, is what started it all.
During winter semester I worked at the BYU bookstore. Every day at work I would pass my favorite office as I did my odd jobs around the store. The only reason why it was my favorite office was because of the map trash can.

I saw it one day, and fell in love with the idea of putting a map around a trash can. Oddly enough, walking by it every day got me thinking about how I needed to start making more things since that is what I love to do.

So I've waited all summer to do this one folks.
Here you go.

1. My dad gave me one of his old Utah maps (I found using one of Utah fitting).

2. I grabbed an old bucket my mom had sitting in our living room.

3. Bought mod podge from Michael's for $4.

4. 20 minutes later, I was done.

This one is a little weird, but I cant even tell you how excited I am to walk into my room every day and throw my very own trash inside my very own map trash can.

Mazel tov
-Rachel

Guest Post : Alex Halladay

Well hello friends! My name is Alex Halladay. I go to BYU with Em and Rach, and I lived next door to the Wades for seven years of my life. I'm (hopefully) a graphic arts major with a love for art, music, fashion, and dogs. :) I also blog every now and then. Check me out here!

(Yours truly on the left, and Ash on the right. Think we love BYU?)

Isn't this blog idea adorable? I'm obsessed. Emilee and Rach are amazing. When Rachel asked me to do this guest post I sort of laughed. . . I'm not really all that crafty. However, I have two crafty things to share with you!

The handmade flower necklace:

Before we get down to business, I have to give my good ol' friend Ashley some credit. (Pictured above.) She basically had to teach me how to make all the flowers. She's pretty much a big deal. You can find her headbands and such by clicking here

Ok folks, my photography skills reek these days, but here is what you are learning how to make!

I'm sorry I didn't take pictures during the process!

1. Basically I just made a bunch of random sized flowers. I actually ended up not using a lot of the ones I made. Just have fun with it! I actually think putting in one of the bows Emilee told you all about would be cute as well. 

2. I arranged them like fifty different ways. I got a second opinion a few times and finally came up with this arrangement. 

3. Once I decided that it looked good, I just glued them all together on the sides with a hot glue gun. Don't put too much though. You don't want it to show through. 

4. Now put A LOT of glue down on a piece of felt (mine is gray), place the flowers on top, and then cut around the edges. 

5. As far as ribbon goes, I couldn't decide what I thought looked good, so I ended up just pinning different kinds of ribbon to it. It actually turned out to be a pretty good idea, that way you can wear it with a lot of different outfits. (as pictured below)

It's as simple as that! I was looking sort of homeless today, so I had my little sister model for me. 

Next item. . . 

Bird Painting:

Alright so I may be an artsy sort of person, but painting has never really been my thing. I asked for a canvas and some art supplies for Christmas. This was back when I had a boyfriend and I told him I would paint us as birds. Cheesy, I know. Anyway, I finally finished it after he left on his mission! Here it is! It's nothing special but I was proud of my little birds. 

Well that's all I have for ya folks! Happy crafting!

My love for buttons

Last night, my good pal Alex Hoskins and I decided to get together and do some crafts. We had a plethora of options to choose from, and eventually decided upon buttons. 

Well. A canvas of buttons. 

Shaped into a heart. 

With a very cute color scheme. 

To hang in my apartment. 

Big Al coordinated everything as I sat and crocheted a rug out of ripped up shreds of fabric (which will be on here next). 

I watched/crocheted while she went to work. Alex is really creative, and will be doing a guest post on here soon, so keep a look out for that. :) 

This project only took an hour or so, and required minimal supplies. 

We used some of my moms buttons from her button bin, an old white canvas we had, and a little bit of lace to add some finishing touches. 

I learned through Alex that pliers come in handy just in case the back side of the buttons have extended loops. 

My love for buttons has only grown. 

-Rachel 

Domestic living

Next year, I'll be living in a real live apartment.

I spent the past year in a dorm room, where I had breakfast, lunch, and dinner cooked for me (courtesy of the magical Cannon Center).

Now that I have a kitchen I get to cook on my own. I'm really excited about this. ha.

Not.

It seems that I can't avoid this fact, so I've decided to embrace it by making myself, and all my roommates aprons. Even if I suck at cooking, at least I'll look good doing it.

I started with my Canadian friend Lacey Holt. She is the cutest girly girl alive, who loves purple and pink. I knew I couldn't get any cuter than ruffles and those colors.

I tried looking for a pattern online, but couldn't find anything I really loved.

Thus I just decided to make up my own.

#1. Found some old fabric laying around in the craft room

#2. Cut 6 strips of differing fabric for the ruffles. Length=28-25 inches. Width= 3 inches

#3. Next I put pleats in every strip as I sewed them to fabric backing

#4. I drew the bodice portion free-hand, cut it out, and attached it to the bottom half. 

#5. I then added the ties to the neck and back. 

Voila

Lacey's apron. 

1 down, 5 to go. 

Side note: I added two cute lil purple buttons to the top. My favorite part. 

I feel like cooking something now. 

Happy Sunday!

-Rach 

Skirt, dresses, and Berkley.

It's fun shopping at thrift stores, but it's nice being able to shop with the perspective of :

"I love this, but how can I fix it?"

You see, most of the time something is either too long, short, big, small or saggy. Rarely do you find a clothing item that fits perfectly. That's why Berk found 5 skirts she loved, but wanted to change.

Here we go: Part 2; skirts and Berk.

Sidenote: I feel super lame right now, but due to an overload of my brothers wedding pictures, I accidentally deleted the "before" pictures. You're gonna have to deal with just the results instead. Whoops.
Another sidenote: each skirt was under $5

1. Black bow skirt. The skirt was originally to her feet. I cut it short, and then used the extra fabric to make a bow for the front.

2. Gray pinstriped skirt. Berk specifically needs blac, gray, and white clothing items for the school she'll be attending in the fall. She found this one at floor length, and I cut it back up to her knees. This skirt took me only 10 minutes to fix! labor time+cost of skirt=major deal.

3. Red pencil. This skirt is adorable. Plus so much goes with it. It once again used to be to her feet, so I just cut it short and voila!

4. Black dress. Picture your mom and her typical sunday dress she wore when she was pregnant. This dress could very well have been it. It was HUGE, so I gook in 2 inches from each side, shortened the straps, and shortened the bottom. I like the finished product.

 5. Hey! It's me. In my new floral for only $4! I also got the belt for only $1. All I had to do was shorten it.

Mazel Tov.

P.S. Wedding crazy-ness will be over this Saturday. Thus meaning I have about five billion things I need to post after that.

-Rach