Felted Hot Water Bottle

Is it cold enough? Has it ever been this cold? I came to New York prepared but I can't seem to wear enough layers to make it out alive. Luckily culinary school has me running around enough to keep me warm on the walk back home when it's nearing midnight. 

Full discloser- it has not snowed in NY. This picture is from THE PAST!

This hot water bottle would certainly keep me warm but I gave it away. It was a Christmas gift I made as part of my handmade-gifts-because-I-now-have-student-loans. It turned exactly how I envisioned it which is weird because I happened upon this sweater by accident (IE: my brother moved out and left it behind. Score!)  I love this hot water bottle cover and should really make one to keep- just as soon as I find another perfect lambswool caramel colored sweater.... 

Don't worry about my brother and his swiped sweater- he was the recipient of one of these babies so he's probably warmer than I am right now.

Felted Hot Water Bottle Cover

If you have a sewing machine, this is super quick work. If you don't, you can probably hand stitch this puppy in an evening in front of the TV. When choosing a sweater, make sure it's 100% wool or it won't felt properly. The wool will get softer (IE: less itchy) once felted, but it always helps to find a soft wool sweater to start!

• 1 old XL Men's WOOL sweater (will be enough for 2 hot water bottle covers)
• 1 Hot water bottle
• Needle, thread ect...

Start out by felting the sweater. If you have a mesh bag, throw your sweater in there as an extra precaution against fluff clogging up your washing machine. Set your machine to HOT and run the sweater through a short cycle first. The sweater will shrink A LOT. Check the felting- you shouldn't really be able to see the weave of the wool anymore. You can run the sweater through another cycle to felt it some more or if you're pretty satisfied, put it in the dryer. The dryer will also shrink the sweater if it is set to hot heat so keep that in mind when adjusting the time and temperature. 

Once you have a felted sweater, cut off the sleeves at the shoulder and cut up the seams on either side of the body to leave you with some flat pieces. Use the hot water bottle as a guide and cut around it, adding an extra 1/2 inch. 

Cut out another piece of the same size.

Cut the cuff off from one of the sleeves. Now you have all your pieces and are ready to sew! Pin the two large pieces together and sew all the way around leaving a 4 inch hole at the top where the neck will be.

Insert the cuff of the sleeve into the sewn body and pin the cut side of the cuff to the opening.  Sew around the cuff to attach it to the body. 

Flip everything right side out again and insert your hot water bottle.  Now you can be warm!

Fill me with hot water!!

A Colonial Potato Wreath

Cotton blossoms, white pine, bittersweet and antlers

This year Christmas was spent in Chesapeake with my boyfriend's awesome family. A dinner in Colonial Williamsburg was a real treat as I had never been at Christmas and they are quite famous for their natural and authentic decorations- so, word to the wise: be sure to arrive before nightfall- colonial times did not include Christmas lights.

 We just loved the decorations and kept trying to figure out all the fruit, vegetables, dried flowers and other ornamentals that comprised each wreath. Pomegranates, oysters, apples, artichokes, bread rolls, playing cards, sliced and dried clementines, and even some burlap and woven wool were mixed into white pine, boxwood and fraiser fir wreaths. We were in love and vowed to make our own versions next year.

Natural wreaths and my momma

But then we got an idea. One hearty vegetable had been overlooked and we couldn't find one single potato in those adornments. Maybe they didn't have pretty potatoes back in the day, but today, you can pick up some gorgeous pink and purple potatoes in just about any grocery store. On our way back from dinner, we stopped off to get the necessary stuff to make our own natural wreath and here is what we came up with:

Do you love it? I love it. It's a freaking edible potato wreath! I have some ideas on how to improve the wreath for next year, but I would say this was a huge success. Looks good with a candle too. 

Tag's Potato Wreath
If possible, get similar sized potatoes which will help them roast evenly when you decide to cook the wreath.

• Assortment of mini white, red and purple potatoes
• 3-4 springs of rosemary
• 2 disposable pie dishes
• Olive oil
• Salt & pepper
• Garlic powder

Using some kitchen sheers or scissors, cut a line through the middle leaving about 3 inches to the edge of the pie dish on both sides. Cut a few more lines through the middle of that line until you can easily bend the pointy edges back onto themselves (towards the edge of the pie dish) to create a sort of edge around the middle of the dish. You can kinda see this in the first picture of the wreath above. Do this with 2 pie dishes for some added support. Stack the pie dishes on top of one another.

Wash and scrub your potatoes and start adding them to the ring, making sure to alternate the colors. Add some springs of rosemary in and round the potatoes, trying to mask the edge of the pie dish.

At this point you can leave the wreath on a table for a few days before the rosemary starts wilting. If you'd like to keep it longer, you can either some water to the base of the ring or stick the rosemary stems in some water tubes hidden under the potatoes.

Once you are ready to eat the wreath, just add over the top, a tablespoon or two of olive oil, some salt, pepper and maybe a few shakes of garlic powder and roast in your oven set at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes or until tender. If some of your potatoes are much larger, you might want to cut them in half to ensure even cooking.

I left before the wreath was cooked but I imagine it was gorgeous on the table and tasty on the plate!

Mushroom Ornament

Deciding to make all my Christmas gifts this year has been a lot of fun. And work. But mostly fun. It also means that I'm constantly in a crafty mood and mindset so when I see something cute that I could make, I have to make it. I was explaining to a co-worker that my plan was to have everything done by the 19th so I could sit around and do nothing until Christmas and he laughed saying that even if I got everything checked off my list, I would just find more to do. And he's totally right. Did I need to make these adorable mushroom ornaments which have no pre-determined recipient? Not really. But boy are they cute and I'm very glad I did.

Mushroom Ornaments 
A vice really helps make this an easy project. So does the dremmel.... But if you're not concerned with the longevity of your ornament, you could skip the drilling and just hot glue the two pieces together and call it a day.

• Bag of wood doll heads 
• Bag of wood robin eggs
• Gorilla super glue (NOT regular gorilla glue!)
• Eye hook screws
• Dremmel rotary tool
• Sand paper
• Paper napkin or cloth
• Vice
• Strong rubber band
• Paint
• Glitter

If you gather all your materials beforehand this can be a pretty quick project. Start by wedging a paper napkin or cloth into your vice to hold the mushroom cap (otherwise the vice will indent the wood). Close the vice tight enough to just hold the wood in place.

Using the sanding attachment on your dremmel, drill into the hole to enlarge it and shape it to fit the top of your robin egg.

Test it out. Once you can kinda wedge the robing egg into the mushroom cap, sand both sides. Sanding the edges will make it easier for the glue to bond them together.

 

Glue the mushroom cap to the robin egg with a little bit of gorilla super glue on both sides. Use a rubber-band to hold the pieces together while they dry. It should take about 20 minutes. If you're working outside, bring the project inside to dry (the cold will mess with the glue).

Once dry, flip your mushrooms over and use the vice to secure them while you paint. I wanted my mushroom to keep the natural feeling of wood so I barely watered down some red acrylic paint and added a layer to the mushroom cap. Once the paint dried I screwed in the eye hook, then I randomly added the white dots in batches so I could sprinkle on some glitter before the paint dried.

 

And there you have it! A wooden mushroom ornament for your tree, for a package of for someone you love. 

Merry Christmas!

Homemade Wrapping Paper

 I've been wanting to make my own wrapping paper since last Christmas and since this year I will be strapped for cash (student loans, you know) I decided to make all my Christmas gifts- including the trimmings. I wish I could share some of the awesome gifts I've been making but I can't spoil anyone's surpise- especially since I would bet that about 95% of my readers are people who will be gifted something (Hi Mom! Hi Kris! Hi Tag!).

The first part of making your own wrapping paper is sourcing some cheap butcher's paper or mailing paper. My mom procured a giant roll of this brown paper at a paint store (paint for your walls, not crafting). I've also seen smaller rolls in the office supply aisles of grocery stores. Find it, buy it!

Snowflake Wrapping Paper
Glitter is always welcome in this project.

• butcher's paper
• a few sheets of printer paper
• scissors
• white paint
• a wide paint brush

Start off by cutting a few snowflakes out of paper. It wasn't until last year that I learned of the best way to fold your paper for awesome snowflakes. If you click here, you can cut out your own virtual snowflake and  also see a little animation (it's fast!) showing you exactly how to fold your paper for maximum impact. Martha Stewart has some clear instructions on her website too.

Once you have about 6 large snowflakes and 4 small snowflakes, spread some white paint onto a plate and swirl it around with a wide, dry paint brush. My brush was about 1 inch wide. Hold the snowflake in place on the butcher's paper as you carefully paint over it. You can either do long strokes or you can use the brush like a sponge and stipple it straight down (as shown below).

White snow flake painted over with white paint

Let the paint dry for a few moments. You can add another snowflake while you wait for the current one to dry. After a few minutes, gently peel away the snowflake, trying to keep it intact, while not smudging the paint. If you can salvage the snowflake, you can re-use it immediately. Otherwise, just toss it.

I was able to reuse this sucker a few more times

And voila! You've got your snowflake impression! Now just repeat this a few more (dozen) times and you can make rolls and rolls of beautiful wrapping paper!

Mistletoe Wrapping Paper
Glitter and metallic paint is most welcome here
 

• butcher's paper
• a few potatoes
• paring knife
• pencil
• green & white paint
• clear or white glitter
• paintbrush

It's potato stamp time! I had never made one and it turns out to be super easy. Just take any potato, making sure it's big enough to accommodate your stamp.Slice off a piece to create a long flat edge. Use a pencil to carefully trace out your design. The lead won't actually imprint, so just use the tip to mark into the potato. Then use a pairing knife to start whittling away the potato, like you're carving wood (not that I've ever carved wood before....). Now you're ready to stamp! Sooo just go nuts! I put two kinds of greens on a plate and swirled them together (not that you can really tell) and blotted the stamps right into the paint. You can also use a paintbrush to paint the stamps.

Delicate potato stamps

Keep going! *stamp* *stamp* *stamp*

Once you've reached the bottom of the paper, you can start adding the berries, which I did using the eraser side of a clean pencil. 

Before the berries dry, dust the tops with glitter! By now your green leaves should be dry, so go nuts with that glitter. Once you're finished, use the paper to funnel the glitter back into the container (if you can/care).

 And that's all there is to it! I kept thinking of other potato stamps I might like to try- maybe some boxwood topiaries with silver balls or a little Scottie Dog.

All wrapped up!

Mini Nut Wreaths

Last year I made a nut wreath for my front door. Then I made one for my Secret Santa recipient. See, I worked for a historic site that has a squirrel as a mascot. I thought I was being terribly clever. This year I couldn't wait to pull out the wreath again and when I did I thought that it would be fun to have some mini-wreaths to decorate the indoors. 

They are the perfect size for pillar candles. And any unused nuts make for a great seasonal and decorative but bowl- Just add a nut cracker and an empty bowl for people to discard the shells.

And if you want to get extra merry- add some fake berries!

Mini Nut Wreaths

• Nuts! Almonds, Walnuts, Hazelnuts and Brazil Nuts
• Mini-wreath ($1.99 at Micheal's)
• Hot glue gun and glue
• Branch of fake berries ($1.99 at Micheal's) 
• Pliers
• Pillar candle

Place you pillar candle in the middle of the wreath to make sure it fits once all the nuts have been added. Use your hot glue gun to add the nuts.Work in sections, beginning with the walnuts and brazil nuts, filling in with the hazelnuts and almonds. Once you've made it all the way around, you can begin adding the fake berries. Use the pliers to clip the berry sprigs off of the branch. It helps to periodically place the wreath on a dinning room table and sit down to see if there are any big open spots- I had to adjust my nuts and berries to fill in the bottom. 

Fall Flowers and Leaves

I decided to try my hand at flower arranging. Frankly, I don't know the first thing about the subject, but I thought it would be fun to buy a few bunches at Trader Joe's and try my hand at making something beautiful.

For about $20 I bought a bunch of pink tulips, yellow alstroemeria, mini pumpkin branches and a bunch called "Autumn Spice" that included some protea and berry branches. I think the hardest part was choosing what to get. The flowers sold at my local grocery stores don't really stock natural or wild looking blooms so I also gathered some dried leaves from my backyard.

 I had planned on using a particular silver vase but it was nowhere to be found (I later learned it had been given away!) so I had to make due with a giant silver ice bucket. I really hadn't planned on making such a massive bouquet and I think the arrangement suffered a little because it should probably be taller. I don't think I was confident enough (and probably didn't have enough flowers) to really do this container justice, but I do love what I came up with.

I started off by using some electric tape to tape off a few lines across the top of the container to form some triangles. These really helped to keep the heavy mini pumpkin branches from toppling over. Next I added in the large proteas and then started working in the alstroemerias, tulips and finally the berry bunches and dried leaves. 

These mini pumpkins are actually from the eggplant family

The  bouquet lasted me a whole week and when I got back home on Sunday night, I picked out the wilted flowers and was able to make another much smaller bouquet with the remaining berry branches and alstroemeria (which seem to last forever).

Loving the fall

A different kind of Jack O' Lantern

Tree Silhouette 

This year felt right for trying something different on my pumpkins. I really liked the natural and whimsical look of the arrangement on my porch and wanted the carvings to reinforce that feeling. I also figured that since I had spent quite a penny on these gourds, I should try to get them to last past Halloween.

I settled on doing some kind of polka dot design using whatever tools I could find which happened to be a pick from my father's "Bat Cave"...

...and my smallest biscuit cutter! I just used a hammer to whack the cutter through the flesh of the carved out pumpkin and recuperated it on the other side. I wouldn't necessarily recommend using your favorite biscuit cutter for this unless you have a rubber mallet because my cutter got a little bent out of shape. But then it is very cheap.

To keep the pretty stem intact, I hollowed this pumpkin out through a hole on the bottom. This also allowed me to illuminate the pumpkin with Christmas lights strung through the bottom hole. I would also recommend thinning out your pumpkin if the flesh is too thick. My pumpkins were really thick and it just made the whole thing more of a pain. 

While I started out thinking I was carving polka dots, I ended up with something almost celestial- which I love. I did three bands of Milk Way-looking carvings around this pumpkin, using three different sized tools- the pick and 2 different biscuit cutters. 

The only thing I would do differently next time would be to get some Christmas lights with white wiring so they would be better concealed inside the pumpkin. Otherwise, I'm pretty pleased with the way this turned out! 

Spooky Owls

I have a thing for owls and the word has gotten out. Last year while Christmas shopping, a reoccuring conversation went something like this:

Me: Aaaw look at the owl [insert any object]!! It's so cute!

Someone else: And you said you don't have a thing about owls?

Me: Nope, I DO NOT have a thing about owls.

Later

Someone else: Look Claire, an owl [insert any object]!

Me: If I had a thing for owls, I would find that very cute.

I wasn't really surprised when I ended up with quite a few owl related items this past Christmas. Everything from a set of owl mugs, to an owl coin purse, owl necklace and a set of owl nesting dolls. A few owl figurines have also shown up in my life and in thinking about what to do for Halloween on a budget I started thinking about my little parliament of owls (and no, I won't admit to having a collection). Not all owls are cute- some are downright sinister:

Pretty spooky, right? but it gets better at dusk:

I mostly used stuff from around the house including the large basket, two apothecary jars, some green Christmas lights and an ostrich egg.

I knew I wanted to create creepy nests in the apothecary jars and once I found the extra large basket I figured I could make an extra large nest to hold everything. I would have used branches and twigs out of my backyard but it had been raining for about a week so I bought a grapevine wreath ( $4.99) and some Spanish moss ($6.99) at Michael's. I tore the wreath apart and wedged pieces of it into the apothecary jars to form a nest which I accented with raffia, torn bits of muslin, feathers and Spanish moss. I also got that paper mache skull at Michaels for $1.99 and loved how it looked so I added that to the jar before assembling the nest.

The tall apothecary jar got a similar treatment and then I started adding some bugs and skeleton hands. I got a pack of snakes from Target for $1.99 and the skeleton hands at Micheal's for $1.99. 

This big guy is a leftover from Halloweens past. His brother is currently residing in the candy jar at my office.
I coiled the green christmas lights around the bases of the apothecary jars and topped it all off with more Spanish moss. I also added some more pieces of the grapevine wreath around the inside of the basket to reinforce the idea of a large nest.

What really brought the whole thing together was this guy. He's so sinister and yet kinda reminds me of my cat....

It's the "wide" haunches.