It has been my mom’s dream to visit Italy someday, so after her retirement (and more flexible schedule), we finally made it happen. It took quite a bit of planning and researching, but I think it went really well! Find out below what worked for us and what didn’t below. Continue reading “10 Lessons Learned While Traveling in Italy”
Have you ever lost or threw away the box to the puzzle but want to reuse it? We had the same issue – I used to tape the back of the puzzles so we could hang them up on the wall, so naturally, the box was thrown away. Years later, I decided I wanted to make the puzzles again, so I took them apart but had no box to put them back in. What’s the solution? Continue reading “How to Organize Puzzles”
I got myself some gorgeous green mohair yarn for Christmas one year, but it has been sitting in my stash for a few years, so I decided it was finally time to set it free. I couldn’t find a pattern I liked for it, so I decided to wing it. I wanted to do a top down cardigan, and I did something like that before, so I just had to improvise for this yarn and this style. Continue reading “Airy Mohair Cardigan”
I once saw these amazing blown glass ornaments that looked like planets in our solar system, and maybe one day I will decide to splurge on something so exquisite, but in the meantime, I decided to make my own. I really like how they turned out! Continue reading “Hand Painted Planet Christmas Ornaments”
Last year, I saw some Christmas ornaments about engineers and loved what they said. I didn’t love, however, the style of the ornaments (they were metal and flat, while I prefer round) or the price. So I decided to make my own with the same sayings but in my own style. Continue reading “Engineer Christmas Ornaments”
When J was 4, he loved ninja turtles. So the first ever handmade Christmas ornaments that we made were these little guys. They are super easy and he was able to help. The hardest part was actually taking off the thing that was attached to the ornaments before. I couldn’t find a simple one in the right color of green, so I had to get one with a different design that I had to take off. Continue reading “Ninja Turtles Christmas Ornaments”
Last year, J was obsessed with Minecraft. And I was obsessed with making my own ornaments. And the Minecraft ornaments were born. We looked at some ideas for what to make and settled on a Slime, Enderman, Ghost, Platinum block, Grass block, and Lava block. Continue reading “Minecraft Christmas Ornaments”
A couple of years ago, J was obsessed with Minecraft. He still plays it now, but not as often as his other favorite games, such as Terraria. But when he was younger, he spent all his computer time in Minecraft. So I wasn’t surprised when he said he wanted to be a Minecraft skeleton for Halloween that year. I couldn’t find a good costume to buy, so I set out to make it myself. Continue reading “Minecraft Skeleton Kids Halloween Costume”
It’s a constant problem – I find cool yarn on sale and buy it without a plan of what to use it for, then it takes me forever to find something to use it for. I kept checking my stash to just feel this velvety soft yarn once in a while but eventually found the pattern for it.
This was a really simple and quick pattern – about 10 rows of half double crochet, about 10 rows of double crochet, and about 10 rows of triple crochet. Continue reading “Velvet Hug Poncho”
When I was in college, I somehow started painting. That was strange because I am not the creative type, and I have no idea why I was so drawn to it. Nevertheless, I bought some supplies and started teaching myself to paint. Since I don’t see things in my head and just put them down on canvas like actual artists do, I usually had to reference pictures or techniques for how to do it so it looked like something. As I learned more, I bought different brushes and tools (one of my favorite additions was the plastic knife to add snow to the mountains) Here, I would like to share some of my paintings from those times and how I made them without having that artistic talent and the lessons I learned along the way. Continue reading “How To Paint If You Are Not Artistic”
