Meet Eleanor

Hullo all! For today's post I thought I would introduce you to my sewing machine, Eleanor!

Ta-da! Eleanor was given to my mother by my grandmother in the 80's. I would use her occasionally but she mostly lived in the garage unused until I found a Singer dealer that could tune her up. Now that shes been to the sewing "spa" she is refreshed and ready for use! Ive already created a few things with her and I started going to a sewing class on base. I'm so glad she could be fixed! I was searching for a machine for YEARS but could never settle on one. I don't like how newer machines are all plastic-y, I feel like they would crumble after a few uses! Eleanor is a tough ole bird and all metal. The only thing she really needed was a face lift. She came with an AWFUL pink and cream case and I quickly decided it had to go. Rather than chunk it (it really is a very sturdy case,) I decided to spray paint it! Here's new and improved Eleanor!

You can't tell in the picture but I also sprayed the entire thing with glitter spray. I wish I had taken a picture of her before but I couldn't find my camera. She looks so pretty now!!! Just in case you are wondering she is a Singer Merritt 2404!

Try it Thursdays- An apple pie adventure

I must confess I LOVE to try new things! I've never been a "Lets read the instructions and figure out a plan" kind of girl, when it comes to new things. I want to jump in feet first and see how it turns out. I've come to realize that's probably the reason why I'm such a terrible cook. Having the attention span of a goldfish doesn't help either (it's a wonder I made it through nursing school!) How did the apple pie come in you ask? Here's how my brain works. I'm sitting around working on something, enter internal monologue.

Brain: Ello lovely! (did I mention my internal monologue is British? Well it is, and not modern British. We're talking Agatha Christie novel British.) For every ones sake I'll write it normally. I don't want y'all to think I'm totally bonkers.

Wow, this anime is great, I wish I had an outfit like hers, maybe I could sew one? Speaking of sewing I need to paint my sewing case. I wonder if that apple red is really the shade I want. I wish I could pick apples, it looks like fun. I can't wait until thanksgiving, then I could have apple pie. You know I've never made apple pie. I'm going to make an apple pie today!

Bam! The search for an apple pie recipe begins. I found a delicious looking one via Craftzine: Apple Pie Three Ways I cheated and bought pie crust mix instead of using Katie Goodmans pie crust recipe (if you haven't been to her blog Good Life Eats I command you to stop what you're doing and GO THERE NOW!) After gathering all the ingredients I set out to make the pie only to find out I didn't have a rolling pin. Since it was 10:00 PM and I didn't feel like going to the store I improvised and smooshed the dough with my hands. Word of advice, just get the rolling pin. I ended up running out of dough so my pie is more stripped then lattice. It tasted wonderful!! Who cares if its pretty, I made it and I didn't burn anything! Here's the final product.

See the ONE small sad "lattice" piece?

The Hubbs helped me finish it off even though he hates apple pie. So yeah, it was THAT good!

Epic Fail............

Sometimes when you try new things, well, they end up a burnt up blob. Enter my chicken enchiladas. I even cooked them two different ways and the end result was inedible. We had to resort to plan B fast food. I've never been much of a cook but I'm trying to improve my skills. Luckily I don't have a picture of the mess (that way I can deny it ever happened!) I do however have a picture of one of my (few) successes! Say hello to Blackened Tilapia!

I can honestly say it was delish! This recipe was added to the recipe binder and will be repeated soon! Now I have to attempt to cook tonight's dinner without burning the place down! 

They're Here! Mondays are for Etsy.

Oh Etsy, how I love the! I recently purchased these lovely beauties from MisNopalesArt

I LOVE THEM! I love sugar skulls, I have shirts, mirrors, bags but a sugar skull Batman?! Um YES PLEASE! I highly recommend their store. The bottom lovely was given as a first anniversary gift to the hubs, which he loved! They have prints, bags, shirts and stickers. They have images of Charlie Chaplin, Star Wars and anything in between! So what are you waiting for? Go check them out!

I am Thankful

It's so easy to look at other people's lives and put them on a pedestal. Especially these days with Facebook and other social networks. You keep asking yourself, Why can't I be like them? Why am I not as fashionable? Why is my house not as nice? You start to think that one picture encompasses their whole life. It's easy to forget all the things you should be thankful for. Today I decided to write a list of reasons why I should be thankful for my life.

1. I have a loving family and husband who support me and my dreams.
2. I have an amazing career that I love.
3. I am able to go to grad school to further my education.
4. I have amazing friends and no matter where I am in the world I know they would be there in a heartbeat if I needed them too.

I want to add a second list more specific to my current situation. I am between jobs which is very difficult for me. I've always been an "on the go" kind of person and I love to work. It's been hard to sit at home all day and sometimes I forget that every situation creates new opportunities.

1. I can use this time to work on craft projects that have been sitting idly by for some time.
2. I can practice cooking. (Trust me I NEED it)
3. I can take classes and try new things that I normally wouldn't have time for.
4. I can read all day if I choose.
5. I can workout more often.
6. I can actually decorate our apartment!
7. I can sit back, take a breath and reorganize my life.

There are so many more I could name but even writing down these few reasons makes me feel thankful and happier about my life. Sometimes its better to stop looking at other peoples lives and instead live your own.

It's Been Awhile.......

So here I am three years later, I've been terrible at keeping up my blog. I'm more of a pen and paper kind of gal. However I'm dipping my toes into the blogging world once again. I really want to use this blog to catalog my crafts and to connect with all the other crafty people out there! My goal is to post weekly and then move up from there, but who knows. I'm currently trying to revamp a dresser I bought from le Goodwill and I'll be posting pics of the process!

Love Love Love,

Freckles.

PS. Have you gotten your D*S book yet? I HAVE!!

Surviving Nursing School!

Hello all! I've been uber busy with Nursing school so I havent had much time to write however, I've been crafting like crazy!

TURTLE TIME!

I made these for my bestie A. who LOVES turtles! :0)

PENCIL HOLDER!

My sister needed a pencil holder so I created her one out of CDs, Cardboard tubes, ribbon and wrapping paper!

KeyBoard Magnets and Pushpens!


I had leftover keys from my previous projects so I made my Dad some magnets and push pins for his new office. My worry doll decided to model them.


Cardboard Flowers!

Some flowers I made out of cardboard tubes, ive painted some but for some reason I really like the way they look naturally so I left some unpainted.

BOOK PURSE!

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to read, and reuse so what better way than to make a purse! I loved the pictures in the book so I used them in my previous shelf project!

Paper Mache

I made this a long time ago but decided to post it, its made out of ALOT of recycled cardboard and newspaper.

SNOW FLAKE TIME!

some "flowers" that were painted and made into snowflakes!

Towel Holder

Who woulda known som ribbon could revamp and ugly, old white towel holder.

Trinket Box

A trinket box made out of wrapping paper, ribbon remnants and an old ribbon spool.

That is all for now!

Can't Sleep

For father's day my mother decided to redo my little brothers old room (he now resides in my old room) and turn it into dad's office. While this is great for him because he desperatly needs one its bad for my sleeping schedule. I'm one of those people who has to finish something no matter how long it takes, in one setting. Because of this I stayed up all day yesterday and crashed at 8 in the morning. Since I slept in till 2 I cannot go to sleep now. So in the midst of all my sleepiness I believe its time to post some more pictures.

The theme for these projects are REUSE and RECYCLE!

I sure do love my inner hippy-ness

SUNCATCHER

The first thing is a sun catcher I made! I really loved the way this turned out. This lovely will have a new place on my balcony of my apartment!

Recycled Materials:

1. Bottle Caps


2. Old CD


3. Wrapping Paper


4. Old Book Pages
   
   
   
   
   *TOP VIEW*
   
   
   
   

Bottle Cap view

Record Clock

I made this for my dad on Father's Day. He works with computers so this was a really cute concept for his new office! He had an old keyboard that he was throwing out so I took all the keys off of it. Looking back now I wished I would have kept the whole thing, who knows what could be made out of it!

RECYCLED MATERIALS

1. Record


2. Computer Keyboard


3. Book Paper
   
   
   
   
   Key Board Frame
   
   I had a TON of leftover keys so I decided to make a keyboard frame for my dad. Im a little sad that I dont have enough letters to make one for myself.
   
   
   
   
   

A Book Shelf.....

I had a shelf that was attached to a mirror which happend to break all on its own (so my siblings say,) insted of chunking it I detached the shelf. I also decided to keep the mirror since it was only slightly cracked (I know, I know, Im a pack rat.) I bought some vintage books from GoodWill a couple of monthes ago and I fell in love with the pictures. So once again my trusty friend mod podge came to my aid to help me creat this cute shelf!

Okay so its been awhile.......

Whoooooooops! I told myself I would keep up this blog but as you can see (or myself as I am not sure if there are any "you's," I havent done that. I guess Im just too much of a nerd to study, read, craft and have a blog. On the plus side since its summer I have been crafting ALOT and I do mean ALOT. I seriously believe im the reason Micheals stays in business! The bad news though is I will be leaving in seven days for an ROTC camp which means a month of NO CRAFTS and NO INTERNET *gasp* which means I cant check all my favorite craft blogs! NOOOO! But untill then you better believe I will be crafting my sweet tush off!

*EDIT*

They are here!

I have A TON of pictures so for now im just posting a few.

I've burned myself out on sewing because I sew everything by hand (I need a good machine but lack the funds as of now.) So lately I've wanted to craft things using paint and of course two of my best friends, hot glue and mod podge!

It's birthday and graduation season so instead of giving a storebought gift I decided to make my friends pretty letters! Not only is it cheap it also is a gift they will cherish for a long time!

This one was created for my friend Leah. You will have to excuse the crappy images Im currently rooming with my sister so that means no space to take photos.

The paper is by Martha stewart which I got for a dollar, gotta love the clearance section!!

This one is also Martha Stewart wrapping paper. I created this for my friend Lauren who just had a birthday. She used to dance for 13years and has one of the biggest music collections known to man!

This was created for my mother as a late Mother's day gift. I wanted to do more for her but to my suprised she loved this more than any of her other gifts!

This was created for my little sister. Being a teenager and sharing your room with your weird, older sister can be rough but she's been awesome! The bee might seem random but when she was five she had a bee costume for halloween and whenever I think of her I always remember how happy she was being a bee. I believe that was her Winnie the Pooh phase also, who doesn't love Pooh though?

After making all the letters for everyone else I decided to make one for myself! I used the same paper as before and hopefully when I get into my new apartment this will go in my craft/workout room!

This was created for my brother's friend. He hasent seen it yet but Im hopping is looks boyish enough.

This is one of my favorites besides the first one I created (which I forgot to take a picture of). I created this for my boyfriend the color is really black with faded gold writing. I LOVE IT! He was with me to pick out the paper so I think he will be pleased!

Thats all for now!

Hello All!

Hello World! I decided to join the blogging community so I can post and get some feedback from fellow crafters! Since this is my first post I do believe an introduction is in order. (Not too personal though of course!)

I have always been a packrat so the idea of saving all my leftover packaging and what nots came naturally. I also am in love with thrift stores so those things combined with my treehugger-ness helped me to find my crafting niche by recycling/reusing anything I can get my hands on! It also doesn't hurt that this is a cheap alternative to regular crafting, which can get pretty pricey for a college undergrad! Like I said I am a treehugger so the though of all the packaging that would end up in the landfill makes me cringe, hence the name of the blog, "Crafter with a cause." It has always been a dream of mine to create an organization where crafters get together and create items to help the community, ex blankets for the homeless, toys for orphanages. I have always gotten tremendous joy from helping people and I truly believe it is for that purpose that I was put on this planet. I am going to try to get closer and closer to that dream but for now my cause will be reusing through the art of crafting!

I am going to try to keep crafting and updating this blog regularly but it might be hard considering my schedule is pretty hectic! (I am a nursing major so you can imagine my schedule!) I have an amazing boyfriend who was my high school sweetheart so you will frequently here me talk, er, type about him.





Enough about me, let the crafting begin!

To kick off my blog I decided to post a project I just finished for my boyfriends birthday. My boyfriend is an avid gamer so I decided to make him an old school Nintendo controller clock!




Two years ago I bought a poster that had a cardboard back to it that recently fell off. I decided to save the back and incorporate it into crafts. I cut a rectangular shape out of it for the "base" of the controller. I used my leftover felt from previous projects to create the buttons and body of the controller. I bought the clock parts from Hobby Lobby but I'm sure you could use an old clock from a thrift store as well.


All in all I'm very pleased with the project and my boyfriend absolutely loved it! I am def. going to have to make more for all my friends! Can you say birthday gift?!

Look for another ongoing project Sunday!