Getting crafty

Well, here are a few of my random projects of being crafty and creative! Over a year ago I posted a picture of our unfinished fireplace. Though it was finished a long time ago, I haven't ever put up a picture of the finished product after Nick painted it and we added a mantle. So here you go :)

before & after (though the picture sitting on the mantle still needs to be hung...)

For our Relief Society activity in November we made these cute yarn wreaths with felt flowers. I was going to do mine in Christmas colors, but then a friend suggested doing it in colors that would match my house and then I could leave it up year round. It was a perfect idea since we'd just gotten family pictures wearing royal blue and my whole living room is decorated in light teal & brown and I wanted something to tie the two together. Enter teal & royal blue wreath. I love how it turned out and it now happily hangs on my wall.

The flower was fun to make petal by petal, but
it took HOURS to wrap the yarn around the wreath. ugh.

It was Nick's birthday last week and I was having such a hard time trying to figure out what to do or buy him to make it a special day. Since I got a new sewing machine for Christmas and had yet to bust it out of the box, I suddenly thought it would be a great idea to make Nick a birthday quilt. Quite the project for someone who hasn't sewn since Jr.High and had no idea what she was doing.... And did I mention that I decided all of this about a week and a half before Nick's actual birthday??? Nothing like a deadline to force you to figure out what to do and get it done! After many, many phone calls to my Mom and a few little mishaps along the way, the quilt turned out quite successfully. Now that it is finished, I am quite proud of my handiwork - though I am glad to now not have huge chunks of time each day devoted to sewing!

The finished product

And last but not least... When I had a few friends over to help me tie Nick's quilt, we decided to also try our hand at crafting some flowers for baby headbands. Though I can't take credit for all of the designs below, I do know how to make them. I did make the white flower and actually had quite a bit of fun cutting, fraying, burning and gluing the pieces together. I love how frilly and dainty looking it turned out. Should be perfect on a white headband for my baby's blessing day.

Close up of my flower