Photo a Day in November #14

14.  Man-Made

A few weeks ago, I changed my Halloween banner to a Thanksgiving one.  The banner is made by me with materials made by machines, I'm assuming.  Even I used a  hole punch to thread the ribbon through.  But it will work...and I don't know where my husband put my knitting bag, so I can't show you my nicely knitted stocking for him.  :)

Photo a Day in September #28

28.  Front Door

I've already posted about my wreath earlier, but I never shared a picture of it on my front door. :)  I was too lazy to take a newer picture, but since you folks haven't seen this one, I think it will suffice.  (I rarely slack off in this photo challenges; I don't feel it's honest to reuse a photo or find one online.)  t looks pretty much the same, except it has sagged more, so it has a more of an oval shape now, and one of the pumpkins (lower left) looks blistered.  (But it may have looked that way originally, and I just didn't notice it!)

Our door is a darker red, but it always photographs fuchsia.  :)

Be Grateful #4

Hobie has found a new sleepy corner. :)

1)  I am thankful that our Buick was dead when Zach was preparing to leave on Friday.  Although I had to put dinner on hold to go pick him up, it meant he was in our Veloster when a terrible storm rolled in.  The Buick has not been so reliable lately, and it could have been very dangerous on those flooded streets.

2)  I am grateful we sold the Buick on Saturday after it started when we went to pick it up from school! We didn't get as much as we hoped, but we got enough to pay off the scooter, and the man who bought it made it safely home.

3)  I am thankful for those who make me feel like I know what I am doing when it comes to teaching because, honestly, half the time I am feeling things out as I go along.  Last week (I think), I had one of my program's mentors say I was his favorite teacher he had never had.  Then this week, my best friend's little sister posted a quotation from The Notebook, and I told her how I used the scene the quotation came from to talk about introductory paragraphs and thesis statements (her quotation was from the opening of the movie); she said she wished she had a teacher that explained those concepts in terms she understood and cared about.  :)

4)  I am happy I have discovered the comedy that is Community.  But, as Zach says, sometimes it hits a little too close to home  *lol*

5)  I'm pleased as punch that I had some fun money this month to buy a new cardigan at Target.  It is green with white polka dots and was on sale for $15!

6)  I am glad I can share my freebies with those who can use them more than me.

7)  I am relieved that I am closing in on finishing my first stocking.  It will be Zach's, and it is cream and pine green.  :)  I also did a happy dance that I got to make my autumn wreath this weekend.  Thank you, Lord, for my talents!  I love making our home home.

8)  Oh, and I wasn't mad in the least that I finally got to try a crepe from Crepes Paulette at the Farmers Market. Oh, pecan pie (la tarte aux pecans) crepe, you were amazing on that cool Saturday morning...

Please say a prayer for the son of a couple who went to high school with me.  Easton Begoon is three and has been fighting cancer since July of last year.  He was admitted to the ICU at our Children's Hospital this weekend because he is septic.  This little fighter is hanging in there, but we are all so ready for him to be WHOLE, HEALTHY, AND WELL!

Photo a Day in September #7

7.  Create

Guess what I am making tomorrow?  ;)

Ah, it's going to be in the 50s (THE FIFTIES) in the morning, so it seemed appropriate to start on this...

Photo a Day in July #19

19.  Animal/Insect/Pet

I had taken pictures of our sleepy kitties and was set to post them when I remembered something!  Every year, we make a Christmas ornament to add to our tree; it always captures some theme or big event of the year.  Our first Christmas we did a "Our First Christmas" ornament using leftover supplies from our wedding and reception; for 2010, we did an owl-themed ornament since we moved to NW Arkansas and into our Owlery.  Since I was sick at Christmas, we didn't get to make our ornament until much later.  I actually made it all this year after Zach approved of the design.  Dinah was a BIG addition to our family in 2011--in fact, she was our anniversary present, standing in for cotton--and I felt it was better to focus on our kitties rather than my illness (which I find it hard not to talk about everyday since it shapes everyday...).  I got around to making this not too many weeks ago, but I never posted a photo on Facebook because something else more important would arise for my photo post of the day.  So I thought it would be appropriate to debut 2011's ornament for this photo challenger.

As I mentioned, I decided on a cat-themed ornament.  I felt it was appropriate to knit it since cats are associated with balls of yarn, and our cats LOVE to attack me when I am knitting.  I looked for a pattern online, found a Hello Kitty one, and altered it and improvised as I went along.  It ended up being shorter than I thought it would be--not to mention I didn't know how to make it ball-shaped at the time--so I wrapped yarn around the ornament and slipped the band over it.  The wrapped yarn recalls those yarn balls the kitties love to chase.  Then I decided on adding some feathers since they are often part of cat toys, and I chose ones in the colors of their fur (white, tan gold, and black with white dominating).  The feathers are also tail-like.  :)  Finally, I tied it up with some gold ribbon because they also love playing with ribbon, and I added '11 on the ends.  It's not the prettiest ornament I've made, but I think it's the most creative.

Hobie is facing the camera:

 You see the gold spot above his eye on the ornament?

And then Dinah is reflected in the mirror:

She has Groucho eyebrows in gold and black (which are reversed in the photo above).  She looks smaller than Hobie in this picture from our fondue party last weekend, but she is actually LARGER.  Man, I still need to post photos from the par-tay...

I just love these two!

And, for funsies, since it's the third anniversary of our engagement:

Zach likes to creep in photos with his "mustache," and since it was late and he wasn't feeling well, I could only talk him into a funny photo, which really are THE BEST after all.  I don't know what is up with my eyebrow though; it always looks kind of funny, but the point of Zach's glasses aren't helping.

The Owlery's Hearth

Today, I am linking up with Kelly's Korner to show you our mantel...again!  I just love it--it is one of my favorite features of our rental.  :)

looking at our fireplace in the living room

our mantel with the "guestbook" from our reception and various gifts

When we moved in, the former renter had taken the shelf down and placed it under the big window in our stairwell.  I liked it there, too, but I prefer it here.

our fireplace

I love this during the winter months!

I'm really considering putting a collection of candles--same color, different sizes and shapes--in there during the off months.

I'm already planning our mantel for Christmas!  (We don't really decorate for other holidays.)  I am going to make a "Happy Christmas" fabric banner in Christmasy colors (red and such) but not in Christmasy fabrics.  Make sense?  Basically, I will take fabric remnants from various projects around the house (since our decor colors lend themselves well for Christmas) and turn them into the banner.  I am also planning on FINALLY knitting us some stockings.  We always put our nativity set on the center of the mantel and add a few Christmasy knick-knacks.  I think this year I will also tie some Christmas ribbon around the red candleholders.  :)

Thanks for stopping by our hearth!

Photo a Day in July #11

11.  Letter

I've posted this on Facebook before (once with the "P" by itself and once in the frame collage I'm working on), and I got the funniest comment about it.  A friend asked why we had a "P" on our wall...until she realized that "Pharr" starts with a "P" and not an "F."  *lol*  Another funny story?  The night I met Zach, he told me to look him up on Facebook.  So I scurried home and hopped on my computer and typed in "F-a-r-r."  There was no Zach Farr!  I assumed he was just another guy in a bar...until he added me a week later!  :)

When I got this "P" on clearance at Hobby Lobby, I was so excited to cover it in yarn.  I thought it was such a cute looking "P."  But I paid for its cuteness because it was very hard to wrap the bumps on it!

Also, I am not sure why that line appears on that photo every. single. time.  It's not there in person.

Bathing at The Owlery

Hey, folks, today I'm linking up with Kelly's Korner to show you our bathrooms!  (Yes, we have THREE for two people--there's a half bath upstairs for guests.  :)

Aren't bathrooms hard to decorate?  I've always found that to be so...  I feel like the bathroom is typically the forgotten room, but there is so much you can do with it once you get started, and a lot of it is really simple.  I've been working really hard to finish decorating our bathrooms, so let's get started, shall we?

First up, we have our half bath:

 I got the little green birdie panels (on clearance at Target--where else?)  when I was in grad school.  I love the different fabrics and textures on them!  I also got the mini vases at Walmart to decorate my grad school appartment as well.  (I broke a red one.)  I love this green towel!  It was one of my Twelve Days of Christmas presents from my mother-in-law.

I got the owl nightlight when I was in grad school, too.  *lol*  Can you tell I was very excited to decorate my first off-campus apartment?  That picture is of Zach and me--it is the first one ever of us, and I love it.  We had been dating about a month and a half, I think, when it was taken.  The fabric giraffe, which is hard to see, complements the colors in the bathroom; it was a get well gift from our friend Holly; she sent it after my surgery along with some other goodies.

And I promise I straightened that one panel several times today!  Geez...

Remember how I said I have been working hard on finishing our bathrooms?  Here is the BEFORE:

 

And the AFTER!  I hate how this picture turned out, but I'm too lazy to take another.  I designed this custom curtain to hide our clutter.  Now I just need a basket for the paper towels...

Up next is my bathroom.  Since we had so many bathrooms, we decided to have separate ones.  I think this is great for marriage.  :)  Plus, my bathroom is in the hallway and stays warmer because it is below the heater; Zach's bathroom is on the outside wall of the house and is freezing in the winter.  Actually, the whole bottom floor stays freezing in the winter, so we have to use a space heater AND a heated mattress pad.  It's true what your science teacher says:  heat rises.  (That also means our upper floor is toasting us right now.  ;)

 I have three collages I made after my study abroad trip--one each of Ireland, Scotland, and England.  (This is the England one.)  I want to find two more gold frames that are different from this one to hang up the other two collages.  I paid nothing for the collages because I got them over time with Walgreens free collage coupons.  (Look out for them, folks!  I pay next to nothing for photos with Walgreens, Shutterfly, and Snapfish.  ;)  And I got the frame half-off from Hobby Lobby!

 My bathroom is travel-themed (at least when it comes to pictures).  The one on the counter is the first picture I had taken of me in Ireland--isn't it sooo green?  The one on the wall is from Oxford, Mississippi, when we visited our friends when they worked there and went to William Faulkner's house, Rowan Oak.  Can you spot the LEGO jeep?  I built it!  I like to imagine it is for our imaginary trips around the world.

This is another of my decorating projects.  I changed out the shower curtain for something that better matches our decor.  :)  I love how it looks now!  The BELIEVE artwork was from my roommate Emily for Christmas one year--it reminds me that nothing is impossible with God!  For example, I had dreamed of going to Europe since third grade, and I never thought I would make it after many failed trips.  And there is the whole saving-my-life-and-my-soul thing.  ;)

The pictures on the wall are also from my study abroad trip, but I am going to trade them out for other travel pictures once I get my collages framed.

Finally, Zach's bathroom is left.  I won't show much of it (even though it's clean--we just cleaned them yesterday).

 The Paris frame came from my roommate Monica; it would probably be more appropriate for my bathroom, but I felt the pictures of Zach's "groomsmen" looked great in it.  There is a picture of us in the heart-shaped frame; it was taken right before we walked down the aisle after Zach's Momo passed out and scared us to death; it's hard to see, but our foreheads are pressed together and our eyes are closed because we were trying to collect our thoughts.  It was "a momentary stay against confusion."

Of course, there are lots of LEGO pieces in Zach's bathroom.  I tried to class it up with some Chinese cat figures and a ceramic box in blue and white, but they got ousted by the Star Wars.

I hope you enjoyed viewing our toilets (pronounced in the FRAHNS-SAY way) and got a few ideas to decorate your own water closet.  :)

I made something! With my hands! And it's functional!

So my mama gave me these barstools when I got my first (off-campus) apartment; the cushions came with them.  I am fairly certain she bought them both at yard sales, maybe even at the same one.  I love the stools because they are real wood and heavy, but I did not love the cushions.

 They were too large, hanging off the edges and not tying properly to the chair.  I thought about getting new ones, but since these worked--they just weren't pretty--I didn't want to spend money.  However, once I got my sewing machine, I thought maybe, just maybe, I could make them over.  So I did!

ugly ties

 Sorry for the iPhone photos

You can see how these were hanging over the edges rather far.

 First, I used my seam ripper to take the cushions apart. I removed the stuffing before laundering the material.  After it was dry, I trimmed off fraying strings and ironed it.

 While my material was drying, I cut a template of the seat using newspaper.  I pinned it to the fabric to cut the appropriate shape.  The only thing I didn't do was take into consideration how thick I wanted to stuff it, so my pillows are higher and smaller than I thought they would be.

 After cutting one cushion (two pieces), I pinned them to the other fabric and cut the second cushion.

I picked up some grosgrain ribbon in green because I thought it was a good accent color, and I feel we need more green in our house.  I cut the ribbon longer than I planned to use (much longer) and pinned the ribbon after I decided how it should split, and then I ironed down the fold.

Then I pinned the ribbon ties where they should be, which is tricky because you are pinning them inside out, which means the ends should be inside between the two pieces of fabric.  I hope that makes sense.

I sewed one cushion, leaving an opening to stuff and backtracking (I can't remember if that is the appropriate seamstress term) when I started and when I ended so it wouldn't unravel.  Next, I placed the fabric in the seat to make sure the ties were in the correct place.  They weren't.  :(  Rather than ripping out everything, I just ripped out the thread before, over, and after the ties, repinned them, and resewed them.

Finally, I flipped the fabric right side up and began to stuff.  On one, I didn't make the opening quite large enough, so always make sure you leave an opening large enough.  It was tricky getting the fluffy stuff in there.

Once I stuffed them where I liked, I hand sewed them closed and tied them to the chairs:

They are a bit fluffier than I would like, but I think after we sit on them awhile, they will go down.  And I may sew some buttons through them to help flatten them as well.  But right now they work!

And they fit:

This shows how fluffy there are.  *lol*

Still, I think they look much better now:

I can't wait to do some more crafty projects in our house!