Ornament Wreath

All of the ornament wreath pictures on Pinterest look SO pretty, so I decided to make one for S's parents for Christmas :)

I used:
- 1 wire hanger (free from my closet!)
- 6 12pack of ornaments from Dollar Tree ($6)
- 1 2pack ribbons from Dollar Tree ($1)
- jingle bells (from my mess of classroom supplies)
- 1 Mardi Gras neclace
- pliers

First I took the hanger and stretched it into a circle. Okay, it's more like a blob, but I tried ;) Then I used the pliers to untwist it.

Some tutorials say that you should hot glue the ornaments to the hook, but I didn't. They felt tight enough. (A few did pop off as I was rearranging on the hanger, but up to you!) Once the hanger was free, I started putting the ornaments on.

After they were all on, I used the pliers to close the ends of the hanger back up. It was super tricky. It ended up being a mess of wire in every direction haha! So I put one of the bows on the front and covered up the ugliness. Most tutorials will show you how to make your own bow out of ribbon, but I'm not that crafty. So I'll stick with my premade one:)

Then I added the jingly bells. They came with the string, so I just looped the string around the hanger and back through the bell so they were sorta dangly.

Finally, since I botched the hanging part, I strung the Mardi Gras necklace in place to hang it! I will probably go back and redo this part since I don't really like the way it look. But for now..... this is the final product:

Happy crafting!

Date Jar Craft

Money is pretty tight this year, so I've decided to get crafty and make most of my Christmas presents rather than buying them :)

My sister and her boyfriend started dating earlier this year, so I made them a "Date Jar" for Christmas. For this craft I used:
- 1 mason jar ($1.49 at Hobby Lobby)
- large Popsicle sticks ($1 at a dollar store)
- leftover scrapbook paper and stickers
- leftover ribbon
- leftover tulle
- a scrapbooking embellishment

I wrote all of the dates on large Popsicle  sticks. I didn't bother coloring them by cost or anything like that. Here is my list of dates that are on there:

Drive through the city
Movie and popcorn
Bake cupcakes
Pizza and jigsaw puzzle
Go out for Mexican
Bowling
Go to the movies
Watch favorite TV show
Go to a tigers game
Watch sunrise and make breakfast
Play board games
Visit the local art museum
Go to CJ Barrymore's
Have a picnic at the lake
Arcade
Go kayaking
Go ice skating
See a play or live show
Volunteer for a good cause
Visit the driving range
Go to the batting cages
Listen to your favorite songs
Do a crossword
Photography shoot at a playground
Climb trees
Karaoke
Make canvas art together
Play bingo
Recreate a music video
Go window shopping
Ride a Ferris wheel
Send a message in a bottle
Play cards
His choice
Her choice
 ....... and some other ones, but I was writing as I went and did not add them to my typed list.

I traced the lid and cut out a circle on scrapbook paper.

 Then I added some letter stickers.

Lastly, I tied a piece of ribbon into a bow and added some leftover tulle that I had laying around. The tag was mixed in with my scrapbooking stuff, so I added that as well.

I may go back and do more to the jar- either try to dye the glass or use mod podge and get some tissue paper on there. But for now, this is it :)

"You and Me" Book

I've seen a lot of pins regarding relationships and date nights and whatnot recently, and there's just so much and I want to do them all! So, I figured out a way to :)

I'm putting together a "You and Me" book. On the first page I wrote a special note to my special someone. I explained that inside he will find notes from me, as well as pictures and other things of our time together.

Since I didn't start this right when we started dating, I decided to capture all of our past times together in an "ABC's of Us" section! Basically each page has a letter with something unique to our relationship. For example my D page is for Detroit Tigers, with the date, tickets, and a picture of us from the game.

My "You and Me" Book is a $2.50 notebook that I bought at Target years ago and never used. I plan on adding to it as we continue our journey as two, and giving it to him on our anniversary :)

Pinspiration at it's finest.

77 Date Ideas

I came across a 77 Date Ideas pin, and followed it to the home blog where I found this list. I highlighted the ones that we have done and crossed off the ones that we don't want to do. I included a picture if I have one and a small story to go with the ones we've done. Maybe someday we'll complete this list and add new date ideas!

1. Make chocolate covered strawberries
2. Paris night: get a baguette, French wine, and cheese!

3. Read your favorite books to one another

4. Bake cookies together

 We made sugar cookies, colored the dough, rolled it out and even used cookie cutters.

5. Watch the sunrise, then make breakfast together

6. Attend a local soccer game

7. Watch an entire season of your fav TV show
Yeah, he totally watched the whole season with me :-) Love this show!!

8. Go for a long drive

Although we weren't dating at the time, we went on a 9 hour drive up to Michigan Tech. Here is us on the trip home, on the ice by the Mackinaw Bridge!

9. Planetarium

10. Art gallery

11. Play board games

We've played board games, but this picture is from our "Hey let's buy crosswords and puzzle books and go to the lake!" date :D

12. Movie

13. Visit garage sales

14. Volunteer for a homeless shelter

15. Go dancing

16. Go to the driving range

17. Build a snowman

18. Ride go-carts

19. Rent a movie

It's free to sign up for Family Fun Video, and the first 30 days you get half off the already cheap prices. So of course we rented a ton of movies and watched... well most of them :) 

20. Have a carpet picnic
21. Go to an arcade

22. Play Frisbee

We played Frisbee at his cousin's graduation party.

23. Go kayaking

24. Go ice skating

25. Visit the pumpkin farm

He's never been pumpkin picking before! 

26. Go to a forest preserve

27. Go to ballet performance

28. Visit a place listed in an entertainment book

We love the coupon entertainment book :) We mostly use the coupons for food, but we've gone put putting.

29. Bike riding

So far our longest ride was 8 miles through the trails and part of the way around the lake at Stony.

30. Study social media marketing

31. Bowling

We've gone bowling with his cousin.

32. Haunted house

33. Out for coffee

34. Visit a flea market

35. Play bingo

36. Go to an opera

37. Swing by a bookstore

We took a pit stop to Barnes and Noble to buy a new bookmark and look at puzzles.

38. Visit another city

We've visited so many cities together! Here are some of the trips we've gone on this year: Cedar Point in Sandusky, Kings Island in Mason, Detroit for the Tigers game, Royal Oak for Arts, Beats and Eats, Silver Lake Sand Dunes, Mackinaw, Houghton, etc. etc.

39. Go hear jazz or reggae

40. See an NBA game

41. Play in the batting cages

42. Vegas anyone, lol?

43. Piano bar

44. Visit a nursing home and hand out flowers to everyone

45. Have lunch at a trendy new restaurant

46. Grab a fish fry

47. Grab a pint at an Irish pub

48. Chinese food and DVDs – the perfect mix

49. Attend a poetry reading

50. Attend an author reading from their latest fiction work

51. Go antiquing

52. Go out for drinks

53. Visit a winery

54. Attend a painting class

55. Visit an animal shelter

56. Go for a carriage ride

57. Visit the tourist spots in your hometown

58. Take a trip to the hobby store – pick out a project to work on for the afternoon

We bought an awesome 1000 piece puzzle at Hobby Lobby, but haven't got around to finishing it yet.

59. Take a walk – around a lake, in the moonlight, by the river, on the beach

We walked around the beach to watch the sunset together while at Silver Lake.

60. Go to a festival

We went to Arts, Beats and Eats over the summer.

62. Create a scrapbook

61. Go to a shrimp boil

63. Attend a matinee

64. Visit the zoo

65. Go see a local band

66. Have lunch at a church festival

67. Go camping

First camping trip this year was to Cedar Point. And then to Silver Lake :)

68. Go hiking

We walked to the top of a hill that overlooks the city, hiked through the woods and everything ;)

69. Go rock climbing

70. Play croquet

71. Attend a farmer’s market

72. Have dinner at a new place

We eat out so much! He's taken me to Carrabba's, I've taken him to Azteca :)

73. Try out a new cuisine

75. Take part in a community theater performance

74. Go strawberry picking or visit an apple orchard

We picked, apples, raspberries, gourds, green beans, and so much more at Blake's.

76. Attend a live, outdoor music night in your town

77. Go see fireworks

 We saw two different shows together this year. (Fireworks.... YEAH!)

Rag Quilt

I've never made a rag quilt before. Errr.... I've never quilted AT ALL before ;-) But I was browsing on Pinterest and one thing led to another and I found myself at this tutorial (and I had to try it!!!):

I raided my mom's sewing cabinet, which she hasn't used in years. But I didn't find anything to my liking. I thought about hitting up Joann's, buuuuut fabric can be pricey. Instead, I decided to go thrifting! I went to 6 different thrift stores in the area, and found these bed sheets and pillow cases (all for under $20):

To be continued.....