Craftivities

     So, I love crafting and unleashing my creative side. I've had some extra time this summer to work on a couple of projects. Some of these are inspired by pinterest :). 

This was an old dynamite box that I painted pink and transformed into a cabinet! :)

Very imperfect yet cute baby blanket for my friend's soon to be born baby boy!

Pineapple door hanger my dad cut out for me and I painted! 

The Seemingly Never-Ending Quilt Project

     It all started with this picture in a DIY magazine.  

     The article is not even about that beautiful circle quilt, but rather how to create the canopy. But it didn't matter. I was inspired! I wanted my own beautiful circle quilt on my bed. Actually, the idea to make my own quilt probably began with the fact that my grandmother made numerous quilts in her lifetime. I kinda put it on my mental bucket list. So, in the summer of 2011, I started my 1st quilt. Did I really just say 1st? My fabulous mom helped me cut the fabric. I even found this tutorial online. {Thank you!!!} I decided to make mine queen size to fit my bed. I seriously took my time with this project. There were months that I didn't even pick it up. Plus, I did the actual quilting part by hand and that was very time consuming. I didn't think I would ever finish it! Slowly but surely though I made my way through the 100 circles and 100 squares and the border. 3 years and thousands of stitches later, I finally finished it this summer!!!!!!!! I worked so hard on it!! I am super excited and I absolutely love it!!!! As you will see Effie loves it too! 

Figuring out the placement

Quilt top completed!

Quilting by hand

Effie loves this quilt!

Bless her little heart!

Surprise! She really made it hard to work on at times.

On this day, she decided to chew on the batting, lol. 

Tornado knocked out the electricity, but I improvised! :)

Finally finished hand-quilting!!!

Cutting off the extra batting. 

Are you almost finished??

Machine sewing the binding!

It was really late and I was tired but determined to finish.

Whoo hoo!!!!! Completed at 2:00 am!

Beautiful and perfectly imperfect circle quilt! I LOVE it!!!

And Your Bird Can Sing

     So, for Mother's Day/mama's birthday, I surprised my mama with a painting class! She has never painted a picture before and I think she was a little nervous about it. But, she decided to let loose and have a good time!!! We had fun painting our bluebirds, and despite how deformed she thinks her bird is, she did a FANTASTIC job! I love you, Mama, and I hope you had a blast! 

Concentrating

She's having so much fun!

Isn't she so cute?!

#selfiefail

Family Tree and "Jewells" of Names

     About a year ago, my Aunt Dianne asked me to redraw a family tree for the annual family reunion. This reunion is on my dad's mother's side of the family. I think I have been once, right after I graduated from high school. I really don't know very many of the people that attend simply because they are such distant relatives. Nevertheless, I felt I should attempt to draw this family tree. Let me just say, it is a huge family! My grandmother was one of nine children! And she alone had seven children, so you can imagine how big and complicated this tree is. There are roughly 281 names on it. Whoa! Something interesting I discovered is that my great-grandmother got married when she was 14 years old!!! She had her first child at age 15 and her last one at age 33. I could not even imagine. Here I am 29 years old and single as ever, lol! What a different life it must have been 100 years ago. My own grandmother got married at age 25, which I find interesting because I thought most people got married really young back then. I never met my biological grandfather, but have seen pictures of him. He was a handsome fella! I would have loved to hear how they met and fell in love. 

The top is the original; the bottom is my version-couldn't resist putting a swing on the tree and a bird nest in the tree! :)

     Anyone who really knows me well, knows that I have an obsession interest in names. :) I just love to discover unique or interesting names. As I was working on this project, I discovered some "Jewells" of names. Jewell was one of my dad's uncles. I like the name Jewel, but have to say I definitely picture it more on a girl this day in age. Other interesting names that caught my eye:

Shelby-the patriarch of the family

Lula-matriarch of the family

Estelle

Ruth-had to include this as it is my grandmother!

Vanessa

Millie-love this name!

Genell-yet another lovely

Royal-how cool

Delphine-loving this for some reason

Ophelia

Dorinda (Dorie)

Mariela-very pretty

Pearlie-believe it or not, this was a man!

There were lots and lots of the following as first and middle names:

Lloyd

Elzey

Shelby

Jewell

Elma

A Bedroom Makeover

     Transitioning from college furniture to "adult" furniture takes time when you only have one income. I have taken my time and bought a dining room table first and just recently got new living room furniture. All that was left was new bedroom decor. This also happens to be the most expensive considering the expense of a mattress. I wasn't really in any rush to buy for this last room. Enter my brother, his new wife, and an extra (queen-size) bed they didn't need! I asked him if he was considering making a donation to the Candace-needs-a-nice-bed-fund, and as it turns out he was! He kindly gave me his practically brand-new bed and I am so thankful! As one can imagine, with a new bed comes new decorations! So, I searched the internet and found a bright, fun, yellow comforter that was half-off. Mix in a few more decorations and I now have a vibrant, new room! Thanks Chad for making this possible!!

My bed before

The wall before

New bed!

Ties I made for the curtains

Old window I put mirrors in; antique wash stand

Abacus my dad made for me when I was a little girl

MS wall art I made with a friend!

Maltese print by artist Angela Bond I found at an art festival 

Sweet Effie completes the look don't you think?

Today I Made a Dress!

     One day a few weeks ago as I was playing on Pinterest, I came across this tutorial on how to make a 10 minute boxy dress.

I was immediately inspired and pinned it so I could make one myself! So this afternoon, I dusted off my sewing machine and tried my hand at this cute dress.  It was super easy and fun! I must admit, it definitely took me longer than ten minutes, but I love crafting and learning how to do new things. And the best part about this particular piece is it only cost $7 plus the thread! I had some extra material leftover, so I also made myself a headband that I can wear with a black shirt. So, if you like sewing, go ahead and give this dress a try!

The starting point!

The finished product! :)

                                                                            And finally, the headband!