Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Show & Tell: Silhouette Project for the Guys

Hi Everyone!

I did a pair of vinyls last week for my husband. The Silhouette software allows you to trace images and edit the trace to make sure cuts how you want it to. So, you can purchase items from their website or create ones yourself. It's one of the reasons I love the Silhouette above all other machines! :)


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Sunday, January 29, 2012

DIY Sunday: Casserole Carrier

Hello There,

It's time for another Pinterest craft! I've noticed that Pinterest is every where lately. CNN, the radio, Facebook. I did these casserole carrier tutorial that I had found on TaylorMade. This project is quite easy compared to other sewing projects on Pinterest. I followed the suggestion at Taylor Made of using belting instead of sewing your own straps (a great suggestion). I also did one other adaption. I used two different fabrics and the carrier became reversible as a result! The two I made were belated Christmas gifts, but I plan on making myself one eventually.

 The short side is a grey chevron fabric.


Once you switch to the long side, the fabric is an aqua fabric.


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Saturday, January 28, 2012

Donating My Hair: Pantene Beautiful Lengths Update

Hello Everyone!
Today was the big day! I cut my hair in order to donate it to Pantene Beautiful Lengths. I told you about this great campaign before. {Visit this post for information on how to donate} I really support this organization because it donates its real hair wigs to the American Cancer Society wig bank. I've had several people in my life that have been diagnosed with cancer and found it difficult to get a real hair wig at a price they could afford. Locks of Love doesn't give their wigs to people that have short term hair loss, and people receiving treatment for their cancer are considered to fall in this category.

I took a few "before" pictures on my cell phone, so they aren't the greatest quality but I wanted to show the BIG difference losing 9+ inches of hair makes! I also got this amazing color done. I'm super happy with the results! 

Before:


This last picture is this morning right before I left for my hair appointment. (Can you tell it's early and I'm quite tired?) The colored elastics is right where I ended up cutting my hair. It ended up being a bit shorter than I expected but I like the results. :)

After




So you can see the results side by side: 

I hope you decide to join me in donating your hair to such a great cause. Thank you so much for all the people that dropped off hair to send off with mine and for those who pledged to donate themselves!

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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Show & Tell: Kitchenaid Mixer Vinyl

Hello There!

I pulled out the Silhouette this weekend and did a bunch of fun projects. One of them is a gift so I can't share it quite yet, but I had some other fun projects I did!


I had this glass holder in my basement from our wedding (about 4 years ago!), and I thought I could finally start using it. Although, the cookies are already pretty much gone.

It's kinda hard to tell, but this vinyl is a light blue color.

Vase I had in the basement (also from our wedding) that got a little jazzed up.


Kitchenaid Mixer "before"

New vinyl on my mixer. I'm not sure if I like it, but I can remove it later if needed. It's much more blue than it appears in the picture.



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Sunday, January 22, 2012

DIY Sunday: Heart Wreath

Hi There!

In our MOPS group this last week, we did a really easy, fun and cheap craft for Valentine's Day. We used the tutorial at The Hybrid Chick. We did a few things differently. We didn't use glue dots, we used staples. It worked fine since we used patterned paper the staples didn't show. Since were using our scrapbook collections, we didn't have double sided paper. So, we took two different papers and put them back to back. To keep them from slipping, we did one staple by the fold. We did find that thicker paper (cardstock) did work better. I did thinner paper and it didn't keep the shape as well as the girls that used the thick stuff.

Enjoy our wreaths!



This wreath was done by Bethany, one of the girls in our MOPS group. She used the more sturdy paper and her's turned out great! I love the black and white paper with the pink ribbon.

Here is another one by Shelby, another mom in our group. Her's is so nice and round! I might have to give mine a little more love to make it as nice as hers!

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Thursday, January 19, 2012

Join Me! Pantene Beautiful Lengths Challenge

Hi Everyone!

I wanted to check in and let everyone I'm still alive! It's been a busy couple of weeks. I have a new project to post soon that is just the cutest heart wreath. I'm getting photographs together right now.

I wanted to share something that is close to my heart and on my mind. I have pretty long hair. I love my hair more than a person probably should. However, it's gotten to the point where it's so long I can't do anything with it (it's too heavy and thick to wear down and it won't curl now), so it's time for a cut. I was initially thinking just a trim...then I started thinking....

Are you thinking of cutting your hair? Well, join me in donating my hair to Beautiful Lengths!

I'm sure you've heard of people donating their hair. They probably donated to Locks of Love. That's just fine, but I didn't know this until recently, but wigs from Locks of Love aren't available for cancer patients. Also, they are so overwhelmed by donations that some donations end up in the trash. Now, I'm not saying that organization isn't worthy of donations; however, I have personal reasons for wanting my donation to go to cancer patients. My brother's girlfriend is a survivor, and she had issues find a wig when she was having treatment. My grandmother passed away from lung cancer and lost her hair during treatment. My grandmother said losing her hair was the single worse side effect of her treatment. She was never seen without her head covered because of this insecurity. More recently, my grandfather passed away after a long battle with cancer.

The American Cancer Society recommends two organizations Wigs for Kids and Pantene Beautiful Lengths. Wigs for Kids requires a 12 inch donation, and Beautiful Lengths only requires an 8 inch donation. I don't have 12 inches to spare, so the decision was easy. Hair can't be colored with permanent hair dye and must be free of chemical treatments. I used a semi-permanent on my hair a few years ago, but I haven't used a permanent hair dye.

From the Beautiful Lengths website:
"Nearly 774,370 American women will be diagnosed with cancer in 2012 and one in three women will develop some form of cancer in her lifetime. These statistics make it abundantly clear that cancer will affect each one of us in some way. Hair loss, one of the most common side effects of cancer treatment, can be especially traumatic for women fighting cancer. "

Donating is pretty easy. You just put your dry product-free hair in a ponytail (also put another elastic at the bottom and one in the middle), measure the 8 inches (or more if you want to donate more!) from the elastic and cut above the elastic. You put the hair in a zip lock bag and send off in a padded envelope to: 

Pantene Beautiful Lengths
Attn: 192-123 20770
Westwood Dr
Strongsville, OH 44149

To this day, Beautiful Lengths has donated over 18,000 real hair wigs to the American Cancer Society's Wig Banks. 
(If you think you may be eligible for a wig, contact the American Cancer Society’s Wig Bank Line at 1-877-227-1596.)

It takes at least eight ponytails to create a wig. Will 7 other people pledge to donate this month so we can make our own wig for a cancer patient that would not able to afford one otherwise?

 Me, My Mom and My Grandmother, Myrtle. She had just started treatment not too long before my wedding.

My grandfather, George with my daughter Lila.

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