It's all the same, if everybody leaves her.

I would like to start this out with a little personal update. First, let's talk about growing up - because it's no fun. I wish I would have listened to my parents. I'm turning twenty three this upcoming month. Really, it's like two weeks. Things hit you like a brick. I'm twenty three. Twenty three! 23! two three. Holy shit.

In all of this aging stress, I've taken so many things and pushed myself to cross them off the list. I have a credit card bill, from when I was eighteen. I owe nine hundred bucks. I knew at the back of my mind, that this was true - but when I realized how old I was getting, and that in the NEAR future I would be looking to move out on my own completely (I mean, I live with roommates now, but that doesn't count.) So, I contacted my collections company and got all of that mess squared away to make payments on it. Yay!

I also applied to Oakland Community College. I'm going to go finish that associate's. My main goal is to grab an associates, and look for some small business grants. But, hell - that's the future, this is now.

Speaking of now, I got a car today! This is the first car I have had in three years, no four years - that was MY car. Not one that I share with my love. I have a car. I can't say it enough. I'm very excited.


MOVING ON;
Crafts. ABOUT those. Let's talk about them. I made things! Specifically, I made my brother a birthday present. A desk set which included a pen container and a mini bulletin board. I have step by step instructions to the bulletin board, which I thought was SUPER cute and very handy if you are low on wall space, haha.

Let's get started!

you are going to neeed;

• cork
• picture frame
• fabric
• glue (i used tacky, you should not, haha)
• paint (optional)
• pens
• scissors/razorblade

You can also have a cute kitty. This could not be avoided for me. He was VERY adamant about helping.

Take your picture frame. Take the back off, remove the glass and save it for a future project!



Use the back part to trace a shape on the cork.

This is where the cat comes in. He will try and guide your pen in all sorts of crazy directions. Do not allow this to happen.

Place the cut out cork into the frame, along with a cardboard backing. Close it up, just to make sure it fits.

I was in luck. It really did fit.

Track the fabric with allowance to wrap it up nice and neat.

Wrap it up in the middle, like so. Glue in place, and than do this with the outer edges. Apparently my camera disappeared into the mess, because this is the last picture I took until the finished project;

I trimmed off the mess, and in the end I think it looked really good. My brother didn't get back to me on whether he liked it or not, but you know.

This is a crappy phone picture of the complete set. :D Notice I put his initials on the board and on the other say of the container is a B as well as the apparent J. :D

Okay, that's it for me! I'm out of here.
The next update? It won't be so far away.
Just a few days, and will include some of the jewelry I'm making!

I hope everyone has amazing plans for memorial day weekend! :]

The Last Hour.

Well, hell. Today is a small update, for the most part. It includes;

• a small project
• pictures of my new craft box, with brand new stuff inside! :D
• pictures of some lame watercolors i did for my boring white walls

Let's get the show on the road. Today's project is small but very adorable. I bought a back of 5 headbands (you know, the thin plastic ones?) and out of the five, one was colored brown. I have a headband addiction, and most of them are supposed to stand out. I have brown hair, so I didn't like that it blended in. What's my solution? Not let it go to waste - I want to be able to wear every headband I own. This is my solution;

Get some colorful string, and a glue gun together.
This isn't string, per se. It's actually a flat ribbon-esque cro-sheen,
but anything would work. You'll be doing a lot of wrapping with plain string though.

Glue a dab of glue on the end, and place your material in it. Start a-wrappin'! It took me roughly twenty minutes to get all the way around.

Here's a closer picture of the wrapping process.

Keeep wrapping. When you get to the end, wrap it up nice and tight and glue it down.

Excuse the messs my hair/face is. This is the finished product!

Now I have an awesome headband, fixed up in my favorite color. It also happens to be the color of most of my clothes! Imagine! :]

Next are just some photos; The first couple are my new craft boxes. I have a tub, but it's not with me right now. These were empty, and in the last couple of days I've filled them with new goodies too! The second set is lame (I know, it's lame) artwork of quotes and stuff. It's just filler to keep my walls not so white. I'm working on replacementss! :]

When it rains, it pours.

It's still raining. I don't know why I expected differently from May. All this means to you, is that my project is postponed yet again. I can't collect wood in the mud and rain. It's supposed to be sunny soon though. I'll probably head out tomorrow afternoon.

In the meantime, I wanted to share one of my obsessions. I will warn you, that things that capture my brain are weird, haha. I've been patiently waiting for my very own space to create something like this.

I discovered my first "Plate Wall" a few years ago. I was reading my usual design blogs, and stumbled across it. Ever since than I've been saving pictures and gathering ideas for my very own plate wall. I've thrown plates on a wall symmetrically, spewed all over, in a line, in a flower shape - all sorts of styles and plates have been used. Nothing ever looks right, for me. I have a feeling that it won't look right until it's in my house. So, I'll wait patiently for that.

In the meantime, I want to share my obsession. First, I want to show you a few of my favorite collections.

It's really cool, isn't it? Secondly, if you're interested in throwing together a plate wall - let's talk about your options.

Option number one. Buy new plates. There are lots of cool plates at stores like Urban Outfitters (Just so happens they have a great dish sale going on!).

Option number two. Hit up some antique shops, garage sales, flea markets. They have the coolest plates around. It's also a lot cheaper to buy pretty plates when they're so OLD they're toxic to eat on. Oh, don't things get GREAT with age?

Option number three. This one is my favorite. You can get plain white dishes for really cheap. Sometimes, even at the dollar store. Paint them yourself! This comes in handy if you are going with a theme, and are missing a few plates. Sometimes, you can just NEVER find what you are looking for.


I've found two tutorials to help you guys on your plate wall missions, should you choose to accept it.

Tutorial number one; This tutorial talks about how to arrange a plate wall, and just so happens to be from one of my favorite design blogs ever.

Tutorial number two; This tutorial is a short, and simple tutorial that talks about how and what you would use to paint a plate.


I promise homemade crafts next time I post, even if I gotta break away from my wood project. :] Silly rain. I hope everyone enjoyed my rave. It's got me motivated to start the final collecting stages for a perfect collection! Haha.

Enjoy your weekend, folks! You never know what will happen before the next!

Belated Mother's Day

Happy Belated Mother's Day!

I wanted to wait until yesterday night to post this, but I was so exhausted from staying up so late all weekend and working at ten a.m. Sunday. I'm doing it now though, and I hope everyone had a fantastic Mother's Day.

Today I'm going to share my homemade Mother's Day gifts.
These are sloppy, and not very well done. It's a very neat idea if you wanted to really put some effort into it and use acrylics or something.

Materials I used:
Cardstock
Frames
Watercolors
Paintbrushes
Xacto
Pencil & Newspaper


I only took pictures of the final outcome, but I'll give a short description on my process.

I penciled in the lettering, and put the cardstock on top of cardboard. I than cut the lettering out and threw it in the garabge bag.

I took a full sheet of cardstock and used a single color to paint the sheet. After it dried a little bit, I put in some darker lines around where I thought the lettering would line up. (Sometimes I was dead wrong, haha.) Than I painted the sayings on the front cardstock, and cut both sheets to side. Than, wahla! Put in the frame, close up - and you have a simple, cute, box.

Okay, okay. It took a little more than this. You really have to mess with it. I ended up not only putting black lines around the lettering, but also adding the backdrop color to the front sheet too. I'm bad at explaining things without pictures - I PROMISE that I will have pictures next time.

It is actually raining today, so I can't collect the wood for my next project until probably Thursday. So, look forward to a post than. :] The project is really cute, I think.

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Aloha. I've made it a point to promise myself to post in this blog every two days, at the very least. So while things may not be very interesting all the time; you'll always have something to read.

I've been collecting lots of materials to get myself started in crafts. I've been focusing on stuff that can be recycled into something beautiful. By Sunday I should have something to show a finished project. I'm very excited.

In the meantime, I wanted to share a few of my favorite sites so that you can get some inspiration and create wonders!

First; crafttutorials.net ; It's got lots of fun tutorials for all sorts of awesome projects. I would be surprised if everyone couldn't find something they'd enjoy.

Second; kaboose.com ; I'll be honest - most of this stuff is craft for kids. So, if you're babysitting or lucky enough to have children than this is perfect. Of course, I've found several ideas that have grown into "adult" projects. You never know when you'll see something to inspire.

Last but not least; Etsy Labs Archive ; It's got a lot of very useful tutorials that I've used over, and over, and over. It's something that's been a very good bookmark.


I'll share more, because believe me - I've got them... but I have to keep SOMETHING in the bag in case I need another small filler entry! I shouldn't say that. I should be more stern with myself, haha.

I look forward to posting my projects next time, so you should look forward to it as well!

Introductions are NOT my thing. :/

My name is Tiffany, and I'm twenty-two. I like arts&crafts, garage sales, and nonsense. I smoke cigarettes, and drink quite a bit. I love indie anything, and I promote local things. I sincerely hope you are also promoting your local things! :]

Okay; enough about me. This blog is going to contain a few different things.

One, I live in Michigan. I'm young & restless, so I'm not the biggest fan of it 100% of the time, but I love my state. I want to hit the local markets, concerts, art shows, and in the mean time I'll share my experiences.

Two, I live for arts&crafts. What I create, find, love - whatever - I'll also be sharing with you. If I make something, I'll post original inspiration & my tutorials too.

Three, I love garage sale season. I'll be posting my fabulous finds & what they become.

Four, I get inspired. I'll leave this open. Sometimes I'll want to talk about a specific blog that I love, or a designer that makes my heart melt, or maybe a clothing line that inspired me to make art in those colors or who knows.

Five, I'm not a very good cook. I can't even lie about it. However, I want that to change too because the things I do make - people love. So, maybe it's not that I'm a bad cook, it's just that my cookbook isn't full of delicious recipes. So, I'll post delicious recipes I come across that make it into my brand new recipe book. :] Of course, with the experience of cooking it and all!





I think that's it. I hope people enjoy this. I hope people get inspiration from this. Most of all, in a selfish sense, I hope that it continues to inspire and please me. I've lived a very long time with nothing to live for, and it's about time I take charge and fix that.

See you soon!