How to fishtail braid your hair

A lot of my friends ask me how I do this, so I decided to make a video and post it to youtube. Hope you can follow along!

How to fishtail braid your hair

General Musings

So, work has begun again. I've been working on sewing, have a good idea for a story, and am buying some nice watercolors to experiment with! I'm excited about my etsy shop too =)

More doodles from my note book:

This is a drawing of my boyfriend and I:

I am learning a lot and hopefully things will settle down soon...Pineapples and happy creating, blog-world =) I can't wait to get started on all my ideas....

Tutorial- How to make a quick and cute drink coaster

Hey! My second tutorial will be how to make a quick and cute drink coaster!

You will need: fabric for your drink coaster (a fat quarter will be more then enough), some felt (cotton batting is usually used but I don't have any, and felt is just as good!) and also any embellishments you might want to add to your coaster.

--also, because my fabric is blue and my "batting" is red, I am going to double it so the red won't show through.

1) Layer your fabric. You should have two layers of fabric and one layer of felt. I used a cup as a guide and cut through all the layers of my fabric at once.

2) You want your felt piece to be smaller then your fabric square. Cut your felt piece, making it about a half an inch smaller then the fabric. You then want to "curve" the edges of your bottom piece of the coaster around the felt. Sew the sides down.

3) Curve the top piece of your coaster normally. Sew the sides.

It should now look like this.

4) You should now have two "coaster" pieces. One with a piece of red felt sewed in the middle, and one plain.

5) Now add any embellishments you might want to the top piece, and place the pieces wrong sides together (so it looks like a coaster). I added two horizontal lace ribbons.

6) We are now going to sew the coaster together with five evenly spaced stripes right down the center, and of course sewing right on top of your previous stitches (from step 3) to complete the coaster. The stripes will be based on the size of your coaster, but mine were about an inch apart.

Cut off and tie your strings.

7) ^_^ Yay! A coaster =)

In the end, mine didn't overlap quite right on one edge...I must have folded one edge wrong. Oh well, I still like it!

If you find this useful leave me a note I'd love to see!

How to make a wristlet out of an old sleeve tutorial!

My first tutorial! Decided to try and start with something easy: a wristlet made out of an old, cast-off sleeve.

You will need: old shirt, piece of elastic the width of your wrist, scraps, lace, buttons and any other embellishments. I tea-dyed my piece of shirt but you don't have too.

1) First, cut the sleeve off at the wrist. about 4-5 inches from the end will do! It should look like this:

2) Next, cut a piece of elastic that fits around your wrist. Leave a inch or two at the end to make sure it will overlap. Also, the piece of elastic should fit snugly around your wrist without stretching. The stretch is to make sure it can get over your hand, and the elastic is, of course, so your wristlet doesn't fall off your wrist.

3)  Now, flip it inside out.

Sew your elastic on the middle of your wristlet. I picked the middle so it scrunches nicely and that is where I want it to rest on my wrist. When you sew on the elastic make sure to pull it. (Like above)

4) Then it's time for embellishments! I added cute pink lace to the ends to help with fraying.

I also added a button and some fabric. When adding fabric, start from the bottom up. So the first piece you put on will be covered a little bit by the next and so forth.

It really is that simple, and there is no end to what you can do! Leave me a comment if you've tried this, I'd love to see it!

Rennes Giveaway Thank You!

So, a few weeks ago I won this super cute necklace from Rennes! She is a super-sewer who quit her job (!!!) to sew purses and make jewelry and clothes all day long. Here is a link to her blog.

It's a beautiful necklace and now I've worn it two days in a row. My favorite part of it is the weight. Its light, but has a sight heavyness in the pendent. The first picture is from her blog, and the last one is a picture of me wearing it!

So, thank you Rennes =)

-Carolynn

A thought

No art really today, only rest...but here is a poem for art's sake. Because I love and miss writing and hope one day to write a long, winding novel about some nonsense or the other...
-------

I stain the water black

Write upon the hills with wind tempests

Pen soliloquies backwards with the nub of my pen

Brushed from underneath shadowed D-  

I linger

Upside down, righted only for a breath—

Dancing limp in willow froth

Because

Sea foam stills so quietly when

thunderous voices roam.

------

Thought: 

In my heart there are only mazes

That wish to be a path of stars

For your feet to walk on

------

In other news, tutorials to come! =D

Bracelet

A cute little fabric and tea-dyed bracelet. I used a piece of elastic as the closure, but don't know how well it really works. I like these!

Also I have signed up to take the GRE (and am thus 160$ poorer). Why does it cost so much to take that test? I and my trusty bike rode 1.3 miles to pick up the study guide and will begin studying a lot soon! I'm excited, I wonder where (or if) I will go to Grad School? (yes that needs capitals)

Also, Pineapples! I am greatly enjoying my vacation still. 1.5 weeks left....

New Shirt =)

Hey! I made a workable shirt with "puffy" sleeves in pink. Its my own design and it actually turned out WEARABLE! And the collar is perfect. I love it. Anyway, as you can tell I'm really happy with it and plan on using it as a prototype for my shop in the future! Hope you guys like it =D

My attempt at coloring

I've never been good at it. Skin is hard!

I am about to ride to the post office =)

Bliss + 2 wk Vacation + Art time =)

So, my roommate moved in today and things are going great =) I cooked my first fish on the stove also (it was yummy) and even did some sketching. This one I inked in pen, I like pen...

I call it "The Princess Who Got Caught Picking Flowers On The Edge Lake Nun"

^_^

Tomorrow I plan on riding my bike to the post office (this is my trial run of a week of bike riding only, no car).

I have some fun things planned this week!

Tootles! =)