Liebster Award

Good morning!

Andrea from A Single Frame recently passed along the Liebster Award to this little blog. I'm so delighted! It's such a great idea, especially for bloggers like me who are just starting out and hoping to find readers who will enjoy what we have to share.

Liebster is a German word meaning sweetest, beloved, and endearing. It is passed on from blogger to blogger as a way of spreading the word about up and coming blogs (with fewer than 200 followers). When your blog is nominated, you share 11 facts about yourself and your answers to the 11 questions from the blogger who nominated you. Then you nominate five qualifying blogs you love and want to share with your readers. Be sure to notify them that you've nominated them, and then ask them 11 questions of your own.

I'm so thrilled to be included!

11 Facts about Me

1. I am an elementary teacher and I love it so much. I have taught first grade for four years, and next year I'll be moving to fourth grade.
2. I love animals!
3. Even though I'm a runner now, I never participated in any athletic activities in high school or college. I always hated exercise until I started running. Now running is a big part of my life.
4. I'm addicted to chocolate and Starbucks.
5. I have a record player and a modest record collection, and I love digging through bins at flea markets to find records to add to my collection.
6. I have two sisters, Lisa and Laura, who are twins.
7. My husband's name is Brandon, but I call him Rand.
8. My favorite movie is Dumb and Dumber. I think it's hilarious, no matter how many times I watch it!
9. I'm very shy in person. Except around my students. They get me!
10. I created and maintained a website dedicated to the X-Files when I was a kid. I was very cool and popular, clearly.

Andrea's Questions

1. Do you have any guilty pleasures? Don't judge me...Dateline NBC. I. Can't. Stop. Watching.
2. What can't you live without? My husband. I like him a lot.
3. What are your hopes for your blog in the future? I really hope this blog can be a place where I can share my love of design and connect with others who love it too. I want blogging to help make me a better writer and photographer, and knowing that I have readers who are interested in what I'm sharing is AWESOME.
4. What is your best memory from 2013 thus far? Definitely running my first half-marathon. Now I can't wait to run another!
5. Are you an iPhone or Android person? iPhone, but just because that's all I've ever known since my Nokia days. Plus I teach at a school where the students all have iPads and the teachers have MacBooks, so it's Apple for me!
6. What dessert can't you live without? The Paradise Pie from Chili's. The yummiest chocolate chip cookie I've ever tasted topped with vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup and caramel. Unbelievable.
7. Do you have a favorite summer spot? Honestly, home. I love spending my summers catching up on all the home projects I don't have time for during the school year.
8. If you have the choice between never having to do dishes, laundry, or vacuum ever again, which would you choose? Easy...laundry! I can't stand it. I usually mess it up-too much room for error!
9. What is your everyday accessory necessity? Big earrings. I have to wear 'em everyday.
10. Cats vs Dogs? Definitely cats! I'm a crazy cat lady.
11. In which direction would you wish for the wind to blow you? Straight to NYC.

Here are five blogs I highly recommend checking out. Each of these blogs is so unique and worth a read. (I based my selection on their number of followers on Bloglovin'.)

Live-Give-Love
The DIY Nurse
Through the Front Door
Tall Glass of Water
Grey Gone Green

My Questions:
1. Why do you blog?
2. What is your favorite movie?
3. What is your favorite kind of weather?
4. What do you like to do with your time when you're not blogging?
5. What has been your best memory from 2013 so far?
6. What is your biggest pet peeve?
7. What is your favorite blog post you've written?
8. Who is your favorite author?
9. If you had to live in a decade other than this one, which one would you choose?
10. What is something you have learned recently?
11. What is the best book you've read lately?

Thank you so much for participating! There are so many great new blogs out there that should be read and enjoyed, so help spread the word by passing this award on. Also, please link back and let me know when you post. I would love to read your answers!

Thanks again to Andrea, and have a wonderful Thursday!

Instant Record Cart

Back when I wrote this post, I had in mind the pair of bar carts I had seen at a flea market some time back, so that was what I was envisioning as I wrote that post. But then I started thinking about my little microwave cart I've used in my bathroom for the last couple of years. I got this little guy at a garage sale, and I immediately stuck him in the bathroom because I wanted more counter space. But after writing my post about bar carts used for other things, and then stumbling upon Elsie's cute little record cart, I began itching for a cart for my record player and modest record collection.

So I yanked that cart out of the bathroom and put it in my living room!

Much better, corner!

Now I have plenty of room for my records and some space for my DIY books. And I FINALLY got my own copy of the Young House Love book. It's wonderful, by the way.

While I was rearranging my stuff I was listening to records, and I remembered my 101 in 1001 list item,  #25-Find five new (to me) bands/musicians I really like. Borrowing records from my mom's collection has helped me find a lot of musicians I had heard of but hadn't really listened to, and I'm really loving her Linda Ronstadt albums. Her voice is amazing. Here's one of my favorite songs:



+ How often do you rearrange furniture in your house?

DIY String Art

One day last week I woke up in the mood to get crafty. So I went over to my shelf of DIY books and picked up this:

 String Things You Can Create by Glen Saeger

When I was a kid, I loved to make things, like I do now, and my mom had a great collection of DIY books from Better Homes and Gardens. I taught myself to knit, crochet, embroider, and sew just from reading these books alone in my room. But honestly, I think I was sort of like one of those musicians who admits he can't actually read sheet music. I love reading, but when I see those complicated patterns with letters and numbers, my eyes just sort of glaze over and my mind goes elsewhere. So I basically learned these skills by looking at the pictures. Same with this book. This tutorial is really just based on my own interpretation of Saeger's instructions. And with pictures!

For this project, you will need:

+ 1 piece of foam board

+ embroidery thread

+ a picture frame (mine is just a frame I found at a garage sale)

+ sewing or applique pins (these won't stay with the project)

+ scissors or xacto knife

+ a pencil

+ a piece of fabric slightly larger than your picture frame

+ Aleene's tacky glue

+ a ruler

+ a sewing needle

1. Use the size of your picture frame to cut a piece of foam board that will fit inside the frame. Trace and cut out your piece of foam board.

2. Cover your piece of foam board in your fabric, and glue the edges to the back of the foam board, gently pulling it so it won't be saggy on the front. I used Aleene's tacky glue.

3. Decide on your design. The most basic design is just two lines that you'll zig zag back and forth between. I just googled "string art" for some ideas. Use my design if you like!

4. Use your ruler to plot your points on your foam board with your pins. I spaced my points evenly, at every half inch, but there are actually two way of doing this, and you know how I like pictures, so I created some illustrations. Here's one I made of the basic concept, when both lines are the same length:

Basically, you have two lines (they don't have to be connected) with the same number of points. You start at 1, then stitch over to 2, then 3, all the way to 9, then back to 1 to close up the side.

But what if you want to include two lines in your design that aren't the same length? Here are two options you have for that:

The book recommends putting the same number of points on each line, but space them closer together on the shorter line. That way you can still go back and forth like before and return to 1 at the end. This just makes the side look finished.

For some reason (maybe a little laziness) I decided I wanted all my points to be evenly spaced. Looking back, I think I should have done it the other way, but this works, too. I just spaced all my points 1/2 inch apart, then I doubled up on the points on the shorter line as I stitched. So I went 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 6, 5, 7, 5, 8, etc. Either one will produce a cool looking design, but I think the first strategy is actually much simpler. 

5. After you points are plotted with your pins, start stitching! I used one thread of embroidery floss and followed my pattern along any two lines that came together. After I had a stitch at each point, I removed its pin and put it away. This made it easier to keep track of where I had stitched and where I needed to go. 

6.  I started with blue, but I also added green on top of that, and then yellow. If you decided to do more than one layer, wait until you're done stitching the first layer to add the pins for the second layer. Too many pins would be confusing!

7. I painted my frame black, because it was originally green. After it dried, I slipped my string art into its new frame, minus the glass.

Et voila! Your own string thing. 

Happy crafting!