Valentine’s Day Garland

Posted in craft, diy, Holiday, home by peppermintsandhoneybees

Hola peeps! I took a bit of a hiatus from blogging, not really on purpose but more because I was too busy to start/work on new projects and before I knew it January was half over! I am totally scared by the way time works and wish things would slow down just a bit. Now its that time of year that I just want to bypass to warmer days but I’m trying to enjoy the here and now and find the good, even in this frozen wasteland, because one day I’ll look back and miss these times!

I’ve never really decorated too much for Valentines day but since I have a craft blog now I figured I’d see what I could come up with, and love the results. I’m really starting to get in that heart everything spirit now and even though I don’t do frilly decorations (unless they’re vintage of course!) I made some simple nature inspired pieces. The arrows are inspired by similar ones I found on Pinterest. I used sticks for mine though and used paint and marker for the feathers. the heart tips are cardstock. I also made some of the feathers into earrings for my Etsy shop Peppermint Emporium. The garland is straight from my noggin and is just sticks, coffee filters dyed with watered down craft paint and twine. grab your glue gun and there ya go! Ben buys the unbleached coffee filters so I was a little disappointed that they weren’t white, but afterward I decided I liked the brown color better, it lends itself to the natural rustic vibe I was going for.

10Aug2014

Stapless to Halter Dress DIY

Posted in clothing, diy by peppermintsandhoneybees

Hello,

I’ve been starting to get a little sad now that summer is heading towards an end but I’m also starting to get into the fall mindset and have started wearing more olive greens and burn oranges now.

I recently found this dress I really really wanted two summers ago from Pacsun. I didn’t buy it at the time because it was a little more than I was wanting to spent so I let it go. On my most recent trip to Plato’s Closet though I found it on the sale rack for 50% off! the only problem was that it was an XL and I am usually a small or medium. it also had a hole by the zipper and a few of the seams were starting to come apart.

I figured since it was so cheap I could try to fix it, so I made it into a small by sewing the side seams smaller and hand stitched the holes back. I sewed out the zipper which really wasn’t a problem on this dress because the back was stretchy so I’m still able to get it on without a zipper. After I was done I decided that I kinda wanted it to have straps so I wasn’t pulling it up all day. (I’m sure you small chested girls know what I’m talking about!) I also didn’t want to have to wear a strapless bra with it, again the whole pulling it up thing!

Since it’s the end of summer I was able to find this black bikini top at Old Navy on sale for $4.95 and I hand sewed it into the front of the dress for a built in bra plus halter straps, pretty clever I think. 😉 I machine sewed the straps to the top so they would be secure and hand stitched the cups in so that the stitching wouldn’t show through the front. Also I’ve been having sewing machine issues, which are very frustrating and angering sooo yeah….I’ve been hand-stitching what I can. But I’m pretty happy with the result. 🙂

I also got this green shirt at Plato’s Closet for $2.50! I thought they looked nice together

23Feb2014

Don’t throw away those old towels

Posted in Uncategorized by peppermintsandhoneybees

If you’re like most people you have your nice towels and your old towels that you use for dirty stuff like dying your hair and washing the dog, and I am no different, but I have been making my “good” towels last a little longer recently because well, I have better things to spend my money on, like shoes! I have pimples and use a face wash with benzyl peroxide, which as you may know bleaches any fabric it touches so I get nice bleach stained towels along with the general fading that goes along with washing towels. Fun stuff I know!

Instead of buying new towels all the time I started dyeing them with Rit dye. Rit is the kind that comes in the box of powder or the little bottle of liquid. It can be found at most craft and sewing stores, and I think some stores like Wal-Mart carry it. I usually buy the powder because it’s cheaper, usually around $2-3.

I just pour it in a sink full of hot water and let my towels soak for about 15 min. I always do my dyeing in my kitchen sink so I can use both sinks, one for dyeing and one for rinsing. Oh and always wear gloves when dyeing, or you will have dyed hands! After that I rinse it our and wash the towels in the washing machine on normal settings. I use black because all of my hand towels are black, it’s easy to match to and easy to dye. I would recommend dyeing your towels a dark color because it is easier to dye. Hopefully this saves someone from having to buy new towels!

My next post will be about the curtains I dyed. I’m a big fan of self dyeing if you can’t tell. I just started using it about a year ago and wish I would have started sooner. I can’t tell you how many pairs of jeans I’ve redyed!