With summer in full swing, I’m finding myself doing a lot of entertaining outdoors; dinners on the deck, grilling-out poolside with friends, etc. I have also been getting a lot of feedback (which I LOVE) and ideas for craft projects from the Chicks. A few of them mentioned wanting to decorate their decks, patios, porches, etc. So, for this month’s Crafty Chicks Night, I thought it would be fun to make something that would beautify our outdoor living spaces.

When I found images of fabric wrapped pots on the Free People blog I knew they’d be the perfect project!  AND….I was able to totally indulge at the fabric store, which was pretty amazing.  

The Chicks each brought a terra cotta pot and I provided the fabric, sponge brushes and Mod Podge. It was a fun and easy project and I was really impressed with how they turned out!

August is going to be a hard month for me. Not because of the continued heat wave in the South. Not because I will say goodbye to summer without taking a single trip to the beach. But because in August, my sweet friend, Kathianne is moving to Dallas. In fact, she is one of three friends (two of whom are bridesmaids in my wedding) who will move from Atlanta by year’s end. But, that’s really hard for me to think about so I’m just taking each departure as they come.

Kathianne is an incredibly talented artist, an absolute ray of sunshine, and my crafty soul mate. We get together all the time to work on our individual projects and to collaborate on crafty endeavors. We also constantly send each other ideas and snippets of inspiration that we find online, in magazines, etc.

Since many state lines (and a time zone) will soon separate us, we know we will need to make an effort to continue to be each other’s muse. So, we decided upon journals, traveling notebooks if you will, that we can use to share concepts and photos of projects we’re working on as well as our ’to-be-made’ missions.

We decided to purchase rather ordinary-looking journals and decorate them together. This way they will always remind us of the times we have spent together indulging in creativity and up to our elbows in glitter, Mod Podge and glue.

a ribbon explosion

look at that focus!

these books are about to see some serious miles

Kathianne's journal

My journal (after some additional work)

ready to be filled with inspiration!

Watch out y’all, the Lone Star State is about to get a lot more crafty!

hunting and gathering

I won't lie, this made me extremely nervous.

pedestal tops

pedestal trunks

some sand paper, a good coat of Gorilla glue and, voila!

of course, I HAD to buy a cake to display the final product...hello dessert!

While we were at it, we made three extras that will be used to hold our large beverage dispensers (which will contain my cousin’s amazing rum punch – yum!)

Another afternoon of blog “research” and I serendipitously stumbled upon P is for Party.

(I like to call it research because it justifies the amount of time I spend indulging in other people’s blogs.)

Anyhoo…I stumbled upon P is for Party and promptly kissed all productivity goodbye.

Melanie Blodgett of You Are My Fave started P is for Party because she was noticing how many photos of events she was saving to her “inspiration folder” and felt she needed a better way to organize them.

I couldn’t agree with her more. I actually keep a flash drive with me to collect thoughts and ideas that I know I’ll be able to use one day. Both as an event planner and a bride-to-be, I love looking at wedding blogs because there are so many great DIY ideas that can easily translate to a birthday party or bridal/baby shower or housewarming celebration.

Here are some adorable ideas:

ribbon drink stirrers

cupcake wrapper party garland

a handy way to avoid "oops, which glass is mine?"

holiday ornament table decor

tin can hanging vase

tin can table markers

A big thank you to Melanie for creating a place to gather endless inspiration. I know I will be visiting P is for Party…E as in Everyday.

Tonight I participated in my very first sewing circle with my neighbor and friend, Kathy. She’s extremely talented and has a line of aprons that she sells in boutiques around Atlanta.

stitching with a friend

I wanted to spend some time with Kathy and I also wanted to keep the sewing momentum going. No real projects in mind, just wanted to break out the machine and work on something. So, I grabbed a bolt of fabric that Eric’s mom had given me and decided to make some party flags for the wedding and/or reception. I’m not sure if we’ll use them, but they could hang in the boathouse at the rehearsal dinner, or by the guest book area, or by the cake, anywhere, really… So, we’ll take them to the lake and see if we can find a use for them.  

In the meantime, it was fun to have a project to work on. And, I will say that having no real end result in mind surely takes the pressure off the sewing process.

I simply measured and cut 6” by 8” triangles from the fabric and roughly hemmed the edges (so they wouldn’t fray). Then I sewed them to some bias tape (that I chose to buy instead of make, thankyouverymuch…) and just like that, I had strands of party flags! 

cut triangles from reversible fabric

using a wide zigzag stitch, roughly hem edges

hemmed flags and bias tape

measuring 12" from the end, pin flags 2" apart

pin twelve flags to the bias tape leaving 12" from end

sew flags where pinned

party flags!!

They are really adorable and I don’t want to wait until October to use them…so, who wants to have a party??

Due to hectic summer schedules, I pushed June’s Crafty Chicks Night to the end of the month. However, I had chosen the craft project months ago and was really excited about  it. Needless to say, I was very eager to see the Crafty Chicks and to indulge in some creativity. I think I had been having withdrawals!

This month, we made a very popular accessory: recycled t-shirt scarves. These things are everywhere it seems and you could easily pay $50 or more for one in a boutique or at a festival…not so for the Crafty Chicks…we simply made our own.
 
Once again, we used recycled materials:  old t-shirts from our own collections.

the theme of the night – cutting and pulling

making mounds of t-shirt snips

Kathianne & Amendi tackling a tee

Amber embellished her scarf with sequins and a fabric flower

Kristen's wavy creation

Kathy's multi-colored scarf