Knit Cable Pillow

The Pin-Up Girl is back after a prolonged and unannounced hiatus. Mike, Macaroni, and I spent the summer building a house, a process that proved to be consuming both time wise and mentally. We are moved in and somewhat settled, so it’s back to blogging and now I can put all of those wonderful house ideas on pinterest to use!

I am not much of winter person, and this year seems to be especially harsh. -10 degrees? No thank you. I have pretty much been hibernating. This has given me plenty of time to do one of my favorite winter hobbies, knit! I taught myself a few years ago after finishing Graduate School. I needed something to keep my mind occupied while waiting to hear back on job applications! It’s often hard to find patterns online that aren't  well grandma-y. After much digging on pinterest, I came across AOK Corral’s Knit Cable Pillow Pattern that I thought would match my living room décor.

The pattern is easy to follow, even for a novice knitter. The size 10 needles give the fabric a nice stretch as well, so I didn’t worry too much about measuring an exact gauge. I made a few adjustments. I did not knit two separate pieces. I instead knit one large piece that measured 27 inches to avoid having to knit an extra seam. I also used a mattress stitch instead of a running stitch on the sides of the pillow. If you’re unfamiliar with this or need a reminder, head over to knitty, the tutorial has great visual aids. I thought this looked nicer and less visible than the running stitch. This took me about 2 weeks of on-and-off nightly knitting to complete and Mac now has a new favorite place on the couch to sit! Pin and knit up during the next blizzard!

Jar Labels

Contrary to my mother's opinion, I think I am a fairly organized and tidy person. Yes, it takes a lot of work and maintenance, and sometimes I let my clean laundry sit unfolded for days or forget to unload the dishwasher, but that's beside the point! When you start getting older and have to pay for everything, you want things to look nice, (or decent at least). I like to cook and bake, and as a result have a lot of kitchen crap paraphernalia and ingredients. There's nothing worse than not being able to find something in your cabinet when you're in the middle of a recipe. So I took to pinterest to find a way to get things in order, and low and behold I found Kristine of the Painted Hive's tutorial on glass jar decals to get me started.

The Verdict: Let me start by saying I took Kristine's idea and simplified it. Her water proof decals called for paper that I could only find on the internet and a laminator. I'm all for buying new craft junk, but only if I know I'll use it again. Not sure I see a a lot a lamination going on in my future. So I went to Hobby Lobby, and bought clear adhesive backed computer printable transparent plastic sheets that I ran through my ink jet printer. They are not waterproof, but if this is a necessity for you, you can always CAREFULLY place an additional sheet over the printed dry one before you place them on your jars. I personalized my jars by making my own labels, which you can buy from my etsy store. I also made baking related ones (ie. sprinkles, chocolate chips, etc.) Printing, cutting, and applying them is easy.

I also bought the jars from Hobby Lobby. I choose wide necked ones to ensure getting the ingredient out would be easy. It's very hard to get you hand and measuring cup in those skinny tall ones!

I was impressed with the final result. They are practical, cute, and definitely helped with organizing the kitchen. I also ended up paying less for these than anything I would have found at the store or online, so I recommend pinning this one to get you on the road to arranging your kitchen!

Big Peepin'

Easter treats and crafts started appearing on Pinterest about a month ago. Of course, my favorite ones included Peep Marshmallows as either an ingredient or material. I found these peep flowers from Mix, Mingle, Glow. If you can create something using candy, you're A-Okay in my book.

 
The Verdict: This is an easy and inexpensive project, totaling around $10 all together. Contrary to the top left picture, you do not need a dachshund puppy to make it either! Just a square vase, a round cup, peeps, M&Ms or jelly beans, and flowers! If you're a craft nerd, you get those 40-50% off coupons every week to either Jo-Ann Fabrics, Michaels, or Hobby Lobby. Don't deny it.  Use the coupon on the vase, because this will be your priciest item. (Hey, you can buy extra candy to actually eat with the $4 you're likely to save!) I substituted yellow Easter M&Ms for the green jelly beans that Robyn uses because it's what I had on hand, and that's what's great about this project, it's versatile. Use whatever candy, colors, and flowers you like. I brought mine to work to dress up my drab colorless office and got a few oohs and aahs from the ladies. Pin this one to your craft board, and bring along as a favor to your Easter Dinner this weekend.