ArtfullyQuaint

Goodbye October.. Hello November!

Hard to believe it's already November....

It's time to think about Thanksgiving, Christmas and the upcoming stress those holidays create, right? Nope! Not me this year. Instead of stressing over the huge to-do list awaiting me for November and December, I plan to flip my thinking around and focus on the blessings I've been given each day. But, how should I exactly do this??? After all.. this isn't an easy task for me, the natural worrier. After a lot of pondering, I decided  I would focus each day on one blessing in my life and make a gratitude list to replace my to-do list for the month of November. This most definitely will help me forget the things I shouldn't focus on and instead help me focus on the important things that matter in my life. Priorities are going to replace unneeded angst and hopefully by doing so, I'll enjoy the upcoming holidays the way they are meant to be enjoyed- stress free!

In my search for gratitude lists and a reality check.. I came across these stagering statistics:

• If your combined household earns more than $24,600 a year you are in the top%10 of all income earners in the world.
  
  
• The average monthly salary for someone living in Afghanistan is only $14 a month.
  
  
• 37 million Americans live below the National poverty line. That’s 1 in every 8 Americans living in poverty.
  
  
• 3.5% of U.S. households (that’s people within a home) experience hunger every day. That’s 9.6 million people each and every day.
  
  
• An estimated 750,000 people in America experience homelessness and out of those people only 56 percent find shelter at night for sleeping while the other 44 percent end up sleeping on the streets.
  
  
• Also, did you know that only 34% of American adults say they are truly happy.

Now, if this doesn’t give you a reason to be grateful for what you have, I don’t know what will!

Gosh.. I complain when my computer doesn't work *just* right!?! YIKES!! It's always good to re-evaluate every so often and remember the many blessings we've all been given. Yesterday I started my #30daysofgratitude list on twitter and plan to tweet one blessing each day. I hope you'll join me and maybe together we can make the world (and our lives) a little bit brighter ♥

 

mulling things over....

 

If you haven't watched Julie and Julia.. GO. WATCH. IT. NOW.

I've been gone. Has anyone even noticed? Hmmm.. not sure. Regardless, I suppose this foray into blogging is a bit like keeping a journal so I must press forward. If nothing else comes from my adventure, I take comfort in knowing it is a great place to keep ideas, thoughts and happenings of my life compiled into one neat little place. Each time I start a new post, I often feel like Julie in the movie "Julie and Julia". She starts blogging about the happenings of cooking through Julia Child's famed cook book "Mastering The Art of French Cooking". She starts blogging with a bang and then realizes that it might take a while to get anyone to notice her undertaking. I feel a kinship of sorts with Julie where she proclaims rather fantastically about sending her thoughts out to a big, vast void- hoping someone, anyone is out there... reading her words. I do believe I understand this. Every post comes straight from my heart and is rather scary knowing your heart is somewhere out there...floating around in cyberspace. Are you out there? Are you reading my words? If so.. introduce yourself and let's be friends! ♥

In LOVE with ruffles...

I don't know what it is about ruffles lately.. but needless to say, I. AM. SMITTEN. It seems the sweet, innocent ruffled layers of color make me happy :) Today GussySews posted via twitter several great DIY tutorials to make your own ruffle t-shirts and bouquets (the hottest rage). I've always tried to  live by the golden rule so I thought I'd share a fun DIY ruffled pillow from FloralShowers! As you shop around you'll notice most stores put summer t-shirts on clearance... which means you may be able to spruce up your home and wardrobe - ruffle style! YAY! Please leave me a comment if you know of other ruffle tutorials or if you plan on making a ruffle goodie yourself.

Happy crafting! xo Heidi

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AQ NOTE: If you can't find large enough t-shirts or good colors, I'm sure you could buy jersey fabric from a craft/fabric store and make the pillow in the same way

Remember this cute ruffle pillow made from a t-shirt? Well, here is the tutorial. Enjoy!!You’ll need:

• an XL t-shirt (or larger)
• rotary cutter, mat, and ruler
• fiber fill or some sort of stuffing

Step 1: lay t-shirt flat on cutting mat. Cut hem off bottom of t-shirt and straighten sides out (if needed).

Step 2:  cut a 14×14 square through both layers of the t-shirt. These squares form the front and back of the pillow.

Step 3: trim off sleeves and use remaining t-shirt fabric to cut strips about 1 1/4 inch wide by 21 (or so) inches long.

Step 4: lay out strips on pillow top to determine how many ruffles you want. I wanted 10 for mine.

Step 5: set your machine to a really long stitch (called a basting stitch). Sew down the center of each strip, leaving a tail of thread, and making sure to NOT reverse stitch on either end.

Step 6: lay strips back on pillow where you’d like them (with the bobbin thread side facing down). Pin ends in place (it makes the next step easier).

Step 7: Ruffle time! Gently pull the bobbin thread (the thread on the bottom) to create the ruffle. Spread the ruffle across the entire strip and pin in place. Repeat for each strip.

Step 8: set your machine back to a regular (or slightly smaller than regular) stitch length. Sew down the center of each ruffle (right on top of the baste stitch).

Step 9: pin pillow front to pillow back, with ruffles inside. Tip: to make sure you don’t sew the ruffle in the side seam, pin bottom-most and top-most ruffles to the side.

Step 10: sew front to back, leaving a 4-5 inch gap on one side. Trim corners. Flip right side out. Stuff.EDIT: This is also the point where I would use a lint roller to get off all the tiny little balls of fabric that are everywhere…

Step 11: pin opening closed and hand sew shut.

I would show you the finished product, but I actually gave it away before I took a picture… but trust me, it was cute.