ten garlands in ten days: the recap and a giveaway

Well hello! I hope you enjoyed my ten garlands in ten days redux. I really enjoyed planning and making my garlands and I love how they look all clustered together. Now for the fun part. I'm going to be giving these garlands away! All of them except for the fingerprint garland, I cut that one in half for a prettier picture and it is kinda in a shambles now but if you really liked it, I can send you  a blank one so you can add your own fingerprints. If you would like a chance to win, I will select ten winners (one for each garland) to receive one of my garlands from this round of ten garlands in ten days. Note that some of the garlands are quite small but I still believe they pack a pretty punch. Leave a comment with your three favorite garlands in order of favorite and I'll draw names on my birthday, February 23! Happy garlanding! 

*day 1: heart cluster

*day 2: heart windows

*day 3: fingerprint hearts

*day 4: paper hearts

*day 5: bead easy

*day 6: amaranth blossoms

*day 7: paper chain hearts

*day 8: pom pom happy

*day 9: falling stars

*ay 10: foil festive

ten garlands in ten days: foil festive

Oh how I love this bit of garland goodness. Had I more fancied-up foil I would have probably created and entire wall of it. Since I did not, I created a garland that is a smidge more than three feet wide with a series of happy strands hanging down. The longest strand has ten circles stitched together. I did this freeform without any solid plan and am really happy with how it turned out! 

I used the prcess from my tinfoil festive and glittery gelt projects on scrumdilly-do! This time however I doubled up on the foil painting and did bith sides. It took a long time to dry but was totally worth it. After punching out the large circkes and getting glitter EVERYWHERE), I stitched up one three foot long garland and then I made small piles containing 3-9 circles. I plopped the long garland under by sewing machine foot and began creating another garland using one pile of circles. When that was finished, I snipped threads and moved over one circle and created another garland using the next pile of circles. I basically added strands to the main garland. I do not have any photosand it is a little difficult explaining it all but if you are used to sewing, I think you can see what I did here, if you are not, you may be able to create something similar using glue, it will take forever to finish but I think it can be done! Good luck! 

birthday dreams and wishes

birthday dreams and wishes by jekinthebox featuring sephora collection

My birthday is coming up in a few days and people keep asking me what I want. Here are some things at the top of my wishlist that I am working on purchasing for myself and I thought well, if anyone else wants to then I will make a pretty list for them. Let's see if I can explain some of it to ya. 

The shoes there are somethng I really want and I keep revisiting them to remind myself that I am serious about them. They are not exactly birthday priced but they make the picture look a smidge prettier.

The sunflower seeds are up there because I really like snacking on the microgreens and am in need of organic seeds for sprouting. I'm thinking sunflower, chia, and peas sound really tasty! 

The birdie shirt is really sweet and I really like the neckline and of course it being grey just ups the ante in my mind. I am also keen on acquiring a purple, grey or orange shirt from our local record store, speaking of which I added some music up there that I would like to get and think an iTunes card would always be appreciated...or a GC for the record store. 

As for the brush, I want to try dry brushing. Do any of you do it? What do you think?

Stamps are there because I want more stamps. Real usable USPS postage stamps for writing letters. I am trying to write more and stamps would help. This picture was a lot prettier than the one at the USPS site, also you can't clip images from there anyway.

I'm still on the lookout for a pretty embroidered Mexican peasant blouse or dress. They are all so lovely but I think a white top with colorful embroidery would be perfect for summer here in town.

My nose rarely works but I would love to have some chocolate tea around in case it DOES. Adagio teas are really tasty and I like so many it is hard to choose. For now, I will say chocolate with black tea...not rooibos. I'm not really a fan of the rooibos.

The mascara is because I am almost out of mine and I get lazy and buy the cheapie cheap kind and the cup is there because I broke the straw from the one I already have and this one here is not only prettier but BPA free as well.

Lastly, back in highschool, my favorite bag was an old army surplus bag that my brother got me. I loved it and wish I still had it. I think a hefty green army sack would be perfect to use as a camera bag of sorts and would look really cool with some hand-making, patching and embroidery. 

Not included is the ever famous butter fudge I am always talking about. Being anosmic means I don't get to taste much and not tasting much means I have fallen out of love with chocolate. The texture isn't very fun when you cannot taste or smell it. This butter fudge is amazing when you can taste it and smell it and pretty darn good when you can't because the texture is so perfect. It is a hard and chewy fudge...kinda crumbly but is so satisfying to bite into. It was the first thing I added to my polyvore pile and I cannot believe I forgot to actually toss it in the mix. 

So there ya go, sweet dreams for a soon-to-be 42 year old. We're not planning anything big, just lunch or dinner at my favorite place in town (they make the BEST pita bread ever) and I have demanded asked the mister to make me an apple pie...with homemade whipped cream. The week after that we will visit L.A. and see my brother and a few friends, jump at the fountain, and eat ourselves silly so really, I will be celebrating my birthday for a week! 

ten garlands in ten days: falling stars

I love the way this little garland turned out. I had a wee bit of a misshap while making it but I managed to fix it just fine. You will need a pack of wooden stars or shapes (I found mine at Michael's), thread, scisors, and a glue gun. 

My orginal garland was one sided but that proved just silly when the sides with the glue preferred to face outwards. A second date with the glue gun and another pile of stars solve the problem, so make sue you have two stars for each star.

Plug in your glue gun and lay out a row of stars, gather your thread and have it at the ready. Add a drop of hot glue to a star, press a bit of your thread into the glue andsandwich with another star. I kept my thread on the spool until I was finished, and had to gently pull it taught as I worked. 

I added a loop at the first star and again at the last, cutting thread where I thought it would work and looping it before pressing into the hot glue. 

And of course...hang in a happy place! 

ten garlands in ten days: pom pom happy

This little garland is another easy to make. Use a fat needle to poke through the poms and plain old thread, doubled up, You can space out yer poms but I like them really close together. 

I just grabbbed my pom poms all willy nilly with no plan, but this might be a great way for working on patterns with your kiddos and yes, fingers do get pricked. I haven't tried a darning needle but they may work and keep fingers ouch free. 

I did not tie off my ends as the poms don't slippy slip too much. You can tie off your ends by looping around the first and the last pom or maybe use a button or small bead. 

happy stringing! 

ten garlands in ten days: paper chain hearts

Not one to waste a lovely sheet of painted newspaper, I managed to use up almost every bit in this newest round of ten garlands. With a few snips of the scissors you can create a nifty chain of paper hearts. Grab a length of painted paper and accordion fold it four or five times. Once folded, draw a heart that extends to all edges of the paper. Kinda like a top part of a heart and a bottom part of a heart. I am sorry I do not have photos here for ya...lemme see if I can find something on the internets....oooh, like this!