Sweater Scarf

No clever title, just a scarf.

With a little inspiration from Jennifer at Peas and Crayons and her shredded jersey scarf, I made this:

oh how I wish I could take decent self-portraits

Let me preface by saying that using a knit sweater was a poor choice, not because it looks bad, but it was a total mess. Little pieces of yarn that resembled Ramen noodles were all over my floor after creating this. I didn't have energy to look for a shirt, but I did have this sweater. There you have it.

I started with a sweater (thank you Capt Obvious)



Cut the front pocket off and then the arms and neck.

Fold her in half (although in the future I'll probably skip the fold. You'll see what I mean in a minute) and cut.



Then stretch. This is when the Ramen noodle flecks came with a furry. Once it's laying flat, the Ramen stop. So I think I'll be good wearing it around...if not, it'll be a good scarf to wear if I'm ever lost. I can just following the path of Ramen back to my home.

This is what you're left with. And this is when I decided that folding it in half wasn't going to work.

So I snipped those folds right off. I obviously left the other fold in tact.

 And there you have it.

<3 dani

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Master Closet Clean-Up

Calling this closet a 'master' is almost laughable. Not large. At all. But I'm not complaining because it forces me to keep it organized and to make tough decisions about clothes I'm not actively wearing.

The Finished Product

The befores:

 okay, please note how each side is kept.

 his

hers

Nuff said.

Here are my rules for the ol' closet clean-up:

1. Empty it. It's way too easy to leave clothes in there when they're so conveniently hung. But when you pull everything out, it forces you to look through each piece individually, make a tough decisions and ask "does this really need to go back in."

I'm boring my assistant

2. Don't keep anything in the closet that isn't in season. This means summer clothes gotta go.

3. Pull anything that hasn't been worn in 3 months. Decide if those pieces are simply outdated or whether you just don't have anything to wear with them. If they're outdated, get rid of them. If you have an amazing shirt, but no pants to wear them with, decide if you're going to make that outfit a priority. If yes, keep the item in there. If no, pull it.

4. Be Honest. If you can't be truthful about the items you aren't wearing, then you're no better off. I know it's sad to see some things go, but it's better than wasting space on the stuff you actually wear.

5. Keep like items together. There are a couple of ways to do this. My side of the closet is sorted by color (i.e. all black shirts together, casual and formal). The Hubs side is separated by item (i.e. all work shirts together, etc)

6. Donate or Repurpose. Not everything should be donated. Some of The Hubs old shirts aren't donate-able, but they make good garage towels. Some old sweaters, though donate-able, I'm too sentimental about to get rid of, so I move those to my fabric bin (which also gets an overhaul often) and try to come up with a project. -- I'll have a sweater repurpose post shortly!

Okay, so those are the rules I live by. Simple, right?

In the end, you'll feel a little less overwhelmed every time you open those doors.

Happy organizing!

<3 dani



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Little Bit of Valentine's Spirit & Lucky # 30

First, a big huge thanks to my 30th follower! Brooke at Girl Boy Girl Inspired. (ah yes, the perks of being my 30th follower...just imagine what I'll do if I ever hit 50)

I know, thirty isn't huge, but for someone who created a blog with simple intentions and without even understanding the concept of 'following,' I think it's huge!
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On to the meat of this post. ;-)

Valentine's Day isn't my favorite holiday. Sure, let's be romantic and remind each other that we have undying love burning at the base of our soul for each other, but seriously folks do we have to spend over 15 billion dollars to do that? And all for a holiday who's story is cloudy, to say the least.

That's probably why I don't put much effort into decorating for good ol' St. Valentine. In fact, this is the one time that you could walk into my home and have no idea what time of year it is...the lack of seasonally themed decor is almost embarrassing for a hardcore decorator like myself.

Maybe that's why I created this little number.

Subtle right?

and simple.

I took an old frame, hot glued a few strings of hemp to back, rummaged through my craft supplies, grabbed some dried roses The Hubby got me for landing a new job (see! that's the kind of romantic gesture I'm talkin' about) and clipped everything on with mini-clothespins.

Free, quick, purdy. Annnd versatile. If I want to keep it up after VD (ha, still laugh at that one) I'll just remove the red hearts. High five!

What are your feelings on the ol' V day?

<3 dani

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