Wine Tasting

Since my beautiful daughter was born three month ago (I can't believe it's been that long!), I've rekindled my love affair with wine. In February I went to Newport's Seafood and Wine festival with my husband and friends Pat and Tim. They are platonic friends and the plan was to tell anyone who asked that they were cousins! To mark this drunken-filled afternoon, I made wine charms for Pat and I. Our running joke is that whenever we do something fun together, we always have to be the cutest we've ever looked. So to play up that joke, I wanted our wine glasses to be the cutest they've ever looked, too. I've made two different types of wine charms in the past, ones that wind around the stem of the glass and ones that are a ring at the bottom of the stem. Each one incorporates beads and a charm. However, for our glasses to truly be the cutest they've ever been, I needed something new. I decided to buy a thin feather boa, cut off about 3 inches, wire it to a wine charm ring, add a dangling wire of beads and a fun girly charm. The boa proved to be the cutest and was also reminiscent of when Pat and I wore black feather boas to our Junior year homecoming dance. By the end of the dance, our arms, faces, and necks were black from the dye. As soon as the lights came on and we realized what happened, we screamed in unison and high tailed it to the ladies room! Oh, high school memories! Here is a picture of the three different types of charms that are now in my repertoire:

For my friend Katie's birthday, a group of 10 of us girls went to Oregon wine country for an afternoon of wine tasting. We went to three different wineries: Solena, Natalie's Estate, and Canas Feast. To help with the party planning, I offered to make wine charms and made each girl a feather boa with a wine related charm. There were two of each charm, all with different colored beads to tell them apart. I found at Michaels on clearance already made ring-style wine charms that I ended up taking apart to make the feather boa type. The charms included cheese, bottles, glasses, and a little dangly sign that read "vino". The boa charms were a hit and the birthday girl loved them.

After all this wine tasting, I've been thinking about what to do with the corks. I've been saving them for awhile, contemplating making cork boards or a trivet. I finally decided to make picture frames for the pictures from the wine events I've been attending. I cut each cork in half and hot glued them onto wooden picture frames purchased at the dollar store. I then changed the pictures to black and white. I think they turned out pretty cute! Here is a picture of Pat and me at the Seafood and Wine festival. This project lends itself to many variations. You could make a frame with corks from a specific area, like Napa, or in my case, Oregon wine country. Each frame could then hold a picture of you sampling wine from that particular region. You could also get sentimental and save corks of wine you've drank with a friend and then put a picture of you two together in the frame. Or if you have a favorite wine, use corks only from that winery. If you got a thicker wood frame, you could glue on multiple rows of corks. Whichever you choose, have fun with it!

If you'd like more detailed instructions of any of my projects, please leave a comment and I'll directly email you!

Towels

When Nathan was first born, Ben's nephew's mom, Michelle, made him a hooded towel from a regular sized adult towel and cute ducky washcloth. She just sewed the washcloth into the middle of one side of the towel so when you put his head in the washcloth, the rest of the towel wraps around him.

When Ben's good friend Colin and his wife Kristine had a baby a couple years ago, I thought I could make them a towel as well. The washcloth I found had 2 little frogs on one side. To make it work, I ended up having to cut the washcloth in a triangle, then sewing it in the middle of one side of a regular white towel. The tie everything in, I stitched green yarn all the way around the towel.

For Audrey's baby shower, I was so surprised when Wendy gave me a towel she made. This one is sewn out of soft terry cloth fabric, not towels. The hood is a triangle sewed into a corner of the towel. On the hood, Wendy hand embroidered Audrey's name in pink thread.

I think for infants, Wendy's style is best and for toddlers Michelle's style is best. I love having these handmade towels for my kids. They make bathtime so much fun and special!

Window Fix-up

Last year we remodeled our bathroom. When this was done, I got rid of a set of green curtains for a waffle-weave brown roman shade. Straight on, it looks fabulous. However, when you are in the shower, you could see outside (meaning people outside can see you in the shower!) And the window is too low to have the shade open when using the toilet. My solution was to put a window frosting film on the bottom half of the window. I got this idea from Young House Love, one of my favorite blogs.

I first cut the film one inch larger on each side than the size of the window. I then cleaned the window, and sprayed it with water. I peeled the film from it's backing, and placed it on the window. I used a small squeegee to smooth out the bubbles and used an exacto knife to trim the excess film. I love how I can open the shade to let light in the bathroom without having to worry about my backdoor neighbors being able to see in. And this was such an easy project!