$1 'Cottagey/Vintagey-feel' MUGS

I'm a $1 fanatic. Whether it's the Dollar Store or hitting up the $1 bins at Target and Michaels. (This is where my husband steps in and says..."you know it all adds up right?")

Yes, yes, I know. But they were too great to pass up. I was rummaging through the Michael's bins and found these beauties! (I thought to call my sister who collects mugs, but remembered that she doesn't have a Micheals in her town).

Fly, Take some time...

Discover...
Rest a minute...
Vision...
Write your own story...

I always find myself reaching in the cupboard for the "Rest a minute" mug with the vintage chair. It's like my own santuary filled with some herbal tea and my own resting chair. One time my husband was pouring us some orange juice for breakfast, he filled up the DISCOVER, and REST A MINUTE mug. He gave me the DISCOVER one and I almost was mad at him for it. Then I realized I was being irrational and that I also didn't want to fess up and tell him my personalized bond with the REST A MINUTE mug. SO I let it slide....just this once. But while he's at work, I hold that mug tenderly.

(I grabbed the last two pics from another blogger, because I didn't buy those two mugs, But I'm wishing I would have)

What do you grab at the DOLLAR BINS?!

Zen Garden Mural

Kari over at U-Create gave a Vinyl Wall Mural Challenge. Well...here's the thing...I dont have a GREAT access to vinyl. (GASP! I know, I'm a vinyless crafter!) So I had to participate with alternate means...
I took a flat board, and some old wooden blinds (I have a few boxes of them, thanks to my cousin)
I cut them To fit, and instead of throwing away the ones that didn't fit...I cut a smaller peice from the next one...

And kept cutting...

And placing...

And cutting...Then I hot glued them on (so easy!) I sprayed them robbin's egg blue...

I got out my acrylic craft paint...and here's the step by step painting...

...

Add a lively curvey twig (because we're bob ross right now)...

and another...

Add the twigs... Add four pedal flowers...

Like so...

Add some sweepy leaves...

Add white blobs in the flowers...

Add black dots on the flowers...

Like so...

That's all...that's it. So easy. I'm pretty sure this is going to go in my Zen Garden. Ya, because I'm cool like dat.

Alright, so I dont have a Zen Garden, but maybe some day. Surrounded by bamboo, stones, candles and wise quotes.

ENJOY your last week before HALLOWEEN! My Hubby and I went to a corn maze last week. (A cute date right?) WELL...we spiced it up...slightly. We entered the 2.5mile corn maze with walkie talkies and our running shoes and we RACED!

(I TOTALLY kicked his royal tan booty!...in case you were wondering.)

Hopefully you haven't lost your respect for me since I'm not much of a humble peice of pie right now...but come ON! There's nothing wrong with hoping for your life that you'll win...right? (And I did...heehee)

VIVID PHOTOGRAPHY {megapixels}

Have you noticed how professional photographers are going out of style like really greesy comb-overs? Taking your own photos and using a photo program is SOOO in.

So how do you do it? I mean...how do you make your photos look professional? What camera do you use? What photo editing program do you use? Well, that's where I'm going to take a HUGE leap in. I've been passionate about snapping photos since I was like 10. (I use to mail my pics into Jones Soda's. Remember those? With the cool pics on the label? Mmm...cream soda) Anyways, I'm learning SO many new things and I thought I'd share! There's scary words out there when it comes to digital cameras and photography...Like Aperture, and shutter speed, and backlighting, and megapixels and so much more. I'm going to take some of my time here on That's So Cuegly, and share how to take an incredibly CUEGLY pic! I'm going to be doing even MORE research (including trial and error) so that you can learn with me. Idiot proofing you could say. I thought it'd be a BLAST to give a challege and you guys email a picture you take and I can feature it on my blog! So start thinking of what you want to take pictures of!

Are you just a 'my kids' kind of gal, or maybe landscape and nature? Do you want to do abstract art? Portraits? All of it? Start thinking!

So while you're dwelling on this...Let's start off with a very basic but VERY CRITICAL tip!!!

MEGAPIXELS:

For some dern reason, camera companies have ingraved into everyone's brains that megapixels are the biggest and most important seller of a camera. Please stop and listen to this:

It's. a. lie.

Megapixels can be important, but there's a lot of other factors that should be based on the camera's ability to take sharp or grainy pictures. Basically, how grainy/smooth the sensor is, and how fuzzy/sharp the lens is, will affect image quality more than the resolution. This is a VERY important point. Cameras with more megapixels can actually take LOWER-QUALITY pictures if their sensors are grainy and/or if their lenses are not very sharp. Bigger lenses are usually sharper, and bigger sensors are usually less grainy.

You need a good camera with good features before you can start looking at megapixels. And let this be heard: As long as you're not going to be blowing a picture up any bigger than a 20"x30", then 6 megapixels we'll do just prefectly great.

Dont fret over the megapixels. The end.

P.S. So my husband and I have discussed my blogging (you KNOW every blogging wife goes through it...dont you judge;) And he thinks it's very important for me, and also a good "out" for my sanity. And now that he works 12 hr shifts at only 3 days a week, We're going to be scheduling in every week when I can blog. I'm ecstatic about this! You may think I'm just sorta freaky, but I cant wait to have scheduled time to blog in peace and keep you guys informed on my doings! (Which will still include Crafts/Beauty Tips/Photography Tips/How 2's and How Fails).

HOW 2 {hair accessories}

Hey Cuegly Crowd! Thanks for stickin around even though I'm only posting once a week. I'm soon going to start doing a monthly Craft Concoction Linky Party. And I'm OOber stoked to start doing it! SO get ready!

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I haven't made any new hair accessories since I chopped my hair and I thought it was about time! I had so much fun and cant wait to go out into town! (DATE NIGHT!)

1: I found these gorg flowers at the $1store! 2: I took them apart and cut them into only the pedals. 3: Glue three pedals together. 4: repeat 2 more times with smaller pedals. 5:Add some pearls or beads or buttons. 6:Glue onto workout headband and add another flower to it! 7:Cut out leaf shapes of fabric and singe or hotglue the edges and add them where you want them. 8:See the back! ;)
I'm LOVEing this sucker! It looks SO much better in person though. (I HATE THAT).

I saw a cute headband on etsy that was selling for $45. I made one similar with supplies I already had :) I cut some leftover flower pedals into pointier shapes. 1: I glued them in 3's. I also added brown tull and white tull to give it dimension. 2-3: I did four sets of three and glued them together in a line. 4: I added three extra pedals to ofset the striaght line. 5: I added some beads. 6: I cut and braided three skinny strips of old white leggings for the headband.

Now all I need is a toga...{and I LOVE IT}.

I forgot to get a pic with short hair. But it's super cute! This was a quick one! I didn't even take pics! I took a thick strip of lace and shaped it into a bow and glued it. Then I just placed an old button over the glue. I added some brown tull in the shape of a bow to the back of it to also add dimension. I LOVE this bow and wear it EVERYWHERE! I feel girly and sassy.

Dont you DARE tell me YOU CANT make these! It's easy and fun and you can make what EVER you want! You can add fun fun spicey color! (I'm always using, making and wearing the nutral/vintage colors...Mainly because I can wear them with anything).

***

Simply make and enjoy being spicey!

There's a time and a place to be spicey and sassy.

It's now...and always;)

{OvO} *owl*bookends* {OvO}

I made some owls for the fall season,

but I'm pretty sure these babies are staying up all year round! TUTORIAL:

Double up some burlap and then take a pen or pencil and draw a circle. I drew the circle a little taller than it is wide and the base is straight across.

Cut it out and then sew the edges. Leave the bottom (that slightly straight line) unsewn and open like so...
Now stuff it! I used that big bag of stuffing at walmart that is less than $3. But stuff it FULL and TIGHT. You may not think you can fit another hand full, but I assure you, you can;)

I made a quick bean bag, and didn't even spend the time to turn the hem inside, I just sewed one up real quick! (I made it pretty big, we need these owls to have a good base).
Then stuff it in the bottom. Now this took me some effort to shove it in,
but you'll want it to. Keep fighting it!
You should come out winning. I hope.
Stand it up and adjust the bean bag as needed.
You want it to stand up straight and tall :)Then I pulled it tight and hot glued the edges to the bean bag...

Now for the wings: Double up the material, and cut a similar shape.
Make it a touch bigger than the size you want, because we'll hem up the edges.
Double up the hem and straight sew it!
Now glue on one wing like so...It's not pulled tight (yet), you can see...
This is where you pull it tight and get out the creases and hot glue it to the bottom:

Here's what the front looks like with both wings:

Here's what the back looks like, but remember that your back

may look a lot different than mine,

just make sure that front looks cute!

Now double up some dark brown fabric and cut a triangle.

The bottom point needs to be pointier and longer...

ZigZag sew the edges all the way around:

Now all you have to do is hot glue 4 more places:

Glue the beak on, then glue the back and then the two buttons for the eyes!

YAY! Very minimal sewing!

These turned out so fun, I was excessively happy.

You may be wondering how I got these suckers to curl...

Well, no laughing, but the cosmetologist in me came out.

I hairsprayed them and then blowed em dry with my blowdryer.

It worked. ok?

I used some heavy duty arrisol hairspray.

But I thought, I bet a lil mod podge would work too eh?

Call me crazy.

Enjoy your new bookends, or simple decor for ANYWHERE!