Sweet November: Hello Fall mini

My last project for our Sweet November week! I printed some of those photos from the Pumpkin festival with the kids and started a mini scrapbook that I named Hello Fall. 

It's main pages are 5 x 7 pieces of chipboard and then in between those pages I added index cards, tags, envelopes and other pieces of cardstock. I still have a few more pages to add, I want to include photos of Thanksgiving and I still have hopes of getting up to Sedona this weekend for a hike through the forest! 

I used small bits of lace, clothing patterns and book pages mixed with some scrapbook pages to create the pages. I kept the colors kind of muted and neutral so that my photos could be the focus. I still have to add a color combination page! 

 

I love creating mini albums, they take so little time to complete and afterwards you have a pretty little book to display for the season! Do you have plans to create your own Autumn themed mini this year? If you do, you won't want to miss tomorrow's giveaway ~ I've put together a kit full of sweet embellishments just for Fall! 

eta: I actually made a few kits of this little book, they can be found here in my shop.

Sweet November: something to wear

Autumn Afternoon by taraanderson featuring a zipper bag

The one thing I think I look the most forward to this month, is getting to pull out all of my big cozy sweaters, unwrapping my wool coat collection and sorting through my ever growing stash of knitted scarves! I love cold mornings and chilly evenings just because it gives me a chance to put on my fuzzy boots and a big over sized sweater. Yes, Fall is in the air! You can check out Jessica's perfect Fall her afternoon ensemble here! 

I have plans to spend the remainder of the day finishing an Autumn themed mini - I'll be posting those photos tomorrow and preparing a little giveaway to wrap up our Sweet November week. I'm thinking Saturday would be a lovely day for a giveaway! 

Sweet November: Tie Necklace Tutorial

Well hello! Today's tutorial is one that I had originally planned to post last year but for whatever reason it never made it to the blog. Now that it is cooling off (it was only 86 here today!) and Fall is on it's way, eventually, I thought this tutorial would be a good fit for our Sweet November week! 

Getting started, you'll need to find a tie. Instead of going through my husbands tie collection, Chase and I went to a Goodwill store where there were way  more to choose from than what Peter had hanging on his side of the closet. That's where I found this great Italian silk tie! When looking for your own tie, just be sure to find one where the material isn't too thick, it should be easy to fold.

Here's what you'll need to get started! 

Materials

sewing machine 

tie

2 pieces of lace (mine measured about 10 inches each)

straight pins

large button (optional)

vintage pin

sewing needle and thread

Directions

1. Start but laying you tie flat on your work space. Take the bottom of the tie and fold it back towards the middle of the tie. You want to make about 5 pleats or folds, so my first fold measured 4 inches. Each fold, will get a little shorter in length as you go.  

Once you've folded your first pleat, use a straight pin, on the inside of your tie, to secure your pleat. Continue folding and pinning until you have 5 or 6 pleats. *You'll notice that as you're folding the tie it will start to curve inward, almost like the shape of a necklace!*

Once you've finished pinning, now it's time to start sewing. Slowly sew along the inside edge of your tie. As you sew remove the straight pins and set side - we'll use them again for the lace. 

When you reach the last pleat, backstich a few stitches and then cut the sewing thread. After this step, your tie should look like this. If your pleats aren't laying flat use an iron to press them.

Now time for some lace. I'm using a black lace that's gathered on one side. Take the gathered side and following your existing sewing line, pin the lace to the tie. I pinned a small amount of lac to the back of my tie to start.

Just like sewing the tie previously, carefully sew the lace to the tie, removing the straight pins as you sew.

I'm adding one more piece of lace, I found this stretchy lingerie lace that was too cute and dainty plus I loved how ruffly it was! Follow the previous steps for securing and sewing the lace.

Almost done! Now you'll need to measure your tie and decide how long and where on your neck you'd like it to fall. Once you've decided, trim off the extra length of the tie. Fold over the material on the end of the tie and sew close. 

We're all done with the sewing machine now! There are a couple of ways for securing the tie to wear as a necklace. I used a vintage metal pin to to pin the ends together. You could also sew in a metal snap to the back of the tie.

For the top of the tie, I went ahead a sewed a large gold button on for an added embellishment. I like the way it looked, but you could also use a flower or even another small pin. 

Hopefully I took enough photos of the process! It's another one of those lazy weekend projects, plus it's always fun to have a reason to go thrifting!  

Jessica has a Pretty Place setting posted today on her blog that you don't want to miss! I have her idea for napkin rings filed into my 'must make list!'

Sweet November: Autumn Wreath

It's time for an Autumn inspired wreath.... just a little something pretty to hang on the wall. I really wanted to make a wreath for our sweet November week, the challenge was deciding on what type and style I was after. After a trip to Target and seeing their (now discounted) Fall collection, the one with the vintage horse awards and lots of florals mixed with plaids, I had a good idea of the style I wanted. Something casual with dressy elements!

  This wreath was a joy to create, particularly because I was able to use things that I already had available at home. Some vintage wool, remnant pieces of lace, a handmade flower & leaves and even my Grandmothers rhinestone pin, look around your home and see what you can find to work with before heading the craft store!  

I'll walk you through my process of creating this wreath. Remember though, that everything can be substituted for something that you're comfortable working with. (like a sewing machine, hand stitching would work just fine as well!)

Materials

For the wreath itself, I used:

- a foam wreath 

- fabric, in this case a thick wool plaid

- scissors 

- a measuring tape 

- straight pins

- sewing machine

Directions

1. Start by measuring your wreath and then add 1 inch (my wreath form measured 7 inches so I want to cut the fabric at 8 inches.)

2. Lay fabric out and cut the measured amount. Because I wanted to gather or bunch the fabric on my wreath form, I cut out a piece of fabric the was 8 inches wide by 5 ft. long. (If you're using a shorter length piece of fabric, you can also sew 2 smaller pieces together to make one long piece.)

3. Once you've cut your fabric it should look similar to a long scarf.

4. Fold fabric in half (printed sides together or right sides together.) I'll be honest and tell you with this fabric I couldn't tell what was the right side and which was the wrong side, so I gave up and just started pinning the fabric together.

5. Fold over and pin the entire length of the fabric, making sure to leave about 8 inches at the end, so that you'll have room to turn the fabric 'right side out' (These sewing terms make me feel a bit like my mom :)

6. Sew down the length of the fabric, stopping at the 8 inch mark at the end. Remove pins once the fabric has been sewn.

7. Once the sewing has been complete, slowly (and patiently) turn the fabric right side out, by pulling the end of the fabric through that 8 inch opening at the opposite end. This is where I started to doubt whether using a thick wool was such a good idea, but after 5 minutes and some grumbling, I had finally turned the fabric the right way! 

 8. Finish sewing up the opening on the end of the fabric, either by hand of with a sewing machine.

9. I used a serrated knife to cut through my wreath, but with a little arm strength you can easily break the wreath from where the seam is. (I've accomplished this particular feat with last years wreath!)

10. Start to shimmy your fabric onto the wreath form.

 11. Once all of your fabric is covering the wreath, overlap the end pieces. 

So that's all there is to the actual wreath! It probably looks more complicated than it really is, I tried to break down the photos into the steps I thought would be useful. Next you get to decorate your wreath! 

I looked around for embellishments that were similar in colors: white - peach - grey - gold

My original idea was to use a craft glue to adhere everything into place, but then I discovered straight sewing pins do a marvelous job at securing light weight embellishments!

Start with pinning any lace or fabric down to your wreath first. Just like scrapbooking, we're working on building layers. Next add the larger elements like flowers, I was able to push a straight pin directly through the inside of the flowers and ruffled them a bit so the pin disappeared from sight.

For the leaves, I tucked and pinned them under the flowers on both side! 

Depending on how many lovely embellishments you're able to find, keep repeating the layering and pinning process until your wreath is nothing short of perfection!

Hope you enjoyed my Wreath creating process! I promise it really is an easy project that should take right around an hour or so - a perfect Fall weekend project! I have another tutorial to share tomorrow, something sweet to wear this holiday season! 

See you then!

Sweet November: Pretty Package

A week of Fall inspired posts wouldn't be complete if I didn't add at least one little gift wrapping idea! I was thinking about gifts that we give during this season, and one came to mind that almost everyone will either receive or be giving away this month. Any guests as to what gift that would be? 

If you said a Hostess gift, you and I are thinking alike these days! My grandmother told me to never show up empty-handed to someones home that has invited you for dinner. Since I'm usually the one doing the inviting, I thought it would be fun to think of a couple of ideas for hostess gifts just in case! 

Tara's Top 10 Sweet Hostess Gifts 

- Fall scented candle (this would be my #1 to receive!) 

- a cute pair of dish towels (think the embroidered ones from Anthropology)

- a bottle of wine (Peter's favorite :) 

- gourmet honey, butter, salt, oil, or sugar (who couldn't use more of any of these!)

-  a pretty set of kitchen magnets

- instead of flowers, bring along a potted herb plant (try Sage or Rosemary this time of year) 

- a set of buffet napkins

- clean scented kitchen hand soap

- a pair of wooden salad servers

- new cute dish gloves

Since most Hostess gifts tend to be on the petite side, I was playing with some ideas on how to wrap it all up. I found some great gift boxes at our new Paper Source store that just opened, using a few book pages I simply used my paper trimmer to cut strips and used them as filler for the inside of my box. 

To decorate the top of the box, I used a minimal amount of products just a few leaves, gift tag, clothes pin and a little seam binding. Now, the leaves that I had on hand were not the right color for the overall look I was going for. (When are unsightly red and yellow-orange-ish leaves ever the right look?)

 Fear not though, a little coat of spray paint and those red and yellow leaves are now a trendy metallic gold and bronze! One coat is all it took, and I rather liked the color, especially the red, peeking through the paint. 

Clip the leaves and gift tag together with the mini clothes pin and tie some seam binding or ribbon around the box to hold everything in place and your thoughtful Hostess gift is ready to be gifted! 

Tomorrow I have a repurposed Autumn Wreath tutorial to share, anything with wool, paper leaves and vintage jewelry is always a good thing in my book! Happy Monday to you all! 

Sweet November - Pumpkin Maple Panna Cotta

Good morning! Thanks so much for joining me for the 3rd day of our Sweet November week! This morning's post is something just as sweet and perfect for a entertaining since so many of us will be welcoming and cooking for guests this holiday season. I love making Panna Cotta because not only is it fairly quick and easy, you can also make it the day before and let it sit overnight in the refrigerator - giving you more time to spend with friends and family and less time fussing over dessert on the stove. 

Pumpkin Panna Cotta is the perfect dessert to accompany any Fall dinner party!

Pumpkin Maple Panna Cotta

Ingredients:

2 cups whipping cream 
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup pumpkin pie filling
1 .25oz package of powdered gelatin
1/3 cup half & half 
maple syrup

Directions:

1. Pour half and half into a small bowl and stir in the gelatin powder. Whisk to blend. Let stand for 3 to 5 minutes to soften the gelatin.

2. Pour whipping cream, sugar and pumpkin in a heavy bottom sauce pan and set over med. heat. Pour the gelatin into the pumpkin/whipping cream mixture and whisk until gelatin has completely dissolved. Bring to a full boil, stirring continuously for 1 minute.

3. Remove from heat and pour into individual ramekins or custard dishes. *When it's just Peter and I, I tend to use ramekins because if the custard doesn't invert nicely - no big deal - it's just us. When company is over, I don't take any chances and will use custard glasses - still presents well and is just as pretty to look at!*

4. Cool the ramekins with custard until at room temperature, When cool to the touch, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or overnight before serving. 

5. When ready to serve, unmold custard from ramekins by running a knife around the side of the ramekin to loosen. Place a dessert bowl or plate over ramekin and and carefully flip ramekin upside down to unmold. 

6. Drizzle maple syrup over Panna Cotta and enjoy!

Try serving this Panna Cotta with a Chai Spice tea. I loved how the flavors mingled with one another - spicy tea with a sweet creamy dessert - Yum! 

I have an extra post coming a little later today, but first I fell slightly behind on updating Etsy yesterday as I had planned, so I apologize if you were checking in! I have plans to spend a little time today playing with the new features on Etsy as well as my shop. 

Thanks for joining me on your Saturday!