When place mats go wrong you get cloth napkins

I am a huge fan of pinterest. I get a lot of my DIY ideas from them but I often fail to realized that the designs and projects I find are often the product of professional crafty individuals. I expect my projects are going to turn out the same and there is just simply no way I could be that good especially considering I don't have the tools required to do the job. I work in EMS and our motto is "adapt and overcome," but I am realizing that DIY is not multi-systems trauma and I can't use duct tape and a rubber ducky to make this stuff work.

This is what I thought my place mats would look like:

As it turns out in the end I got cloth napkins instead. I started with 3 yards (for some unknown reason) of a soft, light burlap-looking fabric, brown and green acrylic paint, paint sponges, faux leather rope and leaf stencils.

I cut the fabric to 17" by 13" and after measuring and re-measuring, I managed to miss cut my place mats 6 times! After butchering the fabric, I was incredibly discouraged. I cleaned up the shreds of fabric and starting watching TV to re-group from this traumatic experience. While I sat on my couch I kept getting this nagging feeling that I could make something out of my mess. Really what I was trying to accomplish was a little character in our dining area. The more I thought about what I wanted our dining area to look like I realize that I had just created our new cloth napkins and napkin holders.


I took one of my unevenly cut place mats, placed them on my table and started brainstorming. I laid my stencils on the fabric, playing with placement ideas. I ended up this this.

Once they were folded up I was presently surprised to see that they didn't look horrible. Then I took my leather rope and braided it into single long strings. The final touch was to wrap the napkins with the rope and add some silverware.

I think they turned out okay. They are going to stay on our table until I come up with a better idea.

Melted wax...What could go wrong?

Last week, in an effort to surprise my boyfriend, I decided that I could make candles to fill our home with wonderful scents and add some color to our table. The DIY channel made this look so easy and fast. We learned differently in my kitchen.

To get this adventure stated I went to my local Micheal's and picked up some soy wax, medium wicks, candle color blocks, oil scent, and mason jars. I was going to a "this county kitchen" vibe. I ended up using 2 pounds of soy wax (which turned out to not be enough). Also I should point out that I have a bad habit of not following direction and therefore the result would probably be a lot nicer if I learned to read those things. As a kid my dad always called directions "dumbrections" and insisted on figuring it out himself... But for my first candle making experience I am pretty happy with how they turned out.

Here is the step by step of this misadventure:

1.  I started with a medium sized pot that I added about 4 cups of water to and began to boil. Once the water was at a rolling boil I added a glass bowl that fit over the top of the pot. I added the wax pieces to the glass bowl and waited for the wax to melt. This process to a lot longer than I anticipated. About 45 minutes later the wax was all melted.

2. While the wax was melting I shaved off a couple of color flakes from the color blocks that I bought. I used green for one candle, a brown and green combo in another, and the third I used gold and red. Instead of melting and mixing the color I thought it would look more interesting to leave the flakes in the bottom of the jar and allow the hot wax to melt the color shavings so that the color would be more marbled.

3. After I added the color shavings to the mason jars I realized that I need to adhere the wicks to the bottom of the jars. I don't have a hot glue gun or crazy glue, so I looked around the house and I could find was pipe sealer that we used for our sub-pump replacement. It kinda worked but if I could do it all over again I would spend the five dollars and get the crazy glue.

4. With everything set up and the wax melted, I added the scent to the melted wax before pouring the wax into the mason jars. I used a vanilla scent oil. It smells wonderful and is really fresh and relaxing.

5. With the scent added, i poured the hot wax into the mason jars and then placed the jars in the freezer to encourage the wax to set quickly. This was probably not the best idea. As the wax set quickly from the outside in air bubble became present in the center of the candles. I am hopeful that this doesn't effect the candle's ability to burn but I guess we will find out.

Here is the finished product (I will try to take step by step pictures in the future)

In the beginning...

For the past year I have found myself watching an inordinate amount of DIY channel. With that said I find myself saying "I can do that" with increasing frequency. This is where the problems begin. I am finding that I am not nearly as talented as Martha Stewart... Or a small child. Whenever I attempt new projects, it usually takes four attempts and a large quantity of supplies to get something the resembles what I am trying to create. 

I am thinking of this blog as a what not to do guide. Hopefully, my documented mistakes will serve as a guide for future endeavors.