Yo-Yo Flower Christmas Tree

Have you ever made a yo-yo flower?  I learned how to make one earlier this year thanks to this pin here.  It's so simple to make and super cute!  And who would have thought you can turn a bunch of yo-yo flowers into a christmas tree?  My friend's mom had one on her fireplace mantel and I just couldn't get over how cute it looked!  She was gracious enough to make me a pattern as well as give me some green fabric to make my very own.  

Here's what you'll need:

• 12 in diameter circle pattern
• Scrap fabric in shades of green or solid colors
• Empty thread spool (that will be the tree stump)
• Wooden stick (You can pick one up at your local craft store.  I got mine at Hobby Lobby)
• Scissors/thread/needle
• Polyester filling (optional)

Start by cutting out your pattern on your fabric.  My pattern paper was a little short of 12 inches so I worked with what I had and then rotated the pattern on the fabric since that's the beauty of a circle! 

Once you finished cutting out your 12 in fabric circle you can now cut/trim your pattern to the 11 in circle pattern.

Repeat the process of cutting the circle pattern.

Continue these steps until you reach your 3 inch circle.

Next make a yo-yo flower out of each circle.

Make a little snip at the bottom center so that you can place it on top of the wooden stick.  Put the wooden stick in through the center of the spool so that the spool supports the stick standing.  Stack largest to smallest to create the tree shape.  You can also stuff the yo-yo flowers with polyester filling to make it extra fully, but that's optional. 

Make a little star or find a trinket to put on top and then done!  It's the perfect little center piece for your holiday party!

Don't have time to make a whole tree?  Try this alternative mini yo-yo tree ornament.  String a jingle bell to the center of the lace or string to act as your stopper and then stack the yo-yo flowers through to make your own mini tree.

DIY Pillow Box

I'm making a lot of different little gifts this year for Christmas and thought that the best way to wrap them was to put them into a pillow box!  And I searched on Amazon and all over the internet for cute christmas themed pillow boxes and didn't find any so I hit myself on the forehead and thought why don't I just make my own??  I googled a DIY pillow box project and found it on ItryDIY.com here.  This was time consuming but I feel great about how each of the little boxes turned out!  I definitely recommend this if you need a small box to wrap up your gifts.

What you'll need:

• 1 pad of scrapbook paper of your choosing (Heavier cardstock works better)
• Ruler
• Scissors
• Dull edge (of scissors or butter knife)
• CD or something round
• Double sided tape or Zots 
• Pen

New Curtains!

I have new curtains!! Huge thanks to my friend for hooking me up with really nice curtain fabric!  It makes a world of a difference now.  I can actually sleep in in the morning and I have a lot more privacy at night now.

Before.... 

After!

Here are a few photos of how I sewed the curtains.  I didn't have a pattern but I did take a look at my friend's curtain and tried to reverse engineer it in my head and I think it turned out okay.  :)

Thanksgiving Pins Roundup

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving for us here in the US.  Are you guys ready for some serious grubbing??  I'll be at work but that doesn't break my festive spirit!  I didn't have time to do any Thanksgiving dedicated post this time around but thought I could do a round up for those looking for some easy last minute dinner and decoration ideas for the weekend.  I haven't tried these recipes/projects yet myself but here are a few of my favorite floating around on Pintrest.  Hopefully I'll get a chance to try them soon.  If you guys try them out let me know what you think of them!

Autumn Holiday Wreath by SimplyPinspirational 

Do you remember this from last year? ;)

Dressing Up My Dresser

So my home away from home calls for me to buy a few new "furniture" fixtures and I'm not about to go out and invest in a ton of money into a temporary home.  Moving cost a lot.  And I mean a lot!  Especially if you're making that initial move to rent a room.  You always have to think about the deposit and how you're going to move all of your stuff, or buy new furniture.  I ended up moving some of my stuff but mostly been furnishing my room with plastic and non permanent fixtures.  So my latest addition to my room is this plastic 3 tiered dresser.  I decided to use this as my socks, underwear, pj, pants etc drawer.  Since I didn't want my clothes to be showing straight through the dresser I decided to dress it up a bit.

What you'll need: 

• Plastic dresser drawer
• Scrapbooking paper (or wrapping paper)
• scissors
• Double sided tape
• Ruler
• Pen

Training with Disney

Sorry, yet another non crafty related blogpost talking about Disney...but I promise the next one will be crafty.  :)  I just really wanted to share some cool photos from my first day of training.  Nothing too crazy since the majority of it was in a lecture hall/auditorium and we were told not to take any photos in the backlot area, but I did get some photos that I thought were cool and shareable!

Cool sign that I think really goes unnoticed when you're pulling into the Casting area.  There's an additional fencing that divides the street and the sidewalk so when you're driving in the sign is covered.  I had to walk from the parking structure to the sidewalk to get a picture of this sign.

Opening new doors all around

"When one door closes another door opens..." - Alexander Graham Bell

I've officially moved into my new room. I have 4 other roomies sharing the house so I feel like I'm in college again. Exciting new opportunities await for me. ^_^ New job, new living quarters, new roommates, new town! So much exploring to be done! Not to mention so much I need to get done for my new room.  So I guess this will be my mini series of #roomimprovement.

Day 1 of the move has been busy!  I drove down to SoCal this morning and arrived at about 4:00. My new landlord was so nice and helped me move all of my stuff into my room. Got everything out of the car in no time.

Check out my new front yard buddies.