One week down...

I have survived a full week in the condo now!  It can be really lonely and really boring... thank God for Duke, he does a good job of keeping me company.  While I have spent a lot of time watching TV and studying anatomy; I also met about 8 classmates and a had a blast exploring St. Augustine with them.  I am very excited to start classes in about 3 weeks, but for now I am taking full advantage of my down time for some crafting and well needed relaxation.  Here are a few of the projects I have done this week:

Window Table #2:

I finally finished the second window table.  I made this one with a bottom shelf to hold a basket.  The top is 8 inches deep to store magazines, decoration for the season, souvenirs from various trips, or anything else I decide :)  I even added the window locking mechanism for a fun and functional authentic feel.

Here it is all decorated!  Notice some of the other crafts that have been or will be featured :)

While I wish I could have included a more detailed step-by-step instructions of how I built both window tables, I had limited time to finish construction on each table as I did both in one weekend... the weekend before I moved.  If you have any questions feel free to ask!!

Craft #1 - State Art:

I found this adorable project on Lolly Jane's blog here.  They have some great ideas on here and since the boy and I are long distance I thought this was a perfect piece of artwork!  Check out the tutorial on their site.  Some things I did on mine: Florida has some very detailed shorelines, I kept some of the detail but made some of the lines less defined.  Mississippi has some ridiculous state lines so I made the left side pretty straight.  The stickers I used did not pop like I would have liked on that blue paper so I outlined them with white thread by sewing around the heart.  I also stitched the black "+" in the middle of the two states since I had out the needle and thread already.  I love how it turned out and it looks great on my window table.

Craft #2 - Japanese Kusudama Ball

This is a simple but very time consuming project!!  I love origami and this cute little flower only involves about 7 or 8 steps to make each petal and then some gluing is necessary to make each flower and then the ball.  Only half of the ball is done so far, but I plan to finish it soon.  I have made these flowers before, so when I came across a tutorial on StumbleUpon for how to make it into a ball I had to try.  Check out the tutorial Find Inspirations here.  To help with putting it together, I used paper clips at each joint to hold the glue as it dried.   Here is the first half of my Japanese Kusudama ball:

Enjoy!! 

O.M.J.