Make it Monday // Crochet Face Scrubbie

I haven't crocheted in a long, long time.  One of my favorite things about being me is that I am so creative.  (Vain much?) But really, I'm too creative for my own good and I end up changing my interests quite often.  I love getting really into a new hobby/craft and often I ignore other things I once was passionate about.  Crochet was definitely one of those things.  I can't remember the last time I crocheted for more than one second.

this post contains affiliate links, please see my full disclosure here.

Because this weekend was a long weekend I found myself with extra time....who would have known?? I just wanted to make something small so I pulled out some cotton yarn from my stash that I found on sale a little bit ago and got to work.  I totally pulled out my project about 1000 times, but I finally settled on a little face scrubbie.

I based my little scrubbies on a pattern like this one (which is actually for a potholder!) and used super bright, fun colored yarn.  This is the first I've seen of bright cotton yarn, usually when looking for cotton yarn all I find is white, pale yellow, baby pink, multi colored pastel....so blah.  Fun, bright colors - that's where it's at.  I can't believe I found these Lion Brand Kitchen Cotton Yarn on clearance at our Meijer.  It seems like my Meijer's craft section rotates through craft supplies pretty frequently, I never know what I'll find in their clearance.  (Sidenote - my Joanne's rotates through stuff quickly also - ours is small and it moves stuff to clearance that I still see on the shelves at the bigger one about 30 min away!)

Each scrubbie worked up very fast, about 2 in 45 minutes and I could get 2 (maybe three) out of a single skein of yarn.  Can we talk about an early start on Holiday gifts?  I used an H hook, chained 20 + 3 for a turn, and got to work in double crochet.  If you'd like a more rigid cloth single crochet would be better as you'll get a tighter weave.  I've just been needing a light bit of exfoliation and these are easy to reach for when I need a quick face wash.  I've been relying on makeup removing wipes and my skin is paying for it!

Anyway, this super bright cotton yarn was just sitting in my yarn basket for ages but you can still totally grab some fun colored cotton yarn from Lion Brand during the Back to School Sale going on on Craftsy through 9/9 - each skein is $1.65 (45% off!) and there are 14 colors to choose from.  Of course you can browse all their cotton yarn selections, I'm just partial to these!

During their back to school sale you can also score some discounted lessons in crochet.  This project is very simple, with some basic stitches down you'll be able to whip these up in no time - but if you're looking for more techniques and patterns check out their online classes and even the kits (they have one for knitting and crochet!)  No time like a long weekend to get started with a new hobby, or pick up an old one!  Seriously, if you're going back to campus, these kits send you everything you need to make a project and the crochet ones look so fun to work up!

Hope your Monday is productive - but if you just lay in your jammies watching Netflix and crocheting, I won't judge.  I might end up just looking at all the crocheted items on my inspiration board and not work through any of them.

xoxo, Moe

The Blogger I don't Want to Be

I don't want to be the blogger that makes everything seem unattainable

I don't want to be the blogger with a curated life

I don't want to be the blogger with all the answers

I don't want to be the blogger someone else wants to become

I don't want to be the blogger that has the Top 10 Time Saving Solutions

I don't want to be the blogger with the perfect Instagram page

I don't want to be the blogger that can't post unless it's perfect

I don't want to be the blogger looking for her next book deal

I don't want to be the blogger on the bandwagon

I don't want to be the blogger telling you how to do what you do

I don't want to be the blogger with perfect skin, perfect hair, perfect whatever

I don't want to be the blogger with the perfectly styled home

I don't want to be the blogger who has everything

I don't want to be the blogger who isn't honest

I don't want to be the blogger that other bloggers think bloggers should be.

I don't.  I don't want all of these things.  I don't want my instagram feed to be perfectly styled photos of perfectly styled desks filled with perfectly filtered light while my perfectly, perfect LE starbucks cup perches perfectly over a few gold bangles that perfectly accent the tray of perfumes situated next to the perfectly, perfect set of peonies.  I don't want that.  I want grainy photos, I want dishes in the sink (as much as I don't want them!).  I want a simple life and to show that a simple life can be amazing.  I want to share what I've learned because I couldn't find it to learn it. I want to share what I know because a candle loses none of it's flame by lighting another.  I want to be a blogger that seems average, relatable.  I want to have the life you have.  I want you to see the life I have is very near to the life you have.

I want to be myself, and I want to share it with you.

Dirty dishes, grainy photos, curse words, random posts, messy desk, and all.  I want to be a person like every other person because I don't want others to feel that anyone is better than them.  We all put our pants on one leg at a time, we all learned to walk while holding our parents' hands, we all learned to speak from someone else.  No one is better or worse than you, no matter what their instagram feed says.

I just wanted to share these thoughts with you tonight because I'm getting really sick seeing others being so perfectly perfect and insisting that to be a blogger you must be so perfectly perfect too.  Life isn't perfectly filtered photos of shit.  Life is capturing your child as he sleeps and looks exactly as you imagined, life is taking a horrible picture because it's the only one you can get before the moment is over, life is about learning and being creative, life is about living, imperfectly.  I think if you want to blog, blog.  If you want to do, do.  Be the best you can at it...and if you're interests change...then dive head first and learn.  Nothing is stoping you from doing anything, at whatever pace.  Bloggers have gotten twice as far as I have in half as much time....but that means nothing to me, because I'm happy at my pace.  I'm not racing anyone but myself.  The only person I need to be better than is the person I was yesterday.

I like the simple life I have with my simple blog.  And I like sharing things like this with you - real life, real feeling, a real person just blogging.

xoxo, Moe

Make it Monday // DIY School Schedule using PicMonkey

I can't believe it is nearly time for back to school - and if you're already back, I can't believe you're already back to school.  Every year I get excited even though I haven't been back to school in 4 years.  I think I do a back to school DIY every year too.  There is just something about the school supplies that really gets me.  I love the winding down of summer and that you can find the crispness of fall at the end of each day.  September and October are my favorite months and I can't wait for the chill in the air and all the leaves to change beautiful colors.  Man, fall is the new black guys.  Additionally, if you're looking for a way to procrastinate for any classes you may have tomorrow...I've got the DIY for you!

this post contains affiliate links, please see here for full disclosure

Anyway, today I wanted to do a little PicMonkey DIY - a class schedule you can design and print and put in your planner.  When I was going back to school I would have stress dreams about missing classes or suddenly having a class I didn't know about.  I wrote down my schedule like 1000 times to make sure I had it correct.  We'll be using the style of this previous note pages DIY to make a weekly insert.

Supplies :: PicMonkey.com, word processor, printer, paper trimmer or craft knife, & this previous DIY

First, create a canvas like the one created in the previous notes pages DIY.  Choose a canvas under the design tab then crop it to the iPhone5 size, uncheck scale photo.  Make the background transparent.

This part will take some fooling around - you want to use boxes to divide the canvas into 7 spaces.  One at the top for the dates/week number and then 6 other boxes for the days (Saturday and Sunday will be split over the bottom box.)  It will take some fiddling around and if you get frustrated don't worry, I've got some you can use here, here, & here.  Simply save these to your desktop and open the images in PicMonkey.  Now you can overlay your class schedule following the rest of the directions:

Once you have all your boxes aligned correctly, flatten your image using the icon at the top that looks like a few pages under an arrow pointing down.  This will ensure that when you add the text for the days or the schedule, you won't move around the boxes you've created.  Add in your Monday - Sunday headers any way you'd like.

After this step, you can flatten the image and then use it as a weekly insert (like those fun target ones!)  But use the text option to add in your weekly shedule.  I love the PicMonkey lets you use your own fonts with in the website.  If you're designing your schedule in the library (lol) and don't have access to the awesome fonts you've downloaded, PicMonkey has some amazing ones for free.  But you can log into your account (sign up here) an access the Royale fonts ($4.99/month or $33/year) and use those bad boys.

Once you have your schedule down, save your image as a jpg.  To print the schedule use the second half of the notes paged DIY to put your jpg into a word processor and send to your printer.

This schedule would be great laminated, punched, or slipped in a page protector.  Now you can move your schedule around with you during the first few weeks of classes and avoid those stress dreams!

Hope you are having fun in this back to school time!  I would love to be moving into the dorms right now and having to only worry about my 8am class rather than the real world right now!

How do you keep your schedule straight?  Do you worry that you'll miss a class?

xoxo, Moe