I'm making a big move. Yikes.

This blog is currently making a big move from Wordpress to Blogger...

If things seem a little rocky on this site for a few days please don't give up on me!

Also, please make sure you're connected to creatinglaura.com and not creatinglaura.wordpress.com, as the latter link won't be around forever.

Everything will be back to normal (or maybe even a shinier version of normal) asap.  =)

Thanks for sticking by me!
xoxo
Laura

Knitting Love

I skated on my new skates for the first time today (ouch).  While I'm not thrilled about breaking them in, I am thrilled about the picture that my very artistic and very talented friend, Kelly Smith, painted on their soles.



Now I'll always have a picture of my second favorite activity with me while I do my first favorite activity!



How do you show your knitting love?
xoxo
Laura

I Joined Another Website

Hi!

Have you heard of Bloglovin?

Well, yes, if you are an avid blogger or blog reader, of course you have.

I, however, had not heard of it.  I had seen those little badges that said "follow me on Bloglovin" on many of my favorite blogs, but I had never bothered to check it out until now.

The verdict?  It's so fun!  It's kind of like a Facebook news feed just for blogs.  You can add all your favorite blogs on there and any time one of them posts something new, the new posts show up in a neat and tidy list with all the other recent posts from your favorite blogs.  Love it!

You can also discover new blogs on there, which is a game I dove right into.  My favorite blog that I've found there so far is One Sheepish Girl.  She posts about all sorts of cool knitting projects and her pictures a bea-u-tiful.  Check it out.

Want to follow my blog on Bloglovin?  Click here:



Happy blog-browsing!
xoxo
Laura

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Upcycling

Good Morning!

Today, while I was drinking coffee and browsing pinterest, I ran across this old picture:



It's from the Imperial Wartime Museums website, and it caught my eye because the message is so different from how most people operate today.  These days everyone, including me, has a tendency to throw things away at the first sign of a hole or a change in fashion trends.  I understand why we act like that these days, I really do, but I also sense a change in the air.  There is a whole generation of up and coming bloggers who aren't just throwing things away, nor are they just making do with their old things.  They're using their scissors and needles and paint and creativity to turn their old things into new things.  They're upcycling!

Oxford Dictionaries defines upcycling as reusing (discarded objects or material) in such a way as to create a product of higher quality or value than the original.

When I turned an old t-shirt into a tank top in this post back in April, I was upcycling, and I want to do it more.  Not only is it great for the environment because your stuff isn't ending up in a landfill, it also saves you money which is awesome because we all know how expensive crafting can get.
Here are a few examples of great upcycling projects from other bloggers:

1. Today's Nest made placemats out of old jeans:


2. My Tiny Universe turned an old t-shirt into this cute pillow:


3. Wood Pond Designs created these funny little stuffed animals out of old sweaters:

The moral of the story?  Next time you get sick of an article of clothing, google it to see how other people have upcycled it into something prettier, or get creative and make up your own new use for it.  The possibilities are endless.

Have fun!
xoxo
Laura

Words of Wisdom from Maya Angelou

Unexpected Uses for Yarn

Hi Friends!

Have you seen TLC's new show Craft Wars yet?  I watched it last night and found it pretty entertaining.  For me, there were three highlights to the episode.

1. Getting to see Erica Domesek, author of one of my favorite blogs, p.s. I made this.  She is every bit as smart and adorable on TV as she is in her blog.


2. There was a funny montage of one of the contestants gleefully shaking glitter all over a wishing tree, and she looked just as crazy as I'm sure I look when I get excited about glitter.


3. One of the contestants used yarn to write words on notecards, which got me thinking about all the other ways you can use yarn that have nothing to do with knitting.

If you are anything like me, you probably have a million leftover scraps of yarn from knitting projects of yore and nothing to do with them.  I had a look around the web, and found these 5 fun and unexpected ways to use yarn:

1. Make a statement with Family Chic:

2.  Decorate greeting cards with Crocheted Couture:

3.  Add yarn to a fishtail braid with A Beautiful Mess:

4.  Make a hanging lantern with Wednesday Custom Design:

5.  Wrap up a picture frame with Centsational Girl:

Be sure to click the links and check out all 5 of those great blogs!

What else do you do with your yarn?

xoxo
Laura

Check out what I unwrapped today...

You don't have to tell me twice!
xoxo
Laura

4th of July Ideas from around the Web

Hi there!
Can you believe it's already July 2nd?

I did some serious blog browsing last night, and there are tons of really great ideas out there for decorating, primping, eating, and having an all-around fun time this Independence Day.  Below, I've compiled a list of my 5 favorites...

1. Patriotic Paper Flowers DIY tutorial from Live Laugh Rowe

2. Red White and Blue Jello Shots recipe from Saucy Pants

3.  Patriotic Nail Art tutorial from The Beauty Department



4.  4th of July Bunting free printable from Nifty Thrifty Things

5.  Watermelon Stars idea from One Hungry Mama

All of those awesome pictures are from the original blog posts and I don't own them, so head on over to those blogs to check out more great pictures and all the fun tutorials that go along with them.

Happy 4th of July!
xoxo
Laura

Fake It 'til you Make It

Hi Everybody!

I am a firm believer in the "fake it 'til you make it" concept, because if you're anything like me, you probably really are qualified to do a lot more than you think you can do, but you don't try those things because they're scary.

Why am I talking about this?  I joined a new library today.  I haven't been to a library in a couple of years, but since I'm living in one place for the whole summer I finally have the opportunity to join one again.  After I got my card, I wandered over to the stacks and suddenly felt overwhelmed and unsure if I still remembered how to find the books I wanted.  But here's the kicker: in college I took a whole semester of Advanced Research Methods where we did nothing but learn how to use the library.  With that in mind, I gave myself a self-depricating peptalk ("Really, Laura, really?!?!") and marched myself over to the computer to look at the library catalogue, because that's what you do at a library.  I knew that if I made myself go through the motions and make it look like I knew what I was doing, I would remember how to do it along the way.  And that's exactly what happened.

That same principle applies to trying out craft projects.  If you find instructions for an adorable craft project that seems a little out of your league, ignore the doubts in the back of your mind and give it a shot.  You just might be amazed by the results.

Fake it 'til you make it, Baby!
xoxo
Laura

Easy Custom Thank You Notes

Hello from Eindhoven, The Netherlands!

I have just finished knitting a really cool scarf for myself and I can't wait to blog about it, but I'm waiting until we're in Amsterdam tomorrow to take pictures of it.  In the meantime, I'm going to tell you about some cool notecards I bought from Target before I left.

I had just celebrated my birthday and I wanted to write thank you notes, but none of the options were really doing it for me until I stumbled upon these fun, bright cards with no writing on them called Me Personally.  After you buy them you can go to www.gartnerstudios.com for the template to write whatever you want on them and print them out.  I made mine look like this:

I left room to handwrite the actual notes on the inside because a handwritten note always seems just a little nicer than a typed one, even if your handwriting looks like an 8-year-old boy's like mine does.

The only hard part of this project was figuring out which way to insert the cards into my printer as evidenced below, so if you do this, make sure you have a few extra cards for when mistakes happen.

See you in Amsterdam?
xoxo
Laura

The Beginning

I understand exactly how I became the way I am, but that doesn't mean that I'm a huge fan of it.  What I am is a 27-year-old consumer.  I'm active and social; I love going out with my friends on hikes or to the movies or to cool shops and restaurants, but all of those activites involve taking things in as opposed to putting things out into the universe.  Of course I became this way because that's how most unmarried 20-something Americans are today, with home economics being a thing of the past in schools, and the internet providing hours of passive entertainment while advertisements are constantly telling us to buy, buy buy, and I've never really though about it.

Two incidents made me notice and want to change the fact that I don't add nearly as many tangible things to the world as I take from it.  First, as usual, my mother pointed it out to me.  My fantastic boyfriend altered a dress for me to wear to a wedding (have I mentioned that he's fantastic?!) and I was making cookies for him as a thank you, when my mom made a joke about how that is literally my only "domestic" skill.  I was indignant and tried to think of a comeback but I honestly didn't have one.  She was right.  I don't know how to make anything else.  Then, a couple weeks later, my mom invited me to take a knitting class with her, I successfully completed the project, and I had an unexpected sense of accomplishment.  I had always thought of knitting as making boring scarves and potholders, but I had made something that I actually liked and that I would use!  Suddenly I wanted to make more things, other things, bigger and better things!  I wanted to take more classes!  I wanted to give these things to my friends!  I would be THAT friend!  I would be a better and more sparkly version of myself!

A few hours later, once the excitement had worn off, I came back down to earth and remembered that I am a busy girl in a modern world who -- let's be honest -- tends to lack followthrough despite having the best of intentions.  So that's where this blog comes in.  I've decided to try to make one crafty thing per week and see where it takes me.  These will not be earth-shattering creations, but they will be things that I like and that are also fun and useful in real life.  I hope I can do it, and I hope that other people out in the internet-world might enjoy reading about my projects and maybe even try to make them too.

All I can do is try, right?
xoxo
Laura