Hello to anyone out there who is still checking SewTrashy! Bill, my most loyal fan, this post is for you.

I can’t believe it’s been (almost) three months since I posted last. Does anyone else feel the year flying by? Sheesh! Life has been good, busy and full of fun things. Although, not much time for making and creativity. Hopefully that will change soon.

Most recently, Dustin and I went to New York City for a quick 2.5 day weekend trip along with some of my family. We took the bus, which was super fun and only cost $4.50 roundtrip TOTAL for both of us. I mean, you can’t beat that! We had a blast while we were there. Dustin took all of these photos. Enjoy!

Grimaldi’s Pizza was amazing! Totally worth the wait. We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge which certainly worked up our appetite for pizza! I would recommend trying Grimaldi’s (and walking the Bridge!). The space is quite small and a little noisy, but it’s also cozy and fun. You can watch them cranking out the pizzas in the back. Super thin crust, baked in a coal brick oven. YUM!

Amazing cupcakes. Well, at least they look amazing! We tried the Mini Pumplin Whoopie Pies and Coconut Nutella Macaroons which were both pretty spectacular. These baked goodies come from Street Sweets. A blue lunch wagon bakery on wheels! Try it if you see it. Bring cash, unless you want to buy $10 worth of goodies on your debit card.

Here’s my lovely Mom and super cool brother. We went through craziness trying to get tickets to see West Side Story. Finally, we lucked out and paid $35 for balcony seats and ended up with center orchestra seats! Amazing. Great show. Super fun. Made me want to dance!

The only photo of Dustin the entire trip.

Wrong stop. Lots of extra walking.
Definitely earned all the yummy food we ate during the trip.

Do you have a favorite New York City restaurant or activity? I’m going back in a couple weeks, and would love your input!

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The Standoff, originally uploaded by sewtrashy.

…to say “hello”. I had surgery this week on my mouth. BLAH! Braces are no fun… borderline torture I say. Not too much longer to go. That’s good.

Now that I’m feeling better I hope to finish up my projects for the Crafty Daisies Book Club on Bend the Rules Sewing. This was “due” yesterday, but I was knocked out on pain meds all week. Hope to share my makes with you later today or tomorrow.

In the meantime, this photo taken by my husband made me laugh. I love our dog, Bonsai. He is such a character.

Just because the economy is in a rut doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy a little online browsing! I stumbled across these glasses on FishsEddy.com, and I have to say I am loving them. Ok… ok… I’ll admit, I’m loving lots more on their site as well! 

Happy Looking!

As promised, here are a handful of old, thrifted pictures frames to match the “new” mirrors I shared here. I really love how these turned out as well. I wish you could see them in person. You lose a lot of dimension adn detail viewing them via my blog.

*TIP: Picture frames and mats can be so inexpensive. I think it is pretty ridiculous. I always scour thrift stores and flea markets for interesting or basic frames that I can revamp to fit my taste. You would be amazed at how many cheap picture frames are out there just waiting for a facelift… and your photos of course! 

BEFORE: Picked up this large frame at a the Salvation Army in Hawaii before we moved. Replaced the photo, but never got around to painting it. This photo was at the top of Haleakala on Maui. I love this shot, but it was not quite right for the freshly painted frame. I replaced it with the shot below!
 

AFTER: This is our little Jack Russell Bonsai. I took this shot of him after an evening at the park where he decided to roll around in the mud! This is in the bathtub before Dustin gave him a bath. I just can’t resist that little face! I think this REDO turned out quite nice!
 

BEFORE: Two more thrift store finds. The one on the left was only $1!! I could not resist. I love the character of the frame too. I think the one on the right was between $3 to $5. Check out the after. There’s that chair again! Just a little tease. I will share them soon!
 

AFTER: This is not one of our favorite photos together, but one of the only “professional” ones, if you can call it that. All of them we are cropped off in weird places. Ah well. It’s still a memory!

AFTER: This one was a great REDO. Do you remember all the gold, even on the mat? Well, I salvaged the mat too! Just painted it white, and it looks great! This photo Dustin took while at the Honolulu Zoo. That was a fun day. 
 

BEFORE: Gold Frame, $3.25
 

AFTER: Clean ad crisp with my sister’s artwork! 
 

AFTER: Detail shot of the frame. 
 

AFTER: This is a collage I created from moving stickers a while back. Blogged here. This frame came from IKEA, but I didn’t think the natural wood was quite right for this collage. I’m glad I decided to paint it!

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I would love to see your photo frame revamps! It really is super simple. And, don’t be intimidated by larger pieces that have been professionally framed. It only takes a little bit of work to disassemble these. I’ll be sharing a tutorial on just that hopefully tomorrow! I have a great trick for removing the mat from the photo or artwork without damaging the mat. Stay tuned!

Mirrors and frames I picked up from different thrift stores.

Two mirrors on our $4 thrifted chair.
This find was by Dustin! 
 

I shared a while back that I totally lucked out with some recent thrifting. Well, as promised, here’s a little bit of what I got. 

I have been wanting some mirrors for our place. But not just plain old boring ones, something with some character, and affordable! I came across these mirrors at a local thrift shop and had to snatch them up. The larger one was $8 and the smaller one $5. I think that’s pretty darn cheap for mirrors! The big mirror looked like a pretzel or some sort of bread. It was pretty bad. 

My plan was to slap some glossy black paint on them (along with a bunch of thrifted picture frames that I’ll share tomorrow). I think they turned out exactly as I imagined! Can’t wait to hang them!
 

Here’s a close up of the large mirror drying!
  

 
Big mirror. Let me just say, taping this off was FUN! ha!
Totally worth it, I think it looks a million times better! Not sure
if I want to hang it this way, or flip it upside down.
Any thoughts?
 

Small mirror. Maybe I should have wiped down the
mirror before taking the shot! oops.
 

Can’t wait to share the rest of my finds! Including that orange chair up there. Wait until you hear the story behind that furniture! I’m still in shock. 

Hallelujah! EndureLife’s etsy shop is finally up and running!! We’ve been printing like crazy for the past 3 days. And I will say, we have been having a BLAST! It’s so rewarding seeing your ideas and dreams finally becoming a reality!

We really wanted to actually screen print our designs ourselves. However, we are renters right now with NO WHERE to get messy and dirty and properly expose screens, etc. So, our 2nd choice is this transfer press method. We send off our ORIGINAL designs to be screen printed onto transfer sheets. Then, we use the press to transfer our designs onto tshirts, etc. The great thing about this method. We can make them as we receive orders! 

I am excited to one day do the whole screen printing thing. I love that process, but for now… we must show our transfer press some love. He is certainly getting the job done! 

Here is a little photo spread of our printing adventures for you! Oh, and check out our shop! Enjoy!!

Dustin at the transfer press…
waiting for results on our patches!
 

Peeling back the transfer sheet. This is so fun!
 

Dustin modeling our first shirt!
What a hottie!

Girlie version! Love it! 

Peeling back the transfer paper on some small patches. 

Yes, unfortunately, I had to be a model too.
I do like this photo though!
 

Love these hats, but I have no clue how to wear it.
My cousin, Lynsey, would look great in it. She looks perfect in any hat!! 
 

Our 2nd shirt design! Dustin’s idea. Love it! 
 

Yes, totes too! I told you we went crazy printing!!
 

Dustin’s idea to print this on the bottom. I love it!
However, it doesn’t always print well, still working out the kinks. 
 

Alright. Now go check out the shop!! We will be updating it regularly! Hmm, my SewTrashy shop is feeling neglected. I must get my new items up! I can’t wait to show you what I have been working on. 

I just love IKEA fabrics. And, I REALLY love browsing their AS-IS section. A few weeks ago, I picked up 5 Dining Chair covers in this great black and white fabric. Not sure what I would use them for, but I couldn’t resist at .99 cents a piece! 

Well, my cousin had a housewarming party this weekend and I thought it the PERFECT time to use one! So, for about $2 total this 14″ throw pillow was born. Hope to have photos for you soon of her place! Trust me, you’ll want to see it!

Pillow photographed on our “new” orange thrifted $10 chair. Wait til you see the pieces we got! What a steal!