It's Pinspired Friday! {An easy, last minute Christmas Gift! - DIY Ear Warmer}

Happy Friday! Christmas is just around the corner, and hopefully you're well on your way to figuring out Christmas gifts. If not, have no fear! I've got an easy, cheap, and warm gift tutorial for you today.

It all started when I pinned this about 4 weeks ago:

At Second Street: Fleece Ear Warmers

I thought... those look pretty easy, and what a great way to use up fleece scraps! And so I set off to make my own.

This is a very easy tutorial. This would probably be a great beginner craft for a child or teen even.

I was given a bunch of fleece pieces by my grandmother's associate and friend - they all ranged in sizes and shapes and colors. I grabbed this fun piece of "rock" fabric and some black fleece, and went to town. Want to recreate this? You'll need:

• 2 pieces of fleece fabric (coordinating or contrasting), 24.5" x 3.5" long (May need shorter for child)
• A button (I used a 1" size)
• Sewing Machine and needle and thread for attaching button
• Felt for flower (see below)
• Something circular to round corners.

If you're going to make the flower, you'll need about 8-10 2" or smaller circles cut out of the felt. They don't have to be perfect as you're folding them.

Cut out your two pieces of fabric, 24.5x3.5". You might need to go smaller if you're making this for a child or teen.

Lay your two pieces together. You'll want to place the fabric right side up as we're just going to sew around the edge... no turning inside out here. Fleece thankfully doesn't fray. Using a very scientific method of tracing a ribbon spool (or cup, whatever you can find that works), trace your corners.

What is so nice about this project is that it is very forgiving, which makes it such a good project for someone young or for someone just getting into crafting and sewing.

Now with your corners cut, and your fabric lined up, get your sewing machine ready to sew. I used black thread - the thread sinks into the fleece just a little so it's not very obvious.

Sew around the outside with a 1/4" seam allowance. I use my zipper foot because it's just easier for me to line the side of the fabric with the side of the foot. I recommend not starting in either curve, but right after a curve.

Your fabric might get a little wonky with shifting and such (fleece is kind of notorious for this) so trim up your edges so they match.

Cut your button hole by folding the fabric over and making a small slit. Be careful not to cut it too large. Because it's fleece, we won't need to sew around the hole as it won't unravel. Yay! I cut my button hole to 1/2" for a 1" button (it stretches quite a bit!), so that's about a 1/4" cut (because you're cutting into the fold. :))

On the other end, sew your button. You'll want to sew your button on the top of the fleece that faces outward, unless for some reason you don't want the button to show (this will be harder to fasten, too)

Now, if you're going to make the flower, proceed: if not, go ahead and put on your ear warmer! How easy was that?

Cut your circles, if you haven't already. I ended up using about 8-10 circles. Get your thread and needle ready. You'll want a fair amount of thread.

Pinch the circles in the midle like so. They kind of look like fortune cookies! Align them up on your head warmer and start sewing them to the fleece. I imagine you could hot glue them too if you wanted, but I think in this case thread and needle might be easier. Sew them in a cluster until a flower starts to form!

And there you have it! A cute, easy gift for someone you love or even a gift for yourself.

A weird angle - the flower is definitely more circular in real life!

Did you like this tutorial? Help me out by pinning it to Pinterest! Got to have it? It's available in my Etsy shop! Thanks for following along!

Don't forget to take advantage of FREE SHIPPING in my Etsy store until 12/25/12! Use coupon code LITTLEOAKCHRISTMAS12 when checking out!

Now offering FREE SHIPPING until 12/25/12 in the Etsy Store!

I've got a pretty cool blog post for you today!

In the spirit of Christmas, I've decided to offer FREE SHIPPING on all of my products in my Etsy store until 12/25/12! Obviously, the sooner you order, the more likely your item will arrive before Christmas, so order today!

Use coupon code 

 LITTLEOAKCHRISTMAS12  

(all caps!) to receive free shipping. Find my Etsy store here.

Can't figure out how to use a coupon code? Etsy has a pretty good article on their website about how to use a coupon code. You have to enter the code for the free shipping to work, it is not automatically deducted. :)

Terms: All items purchased with this coupon code will be shipping through the United States Postal Service. Items can take up 2-9 days to arrive. Items may ship parcel post, depending on size and weight, but will always be shipped with the utmost care and protection for your item. Items will ship from Michigan. Items purchased after 12/15 carry the risk of not arriving before 12/25. Please allow 1-2 days to process. Coupon code expires 12/25/12.

So have you had your eye on that birdie wedding cake topper set? Or maybe that mouse shaped catnip toy? Now is the time to grab it! :)

Thanks for looking and Happy Shopping! Pass the news on to your friends!

A Little Young House Lovin'

Good morning/almost afternoon! I'm stopping in to share a sweet story with you today.

So Mr. LOC and I have these two awesome friends, Mr. Voyage On and Ms. Voyage On (soon to be Mrs!! Yay!! :) ). Mr. LOC has known Mr. Voyage On for many years, and when I met Ms. Voyage On (We'll call her E!), we instantly clicked. Like salt and pepper. Bread and butter. Cake and ice cream. Now I'm hungry.....

Anyway, something E and I have had in common is that we read the blog Young House Love and have read it for many years... we just happened to find out one day that we both read it and it was just another weird thing to have in common! :)

Fast forward a few years... and Young House Love releases a book. They have a book signing in Chicago, which is a few hours away from both E and I. Mr. LOC and I can't make it that weekend, and E and Mr. VO go to the signing.

Little did I know, they were being sneaky! :)

Those sneaky-sneaksters bought Mr. LOC and I a copy of the book! I had read the blog Young House Love as they were releasing the book, and one of their posts talked about secret hidden things they hid in the book, what certain things meant to them in the book, etc... and I was like... that is very cool. Maybe someday I'll get a copy of the book and follow along with them. But sure enough... E and Mr. VO came through. :.)

I opened the gift bag and saw the book... and was so excited. But I was even more excited when...

!!!!!
A signed copy! To Mr. LOC and I (yes, those are our names in the book there. Hi. :)! I am pretty sure I started jumping up and down at this point.

So to our friends, thank you. It was an incredibly sweet Christmas gift and I am so touched. We are so blessed to have friends like you.

P.S. - If you're looking for a fresh, fun blog to read about life,travel and other worldly things, check out Voyage On! :)

How to: Refill your foaming soap dispenser cheaply AND easily!

Good morning all and Happy Monday! I've got a fantastic tip/tutorial for you today. It's easy, and cost effective! My two favorites!

I have a weakness. I love Bath & Body Works foaming soap, and use it in the bathroom and in the kitchen. But, what I ended up finding is that I use A LOT more of it in the kitchen because I'm constantly washing my hands... touch chicken, wash hands. Touch egg, wash hands. On and on. So, I was going through a lot of the soap, and while I think it's a relatively good deal, especially when you hit a good sale, I was replacing it too often and I didn't want to have to buy nearly as quickly.

So, I scoured the Internet looking for an answer, and I found crazy things like boiling vinegar and soap and using exact mixtures of all of these different things... and I thought there had to be an easier way.

I had this quite large (2.5 qt)  Softsoap refill bottle that I bought at Big Lots about 2 years ago for about $2-$3, and I had just been refilling other soap bottles with just the SoftSoap... but then I thought, what would happen if I added water? Sure enough, it worked perfectly.

First, gather your supplies. You're going to need:
• Some sort of liquid soap. I am using a basic SoftSoap Antibacterial Hand Soap... there isn't much if any scent. I am using the 2.5 qt refill size.
• Water
• An empty foaming hand soap container. I'm using a Bath and Body Works 8.75 oz size (which I believe is the standard size.) You've got to have the foaming hand soap container as the pump on this one is the reason why this works. It's got to do with the smaller cylinder towards the tube.

Now, take your empty foaming soap container and squeeze some soap into the bottom. I filled mine up to about the end of the word "Bath".

Fill your bottle up with water, right up until you're at the top of the sticker. Don't overfill, you'll need some room to shake!

Replace your foaming soap pump top, screw it on tight and shake the living daylights out of it. I don't know if it's the SoftSoap, but mine never separates after this, so that is not a problem.

And that's it! Most simple tutorial ever. No boiling who knows what, adding this and that - plain and simple foaming soap. I use so little soap out of this SoftSoap refill that I can refill my foaming soap pump multiple times (my guess would be at least 50-75 times with this size refill - I started refilling my soap when this refill was about half way gone, and I've done this foaming soap thing probably 5 or 6 times and used only about an inch of the refill!) - making this a very cheap refill alternative!

Also, the soap is nice and dense too! It lacks a strong smell like the Bath and Body Works soaps but I imagine you could buy a refill with a nice scent.

Thanks for following along! :) Let me know how this works for you!