Did you guys know I'm crafty as F?

SO. All of a sudden we're in the midst of fashion seaz! I blogged about Golden Globes dresses last week, and although I shoulddddd do the SAGs today, I'm going to hold off.

The list is sitting on my desktop! [Spolier alert: Sarah Hyland and blonde Downton Abbey chick, YOU GUYS WIN!]

But um, I'm ashamed to admit I've had a little something on my "to blog about" list -- and it's been more than a month. Let's knock this one out before it's March, shall we?

MUGS, guys. And holiday projects!

Also known as, the entry where I show you how incredibly lame/crafty I got this Christmas seaz. And I'll use the word "crafty" with and without a hint of sarcasm -- because well, I am NOT a crafty person. I'm basically the opposite. And I'm not artsy, either. I can't draw. I can't make DIY shit for the house. Even as a child, my mom got a kick out of the absolute crap I created in art class. I'll sketch you a person. You'll die.

I'm good at words! Just not science-math-art-anything else.

But yeah, I'm not going to deny I did go a little cray this December on the crafting.

Ta daaaaaaaaaaaa

I guess something came over me this Christmas. I don't know, maybe it's that I didn't go home, I didn't hang with family -- maybe I just wanted to keep busy with happy-ish activities to distract myself. So, I went HAM when it came to baking and such.

First things first (I'm the rillest), I picked a few different kinds of cookies I wanted to make. All from scratch! And to be clear, this is because I'm a fatty at heart and wanted to keep most of them around my own kitchen. But yeah, I figured I'd have some leftovers I could hand out at work. So, after much internal debate, I settled on M&M cookies (my personal fav, with red and green M&Ms of course), chocolate chip (can't go wrong, plus I wanted to test a new recipe), cream cheese sugar cookies (because I found a cute tree cut-out at Crate&Barrel!) and cake batter bark. Not a cookie. Whatever. Oh, and I made Christmas cupcakes too, mostly because I found the cutest liners, sprinkles and toppers at Target. 

WHO AM I? I should shotgun a beer real quick to combat all this housewifey garbage.

So, one Saturday I made like, all my doughs. Then on a Tuesday morning I believe? I baked everything and brought most of it to work for presents/trays. I wanted it to be fresh, you know? Gah everything was so good. Am I allowed to say that? K well, I just did.

Thennnnnnnnn, I made a bunch of mugs, too. For like, my 10-ish favorite people at work. Hope you got one! Haha.

I got this mugzy idea from a blogger I read pretty regularly/went to MSU with, Rachel. She works for BuzzFeed now -- and recently did a story on how she lived according to the Pinterest most-popular page for a week (great read, bt-dubs). I saw the mugs there and decided to copy. Looked easy enough. And it was, for the most part. (I also stole the chocolate chip cookie recipe from the Pinterest story. If you want to read it, click here).

So, my mugs.

Here's the dill: You buy a bunch (or like, one, like a normal person) of mugs/or a mug from the dollar store. Or Walmart because if you're me, it's a week before Christmas and there's a run on EVERYTHING at the dollar store. Then you buy oil-based paint pens, like Sharpies. I didn't end up with Sharpies, but you can.

Here's where I differed from the tutorial -- it said to buy alphabet stickers from a craft store. I couldn't find any. Well, couldn't find any that were large enough. So I ended up buying a set of thicker, stencil-type letters. They worked really well; I recommend.

So, I got some double-sided tape and stuck the letter on the white mug. I made Shawn an S mug and Claire a C mug, etc. I was thinking about using more than one letter, like, spelling out several initials -- which wouldn't have been impossible -- but I liked how just the one letter looked. So that was that.

You're looking soooo basic. Where are your Uggs, girl?

You can play around with the letter's positioning a million times with the double-sided tape, and get it justtttt right.

Then you start making dots! I liked the look of a million small ones. I used mostly Christmas colors. It helped to go around the stencil a few times, then fill in the rest. I just eyeballed everything. It's pretty fail-proof. If I can do it? Truly anyone can. People love to say shit like that, but I really mean it.

Dotsin'

Then when you're done dotsin', remove the stencil, peel off the tape, and you're good. 

Only thing was, it took foreverrrrrrrrrrr. I was averaging two mugs per one episode of Sons of Anarchy, and G was going crazy by the end of the weekend. "Did I lose you to crafts? Come baaaack! I miss old Michelle." Ha.

They turned out super cute though! At the end of the weekend, I baked the entire batch in the oven for like, 30 minutes at 350? Then I turned the oven off and let them temper completely. Which took forevz. Be patient. Don't burn your hand off. (Oh that was just me?)

But, the baking means people can wash them in the dishwasher and the marker won't smudge!

The finished product!

So, I ended up stuffing the mugs with cookies/Christmas treats and doing a cute little wrap job.

Who am I again? I sense fun Michelle is sitting in the corner, shaking her head at me. Staaahp judging.