Craftastical!

The Bee's Knees Digital Scrapbooking Kit Freebie

2012-01-24T22:01:00.000-07:00

New to digital scrapbooking? Never downloaded a digital kit before? What in the world are .rar files anyway? Get your answers here: How to Unzip Files So You Can Digi Scrap.

Apparently, I've gone too long without designing a kit. Shaunte, over at This Too Shall Pass has progressed to harassment in order to get me to design another digital kit. This is good, because I apparently need harassment levels of persuasion in order to get me motivated to do anything after graduating. While harassment isn't supposed to make you feel desirable, I feel privileged to be Shaunte's object of harassment. If she progresses to stalker I will probably never be able to deflate my ego.

(If you don't read Shaunte's blog, you should. She's the type of funny that makes me realize that my attempts at humor are. . .how can I be kind? . . .underdeveloped. Perhaps if I had gone the extra step and had five children like her instead of four, I would have gone that extra bit of insane that would have imbued me with the truly funny stuff--not that I'm commenting on Shaunte. Really. Just on me. But, it's too late now to add any more crazy to our house. I must be content with envying Shaunte's comedic ability and forever wishing I had her finely-honed thrift-store shoe-finding abilities.)

I'm also hoping that this kit will be helpful to another friend who is in charge of an girl's camp this summer. Their theme is centered around bees, hence the theme of this kit. It just so happened to work perfectly with Aubriana's Halloween costume from this past year. Even if you don't have a need for a bee theme, there are plenty of unrelated papers in this kit--I'm quite fond of the clouds and the chevrons.

So, cheers all around for my first digital kit in ages! I enjoyed making it--I forgot how much fun it is to have an excuse to watch endless TV and dink around in Illustrator. I hope you like it!

(Click to download)

Kit contains: 33 pattern papers, 1 set stitches, 1 overlay, 1 sheet honeycomb stickers, tags, 1 mask, 1 torn edge, 2 bee stickers, 2 flower stickers

Is that a 1? I believe it is.

2011-12-12T14:16:00.001-07:00

Remember this?

It now looks like this.

One more week, baby. Then I will be a college grad and a human again. Instead of a subspecies with a laptop type growth on her fingers.

Sunshine Paisley Throw Pillow Tutorial

2011-11-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, here it is. What I've been meaning to write and put up for ages. If I didn't have to keep doing that pesky schoolwork (five more weeks until graduation, five more weeks!), this would have happened a lot sooner.

Once I finished the five embroidered paisley squares (click for pattern), I knew I wanted to make a pillow out of them. I was worried though, because I didn't want it to get too "patchwork quilt." I didn't think that would go with the modern feel of my bedroom.

I wanted to do solid yellows and grays, but the quilt story nearby didn't have any. This was perplexing. Normally, when I get an idea, there is nothing that can prevent me from doing that idea. I mean, small adjustments, they normally make the project turn out better. Large adjustments like substituting a print for a solid? I will normally not proceed. I think the saleswomen in the shop thought I was being completely unreasonable. Like, I had gone into a restaurant and said, "But, these green beans aren't green enough, I wanted more of a Christmas green, not so much an olive green. And I wanted them cut 1/4" longer. Do you have different green beans in the back?" (I did not ask for super-secret back-room fabric, FYI).

However, I did eventually find some fabric I liked. I'm still not sure about it. I think I would like it better with solids, but heck, it's done and it's cute and I adore the embroidery, which is really the point of this pillow. And, it's growing on me.

So, here are the steps if you'd like to make your own and show off your own embroidery. I love this idea, because embroidery just doesn't happen often enough, in my opinion! It's would be cute as just a patchwork pillow too, with regular fabric instead of the embroidery, so don't feel left out if you're not in the mood to embroider.

Sunshine Paisley Pillow

Supplies:
3/4 yard fabric #1
1/3 yard fabric #2 (Four squares of coordinating fabric cut to 5 1/4" and two 45" lengths of 1" wide strips sewn together to make one long length)
Five embrioderied squares at 5 1/4"

Square of muslin around 20x20"
Square of low-loft batting around 20x20"
Cording approximately 72" long
Fusible interfacing (2 pieces approximately 13x19")

Step One: Embroider five squares with paisley in any color you like. Embroider within a 5 1/4" square. Once finished, cut to 5 1/4".

Step Two: Cut four pieces of fabric to 5 1/4" square. If your fabric is patterned, you may want to consider cutting the squares so the pattern is symmetrical (this may take additional yardage). Also cut two lengths of the sashing fabric (gray in my pillow) to 1 3/4" wide.

Step Three: Lay out your squares and determine where each square will go. Sashing only needs to go on the inside between the two squares. Pick up the middle squares, leaving the outside squares in place, and sew sashing on each side of the middle squares. I chain stitched mine (shown below). I didn't do mine as methodically, so my photos are slightly different.

Step Four: Once you've chain stitched one side of the three squares, trim off the sashing at the bottom roughly, leaving a tail (we will trim this more exactly later). Iron seams toward the sashing. Then sew sashing to the other side and iron seams again.

Step Five: Now, you need to trim sashing. This is easiest to do with a rotary cutter and clear ruler. Line up sides and trim off excess. Do the same for the other side.

Your finished square will look like this (with only one side done).

Step Six: Sew outside squares to middle squares/sashing. Iron and trim.

Step Seven: Sew sashing to top and bottom of middle row. Iron seams toward the sashing. Trim.

Step Eight: Carefully pin top row to sashing of middle row. I spent some time making sure the corners of the squares lined up exactly. I pinned every spot there was a seam. Sew. Do the same for the bottom row of squares. Iron.

Now your top is almost finished!

Step Nine: Cut two more lengths of sashing 1 3/4" wide. Sew sashing along both sides of square, iron and trim. Then sew along top and bottom. Iron and trim.

Your finished top will look like this:

Step Ten: Next is the quilting. I wanted something very subtle, so I used a very low loft batting. I also knew the back of this part wouldn't show, so I used a cheap muslin. Cut batting to 1 1/2" larger than finished pillow front. Then cut muslin 1/2" larger than batting.

Step Eleven: Pin layers together. You can use quilting basting adhesive spray, but I decided to use pins for mine.

Step Twelve: Quilt pillow. I did simple in the ditch quilting, making a sort of tic-tack-toe pattern along the lines of the sashing, stitching in the ditch along the squares.

Front of my finished quilting:

Back of my finished quilting:

Step Thirteen: Trim batting and backing along pillow edge. (I seriously need a new ruler. One of my kids stepped on mine and cracked it.)

Step Fourteen: Using the 1" yellow strip of fabric, make encapsulate the cording. This is a good tutorial of how to do this.

Step Fifteen: Pin the cording all around the outside of the pillow front, with the cording part toward the center and the raw edges lining up against the outside. Around the corners, clip to stitching so that the cording will turn around the edges, and make them as sharp turns as possible. At the bottom of the pillow, overlap the cording slightly and run it off the edge and downward, so that the ends will be caught when you sew and no raw edges will show (see photo in next step for more of an idea of how this looks).

Step Sixteen: Baste cording in place.

Step Seventeen: Cut 2 fusible webbing 1/2" shorter than height of backing pieces. Fuse to wrong side of fabric. Iron raw edge along top down, so that the raw edge touches the top of the fusible webbing. Then fold it down along the fusible webbing, so that the raw edge is folded in. Pin. Then topstitch. Do the same for both backing pieces.

Step Eighteen: Make sure the back pieces are the same width as the pillow. If not, cut down to fit. Then, pin first back piece on front, right side toward pillow front, with finished edge across the center of the pillow. Pin the second piece, layering over the first piece, with right side toward pillow and finished edge across center, creating envelop. (See photo in next step to see how finished back will look).

Step Nineteen: Stitch back to front. Trim corners. Turn. Insert pillow form. And that's it! You have a beautiful new pillow!

Black and White Mod Podge Stool Makeover (With Tutorial!)

2011-11-07T09:37:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I had a friend coming over to see my house for the first time. I was (frantically) cleaning the morning before she was supposed to come. (Clarice, if you're reading this, that's a total lie. My house is always immaculately clean. I was lounging on the couch eating organic, designer doughnuts and pirouette rolled waffers without making a single crumb and miraculously not taking in calories for hours and hours before your visit. I swear it.)

I was cleaning the bathroom, and I decided that my white stool was never going to look clean on top and that painting it white was the worst decision of my life. Because, clearly, paint weighs out over anything else, including the credit card debt I started accumulating in college. Nope, nope, white paint on this stool--MUCH, MUCH worse.

I bought it for $5 at an antique shop, and it was clearly someone's shop stool. It had drill marks down through the top. But, I liked it. I think it has charm.

So, I painted it white. But, this is what it looked liked about a year. I'm not sure the nastiness is showing up in this photo.

I pulled out some black and white wrapping paper from Hobby Lobby, some Mod Podge, a pair of scissors, some sand paper and a paintbrush and pretty soon my stool (that just sounds so weird after having four children--stool has so many meanings once you are concerned with the frequency and consistency of four other people's bowel movements), anyway, pretty soon my stool had been transformed.

So, here we go!

Step one: Cut of a hunk of wrapping paper about the size of the footstool (see how I nicely got around the word "stool" there?). I knew I didn't want the hassle of trying to line up the wrapping paper's pattern with the edge of the stool, so I decided it would be charming to have it at an angle.

Step two: Working in small sections, apply a thin coat of Mod Podge to the top of the stool (footstool sounds pretentious, maybe?) and smooth down. Then lift up to see where it's not yet adhered. Work in short sections, across the short width of the step stool. Pay special attention to the edges. Let dry.

I have to admit that my wrapping paper did not smooth on completely nicely. However, you can't even tell. I am shedding the prison of my perfectionism! Imperfection is . . . alright! Particularly when it's completely unnoticeable.

Step three: Using the scissors, cut away as closely as you can to the edge of the step stool. It occurs to me that turning over the footstool and using an exacto knife and a cutting mat might have worked better, but I was in a rush the morning I did this. I had to get to my imaginary doughnuts.

(I also like how I have ghostly helpers in these photos. Who is cutting that wrapping paper? Seriously?)

Step four: Using the sand paper, lightly sand the edges of the wrapping paper. You might notice the edges aren't adhered as much as one would like. Brush some Mod Podge up under the edges and press down if you find spots like that.

Step Five: Brush off any dust from sanding. Put an even coat of Mod Podge over the top of the stool.

Ta-da!

Another look at the before:

Then, put your stool into its natural habit, the bathroom.

I mean, put your footstool where it will get the most use, which for us is the bathroom where my daughter stands on it while I do her hair.

Test

2011-11-06T22:30:00.002-07:00

MRUATYK897AQ

Halloween!

2011-11-01T11:57:00.001-06:00

So, I stayed up sewing until 3:30 am on Sunday night. Maxton, really wanted to be Aang, from Avatar: The Last Airbender. I couldn't find any in the stores and for some reason, it didn't occur to me to check online until it was too late. This is cooler, because he's the cartoon Aang, not the live-action movie Aang.

So, of course, I didn't have a pattern, so this is hodge-podged together. The pants I based off a super easy pattern, then I added elastic around the bottom. The cape I sewed in one try, making up my own pattern, and same with the belt.

The collar took me four tries to get right (it's separate from the shirt). I'd never sewn anything like that, and I had to make my own pattern, so that was some serious trial and error. The shirt was a nightmare. The pattern I chose for the shirt was all wrong--the directions did not make any sense (or I was just not getting it, I'm going with the first because it makes me feel better), so I ended up just doing my own thing with it. But, it's done!

The other three children, luckily, found store-bought costumes. It might seem like I favor Maxton, because I sewed him a costume, but really I love my other children more for not making me sew them costumes.

As awesome as Maxton's costume turned out, I think David takes the prize this year. Actually, he literally took the prize. He won the costume contest at his work with Sir Bedivere from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. He got free movie tickets and a gift certificate from Olive Garden. I see a date in the near future. He made the entire costume himself. He even sewed the skirt and the sleeves onto his costume. I told him how to draft the sleeves for the pattern, but he did all the work himself.

And I, well, I somehow could not plan ahead for myself. So, on Halloween, I woke up, after going to sleep at 4:30 (I couldn't fall asleep after finishing Max's costume at 3:30) with no ideas for myself. So, I did "girl in tights with mohawk and bad eyeliner." It worked for me. I dig the 80s vibe and I think I got some impressive height on the mohawk.

Here's to the post-holiday sugar rush. My children have gone to school and left their candy unguarded. . .

Curtains in my Kitchen!

2011-10-18T23:05:00.002-06:00

My sister moved a few weeks ago. I mentioned this in my last post. When she moved, she and her husband ditched a ton of their stuff. Which means, I got a lot of their stuff.

One of the "stuff" I got was the curtains that were in their living room. They just happened to go perfectly in my kitchen.

This is the before shot:

This is what they looked like before I hemmed them. Yeah, way too long:

And the completely finished after:

As I said on Twitter, "Two windows in my house have curtains! Two!"

(My other curtains are these in my bedroom. And I finally lengthened them. Can you believe it?)

They are from IKEA. I hemmed them all by myself. I can't decide if I like the slight pooling at the bottom or not. I think I do, but I may change my mind.

Toward my front door:

I love how the small orange dots in the fabric subtly pick up the touches of mustard in my kitchen.

I only had to pay for the curtain rod, which I picked up at Walmart for $13. Not bad for a set of curtains!

It looks so much more finished and polished. It makes me want to put curtains up in every window, like now.

Sunshine Paisley Embriodery Pattern

2011-10-10T10:54:00.000-06:00

Oooohhhh dear. Pinterest has done me in again. I kept seeing all these beautiful embroidery stitches and projects. Which means, of course, I have been embroidering a lot lately.

I had so much fun trying new stitches. My favorite site is this one, which has the best directions and such beautiful work and I used a bunch of stitches I learned there on my paisley.

I'm very proud to share my very first embroidery pattern. I have a thing for paisley. My sister doesn't get it. I think I may be talking her around with my unrelenting love, but she always compares them to a certain male reproductive cell. If she hadn't just deserted me and moved to St. Louis, she would punch me in the arm for telling you that. I'm sure the comparison has already occurred to you. If it hasn't, my apologies for putting it into your brain. Hopefully my pattern is so awesome that you will now forget about it.

I made five different squares and my recent activities (here and here) may give you a clue as to what I did with them. But, that's coming a different day.

Sunshine Paisley (click here to download 4 page pattern)

iPod and Phone Skins--Blemish Free and So Pretty!

2011-10-05T08:42:00.001-06:00

When I got my new phone a few months back, I was sort of disappointed in the color options.

I think it came in blue and red, except I could only get blue. That's not exactly the most exciting thing for someone as "high-brow artist" as I am (that's sarcasm right there--if they had a hot pink option, we wouldn't be having this conversation).

So, I got obsessed with making a skin for it. You can find several places online that make custom skins for electronic devices. I had quite the ordeal finding a place that carried the shape of my Gravity Smart. I'm not a picky phone person, so I didn't know my phone is sort of obscure. Or at least, I'm guessing it is, based on the fact that no one bothered offering skins for it.

Anyway, I found a place, and then decided to go for making a skin for my iPod Touch too.

Skins are basically huge stickers that you can peel off eventually. Basically, you use their software to design them (I uploaded some of my digital scrapbook papers for mine) and they print a big sticker for you and you stick it on your phone. It's all the fun of bumper stickers, but without devaluing a car.

I actually haven't put the front on my phone yet, because I keep thinking I'm going to put on a nice clear screen cover, and then put the skin over that, since it just goes around the screen. Hasn't happened yet.

Fun, no? Makes me smile every time I pull them out. Makes them very easy to spot too.

Paper Chain Countdown

2011-09-19T11:49:00.001-06:00

I've made a countdown to graduation. I have but 13 weeks left now. I have documented proof, from my camera phone.

See, it used to look like this, last week:

Hopefully, the idea of ripping off a link at the end of the week will make it a little bit easier to finish off the week. I love my classes, but my perfectionist tendencies make it overwhelming sometimes and I get low on the motivation occasionally.

Here's to 13 more weeks!

Bamboo Blinds

2011-09-12T13:21:00.001-06:00

Alas, today is my first day back at college. Which means, my very fun summer is over. Sad face. But, I have the very small number of only 12 credits left. I have debated, made my mind up and changed it back so many times this summer over the question of whether to go full time this semester and finish already or to finish up gently and go half time this year. I'm STILL not sure. I've been going to college for 10 years on and off and I want to be done! However, if I go half time, less stress, I could maybe get a part time job from home, I can defer my student loans a little longer. On the other hand, I could be done in time for Christmas and graduating would be the very best Christmas present in the entire history of the world. It seems surreal that I could actually have a college degree.

On the other hand, going half time would leave me free to do other things, like admire my bamboo blinds and make really horrible videos featuring them. I think the voice over isn't too bad, but the visuals leave much to be desired. But, shaky, dark video aside, I still saved a ton of money.

Humm, maybe the pictures weren't too bad after all. Here are the pictures.

You can see something else I haven't really shown you yet: my yellow ceiling. I was really worried when I painted it that it would be overpowering, but it's not at all. Phew. I picked the right color. The thing about light yellows is that they tend to turn buttery creams quite quickly, especially with the palette I chose, so I managed to pick a yellow that still reads yellow, yet doesn't turn mustard or sickly in any light.

Still can't believe my luck at finding these for $4 a piece! It makes my cheap little heart sing.

Aqua and Pink Camera Strap Cover

2011-08-18T13:33:00.003-06:00

I'm not sure why camera manufacturers make camera straps so uncomfortable. I'm guessing that it's so that the straps have a grippy quality that allows them to be less likely to slip and therefore less likely to fall off of your neck and (in a second therefore), therefore less likely for your camera to achieve contact with ground (this is bad, unless you gently set it there. I once dropped my most expensive lens. That was un-fun).

I have not yet developed callouses on my neck that would allow me to wear my camera strap without discomfort. Perhaps that's something that is discussed with pride among professional photographers? I wonder if they compare neck callouses? Although it would be pretty hard to see your own. You'd have to get an impartial judge, which seems like a lot of hassle for a simple callous comparison. Or you could get two mirrors. Or, I can't believe I didn't think of this earlier, you could just take pictures of each other's callouses. I'm spending way too many words thinking about something that probably does not exist. I'm unfamiliar with small talk among photographers (or their necks.) (I don't mean small talk among their necks, I just mean, I'm unfamiliar with their necks--I don't make a habit of examining people's necks; although I do enjoy vampire fiction, a preoccupation with necks has not yet resulted, apart from this blog entry). Whenever I meet professional photographers, I try to change the subject. I feel like a fraud and I don't want to get caught forgetting that my camera is a 60D or confusing ISO with aperture (it's totally happened, even though I can use ISO and aperture with dexterity if with mixed results).

I've resorted to some pretty interesting solutions while trying to relieve camera strap chaffing, including wearing the whole thing down around my shoulders or under one arm. Not exactly ideal. So, it's pretty sad that it took me this long to make a dang camera strap cover.

I used this tutorial, which I saw on Pinterest, but between steps 3 and 4, I quilted it. Because I have issues with authority. Plus, quilting is fun. It's a great tutorial and super easy to follow.

I took these photos with my camera phone. Not too shabby for a camera phone (although my styling leaves a lot to be desired. Can't have it all.)

Hopefully I don't make any gymnastic moves that will allow my camera to somehow slip off my neck. I doubt it. I feel pretty safe about it. Plus, it's squish and soft, I made it all out of scraps, so it was free, I really like pink and aqua, and I have a place for my lens cap other than my back pocket. Rock on.

Tutorial: Cable Knit Pillow

2011-08-16T13:13:00.001-06:00

I am now the proud owner of TWO throw pillows. It's hard to believe that I have reached such a high number; I have managed to accomplish this feat in the short time period of nearly ten years of marriage.

All last week I spent knitting. After a particularly long day of knitting, every time I closed my eyes, I literally would see cables floating in front of my eyelids. It's not that it really took that long to knit; it's that I was making my own pattern. I also had an insert I was trying to match, so it had to be the exact right size. That's pretty much a recipe for frogging. A lot. I also have a beautiful new washcloth when I completely finished a front that ended up being too small.

I did not come up with that beautiful cable design myself. It can be found here. I merely figured out how to put it into pillow form.

So pretty, isn't it? And not as complicated as it looks as long as you keep track of your rows until you get the hang of the pattern.

I would definitely recommend sewing your own pillow insert. That way, your gauge doesn't matter! Also, (this is a huge shocker, I know,) knitting stretches, so you have some leeway in gauge if you want to buy a pillow form or if you already have one on hand.

In case you are interested, I used worsted weight cotton yarn and US size 8 (5mm) needles. I tend to a tight gauge and my pillow ended up about 14x14". I used about 6 oz of yarn (I bought two of the super sized 4 oz. Sugar'n Cream skeins).

So, without further ado, here's the pattern. Please, please let me know if you find any typos. I tried to be careful, but it's been known to happen.

Front

Cast on 56.

Do three rows garter stitch. Repeat rows 1-24 three times, then finish with three rows garter stitch and cast off. (Garter stitch is knitting every row, so that one side has alternating knit and purl rows).

Row 1: p4, c4f, p4, c4f, p4, c4f, p8, c4f, p4, c4f, p4, c4b, p4
Row 2: k4, p4, k4, p4, k4, p4, k8, p4, k4, p4, k4, p4, k4
Row 3: p4, k4, p4, k4, p4, k4, p8, k4, p4, k4, p4, k4, p4
Row 4: k4, p4, k4, p4, k4, p4, k8, p4, k4, p4, k4, p4, k4
Row 5: p4, k4, p4, c4f, p4, c4f, p8, c4f, p4, c4f, p4, k4, p4
Row 6: k4, p4, k4, p4, k4, p4, k8, p4, k4, p4, k4, p4, k4
Row 7: p4, k4, p2, (t4b, t4f) twice, p4, (t4b, t4f) twice, p2, k4, p4
Row 8: k4, p4, k2, p2, k4, p4, k4, p2, k4, p2, k4, p4, k4, p2, k2, p4, k4
Row 9: p4, c4f, p2, k2, p4, c4f, p4, k2, p4, k2, p4, c4f, p4, k2, p2, c4b, p4
Row 10: k4, p4, k2, p2, k4, p4, k4, p2, k4, p2, k4, p4, k4, p2, k2, p4, k4
Row 11: p4, k4, p2, k2, p4, k4, p4, k2, p4, k2, p4, k4, p4, k2, p2, k4, p4
Row 12: k4, p4, k2, p2, k4, p4, k4, p2, k4, p2, k4, p4, k4, p2, k2, p4, k4
Row 13: p4, k4, p2, k2, p4, c4f, p4, k2, p4, k2, p4, c4f, p4, k2, p2, k4, p4
Row 14: k4, p4, k2, p2, k4, p4, k4, p2, k4, p2, k4, p4, k4, p2, k2, p4, k4
Row 15: p4, k4, p2, k2, p4, k4, p4, k2, p4, k2, p4, k4, p4, k2, p2, k4, p4
Row 16: k4, p4, k2, p2, k4, p4, k4, p2, k4, p2, k4, p4, k4, p2, k2, p4, k4
Row 17: p4, c4f, p2, k2, p4, c4f, p4, k2, p4, k2, p4, c4f, p4, k2, p2, c4b, p4
Row 18: k4, p4, k2, p2, k4, p4, k4, p2, k4, p2, k4, p4, k4, p2, k2, p4, k4
Row 19: p4, k4, p2, k2, p4, k4, p4, k2, p4, k2, p4, k4, p4, k2, p2, k4, p4
Row 20: k4, p4, k2, p2, k4, p4, k4, p2, k4, p2, k4, p4, k4, p2, k2, p4, k4
Row 21: p4, k4, p2, k2, p4, c4f, p4, k2, p4, k2, p4, c4f, p4, k2, p2, k4, p4
Row 22: k4, p4, k2, p2, k4, p4, k4, p2, k4, p2, k4, p4, k4, p2, k2, p4, k4
Row 23: p4, k4, p2, (t4f, t4b) twice, p4, (t4f, t4b) twice, p2, k4, p4
Row 24: k4, p4, k4, p4, k4, p4, k8, p4, k4, p4, k4, p4, k4

Back

(Make 2)

Cast on 56.

Rows 1-6: Garter stitch.
Rows 7- 40: Stockinette stitch with the first and last five stitches on each row in garter stitch.
Rows 40, 42, 44, 46: (k5, p5) four times, k5, p6, k5.
Rows 41, 43, 45: (p5, k5) four times, p5, k6, p5.

Bind off.

(Stockinette stitch is knit one row, then purl one row and so on, so that one side is all knit stitches and the other side shows all purl stitches).

Block all pieces, making sure sides all stay the same measurement. Seam front to back, allowing back pieces to overlap to make envelope to insert pillow form.

The finished back should look something like this:

And the finished pillow again, a little closer up:

Ack, so snuggly!

The Pinterest Challenge--A Floor Lamp Make-Over

2011-08-03T10:33:00.002-06:00

A little bit ago, Sherry from Young House Love got together with a few of her friends and issued a Pinterest challenge, the idea being to actually use Pinterest to inspire you to make something, and not just to glamour you like a time-sucking vampire with the pretty colors. Oooooo, pretty colors.

Surprisingly, I actually have used Pinterest a few times to inspire real-life projects. How is it that so many projects do not end up on the blog??? My sister and I spent a whole day once doing naughty things to t-shirts (like cutting them up and then not even sewing proper hems on them!) inspired by Pinterest projects. I guess most of those ended up belonging to Melissa, which is why they didn't show up here.

I'm a bit late on this project, but here it is! This is something I've been planning for weeks! And it's finally done! I managed to fit it into my oh-so-busy and important schedule. Did I mention I spent last weekend hiking 16 miles through the Virgin River Narrows in Zion National Park, the same trip that got flash flooded out last year? My first overnight, backpacking trip. Walking in a river for 16 miles with a pack that weighs 24 pounds is stinkin' hard work, people!

That's me in the foreground and David up ahead.

We only crossed that river hundreds of times. No big deal.

So, anyway, amid my 16 mile hikes and cleaning and packing to get ready and recovering from the truly awe-inspiring, wrap-around blisters I got on the hike, I did my project, which was inspired by these yarn balls. I adore them. So much string! Who couldn't love a thing with so much string? I think I have some feline/Dr. Seuss DNA in there somewhere.

I bought this lamp for $3 at a yard sale a while back,with this project in mind. This is the before shot.

I used a 24" beach ball, wrapping it in string that was dipped in a mixture of Mod Podge, cornstarch and water. I made sure to leave a hole in the top and bottom in order to get the light bulb in and out. The photo I pinned has a good tutorial, although I didn't bother with the petroleum jelly. I couldn't imagine that I could glue string to a beach ball with Mod Podge even if I really, really wanted to. A balloon might be different.

And after letting it dry and removing the beach ball (you should have seen Aubrey's face after she realized I cut a hole in it to get it out!), I had this:

Cost for this project:
Lamp: $3
Beach ball: $1
String: $5
Glue: Freeee!
Total: $9

My string ball is pretty much just sitting up there. I need to figure out a way to make it more secure and I'm thinking of spray painting the black lamp stand--maybe a gunmetal? I love the shadows it casts though.

More Photos from My Over-scheduled Summer

2011-07-25T10:48:00.005-06:00

I'm going to have to reassess my evaulation of myself as a person who isn't very busy. This summer has been the most intense of my life. I have never tried to have so much fun in so little time. Note previous posts about Disneyland and Arches, plus all the little things, like a movie every week with my sister, craft day every week, hanging out with friends more, playing baseball for the older two boys, and then there are still four more majorish trips we have planned for this summer. Zion, Yellowstone, another family reunion and climbing Mt. Nebo. I swear, this is turning into a travel blog. Sorry, I swear I'll stop after the summer is over.

In the past few weeks, we went to David's family reunion. His parents and all their eight children, their spouses and then all the grandchildren gather every other summer--the only time we are all in the same spot. It's an event.

Some of my favorite pictures from the week:

Maxton playing the piano at the piano recital.

Every reunion, we have a piano recital and a talent/variety show. Maxton composed his own song, since he hasn't started lessons yet. He really, really wants to start though. I need to get on that. (Look, I figured out the joy of photo captions.)

Xander playing at the piano recital.

We stayed in the tiny town of Joseph, Utah. This is one of the main streets, right outside the old church we stayed in that had been converted to a reunion house.

One of the places we visited was Cove Fort.

This is the door of fort.

This is also the door of the fort.

The next four photos are by the blacksmith shop behind the fort.

Wildly inaccurate photo.

The next stop was Fremont Indian State Park. Not sure why they had a teepee outside (probably to attract visitors), because the Fremont lived in adobe pithouses, but this photo sure looks cool, if wildly historically inaccurate.

View outside the museum at the state park.

So different from either more northern Utah or southern Utah. More rolling hills and much smaller mountains and the plant life isn't as sparse and full of sagebrush (although there is plenty of sagebrush) as southern Utah. Interesting place. We had to cut our visit to the state park a little short, after these clouds started dumping rain on us.

Petroglyphs so hard to photograph

They don't show up very well.

There was a playground near the house we stayed in.


Here's Griffin going over an arch.

Can't decide if I like this one of Aubrey better in black and white or this way.

We got home on Wednesday, then left again on Friday night to spend the weekend up in Logan with one of my aunts (in between, I went to dinner with some girlfriends and then the next night we went to see Harry Potter). Her town has a firework show you can watch sitting on her front lawn and a parade that throws a LOT of candy. Which I needed for energy after all that time traveling and sleeping in strange beds. That sounds bad. I mean, not in my bed, but in a bed only occupied by my husband, but which does not belong to us and in which we do not normally retire for the night.

Then we took a nearly four mile hike with all four kids up to the Wind Caves. They all did great, but David did carry Aubrey for a significant amount (nearly the whole way, except for some of the parts that she walked and some of the parts that my aunt Angie carried her).

The rest of the kids trudged up the trail and back down again with minimal complaining, although all of them fell at some point, ending up with skinned hands and/or knees. The one time I hike without my first aid kit.

The caves were neat. They were limestone and I guess were underwater at some point? How they ended up on top of a mountain is unclear to me, but they are large, roundish caverns and there are even a few arches around. I didn't get too great of photos, because I was too busy A. trying not to fall off a cliff (the inside is significantly sloped and gravely and slippery--not really much chance of going off the cliff, but I wanted to make sure I did not go off the cliff), B. trying to make sure I knew where my children were at all times, so as they would not go off the cliff, C. having my heart constricted by the fact that my husband is not afraid of heights and was therefore going very, very close to the edge of the cliffs, D. having sweaty palms seeing my cousin sitting on the edge of the cliff (see photo below). Can you tell I don't like heights?

However, despite the profusion of cliffs (and they weren't even that tall of cliffs), the caves were beautiful. I always wonder what it would be like if you were hiking along and you had no idea something like that was there, and all of sudden you see something so unusual and beautiful.

David and Aubrey hiking up the trail.

Angie and Aubrey

I'm in the largest cavern, while the kids are standing on the arch.

Maxton sitting on top of the caves.

Aubrey and Angie sitting on the top.

My cousin sitting on the top of caves.

I'm at the bottom of the caverns, looking back up at her.

And then, here's a random shot.

Aubrey chilling in Angie's back yard.

And now, I'm off to try to get a very long list of stuff done in the house this week. I went to a crop this weekend and finished two layouts. I haven't scrapbooked in sooooooo long. Hopefully I'll share those two layouts on the blog this week.

I'm a Guest Blogger at House of Hepworths!

2011-07-13T16:20:00.000-06:00

The world is a small, small place sometimes. I'm guest blogging over at House of Hepworths today. I've actually known Allison for a long, long time. I'm not sure how long, but we went to the same church in Austin, Texas when we were kids. I also knew her husband, Ben. And now I get to follow her current life on her blog! So cool!

Anyway, go check out my post and a few of Allison's projects, which are all awesome. She loves spray paint nearly as much as I do. Of course, I think us craft bloggers pretty much keep the spray paint industry going. . .

And if you've come here from House of Hepworths, thanks for stopping by! I hope you like it here and will download a freebie or two or leave a comment or follow me or otherwise make your presence known. Lurking is fun, but typing is exercise!

A Pretty for My Living Room

2011-07-06T18:43:00.000-06:00

The living room of my house was the first I designed in my head. I lost sleep over the thing! I did sketches! I spent hours virtual shopping. I've researched couches and searched and searched for the perfect one. I even posted a mood board of sorts before we even bought our house--you can find it here. I've since changed my mind about the couch. About 30 times.

I actually have something very specific in my head. The only problem is pulling it out of my head, finding it someplace, finding it in the exact right size and finding it for a reasonable price (my limit is $800--you may laugh at me now). This is what happens when you are incredibly picky. Some things I don't mind one way or the other. Apparently couches are not that way.

I think this might be the one, but in a tan microfiber:

(Click to be taken to website)

But I digress. I'm off topic. In step one of who knows how many, I did some artwork for the space.

David and I painted three pieces when Griffin was a baby for our apartment at the the time. They turned out alright, but there was always something missing to me. We actually put some IKEA wall decals on them, so once they fell off, despite being Mod Podged, I figured they needed to become different pieces. Plus, they didn't match anywhere in our new space.

Two are going to end up in our master bedroom, but this one was slated for the living room.

The previous owners had left a ton of joint compound in the storage room. We were using it to repair the hole we knocked in the wall (we are sooooo close to being done with that project--it's taken long enough!), and we thought we'd use it to add some texture the canvases while we were at it.

I textured mine, then used a butter knife, a fork and a scrubbing pad to put my design on the canvas.

Once it was dry, David painted it black for me. Then I added the color on top of the black, highlighting the texture, except for the leaves, which I painted green, then highlighted (lowlighted?) with black.

While this is going to end up on the wall, I had a little bit of fun putting together a little vignette on my buffet (one of the few pieces of furniture in my living room). I just started collecting milk glass--I'm sort of obsessed. Consumed. Engrossed. Infatuated. Riveted. By milk glass. (Yes, I used a thesaurus. Milk glass is just that awesome.) Everything besides the art is antique store, thrift store and yard sale finds or inherited pieces. I even got the sea glass at a yard sale!

Cherries!

2011-07-04T10:41:00.003-06:00

This weekend, we've been picking cherries. The cherries on our huge cherry tree out back have ripened this weekend. This is our first year of harvesting cherries. Last year, the first year in our new house, the bugs and birds got to the them. This year, we were more prepared.

We are eating them fresh (I don't like them fresh, but I'm a strange anomaly when it comes to food), drying them in a food dehydrator, and making jam. So far, my sister and I have made 15 jars of jam. They are sweet cherries; we think they are, more specifically, corum cherries.

I fell off a ladder while picking them. I was sitting on the top of the ladder (probably not a smart thing to do, but our ladders are short and our tree is tall, much taller than our house and I wanted those cherries!). I was reaching for a cherry, and I felt like the ladder was rocking. It probably wasn't. I probably thought it was because I was reaching out too far and knew it. So, in a good example of the law of attraction, I made the ladder rock back and forth more because I thought I felt it rock and was trying to compensate, and then, in order to not fall in a much worse manner, I jumped off the ladder, and then once on the ground, I stopped the ladder from falling on me. I might call it "falling with style" or maybe "forced jumping."

Really, not just anyone can fall off of a ladder like that. It takes a certain kind of quirkiness to have a mix of maladroitness, accident-prone stupidity to make yourself fall off a ladder and yet still possess the agility to sidestep serious harm. I mean, who causes themselves to fall off a ladder and then saves themselves with a graceful, gazelle-like jump and doesn't even knock over the ladder? I only lost a few cherries from the bucket I was holding.

Also, I got stung by a wasp yesterday. I went a whole 29 years never being stung by a wasp or a bee and I've been stung twice this summer. Once at Disneyland! I got my first bee sting at Disneyland! The universe is mean.

I also don't do anything to deserve it. I'm just minding my own business and suddenly I feel a little stinging barb and I'm looking around, going, "Crap! What just happened!" Some bee/wasp just felt like coming along and getting me. My sister told me today it's because they know how mean and nasty I am. My mom says it's because I'm so beautiful that they are inexplicably drawn to me. I think I'm going with my sister on this one. I'm a cranky, mean, ugly-souled lady in the body of a pleasant-looking, almost 30-year-old and apparently hymenoptera dislike me a lot. I haven't had any run in with ants lately, but I'm sure I'm on their naughty list.

Suddenly, so many terms make sense. Like, I actually said, "They look like little tomatoes." And my sister gives me this look and says, "Yes, where do you think the name 'cherry tomatoes' comes from?" And I thought, "Wow, you are right! I had never fully considered the idea of the cherry tomato." If you had cherries and cherry tomatoes mixed together, you had better be careful before eating them. It could get surprising if you weren't careful. Also, cherry pickers suddenly make more sense. I would like one. Then I could avoid falling off ladders.

This post was mostly to say, cherries are pretty, aren't they? I'm spending my Independence Day picking cherries and making jam. We will have a barbecue later and set off some of our own fireworks too. I will try to not fall off any ladders and avoid wasps and hopefully the two hives on my hand will go away (they popped up before the wasp/bee sting). Perhaps I should watch the fireworks from inside tonight? For I do not want to come to any more bodily harm.

Silhouette Portraits

2011-06-27T12:20:00.000-06:00

As part of my on-going quest to avoid sliding deeper into hermit status (and I'm serious about that--I can get in a rut where I realize I have literally not left my house--even for the mailbox--in three or more days--that is SCARY people--but that is just when I've been deep in the clutches of a mind-engrossing, time-sucking thing called college, on the internet), as I was saying, as part of that on-going attempt, I sat down with some of my extended family and planned a lot of trips this summer.

One of those trips was to Moab to see Arches National Park. I'd never been there before. I'd never been to any of Utah's national parks until my visit last year to Zion.

I went up a day early by myself with my four kids to get a campsite by myself (did I mention I was by myself?). I was worried if we showed up on Friday night, we wouldn't be able to find a campsite. Considering once I got to Moab, I drove around for 2 hours trying to find a campsite, that was probably a good hunch I had there.

June is a popular month for Moab. It's hot, but has not yet progressed to "rivulets of sweat if you dare to move your pinkie finger while sitting in the shade" hot.

Setting up camp was an adventure. By the time we found a campsite, it was a rush to beat the sun. It happened to be a windy day (when I saw the weather forecast, it said gusts up to 25 mph). I'm not sure what mph gusts I was battling, but tents are much like huge sails. After I eventually got it to stand upright, it was a fight--me against the tent, to keep it on the ground.

At one point, I'm digging my toes into red sand, trying to keep calm and I'm holding onto that tent as hard as I can, as I call for Xander and Max to grab the biggest rocks they can find to stuff into our tent so I can manage to stake it. I really feel a kinship with Buffy the Vampire Slayer that I had previously lacked. I can now say I have staked something that was trying to get away into the blackest night in order to protect mankind.

I staked the tent and then I made quesadillas on the camp stove. In the almost near dark (by the time I made mine, there was no light left). As I started to make our dinner, I noticed some bicyclists on a little hill near camp. And they were making the coolest silhouettes.

So, of course, over the next few nights, we had to try it ourselves. Here's what we came up with! (We had a great rest of the trip--maybe sometime soon I will post the other photos I took of the park).

All my kids and my sister's kids:

My sister and her family:

My family:

David and I:

My sister and her husband:

My dad and mom:

David and I:

My dad and mom again:

And photo credit to my sister who took the ones that I was in (I took the rest).

Relentless: Motherhood and Electronics

2011-06-24T00:37:00.000-06:00

My oldest child is eight and a half. I think the thing I was most unprepared for about motherhood is how relentless it is. I mean, everyone tells you about the sleepless nights and the worrying, but no one ever tells you how it never stops, how motherhood doesn't wait for you to get better at it before flinging problems at you, willy-nilly, never caring if you have the resources to handle it or if you have a clue what to do, and then like bad diaherra, it just keeps happening over and over and over and over.

Did someone say fish tacos?

(Image from here--this is no reflection on this recipe, which I'm sure is great! Just a randomly selected photo, promise.)

I've been thinking all about my little family and what I want for us. We are far from what I want for us. It's no secret I'm bipolar type II. This comes with all sorts of challenges as a mother, mostly feeling so inadequate for what I want to be for my children. I've been on medication for 10 months and it is helping, but not enough. I want to be more, dang it! Most of the time, I feel like I'm hanging out in low level depression mode. I can function enough to take care of them, but not enough to really be the type of mom I want to be.

I'm not sure what has infected our family lately. Perpetual bad mood? A visit from the grumpy fairy who sprinkled us with grouchy dust? We got hit with the irritable stick? It's like crankiness has exploded in here. One of my sons is such a challenging little guy. I'm at a loss. I keep thinking I need to get professional help, and I need to do that, I need to need to need to. I guess maybe I am typing this to put it out there to make myself do that? I'm exhausted in attempting to deal with the situation. I could probably write a Lifetime movie to explain all the interactions and how we got here, but my heart breaks to see him in such a place and yet I am so frustrated with his outbursts, the way he can't stop annoying/pestering/fighting with everyone in the family, his defiance at everything I say, the fits, the way he can't seem to stop hurting his siblings. These are things we don't tolerate in our family. He doesn't go unpunished, but yet I try to not make him the bad guy as he seems to have already cast himself in that role. A few years ago, his self-esteem was horribly low, so I've been working with him on that and I know he feels much better about himself now, yet the behavior has become so intolerable the last few months. Much, much worse than it has ever been before. It doesn't seem to matter what approach I take, the behavior continues.

I feel like I'm on the verge of a breakdown. And with my mental health, that's not some hyperbolic breakdown. That's like a real threat (don't tell anyone, but sometimes I kind of wish for a breakdown, because then I could have the "break" in breakdown, but so far, my brain only thinks it's on the verge of a breakdown and I seem to be made of non-breakdown bipolar stuff, instead of the type that does have breakdowns, but you never know! Could happen! I know that breakdowns are awful, so I shouldn't say that last part so cheerfully, but when you are desperate, you are desperate).

Anyway, if you've made it past those very depressing paragraphs (if my tone has seemed off the last few months, now you know why), I guess I've come to the point of this post! At last! My husband and I have been talking about going unplugged for the rest of the summer. It's hard to admit, but I let the kids watch way too much TV and play way too many video games, even if they are the educational ones on the computer for the most part. And I watch way too much TV and spend too much time surfing the web. I know it contributes to my depression and I think it's contributing to the way our home feels. We don't spend enough time together. I don't spend enough time with the kids. I want my home to be a place where I'm happy to be, not a place I fantasize about escaping from (I know a certain amount of that is normal, but we probably passed that point about six? seven? eight? weeks ago).

For the super ironic part, I am planning on blogging about the experience! Go ahead, you may laugh at my folly now! For how else should the modern world work, if we could not write about and share our experiences of giving up electronics through electronic devices? I'm planning on popping in here every so often and letting you know how we are doing and of course, doing some craft-related blogging as usual. So, mostly I guess I'm giving up mindless web-surfing and keeping the computer on all day, not all my computer usage. After all, tomorrow morning, I'm planning on googling sewing machine repair shops. Finally.

UFO, I'm coming for you.

2011-06-15T11:05:00.003-06:00

Over the past three weeks, I've been working on my unfinished objects. I'm killing them off, one by one. 13 out of 41 are done (although I don't thing everything in my unfinished box is on that list--I may need to do a little revising--still it's close enough).

Some of them have turned out cute. Some of them, not as cute. But, the most important part of this process is that they are done and I can either give them away (even if it's to the thrift store) or start using them or realizing that I'm not going to use them. Such is the way of the things I make. I'm pretty sure that Aubrey does not like the dress I finished for her.

Anyway, here's the list as it looks so far.

~~Spray paint frames~~
~~Tree tote bag~~
~~Pettycoat skirt~~
~~Ampersand~~
Yellow rosette pillow
Patches on jeans
Long blue tank refashion
Box purse
Let out Citrus halter
Sew pom pom on poncho
Crochet tan bag
Blue and brown crochet hoodie
White floaty scarf
Pink shirt refashion
Wrap around vest refashion
Crochet fingerless gloves
Repair pink and grey hair flower
Hexagon quilt
Thanksgiving wall hanging
Rehang crochet butterfly in kitchen
Garden quilt
Grandkid silhouettes
Gold sweater
Yellow flower/pink flower/pink felted flower/purple headband/pink cuff
Curtains
Green knitted buckets
Painted linen skirt
Blue serving stand
Braided rug
Mom's messenger bag
Santa Claus wall hanging
Repair grey and pink hair flower
Grandma Jensen quilt--blues and purples
Crochet beaded bag
Butterfly embroidery
Wool scarf
Cross stitch Noah's Ark
Blue and Pink diamond quilt
Orange and green diamond quilt
Mom's Christmas present albums
Bag embroidery

Now to the good stuff. Pictures.

This project sort of makes me laugh. I had started crocheting a bag when Xander was a baby--about 8 years ago. All I had was a tan tube. So, I crocheted a bottom for it, then made a liner, then made a trim and the handles and put it all together. And then I realized it looked just like a rabbit. I thought I was making a cute tote for me, but I think I was making Aubrey an Easter bucket. It's totally cute, just didn't come together like the vision I had in my head.

I showed it to my husband. I didn't say anything and he said it looked like a rabbit too. If I felt like working on it more, I would put a face on it and make it official. But, I'm calling it done.

This project is not nearly as old. I started this crochet hoodie for Aubrey when she was about 18 months old. I was hoping that if I took off one of the sleeves it had on it and lengthened it a little that she would still be able to wear it. I finished making all the changes and it wouldn't go over her head. Whoops.

She was ticked and demanded that I make her another one that fit right that instant. Yeah. Maybe later after I finish these other projects.

This next project was one I started in the car on our vacation. Not too long to go unfinished, but I had stopped working on it. I used three different knit shirts in different shades of yellow to make the rosettes. Then I recycled woman's knit top to make the white background to make the pillow cover.

I made the insert myself out of some muslin I had lying around and the last of my polyfil stash. The nutso part of this? I had to hand sew the cover and the insert. What would have taken about 10 minutes tops on a sewing machine took me several hours and like three episodes of Bones. I had to wade through all sorts of gruesome death and destruction and David Boreanaz (only one of those things is truly pleasant) to get this thing sewn. The sacrifices I make for my crafts. I seriously need to get my sewing machine fixed already.

Ok, last project for today. This is purse box I started when I was pregnant with Griffin, about 6 years ago (seriously, what is my deal with hanging onto projects for years and years?). I mostly stopped this one because the holes on the beads weren't big enough to go on my handle. With a much larger choice of beads (I started beading a few years ago), I was able to get past this problem.

The box was already all the way painted. So, it was a matter of adding the beads to the handle, screwing in the hardware, doodling on the box and Mod Podging the inside and outside. Fairly simple, but I like it.

I really need to tackle one of those quilts soon. Soon, quilt, we will meet.

Let's Thrift!

2011-06-01T13:39:00.002-06:00

I came across this iPhone wallpaper and fell in love!

Let's Thrift

Dang, so cute! One of those things that when I see it, I really, really wish I had designed it. I may not have designed it, but I certainly have been doing as it suggests lately. I've been picking up little treasures at garage sales, antique stores and thrift stores everywhere.

The other day I looked down at my outfit and realized my shoes, pants and shirt were from thrift stores, my bracelet was costume jewelry from an antique store and I'd made my scarf. Maybe I need to start taking photos of my outfits occasionally and sharing.

Because I have soooo much fashion sense (that was dripping with sarcasm). But, I have had some fun trying to be more playful and daring lately.

Anyway, this post is all about what I've bought lately. Some of these still need some major makeovers. Some of them are pretty as they are right now.

This green vase was $5 at the nearby antique mall. I adore its shape! It's now hanging out on my kitchen shelves.

Just a fun little candle holder. It was $.50 at the thrift store. It's probably getting a coat of spray paint--I don't have any orange in my house.

I seriously scored with these mail holders! I got them at a yard sale, all three for $1.00. So, 33 cents a piece! They will probably end up in my craft room, or maybe as bill sorters on my kitchen counter.

These are Reader's Digest condensed books from the early 70s. I was soooo drawn to their covers. They were $.50 a piece at a charity yard sale (normally I would say they were worth about a quarter). They are in great condition though. Right now I have them displayed on my buffet, but I'm thinking I might take them apart and use the pages and covers for projects--I would feel no regret either because they are condensed books after all. They would make THE cutest book purses.

They had so many of these at the yard sale--boxes and boxes! I bought 8, but I could have bought 50 or 60.

I adore this coffee pot. It too ended up on my kitchen shelves. I paid $7.00 for it at the thrift store. It's J&G Meakin, which was an English company that made cheap ironstone china for export until 1970. I love the pattern and similar ones were selling on Ebay for around $25.00, so I'm pretty happy with it.

Glass container. I paid $2.00 at the thrift store. It's probably getting a coat of spray paint soon.

Ahhhh, the ugliest ottoman in the history of the world. I have been keeping an eye out for ottomans. I'm so lazy and I like to move so little that if I sit down, I want to put my feet up immediately. We actually found two ottomans on clearance at Target for $15.00 each (need to get pictures), but they ended up not really working in our bedroom, but will be perfect in our family room.

I hope once I take the hideous puffy top off of this one and recover it in a pretty fabric that it will work for our bedroom chair. It was at a yard sale with an equally hideous chair. We asked if they would be willing to sell them separately, and they said yes, so hideous ottoman was mine for $5.00. I can't believe I paid $5.00 for this, but there you have it. You can see my ugly free couch in the background. The seating situation in my living room is all-around sad.

I love this sweet little aqua tinted bowl. $5.00 at an antique shop in Ogden (can you tell $5.00 is my magic number?).

Pears. Probably destined for spray paint too. $6.00 for the pair (that was an unavoidable pun). I was looking at Hobby Lobby at some pears the week before I found these and I quite like these better.

This lamp I bought for $3 at a yard sale. It's going right there by my new art, but I have big plans for a new lampshade.

And the find I am most excited about! I popped into our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore a few weeks ago and found these beautiful doors! They were $30 for the pair, which for someone cheap like me, seems like a lot. But, on the other hand, I have seen stained glass at antique stores for hundreds of dollars.

And, I was on the look out for some stained glass. Remember that opening I put in my wall? My brother-in-law suggested that we could hang some stained glass in the openings (I may still put shelves at the top--we're still deciding, although we've done a ton of finish work on it so far). It was at this moment that I knew why my sister had married him. It was so, at this moment, 9 years later, he could suggest this to me.

Um, yes. I love that idea. So, when I saw these doors, it was like click, click, click.

Emotionally, I had to get up the will to remove the stained glass out of these beautiful doors, but I eventually did and David carefully removed it. They are beautiful pieces and fit perfectly into the openings. I can't wait to see it finished and hung.

So, those are my previously-owned finds. Have you found any treasures lately? Tell me about them! Or, pick your favorite from mine. :)

Flying Birds

2011-05-27T09:51:00.002-06:00

I've crossed off a few more things from my UFO list! I'm determined to finish that list this summer. I realized the oldest thing on there is a cross stitch I started back before I was married, about 11 years ago. 11 years (that's a little over 1/3 of my life). I guess I should just be happy there aren't older objects sitting about. The cross stitch is actually all finished, but it's never been framed; it's been sitting in a box for 11 years. I think I'm going to make a pillow out of it.

Anyway, that has nothing to do with my post today! I hung up some art in the corner of my bedroom where my chair sits.

I happened to see this tray by Eskil Design on Young House Love somewhere in the advertising sections and was very attracted to the graphic elements of the trees, clouds and birds. I designed something highly inspired by it (ok, I nearly copied it--although I went off memory and tried not too look at it and also put my own spin on it).

The tray:

My version:

I didn't have a large, square frame. I actually saw a few I liked a Hobby Lobby, but they were $30 or so, and even if I remembered to bring a coupon, that's still $18. I found these 4X15" frames at a local thrift store (which sadly closed) for $1.00 a piece. They weren't all the same color, but a quick coat of spray paint fixed that.

I got the pictures printed at Sam Club for $4.50 (I used the other half of the 2nd large 12x18 to print some of the photos for my picture ledges). The total cost for this piece of art? $7.50. Is it weird that $7.50 still sounds a little expensive to me?

I'm not so sure I love the height I hung them at, but we'll see once I get a piece for the other side (the window side). I'm planning on painting a big, tall canvas to go there. I want it to feel like a reading nook, so I might decide to hang it lower to feel more intimate and invite you into the chair.

It looks a bit out of scale once I look at this photo, but in real life, not so much. The frames actually balance well with the size of the chair. I am planning a fabulous lamp for this corner and I don't want it to look too busy. . .

Unfinished Craft Project--Finished! 1 of One Hundred Thousand Six Hundred Three

2011-05-24T10:15:00.001-06:00

I have organized my poor (it ends up being the junk dumping room, since we don't have a garage) craft room so many times since we moved in a year ago.

This is what the closet looks like when it's organized (if the closet is put away, the rest of the room does ok). Which is never. Because to find anything, I have to take down all those stacked boxes. And you can guess how often then make it back up into a stack (hint: never).

And it occurs to me that Flylady is right and that you can't organize clutter (or in my case, excessive amounts of craft crap). I tried to get rid of some of it, but my brain kept thinking up uses for it. Stupid brain.

Anyway, I pulled out all my unfinished projects. Every single one. Well, not counting scrapbook pages. I'm trying to motivate myself here. Not send myself to craft place-where-there-is-fire-and-brimstone-and-unfinished-scrapbook-pages-scream-at-you-all-day-inducing-high-levels-of-guilt. I don't mind the scrapbooking I haven't done--I never intended to scrapbook every photo I ever took. It's the scrapbook pages I've started and never finished that get to me. But that's another post for another day.

Anyway, I did manage to get rid of a few projects that I no longer wish to complete, but here is the list of projects I still want to complete. These are strictly projects I've started, not projects I want to start. That list is significantly longer. Some of these are biiiiiiig projects.

~~Spray paint frames~~ (I'll show you these soon)
~~Tree tote bag~~ (look below for pictures)
~~Pettycoat skirt~~ (also coming soon!)
~~Ampersand~~ (this was my last post)
White floaty scarf
Pink shirt refashion
Wrap around vest refashion
Crochet fingerless gloves
Repair pink and grey hair flower
Hexagon quilt (Somehow, I stopped working on this one)
Thanksgiving wall hanging
Rehang crochet butterfly in kitchen (See the butterfly almost the bottom left-hand corner? My kids keep knocking off the wall and breaking the glass--need to put acrylic in it or something)
Garden quilt
Grandkid silhouettes
Gold sweater
Yellow flower/pink flower/pink felted flower/purple headband/pink cuff
Yellow rosette pillow
Curtains (They need to be a tiny bit longer)
Green knitted buckets
Painted linen skirt
Braided rug (I got sidetracked on this project too)
Patches on jeans
Mom's messenger bag
Santa Claus wall hanging
Box purse
Grandma Jensen quilt--blues and purples
Crochet beaded bag
Let out Citrus halter (Aubrey never wore this much and it has some room to let it out--she could wear it as a top now)
Sew pom pom on poncho
Butterfly embroidery
Blue and brown hoodie
Wool scarf
Cross stitch Noah's Ark
Blue and Pink diamond quilt
Orange and green diamond quilt
Mom's Christmas present albums
Bag embroidery

Hummm, maybe it just seems much bigger in my mind? Because that list is looking quite do-able right now. I'm hoping I can have most of these done by the end of the summer. Maybe?

Crossed off items are ones I've already finished!

Speaking of finished, here's one I finished yesterday!

Just a tote bag, but I never got around to sewing it together. It's been so long since I sewed a tote bag, I actually had to go back and look at my tutorial. I got it all sewn and then realized that I had twisted one of the handles--apparently, I was not following my own tutorial closely enough. I tried really hard to leave it alone and not to let it bug me. Didn't work.

So, I cut off one side, turned under the end and sewed it back down. Then I sewed a button on it. Did the same to the other handle to make the handles even. You can't tell where I had to cut off one side of the handle and they were a bit long anyway, and I actually think it turned out to be a darling detail--I like that I only did one side of the handle. Sometimes mistakes turn out to have creative solutions that enhance the finished project.

I only wish I had know it was going to be so round. I would have rounded the corners at the bottom. Oh well, still turned out cute! Most importantly, it's done.

Tutorial: Ampersand for a Shelf

2011-05-19T21:27:00.002-06:00

A little while back, I bought a K and D from Hobby Lobby to put on my picture ledges once they were built. The plan was to get an ampersand to put between them. Awww, too adorable, right? Kara and David=forever. But, I couldn't find one I liked. I'm sort of a font snob. Ok, not sort of. I am. Like nearly every other female craft blogger, I started a Pinterest account, and there are a lot of snobby font things pinned to my funny board. Most of them make fun of Comic Sans. Poor Comic Sans. If only people wouldn't put it where it has no business being! Then Comic Sans wouldn't be the ugly dog of the font world.

Anyway, I pondered on this problem for several months. I could have cut my own ampersand out of wood with my mom's scroll saw, but it's about 20 minutes away, and that's kind of annoying to get exactly right. I've cut out complicated things with a scroll saw before (see the cake topper here), so I could do it, I was just being moody about it.

Then it hit me. A way in which I didn't have to drive round trip 40 minutes and get out the scroll saw from the caverns of my parents' garage. And this is that tutorial.

Supplies needed:
Scrap cardstock (or pretty cardstock in pretty colors)
Cricut machine or Silhouette machine or traditional die cut machine--I used a Cricut and Plantin Schoolbook cartridge
Mod podge
Sandpaper or rotatory tool
Wood filler
Spray Primer
Spray Paint

Step 1: Cut out a bunch of shapes of the same size. I didn't care about color, because I knew I was going to paint mine later. If you don't want to paint, you can use pretty colors in the same shades or coordinating shades for very pretty effects, or use all the same colors.

I just used a bunch of scrap cardstock paper. I made mine 6 inches so I could get the most out of my scrapbook paper scraps (sometimes I was able to get 4 out of one large scrap on my Cricut because it's 6" tall, not wide). I cut out 50 ampersands for a finished thickness of about 3/4". It stands up on it's own. You could do a lesser thickness and hang it on the wall or prop it up--even a charm for a necklace in a small size. I can envision all sorts of possibilities! I want to do another one so badly!

Step Two: Using Mod Podge, put a thin coat, even coat of glue on on of the pieces. Line up another piece and smooth it out. It's important that you don't have gaps or places where it doesn't adhere. I alternated putting die cuts on the back and front of my piece and I had new pieces of tin foil ready so I could have a clean workspace immediately whenever any glue dripped. If glue drips down the side, just catch it with your brush. It's going to be nearly impossible to get these to line up perfectly, so just go with it. We're going to sand down the edges later--just be as precise and clean as you can.

Stop to let it dry every 10-15 pieces. This will help you avoid buckling. This is a project that needs to be done in stages. The most important part is to get glue on every single part of the die cut and to make sure each layer is adhered well before moving on to the next.

Once you are done, it will look something like this:

Step Three: Once you have all your layers glued together, you may decide you like the uneven layered look. I so, you will probably still want to sand it to stand up. I used my rotatory tool (wear safety goggles!) and sand paper to make my ampersand able to stand up at the bottom. I sanded a little dip in the center along the bottom to give it "legs" (so I didn't have to try to get it perfectly flat along the bottom), then I just stood it up, saw where it needed a little bit off and worked until it stood up.

Step Four: Now, here's where you can go several ways.
1. You may decide you like the uneven, layered look and you picked pretty colors. In which case, you can seal it in Mod Podge and you are done! Or, sand the edges at an angle to reveal the layers.
2. You may decide the uneven look is fine with you (I think it looks pretty cool myself), but you want it a different color, in which case, you can skip to the priming and painting steps.
3. You want to even out your edges. In which case, start sanding! This will be so much easier if you have a rotatory tool. Especially if your shape has inside spaces like mine. Sand until you get an even edge. Fill in any spaces with wood filler, let dry, then lightly sand.

Step Five: Spray with primer and allow to dry. Then spray paint. I found that it worked a lot better to do tons of light coats. I probably did six or seven coats at different angles to get good even coverage and to get all the angles.

Aaaaaannnnd, that's it! This probably took me three or four hours if I take out in the in between waiting time, but it's one of those projects that you do in very small steps. Also, I picked a somewhat complex shape. With a simpler shape (a solid heart, for example), this project would go more quickly.

Its home is now my picture ledges. These are all decorated for now. They are on my side of the bed and it makes waking up in the morning slightly more cheerful.

The corner of my bedroom now looks like this:

I still want to swap out the lamp (too small and the shade is the wrong shape and color). If you'll notice, I solved my cord problem from this post--I tucked it under the baseboard--which was much easier than I was thinking it would be. I still have not lengthened my curtains--it's on the list. Still, I am really starting to feel like my room is actually a room and not just furniture thrown in a room without a purpose. I dearly love to make furniture feel like it has a purpose in life. (I give you permission to snicker at that last sentence).

And a close up with my Hobby Lobby letters. T-woo Wuv.