A sweet valentine mantel!

This fresh arrangement on my mantel features:
• vintage window frames of varying sizes and colors (from my old house!)
• a thrifted cardboard heart
• a printed piece of fabric (maybe a tablecloth?) from Grandma
• a valentine card from years past
• a sampling of my glass collection including milk glass
• a lovely heart garland I made a few years back

frugal festive food gift

The past few years my husband, our household chef, has whipped up multiple batches of a delicious chai tea mix. We give it as thank you gifts to various service people: the mail lady, the newspaper delivery people, our family hair stylist, the staff at our branch library, our pastors, our dentist, our pediatrician, and so on. I think my favorite was the time we gave jars to the women who were preparing our Christmas morning breakfast at the hotel we were staying at over the holidays. They were so pleased to have a gift. No matter how many jars he makes I find more people to gift them too!

I was getting them ready to go when I realized how very fabulously frugal this gift was. Since I just entered November budget data I can confidently say that the jars cost about a dollar each in grocery costs. And the packaging costs me next to nothing.

The glass jars with cheery red lids are from my favorite peanut butter of which I consume quite a bit. Some people start their day with coffee; I start mine with peanut butter toast.

The tags are punched out from old greeting cards. The punch was a gift to me and I am quite pleased to have it. I imagine I will get years of use out of it.

And, I will confess, I even bought the curling ribbon at a thrift store years ago. Hee.

adorable acorn people (you can make them too!)

I have gained a reputation as the craft queen on the years we do Thanksgiving with my husband's family (see: ornamental balls, felt Christmas tree ornaments). This year we made little tiny acorn people with wood bead heads. I did the hot gluing of cap, bead head, and acorn bodies for the kiddos. Then we decorated with fine tip sharpies and yarn for scarves. Credit due to none other than Martha Stewart herself.

an unconventional acorn wreath

I am just going to fess up right away. I made this wreath last October and then never wrote about it. Hee. And I am not sure I am finished with it anyway.

But – first things first. I was inspired by both a rectangular wreath made from a frame and an all-acorn wreath and decided to combine the two. I've since lost the original links but there are examples aplenty on the ole Pinterest.

After gathering up a variety of sizes of acorns (I love a nearby park to add to my collection), I heated them in the oven to kill any creatures that might be living in them and then got busy with the glue gun! I did do a base that was more organized and built layers evenly. So I would work all the way around the frame over and over, slowly building it up until it was full.

My first thought was to paint some stripes of different widths on it, leaving some "bare" acorn as its own stripe color. I had in mind a yellow gold and some purples. I really wanted it to looked dipped but there didn't seem to be a good way to accomplish that.

My latest thought is metallic spray paint – maybe bronze colored. Instead of taping it off for neat and tidy stripes I would let the overspray speckle the bare acorns. I think I will paint most of it, leaving just the top bit plain. Of course, I don't actually have the spray paint at the moment and the last thing I really need is a new project!

in celebration of August anniversaries

Sweet little fabric hearts.

old windows and chalkboard frames in progress

In a burst of spring cleaning/nesting I have given away most of my old window frames. I kept two and got them going. One I am sealing with a coat of fresh white paint and I intend to put black and white photographs in it. I have a wall of black and white art in my basement (the wall itself is red, such a great color scheme if I do say so myself). The other I am going to turn into a chalkboard for the kiddos but first I painted it the same great teal as my kitchen. I want to let that teal paint get nice and dry and hard before I put paint tape on it and do the chalkboard paint.

I have a great vision of having a whole chalkboard gallery for my kids to draw on. Originally my thought was to paint the chalkboard squares right on the wall and hang empty frames over them. Then I discovered via Pinterest that you can just paint right on the glass and thought that made much more sense! If you are interested, I found this blog post comparing brush-on chalkboard paint to spray-on chalkboard paint most helpful. I already have a can of the brush-on version so we are sticking with that.

So I got a whole collection of frames in the middle of being painted.* Actually, they are done. But I haven't put them back together yet. So they are in a sorry little heap. I don't think I can hang them until I get the old window chalkboard done. They are all going to be hung in the same stairwell and I need to map that out all at one time.

I am starting to think this is not a project I will get done before baby arrives so I figured I would give you a sneak peek for the time being. Oh, and I must show you my inspirations (via Pinterest of course). See it? Won't that be fun?

*Did you notice the crazy rainbow collection of colors. Gallons upon gallons? Every one of those colors is on a wall in my house somewhere! Hee!

Cut off pants = shorts + dolly sleep sack

Two days in a row my must-be-growing six-year-old tripped and fell and skinned her knee and put holes in her pants. So I decided cut-off shorts were in order! I used a pair of shorts that she already likes as my template for length and snipped away. I did decide I wanted to run a thread around the edge of the jean shorts and actually hem the other ones.

Have I ever hemmed anything before? Well, no. But I wasn't about to let that stop me from trying! The shorts turned out ok, nothing spectacular and blog-post worthy.

But I was very excited at my little mini-craft that I made with the part of the pants that was leftover. I sewed them shut at the bottom and sewed a colored thread around the top (so the sisters could tell theirs apart) and had instant doll sleeping bags. Cute – huh?

A pinterest-inspired jewelry rack

In the process of moving my two girls into one bedroom there were some organizational issues to be addressed. One of them was our crazy collection of sparkles and spangles, bows and bracelets, necklaces, rings, and other such things. All the jewelry and hairbands were not in the least bit consolidated and things were out of control. I turned to our dear friend Pinterest for inspiration and found exactly what we needed!

First off, we created a great jewelry holder from one of these old frames already filled in with plywood for a previous display. I was inspired by a cork board and tack combo but thought I would just go ahead and use the plywood and put nails in it. Sounds simple enough – right? Well, yes and no. Stapling the fabric to the board didn't work since the staples showed through. And attaching some kind of hanging hardware to the frame turned out to be more challenging than expected. I ended ups scavanging a piece off of another thrifted frame. Dear husband built this thing like 3 times before it was actually functional. All I can take credit for is painting the frame and cutting a piece of fabric.  And having the vision, of course!

Here's the back for those who want more details:

Things to note:
• Fabric is glued to the back
• A piece of shower door stripping snugs up the fabric covered plywood and grame
• Felt pieces were added to the frame so it didn't mar the wall

Hanging next to the jewelry rack we've got a long piece of ribbon with barrettes clipped to it. Once again, thank you to Pinterest. And I totally used this idea of putting hairbands on a carabiner. It's nice because you can shift them around the loop so the one you want is near the opening. I've got two of those going stored in a bin in the girls' bathroom. Other bins store combs and brushes and small barrettes and bobby pins in clear plastic bins. Amidst my organizational frenzy my husband commented that maybe we just needed to own less barrettes. I suppose that would be an option! :-)

terrific tie-dye tablecloth!

Hello readers! I have been doing a lot of half blogging lately. I've been doing creative things and taking photos with the blog in mind and I have a list of topics jotted down but I just haven't gotten to the sit at the computer part of the process lately. Ah, well. These things happen!

Dear husband runs a tie-dye day for his high school chem students right before spring break. I am the lucky recipient of any extra dye. Of course I must scramble and find things to dye! How could I turn down this craft? Older daughter already had a white shirt with a stain that was a good candidate. At the thrift store I found a shirt for younger daughter and an extra long white tablecloth for a mere $6! I also found some plain white fabric, a couple of cloth napkins, and some of my own tank tops that I added to the craft pile.

I am going to show you the process of dying the tablecloth since that was the biggest and most magnificent thing I have ever dyed!

We did a spiral using an old broom handle instead of the more typical dowel. Rubberbands wouldn't have been big enough to hold it either so I tied it up with yarn. Thinking of my orange and yellow dining room walls I chose those colors along with purple (matches the couch in the adjacent sunroom).

Then came the slow and patient part of drip dropping the dye onto each section using a pipette. This is, of course, what normal pregnant ladies do in their driveways – right?!

I am really thrilled with how it turned out. We used it at younger daughter's birthday party this year. It looked very festive. I am going to keep my eyes open for other big white tablecloths when I am out thrifting.

I want to make one: belly cast!

Since I'm sporting a beautiful baby belly of my own these days, you certainly can't be surprised I would be interested in making a belly cast. I just did one for a friend a few weeks ago (twins! surely a once-in-a-lifetime experience?!) and am looking forward to doing mine when I am gloriously grown at the very end of my pregnancy.

There a zillion crazy ways people have decorated them (look on Pinterest). Some are gorgeous and some are just… odd. My current vision is to cover mine with pressed leaves and flowers, all green and summer. This baby will be born in the summer and my others were born in spring. And certainly the metaphor of "growth" is more than appropriate?

The first image above was the closest thing to what I had in mind since it uses dried flowers and leaves. I want my covered though, overlapping lushness. I keep pictures lacy ferns growing upwards. I think lots of Mod Podge will be called for! The second image above uses fake flowers but is covered more solidly. I wonder if I could securely attach a dried flower that was left more dimensional like that?

My poor husband wants to know what the heck I am going to do with it. I have reassured him I will hang it downstairs in my art room. It will be art for my very own self to enjoy!

Ooh la la – an air plant!

Taking a bath submerged in a jar!

A sweet friend of mine gifted me with an air plant and I am so very excited! I have been wanting one (some?) ever since I saw a column of them strung on wire in a magazine. I never got around to doing anything about it until this lovely gift arrived for me.

I've pinned a few favorite display ideas on my "nature decor – ideas" board so I figure I better get crafting soon. It isn't very elegant to leave the poor thing flopped on the counter!

I want to make one: funnel light

Image from MarthaStewart.com. Click to pin original page with full instructions.

I saw these in the latest issue of Martha Stewart Magazine and I was enamored. We have kind of a blah generic light hanging in our back door entryway. Now that the kitchen is looking all sassy with its Sweet Rhapsody paint job and my updated curtains my wandering eye couldn't help but ponder the light fixture. I've had my eyes open for something appropriately vintage when I'm out thrifting but this would be just as charming. Head back to the original link for complete DIY instructions.

February bunting!

Bright red to get us through the gloomiest of months, snowflakes (let's be realistic, yes?), hearts for Valentine's Day, and stripes. This is the before-mentioned birthday gift for my mama!

I can make that!

Not only can I make it, I can make it different and perhaps better. The original vote of confidence came from my mother, who saw this in a catalog but didn't want to pay that price. Also, after all was said and done, we noticed it was 18" by 14" which is rather large. But, if you love it, go ahead and buy it right here.

The inspiration: 

Our version (my mom gets credit for being the co-stylist & the finances of this project):

Ours is only 5" x 7". We bought a shadow box, red beads, and some scrapbook paper (Textured with little threads running across it! Perfecto!) right off the shelf at Micheal's. I already had the red embroidery thread at home (although it was thrifted from the Salvation Army I would like to note). My husband procured some metal scraps of the correct color (warm, not silvery) from his man room stash. And of course, having some nice graphic design software at home (hello, InDesign) and an inkjet printer I was free to run wacky textured paper through helped out quite a bit.

My dear husband was roped into being a partner in craft on this one. He drilled some nice tiny holes, a set of two on each side for me. I am hard-pressed to find the motivation to use the drill myself when he is around. Besides, it's not like I had a spare frame in the event I messed up!

I ended up doing doing the embroidery thread through the beads twice. I used a needle that fit through our tiny drilled holes and the holes in the beads to get it where I needed it to be. We actually ended up tying the knot on the outside and scooching it back inside. There was a bit of a trick to getting the tension right because I knew we wanted to do the tiny little metal clamps on each side.

In came the husband again. He tied the knot, invented the clamps, and put them in place. Whew!

Meanwhile, I printed out another draft of the words. I wanted the break between the two parts of the quote to fall directly behind the thread and beads of course. Being one who knows and loves type, I would also like to point out that I broke the text at the end of a sentence (unlike the version that can be purchased online). I would like to point out that there is a doll in the background of the above photo, not a child neglected in the name of crafting.

The only hang-up I had with the textured paper is that I had to pick off a couple of odd rough spots where the paper flaked and had black ink stuck to it. Not a big deal since I won't be mass-producing these anytime soon! Unless you want to pay me $100 for it. Then we can talk.

Also, I was really stressing about how to hold the beads in place. In the end, I just didn't. There are 10 strands of thread running through there and they don't seem to slide much. They shifted a little when I transported it and I was able to get them back in place by gently tipping the frame. Once it is hung on the wall, they won't be moving anyway!

The style and coloring of my finished piece is radically different than the inspiration but it matches the decor of the person who will be receiving it as a gift.

Craft challenge in a frame

A sweet friend of the family had this 95th birthday card framed along with a description of her sign. She also had a small oval frame with a photo of herself taken on her 95th birthday. She wanted the two combined somehow and wasn't tied to that particular frame or even to using the actual birthday card.

Before:

Using those guidelines I went to work:
1. spray-painted the frame red
2. broke the glass from the frame
3. found a font I loved and printed out a big "95" to use as stencils
4. typeset the description along with a "Happy Birthday" message
5. robbed my own frame collection to find a usable piece of glass
6. backed the piece with fabric she gave me from her personal collection (so I know she loves it!)
7. cut the "95" out of gold paper
8. arranged everything beneath the glass
9. super-glued the smaller frame on top it all
10. wrapped it up to present to her as a 97th birthday gift!

After:

Art-making as a birthday gift!

One of my dearest friends "kidnapped" me for my birthday and whisked me off to a surprise destination: Naked Plates! It's a do-it-yourself pottery painting place. I was in a panic about what to choose to paint but luckily she had bought a special promotion. So I got a matching cup and bowl and a small plate. We started around 10:00 in the morning and totally intended to wrap it up before a nice lunch date.

As it turns out, we weren't done painting until 3:30 pm! Wow! I had a container of trail mix to sustain me and we always entertain each other quite well. Besides all the yacking and snacking, there was the fact that the base coat needs to be painted 3 times as does each individual thing you paint on top. If you check out my plate above you can see I didn't exactly make this easy on myself!

Our beauties before firing:

My plate after:

I thought it was going to be Christmas decor but I might just leave it up year round.

And my bowl and cup hard at work in the kitchen (not holding food though!):

Happy 2014 to you, dear blog friends!

Snowpeople from a recent family crafting session!

I hope you haven't missed me too terribly during my 2-month break!

As I often read on the many blogs I follow, there is a tremendous difference between writing your blog for a living  (which comes with pay and requires appropriate childcare in which writing can be accomplished) and doing it as a hobby with everything and everyone else around. This, in case you haven't noticed, is a hobby blog!

Also, as my nearest and dearest already know, we are blessed enough to be expecting a new little one come June. So the past few months have been mostly consumed with feeling rather terrible. And not crafting. Or cleaning. Or doing much of anything. But I think most of the feeling terrible is over and I'll be able to craft and write until our world turns upside down again come June (but for the best possible reason – yes?).

So I actually don't have a lot of craft catch-up to do but I do have lots of things cooking in my brain, as always. Here's an incomplete list of future projects. Of course they won't all get done but these are the ones I am currently thinking about.

A hanging file folder holder like this one on the blog Cottage4C.
This one is totally underway right now. Like half-sewn and half-pinned for the next step. I modified the size and made some smaller custom pockets. And I changed her directions just a bit. It will be a great step-by-step post in the near future.

A surprise for my mama's birthday.
Enough said. She reads this blog, even if no one else does. I do have to get going if this is going to happen though!

Two crafty framed items for a February birthday.
Again, deadlines rabidly approaching. They are a bit difficult to explain but you will see all the details in a future post.

Handkerchiefs.
At least a few. My 2-year-old thinks every single hand-picked booger requires its own tissue. She also had added a fresh kleenex to her list of bedtime requirements. Enough already! We pay for those tissues, daughter!

Painting 2 dressers.
I have the dressers. Then I got to feeling awful. Then it got cold. Progress halted. They need sanding and painting and then my two ladies can share a bedroom. I haven't had a furniture project in a while so I am really anticipating this one.

A quilt for my 2-year-old.
Her big girl bed days are rapidly approaching. I made older sister a quilt so she gets one too. Blues and teals are her favorite and I greatly desire to use up lots of scraps I already have in my stash. I just haven't settled on a pattern I want to follow. I have actually considered just winging it. I am confident in my ability to do colors and layout so I could just invent it as I go. We shall see. I haven't purchased any goodies yet: batting or backing or such. And you know, that other quilt I did took a year and a half. So I wouldn't be looking for this anytime soon!

Finishing the quilt top a friend gave me.
Here it is from, let's see, a post dated November 30, 2012. Does it make anyone feel better that it takes me this long to progress on things? I actually bought some fabric for the back but I think I am getting too hung up on designing the back as if it is another quilt. Still need the batting for this one too.

Getting myself and this blog on Pinterest.
Hello? Don't I belong there? Not to browse and waste time but to organize my links, share this blog, and to research when I am about to start a project. 

I'm going to stop this list right about now. I could keep going but it looks plenty long, doesn't it?

Adventures at the Allegan Antiques Market!

I went to the Allegan Antiques Market on the last Sunday in September for the very first time and – wow! If you have any love of vintage or antique anything this is the place to be. Absolutely astounding in its size. I went with a dear friend who happens to be old hat at this sale. Thank goodness because otherwise I would have gotten myself turned around for sure. I tend to be directionally challenged!

I bought a dresser (future project & future post on this one) and a few other treasures I will be sharing with you tomorrow. And some others I will share in the far future when they get revealed in my home as surprises related to future decorating adventures.

Isn't this a fun idea? The tabletop was finished with yardsticks. I liked it.

map, map on the wall

During my big craft closet clean-out I discovered a stash of Grand Rapids maps. I very vaguely remember rescuing them from their trash destiny at an old job but the details escape me now. I had 12 of them and have been happily gifting them to people I know, especially those who live here in the city and feel fond about it.

At any rate, I actually went from vision to completion fairly quickly on this one. I bought a huge poster frame on my IKEA trek, paper punched a heart out of some translucent glue, marked our lovely home, and then leaned up against my black & white wall in the basement living room. Simple and fun! My older daughter likes to study where we live in relation to other places she knows. Her school in a neighboring city even shows up on the bottom of the map.

Other ideas might include marking multiple homes or meaningful spots or collaging related photographs onto the map. One woman I know who has lived in multiple homes in the city throughout her life wanted to attach photos of her at the age she lived in each home.

Any other map inspiration, friends?

So what's next?

Hello friends! It has been way too long. Let me tell you about June. School ended, my job ended (by choice but still a big giant life change), we camped, we had a death in the family, we mourned, and to tell you the truth I still find myself surprised that my grandfather is actually gone.

And then to kick off July, we camped again. So I haven't been too focused on "making time for art." And the art I have done or noticed or been inspired by just hasn't made it up here on the blog quite yet.

But I am back now! So without further ado, I present you with not one but two "what's next?" items to ponder.

The first is a gigantic bolt of fabric. There is a custom drapery and curtain shop in my neighborhood. They are not going out of business but they are closing their showroom. It was a mere $10 for this bolt of lovely fabric. Apparently it was used on curtains in the Helen DeVos Children's Hospital (ooh – found a photo here!). So unlike a cotton fabric or even a home decorator weight fabric you might buy at the store, it is meant to be viewed on both sides. It is quite heavy in weight but smooth and soft. I have no plans to use it as curtains. In fact, I have no plans for it at all. This is dangerous territory people, buying supplies with no project in mind!

I have pondered a teepee like the one seen on the cover of Growing Up Sew Liberated: Making Handmade Clothes and Projects for Your Creative Child by Meg McElwee. Other than that, I got nothing. Any thoughts or inspirations?

The second is this stack of frames. My other grandma is on a cleaning binge and this is one of the treasures I decided to accept despite their bulkiness. They have solid wood beneath the green felt and were used to display watch fobs. I think I could easily replace the wood with cork or whiteboard or with chicken wire or something equally fabulous to make some classy bulletin boards. Or maybe I could get the green felt off and paint the interior with chalkboard paint. I am having visions of spray painting the frames fun glossy colors too. Hmm... Any other ideas?