Sitting here getting my hair done

It’s rare that I post a picture of myself on my blog (especially one this scary looking), but posting from the beauty shop chair is the type of blogging I’m going to have to do. I finished a marsupial order last week. The Americana was my favorite, especially since it was designed for this lady’s friend in the military.

I also tried an idea from pinterest using an old book and succulents. I LoVE how this turned out!

Used an app that’s been on my phone for awhile called photo cork. You have to get the paid version if you don’t want photocork added to the end of your photo title.

I hope to take pics of my recovered chairs today. Used some Lucy’s Crab Shack. Sweetwater, you make we swoon!

upcycle (Amy, this is for you)

My friend Amy is the most amazing recycler I have ever seen, not to mention a great mom and teacher. For their family of 5, they only have 1 bag of trash a week and they have a small child in diapers.  AMAZING!! (Umm, we have way more trash than than I hate to admit)  So in honor of Amy, I recycled some pop-tart boxes, you know, the ones you get at Sam’s with smaller boxes inside, the ones that totally waste cardboard with multiple packaging. They were the perfect size to make some baskets for my super unorganized shelf.  The result is pretty awesome and I’m planning to make a few more for the T’s rooms.

I have another basket project I can’t wait to do out of this wire fabric stuff.  I will eventually get that bookshelf under control.

The following two pictures are just for fun, but sometimes I can’t help but share.  What happens when T3 & 4 are quiet in their bedrooms for an hour? The Avenger happens.  The decoration on this costume is notebook paper they colored, cut out and TAPED to T4s shirt and face.  They taped a yellow t-shirt around his middle to make the diaper looking thing.  Yes TA stand for The Avenger.  Makes me laugh that they included the T.

This last photo is from T1.  She pinned this little note to the wall above one of my craft tables.

Precious!

sharing at :: Tatertots & Jello :: Craft Envy :: Be Different, Act Normal :: Lolly Jane ::

Summer Mantle

I’m in love with the pedestal bowls seen at the Speckled Dog and MANY other places.  I’ve made quite a few myself.  I also love the fabric covered balls at Landee See Landee Do and the scrappy letters at Artsy Fartsy Mama.  So I put them all together to make my summer mantle. LOVING IT!  I do think I might make one of these beach balls to go on the edge with the last bit of fabric I have.

I love the blue showing through the white on this pedestal bowl.  I’m running low on good candle sticks.  To Goodwill I go.

Scrappy letters.  I want them all over my house.  What else should I spell?Sharing at :: Making the World Cuter :: Keeping it Simple :: Singing Three Little Birds :: Skip to My Lou ::

Friday Fun

Yes, I know it’s Saturday, but with soccer and garage sales I haven’t crafted today.  I did pick up a great frame for a corkboard (now I need a 40% off coupon for the cork) another wooden plate for a pedestal, and a t-shirt with great letters for an upcycled bag.

Yesterday, however, I crafted like crazy.  My friend Steph came over and we recycled some wine bottles into the chalkboards as I’ve seen all over blogland.  I haven’t put chalk on them yet because I can’t find the non-clay chalk.  For the spray on chalkboard paint, it needs to be the super chalky stuff. Steph’s bottle said vino and mine said menu, as I intend to use it for my daily menu. I loved the sun coming through the trees, but it made for a bad picture.

We also painted a pedestal bowl for her mom’s birthday.  I had a base that I had painted orange.  I thought I would just sand past the orange to the wood when the time came, but once I revealed the orange under the teal, it was AWESOME!

The last project I’m showing was the first one I accomplished yesterday.  I’ve had this ladybug (and another one with a butterfly) print for a number of years. They adorned the girls bathroom in previous homes.  We have different decor now so I could re-purpose the frames. I used some scrap fabric from T3’s quilt and cut the T out with my Silhouette.  On a sad note, I’ve lost the other two guides for my Silhouette, preventing me from cutting anything other than thin material 😦  Will be digging through the trash in the craft area later to see if they are there.

T3 loved it and it looks good on the shelf in her room.  Maybe the crafting will resume tomorrow.  Happy Saturday.

Sharing at :: It’s a Hodgepodge Life :: Fingerprints on the Fridge :: Tatertots & Jello ::

Easter Stuff

I finished some projects for Easter at Gobi’s house tomorrow.  I made the carrot cupcakes I saw at Frog Prince Paperie.  Visit her site because her’s turned out much better than mine. I couldn’t find the edible grass OR the orange candy melts so I used pull and peal candy for the stems and I made a thick orange glaze to dip the marshmallows in.  Mine look cute as long as the pictures aren’t side-by-side :)!

I also made the papier mache’ eggs I saw at Not Martha.  I used water balloons too, but some of mine weren’t quite egg shaped AND I didn’t put enough layers of white tissue paper on a few of them.  T1 & T2 helped and loved them.  I think T1 even posted on facebook.

I made some paint chip matchbook notepads to put inside the eggs.  This is a post I saved from a few months ago from Embellishing Life. I let T1 but the stickers on the front.

I also embellished a onsie with a sailboat for my in utero nephew baby bean. I, of course, didn’t get a picture of the onsie, but I did get a pic of the paper egg I sewed it into and the paint chip card I made for the outside.

And since I haven’t seen my nieces since Christmas, I made them upcycled pouches to take back home with them.

I also managed to get a baby gift ready for a shower tomorrow and finished a VERY late birthday gift for my mom.  Now it’s time for bed!

I wish you all a great Easter, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus.

wooden bowl band wagon

Since the moment I saw the wooden bowl at The Speckled Dog I knew I had to make one (or two, or three…) I bought a small salad bowl, a big, I don’t know what it’s used for, bowl and ONE candle stick because that’s all Goodwill had.  I made the small bowl (the Mr. T screwed the top to the candlestick for me) and painted it a fantastic shade of blue. Then I ran across another lady making the bowls at A Turtle’s Life for Me. Ooooh, I HAD to find another candlestick.  Goodwill still had nothing (I think some else has this idea too!) so I went to DAV. SCORE! 49 cents. It’s being painted antique white as we speak, so I will have to post it later with the PB knockoff typeface eggs.  It took me a bit because I needed a more sturdy base than the candlestick had.  I got the little wooden disc at Hobby Lobby for 50 cents.  The fabric carrot were a project from last year.

So I also LOVE the eggs from Pottery Barn AND I knew I could make some of my own AND I found tons of people who had done the same thing.  So I bought some plastic eggs and glued them together and then I found some textured spray paint for plastic. FANTASTIC! They look and feel like real eggs (except for that darn line around the middle that won’t even sand out.) I used my Silhouette and cut the letters out.  Regular vinyl wouldn’t stick so I used some permanent vinyl purchased from Vinyl Expressions and that did the trick.  I can’t wait to see how they look in the big bowl.

I have another 6 to paint, but the wind needs to not blow so hard.

Sharing at : Tater Tots and Jello :: A Vision to Remember ::

Are you reaaady for Valentine’s Day

**Imagine the title in the “are you ready to rumble voice.”**

Finished up T4’s Valentine box when we got back from Nana’s surprise birthday party.  I’ll post pics of the party later this week; I was in charge of decorations. His box goes along with his valentine’s he’s giving out.  They are having a contest (which I greatly dislike) so now he want’s to win and we didn’t put “win” amount of time into this.  Hope he’s not too disappointed.  It’s cute enough. We used some leftover material from the Ben Ten jacket and we tied the frog to the lily pad so it wasn’t damaged.  We stuck heart stickers on the frog. The LEAP has accordion fold paper attaching it so it “leaps” off the box.  All the letters were cut with my Silhouette – go awesome machine!

Remember T3’s request to make upcycled pouches for Valentine’s Day?  Well, crazy mom did it.  We only used the first initial and made them smaller.  We put a Hershey bar in them and called them treasure pouches.  The saying on the front of the card reads “Valentine you are a treasure.”  The back says “this treasure pouch was made for you from recycled t-shirts” and has a heart made with the recycle arrows on it.  It took about 5 hours, but T3 was super excited when they were finished.

With the surprise party and such an ambitious valentine project, I’m exhausted.  Have some papers to grade though.

Wishing all of you a very happy Valentine’ Day.

burp and a bag

That title could conjure soooo many mental images….

So, before your mind runs away with you, I’m talking about a burp cloth and another upcycled pouch.

The burp cloth is what I gave with the basket I’ve already shown you, but I’ll post it again.  We have a TON of pregnant ladies in our church, so I’ll get my practice with making them.  I made this one after seeing a similar one on esty.  I used the same fabric as I did on the basket.  The denim was a little tough to work with and I had to zig zag stitch it instead of straight stitch – turned out ok thought.

The next picture is of another upcycled pouch.  I have sold 3 so far, unsolicited I might add, since making some for my kids.  I enjoy making them and my kids are pretty sure I should advertise the pouches and baskets.  I love it when your kids think what you do is awesome!

I have some more projects to work on.  T3 wants single letter bags for her class for VD.  Still debating if it can be done.  I’ll have the check the stash (I did make a trip to Goodwill for a few more t-shirts) and see if I have enough.

Sharing at :: Crafy Envy – Saturday Spotlight ::

upcycled pouches

I was etsy stalking browsing the other day and found this incredible shop selling upcycled pouches made from shirt sleeves and letters cut from t-shirts.  I would LOVE to purchase from her, but it’s not in the budget.  What I do have a plethora of is t-shirts.  So I made my own.  I don’t want to take any glory away from ZJayne and her shop on etsy, so if you love her product and it’s in your budget, order from her.  She has other VERY cool “green” products to choose from. If you have some t-shirts lying around the house, try a pouch of your own.  If you have some scraps left, you might make an upcycled scarf from Living with punks.

T4 didn’t want an upcycled pouch.  He wanted an eye patch.  He must want to watch a pirate movie, because we must dress thematically for any movie we watch. Spiderman graced our presence today while he watched, you guessed it, Spiderman. He does make a pretty cute pirate.

**don’t forget to sign up to win a Valentine basket for my blogiversary**

sharing at  :: somewhat simple-strut your stuff :: seven thirty three – snips and snails :: The Shabby Chic Cottage-Transformation Thursday :: Fireflies and Jellybeans-Show off your stuff party :: Yesterday on Tuesday-A Crafty Soiree :: Thrifty Thursday Blog Hop ::

upcycled pillow

Cheri, from I am Momma- hear me roar, inspired me to dig through my old t-shirts.  This was one of my son’s favorites, and I decided it would look great with his sports themed bedroom.  To take it even further, I used and old pillow, took off the cording and re-wrapped it with red fabric and used it again.  Recycling at it’s best.

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