Me; through someone else's eyes

A dear friend wrote this of me...after I talked of making some fun looking vintage dresses.

"I dreamed a dream. I dreamed, and behold, I saw a woman clothed in a poofy, frilly, vintage dress, standing in a certain place with her face from her own house and a paintbrush in her hand. A great burden upon her back for she had many ideas in her head but could not tackle them all at the same time...to be continued...", she wrote.

I so often feel just like that! So many things I could do, would love to do, but how can I do them all?

Bird in Branch

I did it! I gave myself a sore neck and a headache and finished. I have to hurry so I'll just leave the pictures to tell tales. Oh, and I am falling in love with the birds.

Make your Monday

Wall Scrawls

This is the first wall design I attempted and succeed! It's a wall in our church nursery. Rather than do the typical nursery wall art we went with modern. The opposite wall is that delicious chocolate brown. It really felt like we were putting pudding on the walls! 

   

I'm not as happy with this one. I take a picture I see somewhere, usually vinyl wall art, then attempt to draw it on the wall with a pencil. Naturally, it doesn't get exactly as the picture because it's fatter here, longer/shorter there... This one got more tweaked that I liked since I got it too close to the door. But, it's there on my girls' pink wall in brown. 

My latest is in my kitchen. I wasn't too sure I could do it but turned out better than I thought. It's not done yet. There is a bird and a few more leaves. The pencil doesn't show up in the pictures so you'll have to wait for it to be painted to see it completed.

You never know what you can do until you try! I wasn't sure I could do it so never tried. Somehow I felt more brave when I did the nursery walls. Perhaps because it wasn't in my own house? 

The next place to be endangered by my pencil and brush is our bedroom. There is where I feel insecure because I want it "perfect".

Birthdays

 

To kick off her birthday fun, several days in advance I helped them make salt dough hearts to make necklaces for birthday friends. They had a blast!

After I dried them in a low heat oven we commenced to painting them....

I did not get any more pictures of the girls making them because it got a little intense! Using little foam stamps, they put flowers on them. Some looked like blobs more than flowers. Tori was so excited about the stamping that her hands were shaking and she could barely let me help her!
I painted them with modge podge to seal the paint. Then we strung hemp through the holes for the necklace.
On the table I lay them out by her cake. At her party she gave them to her friends and then again on Valentines day took them to church for the friends that weren't at the party. 

 My princess with her princess cake. She loved it and yes, I made and decorated it. I am not so good at taking pictures while decorating a cake so you just get the finished product!

Unfinished projects

I have a braided rag rug started, but unfinished, sitting by a soft chair that I randomly work on. Ultimately, it will go in the girls room which is the ONLY reason it is pink! I like it because it is something to do when I feel I need to stop for a few minutes and sit. But when I sit and do nothing my mind is racing around to all the things I should be doing. This way, I'm both sitting and occupied. It is taking me much much longer than I anticipated but I hope for happy endings. 

It is residing in a basket that was once that light yellowish color but I decided that it would find favor with my eyes if I spray painted it. Now I like it and where it sits on the floor it catches your eye. Before, I tried to hide it.

 

  

Far from perfect as you can see, I am also making my mom a scrap quilt. Here is one of the blocks. I'm almost ashamed to admit that I'm STILL working on it and shan't mention how long ago I started it. Lets just say I've moved 3 times and had a baby since it first had it's beginning. I have a goal to get it to her by the end of the summer... There are nearly 200 completed blocks to make up the quilt. I'd rather not know how many I still have to do to make that number. The squares are 2". I'm also planning to machine quilt it myself...yikes!

Jute Ball

After going to Hobby Lobby, seeing their "string wrapped" styrofoam balls, I thought, "I can do that!"
I had picked up some jute string at Wal-Mart figuring I can use it before too long. Taking the idea from a friend to make a ball out of a wad of newspaper wrapped with plastic wrap and tape, I made a "jute ball". It's not perfect in roundness but I thought it added to the look.
Just make your wad-ball, glue and wrap the jute or hemp around it till finished.

Trash Can Thrift

I have had, from our wedding day, a typical 13 gallon kitchen trash can. In the 4 other houses we've lived in, it seemed to find a nook to hide. This house, different story. I always felt like it "stuck out" and had no where to go. I wanted one to go under the sink but could never justify buying a new one when I already had one...just so it would go under the sink.
Then one day as I worked in the kitchen, this dilemma was being pondered. I turned from the sink and there was my trash can!
Several weeks earlier I had picked up a few (free) 5 gallon buckets from Sam's Club bakery to brine my pork into ham. This particular bucket was still flitting about in my kitchen being used for various things by my little girls.
NOW, it resides under my sink as a perfect trash can...out of sight...free...frugal...and not taking up space in storage. I really like my little trash can and I wonder why I couldn't have thought of that earlier???




















My other trash can? I was trying to figure out what to use for my recycle "bin". Viola, I now have a trash-can-under-the-sink and a recycle "bin" for my plastic and cans.

( cinnamon rolls anyone? fresh from the oven, soft, melting, the BEST )

I can get lost here...thought I'd share! :)