I Like the Shape, the Color, the Patina

I picked up some wood bowls at an auction maybe a year ago or so. I cleaned them up and gave them a simple oil finish. 
I think I paid $1 for a group of three of them.  Only one had the little ball feet.
 I am rather taken with them.

Linking up with Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday.  Images textured with "minus 43".

Junk "Love" for Valentine's Day


Yesterday, on a whim I decided to dress our mantle for Valentine's Day since it had been sitting bare since the Christmas decorations came down.
I also decided to take the pictures at night with the tripod.


The night shots emit more warmth for a "Love" mantle don't you think?


The "L" is constructed from my favorite Reader's Digest books again. :)
I used handitak to put the lace border on the edge of the mantle.


The "O" is a book page rose wreath layered on a textured silver tray. The wreath is similar to this one, but made with book pages. Again, I used handitak to mount the wreath to the tray so it can easily be removed.

The "V" is a scrap of vintage drapery fabric probably from the 50s that I folded and tacked onto an old picture frame.  The frame used to hold "Pinky".  You know the set of Blue Boy and Pinky? Now, Pinky is frameless.  She'll get over it.


The "E" of course a folding ruler that I mounted with nails onto an old cutting board.  This cutting board has the most beautiful patina to it!

My little gals got a kick out of the mantle especially when I kept asking them if they just "loooooved" it.

Here's the link to an old post if you want to easily make a little decoration for your home for Valentine's Day.

Texture Thursday


If there is one thing I'm consistent at...it's inconsistency.  

So I'm posting on a Thursday for Texture Tuesday at Kim Klassen's Cafe.  

So it goes.

Kim's latest free texture is minus 43 and that is what I used on the above photo.

The past couple of weeks have been a bit rough and that may be why I was drawn  to the photo of the barren cold road from my files that I shot last year.  As I thought about what I wanted to do with the photo I kept thinking about what was over the hill, how I see life, and that I have no idea of what is to come.
The photo looked scary then and my words or thoughts about it lacked hope.

But, then the pieces fell into place (a.k.a. prayers were answered) and I put my attention more on the road.  

I have to trust that the journey will lead me to joy.
For all of us, many days, it's far more of a decision to trust than a
"feel good" emotion.  I've actually come to like that because my mind is more reliable than my emotions!

A friend (who is on a rough journey) recently told me that her mother's advice to her was, "Remember what you know."

Simple, but packed full. 

I take it to mean also "Rely on what you know, not what you feel."

I know I can trust.  

And, I don't want to leave you hanging, life is much smoother again now.

I choose to trust in The One who is guiding my journey.


Texture Tuesday: Clouds in My Coffee


I was thinking about Kim Klassens challenge this week for Texture Tuesday "cuppa" and then saw this post.

I thought, hey, I'll put clouds in my coffee. (With the help of Photoshop.)

I used a layer of Kim's texture, Simplicity.

Here's to a day for all of you where the clouds in your coffee are only the reflection of a "God Sky" in your cup!!

Scrappy Shabby Chic Valentine Heart Wreath Tutorial


Happy Monday!  
Today, I'm posting some "how-to's"  for the  Valentine wreath I mentioned on Saturday.

Want to know the story behind that bunny there on the shelf?  Click here.  Neatest natural find!  My brother finished it for us.

As mentioned, the wreath takes no sewing or even glue.  But, it will take a bit of strength and futzing, but I'm sure it cannot be done incorrectly, so here we go....


First, the wreath base is made from an old wire hanger.


I made another one on Saturday, but with red and a greater variety of fibers.


The basic premise is to gather a large bundle of fibers that are long enough to go all around the wire wreath, then you wrap the bundle around the wire with a really long scrap.  Starting at the top center: wrap one side, then start at the stop center again to wrap the other side. 

**I did NOT wrap the fiber bundle around the wire.  I used another longer scrap to wrap around and hold my fiber bundle to the wire. The fiber bundle is more or less laid on the wire.

I did use a clamp to hold the one side while I wrapped the other side, but I don't think it's necessary.

*In the wrapping, is where there is some futzing...just keep putting the fibers how you want them and wrap as tightly as you like.  I folded my 1" wrapping scrap in half while I wrapped, so it didn't cover my bundle of fibers too much.

*Each scrap in the fiber bundle is about 34" or so (NOT exact science here...)

*No picture: I used two long scraps (step #5) to wrap each wreath. I just tied two shorter scraps together to make one scrap long enough.  It doesn't matter if/where the tie shows...it's scrappy! I tied each long scrap at the top to the back of the wreath (to the scrap that ties the bundle to the wire wreath) and then began wrapping.

*The long scrap that you use to tie the bundle to the wire wreath will become the hanger for the wreath.

*Trim the tail to even it out and to make it the length you want.


Your fiber bundle can be made up of torn pieces of fabric, yarn, ribbon, etc.
I used pieces cut from a vintage rag ball, sequin ribbon, a vintage feed sack torn into 1" pieces, various yarns, and even a couple pieces of rick rack.



This wire wreath was a little smaller than the denim one (I cut more off of the hanger before I formed it), so I was able to get a longer tail with about the same length of fiber strips.

**For the denim wreath, I only used strips of denim and strips torn from an old stained feed sack.  About 13, 1" strips of each were used in the wreath I made.  I wrapped it with long feed sack scraps.
That wreath was much easier to wrap since there were only two fibers types.

This wreath can take on all kinds of looks depending on what you put in your fiber bundle and what you wrap it with!!

This is definitely a "use what you have" type of project.  It could be done with cut up tshirts, flannel shirts, remnants of ribbon, etc. If your strips aren't long enough...just tie them together. I think twine would be a good thing to tie it up with too. And for sure, for you white lovers, an all white one would be really neat!

I'd love to know if you make one! Or two!

Saturday Digest





My granddaughter's nursery was featured on Apartment Therapy!  Exciting! You can view the article here.
Have you seen the vintage inspired phone cases?!  They are mostly only available for iphones (which I don't have) but they are really cool!
Check out this one.
And, my favorite, this one.

This is a neat post by Cindy at Fat Cow Studio.



My Owl Barn is offering a free printable 2013 calendar,  I didn't even know I was a fan of owls, but the prints they are offering with the calendar are really neat!

The above print by Renee Treme is my favorite,, and I chose it for November.

You can choose which print you want for each month.  I think I may even cut the month off and frame the print.




I made this wreath yesterday and hope to give you a few more details on it in the upcoming week.  It involved no glue or sewing...just a pliers and a scissors.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Dancing Ballerinas




We did a little paper project during the Christmas break.  Our two youngest girls take dance lessons as did the older girls when they were younger.

I found this idea and templates via pinterest on the site Krokotak.

The above ballerinas are the harder version called Snow Flake Ballerinas for Crafty Moms , or in this case Crafty Big Sisters, ha!  .
One of my older girls made these while I helped the younger ones make the version for little hands.

I don't have pictures of the little gals' ballerinas yet.  Let's just say the glitter isn't as even. :)






And, just for fun, another GIF. :)

A Moment Back in Time


I do really enjoy the old phonograph we have (referring to yesterday's post) and decided to edit a couple of pictures of it.
I added "dust" and age with Kim Klassen's textures: "Canvas Magic" and "Journal"

 You can hardly tell where the digital dust ends and the real dust begins, huh?! Ha!


I really like the sounds of the old "technology".


The scratching and rubbing.


The whirring and clunking. 

I wouldn't trade our digital age for it....but glad there are some old pieces still around.

I've been picking up some tips and tricks for Photoshop from Pugly Pixel. More brain stretching. :)

I sure hope you are having a great week!

Learning....


I really want to learn to make Time Capsules as Xanthe Berkely teaches in a couple of her online classes.  I've shot some film and taken stills for two projects.  HOWEVER, I have never done anything with a video from my thrifty little Kodak video camera other than buy new memory cards to keep taking videos that I do nothing with. :)

So, before taking a class which is taught more for the creativity than for learning software,  I thought I better learn to use the software that I have.  Then I can decide if I need to upgrade my software and/or my camera.

So, the above is a short little ditty from me figuring out how to cut, edit, and unclip audio from video, etc.  Pretty sure I'd like a better video camera....but ours is easy to use which means it gets used.  My brain hurts too much from learning the software to think about learning how to use a different camera right now.  Not even kidding, I felt my brain stretch. 

The phonograph is an electric one that we have in our living room.  I had no idea electric ones were even made until we stumbled upon this probably 14 years ago.  We have a crank one too, but sadly the spring is broken.
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