Art Deco. Inspirational.

This past weekend, my family and I celebrated my birthday in "the city".  We visited the Durham Museum. I had forgotten how incredible this place was!  

It is housed in the restored Union Station in Omaha

and the Art Deco elements are inspiring to say the least.

They have quite a few bronze statues with recordings of conversations that may have happened "back in the day".

It's so easy to romanticize how wonderful these days were.  We toured the trains and it was so fun to imagine traveling on them.  It sounds great, but was probably hotter/colder/bumpier than my imagination lets me think.

Get your ticket.  What a great word.  "Ticket".  Infers you are about experience something wonderful doesn't it?

After seeing most of the museum, we stopped for an ice cream treat in the old time ice cream parlor.  

And, for popcorn....

The new traveling 1968 Exhibit was wonderful and if you are local I'd recommend it.   I really only took in a fraction of the information as my youngest girls did not share my enthusiasm for walking down memory lane, ha!  My legs are tired, when are we going to eat?  Sound familiar to any of you? We maybe should have stopped for ice cream sooner....

They wouldn't allow photography in the traveling 1968 exhibit so then I didn't take too many pictures after that.  I did stop to take this picture of a home scene from about the 1940s.  Loved this!  It's like the chair in my sewing room.

We have visited Union Stations in St. Louis and Kansas City. Omaha's is smaller yes, but still absolutely worth visiting!

My family sure thought the ceiling was grand, at least most of them, anyway!

Happy Monday to you!

Decorating with the Daily News and a Scissors

One of my girls is going to do a presentation for 4-H on how to make a string of paper dolls. While I was prepping her paper and figuring out how she could do this, I started messing around with hearts.   And, while the kids played the Wii (snow day from school) I kept cutting.

This was fun!  Then I thought maybe I would make a blog post about it.  So took some more pictures.

Cut a strip of a newspaper about anywhere from 2" -4" wide and use the full width of the paper.

Then accordion fold it. You really don't have to worry about this being too perfect at all. Just make the folds as close together as you can.  If the hearts vary a bit, it just makes them look better in my opinion.

Then either free hand cut (which is what I did) or draw yourself a heart, connecting the heart to both sides of the folds.  I  used a marker so you can see; I recommend using a pencil, so it won't show up later.

Holding the stack of paper tightly, cut out the heart.

Now, fold your heart in half.

Draw another, but smaller, heart inside the first one.

Cut it out.

Arg! Out of focus, but you get the idea. This is what you have now.

Open it up! 

I kind of like all the clippings too. :)

A couple of rolled up pieces of tape on the back of each end and they are hung in place.  Until the kids quit playing the Wii and admire them.  "Oops! I tore one Mom!"  More tape.

I think they look really neat at night.  

How about dolls and hearts together?  See my instagram photo.

Newspaper works so much better than copy paper because of the length you can get and it's easier to cut.  Especially if young hands will be cutting.  I think wrapping paper would work really well too!

It may be cathartic for some to cut up the daily news too!

And, do you love the irony of turning the news into the iconic symbol of love?!  

I do.

Linking with Coastal Charm for Nifty Thrifty Tuesday.

Staring It Straight in the Eye

This Sunday, I will turn 50.  

A couple of weeks ago, I was going down the rabbit hole of links on the computer and found myself at BHLDN.  It's the wedding site associated with Anthropologie.  I clicked on the sale tab and here were the most beautiful candle holders on clearance for $2 a piece.  I thought, hmm...who could I buy one for and then saw that the only numbers left were 0, 4, & 5.  Well, that left out my kids. Granddaughter for coming years?  And, then it hit me, 50!  Me, I could buy them for me.

And, I did.

Click, click, click, they were bought and on their way without me second guessing myself.

So, they've been sitting out for me to enjoy and contemplate this milestone birthday.

I'm not sure I have anything profound to say about it except that I'm grateful.  So very grateful for e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g in my life.  And, I'm happy to be celebrating another birthday.

A dear friend told me that I will never feel any older in my mind than I do now and I believe that is true.

How about you?  Any thoughts on growing older? 

Texture Tuesday

The above image was textured with Kim Klassen's "Epiphany" texture.

Download-Cut-Cut Again-Paste-Play

I found this web site, Caravan Shoppe, selling adorable prints and toy downloads before Christmas.  

And, I purchased the Olliblocks download to make for my grand daughter's upcoming birthday.  

Cute, yes?

My little girls pooled their money to buy the download of the smollhouse foldaway dollhouse.

The rooms are really cute!

I also thought I'd surprise my girls with the minifolk clothes for peg dolls.

I ordered (in bulk) the blocks and the peg dolls.  I finally got to the project in this past month.

It was not as easy as it would seem.  Now, that it's all said and done, I'm glad I did it but I thought I'd share my experience with you.

Things to be careful about or to consider should you try something similar:

► You can't just pick certain pages from a pdf to save and download.  You must send the whole file and tell the printer which pages you want printed.  I didn't want to pay for printing of instructions, etc.  

►Pay close attention to the instructions:  Ex. I had it all printed on card stock and then realized way too late that the peg doll clothes needed to be printed on regular paper. The instructions did say this. I missed it.  Card stock was way to heavy. (I realized this after I had fussy cut out all those clothes!!)  ugh.

►All the pieces need to be cut slightly smaller than they are printed.  Missed that too.  Had to cut many pieces a second time.  Even the full sheets need to be cut smaller.

►The full sheets for the dollhouse had to be mounted.  Cutting mat board takes a long time when you have a dull blade.  Even when you have a sharp blade.

►A mat cutting board and rotary cutter/exacto knife with a ruler are very handy here.  I wouldn't do this without those tools

►Mod Podge is messy, very messy when trying to adhere the clothes neatly to the rounded peg dolls.  Cut a lot of slits to let it overlap. Keep a bowl of water and towel close to keep cleaning off your fingers.

►I used double sided tape to mount the house pieces on the mat board.

►Ask if your kids even want the clothes.  Much to my dismay at first and then pure happiness after I did a couple----my girls were not excited about having the little peg dolls dressed and absolutely did not want faces on them.  "Sometimes we have them cry, sometimes they are happy"....I was told.

This is the first time, I've had a PDF professionally printed and they were so nicely done!  I am ready to buy more prints, just not so sure I want to do too much more cutting and Mod Podging....The instructions did recommend printing on sticker paper, but that would that have been very expensive.

Happy Monday!