Homespun From The Heart

2011-09-18T10:28:00.000-07:00

Darlings.. I take no credit for anything here other than finding the picture of the
tea party.
In my catching up (is that at all possible?)
I came across this sweet little spot.
I am always saving glass jars
and this project will be a good
one for Halloween.
Break out the oarnge paint!
Gather up the glass jars!
and lets make it happen!

http://prairiecottagerose.blogspot.com/search/label/Tutorial

why is everything sooo expensive?

2011-09-18T08:01:00.000-07:00

I love Fall! So in my need to start embracing the change of season

I went to Michaels to get a peek at some of the fall foliage.

One of the wreaths had a price tag of $69.00! Please!!

I am not a professional floral designer but I knew I could

produce a lovely design without heavy cost.

I hope you like it. It was fun, relaxing and cheap.

I had to get the 3.00 plaque at Ross's since I

was in their neck of the woods. I know it's a bit early for the Halloween

thing but it was just too cute to pass up.

Pier One redo

2011-09-04T13:25:00.000-07:00

Looks so nice in my fruit room with all the browns

a sweet brown stool on the cheap

Purchased these foot stools for 20.00 dollars each. They got a choclate redo. Much to my surprise I found they were originally from pier one. I love them. They'll provide a nice touch in my fruit room as a foot stool and for extra seating outside for an impromtu glass of wine or picnic.

2011-03-13T07:40:00.000-07:00

Hello my sweet sweet readers...friends....and comrads in mischeif! I am so excited of late! I'm doing on-line classes...working full-time and making lots and lots of time for my grand-darlings. My new job is a very busy and exhausting one...it involves 10 little people daily who look to me to feed...love...teach...and change their diapers. Talk about walking angels/devils!! They are so smart and so busy!!
As far as my crafting I have been keeping it simple. I've been making those adorable fuufuu flops. It's easy, quick and totally relaxing!! I will post soon a "How to do it" tutorial. Hopefully ya'll will forgive my lack of posting in return. You better get out there and get those flops on the cheap...Wall-mart has some for 2.50 but the Dollar Genrals boast lovely colors and styles for a buck!! I sell them for about 12.50 for adult pairs and 9.50 for the little people. I just sold a pair this past week.
To Say I am happy that spring is fast approaching is an understatement. We have plans to go on a Weekend Family camping tripas soon as crab season hits. It will be a first for my youngest grand-darling. Our Lab will enjoy the water again too as this was his first exposure as a baby on how to swim. My hubby and I were worse than new parents then. We allowed just about 3 ruler lengths between us so he could swim to me or his daddy. It was here too our lovely lab learned to go up and down the big-boy steps. Now he's boundless and fears nothing when it comes to the water!! He can even go under the water face first to snag a stick!!!
Keep me on your friend list as I enjoy so much the contact. I love all of you dearly and look forward too a wonderful spring and summer of creativity, frienship and smiles.

I like being Nosey but I often wonder.

2011-02-01T17:00:00.000-08:00

I like looking at what other bloggerrettes have and love in their homes.
Often while browsing at all of the lovely blogs
I am heart-struck. The beauty, uniqueness and talent
takes my breath away and makes my heart jump. I will also admit that I get very
jealous ... but in a good way. I'm always thinking ... how brilliant ... or ...
how did they come up with that ?... or ... why can't I come up with stuff like that?

I want so much to simulate and still remain true to "me" and
my flavor or style. In other words ... not everything I own
is Pink or white. Yet I will confess everything is "my touch".
I mean .... who puts a blue enamal pan on the stove and
fills it with surgar so hubby can turn on the burner and
accidently cook it?

Sometimes when I go into other peoples homes (and not in
blog-land homes either) I wonder if maybe I should conform
to "normal standards". I question my confidence in decorating
my home. You know ... the shabby stuff...the gently used stuff...
the unfinished mess stuff I always seem to have laying around the house.
But then I come to you ... my many bloggerettes...and I get a swift kick in the pants...
and I can hear all of you saying "girl" you gotta be you!! you gotta do what
your heart dictates." Kindred spirits are like that ... they put things in perspective.
Thank you my dears for keeping me straight "sigh"........

2011-01-30T09:55:00.000-08:00

Just a quick weekend hello. Husband and I celebrated our wedding anniversery On the 26th of Jan.
Since most of us love vintage just thought this Vintage picture would be fun. I wore a lovely vintage style dress and a soft cool string of beads. Hair...natural with just a touch of make-up. Hubby wore the lace front shirt with platform shoes and that red tie! Thats his sweet mom beside us and in the background my best friend. We were married at fort macon before she got her face-lift as this is one of the first places I was taken on our first date.

A tangled Web of Grapevine

2011-01-28T09:51:00.000-08:00

Hubby has been felling trees. This results in a tangled mass of
grap-vine. I've always refused to buy grape-vine as it's too easy
too come by naturally.

A snip here and a bit of weaving in and out .... voila!!

I've been focused on my grand-darlings room. It's a small room so I decided
to make some small wreaths along with the standard size and paint a couple of them
White.

This little Darling will get a white coat as well.

This is my back door wreath left in her natural coat.
The sticks you see resting along side are going to be walking Sticks.
I have too many things I want to do!!

I wanted to
post these cut dollar tree birds. I am going to rough them
up but for now they are sporting their new paint.
I want to purchase several more to embellish the larger grape-vine wreaths for a spring effect.

I know I keep promising to show you all the finished projects but I can't help but at least share some of the unfinished ideas. Maybe some of you can come up with some awesome uses for the grape-vine too.

Trial Project Toy Catcher

2011-01-25T08:25:00.000-08:00

I don't wish to miss-lead anyone. I crochet rag-rugs and such but being an advid crochet person is not my expertise. I can read patterns and somewhat put together stuff with yarn but I am always an "uncertain" person who appreciates a seasoned assistant. You know the type ... "put the needle here ... twist ... and then put the hook there." Unfortunately I don't have that "person" so I just hold my tongue just so and hope for the best.

That being said I've been messing around with this baby yarn. I was winging it big time. I've decided it's going to be a round basket of sorts. My brain went "Ding" and I thought my grand-darlings little bedroom needs something to house all of her toy animals. I've been working in her little room adding my deco touch here and there ... so this should work. We thought about one of those mesh hammocks that you hang from corner to corner but my approach is unique and intriging. When it's finished I'll post again so everyone can see how it turned out.

The cheap pressed - board TV stand!

2011-01-21T14:26:00.000-08:00

I love slapping paint on stuff!!
I end up wearing more than on the object to be painted!!
I went online and purchased a 5.oo cheap
pressed board TV stnad with wheels.

I sanded the heck outa that thing to get the shine off!!
It has a middle shelf that I removed so I could work on it
seperately.
After the slappped on paint dried ...

I ran to the Dollar Tree!
I snatched up a bunch of plastic bins with handles and these cute
baskets in the lime green color. The sweet decals also came from DT.
I ended up spending way too much money!!

Here is the top of the shelf.
Cute right?

Here is a side profile.
I deliberately placed the flowers cockeyed.
I'm thinking I may embellish the stand with some
grass using green acrylic paint.

Here is a front view.
I'm also going to put some type of protective clear coat on the
stand to protect it from scratches and nicks and little fingers trying
to pick off the decals.

Voila!! How cute right? Do you think I should leave the back open or
maybe get some super cute material and stapel on the back .. sort of
like a curtain or should I just leave it alone?
The top of the stand will also have some baskets for toys or what have you.

I had som much fun doing this project. It was really cold outside but it took only one and a half days to finish. As I mentioned I still need to put a protective finish to protect the decals but it turned out cute! I can hardly wait to put it in my grand-darlings bedroom!

Read For A Picnic?

2011-01-21T05:47:00.000-08:00

My little Roxanne asked if I would post a picture of her
on my blog. That face just grabs your heart!
She is the sweetest little girl who loves to cuddle
under the blankets at night next to her mommy.

That being said..I wanted to share my sweet $5:00 picnic
basket. Nestled in the Leaves with a tree as a backdrop
you can see clearly the lovely weave and re-freshing white.
I soaked the basket in Bleach water to rid it of any creepy crawlys.
After she dried a fresh coat or two of white finished the job.
I love how the top opens in two sections.
I'm ready! Lets go on a picnic!

wishing for spring

2011-01-20T05:55:00.000-08:00

Do you see the sweet pink peeking out under the green foliage?
The lush plant ebraces itself against the glass beautifully don't you think?

I love delicate greenery in tea-cups.

The sun-kissed foliage is stunning.
Tea-cup resting on a plate which in turn
rests on another larger plate with dancing rose-buds and a touch of sea-shell
provide soul-candy

Lastly .... a last year rescued bird-nest.
I adore the stark contrast of earthy hues against the
white urn.

Gift Baskets on the cheap

2011-01-15T13:52:00.000-08:00

This past Christmas proved tight...with money that is. So ... I created gift baskets on the cheap.
Nearly every component came from the Dollar Tree with the exception of the thirft- store pier 1 plates and coffee mugs. They were puchased some time back at a thrift store. The basket itself was a 2.00 find at the thrift store too. A fresh coat of glossy black $1.00 paint made her brand new again. The first basket theme was coffee and chocolate. It was filled too the brim with lots of goodies. I even tucked some home-made soap with a chocolate/coffee hue inside and a new dish towel. Scattered here and there you can see some of the embelllishments with candy canes, rustic potporri balls and some ornamental touches of holly and green tassels.

The second basket was a Tuscarorian Theme. Pasta, black Olives, garlic, italian herb, sea-salt and pepper, spreads, italian wafers, pasta ladle, cutting board, italain cookbook, wooden spoons ect ect. Again everything came from the Dollar tree with the exception of the baskets. I did'nt spray paint the basket as I wanted to reflect a natural look. I made a twin basket that also included 4 green long stemmed wine glasses and an embellished candle with a glass calabra all spiffed up with Vintage embellishments. The Italian baskets went too my son and his wife.
I love making gift baskets and find it richely rewarding and creative. The fact that they were so reasonable to put together made it even better.

It's time to get caught up

2011-01-12T18:46:00.000-08:00

Hello dear friends!! I'm Back!!!!

I have been absent for a while but it looks like things are up and running again! Yea hoo!!

I'll have to go backwards to get everyone caught up so bear with me if I revert to some

Christmas blogs and pictures of the same. I have to catch you up on a lot of stuff.

We had snow the day after Christmas!! Yea!!! and again a few days ago. My youngest

grand-darling enjoyed the snow and was determined to eat as much as she could.

I went camera crazy and snapped some pictures just for fun but honestly I was froze to the bone and did not
linger outside too long.

Little elf still enjoys his book despite the cold. He seems happy sheltered under the snow flecked foliage.

I painted this watering can black so later I can put a crackle finish on it with white...however I thought the snow was a lovely contrast against the dark tin.
The sun proved relentless the next day and everything melted away leaving a lot of mush and wet.

2010-10-14T12:25:00.000-07:00

dollar tree christmas idea

Don't get disgusted with me... I realize we are in the Halloween thrust but I could not resist sneaking in a touch of Christmas. Being that I'm broke and the dollar tree is already setting up Christmas I thought this was a good time to share a cute idea ... it's not my idea ... but it is something I would use. Boa..and ornaments hold hands in this creative cheap idea. Right now the boa is abundant although they do shed just a tad as your working with it..but hey for a buck it's ok to have feathers floating around rather than snow flakes right?

Just a touch of color

2010-10-13T15:23:00.000-07:00

The lovely flowers my husband purchased for me last week were dried in my large deyhydrator.

I can admire them for years to come.
They look lovely in my potporri bowls.
My dehydrator is an Excalibur that I purchased a long time ago.
Go here to see a nice selection of excaliburs

A scary story: years ago I sliced up some apples and dried them in slices to use in my crafts.
I had heavily seasoned them with apple/cinnamon potporri fragrance and sealed them in clear bags
My husband complained that evening of a stomache ache ... much to our dismay we discovered that he had eaten a whole lunch baggie size of the apple potporri chips! To this day he says I tried to poisen him!

did I lose a friend??

2010-10-04T10:35:00.000-07:00

I thought I had 23 followers but...today only 22.

Perhaps someone got offended by one of the pictures

from my Halloween displays.

I am sorry.

Maybe I should have given more thought to what I display on

my page. However...I don't want to mislead anyone into

assuming that I am a total die-hard Christian or something eaqually wholesome.

Many of you would be in shock by the fact that my better half is a minister.

Sometimes I display a bit of the dark side of my heart. It's just my way

of coping sometimes.

If you are offended please understand I do not generally use

racish displays on my blog site .. nor do I use profanity.

I do not possess a total Gothic approach to life and circumstance.

Sometimes I just let myself become what I am at that

given momment... and I do it safely without harm to myself or anyone else.

Often life is crushing and I use my art as a type

of theraphy without actually offending the person or situation that is

or has caused me greif or anger.t

It's the same approach I use when I take my beebee gun and shoot it at tin cans or a tree

to release the tensions of life.

Sometimes I'm soft , gentle and romantic...all pink and feathers and tender with tears.

Other times I'm hard, crusty and nasty.

Most of all I am honest .. open and caring.

I don't wish to misrepresent my blog nor my attitude.

I follow many interesting sites..many who are Christian and

others who are not. I embrace the diversity as it keeps life

exciting.

That being said...please understand I totally respect your choice not

to be a follower. I appreciate your being a part of my life

even if it was short lived. I enjoyed your company and hope to see you again soon.

Peace

My craft sale

2010-10-03T07:18:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning I woke before the sun.

I had claimed a spot by the highway to set up

On comming traffic heading to the Sea-Food Fest would spot

my table quickly.

I managed to slurp one cup of coffee and then set up.

I was also prepared by way of reading material

to keep myself entertained while I waited for the

crowds of people that were to come!

I could not have asked for better weather!!

It was cool and a breeze.

That breeze it what did me in later how-ever.

Ok sweets..Don't let the babies see this....I hope Eblog does not kick me off!! I made this print last year for a friend but never had the chance to get it in the mail. I'll just have to make her another one.

These were made last year as well.. more on the blue/spring side

Just another view of some last year stuff

I'm not sure what the deal is with the side view but you can see the halloweeny witchy shoes
and some other black and scary stuff

Another weird side view of a print I put together

I am sorry for the side view... your going to get a crick in your neck..
I love this print and the saying. As you can see I adore glitter and more glitter

This is more like it..one of my halloweeny ideas..dollar tree spanish moss...fuufuu yarn and black ribbon and
those dazzling looking skulls!!

Another awesome view of my skulls encases in glass. I found some cool
fake hands too embelish these with as well. More fuufuu stuff. I had some black glittery
material that I also tore into strips for a rough/shabby look.
Walmart also had some cool spider ribbon on the cheap.

The black angel says "don't let my looks fool you I'm a total bitch!"
I embelished with plastic bugs..dotted black ribbon and more feathers from the
Dollar tree. The candles came from the store buck store too.

Three views of a bottle I embellished. I love the skull
corkscrew! You can see the sweet black torn materail used as a ribbon.
The broach was a sweet cheap dollar tree find.. I think it was a pin
at one time..

I loved this...but the wind snatched it and crashed it to the ground.
The glass is thin but it was sooo pretty!! I used torn segmants of sheer
organza material left over from a wedding project. Beatiful as ribbon and
so cocoa shabby!

Another crick your neck picture!! It says "Witches adore Pink."
I made a pink glitter witch hat for her and embellished with fake bugs
and ofcourse pink/purple glitter

a last yer project...the book is about Vampires ofcourse!

a bit crocket looking but it is unique. cool to look at

she reads..."damn right I'm the bitch of the day"

prayer candles all doozied up in black ribbon and spooky clipart

Nuff said!

last years embellished book..one of my most fave prints

my poor candy apples...I kept the bags open so peoples could pull the apples out and see how cute and fake!

I love this...so romantic! a last year project

I love this...cute right?

she reads "Y...who made you queen for the day!
I should have put a crown on her head but I did not have one in
my stash...should have printed one but I ran out of time.
These books were .25 cents each last year so I purchase tons of them
and re-embellished. Thery were origiionally christmas books

Sorry folks but I love this b.tchy witch!! I made her a hat too!

Another Fave clipart peice!! I use her a lot to get my point across

close up of a book mark in a book I embellished

the other part of that book mark

fallish gift basket from last year

she reads "witches love the beach too...and the top says "b.tchy witchy"

More b.tchy witchy stuff

fuufuu flops

romance in the fall gift bucket

embellished books I bought for .25 last year ..the pen is so cute.
Bought from the Dollar tree...3 to a pack!

I love this darling ... made from a xmas card and embellished to the max book mark

last year project

Well after all!! of this... guess what!!! I did not sell ONE item...NO Not One!!!

I blame it on the fact that I should have rented a more strategic location...Flea-Mall??

The wind hurt me because she kept knocking some of my stuff around and I ended up

losing one of my fave peices to the wind. I packed up after that.

I did not get devasted about the lack of response...(5 people pulled in and pulled out without ever

getting out of their car!!). Oh well

I realalize my goods need a more permanent spot for exposure and without the elements and damage

incurred from packing and repacking stuff. I was tired but...not totally discouraged.

I did not stay as long either because I knew most people in the afternoon would

be broke from buying at the sea-food fest. I took this as a learing experience.

However...do any of ya'll have any suggestions? I am open to any input you wish to

share...good or bad...

You don't Bring me flowers/Pink Serenade winner!!

2010-10-01T05:43:00.000-07:00

This is a commercial break.

I have plans to sell my Halloweeny stuff this weekend.

We have the seafood -fest in Eastern N.C

and with it lots of people from out of town will

be filtering in.

I don't want to spend big bucks renting a spot

for exposure so I'm doing the poor mans

approach and will set up a table on the main

drag to see if people will stop and more importantly if

they will buy~ Wish me luck

I won't be too pricey but hopefully people will

enjoy the twist I put on some of my goodies.

I decided for fun to take a picture of some green in my computer room
growing inside two tea-cups on a shabby plate. Cute right?

Hubby came home yesterday with these lovely fall flowers.
He does try to do the right thing..it's been a while since I've gotten flowers..I think Mothers day.
They are proudly sitting on my kitchen table in a pitcher that matches the hues of the flowers.
It also gave me an excuse to take a picture in the "Macro" phase with my camera. It's been raining all week here and it was at night so the picture is not the best but I see potential in Macro setting. I've already put in a big request for christmas/wedding anniversery and birthday for a new up graded camera (about 599.00 in cost). That may seem costly but...all three of these celebrations are withen a month of eachother and two in Jan. I think that's fair and cheap for such important dates don't you?
I'll be posting the finished Halloween projects after this weekend. Some of it's a bit "racey" so keep the babies and kids away!

At the start of September I posted a "Pink Serenade" giveaway. Well!!! I got two very lovely responses!!
Soooo it was plain as to who won. I just had to pick both of these sweeties since they were the only two who got involved in the give away and they are brand baby new followers. I'm not sure if the lack of participants was due to my not posting what the goods were. Of-course I only have about 20 something followers anyway.. (my sweethearts in blog land). As some of you may know from my very very first giveaway..I like to keep things as a surprise..but I do hint at what it may contain. The purpose of the give away was to embrace summer just a bit longer before Fall set in. I still have not contacted Donnie...Donnie are you reading this? Send me your snail mail.

Donnie of newblessings and Maggie of Grandma Yellow Hair.

Chocolate Caramel Apples the real ones...

2010-09-29T11:58:00.000-07:00

Chocolate Caramel Apples

18 small apples

18 wooden sticks

1/2 cup butter

2 squares (2 ounces) unsweetened chocolate

2 cups packed brown sugar

1 cup light-colored corn syrup

1 14-ounce can (1-1/4 cups) sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup chopped peanuts

Wash and dry apples. Remove stems. Insert one wooden stick into the stem end of each apple. Set apples aside. Melt butter and unsweetened chocolate in a heavy 3-quart saucepan over low heat. Add brown sugar, corn syrup, and sweetened condensed milk; mix well.

Clip a candy thermometer onto side of pan. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until thermometer registers 245 degrees (firm-ball stage). Remove saucepan from heat. Stir in vanilla. Dip each apple into the hot caramel mixture, and use a spoon to spread the mixture evenly over apple. Allow excess caramel mixture to drip off. Immediately dip bottoms of apples into peanuts. Place apples, peanut side down, on waxed paper and let stand about 25 minutes or until firm. Makes 18.

Source: Better Homes and Gardens

Ok now that we have these wonderful "real to eat" candy apples to appease the grand-darlings we can venture on into the "Fake/Faux candy apples"...check out this version at another fake candle apple idea. The scentedcottage cuts her fake apples in half and uses them on a sign display..but you can utilize it any way you want.
The how too's of the best fake candle apples is at this blog. You'll love these I promise!! I already have the sticks..the glue and the paint...I just need to get the corn litter. This is too cool for words!!
I think this would be ideal to do with the grand-darlings.

check out this spot

2010-09-27T11:08:00.000-07:00

It's raining today..matter of fact when I woke it was too heavy rain and thunder. A great day for exploring new worlds via the computer. With steamy cup of tea in hand ...
I found this awesome spot and definitely wanted to share the goods. This site has so much fun to offer. She is a Primitive Girl but..there is so much to enjoy even if your into the shabby pink thing. I'm certain there is enough information here that all venues of artistic interest can be played out. I drooled over the Vintage Camper. To say I'm wanten one bad! is an understatement!! Talk about cute and full of potential!!
That is what prompted my interest to start with...the camper...but apon further exploration
I was happy to find lots of other interesting things to drool over. So far she has a small following (about 56) the newest ("ME"! :). Check her out and tell me if I was exaggerating over how awesome this blog is !!!
twodancingcrows

Fun stuff to get you into a romantic halloween mood

2010-09-23T13:20:00.000-07:00

You gotta tilt your head to see this one/Halloween part two

2010-09-23T10:45:00.000-07:00

Well sweets I did try hard to fix this so you could see it.
It did not work. I am not that brilliant but if you turn your head you can see it
better. Sorry bout that.

Next time I'll keep the camera straight so I won't have to try and figure out

how to fix the picture after downloading so you don't break your neck.

OkeeDokeee...here you can see a black frame that I

spray painted with this paint.

Here is a lovely boa that I will be using.

I've used boa for the inside of prints and for the outside.

You just determine what looks appealing.

Here is the print I sntached off of Photobucket.

I enhanced it a bit with some pink dots on the black dress.

I adore this print. I will put the finished product on another post.

The caption underneath will read

Damn right I'm the Wicked Witch of the West!

I have some other "racey stuff" for Halloween.
Keep in mind some of it is adult rated and some of
it is general appeal.
I get sort of fiesty this time of year.

Halloween Romance/Part One

2010-09-23T10:33:00.001-07:00

I decided this darling would make an awesome witch..
I plan to frame this in black with a black boa and
some black/Pink satin ribbon for hanging.
This print will be donning a witches hat cut out of black glitter paper.
Maybe I'll glue a black spider along the corner or in the center of the bow.
In the meantime this is a peice I completed before Halloween.
She is still somewhat Gothic though but could be used all the time if your into Goth.

It is embraced with Two frames..one fitted into the other.

The glass was also glued as well as a soft purple boa on the inside surrounding the print. On the outside directly on the glass I glued a vintage broach. The frames were spray-painted white and glued together prior to assembly. I've learned the hard way that the glass breaks easy so handle all with care when cleaning.

I also tied a sheer musky hued peice of material into a bow on the top.

I did not rough up the paint as usual. Just haven't gotten around to it yet.

I glued a patterned peice of scrap book paper to hide the back.

I also used some of the sheer material to create a hook to hang the print with on the back

(you cant' see it here) and reinforced it with that square peice you see on the top back.

See the next post for a better veiw.

Bread box foliage

2010-09-20T10:40:00.000-07:00

Nothing new under the sun today...just wanted to post this sweet bread box full of lovely flowers and such. No..I did not paint this cute tin..but it fits so nice with the fallish/still summerish temps here in Eastern N.C. I don't think it's ever going to cool off!! Hope your week is lovely.

Pumpkin heads and cute mouse

2010-09-15T06:34:00.000-07:00

http://vintagefeedsacks.blogspot.com/

Oh !! How cute is this!! I know I've shared this wonderful spot with you (my sweet friends) but I had to brag again. Don't you just love this??? I see a lot of potential with this one ... how about an iron-on shirt for a kid?? or maybe a cute door sign?? This would be cute on a glass canister for candy treats. Please pop in and see the other fantastic stuff. I'll be posting some soon on spin off ideas I've gleaned from other bloggerettes out there. You continually amaze me with your creative endeavors!

just the cutest stuff

2010-09-14T05:45:00.000-07:00

So this morning after gulping my last antibiotic and claritin I get on and catch up reading. I was so out of it I lost days and thought last Sat. was Wed!! I found Mandi at http://manditremayne.blogspot.com/
I'm mainly checking out Halloween ideas and enjoying her spin on things and the tempo of her blog when I check out the side bar so I can become a follower. I see this "kids say the darndest things". I have 5 grand-darlings and they always come up with the most unique terminology...so I can relate...I'm reading along and chuckling...something I have not done (chuckling) in weeks... this one was soooo cute ....Jace: "Did you know that vampires have blood on their waffles instead of syrup? They do. They do the same thing for pancakes."

Is this not just the cutest thing? and how appropriate for the halloween season? I thought ... someone in blog land should use that on a kitchen sighn or something. I'm giving this shout out because when you sit down and read a blog and start laughing out loud you know you've found something special. Ofcourse when you mix kids and stuff into the blog it always adds interest to the situation. Anywho's (as Mandi says) jump on over there and check her out.

Good things still happen

2010-09-13T19:00:00.000-07:00

I just posted a couple days ago that there was a crisis and I would need to go off-line. To say I was devastated and broken hearted does not even come close. On top of that I was sick as a dog and so things were magnified 100%. Well...something good happened to rectify the bad and my darling husband came through. He knows my internet and interaction is very essensial and so he fixed it ... despite the circumstances. Can you clap and shout with me please!? I have a wonderful husband!!
and yes he does wash my hair if I ask him too ... ah hem...that's as personnel as I will get here :)

Dollar Tree Oldie but Goodie

2010-09-09T12:54:00.000-07:00

Hello darling friends. I know this particular Idea is nothing new. There's been tons of unique variations - so - I thought I'd add mine to the crowd. I guess when something this good comes along it has a ripple effect. I'm working on more but I'm excited to share this finished project. I got "muse- ish" the other day and took advantage. This is an all weather project. By embracing more than one season the foliage in the glass can reflect fall-time or Christmas with a few minor changes. I think this could even adapt too spring. ( If the colors in your home are reflective of mossy greens and forest type hues.)
My home reflects many pleasing colors so this fits well near my stair-case but could fit nicely in my dining room *fruit room* or my *bedroom*.
What I did to make this .... First I literally catapulted too Dollar Tree http://www.dollartree.com/floral-decor/202/index.cat

I snatched up a few of those lovely glass Cylinders and the lead crystal candle holders ... as you know the two are glued with Gorilla Glue http://www.gorillaglue.com/
I already had in my stash a photo stock card depicting an adorable mossey green caped girl with flowers in hand. I had already painted/embellished her cape with some goldish/glittery type paint in the past and so I merely cut her out from the main card. She was adhered to the inside of the glass with spray glue. I did have to clean up the inside of the glass carefully after she dried with vinegar water and some paper towel since there were a couple of glue smudges from my fingers. No biggie. I sized her up so she was sort of towards the bottem of the glass Cylinder. I already had some dried rose petals and some fake flowers similar to what she was/is holding in her hand. The soft sheer material was a past purchase too. I merely tore a few strands and tied it to the lip of the glass in a draping ribbon effect and placed it a bit too the side at a juanty angle. The red moss was another find at the Dollar Tree. I cut off the tops of some curling wood fronds and opened them up so they would furl around the lip of the glass. I played with it a bit to get it to do what I wanted and to make it look pleasing. The fronds are on top of the mesh. I cut some wirey type copper hued beady things and wrapped it around the lip on top of the wood furls and the mesh ribbon. I cheated a tad and manipulated the mesh/wood fronds and beady things with a drop or two of glue so it would not slide down and cover the sweet cape laden girl. I also broke off a flower that matched the hues of the cape and hot glued it on top of the mesh knot which secured the entire arrangement on the lip of the cylinder. It gave it a pleasing finished look. I stuffed the inside of the cylinder with the red/autumnal moss, dried rose petals (red and cream) as well as some other little touches of dried flowers that matched the bouquet she was holding. I dropped a few unfurled wood curls in it too so it balanced out the impression that matched the top. I realized the foliage is a fire hazard so I took a glass cone shaped cylinder (just laying around doing nothing) and placed it inside the entire component which helped too reinforced the glued card stock so she would not come loose as well as protect the inside foliage and mossy girl from dust and dirt. In the glass cylinder I placed a battery operated candle. Oh I forgot.. I also hugged the bottem of the display with some more of that wirey copper beaded stuff. What do you think? I had a lot of fun making this and it all just fell into place with little thought or effort. My muse was very nice to me that day .

What a scary thought

2010-09-07T14:34:00.000-07:00

http://countryworkshop.blogspot.com/

There's this lady "Pat" she has some awesome stuff on her blog for Halloween. Check her out and let her know that I sent ya. It's never too early to start "Booing" around!

A Lovely Giveaway!!!

2010-09-07T13:10:00.000-07:00

Hey girl-friends!!! I gotta confess...I'm very stingy...but in a nice sort of way!
There are so many lovely give-aways out there!! Where to start and where to end? Eanie Meannie Minnie Mow !!! I'll do my part and then some and just cross my fingers to win. That being said "hale all friends near and far!! check out decochicks loving embrace of Lisa's art via Jewlery and other "Sweet things". Go ahead and drool and then get involved in the give away. You have nothing to lose and so much to gain.

This give away stands out from the rest...why...because you can tell a lot of love and heart are involved.
If you love the "cool" touch of silver with a personnel flavor then this is the perfect item of interest.
Okee Dokeee so lets hear it for the "Girls"at Decorchick and Lisa Leonard Designs

http://www.decorchick.com/

http://www.lisaleonardonline.com/

2010-09-05T15:43:00.000-07:00

http://sissieshabbycottage.blogspot.com/

Whats rusty and fall "time ish"? This wonderful Bird cage!! Can you imagine how lovely this would look as the main attraction for a table display? The things one can do with this is limitless!
Check out the anniversery give away and make sure you check out my "Pink" give away too!

Darling don't be blue...I've got something Pink for you

2010-09-05T09:24:00.000-07:00

Fall is flirting with Summers end.
She usually comes bustling in like a full figured Auntie who dons flamboyant colored jewlery and smells like a perfume factory. You know ... the one who puckers her ruby lips all over soft pink cheeks and rants on and on about how adorable things are. She is a lot of fun but so exhausting ... she jotles her robust figure here and there just like the swirling mutli hued
leaves on the grass ... her fragrance lingers in every room of the house ... and her laughter is constant and gay... We quickly realize as fun as the Auntie is we don't want the soft sheen of summer to end just yet. We still want to feel summers silky embrace and gentle salty kisses from the sea. We still enjoy the rough crunch of sand under foot and her languid humid nights. Her song of ocean wave and chanting sea-gull is still a welcomed respite from the hectic sway of life. We feel the bitter sweet tug of summers departure. We cling just one more day to her velvety humid nights and lazy summer days.... and so in memory of another wonderful summers passing I have chosen a "Pink Serenade". The serenade is a give away of Pink and more Pink.
Summer is quickly fading into all of those earthy nutty hues we enjoy in fall.. but I have a desire to retain some of summers lush and full bodied delicacey. What better hue than Frothy...light...delicate...translucent...delightful, blissfull, enchanting, refreshing, blushing Pink?

This give away will embrace all of September.
1. Leave a comment here.
Tell me you love me...tell me you
adore my blog or just tell me anything that strikes your fancy.
I have a big heart and just love getting to know you.
2. Follow me..that lets me know you care
3. Post "me" on your blog and let people know what it is about my blog you enjoyed the most.. I am relatively young yet so I am taking baby steps to improve.
There is nothing more for you to do after that! I am not the most talented nor beautiful spot but I do share my heart and soul and try to enhance your corner of the world by sharing my small corner of the world. If by chance you "feel" me...then lets bring our hearts together in friendship and love. We need so much of that don't we?

Something new

2010-09-04T19:12:00.000-07:00

I just adore magazines.

I thought I would share

the brand new publication

http://www.creatingvintagecharm.com/

Creating Vintage Charm

Pop in because she is doing a give a way!

http://creatingvintagecharm.blogspot.com/2010/08/creating-vintage-charm-launch-party-and.html

I found out about this magazine at

http://talesfromanoccottage.blogspot.com/

A pattern for a round rug and other cool stuff

2010-08-29T11:02:00.000-07:00

Hello sweet friends. Have your been making some magic with your crochet hook?
I sure hope so. Before I share a pattern with you I wanted to post a Video that demonstrates the use of grips for your crochet hooks.
This is appropriate for smaller hooks but not for your larger wooden or plastic hooks.
Treasa has some awesome demonstrations as a whole with the crochet thing so be sure after the tutorial to visit and leave comments. Who knows you may find yourself venturing past the world of rag- rugs and into other dimenstions of crochet.

Don't become dismayed by the symbols...this is just something for your consideration and exposure.

What better time than now to grab up your strips and work your craft while a cool breeze swirls the leaves in the grass and all the fall time hues inspire your colors. Are you a Prim girl?

Go with the earthy hues that fall embraces. A shabby chic chick? Choose soft pinks and whites and cabbage hues. Are you a topical girl? Choose all those colors that burst with limes, tropical greens and other related hues.

There is no right or wrong approach. Just grab what you have on hand or what appeals to your home decor.

Make a chain of 4 stitches. Join with a slip stitch to form or close the ring.
Round 1-Going into the middle of the ring each time, put 8 single crochet stitches into the ring. Mark the last stitch with your safety pin.

Round 2- Put 2 single crochet stitches into each stitch in the round. Mark the last stitch.
Round 3- Put 1 single crochet stitch into each stitch in this round. Mark the last stitch.

Repeat rounds 2 and 3 for as long as your work is staying flat. Lay it down once in a while and make sure that it is not cupping or forming a bowl shape. Adjust your increases as your circle grows. Increases are 2 stitches in one or every other stitch. You'll gain a feel for when to increase. Don't dispair. Just play with it. Check it often by laying it on the floor. You can always undo a round very easily and re-do without difficulty. Before you know it your circle will grow and become a lap pad and eventually an adorable round rug. You can continue to make spirals along untill it is huge. Just determine what your goal is. Have lots of fun.

Helpful hint - practice making your stitches into the back loop only rather than running your hook under the 2 exposed loops when making a stitch.

A round rug 3 to 4 feet in diameter will require about 10 yards of fabric.

One idea that is realy fun is the use of fuu fuu yarn. When you make your strips of material *example - shabby hues such as pink or cabbage* marry the strips with a complimented color of yarn. Dollar Tree often sells cute bundles of eyelash yarn. While crocheting your strips, have your yarn side by side with your strips and crochet the two together. The finished rug has a soft texture mixed in with the strips. This adds an interesting dimensiion to the finished rug.
You can also use regular yarn. If you've ever made rugs using strips of Wall-Mart bags fuu fuu yarn is ideal with this as well. Maybe I'll do a tutorial on this in the future.

Dircetions for an Oval rug
Make a chain the desired length.
At the end of your chain put the hook into the second chain from the hook. This is the start of your curve or curve 1#. Single crochet along the chain to the next to the last chain (2 stitches before the tail).

Put 2 single crochet stitches in each of these last two stitches. Swing around to the other side of the tail and put 2 more single crochet stitches into this same stitch. (you have increased 6 stitches in all and formed curve 2#). This is the beginning of row 1 on the increasing chart.

continue to put one single crochet stitch in each of the stitches down this side of the chain until you come to the last three stitches. Put two single crochet stitches into each of these theree stitches.

Continue down this side putting one single crochet stitch in each stitch until you get back to the tail curve again. At this point you will do your increases. You will begin increases at each new row at the tail curve.

Hint -
Your beginning chain when you started your rug will determine the finished size of your oval. If you want your rug to be 2x3 feet.. the chain length should be the difference between the length and width. 3-2=1 (or one foot long chain) 4 by 7 is 7-4= 3 foot chain ect.
Hint - to finish your oval slip stitch the last several stitches and cut your strip and leave a 3 inch tail. Loop the tail through the last loop on the hook and work in to hide.
Make sure your chain when you start your oval is straight. Do not skip any stitches withen the original chain or your oval will not be straight.

I told a lie..unitentionally however. Please let me post one more tutorial ... this post is so long and I needed a small break. I promise the next rug how to will be the last. In it I will share the how's of the heart rug and I'll post a diagram on the increasing chart for your ovals and rounds.

Learn your stitches

2010-08-27T14:25:00.000-07:00

Hello dear friends...

It's time to take your efforts to a new level!

The chickie above is holding knitting needles..pretend they are crochet hooks instead

   Before we go into the stitches I want to encourage you to have fun. Don't get frustrated. Using a larger hook and strips of material has a big advantage.  You can actually see the stitches on a magnified level. Just relax and keep your stitches loose.  Enjoy the process. It takes a bit of practice to get your fingers to behave. You don't need to hug your needle a certain way. I'm free style.. so try differant ways of holding your needle. What ever works to produce the effect and what feels comfortable is the best approach. A waiver here.. I don't claim the instructions via video below...I merely did the research for you. Everything to get going is just a click away. Enjoy ... and practice practice practice.

The slip knot ... this is a joining stitch and an outlining stitch. If used to outline your work it is a type of "crawling on your knees" tecnique to get from point a to point b without adding depth or height to your work.
It is also used to close a circle or to join the open ends of your circle. Think of this as "joining hands".
The Chain stitch ... practice this until you feel comfortable. Make a long
snake from your joined strips. Keep loose with your work ... guage is not essensial
at this point. Your goal is to become familiar with the work and visualizing
the finished stitches.

Single Crochet - Here you are building on the chain stitch working down the full
length of your chain. You will get to the end and turn and work your way back up again.
Repeat as many times as you need to feel relaxed and confident.

How to make a circle - there are several ways with crochet one can make a circle.
I wanted to post this video first due to the fact that it uses the single crochet stitch. The second
demonstration shows how to do a double crochet stitch circle. I don't want to confuse you by adding
too many stitches to the program. I want to simplify things and stick with a few basic stitches.
Once those are mastered you can move on with confidence and experiment.

One thing you must keep in mind when making a "round" is to increase ... this keeps your little circle nice and flat ... otherwise you'll end up with a little tiny bowl. Increasing is done several ways but follow the video above by placing 2# single/ or 2# double crochet stitches in the same hole. This will allow for the widening of your circle. On the video posted in my earlier tutorial (the yellow rug video) she had a unqiue way of increasing. Watch the video again and pay close attention.  She sort of did a slip knot type stitch when she wanted to increase before going into the next hole with her regular stitch.
Are you confused yet? Don't be. Just do 2 of the same stitches in one hole (twins) to make sure your rug is laying flat. If not you can always undo and increase as you need too. As your coaster grows into a chair pad and then from that into a sweet round rug you will understand completely the dynamics of increasing. Lay your rug down on the floor once in a while and tug at it and feel it and see how she acts.
If she is laying flat your making adequate increases on your rug. If she is curling don't dispair. Make a new round with some increases and see if that helps. If not just redo the area over that seems to want to curl.
The second video above that demonstrates the second circle is easily done with a single crochet stitch as well. Have you ever seen those lollipops that go around and around in a spiral? This is one way
of creating a circle for your rug. You just spiral around and around with a never ending flow.
There is another way however that allows you to join the end of your first circle
with a slip stitch and then make one or 2 chains. Mark that chain with a saftey pin. This is the start of a brand new circle that will build on the previouse circle. So in effect you are wrapping a new circle around the previouse circle and starting and ending each round. With the spiral there is no stopping point or ending ... you just keep going untill you are happy with the size of your rug. Does this make sense. Think of a maze that spirals around and around and never ends. Think of a dead end street when you think of the circles starting and stopping.

Now that I've driven you crazy with this long wordy blog I will leave you in peace. Practice your stitches and gain some skills. The next post will be the last one in this series. I will post the how's of  A Round Rug ... A Heart Shaped Rug ... and an Oval Rug as well as a square.
I'll also share some other cool stuff.

Joining your strips is Magic/part C

2010-08-24T16:49:00.000-07:00

This is a very evil looking diagram I must confess.

I was trying to scan and manipulate. I hope you don't run

screaming out of the room.

I promise to make this as painless as possible.

Take your strip and fold a small section on the edge in on itself.

It's as though you are creating a little hem. You will do this on every

strip for the rug you are working on. Some of you may want

to set aside time to join the strips and roll into balls. I prefer to join as I go.

Take your scissors and make a little snip on the folded edge. Do not snip all the way to the

otherside of the edge or the fray side of the fold. Just snip a tad to the inside.

Does that make sense??

Check out the video below. I do not take credit for this video..please

see the section that demonstrates how to join since this

tutorial is embracing Crochet and not rug-braiding.

I'm hoping the video will clarrify your understanding so you can join your material

without frustration. It's sort of a blanket stitch effect but on the end of

each strip.

I've submitted some links for you to explore on the bottem of the page.
I'm still learning and exploring so you may find some
awesome sites on your own. Would you be kind enough to let us know?
I'd love to see some of your finished work too.
I still have more posts to go on rag-rugging so don't run away yet!

http://www.fabricbythepound.com/millend.htm
http://www.carolsrugs.com/fabric_mill_ends_1.htm
http://www.netw.com/~rafter4/net.html

My sister created this rug for me. I love it's shabby home-made look. I will cherish it always.

One of my lovely rugs I recently made. Don't you just love the pinks and white?

This rug is distinctly unique because I used plastic grocery bags and fuufuu yarn. This was so fun to make. The hues in this rug are beachy and frothy looking. Great for someone who adores tropical.
More tutorial to come...are you getting excited?

You lovely rag you! Part C

2010-08-24T11:05:00.000-07:00

Here are some lovely samples of finished rugs.

I know your getting excited right?
My sister made this lovely purple rug.
She used some type of stretchy material.
I will cherish this rug forever. Do you see how
sweet it looks in my pink and purple room?
(disregard the red bin in the corner :))
Do you know some people give names to their rugs.
What a cool way to lend history and love to those who
own them.

Okeee Dokeeee..

I know your getting soooo impatient with me..

So you wanna know how to magically join those strips.

See the next session..

rag rugging around part B

2010-08-24T09:25:00.000-07:00

Hello friends. Have you gathered up your supplies yet? It's so cool

how green this craft is.. and cost effective!

Do you have your freshly laundered sheets?

You can purchase other types of material but

lets discuss that later.

For now lets stick with cotten material. If you buy material on

the bolt just be sure to wash it first and by all means use what

you have around the house. After all saving money and being green

is what it's all about right?

I snatched this image from a darling site. I'll post for your pleasure at the

end of this tutorial. I thought the yellow and white picture was very clear and beautiful.

I've done a lot of research and found some good spots but all in all this dear

(who by the way gave conset) had a very user friendly approach with excellent

pictures and video's. If you wish to jump ahead of my tutorial please feel

free to visit her.

This is what your strips should look like. You can roll them into balls for later use. Since

I'm currently working on a rug and I've chosen to just grab the strips from the pile as I go.

Here is another sample of your strips tied neatly into a tassle effect.

I love the soft cabbage rose and cream in this material don't you?

I am sorry for the blur here... Can you see how the strips are obtained?

Take your material and double or triple fold (depending on how sharp your scissors are). You might

use a cutting matt and a special cutting tecniques to get more strips for the cut.

Fold your material at least once or twice.

At the folded edge make a small snip..cut equal snips all

the way across the full width. The distance of the cuts will determine the width of your strips for your rug. Keep that in mind when you start cutting. At the snip or mouth of the cut just pull and tear. You will create full length strips all the way down with soft frayed edges.

You may also have a lot of strings. Cut the most bothersome ones but if your like me you can deal with them as you build your rug.

This is a great time to enlist the aide of the youngens. Do some bribing and let them tear away.

Can you see the snips?

Just another picture of what you can anticipate with your rug.

Ok...my puter is acting up .. I'm trying to post the how to of joining all those

lovely strips so you can make magic.

Here is the site on a tutorial I found online with regards to easy as pie

pictures and video's. Promise to stay with me though? Don't leave me?

I want to demonstrate some stitches and some finishing ideas. Thes ewill put

a creative flair to your work and lend that

special and uniquely "YOU" touch to your work.

http://craftedition.blogspot.com/2010/02/rag-rug-tutorial.html

Part C will explore joining your strips

where to find your needles

and some other cool stuff.

Okee dokeee...I better get this off and running before my computer gobbles it up..yikes!!!!!

A beautiful Blog to check out

2010-08-23T12:23:00.000-07:00

Time for a commercial Break .... I'm working on my rug tutorial but ... I thought I would take a momment to share this lovely spot with you ... http://vintagefeedsacks.blogspot.com/

If you enjoy breath-taking clip art please take a momment to visit ... this site deserves a standing

ovation. Some comments would not hurt either. Her efforts are noteworthy for sharing such quality stuff.
The hand display is a small sample of what she offers. I see a lot of uses for these hands ... altered art ... a pop up card ... so many awesome ideas come to mind. What do y'all think? Ps. Don't forget to mention that I sent you by.

Step A/ How to make a rag-rug

2010-08-22T12:37:00.000-07:00

Currently the days are extreme with heat. An occaisional scattered rain storm hits but does little by way of respite when it comes to washing out the thickness of the humidity..if anything it seems to make things worse.
This time of year is known as The Dog Days.
Dog Days is defined as a time period or event that is very hot or stagnant and humid. Lacking in or marked by dull lack of progress.
It's just too hot to even breath. The humidity is so thick and sticky it can be spread with a knife. All one wants to do in these conditons is hide in the shade...lounge under the air conditioning or at least stay wet with water hose, pool or ocean.
That being said "I promise Fall is tantalizingly forthcomming. It's then I love dabbling in certain crafts geared towards cooler weather such as Rag-Rugging. It's so practical. As the work progresses from a tiny coaster size circle into a lap size round .. your left with something that covers your waist and legs keeping you all snuggly and warm. I love to lounge under a blanket with my work on top of me for extra warmth and crochet to the crackle song of the fire-place or while watching TV. I love sitting outside too with my craft and feel the cool breezes and the air being embraced by the smell of burning leaves. It's magic.
I decided the hot weather still lingering like a bad guest requires more prep than the doing of when it comes to making a rag-rug.
Get the car keys ... your trusty bike .. or lets walk to the nearest yard-sale or thrift store ... lets see what supplies we can gather for this project on the cheap before we actually spend in a "Regular" store.

1. Old sheets ...
I usually find these in the linen section of the thrift store..depending on pricing they run 1.00 a sheet maybe cheaper at yard sales. Don't by-pass fitted sheets. They can always have the elastic corners trimmed away. Flannel sheets are wonderful! They produce softer fluffier rugs. In winter using them near the side of the bed or bathtub is ideal. What better way to keep your toes cozy.
With regards to yardage there are many factores. For the sake of simplicity I will detail later on the amount of material for certain rugs. For now I want things easy breezy... so ... just gather up as many sheets as you wish...3..4..5 whatever...

Make sure you wash them well!! Even if they look and smell clean. You have no idea where those sheets have been living! YUK !! ciggerette smoke...doggie hair...buggy hair...no telling what!! I love to line dry my sheets in the sun so they are further de-germed.

2. Plastic or wooden crochet hook ...
I prefer large wooden crochet hooks. The wood feels silky soft in my fingers. It seems the more I use my wooden hooks the better they feel. Large plastic hooks are usually a good deal and sometimes they show up at thrift stores on the cheap. Usually digging around the bottem of a shoe box filled with notions produces some nice hooks. If you do purchase plastic hooks you can find them all day long at any retail department store. I got lucky once and found a cool set of hooks that had wooden handles and metal hooks attatched. I found them at Big Lots. The best of both worlds. I'll post a few links on the bottem of my tutorials for places that offer both types. I purchased a huge wooden crochet hook in Australia once way back in the day when I was pregnant with my now 20 year old daughter. Nothing special about it but just because I purchased it at the "OP' shop makes it special for me. I think I paid a quarter for it. When you begin your project your fingers and material will dictate the size needle to use. Just play around with differant widths of material and varied sizes in hooks to determine what your finished project should look like and how comfortable you feel.
You can always make a practice coaster size peice and undo it easily if things don't feel or look right.

3. Strips ...
You can cut or tear. I prefer to make snips and then tear. Some people prefer clean strips... thus cutting ... others love the shabbier look. Tearing creates softer edges .. cutting is cleaner and produces sharper edges. It's all in your personnel preferance and what supplies and time you have.
Tearing creates strings however .. some sheets produce more strings than others. This is no big deal for me as I just snip those naughty strings away. A rotary wheel is helpful but not absolutely needful. If you choose to cut your material you can double fold to get more bang for your effort. Just use your own discretion. The kids enjoy getting in on the tearing project and rolling your segmants of torn strips into adorable balls. Just have fun and don't fret.
Lite weight fabric or sheeting can be tron into 1 1/2 to 2 in strips. If you choose heavy material over sheets just cut thinner strips. No biggie. Again determine the size strips based on the size hook you are going to use. Fater hook...fatter strips...

4. Sharp scissors-
You knew that right? Common sense dictates whatever you have on hand to work with. The main point is to have fun. You don't need a lot of fancy to make a rag-rug. That's the fun is this. Not to mention the "green" effect.

Ok sweet friends .... head on out ... get all the stuff above so the next tutorial will teach you how to work magic.

beautiful and oh so cheap

2010-08-21T18:18:00.000-07:00

I've always taken glass and placed it withen more glass. Today I found this lovely bulb cover (2.00). I looked for more but this was a lone ranger.

I had accidently purchased one of those glass candle holders with a pattern rather than plain.

I wanted them to match

the larger glass candle holders evryone has been boasting about. See the pictures below.

I placed the bulb cover inside the glass container and then placed another smaller glass candle holder inside that (3 glass sections all together). When I lit the votive it created such a sweet soft glow. Don't you just love it.

This entire project was a total of 3.oo not including the candle which I already had on hand from a past purchase. I wish I could have found one more of those bulb covers... oh well.

This is for the glass candle holders everyone has been screaming in delight about from the Dollar Tree. The ones from William Sonoma? This is a future project that I'll post pictures of later.

Some shabby looking cansisters

2010-08-18T17:20:00.000-07:00

This little guy is full of fun and frolic...snatching cookies. Is'nt that the thing of childhood memories? and just look at that darling vintage fridge!! Too cute right?

Curly top is not too happy about the dog kisses. But doggie knows that love equals doggie biscuits.
That's what my little green canister is being utilized for. I have 2 adorable dogs in my house-hold and they know when mommy brings this into view it's special treat time.

Here is a picture of both. I got lucky and was able to retrieve some greeting cards

that were being tossed in the trash (so wasteful). They were written off first for

inventory before I asked if I could save them.

I added a bit of glitter on the cookie jar cansister. I'm

not sure yet if I want to add a bit more detail.

Anyhow what do y'all think? Do you Like?

Jeweled Frog Creations: Knitting Up A Few Projects

2010-08-16T15:23:00.000-07:00

Jeweled Frog Creations: Knitting Up A Few Projects

Greetings from the salty shores of eastern N.C ....it's been so hot!...staying indoors or finding respite in the shade has been my agenda and a tall glass of something cool and refreshing. When the afternoon sun peaks I find myself staying inside. This means computer time. I discovered this great spot and wanted to share. Please check it out. She has so much to offer in friendship and creativity. Edie has no idea I am giving her a shout out. Surprise!! I don't even know if she knows about my blog...but lets just say I enjoy tooting the horn for other people...I'm nice like that.

http://www.jeweledfrogcreations.com/
ps..please let her know I encouraged a visit...thanks...I'm just trying to generate a bit of interst on my own behalf too...teeheee.

Back yard Shelter ... cheap ...easy...and very temperary

2010-08-16T07:18:00.000-07:00

I have this thing for out door havens ... in particular I dream of a home-made

shabby/hideaway type tent.

I would want to feel the hush of breeze and the dance of butterfly

so an open floor plan would be nice

A sweet table covering laden with roses is a must.

Lots of Shabby ... pink ....

Lots of Lace draped over adirondak chairs for lounging.

A book ... a jar with flowers ...another lacey chair

and a star candle for nite time reflection.

I did a big girl version of the play house yesterday.

Remmember when we were kids and draped old sheets or blankets over

the back yard cloths line? I grabbed up a bunch of table coverings

an old lace shower-curtain .. and my plastic yard chairs. I camoflauged

everything into shabby and makeshift. I also covered a large lounge

chair in the same material as the top of my tent. Hubby asked me not to

post the picture because he fell asleep on it ..

Oneday I want to make a "real tent" using patterned canvas material"

but till then I will just use my trusty string and table coverings.

I also used tall thin tree limbs I cut down and anchored in the ground.

It took a bit of adjusting here and there but I finally acheived a temperary spot to read

relax in and even take a short summer nap in. Bug spray came in handy too.

The tent is temperary. If it needs washing or it rains.. no biggie.

http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/

Please see the above site to obtain some trully cool stuff on outdoor havens and other wonderful ideas.

discretion advised/x rated

2010-08-05T14:26:00.000-07:00

Hello sweet friends. The hot weather has made me crazy I guess.
This awesome lady lounging on the beach just caught my eye. I snatched this
sweet saying on the card from the shabbychiccottage.

.http://www.theshabbychiccottage.net/2010/08/sign-making-with-silhouette.html

I put a more adult slant on it as you can see. I thought this would be ideal for
a pillow at a beach cottage or perhaps in a bathroom ... framed and shabbied up.
I guess I have romance on the brain.

I did try to enhance it a bit ... not being very talented in this area by adding a
bit of color to her toe nails and lips. I can bet some of you out there could come
up with something far better. I had fun anyway.

Rag Rug Pink

2010-08-02T13:41:00.000-07:00

Rhythmically running a fat crochet hook in and out between the folds of cotton material is a joy to the senses. Sheets that are so soft from repeated washings are easy to tear and slide like silk on the needle. Oh .. did I say thrifty too? What could be more relaxing and productive? Often thrift stores will sell sheets on the cheap especially if they have a rip here and there. I like to take an old enamel pot filled with water and get it boiling hot. I then add oxy clean, cloths detergent and bleach. I swirl the sheet into the hot water and let it soak for several hours or longer. Then into the washing machine for a regular wash and rinse. I do all of this to be on the safe cause you never know where your sheet may have been.
(I know it's a yuk yuk thought but lets be real). After a run through the dryer...(I actually enjoy letting the sun and wind snap my sheets dry) they are now ready to be torn into strips. I like my rugs to be on the shabby side. I do not sew my strips together but rather use a technique of joining that does not require much effort. I think I may do a video tutorial on this whole craft in the near future. If I get enough interest I may do a give away at the end of the tutorial.

Random touches of Pink

The finished rug.

Bad Dog!

2010-07-31T15:22:00.000-07:00

Bad Dog!

A Give Away

2010-07-26T07:54:00.000-07:00

.... I'm an at home granny. This gives me and the grand-darling time to address other exciting area's. My most fave interest is ... ofcourse .. exploring the internet and meeting wonderfuly talented and caring women. To say I'm inspired is an understatement. Every time I visit ... I feel energized and motivated. My intimidation flys out the window like a pesky fly. I feel the freedom to tap into my latent talents and challenge myself to dabble regardless of the outcome. Mistakes are just learning curves. Good outcomes build confidence. That being said I want to thank those of you who stop in and take time out of your day to read my blog. I don't claim popularity or incredible talent .. I just claim the willingness to open my heart and my home. That means so much .... and you ... my kindred friends ... mean a lot to me as well.

decorchick.com I wanted to share this wonderful give away!! Would you enjoy a 50.00 spending spree on some crafty stuff. Yes?? Well then ... check this out!! I did! I'm crossing my fingers ... you can be sure I have a list of crafty needs . Stop in and have fun!

My 10.00 beauty!!

2010-07-25T19:57:00.000-07:00

I can't remember if I posted a before picture of my 10.00 table. She had a minor injury that hubby repaired easily. I guess because of her flaw the thrift store figured she was more trash than treasure.
If they could just see her now ... she is definitely a treasure.

The first picture shows the shabby touch of white and sand paper.

The second picture is a tad blurry (sorry)..

but you get the idea of the finished look.

Here is another view of the table resting sweetly upstairs in my hallway.

I don't know for sure if this is where she will stay. The fun about

this type of decor is...it can be used in so many ways.

Another close up of the shabby touch. This project was so fun!

Here is my sweet table with her cloak of white.

In this view she was not roughed up yet.

This final shot is the BEFORE view.. she has good bones but

definitely needed some cosmetic surgery. I think she is happy with

her white and shabby touch. What do you think?

A lovely thought

2010-07-14T12:59:00.000-07:00

Hello dear friends. I am trying to come up with
something to download. I plan too decorate a metal tray
with this picture and saying.
What do you think?

2010-06-28T18:10:00.000-07:00

Hello darlings....hope that your summer is proving as fun as mine so far.

I've been so busy enjoying my grand-darling. It won't be long and

all of my grand-babies will be together for a few days of fun and frolic.

My darling in pink

2010-06-24T08:31:00.000-07:00

The girl was not too happy bout wearing her Nanny's pink cow-girl hat. All in All she is still lovely in every sense of the word.

Summer bathing

2010-06-15T18:02:00.000-07:00

Summer is a great time for outdoor bubble baths!

Just ask my little grand-daring! My best investment ever is this cast iron tub! It's uses are many..washing the dog..cleaning or soaking outdoor stuff..washing sand off after a day at the beach .. or just soaking under the stars. Of course I clean the tub after using it for the dogs and such. I would encourage all to try bathing under the stars and see how truly lovely it is. The only thing is ... if you have no privacy you may want to wear your bathing suit. I'm fortunate cause I go in my birthday suit!

2010-05-21T00:37:00.000-07:00

My friend Denise is a brand-new Nanny...I wrote this little poem in honor honor of her darling grand-baby

magic sun tea

2010-04-30T10:08:00.000-07:00

There is something so simple and easy with this tea. The sun cooks the liquid to a smooth refreshing beverage. Swimming around this glass container are apple/herb flavored tea bags.

Depending on the taste I may add some fruit slices and enhance with sugar.Come join me later tonite when I bring it in and pour into frosted glasses laced on the rim with surgar. Yum

more of the kids recently married..

2010-04-27T06:34:00.000-07:00

My handsome son and his lovely Bride

2010-04-26T18:43:00.000-07:00

correcttions made on little man

2010-04-26T17:37:00.000-07:00

the whispher of childhood

2010-04-24T12:07:00.000-07:00

the mason jar

2010-04-23T20:09:00.000-07:00

Another sample of summers lovely touch

Mason jars are multifunctional

they hold flowers..

make great drinking glasses

and contain items of interest

they also cost little and can be

found in abudance at thrift stores

One of the most thoughtful thing one can

do with these is make "bread in a jar".

2/3 cup shortening
2 2/3 cups white sugar
4 eggs
2 cups mashed bananas
2/3 cup water
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
2/3 cup chopped pecans
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease insides of 8 (1 pint) straight sided, wide mouth canning jars.
In a large bowl, cream shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, bananas, and water. Sift together flour, baking powder, soda, salt, cinnamon, and cloves. Add to banana mixture. Stir in nuts.
Pour mixture into greased WIDE MOUTH pint jars, filling 1/2 full of batter. Do NOT put lids on jars for baking. Be careful to keep the rims clean, wiping off any batter that gets on the rims.
Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, sterilize the lids and rings in boiling water.
As soon as cake is done, remove from oven one at a time, wipe rims of jars and put on lid and ring. Jars will seal as cakes cool. Place the jars on the counter and listen for them to "ping" as they seal. If you miss the "ping", wait until they are completely cool and press on the top of the lid. If it doesn't move at all, it's sealed.
Jars should be eaten immediately or kept sealed in refrigerator for up to a week.

summer touches

2010-04-23T20:06:00.000-07:00

another lovely sample of summers simple touch.
Mason jars are mutlti functional
they hold flowers..
they make wonderful drinking glasses..
and they are cheap..
I love capping them with slices
of material and displaying contents
of interest edible and non edible.
Giving Bread in a Jar is truly a unique
approach to using a mason jar.

Pink and more pink

2010-04-23T19:57:00.000-07:00

Resting against the breast of a weathered white frock this pink rose
depicts simplicity. Breath-taking and alluring.

2010-04-23T19:49:00.000-07:00

Pink is it for my little Roxanne. I dolled her up (as if she needs it) with the lovely pink flowers.

2010-04-23T17:54:00.000-07:00

Greetings my sweet friends...

I have been absent far too long...

It was rude of me to discharge myself so

without letting all of you know.

May I use the excuse that life has been so busy with my son's wedding (now behind us) grand-kids and work. I also had a dear friend come in from Louisianna. I am hoping to get back on track and recover myself soon. I hope that you have not lost interest in me as your friend. I hope the warm breezes have been kind to all of you and you are making ready for a fun-filled family -filled summer.

Natures special touch

2010-02-25T08:20:00.000-08:00

Greetings sweet friends! I just had to post this awesome photo. Mother nature created a special touch ... truly unique. Don't you just love the false impression of bubbles clinging along the sides of my make-sift poor mans jacuzzi? I can assure you it was cold, wet and certainly not worthy of bathing in. It did however fool the eye. It never ceases to amaze me the wonders of what a day may bring.

Day late and a Dollar short

2010-02-18T22:55:00.000-08:00

Greetings friends.... I had to work Valentines Day. Despite that...I still wanted to honor the day. I pulled out my mixing bowl, vintage measuring cups and white french bowl as well as the heart shaped cake pans and set to work. The hand held blender proved difficult but I kept it in the picture to further the visual of vintage kitchen play. You can see the finished cake in all her pastel delight. Actually the cake was supposed to be cup-cakes but I could'nt resist the heart shaped cake pans. I had fun...the only thing missing was the grand-babies licking the spoons and bowl..

2010-02-02T14:37:00.000-08:00

Hello darlings!! I thought you'd enjoy my dollar glass du-flotchy embracing two darling baby spoons and cup. I love baby stuff ... the other picture (somewhat blurry..sorry) shows the belt buckle I purchased last week with a white coat of paint. The candle holder it is nesting against is an old lamp base painted white as well with a once silver tray glued on top. I love how the two components made for a whole new item.

Do you see the darling heart tin shared in an ealier post? I think it looks better with the white make-over. Can one use too much white?? It's makes for a sweet touch in celebration of Valentines Day don't you think? I may use it in a gift basket ... that is if I can give it up.

Have a Fantastic week.

Birthday Thrift

2010-01-24T10:11:00.000-08:00

My birthday fell on Sat. That ultimately allowed my request to be honored. Usually my husband averts any and all events that say "spend money".... especially craft stores, thrift stores and yard-sales. With my daughter and grand daughter in tow.. with hubby being the unwilling driver...we hit a couple of yard-sales (no good finds there) and the thrift store. I ended up not spending as much money as my hubby feared. The thrift store produced some interesting finds.

The darling edged hankie embracing the silver heart shaped container just hollered out my name! Ialso discovered the lonley belt buckle in a 25 cent bin. The adorable gold bottle brush tree was found in the christmas section. The frosty bottle with the cork also caught my eye. Everything got a good soapy bath including the bottle brush tree. I've already given the silver heart a fresh coat of white.

I'll post an after picture later. I'm unsure what I'm going to do with the tree. The frosty bottle will eventually house home-made bubble bath. I've also got plans for the belt buckle. Any how's hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

Baby it's cold outside

2010-01-15T06:49:00.000-08:00

Hello darling friends. Has it been cold in your neck of the woods? Our cold cold weather is starting to break finally. Indications of warmer weather are forthcomming according to the weather chick. In the mean-time would you like to share in a steamy bowl of vegetable soup? It seems nothing hits the spot. Comfort food delux! I adore eating with my very old spoon (intact with piths and dings) and how it just ladles the soup perfectly from bowl to mouth. Did you know the correct way to eat soup is to ladle the spoon away from you when you scoop? In otherwords scoop your soup backwards. Try it. It's very formal. I was taught that in home ec class way back in the day. I think that's the only thing I remmember from that class.

Anyhow's My sweet plate from the Dollar tree enhances the look along with a deep beige bowl housing the soup. My darling salt and pepper shakers (a dollar for the pair) pour salt and pepper lavishly over the food item. Don't you hate when you use a shaker and your not sure if any of the stuff is comming out? No problem with these. Ok..now that you've had the grand tour of my lunch on a winter day I hope your day proves just as comforting. Have a wonderful wonderful week!

a sweet handmade cozy for the love month

2010-01-12T08:23:00.000-08:00

Greetings friends...I wanted to post this wonderful give away. Who needs something cozy and warm. I do I do!!!!! Ok that being said ... check this out OK.

http://onesimplecountrygirl.blogspot.com

The White Fairy has struck again!

2010-01-11T11:38:00.000-08:00

Okee Dokee....I finished the cake stand...Do you like? So white and dainty right?

The first picture depicts the sweet little white tweets from the Dollar Tree sitting on top of darling sewing machine drawer lathered in white. The little teacups were a thrift store find too.

Matter of fact most of the items in the pictures came from thrift except one of the lovely glass candy dishs my mother in law gave me for Christmas. Even the heart shaped tea lite holders came from the thrift store for 25. !!
The pink salt and pepper shakers near the tweets are filled with pink sand and shells...but the silver shakers I use for salt and pepper. Both star fish have been glittered up nicely. Eventually hubby is going to sand down the table and white wash it to match my chairs. I hope you enjoy looking at my doodads. Nothing is valuable as far as money but valuable to the heart.

bout those LED candles

2010-01-11T06:46:00.000-08:00

Hey darlings .. I woke up this morning thinking about those 3 dollar Led candles. I know they don't look "All That" but what if someone (me?) (you) melted some wax (whatever color) and then let it cool some and lather the outside of the candles. You could do the grungy look if you like the primitive look. You could embed shells or sea glass on the outside or just cream it up if you love that shabby look or white look so it appears like cake frosting. You could also roll the candles in glitter or decoupage it on the outside. What about embedding buttons or beads on the outside? I guess I had a BRain STorm this morning.......I plan to purchase everyone of them as soon as they put the rest out. Hugs to ya...Keep Warm!!

a few random projects

2010-01-10T10:30:00.000-08:00

Hey sweets. The little picture hanger above was purchased at a thrift store for 1.75. My question with this photo frame is "how can someone part with the darling baby photo's enclosed". That being said it's getting a new face lift. The ribbon is going to be replaced and I'm not sure what color ribbon will be used but...it has already received a white paint redo. I'll post the finished project soon. Ya'll just know that I'm going to enclose pictures of my darling grand-daughter. I'm showing it off in my sunroom.

The second item is a cake tray that I'm refurbishing. I've had it for quite some time. Nothing expensive but utterly sweet. It's already gotten it's first coat of white paint. The glass prisms were removed temperarily. I want it to have a shabby look. It's been so cold the paint nearly turns to ice before it can completely dry!! (not really).

Super cheap candles

2010-01-10T10:13:00.000-08:00

Hello my darlings... I'm turning into a human popsickle!! It's been sooooo cold here in my part of Eastern North Carolina. The weather chick promises sunny days ahead however. Hope her predicition proves true. I have men comming in buying ladies black gloves because we have no guy gloves left. Walmart is out too!! I've pushed the gloves and the hats and believe me it's needed. If I had know all of this was going on I would have done a "Blanket Drive" via permission from my DM. I kept thinking of people on limited incomes and those who are homeless and may need blankets.

Maybe next year. The main purpose for popping in today is to share a thrifty purchase. I've been planning a wedding reception dinner for april and I also adore candles .. my store has a new temporary line of these led candles. They come in several limited colors. I guess this is a spring product. I'm not indicating that these are the best flameless candles but for the cost they suit. I've been researching on line and I am amazed at how expensive these run. I purchased as many as I could. Here is the trick with these however. The instructions that come with these do not apply...secondly there is a little switch that you can click that lights the candle but it will not stay on ... you do need batteries...and I think they want you too pull off the little switch thingy in the back. Otherwise there is a lot one can do with these. This is another good buy such as those swet little ceramic tea lite bird holders everyone has been raving about from the Dollar tree. I bought my birdies some time back ... Ha!

Anyway...check this out and let me know what ya'll think.

pittar patter of tiny feet

2009-12-31T08:21:00.000-08:00

Look at these sweet pink shoes! A thrift store that I've not been too in a while had more stuff than I could rummage through in a day!

The slippers are softly lined with fake fur just right for hugging my Nevaeh's tiny little toes to help keep her warm.

The shoes have a European flavor. They appear to be genuine leather. They're a tad big being a size 3 but that's Ok...come spring my little spanish darling should be walking by then. Currently she can stand and balance and takes tentative steps if you hold her hand. Both pair went right into the wash and came out perfect. I paid 1.oo each. What a great deal hugh?

2009-12-30T10:09:00.000-08:00

Hello sweet friends. Did everyone have a lovely Christmas? I have made a promise to myself. I will for the future shop in July. I refuse to delve into the holiday madness that prevails in December ever again. When it comes to shopping for family and friends summer purchases will save time and money.

That being said...I wanted to share a sweet little touch on my table.

Most of the items seen here are from the thrift store and good old Dollar General. Dollar General had a sale on all of their holiday candles so I purchased the sugar cookie scented candles (about 10 packs 6# in each pack) for less than $7.00 bucks). The sweet salt and pepper shakers came from a fantastic thrift store for a $1.00 each. The little glass holders with the off white candles intact were .20 each!! I already possessed the other two glasses for the scented candles from past purchases. Putting it all together made a nice touch don't you think? The table was built by my husband years ago when my boys were little from cast off oak beams. He is planning on re-sanding and staining it white so the grain shows through. Right now it's a soft blond. We had to dig this table top from storage for the large family dinner over Christmas and place it on my wrought iron table frame which is already white. The original table top frame had a glass top but my daughter accidently broke it. It's realy a garden table. I'll post copies of the finished table top and recovered wrought iron chairs later (which are now red). As mentioned in an ealier post I redid everything in my kitchen red but I am now lightening things up a great deal with white and pink...sheeeesh I can't seem to make up my mind.

Dinner is in the ktichen

2009-12-21T07:15:00.000-08:00

Greetings my friends.....this blog is way over due...I check in often but have written little.

Today on my thirft store venture I picked up a 50. New England Meals cookbook. I think it was published in 1966. Many of the recipes brought back memories.

When I was a kid I lived in North Kingstown RI. Eating snow and licking icicles from frozen branches was the norm. After playing outside all day it was wonderful to come home to find a wonderful New England style pot roast in one of those huge black roasting pans. I remember the meat was tied ld together with strings. What a delight to come home with the house smelling of dinner that had been simmering all day in the oven. My mother truly outdid herself on those special days when a Yankee pot roast meal awaited.

The New England cookbook afforded this great recipe .......................................................................

1 tablspoon fat or cooking oil

3-4 pounds pot roast of beef-rump or bottem round

2 teaspoons salt

1/8th teaspoon pepper

Boiling water

4 medium size onions, peeled

8 small carrots, scraped

4 medium size potatoes, pared

3 tablespoons flour

Heat the fat in a Dutch oven or sauce pot. Brown the meat well on all sides. Sprinkle with salt and pepper: pour in about 1 cup water.

Cover and simmer about 21/2 hours or until the meat is almost tender, adding more water as necessary.

Add the onions and cook, covered, 19 minutes. Add the carrots and potatoes: cook 30 to 35 minutes longer or untill the meat and vegetables are tender. Remove them to a heated platter.

Measure the pan juices and add water, if necessary to make 1 1/2 cups liquid. Blend the flour with a little cold water. Stir the flour mixture into the hot liquid. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring constantly,until thickened.

4 servingswith meat for a second meal.

My mother did not possess a dutch oven so she would instead put everything in a huge roasting pan with a lid and let it simmer slowly all day long. Nothing tasted so good.

2009-12-06T18:49:00.000-08:00

Hello sweet friends... My retail job has been time consuming. Gearing up for Christmas and my promotion have kept things more than busy.

Have any of you ventured into a Dollar General lately?

They sell the sweetest pink or purple christmas trees. They also have white. Many of their ornaments are lovely too. I purchased the pink christmas tree for my hallway upstairs. The little lights are already intact. I embellished with pink poke a dotted bulbs from WallMart and a garland of tiny irredescent soft cotten ball like foofoo ornaments. *they came from the dollar general too!

Never underestimate the low end stores....you'd be so surprised what some of these stores can offer on a limited budget especially in the craft department. Just a waver...the enclosed pic is not my little pink tree...I obtained this shot from photo bucket.

Seeing Pink

2009-11-05T17:45:00.000-08:00

Hello my darling darling friends!! My posting is lacking ... this new job of mine has consumed my time..but my heart beats for the love of blogging. I cannot abide another moment of not recording some tid bit of my life. As posted I was in the mood for red and more red. Well I have determined to make changes...can you guess the desired hue!? Yupper ... tis Pink.
The issue is "I have little to no pink with which to play with"!! I purchased a pink dinner set from Tuesday Morning ... and it just saturated my heart into a pink mode!!! What to do dear friends!! what to do? WELL .... I am going to put some touches here and there with great effort towards that cotten candy color and blend in a bit of the shabby, chippy, used and loved stuff and see what happens. My table with the red seats will need to be changed into white/pink pattern...the red curtains are comming down from the kitchen window and in their place a soft creamy white set of sheers from my corner Dollar General Store $5.25 each. I also have the sweetest little purple type lites that I'm going to put inside the sheers for a soft look. I may use white if the purple interferes with the hue I'm striving for. These little lights are meant for Halloween but I purchased about 6 boxs to use in my sheer canopy's that hang over my beds and daybed in the sunroom. I also bought a pair for my grand-daughters first white Christmas tree. They are sooo tiny and delicate looking when you turn them on. I just love them!!
I may need to pack up a few things from my kitchen for another day as I really do have a ton of red going on. I may take some white and wash it over the red on the laundry room cabinets but I'm not sure about that 100%. I'm thinking a watered down white will allow the grain to show and also some of the red creating a tinted pink... maybe? I promise ...with fingers crossed to post pictures on the endeavor good or bad. I have to tell ya'll the red counter tops??? much to my dismay some of the color lifted as did some of the poloyurithine. I am going to buff again and redo and see if I can correct that issue. Dave (my hubby) did sand and enhance my wood floor in my kitchen so at least that is a big improvement. I have a sweet little crystal type ceiling fixture that is replacing the spot where a ceiling fan hung. It's going to get dressed up more with some crystals and irredescent beads. The ceiling fan is getting a new face lift and I am going to try to alter the fan by using tea cups as lite bulb covers. Wish me luck!! I'm going to need it. Love you all!!

Preserving some Fall time and Harvest Theme beauty

2009-10-13T21:20:00.000-07:00

Hello my sweet friends. While at work the other day... I found a great idea using foliage or leaves.

It's a bit late for this idea regarding the beginning of Fall but Thanksgiving is around the corner. This would be wonderful for that endeavor!

Place Fall leaves in water...*I am assuming with stems intact*.

Boil one part liquid glycerine to 2 parts water for 10 minutes... let cool.

Remove brances from water. Remove dead leaves ( leaves that are damaged or shriveled).

Mash stems with a hammer or cut length wise slits in the stems. Stand stems (with the leaves intact) in H20 and Glycerine solution for 2 weeks in a cool dark place. Remove and wipe leaves down.

2009-09-27T04:38:00.000-07:00

Hello my sweet friends. Just wanted to say I am working a new job outside the home. I started this week and it appears that I will consumed this entire week. My heart has been here but my body is tired!! That said...after some time and space and some relief from this blasted sinus infection to boot I'll have some new homespun stuff to share. I can't stay away from blogging too long or I'll get withdraw symtoms. At least now I'll have some extra money for my biggest hobby... repurposing and buying stuff at the thrift store!! Yea!!

Still working in the Red!

2009-09-11T07:35:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the blurry shot! I was trying to point up so you could see the full cabinet area above my washer and dryer. The cabinet appears droopy but I promise it's not!! I decided to remove the doors off these cabinets in preperation of re-doing them. My initial goal was to paint them. After I sanded everything down *that hand held sander is deadly cause lately if it's not moving I'm sanding it!"* and cleaned up the dust I decided to use a stain effect. (to be honest I felt lazy and did not want to use a paint brush) I merely took the paint used from the counter tops and watered it down to a thinner consistancey. Using an old rag I merely buffed the red into the wood allowing the grain to show just as I did on the counter tops. After I buffed, sweated and had red paint all over my body I realized quickly that I liked the effect without the doors!! Once dry I took these red lined baskets and utilized them attractively inside. I forgot about them! Don't they look sweet? I may get more not sure though. Everything else was put back extra neat and now it looks fresh and clean. I still need to paint the walls! Some of the holes that held the hardware were replaced with some white hooks to hold my fly swatter and some car keys. It looks great! What do you think ladies?
The little Jello girl is what I decouapaged on Dakota's red school desk in the kitchen. She is soo cute! The white desk above is also a current project I'm working on. She was 8 bucks at habitat! Of-course a white face lift is what she is getting. I may use this desk for my computer in my sun room when finished. Tooodle loo friends! Have a fantastic day!!

tis raining

2009-09-07T10:48:00.000-07:00

Hello sweet friends! It's been raining ...put a stall on the holiday activities I'm afraid.
No matter...a little break does one good. I painted (or rather touched up) some of my kitchen knobs with black paint yesterday. My cabinets are white and the black on the knobs have worn off on some showing the wood underneath. I'm going to get hubby to remove all of the knobs so they can all get a fresh coat of paint. I still haven't removed the cieling fan (that was one of my projects today but but that wil have to wait for now). I hope all of you enjoyed or rather are still enjoying your long holiday weekend. Be careful and safe.

seeing red

2009-09-05T04:46:00.000-07:00

Good Morning my sweet friends. I hope your holiday weekend is full of laughter, Family and friends!

I have no idea what our our weekend holds as hubby has a Sinus Infection and I think I may be comming down with the same thing. Why is it when he gets sick he realy shows all of the classic signs on a more intense level? He'll be rotten sick for 2 days! then Done! Me? on the otherhand can go for a full week sluggish, peaked,drained and yet mobile and many would never guess I was sick...sheesh it's just not fair! Ok ... I am getting gabby and totally off the subject!!!

I wanted all of you to see the lovely curtains I made on a very cheap budget.

I gathered up a spring rod from another curtain "come down". Went to the Dollar tree and found these cute red cotton dish towels. These proved to be crisp and light .. perfect for my project. I bought #6. Upstairs in my craft room I had this red and white trim just laying around. Some fabric glue and a sewing machine with red thread finished the needed supplies.

I set the spring rod down to determine the width of the hem needed for the top of the cotton towel. I noticed that some of the towels had a bit wider length (factory oops) so I used one of the towels and lined the other five against it to be sure they were all the same length.
Each top hem had the same measure of sewing line even if the actual fold was wider on some of the towels. No matter. Noone will see the back side anyway. Finishing the bottem and sides were not nessecary since they all had pre-exhisting hems. The only time consuming endeaver in my opinion was gluing on the trim. That's right "I used glue" I cheated. I just layed the trim with a little excessive off the sides to fold behind the bottem of the finished towel and globbed on the fabric glue. It dries clear so if you should smudge a bit it does'nt matter. After gathering and bunching the project was complete. Do you think they look Ok? I was amazed at how cheap I pulled this off.

Part 2 of "I still have so much to do"

2009-09-04T00:50:00.000-07:00

Greetings dear friends.... hubby and son are both sick and I've been up for the last 2 nights dealing with that! It's currently 4 in the morning!! So using my time for something worthwhile, here I sit chatting with you!!
I have been working on my grand-daughters school desk. I know it sounds redundant but I'm not finished. I am happy to say the crackle effect turned out nice. I merely used a base coat, let it dry and then slathered on Elmers Glue mixed with water..not too runny..and then let that dry. Using the same red as on the counters I then smoothed that on and as it dried the crackle effect kicked in. I still need to do the seat and touch up the metal components as well.
You can also see the finished slat door. I'm still not sure if I like it completely because I had to fold the envelopes to keep them from slipping through. The knobs are intact for hanging things on as well. I think I will more than likely use this to display the grand-kids art work. I hung it with the same red check material used for the towel hanger on the stove in the previous blog. It looks cute I think. What do you think?
I'm hoping the ceiling fan is coming down today so I can start tackling it. I am very impatient and once I get going I get on a roll and can't seem to stop!!

Yesterday while at the dollar tree looking for more Elmers Glue I came across 6 adorable crisp lite dish towels. I'm going to run a hem across the top to put a spring rod through to mount on my kitchen window. The total cost 6.00 and a little bit of time on the sewing machine. I don't want the kitchen to look so dated but do you remember back in the day those type of cafe curtains with the cute little white ball tassels? I may find something like that later to edge the towels with but for now I will use them as is .. like I said I get impatient. The tile deal is the biggest project yet to be done but I've got to get my grand babies over so I can have them either paint or draw on the tiles and also try to get their hand prints. I know my little Nevaeh's hand will fit the tile but not sure if Lucas and Dakota's hand will fit so they may just have to decorate the tile for me with permanent markers. OK nuff with the gift of Gab. Have a wonderful wonderful day my sweet blog friends!!!!!

I still have sooo much to do!

2009-09-03T11:35:00.001-07:00

Well my sweets ... I have put some of my kitchen stuff back ... but in differant locations. You can barely see the counters! The thing is I'm definitly not finished here because the yellow stripped paper is comming off to be replaced by something else! What .... I know not but I am going to fingure it all out in due time! I promise not leave ya'll in the "RED" pun intended .. but will give you the full view when everything is finished. In the mean-time I'll just let you see some of the remnants here and there as I progress. I am not going to post a compeleted view for you yet because I still have soooooooo much to do. The cabinets knobs (which are black) needs a good touch up as the paint has worn off. The old ceiling fan is comming down so it can be cleaned and given a new fresh coat of paint to match the second hand blades that are still recovering from their make over. The slat is still drying...and I gotta figure out a way once I do set it up how to keep the mail and such from falling from behind the slat. Not sure If I'm going to run some type of hardening type glue to close the openings or if I'm going to glue some type of cheap wood (paint sticks?) to close the gap in the back. My kitchen sink is getting replaced .... I'm looking realy hard for one of those really deep country kitchen sinks like your grand- mother used to have. I keep going to habitat but I may end up having to go out of town somewhere to find a sink that has been abandoned or sent to a second hand type place that sells that sort of stuff.

I'm also repainting my grand-daughters kitchen school desk. It should look like a crackle finish when done if the paint does what it's supposed to. I'm having a lot of fun though and it seems like while I'm in the middle of one thing another idea pops into my head. I hope the inspiration keeps flowing. I hope ya'll don't tire of my rambling on so... I'll post more pictures in a part two of this post... Love and hugs to all of you dear sweet creative souls who have taken the time to visit and especially for those of you who have left sweet comments. Bless you ... you make my day!!!!!!

kitchen face lift on the cheap.

2009-09-02T07:11:00.000-07:00

This is what my kitchen looks like right now!!! Help!! It's going to be a mess for the next couple of days!! Why you ask? I was hoping you would!

I am in a mood!! Oh my God!! don't tell anybody!! OK?

My poor poor hubby never knows what kind of mischeive I'm up too when he's at work and I have nothing but play time on my hands!

I hate my counter tops!! and we've discussed at length some future plans to re-do. My son is an ace cabinet man but he is busy and I have no $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

So with that in mind ...

Out came the sander .... out came the clear poloyurethane (high gloss which is all I had on hand -- on second thoughts I should have used sim-gloss about 8.00 a can). Out came the can of red Krylon Banner Red-gloss. After sanding well and cleaning up the dust

I put two coats of the red and allowed drying time...I'm still in the process of lathering on the polyurethane. I'm doing sections at a time.

It is a bit shiney!! But later should I choose to change it I can always resand and repaint since the bones of the cabinet are good. It is not as nice as brand new counter tops but it is a nice change. I do have lots of red in my kitchen so this should fit well with the decor. I love old timey kitchen gadgets and such so now I can just look for more in Red! I really love how the grain still shows..adds interest.

I plan to smash these into fragments. The broken bits are going into tile adheasive. I'm just not sure if I am going to make a border of it in front of the sink as a sort of water back splash and also add some for a small section behind the stove. I have some whole white tiles for the back of the stove as well. I may download and decouapage some vintage type clipart to some of the tiles as well to coordinate things.

Can you guess what I'm going to do with this?!! Give up?! I'm going to spray paint this faux plastic shutter with white paint ... maybe add a couple of white ceramic knob on the side where the hand used to go to hang a dish cloth on or red apron and then the slats will be used to hold recipe's , cards and what ever else. Ofcourse it will be turned upside down to accomodate this. I am not sure If It will stand free style in my kitchen or if I plan to attach it somewhere in the kitchen. Will have to see. One reason I shyed from an actual wood frame is due to the fact that this faux plastic is very light and very easy to clean. I have dogs so it would not be life-threatening if it should get knocked down. I purchased this for a mere 2.00 at habitat. I just love that place!

These paddles for a fan were about 4.00. I have cleaned them and they are currently drying outside. My goal here is to take the hard-ware off. The blades are getting a new coat of white. The hard ware I think will be red to catch the counter-top colors. My main current ceiling fan body (no blades nore glass bulb covers) will recieve a white treatment too as it is currently offwhite and gold. I realy want to do something special with the blades. My husband is an excellent artist and I may compel him to paint something on the blades to coordinate with my kitchen. If I were doing a nautical thing it would be so easy for him to paint water, boats and seagulls. However I need something more vintatage looking. Any sugestions????

The white tile (purchased for .25 cents a tile and the tubs of adhesive .50 cents for a large tub at habitat) is going behind my stove... I decouapaged a vintage scece from an advertisement and embellished with red glitter polka dots...( it's upstairs drying right now) just for fun to see how it would look. In all honesty I think I should go find some real card stock pre- printed vintage cards and use them instead since the clarity would be superier rather than prints from my printer as it is mid range in performance.

I used this scene but made it small to fit the tile. Not sure as I said if I'm going to put these up or not..but I'm thinking I may. I do want to capture my grand kids hands on some of those tiles too so they can be dated and displayed for as long as my husband and I live in this house. I think that would be such a lovely touch. I may even write a favorite recipe or two on some of these tiles for permanent usage. Would'nt that be fun? What ideas do you have? I'd love some input on this.

Ok nuff gabbing...I've got some painting to do. I will post some after stuff when it's finished I promise!!!!

Dinner for two

2009-08-31T14:53:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how something so simple lends a soft touch at the end of a harried day. Tea-lit candle flickering, glittering star fish and a yellow carnation from my darling grand-daughter hugged by a "last season effort" rose from my yard finishes the sentiment. Nothing fancy ... very thrown together and yet very simplistic. Now if dinner would just finish cooking so we can eat!

Baby quilt blues

2009-08-27T08:09:00.000-07:00

As is usually the case ... if and when I get my hands on some
cash it's usually well spent at the corner thirft store.

One such store was having a 1/2 off everything sale. I managed too scarf a few needful things. One of the purchases was a sweet vintage baby blanket that when washed fell apart! Repairing it would have been a helpless endeavor so I've decided too repurpose it as the stuffing for another baby quilt. Thinking along the lines of recycled and use what you have ... I found some dotted swiss vintage blue material and another sweet patterned nautical cotton. The dotted swiss is a bit sheer so it will require one more lining peice to camoflaughe the original baby blanket so that the motif does not show through. So far I've only manged to sandwich pin the components together. I'll sew the peices together and then finish it off with knoted thread in random pattern like my mother used to do when she made us kids her poor man quilts. I'll post the finished quilt in another blog later as I'm working on several other projects at the same time. I get into those modes where I tackle a few things at a time because I get bored easily or I lose momentum due to the kids or house-work.

summer it tis and white it tis

2009-08-20T13:02:00.000-07:00

Hello my darling friends! Are you having a wonderful day? To say it's hot is an understatement!!
Despite the fact that the kiddies will be starting school soon the weather still hollers "summer it tis!" I have to admit I'm staying inside with the air conditioning! I've been busy with little things however making runs in and out of the house. I purchased about 6 cans of white spray paint and I've been going crazy painting stuff. Remember last week I posted those cute dollar tree faux
cast iron birds? Well here they be in a new coat of white! Are they not darling? and look at those sweet rose napkin holders!! They were silver (they are some type of heavy metal) but now sport a fresh touch of white. My son gave me a couple of dressers. The hardware is actually more appealing and worth more than the actual dressers so ... with that in mind I pulled them off and gave them a fresh coat of paint too. They're going upstairs in one of my bathrooms replacing the dated current knobs I have on my cabinet under the sink.
Can you guess what I'm going to do with the starfish? Yupper....I'm going to glitter them up just like OC Cottage does. My glitter is the cheaper version (not the real German glass) but I'm certain they will be just lovely to look at.
I'm sending out a waiver...my mouse does not right click , copy and paste so I'm not happy with the pictures in their layout above. I prefer my pictures to settle under my text.
I am trying to fix the issue. Anyone have any suggestions? My old mouse did not right click so I assumed it was shot so I went out and bought a new one. It is doing the same thing. I did go into my control panel and clicked on device (that being the mouse) and I could not correct the issue there either. sigh..Oh well don't mean to bore you with my issues. Have a wonderful wonderful week my loves!!

The winner is!!!!!!

2009-08-18T05:17:00.000-07:00

Good morning my friends. I've posted a picture of the winning item. As you can see "pink" is the theme. The basket is hand painted. The handle has been lovingly wrapped with shabby rose material and embedded with roses. The basket contains a lovely assortment of goodies ... a candle embellished with fuufuu and a sweet quote. Home-made bath salts nestled inside an old glass sugar container topped with a body scrubbie. A lovely heart-shaped bar of soap, some pink hand cream, a large wedge of bath fizz and a tiny embroidered cushion are also included. To complete the ensemble a sweet tea cup with matching plate embellished with roses is also lovingly nestled inside.
I filled the tea cup with translucent filler and two pink scented tea lite candles. Lastly a sweet pink book encased in the same scrap ribbon on the handle and some Mary Engelbreit Dimensional stickers.
Oh yea ... before I forget the winner is !!!! Irma's Rose Cottage!! Congrats Irma!! I hope you enjoy your basket!!

a rug

2009-08-14T04:33:00.000-07:00

Greetings my sweet friends! I finished my kitchen rug. It's not pink and frothy but it is definitely "homespun" in attitude. My chocolate
lab will more than likely claim it as his bed .. especially since it sits in front of the air-conditioned vent. No biggie ... it can be tossed in the wash. I used strips of cotton for the rug rather than the combination of plastic and cotton. I used a huge wooden crochet hook purchased in a thrift store while visiting Australia. My next rug will be all "girlie". You know what that means!! pink, white and more pink. Have a wonderful day!! and don't forget to comment on my give away surprise!!

Baby it's hot outside!

2009-08-11T04:41:00.000-07:00

With weather breaking heat ... I gathered up a bunch of clean wine bottles. I love to re purpose filling with bath oils ... cloths softener ... cloths detergent ... lemonade or water. We had a yard-
sale Saturday... and so the night before I filled the clean bottles with water. The col bolt blue bottles were stunning and just looking at them was refreshing enough. I love beauty in the smallest detail. I guess "un-kindred "spirits would shake their heads at my snapping pictures of bottles of water. But I never said I was normal. Hehehe.....

It's time for another give away!

2009-08-09T17:04:00.000-07:00

I am keeping it a secret again! The item to be won that is!
My heart bursts with joy if I can put a smile on someones face.
I'm going to give this some thought and hopefully the winner will
love the chosen token of friendship.
I only ask that you comment on my blog ...
and maybe you'll enjoy a small corner of my world
and we can become friends.

2009-08-04T16:48:00.000-07:00

I have a lot of red going on in my kitchen. I often waver in my mind... Red? White? or Both?...Sometimes I want a "granny style" kitchen with that clutter thing going on. Other times I see all of the lovely pinks and exclusive all whites and think that would be neat too.

If I went into that total pink thing I would have to get rid of a lot of stuff and I'm not sure if I could do that just yet. With $ tight these things would not get replaced easily either.
I'm certain my sense of style has not completely matured. I do have some clue of what to stay away from however
(such as the dated ruffle, cutie cartoon stuff that was popular in the 80's and I hate cute hunting redneck stuff too!! you know the singing bass!? that hangs on the wall in the brown paneled den?) ...
I love love love Shabby, rusty, white, gently used, gently loved, country, thrift store stuff.
The question of the day is .... How have you progressed to the place where your at now with your chosen home decor?
Did you redo or did you get rid of stuff? It seems many of you lovelies have always been confident and made good choices before pink was in or shabby was in. Did it take years to get to the place of being confident in your choices? or did you always have "that inner heart" that led you in the right direction? Do tell! I want to hear all about it!!

My little white basket was brown ..
the plate tier got a fresh coat of white ..
the rest of my red dinner ware ..
the brown basket with the red lining is waiting
to be painted white like her sister basket beneath
her...

the glass jars had silver lids and the holder was black. I painted them mat white. I filled them with the spices and seasonings we enjoy when cooking.
The shell received a touch of white paint too.
The little spoon was already enameled white and the ladle too came white and red when purchased at the thrift store some years ago. I wish I could find more of those cute little red and white bowls ... I think it was part of a gift set from Wal-mart that they display around the holidays.
I love using glass bottles with stoppers for water and other liquids. I have a whole set of the floral red dinner ware. The red cloth napkins are fun too. You can see the white dresser in the background still crying out for knobs!!

2009-08-03T11:44:00.000-07:00

It's no secret I'm broke most of the time now that I take care of my darling grand-daughter Nevaeh Elizabeth. I don't mind ... money can't buy the loveliness and joy she brings to my life.
That said ... When wanting some creative flow I usually find the goods at a thrift store. Should that fail I hit the Dollar Tree. I've always shopped at Low end stores. Now it's the in thing to do.
Being the wonderfully creative souls you lovely dears are ... I'm sure your creative abilities would do wonders with some of this. Don't you just love those f aux iron birds? And look at those lovely pink tags ... and what about those sweet little reader glasses etched with bling? I bet you could come up with something awesome for those shells! right!?
I never rule out cheap ... I think it's part of the creative challenge. I'll post some stuff later on the uses of my dollar tree bargains.

sleeping angel

2009-08-03T07:29:00.000-07:00

2009-07-28T20:50:00.000-07:00

I absolutley love Romance...nuff said!

my shabby efforts

2009-07-27T16:40:00.000-07:00

Hello sweet friends! Exploring some of your beautiful crafts/blogs inspires me so much.
Will I ever aspire to such grand heights in my own crafting playground? Only time will tell I suppose. In the mean-time here's a dose of some projects I'm working on. Enjoy.

summer fun

2009-07-25T11:39:00.000-07:00

I love summer ...
Frolicking at the beach ... the sand squishing in between my toes
Licking sticky sweet off my fingers from a quick melting ice-cream cone
The tantalizing smell of hot dogs on the grill
The sweet scent of fresh cut grass
Salty skin from an ocean bath
chasing the kids as they gleefully splash into the waves
Noxzema slathered on sun-burned skin
The beautiful sound of wave song
Sea gulls swaying in the breeze
Water glistening like dew kissed diamonds
the sun setting against a riot of rainbow hue
All this and more make for a North Carolina summer
My darling grand son Lucas enjoying the water at Radio Island.