Holiday Lampscaping

This past spring my husband and I started to redecorate our livingroom.  I really wanted some glass lamps that you could fill with sand/shells/sea glass, etc.  I was not willing to pay the price of some of the ones I had looked at.  One night we were in the mall at Crate & Barrel (the store I refused to pay $250 for one lamp) and I remembered JC Penny has a lighting department.  So we ventured over there.  I found a glass cylinder style lamp and they were on clearance for $32 a piece.  I told my husband that I know I will find what I was looking for and that is not quiet what I was looking for.  Well I never did find what I was looking for. 

So a day or two later, I went back to JC Penny and bought the lamps they had.  I actually really like them now but they still need "something" to dress them up.  The shade is a plain white drum shade.   Very plain for my taste.  One day I was watching the Nate Berkus Show and they were dressing up lamp shades.  I knew exactly what I was going to do.  I bought some black velvet ribbon and glued it around the shade at the top and bottom.  I look at it this way, the shade now has mascara on.  lol

Now that it is the holidays I wanted to take the base one step further.  I wanted to put something in it but didn't want to do the whole thing full of ornaments.  After a while I realize what I wanted to do. 

Here is the finish "project."

The bottom of the lamp base needed to be plugged.  So I cut two pieces of foamcore to block anything getting out.  After the foamcore was in place I filled the bottom with a couple inches of Kosher Salt.  Yes, salt.  I searched everywhere for something different and couldn't find anything.  Good thing a box of Kosher salt is really cheap.  Anyway, I went outside to my pine trees for a couple of clippings.  The ornaments are new from Target.  The first lamp has a Christmas card in it from my parents.  The bottom one is the picture of my family that will be mailed with our holiday cards. 

I am really happy with the way the lamp bases came out.

Winter White Flower arrangement

One of my favorite hobbies is floral arranging.  I am in the midst of planning our annual New Year's Eve party and I always have fresh flowers for the tables. This year I am thinking of going all white flowers with a hint of color (not yet decided on). 

While grocery shopping last weekend I passed the flowers to take a look.  I found a bouquet of all white mums.  Then I found another bouquet with mostly white flowers and a few colored mums.  I decided those would do. 

After sorting out the colored flowers, the greens and rest of the flowers this is what I came up with. The lilies are still so fragrant.

 

Table Top Ironboard

I am still perusing the internet for some craftroom/sewing room ideas.  I came across Pleasant-Home's site showing her studio.  I saw her tabletop ironboard and realized that was exactly what I wanted for my peninsula.  I am realizing while I am working at the peninsula I have little room if the full size ironboard is behind but infront of my counter area. 

I thought it looked easy enough to make.  I remembered we had a couple pieces of MDF leftover from my shelves, so I decided to use one of those.  I gathered up some batting, fabric, MDF and off to the garage I went.  (My neighbors must think I am weird using the air compressor at 6:45am). 

I started by placing the batting down on a work surface and then laying the MDF ontop.  I pulled the batting tight and stapled to the backside of the MDF.  Then I flattened the fabric on the work surface and placed the MDF ontop.  I pulled the fabric taut and stapled in place.  Simple and easy to do. 

Here is my tabletop ironboard:

Terrace Veranda Easy Brick Quilt

I decided I wanted to do a larger quilt.  Nothing fancy since I'm not up to that level yet.  Give me straight seams and cutting any day!  Enters the Easy Brick quilt pattern from Moda Bake Shop. 

One day I spent  cutting the fabric out, sewed the white square to a print and then layed it out for the overall pattern. 

The next day I spent 2 hours sewing all the blocks together to make the cover.  I am so excited how it looks to this point. 

I have bought some contrasting fabric for the backing and will be working on that later today.

Thanksgiving runner

In the past couple of years I have had my Mother-In-Law, Sister-in-Law and her kids over for Thanksgiving dinner.  Afterwards the rest of my husband's family will come over for desserts.  So I decided to make a nice Fall themed table runner.  Why do I wait till the week or two before a holiday to sew something? Is it me or do others find themselves in the same boat???

Anyway,  I found some fall material at Joann Fabric and got to work on it.  I wanted to try something that looks somewhat easy to make.  It was pretty easy to make until I got to the part of quilting it.  Instead of an all over quilt pattern, decided I only wanted to do an edging.  I bought a template for some swirls, traced it out and got to work on it.  Oh boy, I better stick with sewing straight lines. 

You can see for yourself. 

I tried to quilt an Acorn on the larger squares. 

Craftroom addition

In the past I have shown pictures of my craftroom makeover.  Well I have made another change to it. 

Lately, I have been sewing more than usual.  I generally cut my fabric out on the dining room table or the hard wood floors annd we all know the hazards (sore back/knees) of doing this.  I knew there had to be a better way of cutting.  One day I found myself sitting down here in the craftroom day dreaming of changes.  So off I went to search the internet for some creativity.  I was impressed by all the sewing rooms I found.  Wow some are just unbelievable. 

After looking for a while, I knew what I wanted to do.  You see I have an 9 square cubbie shelving system and I wanted to make a peninsula out of it.  My idea was to pull it away from the wall 4 feet.  So my cutting area would be 4x3.  I talked my husband into this idea and off to Home Depot we went.  We bought a full sheet of MDF and had the store employee cut it down.  Not only did I get the 4x3 countertop, I also have two large shelves below. 

One day while my husband was at worked I took the organizer shelf out to the garage, sanded it and painted it white.  Next was the countertop's turn for a coat of black paint.  Yes, I have to make sure my countertops match the other one in the room. 

I am very happy with the way my peninsula came out.  It is the perfect height for cutting without breaking my back. 

By the way, I had talked my husband into making a flip up iron board on the other side. 
  

The King and Queen are Reunited

A while ago I posted a photo of a Bergere chair I had reupholstered for my livingroom.  I knew I wanted another but could not find one anywhere.  After giving up hope, I was looking around Craigslist and found an ad for two chairs.  One of them is a Bergere style but smaller than the one I had.  I sent an email to the listing sellar and picked it up the next morning.  In the picture below the one of the left is the one I really wanted but got both chairs for $40.00.  Both are in great shape.

 

The chair project got put on hold due to the fact it was summer and awfully hot in the garage.  Then my husband and I repainted the livingroom.  Once the livingroom was repainted I knew it was time to get working on the chair.  I can honestly say I do not like caning on a chair or at all.  I spent many many hours ripping out the caning on the backrest.  When the spackle to fill in where the caning was, I worked on stripping/sanding and repainting the chair.  I am so glad I over ordered the fabric since I had to rip the seat cover off twice.  Do you know how hard it is to remove upholstery staples???  When I got the seat cover under control I stapled all of the double welt on the chair.  Now it was off to the sewing machine.  I had ripped apart the original seat cushion to use as my pattern.  I have found every sewing project I do I always end up ripping it apart.  I realized when I was half way done with makine the slipcover for the down cushion, I sewed the zipper on the front side not the backside.  Let's just say me and my seam ripper were good friends.  lol

Well enough of my ramblings, here is the find chair with the king sized match. 

My husband thinks the cushion on the "queen" looks funny but I keep telling him it is because of the feathers in the cushion.  I also make a back cushion for the "king, which you can not tell by the photo.  The red throw pillow were store bought.

Off to the next reupholstery project (the pinkish chair in the first photo).

Quilted Baskets

We recently went to some friends house for their annual Apple Cider Pressing event.  I knew what I was going to make the week before but I thought I didn't have "anything" to carry the treats in.  So naturally I had to make something. 

My friend Melissa had sent me a link to some cute fabric bins by Cutting Corners. How cute are these. I wanted my baskets longer lengthwise and shorter heightwise. So I sat down on my floor and started to cut out my own pattern. My measurements were 11.5 x 9.5 x 5.5 (including 1/4 seams).

P.S. I did not take the apples and squash as they are shown.  I made some apple oatmeal cookies, pumpkin muffins and curried squash soup. 

Frankie Test Tube treat

I am always looking for new things to make for the holidays.  I find looking around SplitcoastStampers.com is a great resourse ideas. 

One weekend I was getting together with my sister-in-law to make holiday cards/creations.  I ran out to the Dollar store for some odds and ends.  While waiting on the checkout line I noticed these test tubes with a cheapy digital watch in it.  I knew exactly was we were going to make with these babies. 

Once home I jumped onto the internet to find some directions for a test tube holder.  I found this one by Lisa Somerville.  It looked simple and easy to make.  Here is my Frankie Test Tube treat holder. 

Isn't he the cutest Frankenstein you have ever seen??? lol.  Have a great day! 

Randy's Quilt

I have a nephew named Randy who loves the Disney movie Cars.  I was in Walmart months ago and found a prepackaged Disney Cars fabric, which I bought.  (the best part it was on clearance).  I thought of Randy right away.  For a while I kept thinking what could I make out of the fabric.  I was totally clueless.  I had asked my sister if he would like a small quilt for the bottom of his bed.  She said, "yes, since he is always chilly."  (how can someone who lives in FL be cold).   Later, I found out Randy was going to have surgery on Sept. 26.  So I knew I needed to get moving on whatever it was I needed to make. 

A couple weeks before his surgery I was in Walmart looking at the books and magazines.  I came across McCall's Quick Quilts (October/November 2011) and knew this was the one I wanted to make. 

I did not make the quilt as large as in the magazine but it came out alot bigger than I had in mind. When I finished it I packaged it up and mailed it out to Randy. He received it two days before his surgery (it was on a Monday). My sister said the look on his face was priceless. He loved it and had it for when he woke up in recovery.

 What a precious face.

Ipad Cover

This year my husband bought me an Ipad for my birthday.  It came with a nice leather cover, but the girlie girl in me wanted something pretty.  At this time I was following the Travel Handmade challenges and saw one of their challenges was for an Electronics/Laptop bag.  Since I already made my black/yellow/grey tote bag, I decided to make a matching Ipad cover. 

I came across an easy to make Ipad cover by Dixie Mango. 

There are so many free Ipad/Laptop cover ideas.  These are the ones I found:

TipNut

Living My Life On Purpose

Film and Thread

The Cottage Home

Crap I've Made (this name makes me giggle)

I hope you find one you like.  I would love to see what you make. 

Thank you for stopping by and have a great day!

Travel Handmade

My best friend Melissa, sent me a link to Travel Handmade.  It looks like a fun "challenge" to make anything travel related, ie duffle bag, cosmetic case, laptop case and so forth.  I thought it would be fun to try a few of the ideas. 

As I type this it appears they are doing some maintenance to the site. 

Just a quick run down of the projects:
Day 1 - duffel bags
Day 2 - carry on bag
Day 3 - cosmetic bag
Day 4 - electronic bag/case
Day 5 - travel purse
Day 6 - refashioned bag
Day 7 - tote bag
Day 8 - travel sewing bag
Day 9 - travel accessories

I made several of these items.  One item was thrown on the floor and never been picked up since.  Yes, it was that much of a pain to make. 

My first item is my coffee cozy.  You know when you go to the coffee shop and they give you those paper cups that are hot to the touch, well now I don't need to worry about burning my hand. 

My second item is my small boxy cosmetic bag.  If you all know me I love black/white and any other color combo.  This bag is perfect in size.  It will hold the basic supplies.

My third project is my Yellow and Black tote bag.  I've had this fabric for a couple of years now and just recently found some fabric that would complement it.  On the front of the bag there are three pockets, which I have never accomplished.  The inside is lined with a yellow print fabric.



My fourth project is my Red/Black/White Hobo bag.  Super simple to make once you understand the pattern/directions, until the above bag.  Let's just say I will never use that pattern again...  Again, back to the Hobo bag.  It is lined with plain red fabric.  I did not put a zipper on the inside since I really don't use them on any of my purses/bags.  Plus, I have my cosmetic bag to carry in. 

I am working on two more of the days and will post when they are finished. 

Thanks for looking.

Catching up

Since my last post of my Bergere chair I haven't really been crafty.  A few things here and there.  So I am going to post everything in this entry.

We went on a much needed vacation.  My husband's nephew got married in Key West this past May.  Ahhh....  what a place to be..  My sister-in-law Kathy asked me to help her with some welcome bags for the guests that made the trip.  I helped with the bookmark bottle wrapper.  The digi image is from Wax Fruit Co..  I added the wording through Adobe Photoshop and then had fun coloring the image.  The final bookmark read Kimberley and  Aaron with the date.  I don't know why I didn't take a picture of the finished project, but you get the idea.

I am working on my second Bergere chair.  I found this chair and another style chair on Craigs List for $40 for the pair.  I am almost done sanding it and then I can paint it. 

My sister-in-law Kathy asked us if we would like to go up to the mountains one weekend and stay over at her sister-in-law's house.  What a great weekend we all had.  There were eight in total.  We hiked, napped and ate some yummy food.  I had brought a small bottle of homemade Limoncello with us to leave as a thank you gift.  I decided I wanted to hang my thank you card so I created bottle hangar.  I used my Cricut machine to cut a door hangar out of yellow paper.  I printed up my lemon digi image from Wax Fruit Co. and colored. 

Here a card using the same image.

We had our annual barbeque at the beginning of August.  I made several potholder invitations.  I'm so glad I only had to make 10 of them for the people who do not have facebook.  I got my idea from a member on Splitcoast Stampers, whom I can not remember their name.  Once I figure it out I will edit this post.  For the red/white paper I basket wove the strips of paper together, which was time consuming. 

My last set of pictures are of my homemade Tiki torches using recycled wine bottles. 

That is it for "catch up."  Now onto the next project...

Black and White Bergere Chair

My last project was reupholstering a Bergere Chair.  I guess I have been watching too many Nate Berkus shows.  He always talks about thrift store shopping.  I always thought shopping at a thrift store meant welfare.  Sorry if I have offended anyone.  But, watching the Nate Berkus Show I see there is more than clothes in these stores

One day I was all set to go to a local Salvation Army to look for a chair.  I went in with the notion I wouldn't find anything.  I walked past all the clothes and found myself in the furniture areas.  As I looked straight ahead what do I see.  Yes, the exact type of chair I was looking for.  Here she is before the "facelift".

After several hours over the course of 2-3 days, I think I took out hundreds of staples.  Not easy on the hands.  I sanded the chair down several times.  Then I primed the chair with two coats of primer.

Then came the black satin paint.  I loved it as soon I put the first coat on.

After the chair was dried I applied two coats of poly on it.  Let me say this is a project I honestly thought what the hell was I doing.  I had never sewn double-welt cording before.  I remember sitting in the living room with the fabric rolled out thinking how in the world amy I going to make the pattern flow once the chair is completed.  Oiy, my head was spinning.  Then on night it came to me.  I knew how I was going to do it.  I got up the next morning, rolled the fabric back out and got to cutting.  I stared with the pieces that I had to staple down.  How much could I screw that up, I thought.  I bought new foam for the cushions, layed that down and stared stapling.  Once I had the first piece stapled I knew I liked it.  My confidence went from "what the hell was I doing" to "yes, I can do this."  I managed to figure out the double-welts and the piping.  With all that hard work behind me I can honestly say I loved how my chair came out.  I am currently looking for another one.

My modern Black & White Bergere Chair.

Quilting???

The last time I ever tried quilting it was awful.  I am not a quilter, although I do sew my own window valances, bags and a few costumes in the past. 

As I was talking to my best friend Melissa, she mentioned she was getting back into quilting.  She had signed up for some quilt-alongs.  I thought that sounded like fun.  Even thought I didn't sign up for any quilt-alongs I wanted to try something "easy".  I found several free block patterns online and decided on the Disappearing Nine Patch. 

Another thing I wanted to do was use up some of my fabric I had stored away.  The colors I had the most of were black, white and turquoise.  One thing I found not easy was cutting the fabric the traditional quilters way, using the rotary cutter and ruler.  I went with the non-traditional way and made a pattern to reuse.  Hey, that is the way I feel most comfortable doing it. 

The following is a picture of my 9 squares sewn together.  Then you cut then in half horizontally and vertically. 

Next, you take the four squares and turn them until get a pattern you like. Then sew those squares together.

This is my quilt about two-thirds of the way done.

Anyway, this is my quilt (well wall hanging). I will post a picture later.

New Project - Non cardmaking or scrapbooking involved

Lately, I have been trying to stay active and not sitting for too long.  My knees are still a work in progress. I find if I am sitting at the computer or at the desk to craft for too long, my knees tend to get sore.

My husband and I had built a wall shelf for the area above my computer desk.  I decided I needed another one.  This time I cut the wood out, sanded and painted it.  He helped me put it together and up on the wall.  This smaller shelf holds my Cricut Cartridges.  (who knew I had so many). lol  I really like the way it came out.

Happy Valentines Day Honey!!!

For this past Valentines Day, I wanted to give my husband a different kind of card.  You know, the non-typical type you wouldn't find at the store. 

One day I sat down at the computer and logged into my trusty, go-to craft website - aka Splitcoast Stampers.  I found a thread where someone was looking for sexiest valentine images.  BINGO, I thought.  One of the ladies had suggested Kenny K. Downloads.  I knew I had to order a couple of those images.   I decided to use Allure Von D on my card.

Here is my "sexy valentine card for my darling husband.

No Mojo

It seems like it has been forever since I my last card/scrapbook/project. 

My husband bought me a Cricut Expression in Teal for Christmas.  So I had been playing around with the Expression and my Design Studio.  I have been to several Creating Keepsakes Conventions over the past years.  One of the booths in the Vendor Faire had laser cut pages.  They are wonderful pages but I didn't was to pay the $5 per page.  So I looked around the internet and found Scrappin' My Stress Away Blog.  She made exactly what I had been looking for.  After several hours over the course of a few days and a bunch of cheap paper I finally made something I liked and could use.

This is a double page spread I made for a trip to the beach.  All I have to do is take the pictures, add them to the page and do some journaling.

CC296 - Turquoise Birthday Wish

Since I am trying to get crafty today, I decided to go back through some of the challenges on Splitcoast to get some creative juices flowing. 

I looked through the Color Combo challenges and found CC296 - Poppy Turquoise & White.  I really love this color combo.  I poked around some other sites to get some ideas and came up with a birthday card for my younger sister.

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Winobella (Stamping Bella) and Small Script (Stampin Up)

Paper: White, Red, Black, Turquoise & patterned paper by Martha Stewart

Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)

Accessories: Copic Markers, Pearl accents, Stampin Up border punch and Stampin Up Ticket Punch

January 2011 SFYTT

Happy New Year to everyone!  I am new to I {heart} 2 stamp.  I came across the  website through my sister-in-laws facebook wall.  I took a peak at the I {heart} 2 stamp website and really liked what I saw.  The sketches look great! 

I have decided to try out the monthly sketch challenge for January.  Making this card gave me the chance to look through all my crafting paraphernalia.  You wouldn't believe how many times I said, "oh I forgot about that" or "oh how pretty is that paper." 

Card recipe:

Stamp: Daisyboardabella by Stamping Bella
Paper: White, Black and Spring Your Wings(3 Bugs In a Rug)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento), Copic Markers and Grey watercolor pencil
Accessories: Snowflakes embossing folder (Cuttlebug), white felt, snowflake chipboard, white paint and glitter

Another year gone by

Wow what a year we have had.  Back in January 2010 my husband's family lost one of their brothers.  That was quite the shock.  Well the year didn't get any better after that.  In August another brother, Denny passed away to a Subarachnoid hemorrhage.  This was too much to take in.  We had just spend a long Fourth of July weekend with him at Ted's house.  So needless to say, I am hoping that 2011 will be kinder than 2010.

As for the rest of the year it was pretty much on the low key side of things. 

I neglected my crafts for the most part.  I feel like I lost all my crafting mojo.  Hopefully I can find some of it this year..

I hope everyone had a great New Year's Eve and have a safe and healthy New Year!!!