Show and Tell

Yellow Roses

My mantle, I mean entertainment center, has been evolving a bit.  I finally got rid of the Christmas tree and brought back the fabric leaves, and I've been looking for something new to go in that blue bowl in the right corner.  The jute pears were a little to big to look good, and I'd like to use the Easter eggs I made last year elsewhere. 

 The bowl originally came home with a bouquet of flowers in it, and I wanted to make something similar, without buying a lot of (or any) supplies.  After scratching the fabric flower idea, I found this tutorial for paper flowers.  I made a couple dozen flowers out of different shades of yellow paper.  I followed the directions exactly, except I added a dab of hot glue to help the flowers keep the size and shape I wanted. They were easy to make, and and I made them all one evening sitting at the desk watching TV on the internet. Yay for me time!

In the spirit of not buying things, I decided to use this ball made from crochet thread and glue that I had left over from a previous project.  It happened to fit perfectly inside my bowl.  If you don't already have one laying around, it would be much easier to go and buy a styrofoam ball or other round object.

I began attaching the flowers with hot glue, starting at the top.

I used scraps left from making the flowers and tucked them in the spaces between flowers, so that the crochet thread wouldn't peak through the gaps.

The scraps also ensured that light wouldn't shine through from one side of the ball to the other.

There were a few gaps around the bottom of the bouquet when I finished.

I cut out some leaves and folded them in half to tuck under the flowers and hide any remaining gaps...

...like so.

I have to say it turned out better than I had hoped.

And the yellow flowers are so light and springy.  Too bad it's currently snowing outside....

I'm sharing this project at:

Be Different Act Normal

The Shabby Nest

Craft Goodies

Craft Envy

It's a Crafty Life

Nifty Trifty Things

Confessions

So this is what my house looks like, more often than not.  Yes, that's instant oatmeal all over the couch, floor, and even my pillow (which is in fact, laying on the floor). 

A certain little two year old can be thanked for the oatmeal and toys scattered about, but I'm afraid only I can take credit for the pillow and blanket on the floor (mind you this picture was taken at 5:00 PM, oops!).

And it wouldn't be so bad if this were the worst of it.  If you could only see the heap of stuff that has collected on top of my out-of-order washing machine, or the thing that was growing inside our toilet bowl. Yick.

Motivation has not been one of my strong points.  And a poor little girl is often heard saying "mommy gid up," and "wake, mommy, wake."

I guess you could say I've been feeling a bit under the weather lately....  If "under the weather"  means so sick and tired that I don't feel like moving, eating, getting dressed, or even waking up.  And if the last three months count as "lately." 

The good news is:

 I've been feeling significantly better lately, crafty even :).   If only the sun would shine, I might even go out and exercise. HA.

My mom and brother came to visit last week and I had a baby shower at my house for an ex roommate, both of which provided a little external motivation to get my house in order. 

AND....

We're very excited to be expecting an addition to the family in September.  Pretty cool action shot of the little swimmer, don't you think?

Other good news is that I've managed to complete a project or two and I might even get around to sharing them!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

We're getting SUPER festive around our house with some homemade Mint Oreos.

Homemade Oreo Cookies


1 chocolate cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 c. vegetable oil


Mix cake mix, eggs, and oil in a bowl until moistened.  Roll into 1 inch balls.  Cook at 350 for 7 minutes.




Cream Cheese Mint Frosting


4 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 c. butter, softened
2 1/2 to 3 c. powdered sugar
1/2 to 1 tsp mint extract
green food coloring


Cream butter and cream cheese.  Add powdered sugar.  Mix until smooth.  Add mint extract to taste. Tint with green food coloring.

Sandwich frosting between two cookies and enjoy!

Little Girl Artwork

 My little lady loves to paint.  "Mom Iana pink" is how she asks. 

This is what happens when I get distracted while she paints. Oops.

I bought a canvas and some paint to match her room and let her go to town.

This masterpiece took several sessions and a bit of glitter help from me.  I really love how it turned out.  We hung it in her room and she loves to point it out to Mom and Dad. Definitely one of our more successful mother-daughter crafty undertakings.

Valentine's Day Craftiness

I've been trying to use some of my cooped-up-in-the-house-all-winter-cause-it's-too-stinkin-cold-to-leave time to spruce things up around this place.  Hence the Valentine's Day clutter, I mean decorations. The good news: they were cheap and easy, my favorite kind of craft.  Everything was made out of stuff already in my house.

I painted this picture frame, cut some burlap to fit inside, and wrote the word "love" with a dry erase marker. The dry erase marker seemed to work better on the burlap than acrylic paint or a sharpie, and it made for a nice clean line.  If I owned a die cut machine, I definitely would have used it to make a cute little stencil, but the dry erase marker was super easy, and the red frame gives the pop of color my wannabe mantle was lacking.

This blue frame has been sitting around in need of a home for quite some time.  Now it gets to live on the front door.

To make the burlap heart, I cut a heart from cereal box.

Then I cut strips of burlap, and wrapped them around the heart, hot gluing the burlap down in the back.

It looked like this when I was done. 

 I tied a ribbon around it and hung it from the nail in the door, behind the picture frame.  I love that I can use my blue-red-brown decorations from Christmas all winter long.

Unresolutions

The Holidays we're good to us.  We went to my parent's house for Christmas, and had a lot of fun.  We went skiing on Christmas Eve, and even the Little Girl got to join in on the fun!

Unfortunately, the holidays were not as kind to our house. And by holidays, we're talking from Halloween on.  I did some serious slacking in the housekeeping department.  We came home from Christmas to find bills in the mailbox, dirty laundry, and a new rodent friend living in the girl's bottom drawer. Yuck. 

And so the past few weeks have been spent deep cleaning and ridding our apartment of pests. 

I've neglected to set any New Years Resolutions.  There are all sorts of possibilities.

Like everyone else, I need to exercise more, and eat less(actually just eat better).  Mostly because sitting around eating crap makes me grouchy. And achey.  And because I know better.  I majored in exercise for Pete's sake.  But it's frigid outside, and there isn't enough room in our apartment to achieve any sort of aerobic activity, and I really like treats.  So the being healthy resolution may have to wait until March. Or April....

I often plan to read more in the coming year.  I think I've accomplished that one already. I also remembered why I don't read more. I've read 3.5 of the four Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books(VERY intellectual stuff we're talking about here).  Numbers two and three were finished in two days flat. I didn't get dressed, or do any significant amount of housework, and my family watched TV all day.  And that my friends, is why I don't read.  I can't seem to pull myself away once I start a book.  So much for that resolution. I read half of number four last night, and luckily I forgot about it this morning. So I've been able to do a bit of housework.

Which leads me to my last unresolution. I have got to get organized and keep my house clean.  Hopefully I'll be a little more driven in this area. 

I like to make lists, because it's the only way I can remember everything, and because it feels good to cross things off.  I know that the whole "turn a picture frame into a dry erase board" thing is nothing new, but I put a To Do list behind the glass that I can use to stay a little more organized.

 I used this picture frame that once served as a bow holder and removed the ribbon and paper.

Then I printed of this list which I made to specifically fit inside the frame.  I listed the things that need to be done daily, like making beds and doing dishes, as well as the things that need to be done once a week or so.  I also left blank spaces for monthly obligations, groceries, etc. I printed the list, cut it to fit the frame, and slid it in behind the glass. I bought dry erase markers from Dollar Tree.  They're smaller than most dry erase markers and have a chisel tip, so I can write small enough to fit in my list.

This picture shows the irony of my organized little list sitting on my super messy dresser.  Cleaning off my dresser is on the list, I just haven't done it yet :)