Quick and Easy Decorative Tray

Yesterday I shared with you a pair of decorative trays that my son's class did for the school's Annual Art Auction. I'd been planning and working on this project off and on since December, so it's no wonder I felt inspired to try some other creative ways to make decorative trays. This past weekend, I finally had all the pieces to put together a tray I'd been excited about, not only because of the creation, but because I'd found most of the pieces on sale.

I started with an 11x14-in picture frame (regularly $39.99, on clearance for $10!). Then I was looking for some clear blue glass pieces to put in the center. The ones I'd been looking at in the floral section we $14.99, then I found these blue "rocks" in the section with mosaic tiles at Michael's for $4.99, plus I had a 40% off coupon! The E-6000 glue is about $3, but I'd had some that I'd gotten to fix some broken things in the house (a must-have for life with a rowdy boy!).

I decided to do the project while watching TV Saturday night, because Prince Charming and Lil Monkey were having a boys night curled up in bed early watching The Boxtrolls in the Master bedroom. Many they sure know how to party!

I set up two of Lil Monkey's kids chairs facing each other to create a table and got started.

The first thing I did was to lay the picture frame face up and poured the blue rocks onto a plate so I could sort through them. My thought was that since they had large pieces and small pieces I wanted them to be somewhat event distributed through the tray even though they would be "randomly" placed. Once I was able to see all the pieces I was working with, I started to layout this "puzzle without instructions" so that I could see how everything would fit.

I wanted to lay out the pieces first without gluing them because it would help me get an overall image without making it permanent. It was a good move, because I ended up moving some pieces to replace larger with smaller and smaller with larger. Then, piece by piece I glued down each piece directly to the glass in the frame. During this method a few of the pieces were moved or shifted, but at least they stayed in the general area where I'd placed them. I also used tweezers to place small pieces with glue into any "holes". 

It took about 3 hours in total to do the project, with a few interruptions from Lil Monkey. (Daddy fell asleep and the movie ended, so he came to claim a few rocks for his collection.)

I let it dry over night. The next day, I carefully tilted the tray over to see if any of the rocks had been missed when gluing or if they glue didn't adhere in some place. Not a problem. The only piece that fell was a loose "extra" blue rock on the top of the tray that I didn't put back in the bag.

Until our next cup of tea ...

An Accidental "Sweetheart" Project

Houston we've had a problem here ... Well, yes, but maybe it can be a good thing. Well, I'm sure that's not how the conversations went with the crew of Apollo 13 when they reported a technical problem back to their Houston base, but as a Houstonian, let's just go with it for the sake of the post. (A little histocial fact, they are often misquoted as saying "Houston, we have a problem" because of the Apollo 13 movie.)

Anyway, back to the post ... Last night I was working on some wreaths with a friend, Erin (more on that later.) After hubby came home and we have dinner, he offered to do dishes so I headed to the sewing room for a little relaxation and stress-relief after a hard day at work (production time at the magazine.)

After working on some pink wreaths, I was ready to get a jumpstart on some Valentine's Day projects, so I pulled out my trusty bin of Quiltsmart interfacing panels and dug around looking for some Sweetheart ZigZapps! I found a panel and a half as well as some pink fabric and a project was born within minutes.

I tuned into Netflix on my iPad (I'm currently binge-watching Heroes), while I pinned and sewed the fabric heart. It must have been a cliffhanger kind of moment because I had it all sewn and cut out before realizing I'd pinned it to the wrong side of the fabric. Oh, no!! Considering that usually I do a good amount of fusible applique, I'm surprised this is the first time I've done that.

I sat there looking at this perfectly cute heart, flipping it over back and forth (like that would fix it), bummed that turning the interfacing would leave it inside out and the back on this fabric didn't have anything showing through on the other side. 

I was thought, "If I leave it like this, it will be raw-edge ... what can I do with that?" The back didn't have a slit yet in the back since I was just going to cut the smaller heart off to reuse, so I thought maybe I could put it on an craft apron as a spoon pocket and only sew up the sides, leaving the top and bottom open for a pair of scissors. Then I thought, I could just sew up the "V" portion and put it as a little pocket on a back. While I liked both of those ideas, it required me starting a larger project and I had to put The Lil Monkey to bed in an hour. I needed something fast ... LIGHT BULB! A banner!!

I dug around and found my Quiltsmart banner panels and grabbed one with some white fabric and within minutes, I had made this adorable banner. Today, I have to run errands and added to my list to get some fabric for letters. I'll lad the work LOVE in between the hearts and add a ribbon across the top. I'll post a finished photo when I post the orginal project I had set out to make.

All in all the lesson here is, you never know where your mistakes will take you. If you just roll with the punches, sometimes falling down gives you a better view! 

Until our next cup of tea ... 

A Friend's Request

Military life comes with a certain degree of separation and a large portion of goodbyes. As a military family you learn to treasure friends when you find them because in a short time you're introductions turn to farewells. If you're lucky you'll stay in touch via social media and if you hit the lottery you may be stationed at the same location again with a good timeframe of overlapping between another move.

Sometimes you have the rare treasure of having a military friend who has family in the same location as you and the friendship can grow into one that will last weel into your golden years. George and I are that lucky. 

He and his friend, Michael, grew up in the same neighborhood and after highschool Mike headed to the Navy and George headed to college where he joined the Army. Eventually wives and children joined the mix and "coming home to visit" gave us more "family" to visit. Now that we are living back in the old neighborhood we've become part of the family their coordinate into those busy trips home.

Erin and I have a friendship that was born because of our husbands' history and grew fast because of the shared understanding of military life. It's hard to explain to those who don't live the daily life of a military family, but there are small daily things that you don't get if you don't live it. Today for example we talked about how even when you are unpacking from a new move you are taking notes on what to do differently when packing the next time, and how even putting away holiday decorations is extreme because you don't know if you will recieve orders to move before you open them again, so you have to pack with that knowledge.

That's not to say that we can't find comfort and support from those family and friends who are not military, but it's sort of an unspoken understanding.

During this visit, we've had a bit of time to get together with what has come to be known as "The Four Families", a group that includes two other friends from George's childhood in this neighborhood. With Mike and Erin staying down the street, we've also had some one-on-one time to visit and relax. Today was one of those days.

The Lil Monkey spent the day with my parents and I called Erin to see if she wanted to come over to sew. When their oldest was younger he recieved a lot of handmade gifts from family members, such as blankets, quilts, afghans, etc. In the 10 years between their oldest and youngest, many of those family members have passed away and Erin was sad that their second child wouldn't have some of the same heirlooms later. I offered to make a quilt and other little things earlier this year and she was excited but also expressed how she'd love to learn to sew as well. 

We were finally able to have a good amount of child-free time for both of us today, so she came over to help layout the quilt (I wanted her to have as much participation as possible) and to learn the sewing basics. After getting her comfortable with my sewing machine and showing her to basics, I pulled out the easiest projects to learn to sew on ... Quiltsmart ZigZapps and Wine Shades. She felt comfortable starting with the Wine Shades because of the straight lines. 

I sorted through my recently consolidated fabric stash pulled out some pink polka dot fabric that matched the quilt we'd been working on for her daughter's soon-to-be big girl room. She was a little hesitant at first, but when I explained that the wine shades were very forgiving as far as staying on the sitching lines and such, she started to feel a little more confident. 

She slowly stitched along, talking herself through the steps and buttons, while I organized my box of ZigZapps looking for some more Wine Shades. I'd recently given my roll of panels to my Mom who was short for a class she was teaching and was now regretting not keeping some. I soon got lucky, finding a few pre-cut wine shades interfacing panels as her confidence grew and she began chatting about making set for each holiday. I dug around in my fabric a little more and found fabric for her to use to make wine shades for 4th of July/Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving/Fall, and Halloween.  

A few hours after starting she had a stack of completed wine shades, the remaining panels I could find and a list of fabric to get at the store this week. I'm not sure of I should be proud like a Mama Bird whose chick learned to fly, or if I should worry that I have created a tornado that cannot be contained! But I guess I'll worry about that later because now I have to show her the ZiggZapp flowers, leaves and petals, stars and more!!!

It was truly an amazing day to be able to take a break from the realities of military life and the looming seperation and just get creative. Quiltsmart made it easy to get have fun while learning, and who knows what crafty craziness we try next!!

Until our next cup of tea ...

Spook-tacular Halloween Wreath

Last year I made a burlap Fall wreath for our front door. It was really fun and turned out better than I had expected. It was the first wreath I'd made using the wire wreath form.

I was excited to make another one this year, but decided Halloween-themed would be the task for this year. While I at the Dollar Tree recently, I found a small wire wreath form and a variety of Halloween ribbons. Once home, it took me a week or so to figure out what I wanted to do with them.  

I wanted to create a braided look, so the first thing I decided to do was wrap the wire with some black fabric that I had in my craft room. This created two rows with a center row.

Next, I began to wrap each section with the ribbons. It took about 2 of the solid orange ribbon and 4 of the diamond patterned ribbon. The solid orange was easier to just alternate the wrapping to create the braid, whereas the diamond patterned ribbon had to be hot glued to the back at the every weave in the back so I could flip it to keep the front of the ribbon facing outward.

Once finished, I added this cute sign to it that I found at Tuesday Morning. I had to fluff the ribbons a bit and readjust a little after I took the photos, but it only took me a few hours to do even with the various interruptions from my 4-year-old (life has a variety of everyday crisis at that age.)

It was quite a budget-friendly project.

Wreath frame, $1

6 spools of ribbon, $6

Fabric, less than 1/2 yard, approx. $4

Sign, $4

Total Cost: About $15

I'm definitely going to try this project again. I'm already looking for Christmas ribbon!!

Until our next cup of tea ...

 

 

Idiocracy

Have you ever seen that movie Idiocracy, where Luke Wilson plays Private Joe Bauers, the definition of "average American", who is selected by the Pentagon to be the guinea pig for a top-secret hibernation program. Forgotten, he awakes 500 years in the future and discovers a society so incredibly dumbed-down that he's easily the most intelligent person alive?

I swear sometimes I feel like I am living that in real-life. Take for example my little "quick" trip to Michaels last night for some last minute supplies for a project I am working on.

I told hubbyt I'd be quick. It's about 3 miles from the house, I planned run in grab some embroidery floos and a few sheets of scrapbook paper, maybe look at Halloween stuff on sale and be back in time to put the cooling leftovers from dinner in the fridge. Ha! Who was I kidding. By the time I made it back home, hubby had not only put the food away but cleaned the whole kitchen!

So here's what happened:

I ran into Michaels as planned. I grabbed some scrapbook paper for a flip book I am making for Jamie with his swim pictures. The got distracted by the Fall and Halloween decor (like I knew I would). There was a cute project sheet for decorating a charger for Fall so I grabbed a sheet and then remembered I wanted to grab a charger for some cinnamon pillar candles I'd been toting around for 3 years. I then wandered over to the table docor shelf and picked up a beautiful wrought iron pumpkin candle holder that was on sale for 50% off! On the next shelf was the Halloween stuff and I wanted to see what was on sale because it's hubby's favorite holiday and I wanted to decorate with stuff he'd like too. I saw these adorable black iron spider table top candleholders that were on sale for 30% off. Ah, I love sales ... Anyway, I did quick math in my head, realised I have enough cash to get it with the stuff I needed as well. So I quickly ran over to the needlepoint section, grabbed the floss that I needed and headed to the register.

Maybe it was just all falling into place too well and something had to go wrong, but when I got to my turn in line and the cashier started to ring things up, I noticed that the spider candleholder was at full price. "I'm sorry," I said, "but the spider was on sale."

No, it's ringing up full price," she said.

"I'm sure there was a sign next to it saying it was 30% or 50% off," I said, which was met with a look of boredom from the cashier. The shae radioed the manager, "There's a customer who says a candleholder is on sale but its ringing up as regualr price," she said with the most boredom I've heard in a long time. She waited a minute then said, "He said if it was on sale it'd ring up that price."

"Do you mind go look while you finish scanning," I asked, trying again.

"I guess," she said.

I ran over and sure enough there was the sign, "30% Off Celebrate It! Halloween Decor Tabletop". Not wanting to take the sign off the rack, I took 2 quick pictures with my phone making sure the sign and spiders were visable and went back to the register.

"Oh, you took a picture," said when I handed her the phone. She returned a few minutes later She stood there almost a full minute looking at the picture then radioed the manager. I'm not sure what he said, but she said, "This says 'Celebrate it! Tabletop Candleholder Collection," looking at the tag on the spider.

"Well, there were decorated candles next to it, not everything was a candleholder," I said.

"Let me go see," she said and left to go look.

I stood there feeling so bad that the lady with the infant behind me was waiting, but she assured me she'd do the same. The cashier returned and pulled out a sales paper and S-L-O-W-L-Y flipped through it. She radioed the manager again, then looked through the paper again.

"I ... guess ... I ... can ... just ... give ... you ... 30% ... off ..." she said dragging each word out as if it took every ounce of energy she had.

She finished ringing me up and I apologized to the lady with the baby again, who smiled and said no problem, before leaving.

I mean, was it really that difficult?!? You would think I was trying to get 50% off a car at a dealership, not 30% off a $4.99 candleholder! Does everything here in Miami have to be SO DARN DIFFICULT!?!

Well, I got my spider and here is a picture of it with my candles I got on sale at Yankee Candle ... Now, Yankee Candle- they have GREAT customer service!!

Until our next cup of tea ...

Filling a Room Full of Flowers

This week I am going to share with you one of my favorite current projects.

Decorating my house is one of the most exciting hobbies. The search for "just the right fabric, furniture piece, accessory" to make it a home and to express myself is a very satisfying reward.

In our home, while I take in to account my husband's comfort and the puppy's needs, when it comes to the kitchen, that is my place of solice.

Until recently, we had a sitting area in our dinningroom with the dining table pushed under the window like a bistro table for two. I'd started to stitch some pillows for the seating area.



I loved this pattern from the first time I found it. It was a free pattern on the Internet two years ago. I wish I could find it again, because I want to make another one. I think I'd also like to make a wall hanging. I'm just really in love with the pattern. I'm hoping that there is another copy of the pattern in the stack of free patterns in my craft closest.

The fabric was a gift from an online friend in an exchange, and I wish I could find more of it as well as more soft colors like that. Any ideas, suggestions?

Below is the material for additional pillows and stuff.



I'm really excited because at our next duty station we're looking to rent a house off post which will give us a chance at a larger house for the housing allowance we get. George said that if there is a dining room and breakfast area that I will be able to make the breakfast area into a sitting room with a cabinet for my teacups. I'm really excited. I'll definitely post pics when the pillows are done and if I get my sitting room.

Until our next cup of tea ...

Look at what I did!

I stitched this over the Christmas weekend. I used DMC's Satin Floss. At first I was going to use it as a bookshelf, but now I'm thinking I want to frame it and put it on a table among pictures or something.

Until our next visit ...

Paisley Parade

I thought all week about what I would post, and thought that I would actually skip it this week, since we got the news of my FIL's rapid decline in health. But sitting in the hospital room in these last few days with him I needed something to remind me of the beauty in life. So this week's post is dedicated to him.

As I've said before my mother owns a quilting company, mostly patterns and supplies. When I was in college I used to travel with her to various shows. In a community such as crafts and quilting you meet others who live the gypsy life and see them throughout your travels. Most of them knew me as Veronica's daughter and I quickly became accepted as one of them, thought I cross stitched (gasp) rather than quilted. It wasn't that I didn't like to quilt, I did, I just needed to stay busy at all time and it was much easier to stuff a stitching project in my bag versus quilting.

On one of these trips our booth was across from Husqvarna-Viking who was introducing a new embroidery machine. All day long they made samples and at the end of the day either packed them up or if there werew multiples, threw extras away. They asked if I wanted one at the end of the conference and this is the first one I chose. They also gave me a "sister" sample. What do you think? Pretty huh!?!



The pink paisley matches my dinningroom, so I will have it matted and framed to hang in there, but I hadn't decided what to do with the other one. I'll let you know what I decide.

Until our next visit ...