Valentine's Wreath

As soon as I saw this wreath at Living with Lindsey I knew I wanted to do it.

Unfortunately for me, while I had about a million yards of pink chambray fabric, Micheals didn't have the heart form that I needed for it, a few phone calls later, no one did. Bummer...

So I had to improvise, here is what I used:

Pictured are:

• Foam wreath form, circular
• Cardboard heart
• TONS of pink chambray fabric, also some green - but I didn't use it. 
• Scrapbook paper
• School glue
• Modge podge
• A pencil and a foam brush.

I pretty much followed her instructions, so I'll leave the step by step to ladies at Little Birdie Secrets. But a few things about my wreath that I wanted to point out...

The Chambray Fabric - chambray fabric is really cool for this because while from a distance the fabric looks like 1 color, it is made up of 2 different threads. The warp threads are a bright raspberry color, the weft threads are white, so when it frays, you see the individual threads not just the finished color.

See:

In order to make the fraying easier, I didn't cut the squares of fabric, I snipped a bit, and then tore it... there ended up being threads everywhere. So when people in our neighborhood see birds nests in raspberry and white, that will be why.

I also used larger squares and packed them REALLY dense.

After I finished the wreath, which did take a lot longer than I expect... I tore up a bunch of the scrapbook paper and decoupaged the heart.

And here is the finished wreath!

What I really like about this solution, because it isn't a heart and it isn't red, on February 15th, I can just pull out the decoupaged heart and I've got a spring wreath... I can add whatever I want, whenever I want to change it up.

Here are a few more detail pictures:

 

And I'll admit, even though this is supposed to be on our front door, it is in the family room... I can't give it up yet and want to see more of it than I will on my front door.

Letter Plates

I gave you a sneak peak of these last week...

We've got a plate rack in our dinning room that was a gift from my husband for our first Christmas in this house. Throughout the year I put different plates in it depending on the season, here is what we do at Christmas:

But I don't have any plates that we just generally use that aren't seasonally specific. I decided I wanted to do something with my cricut... I thought I wanted to do each of our monograms, there were room for 4 plates, we have 4 people. Perfect.

Until I started working with the monograms and just didn't like the way they were turning out.

But then I decided to just do our first initials because the monograms had so many common letters but our first names are all different. I created the artwork in illustrator and saved the file as an SVG to open in Sure Cuts A Lot and then cut with black vinyl on the cricut.

Here are the materials I started with:

Pictured are:

• My cricut expression
• Netbook with Sure Cuts A Lot software
• 12"x24" matte for the cricut
• 4 dinner plates
• 12"x24" sheet of black vinyl.
• Contact paper to transfer the vinyl from the backing paper, to the plate
• Cricut tools including a spatula to lift the cut vinyl and a popsicle stick to burnish.

Step 1 was to open the file I created in Illustrator into Sure Cuts A Lot.

 Step 2 - Cut the Vinyl and then remove the portion that you do not want to transfer to the plate.

Step 3 - Cut a piece of contact paper and place on top of the letters and then use the popsicle stick to burnish over the letter to help get them stuck to the contact paper and give up the backing paper.

Step 4 - Gently pull up the contact paper making sure all the vinyl letters come with you. If not, put the contact paper down and burnish again.

Step 5 - Position the contact paper with the cut letters over top of the plate and then burnish over the letters again.

Step 6 - Peel up the contact paper and you've got yourself a decorative* plate!!!

Here is the plate rack with the finished collection of plates:

And close ups of each of our plates:

 

 

 

I'm beyond thrilled with how these have turned out and I really enjoyed the process of making them... I'm toying with the idea of refining my process and selling them. You may notice that I still have a lot to learn. Some of the fonts I picked really didn't work with some of the letters and I had to pull them off... but not one else, well, except you - know that.

*note, these are DECORATIVE plates, they shouldn't be used to eat off of, serve food from, submerged in water or put in the dish washer. 

Please don't make me twitch.

Ok - I'm new at the blog thing, we know that... I think it is rather obvious.

But, what I am not new to is creating graphics for the web. I've been doing that since 1995. And for you younguns out there, yes, the web has been around that long.

I've got a favor for you out there in blog land... PLEASE don't upload graphics to your blog that are HUGE. They take forever to display, choke my connection and make it very difficult to visit ya'll on my lunch hour.

Especially for your core blog graphics like your background, header, buttons and such. If any of them are over 100k - you need to change your file type, your resolution, your optimization... something... anything to get that sucker below 100k. I ran into a graphic the other day that was 800k. On a slowish cable connection that is going to take almost a full minute to display, even a best case with a fast connection I'm still waiting 10 seconds or more.

I like to use bigger pictures for my projects to people can click on them and see them in more detail and I appreciate it when others do the same... but even those shouldn't go over 300k.

So please... don't make me twitch, and if you need help optimizing your graphics let me know.

I'm not sure where to start...

with this project...

My mom gave me the campaign chest that belonged to my grandparents. It is in need of some TLC and I have no idea where to start. For now, I'm just enjoying having it. It fits perfectly in our foyer, like the space and the chest were destined to come together.

I love the coloring of it, I don't want to paint it (I know my grandfather would roll over in his grave if I did...). I just want to to do what I can to help it look as good as it can.

One thing I know I won't change, the lining of the drawers.

It is the wallpaper that my grandmother used in their home that I loved so much, and still miss. It's funny, I don't remember the wallpaper, it makes me sad that I don't. Each year goes by and memories fade.

But I'm so happy to have this piece in our home. I'll cherish it always.

Sneak Peak

I'm working on a project that I'm really excited about... Here is a sneak peak.

Benches Rule!!!

When we replaced the kitchen table in the fall, the table was the point... But what we've come to REALLY appreciate are the benches.

We've gone from being able to seat 4, sometimes 6 if you borrow chairs from the dinning room, 8 if you add the leaf AND drag 4 chairs out of the dinning room to being able to enjoy dinner as a family of 4, and host a slew of friends without changing a thing. We actually had 9 around our table the other day.

NINE!!!

2 in chairs, 4 on one side, 3 on the other... AMAZING!

Coming together.

After 4 years of neglect, our living room is slowing coming together. 

While in Syracuse for Thanksgiving and drooling at Hobby Lobby, I was able to think clearly enough to buy this wonderful mirror... Regular price $120, Black Friday price $60. I paired it with two iron pieces that almost frame it as shutters and am very happy with it.

I'd been looking for a solution for above the sofa the living room for a couple of years now. I replaced our pillows in the fall, and now have this mirror. The room still needs a bit more work, but I'm happy to have some of the major things out of the way.

Another favorite spot in the room is between our two windows.

Please excuse the very chubby picture of me on the table, it was taken 3 months after my son was born and I still had about 5-10 pounds and many many cup sizes thanks to the wonders of nursing. (YIKES!)

The bird girl statue was a gift from my husband after we visited Savannah, GA for our 1 year wedding anniversary and is a favorite piece.

Baby it's cold outside.

Oh so very cold.

This is Northern Virginia, it isn't supposed to be cold, at least not this cold. And our house, is built for chilly, but not for cold. Most of the house does pretty well, but the garage is an icebox. Unfortunately, the kitchen is attached to the garage and the door that separates them is just not fit to withstand the cold, especially the breezy-breezy cold that we've got. (If you call 40 MPH wind gusts "breezy-breezy.")

We needed a solution, quick. It didn't have to be pretty - it just had to keep us warm while in the kitchen.

So off to Walmart I went today, planning to buy 2 and a half yards of fleece to make a door blanket, similar to what I saw my friend Heidi with a few years ago.

I ended up finding a $5 "blanket" that was less than half the cost of fleece and I figured there was no need to spend more than I had to. I say "blanket" - because I can't imagine actually sleeping with this, it is more like sandpaper than a blanket. Yikes!!!

So here is what I started with:

I then cut the blanket to just a bit larger than the door, you can thank my son for capturing this picture.

 

 

Then I secured some hook and loop to the top of the door frame (staple gun) and the blanket (sewing machine), also pictured are some magnets that I'll mention later.

I took advantage that we had a metal door and made pockets to insert the above magnets into to keep the blanket secure to the door.

And here is the finished, though not terribly pretty door blanket. (You can see the magnets, but they are actually in the pockets that I sewed on the reverse side, the blanket is thin enough to see these details through, but it still keeps the cold out of the kitchen.)

If we lived somewhere with weather like this throughout the whole winter, I might have spent more than $5 and an hour to come up with to something more attractive. For now, I'm just happy I don't have to wear my snow suit in the kitchen.

List of Link Parties

Check out these link parties that I'm likely participating each week. SO many great ideas!


Monday
Make it for Monday @ Cottage Instincts
Make Your Monday @ Twice Remembered
Making the World Cuter Monday @ Making the World Cuter
Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch
Just something I whipped Up @ The Girl Creative
Made by You Monday @ Skip to my Lou
Motivate me Monday @ Keeping it Simple
The DIY Show Off Parade @ The DIY Show Off

Tuesday
DIY Day @ A Soft Place to Land
Get Your Craft On @ Today's Creative Blog

Wednesday
Make it Yours Day! @ My Back Yard Eden
Whatever Goes Wednesday @ Someday Crafts
Be Inspired Link Party @ Room to Inspire
Power of Paint Party @ Domestically Speaking


Thursday
Transformation Thursday @ The Shabby Chic Cottage
Get Your Craft on Thursday @ Life as Lori
Strut Your Stuff Thursday @ Somewhat Simple?

Friday
Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous
Favorite Things Friday @ A Few of My Favorite Things

Saturday
Saturday Nite Special @ Funky Junk Interiors
Check me out Saturdays @ A Vision to Remember

Sunday
The Sunday Showcase Party @ Under the Table and Dreaming


I've you've got a link party, or know of one that I should link up to, feel free to let me know!

2010 - the year of Less. (or is it more?)

2010 has got to be the year of Less...
Less food. (Don't want to use the words stricter & diet)
Less money. (Don't want to use the words stricter & budget)
Noooo, the "Less" sounds to negative, and I'm not negative... I'm the silver lining girl.

So 2010 will be the year of More.
More focus on being Healthy. Healthy, mind, healthy body, healthy spirit. However it can happen.
More focus on living Simply. Making due with what we need, not what we want.
More focus on Family. Capturing more of the amazing moments that make our family so special.
More focus on Life and living every moment of it.

Now... I just have to figure out how to make all this happen.