Refinished cutting board and trying to keep up…

You know, “back in the day” I could get so much more accomplished…I’d run around here and complete this or that task in mere minutes. Now I drag my sorry self around and push myself through the tasks and it seems as if I never get anything accomplished! Maybe that’s why I love crafting so much. You can see your results – you can show other people your results! It’s not like yesterday – I worked in the yard for hours – and it still looks pretty much the same! Here is one craft I did this week -

My mother-in-law and I went to a garage sale this past Saturday and I brought home this cutting board. It was in pretty rough shape but I wanted to see if I could make it better. I think it was around fifty cents or a buck. I got out my hand sander and started sanding. I started with a 60 grit paper and it got all gunked up right away. There was either a funky finish on this board or years of grease build-up. (ewwww!) Then I went to a 100 grit and finished with a 150 grit. I did all of this at the kitchen table because A – we had 40 days and 40 nights of rain and it was still raining & B – the kitchen already needed a good cleaning. I had to wipe down every surface anyways. Then I rubbed on some wood butter and here it is!

and the other side -

If I had been sanding outside I would have sanded longer. Even though the kitchen needed to be cleaned this made a BIG MESS lol! I sanded for a half an hour and called it “good enough”. I can sand longer when it needs to be refinished some other day.

Did you notice that odd assortment of things in the first picture? Well, that is part of a project that is on my kitchen table right now. Almost done. Just waiting for the paint to dry. I’m trying really really hard to tackle each new project I bring into the house RIGHT AWAY. My “someday I’ll fix this up” pile got a little out of control lol.

I also worked on a needle felting project in the evenings this week.

I’m starting a little woodland play-set.

There is still a lot to do but it’s always fun!

And here is the lazy woman’s way to clean a fleece. Let the rain pound some of the vegetable matter out of it! This is a meat sheep fleece and pretty dirty. I cleaned some of it a few months ago and it took around 5 bathtub refills…and the water was still dirty. Bummer. But it felts up really fast and works well for your foundation felting. Sooo…I’m going to experiment a bit. I got the fleece for free from a lady I met at last year’s Bazaar. She is a teacher and invited me to her classroom to teach her students how to wash the wool. They did a great job! Way better than I’ve done lol!

In other news I think I accidentally deleted all my old blog posts pictures. Oops! I just went back to try to link up wood butter and the picture is gone…all the pictures are gone! I had gone into my Google account and Windows Live Writer account checked out some settings…it seemed as if I was opening all  my pictures in Windows Live Writer and they were public! All my pictures…so I freaked out a little and started deleting things. Maybe I should have thought about it a little longer…cause I remember clicking a button that said “this delete option is permanent”. Aaaannnndddd – I’ve been cleaning out the photos in my computer and have been deleting all the craft photos…figuring they were on my blog anyways…so…a huge chunk of my life is deleted. And a huge chunk of this blog is without pictures. sigh. That’s just the way it goes. You’d think I’d be more upset about this…

Happy Crafting!!!

Leather Bag Makeover – Steampunk?

Remember this bag?

Remember I didn’t like the color or the front flap, or the strap. Now it looks like this -

Much MUCH BETTER! I dyed the bag with some antique colored leather dye I had laying around. I added the strap onto the front using rivets and punched in eyelets to hold whatever accessory I want to use.

After I got this all wired on my kids and hubbie told me it looks like a Sherriff badge…and they’re right…it does! It’s kinda  western Steampunk.The perforated metal piece is something I got from a clearance bin at JoAnn’s – it’s supposed to be a necklace part. I guess people would embroider a design on it or something.

The darker leather piece under the main strap is held on with heavy-duty snaps. I can change it out whenever I want and put something else there…like maybe needle felted flowers on felt or something like that. We’ll see. It took me years to get it to this point so I think it’ll stay this way for awhile.

 

I added this vintage key to use as a zipper pull on the back pocket – and a larger one for the main inside pocket. I also cut the straps off and used a long heavy duty belt as a handle.

The plan is to use snaps but I ran out so I sewed it in place this time…will add snaps later…this works fine for now. I really love how this turned out – I like the mix of different colored leathers and metals. It’s definitely better than it was! So now I’m on the hunt for another ugly old leather purse to redo for the bazaar – keep your eyes open for me!

Today I’m repainting my living room. I let the boys pick the color. It turns out what was supposed to be a putty color is actually a mauve/purple color. I hate it. I’m going to consider it priming the walls and get something else. Darn it!

And here is another polymer clay pendant I made using a big stone cabochon as the base. It’s heavy and I love how it turned out – think it looks like petrified wood?

And lastly, one more polymer clay pendant. Julie likes this one – I think I do too. It isn’t what I had in my head when I started out so I’m not sure how much I like it…

 

Happy Crafting!!!!

Painting tips … and crafts

(Picture taken by my husband…sorry for the blur)

I think this has to be my favorite polymer clay piece I’ve made so far! I love how the leaf turned out and the color of the pendent. I tried to recreate that color the next day (the brown)…and spent at least two hours blending clay until I got it close enough! I have to take notes when blending clay from now on. I’ve actually started taking a picture of the clay with my phone camera and emailing it to myself with the list of colors used. Sheesh! I hope that saves some serious time in the future!!

(Picture taken by my youngest son…)

Do you have a favorite pair of socks? I have a few and this is one of them! I’d worn them so much there was small holes and the sock was getting very thin…so I darned them. I think I’ve talked about darning before…I’m acquiring quite a collection of darning yarn from thrift shops and my granny! I darned this pair as we were driving “home” for Easter. It took the entire trip there and most of the trip home to finish them…about 3 hours total. I wouldn’t do this for a regular pair of cotton socks, but if it is a pair of socks that fit nice and don’t sag and bag around my ankles I’ll give it a try. Someday I’ll buy a pair of beautiful knitted socks…someday…(I can’t knit!)

(Picture taken by me – look at all that stitching!)

Since I’m out of certain polymer clay supplies, and don’t have plans to get them this week, I’ve decided to tackle a problem…this is the problem -

 

(Handle is stretched around the chair)

 

(Purse is hanging properly but picture is too dark…color in the first picture is the true color)

The problem is I like the inside of this bag but have never liked the outside of this bag. The main problems are the color of the bag and the flap. Hate that flap. I’ve had this bag for a few years now and used it for a few months. My neighbor gave it to me…when you’re a hoarder crafter people give you stuff. Some stuff works out and some stuff has to be modified, and some stuff has to just go into the recycle/donate bin. I’ve had different ideas over the years about how to fix this bag but never “got around to it”. Well, the day has come. The bag is currently on my kitchen table getting a make-over. It already looks better and if I can’t find the supplies to do anything else it’s better than it was. If it doesn’t turn out it will get recycled into something else. It wasn’t doing anyone any good to be sitting on my shelf for the past few years. You’ll have to wait for the big reveal until next week.

Oh – and here’s your #1 painting tip! When you are going to paint a room DON’T clean it first! As a matter of fact, wait until it’s plenty dirty and dusty! That way the paint spatter sits on the fuzz and cleans up easily. I was telling my mom this and it blew her mind. I thought everyone painted this way lol! I finished the living room ceiling this week and will be off to the paint store soon to get the wall paint. I let my family pick out the color because I couldn’t stop dithering…green? no gray!…no YELLOW!…no sage!…no GRAY! I drove myself nuts.

Oh – and here’s a note…I sometimes get asked why I don’t do many tutorials. Well, it’s because a lot of what I make goes to the Bazaar at our church and I don’t want anyone else in the area making and selling the same things. We do good things with the money we raise (heat share, buy chickens for a community in Africa, help the soup kitchen…just to name a few). So, if you live outside of my area and want to know how I did something just contact me via email and I’ll tell you. I don’t mind sharing!

Happy Crafting!!!

Rug redo! (Crochet circle rug)

Here is the finished – or almost finished – rug. I’ve been using it at the kitchen sink for a couple of weeks so it has flattened out quite a bit. It is really nice to stand on and holds a ton of dirt! It didn’t start out as a circle though…

It started out like this. I’ve been researching patterns all over the internet trying to find one that made sense to me. The one I referred to for this one said “increase when you think you need to” – what! A newbie like me doesn’t have the know-how to “increase when needed”. I needed a PATTERN…but not too hard cause I can barely read a pattern. Here is a tutorial that made sense to me. So I ripped this all out and started over. The “yarn” is a vintage sheet that I ripped into about 1-1.5” strips. I haven’t decided if it’s finished yet. To keep it from unraveling I put a pin in the last crochet hole and tucked the end under the rug. I’m liking the size but I can make it bigger later on if I want. I goofed up a few times but this is a perfect practice project…cost = next to nothing. I had the sheet in my stash and had the crochet hook in my stash. smile. Gotta keep using up that stash!

In other news I’m now on Instagram. I just haven’t been taking pictures of the kids or our life like I should. Mostly it’s because the camera is never with me…but my phone is! That is what that new little camera icon is at the top right hand side of the screen is. That will take you to me…you may have to set up an Instagram account to view – I don’t know – but that is easy! You’ll mostly see craft projects (of course) but I also want to post some vacation photos next week…we’ll see. My husband recently found a picture of us taken last year in Las Vegas and I gasped…the photo is awful! I can see that getting some Photoshop skills is going on my list ASAP! Another reason I picked Instagram is because I’ve seen many cute photo books made with the photos…you just pick out your favorite photos and upload them to your company of choice and poof – you’ve just ordered a hardcover photo album! I don’t know if I’ll ever get back to scrapbooking with real paper and glue like I used to…it’s so expensive…and the digital options are so reasonable…

Happy Crafting!!!!

Finishes…

Over the weekend I finished this wool felt candle mat. I had purchased the kit a few years ago – using the birthday money I received from you Mary :) . While cleaning and sorting I came across it again and wondered “why didn’t I ever finish this”? I had cut out all the pieces and just never sewn it up. I soon realized why – I had cut the mat smaller than it should have been. I vaguely remember copying the pattern with my printer and not realizing it was on “reduce” and being frustrated. But – it is a time to use what I have and boy am I glad I did! I love how this turned out! Now I’ll pack it into the Christmas box and be surprised all over again next Christmas lol!

During the Super Bowl (that I watch for the commercials) I sorted out my beads into this suitcase. (I pulled this awesome suitcase out of a DUMPSTER!)

Everything fits in there really well! Because I have a hard time getting rid of anything I even kept my “ugly beads” – you never know when they can be used for something else…or covered with polymer clay…

I love those clear plastic boxes for sorting things. In “my jury-rigged life” I even use the broken ones…

This will sit in my drawer and keep my costume jewelry all nice and sorted. They stack nicely too. Look at these beauties – the first three pictures were rescued from a dumpster…so sad!

And these pins were given to me by my Great Grandmother Bestemor -

Back in the eighties we would button our shirts all the way up and wear a pin at the neck…so she gave me the purple one and the roadrunner to my sister…I wonder if she knows I’ve “kept it safe” for her these past 25 years…

Happy Crafting!!

Crochet-edge pillowcases…

Honestly, could I get any worse at taking a picture! Sheesh. This is what I’ve been working on for the past few days. I’m really trying to use up my stash of stuff. The top three pillowcases were made from men’s shirts that I’ve been collecting and hoarding for the past several years. The bottom pillow was made from some cheap fabric I had in my stash. I got the ecru crochet thread for free from my favorite thrift-store lady. The red thread on the blue pillow was purchased at a thrift store for about ten cents and the red thread on the gingham pillow was from my Grannie. Bottom-line these pillow case covers cost virtually nothing. I bought most of the men’s shirts when I’d hit a “bag for a dollar” sale. I haven’t crocheted in about 20 years and my skills are RUSTY!

First I had to remember how to do a blanket stitch, which I did around the entire case, then crochet. I ended up doing five double crochets in each bridge of the blanket stitch on this case.

Sorry for the fuzz…it was crocheted in. On this case I did five triple crochets on each bridge with a single crochet at each end…so seven on each bridge. Made it almost look like pom-poms. This case took me two days to finish. I don’t know how many hours but it’s cold here and we had a lazy weekend at home. I like that it makes the cases special without being too frilly. I want to make several more so I can change them out whenever. Can you imagine…having extra cases…not having to wait for them to dry after laundering them to put them back on…the luxury! Then I think I’ll make a couple for the Bazaar. Hopefully by then I’ll be good enough at the whole thing that I won’t embarrass myself. I’m still trying to figure out how to cover our square pillows…we have a lot of pillows…but we have a lot of people and a couch that needs the extra support from the pillows…

Happy Crafting!!!

PS: Julie and I are going to cut out our shirts this week I hope, might just get the pattern traced…we’ll see…fingers crossed!!!

Pretty little zipper pouches…

I’m not going to lie…it took me TWO DAYS to figure out how I wanted to make these…and in those two days my house blew up with fabric and string. These tiny little bags created a huge mess.

I wanted to sew a little pouch with a straight zipper on the top. I didn’t want to have rounded corners. How can something so silly occupy so much of my brain?

(I left this one blank so the ladies at church can pick out what they want stamped inside that little “frame” – I made these for the bazaar) Also, I still have to bead some little “zipper pulls”.

I became obsessed. But finally…FINALLY…I understood all the different tutorials I read online and when the light bulb turned on in my brain I wondered how it could have taken me so long! You don’t even want to know how long I pondered fabric choices…and then I decided to stamp on the fabric…and I have a lot of stamps (a lot of options)…

I always start with fabric that is inexpensive. This was VERY inexpensive…it was a table cloth I got at a garage sale for a quarter. The zippers were free from a friend…cost of supplies was almost zero. Cost in my time? Well, a lot. But I learned a lot – and I freed up a lot of space in my brain so I can move on to other projects!!!

Happy Crafting!!!

Pillowcases

 

I actually sewed last week! (Julie made some pouches and I realized it’s been a loooong time since I sewed…thanks for the encouragement Julie! I even used my serger…which made these go together SUPER FAST!) I made  these pillowcases. I’ve been hoarding thrifted sheets for a long time now and…not using them. Well, that’s enough of that. The sheets used to make the cases on the ends was sooooo soft and made wonderful pillowcases. The one in the middle is also soft but not quite as soft as the other. I love thrifted sheets because the quality is usually better than what I find in the stores. Also, I’ve noticed with newer sheets there is always a “chemical” smell in them. I can wash them ten different ways but they always smell “chemically”. It’s got to be some fire retardant something they put on them. Well, these smell like fresh sunshine!

Also, my dryer is eating my clothes so I’ve stopped using it. So this is how I’m keeping up with laundry now -

 

I have the clothesline you see the pillowcases hanging from, and a drying rack on my back deck and this clothes rack on the deck. If I hang the clothes on a hanger and leave a little room between each garment I can get a lot of clothes dried at once!! I match the socks before I clip them to that blue thing you can barely see on the end. So aside from having to hang the towels it’s not much different than when I did have a working dryer. The socks have to get matched anyways and the clothes have to get hung anyways. Then I bring them in at the end of the day and leave each kid’s pile on their kitchen chair. When the weather is bad I move the racks to the basement where I always have a dehumidifier always going in the summer and I turn on a fan. The only tricky part is blankets (if we have rainy weather) although I think they would dry just fine in the basement too, and there’s a Laundromat about 4 blocks from my house in case of emergency. I’m thinking about how to put a rail on the outside of my deck railing to hang clothes from – they could hang between the pickets…and it would be permanent. Or maybe something attached to the house that’s on a hinge and can fold down…well we’ll see. I’m still going to get a dryer but I’m not in a big hurry anymore. I can wait an find the right one at the right price. And I probably won’t use it as much as I used to!

Happy Crafting!!!

PS: I’m waiting for pictures from Grandma Mary before I blog about the Graduation party – it was an awesome day!!!

Isn’t it nice when

you make something you really like!!! I just completed another project for the library and I tell ya, this one is going to be hard to give them -

This is a totally recycled project. I salvaged the frame (kept it from going in the garbage…picked it out of someone’s garbage pile…I have no shame!) I got the string, used as branches, from the thrift store. The black paper is from little (sometimes tiny) scraps of paper left over from another project. The music paper was donated to the library to be used in this kind of a project…or whatever else we can dream up – lol!

Here is a picture of the project in progress -

above: This is what was in the frame before I took it apart…

above: This is when I was covering the original mat board. As you can see it was matted with pink an blue. I glued down the paper and cut a 45 degree angle on whatever strip of paper was laying on top…nice mitered corners.

above: Sorry for the glare…I’m too lazy to take the glass out. This gives you a better look at the details. I cut each flower out with my craft knife and used my stylus to give the petals some shape. Then glued them down and added a dot of glitter with my cinnamon stickles stuff. The little bird was raised with some foam dots too.

I was going to paint the frame but I think I’m kinda liking the gold. Surprising! It’s a nice wood frame so it would take paint well…hmmm….

Happy Crafting!!

TV Dresser top…

I think I promised a picture of this a long time ago… back story – I sanded this down thinking I’d just seal the wood and low and behold I found out the top wasn’t wood, it was laminate! And I sanded the grain right off the laminate thinking it was wood. Couldn’t seal that soooo….

Well, we actually had SUNSHINE the other day and I remembered to snap a couple photos! The top of this dresser/TV stand is … napkins! Camo napkins!! I used Modge-Podge to glue them down and then seal it. I ripped the straight lines off all the napkins and tore them into big chunks and started gluing them down with no plan. I love it. It feels like leather, it’s durable, it cleans up beautifully and it doesn’t show dust. I saved a pack of napkins and keep them in one of the drawers just in case I need to touch something up. So far I haven’t had to do a thing.

Happy Crafting!!!

What a week!!!

It has been crazy-busy around here!!!

We went to Abby’s Special Olympics track and field event. She ran a relay and her team placed second…she also did the softball throw and the results aren’t in yet. Here she is giving hubbie a high-five after the relay. She was so proud of herself!!!

I went to a garage sale and got these and a couple books…

All the items came to under $3.00! The original price of the book on the left was $24.95 and on the right $12.00. I’m excited about a couple of the patterns in each…

I can’t believe nor understand why this woman who was holding the garage sale spent so much money on so many things! There were piles of books and patterns and piles of fabric…all that consumerism actually turned me off so much that I limited myself to these three things. (The bottle stoppers were packaged together) She commented that she paid full price for the quilting book…sheesh!!!

This was a happy accident! I’ve been working on this bird in the evenings and it is nothing like what I had envisioned!!!

But…it makes me smile…so I’ll keep it…I’m even working in a red one now.

I fixed a kitchen cupboard. See that gap in the back? What you are looking at is the bottom of the cupboard that is pulling away…my dishes were in danger of crashing to the counter! It was much worse than the picture shows…so I added a strip of molding to the bottom, and that will hold the shelf in place.

Here’s the molding. Now that shelf isn’t going anywhere!!! My collection of Correll dishes is safe!!!

And I finished my washcloths. I got 23 washcloths from the fitted flannel sheet, and a nice pile of narrow pieces to be used as rags. Sweet!

Last evening we cleaned two miles of ditches as a part of the adopt-a-highway program. It was for Frito-Lay…and then we all got taken to Pizza Ranch for supper! Good reinforcement lesson for the kids, work hard and get rewarded. Now, we know that isn’t always true…sometimes you work hard and get kicked in the teeth…but it’s still something I want the kids to strive for…

Happy Crafting!!!