Simple Ways: Stucco and Silver

I just mistook self-tanning cream
for hair conditioner.
I kept wondering why the tangles were not loosening from my wet hair.

Yes, it has been that sort of Monday:

Phone tag
(why is it people realize they need hay delivered on Mondays,
and need it NOW),
puppy disasters in the form of holes dug right outside the doorway
same place, same mud pit as last Friday,
as well as chewed up items that I will not mention but that made me gasp and then screech
which sent him running out the back door;
home-schooling frustrations regarding division
(and I thought I disliked division the first time around;
teaching it to a child who wants to skip as many steps as possible,
no matter how many times I reinforce that all steps are necessary,
well, let's just say 'challenging' is putting it mildly,
like calling a severed finger a hang nail that has gotten out of control);
cooking atrocities compounded by substituting wrong ingredients;
stepping in evidence that the chickens have been sneaking up on the porch again...

with my socked foot.


Yes, that sort of Monday.


I had great plans of posting a great story of a great lesson I had learned,
but I lost it somewhere,
I think between my toes.


So, rather than wax wordy about things that have been lost upon my tangled brain,
I will post a simple project,
in the hopes that simplicity will return to Tuesday,
(although that wind whipping outside just now sounds like it is a bit flustered by Monday as well.)



I had a little box,
nothing would it hold.

Actually, it was a cute little box I got at a yard sale or somewhere for a quarter or so.

I decided to use it as a sort of pedestal on my mantel for an old bird I found,
so I spray painted it with some silver spray paint,

and then mixed up some plaster of Paris into some white paint,

good and thick, mind you,

like mashed potatoes, or angel food cake frosting,

or something else unfood-like so I'll stop making myself hungry.

I taped a favorite stencil I had made from an image at the Graphics Fairy

and used on my living room cupboard.

I like to use Frog Tape for this because it holds VERY well,

but it doesn't pull up any of the paint with it.

I painted this thick as frosting paint onto the stencil

and carefully pulled it up,

wiping it after each use
before moving it around the box.

There were minor smears,

but perfection is not always worth the difficulty of attaining it on some things,

or so I tell myself.

It adds just a bit of different height to the mantel,
a sweet perch for the bird in her nest.


Perhaps I will fasten the troubles of Monday on her wings and let her fly away...

But now I'll go get some tea and sit by the woodstove and listen to the wind...

and ignore that puppy snoring on the couch,

and try to focus on the season,

realizing that many have faced annoyances and much greater frustrations,
a part of life for all of us on earth.


"And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea,
unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)
To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife,
 being great with child."

Luke 2: 4- 5

Yes, I have little to complain of...

and so I'll say,

'Goodnight.'



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A Sugar Bowl Full of Christmas Tree

My Christmas this year is a bit of a challenge

with a 3 year old who is intent on involving herself in every project I attempt

and a puppy who presumes he should do the same.

Do you know how many shredded bits of snowy stuffing I have picked up off the floor,

never knowing which one of the two has done it.

I realized yesterday after picking up the same five pieces on the living room floor about five times

that the puppy was watching me throw it into the trash can

and removing it as soon as I walked away.

So you can see why I decided to concentrate on the fireplace mantel.

I found a silver creamer and sugar bowl for about $1 at a yard sale,

probably because the lid was missing from the sugar bowl.

Wanting to do something with them,

I found cardboard cones left-over from thread I had used up.

(if you don't have a cone, one can be made by wrapping posterboard or heavy cardstock into a cone shape

or

there is a great cone pattern from Danielle's Place of Crafts and Activities

under her Feathered Christmas Tree Craft for Kids.

(This website has lots of GREAT craft ideas as well as actual lessons

 for Sunday School or home-schooling.

Be sure to check it out!)

I also grabbed some brown wool my sister-in-law had given me from her sheep,

a toilet paper roll,

my glue gun,

and some moss ribbon.

I started by covering what would become the trunk of my tree,

the toilet paper roll,

with the brown wool.

One could substitute anything for this:

a piece of felt,

burlap,

or just paint it brown.

Next I put some glue on the end

and sat it into the sugar bowl.

The glue from the glue gun did not want to hold it,

so I put a ring around it inside of the sugar bowl as well.

E6000 glue might work for a more permanent hold,

but I wasn't too concerned about it holding fast in case I want to use the sugar and creamer for something else.

I put some white wool around the bottom of it to fill in the sugar bowl

and give a snowy look.

Covering the cone was fun.

There were so many variations that could be done:

jute or heavy jute,

feathers

or

music paper,

yarn, lace, burlap, velvet, flannel,

fun patterned material;

it's endless, really.

But I had purchased some artificial moss last spring,

and thought it would add some variety to the white trees on my mantel.

Glue-gunning worked well for this.

This was an easy craft
that was finished in a small amount of time.







And they are safe up where no little hands or paws can reach them...


I hope.



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Somewhat Simple, A Crafty Soiree at Yesterday on Tuesday, Thursday Favorite Things at Katherines Corner, Link Party at Centsational Girl, Inspiration Friday At The Picket Fence, The Best Christmas and DIY Crafts Ever at The Nesting Place, Link Party at Craftberry Bush, Feature Friday at Five Days 5 Ways, Clever Chicks Bog Hop at The Chicken Chick
Homespunhappenings: Rustic-restorations-weekend-linky-party.html

At the Craft Shows...

An open house Christmas craft sale:

my friend does this every year.

She empties her house of her furniture
and sets up shelving and displays.
She creates things to sell and lets her friends sell from her home
(The above picture was of her friend's things to sell.  My friend paints a lot of the rustic furniture
and signs and things you see in the following pictures or at her BLOG.)
 




We've been friends since we were teenagers;
she is one of the few friends I have had through most of my life that I've stayed in touch with
since the day we met who has also kept the faith.
But it seems we've been crafting and painting for about as long as we've been friends.

She started a blog around when I did,
so we enjoy sharing in that experience,
emailng helpful ideas and encouragement.

It is a grand thing to have such a friend!

However, as I've worked on things to sell this fall,
I have questioned whether this is something I should let go of.

I am almost 40, and something about this birthday has made me look at myself...
what it is I want to accomplish in life,
what are my real goals,
praying for God to show me what He wants me to pursue and do with the next phase of my life.

Introspection seemed necessary;
life has varying stages, and I found this stage very hard for some reason.

Home-schooling has been much more demanding this year
and I don't want to feel so stressed with trying to be with me kids,
enjoy them,
and then work so hard on things to sell.
 

I enjoy making things to sell and feel good about contributing to the family purse.

But there comes a time when you have kids that are so needy of your attention and time
that the financial contributions seem to be teetering on the scale of what is most important.
I find that my kids need me more now at this school age,
much more so than they did when they were babies
because they need me as a person, somebody to talk to and interact with them;
they need to know I am really here for them with my heart,
and I don't want to miss that buried under a pile of pots of paint.

It is hard to let something you love go,
especially when you've put years into it.

The first week my friend was open,
things didn't go well this year.

Items weren't selling.
People weren't coming quite as much as usual.


I have to admit,
as much as I know I need to let this go,
it is hard when you've invested so many hours into something
and you wonder if you're going to make anything for the sacrifice you have made,
especially when the sacrifice has seemed so high this time around.

I had a goal this year,
as I do every year.

My husband gave me money for a new camera for my anniversary gift
because he knew how much I really wanted one.

It is a nice camera, one I never dreamed I'd ever own.

I hope to use it for a lot of things in the future.

But my goal for the craft sales this Christmas
was to make the money we had used to buy the camera.

With home-schooling taking up so much of my time, this seemed like a pretty large goal;
but I wanted to use up a lot of the supplies I had waiting in the attic
since I knew that this might be the last year I would put this much into the craft sales,
at least for the years to come that I need to have my attention here, in my home.

I tried to not let it bother me.

"It's Yours, God," I prayed.
"I'm willing to let this go and do whatever it is You show me I need to do.
Just show me what that is.
If this is your way of showing me it more directly,
I admit it will be hard, but I'll deal with it."

On the last day of her open house,
my friend sent me an email in the evening.

"This was one amazing Day! We had over 100 people come through today--which is a high for us.We had a record high of sales for one day today. We made more today than we did the last 7 days!"

She told me my total earnings.

It was 4 times what she had told me 2 days before.
My sales at both her sale and the other open house I had crafts in
would make the goal of the money for the camera.

 I have heard people question the reality of God.

Certainly creation shouts his praise
and the Bible spells out His story.

But sometimes, in the little details of our lives,
the small trials we face, the questions that invade the little spaces of our moments
and pursuits,
when the face of God appears through the fog and you hear His whisper in
to the quiet recesses of the soul,
to those places that weigh heavy but very few people even know they are there,

it is these peculiar treasures that invite the realization of His intimate care.

The Grandest of fine artists feels the joy of creation, the mixture of the hues,
the satisfaction of feeling that the work done is a worthy effort,

and He cares.


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Gnowfglins

Home-made Snowman in a Snowglobe.

Home-made snowglobes are such a fun idea.

Have you seen them?

Whipperberry.com

 Sweetsomethingdesign.blogspot.com

Meohmymama

Such a festive idea!

I decided to make some to sell for the Christmas craft sale this year,

but I wanted some snowmen in mine.

I started out by cutting a cardboard base

a bit smaller than the lid of the jar.

 I then found some old material from a shirt I didn't want

and cut it into a piece,

folded it under,

and hot-glued it to the cardboard base.

 

It was lumpy, but I just wanted to make sure that there weren't any loose ends up,

so it would look like a snowy landscape...

eventually.

For my snowman,

I took a small piece of material,

put a strip of hot-glue on the edge and rolled it up.

Because he looked a bit too tall, I cut him down to the size I wanted.

(Sorry about my hands.  I was working on several of these at different stages at the same time;

I think I have crafting ADD).

I then hot glued the "snowman" to the "snowy landscape."

 Mixing about 2 parts paint

to 1 part plaster of Paris (slightly more of this til I got the consistency I wanted)

I painted this thickly onto the whole thing.

 It was then allowed to dry a day or two.

 This is how it looked from the side.

I then added the face, buttons,

and a scarf (although this guy didn't get one;

on some I added yard scarves, so maybe he was one of the warmer snowmen).

I had found a bag of train landscape trees at the charity store

(one never knows what will turn up there),

so I painted them with the same paint/plaster of Paris mix

when I was doing the snowmen,

so that they would be dry and ready for use as well.

Using some plumber's repair putty (Loctite),

as I had on my sewing machine and my chair,

I broke off pieces and kneaded them up to use as a bonding substance...

to hold the trees and fencing

(also train landscaping pieces from the charity store)

in place.

I find that this works best at really hold well;

the glues that I have tried never seem to hold things in place well,

and this putty sets up really quickly.

After the putty dried, I painted it with white paint,

and I then glued on some clear glass glitter.

The snowscapes can then be placed in the lid

with some artificial snow or even some epsom salts.

I sent all my jar snowglobes to the craft shop,

but I did make one for myself using an old cheese dome

and a wooden bowl I painted up.

I set it on the kitchen table when it was done,

and it was fun seeing the kids' reaction to it when they came down for breakfast the next morning.

Who doesn't love seeing a happy snowman in a world of white?

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My Basket Dressed in a Sweater.

Don't you love a good sweater?
I have a hard time parting with a sweater if it feels like good quality,
but I know they must be moved along sometime.

If they are the type that never look pilly, worn, or mis-shaped,
they could always be transformed into something else.

I have seen some clever uses for recycled sweaters,

so I decided to use a sweater I had to try to save a basket.

After cutting off the arms

(oh, that sounds so horrific),

I stitched the holes closed with some green yarn

as well as the head opening.

 (Aye, I should 'ave posted this 'ere tale on St. Patrick's Day!)

I stitched up the top and bottoms of the sleeves for some fancy-shmancy leg-warmers...

 that could be worn two different ways.

 For the basket,

I decided first to replace the dwindling handles...

with some fun green yarn...

all corchetted together.

I stitched the new handle right through the basket...

 and then tied it off.

 The sleeveless, holeless sweater was set into the basket...

and a hole cut for the new handles.

I promptly stitched around the edge of the hole with yarn

to keep the sweater from unraveling.

I then crocheted a stitched border around the outside of the lining,

also making some button hole loops in it.

I found a variety of large buttons which were then sewed

at equally spaced locations

around the edge of the basket.

This way, the lining can be removed and washed

if one of my kids decides to hide a questionable treasure in my basket.


(This could have been much simpler if I had just skipped making the handles
and just inserted the sweater-liner into the basket,
but we were watching a movie series last winter when I did this project,
and I sometimes get carried away when engrossed in a movie.)

Two uses for an old sweater.

Do I win some kind of award for being extra green on this project?
Maybe I'll go make some leg warmers out of that hot pink and yellow striped sweater I have...
for my sisters' Christmas presents.
Oooooo.....

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