It's about time I finished some kind of project...

When I moved out on my own (you know, in 2003) a coworker gave me this great piece for my entry. It had hooks and a shelf and a mirror and places for pictures. It was great.

The pictures were from about 2003 as well. Please do not look at the shoes in the bucket, even if that was the best organizational thing I've ever done.

Anyway. I loved the utility of the hooks. I kept my keys there and never lost them. I kept Daisy's leash there, and it was easy to access and hang up.

However, it was dark, and had no red on it, and it stuck out a little and it wasn't my favorite. I toyed with the idea of putting a chalkboard there, so I could write myself notes, because for the life of me I cannot remember things like 'take out the trash' and 'don't forget your lunch'.

So I decided to take it down and make myself a chalkboard to go there. I have chalkboard paint and the unpainted front of a cabinet. I painted the inner section with chalkboard paint, and painted the outer section with red paint.

I still thought it was a little plain, and I had nowhere to hang the keys or leash. In the two days that it has been off the wall, I've misplaced my keys once and Daisy's leash once. It still needed hooks.

I have a couple of different options for hooks, but I really liked the ones on the old piece. So I just took them off the old piece and put them on the new one. I got to use my drill and my screwdriver. And I didn't use that many curse words. I was pretty proud of myself.

Here's the finished product. I added a few subtle scrapbooking stickers to the corners to make it just a smidge more dainty.

Now, I can write myself notes and still have a place to hang my keys and leash (and a fun old purse and a little angel from a friend that I think I will keep up year-round.)

The shelf is missing, but at the time it was taken off the wall, it held a small Christmas tree, a headband, a can of spray something or other, a pair of gloves, a pair of sunglasses, and a button.

The shelf won't be missed.

True creating

First of all, yes... I am still creating.
I've got a few projects in my head and I'm trying to bring them to life.

But I wanted you all to know one thing about creating.
It doesn't always work out perfectly:

Someone got a little messy with the mod podge. Which led to the paper tearing.

Luckily, I only paid $2 for the nekked wood and about 50 cents for the paper.

I'm going to keep trying...

I'm working on it!

If you read my other blog, you know that my life is so interesting right now that I wrote an entire post about a computer virus.

I had some time on my hands. So, why not get my freaking december daily past the 3rd already!

Sorry for the language. It's been incomplete and taunting me from the dining room table.
It's said some rude things about me.

It was just time to show it who's boss.

I have been collecting all of the pictures and ideas since the first, but just haven't put them together.
Now, I've got the layouts decided, and the pictures glued down, but I still need to do the journaling and add the embellishments.

That may or may not happen before Christmas.
I'll post pictures either way.

I'm forcing myself to get this finished before I work on my New Year project, that I'm all of a sudden excited about.

Fra-gee-lay. That must be Italian

For a couple of days, The Beatles has been bouncing around my head. Today added fuel to the fire.
I spent the day watching The Sing Off, followed by Across the Universe.
Creatively, it was the best decision I've made in a while.

Today's creative adventures are brought to you by the word chandeleir. I'm pretty sure that's not how it's spelled, but it's the word of the day nonetheless. And I'm not going to share today's creative breakthroughs, my magnum opus if you will. They were a Christmas present, and The Aunt might stumble upon this here little site, so I've got to be super secretive until the 25th.

For today's show and tell, I'll let you in on what I did yesterday.
About a zillion years ago, I found a project to make your own "designer" plate on television. Bought the stuff. Then couldn't decide what to put on the plate.

Finally decided to do it this weekend. Friday afternoon/evening.

First, I printed out the picture I wanted, and taped it to the back of the plate.

Then, I  traced the image on the front side of the plate with a fine-point sharpie.

I found it helped if I slid a piece of plain paper between the plate and the drawing, just so I could see where I had drawn. It also made me feel better about the progress I was making.

When I was done tracing, I flipped the plate upside down so I could get to painting. I just painted the bottom in the lines I'd drawn with a paint pen.

 Here's the finished product... so far. When I saw it on television, they painted the design on the bottom, and then painted the background, so make it a solid plate with the design on it.

Still haven't decided if I was going to do that or not. We'll see. I just love it like this. My aunt said to do it on a set of salad plates for her.

The plate was less than $2 at the Walmark. I have a salad sized one as well.

But this is not even my favorite project. I'll tell you about that one the day after Christmas.

Do innkeeper's wives have naturally curly hair?

What have I been up to in the crafty department (because it certainly hasn't been the December Daily)?

J. Crew-inspired barrettes and headbands. Well, it would be headbands if I made more than the one...

The J. Crew headbands are around $20 in the stores, and I don't even pay that much for shoes, much less headbands that I don't even know if I will keep in my hair all day.

Also, I've been exploring the more feminine side of me, and have always longed to be that girl with the flower in her hair.

So, I got this big bunch of flowers half off from Hobby Lobby, and some barrettes and some E6000 glue, and voila! Less than $1 barettes and headbands.

This is going to be one of those big flowers at the back of a pony tail or bun. I have one that I made a while back that is pure white, and I wear it during the summer. It makes me feel very girly.

Finally, I have a few more flowers, because I've been asked by a few friends to make them flowers similar to the ones I wear in my hair from time to time.

Oh, and here's a picture I took of myself with a flower in my hair.

When I went to a party.
That no available boys were at.
And then went to church.
Where no available boys were at.
Shoulda worn sweats and a ponytail.

December 1

I am a little slow on my December Daily, but I'm happy with how it's coming along nonetheless.
Here's day one. Presented on Dec. 3rd. It's how I roll...

Sorry the first picture is flash heavy and the second is blurry.
Long day.

I typically have my decorations up the day or so after Thanksgiving, so I typically dedicate day one to my decorations. And by typically, I mean both last year and this year.

I have three trees. Two at home and one at school. My "primary" tree at home is not fully ornamented yet, so I just took a picture of my favorite part: the star.

On the other page, I put up my decorations. I am trying some new stuff with my decorations, and I'm loving it. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll be able to put together both day two and day three. And I know that tomorrow is day four.

Joy to the World Garland

I think a new little personal tradition I started last year was to craft a new decoration of some sort for the season. Last year, I made an advent calendar. Not my favorite, may redo it, but it’s a good start.

A zillion months ago, I ordered this Joy To The World Garland kit from Oriental Trading. You can’t go wrong with the Oriental Trading kit, because they send you everything you need, right? Except…instructions.

When I ordered the kit, I wanted it to look just like picture from when I ordered it. Except I can’t find that picture anywhere. So I’ve got to do it on my own.

Here’s what I have to work with. This is what I’m doing during the Florida game. I will have to try very very hard not to paint the letters orange and blue. I make no promises.

First, I had some decisions to make. I have all these pieces, and all of the double-sided paper to use. The paper came in greens, pinks, and blues, which was a challenge for me as my decorations are red, green, and silver. So, I decided to only use the green sides of papers and paint the chipboard letters silver.

As you can see, that went real well. Four coats later, it resembles something silvery. Four coats. There are now four coats of silver paint on my fingernails as well as a coat or two on my pants.

While the four coats of paint were drying, I traced out the paper to the size of the chipboard backing. I used Mod Podge as an adhesive this time, just to try it out, and I’m quite pleased with the work.

Then, I used regular adhesive to get the silver letters to stick to the background. I also used stars to separate the words. I had to cover them in old scrapbook papers, because I wanted a little more red in the project.

I needed to figure out how I was going to hang this sucker. I wasn’t sure where I was going to hang it, but when I figured out how I wanted to hang it, I instantly knew where it would end up. I got some clothespins I have from the classroom, and used scraps to cover them to match the back of the letters. I took some of the leftover chipboard and stuck those on the clothespins to add a little something. Turns out it just added busyness…

Here’s the finished project on my stunningly beautiful plastic vertical blinds. Don’t be jealous of the blinds. They match my ridiculously pitiful carpeting. But that’s a whole other post…