Shiny Brass to a Little More Class

Our goings on lately have included completely re-doing our master bedroom. I mean ripping the yucky drywall with a ton of holes out, pulling out the lathe and plaster, adding insulation and new windows and brand-new walls. We are doing this on a shoe-string budget, so the decorating part has a 

budget of close to $0. 

We originally purchased this ceiling fan about 14 years ago when we were first married and it has traveled with us from apartment to townhouse to this house, it was a huge purchase for us then; and I remember lying in my bed admiring how pretty it was with the sparkling, shiny brass. 

Well... styles and my tastes have changed since then. I would love to throw the whole thing out and start over, but since our budget doesn't include a new fixture and I don't want a hole in my ceiling; I decided to try to transform it a bit.

I used two different spray paints, Hammered Bronze for the metal, and Caramel Latte for the blades. Since it is so very cold outside, my spray painting takes creativity. I put the metal pieces in two large cardboard boxes, shook the paint really well and took one box at a time outside to spray the pieces and raced back inside with the box, it took some juggling. 

Even moving as fast as I could, it was still too cold. I think the bubbles that form the textured finish were small and didn't spread as well as they should have. The brass still peeks out a little, but I think it gives the color some depth.

More pictures of the transformation to come later.


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A Sad Day and a Plea for Advice

Today has been a rough day for one of my 11 yr-olds, Chandler. A close friend of his passed away last night and he is really struggling. I am at a loss, I don't really know what to say to him. I just want to make it all better, but I know I can't.

He knows that it is all part of God's plan, and that she is no longer hampered by her crippled body; and he is happy for her. But he is really having a hard time with the fact that he didn't even get to say good-bye.

How do you handle situations like this with your kids?

Milk Can House Numbers

My brother-in-law stopped by with this milk can a couple of weeks ago, asked if I wanted it, and said that he would like to see what I came up with. I hope he approves.

I chose to paint our house numbers on it. I used my Silhouette to create a stencil out of vinyl, I had planned to use contact paper; but I guess I ran out. For anyone considering a digital craft cutter for vinyl, paper and cardstock; I would suggest checking out the Silhouette. It hooks up to my computer and can cut any font that I can download along with tons of designs. I LOVE MY SILHOUETTE!

I scrubbed the milk can a bit, no need to rough it up with sandpaper; it was rough enough already. I chose to paint it Satin Black, so it would stand out against our house. 

This is the kind of weeding I like, I have always planned to get the fun tools to do this; 

but a sharp paring knife works so of course, I haven't.

I masked the can off, so the paint wouldn't overspray. Then I used my fun spray outside and run back in with the project technique. I am sure that anyone driving by would wonder what in the world I am doing running in and out of my house and 10:30 at night. This time I went fast enough and didn't end 

up with any wrinkles from the cold in my paint.

I left it inside for a couple of days to make sure that it was really dry, and then took it outside where it will likely stay. I don't love taking pictures of my house in the winter, but this summer it will look great with flowers all around. The milk can has already made it through a couple of snowstorms and still looks great.

 

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Birthday Gifts-fun take on Magnet Boards

I hope you are not tired of Magnet Boards. I find a use for them all over my house. We have such a tiny little space, everything has to have a purpose; looking cute is just not enough. These are the latest that I created, although they don't get to stay at our house. (Chan paid the ultimate kid-compliment, he is DYING to have one in his room...but with a "C" he was careful to request).

These are some boards that we made for a birthday party that Cort and Chan were invited to. (These are not the best pictures ever, we were late, of course, and were racing to the party.)  They are great friends with the birthday boy as well as being second cousins. I love it when you can call and talk to the mom a little about the gift first. Since she is one of my best friends, I knew that she was in the process of re-doing her boys' room.

Cort and Chan requested a magnet board as a gift, so I called to find out colors, and whether she wanted 3 small boards or 1 large. I love the way these turned out, even though the boys ended up carrying them like pizzas on the way to the party because the sealer that I used still wasn't dry.

Chandler specifically requested matching magnets. Technically, only two of them are birthday gifts, the J is for his brother (since they share a room, we didn't want to leave him out).

The frames were really simple, although we realized that we should have cut the dado a little deeper; there were little gaps; but at that point we were LATE! so it didn't get adjusted.

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What was I thinking?!!

I am sorry for the delay in posting the winner of the Wha-Cha-Ma-Call-Ums give away. I don't know what I was thinking! When I told my sweet husband about the give away/contest I was hosting he laughed at me. I can't make a decision to save my neck. He always has to help me decide...

So now I get about 38 fantastic suggestions and I have to choose just one. I finally chose my 5 favorite and then used the random number generator to choose for me.

The winner is Love Signs by Maridith at Strictly Homemade. She has a great blog, with fun ideas, check it out. E-mail me with your address Maridith, and I will get your kit on your way.

(Please confirm your word and color choice.

For everyone else, I will post a tutorial soon so you can make your own Love Signs.

Have a great day!

Try, Try Again- XOXO Framed Glass

I really struggle to visualize what something is going to look like before I make it. I generally go through several steps to finally get it to the point that I am ready to share it with others.

This simple little framed glass is one example of that.

I have to say right off, that I am sorry I don't have more pictures of the process here. I accidentally deleted all 1100 or so pictures from my camera a couple of days ago aargh! and these were some that I hadn't yet downloaded.

Anyway, I loved the XOXO in red vinyl right off. I cut it out, and mounted it on the glass, framed it and tied some ribbon on and hung it on my wall. Quick and easy, just my kind of craft,

I was planning to make several for gifts and for my etsy shop.

I looked at it a few times in passing and decided to add some little half-back pearls as accents. Cute, but they didn't stand out enough. I figured that if I added some more white to the design it would tie in better.

I added a white vinyl layer to the first O and it lasted like that for about an hour.

It looked way too bullseye target-ish.

I tried adding more ribbon, but it just wasn't working for me.

Then I added a cute white scalloped background, it was a nice background for the XOXO but I lost the fun transparency of the glass, so off it came.

I finally stumbled upon the idea of matting the entire design with white, and I love it.

I would love to be talented like a lot of you are and able to visualize the end result without actually putting it together. It would be nice not to waste all that vinyl. ;)

Have a great day! I hope all your projects turn out just like you imagine, or maybe even better!

BTW if you are interested, I would be happy to cut some of this vinyl for you for a reasonable price, just contact me at swells154@gmail.com. 





Linking to:
Craftaholics Annonymous Valentines Party

Thank you for the blog award!

A great big thank you to Michelle at My Craft Happiness for sending this award my way.

Instructions:

• To accept you must post it on your blog along with the name of the person who granted you the award and link back to them.
  
•  Pass the award on to approximately 15 other bloggers that you have recently discovered and think are great.
• Contact the bloggers and let them know that they have been chosen for the award.
• List 3 things that you would like to learn how to do.

I would like to learn to:

• take really good pictures
• paint
• use photo editing software

I am passing this award on to:

• Sumo's Sweet Stuff 
• Bridget at Everyday Chaos
• Cheri at It's So Cheri
• Erika at Little Miss Crafty Pants
• Lyndsey at Lyndsey's Craft Spot 
• Make it Do 
• Anna at Noodleheads
• Tanya Percolating Projects 
• Lip Lickin' Recipes  
• Relatively Unique 
• Life as Lori 

Thank you Michelle.