Better Than Biting Nails

One of my kids’ friends won a scholarship to flight school. She aspires to be a pilot in the USAF. She is a very dedicated young woman and I have no doubt she will achieve her dreams. Tomorrow she will be doing her first solo flight, and has asked us to go watch.

She is just shy of 17 years of age.

And I am just shy of having a full blown panic attack.

It’s not that I doubt her abilities as a pilot. It’s just that ZOMGSHEISFLYINGSOLO!!! I am not sure I can handle that. And she’s not even my kid!! Usually when I am this nervous I tend to eat sweets, but that would means making a cake and having to explain to the kids why it’s gone. So today I shall be crafting my little black heart out, keeping my mind off tomorrow as much as possible. So, I’m going to the garage to find a book to murder to alter.

I’ve been dying to make this for my craft area, or for Little One to pilfer, and found the perfect book for it a few days ago, an old illustrated German book. This project looks like it can’t be messed up. If I do mess it up, I can always use the pages for something else, right?

Sharp blades and scissors always calm me down, so it’s worth a try 😉

Wednesday Sithy

I am away from here all day today, so y’all will just have to go on without me. It’s hard, but you can do it!

Ok, stop laughing.

Here’s a Sithy for y’all.

Alderaan would hurt like a….

Y’all have a great day 😀

By Popular Demand

Well, not really. But some of y’all wanted to see the flowers I was going to make from my wondrously wonderful felt.

It’s a dahlia. I am loathe to wear them because when I was little my grandmother taught me one of the Languages of Flowers and dahlias were considered the Flower of Death. But I can fool myself into thinking this is like a chrysanthemum, right? Anyway, I was going to make it into a brooch, but I think I will just make it into decor for my purse. Now I need a black purse so I can put this on it.

I can always find some way to justify anything.

Anyway, the sheet of felt was large enough to make this four inch beauty, plus plenty left over for another few flowers, as well. Which by the way, have been claimed by Little One. But not this behemoth. This one is all mine!!!

As soon as I get a purse for it 😉

UPDATE:

The tutorial on how to make this gorgeous flower can be found here.

Is It Spring Yet???

Nope, not complaining of the weather at all. For once. But for some reason I find myself itching to get home improvements started.

This is highly unusual. So much so that Hubby still can’t picture my vision. And it’s a GRAND one. This is my To-Do List for next weekend:

• Paint the main bathroom.
• Frame bathroom mirrors with stone tiles.
• Hang antique mirror in foyer.
• Update light fixtures with paint.
• Finish making light fixture for Little One’s room.

This does not include cleaning out and reorganizing the garage, which is a constant battle, truth be told. But I am making progress slowly. I took several garbage bagfuls to Goodwill, and thrown out crap that had been boxed up since North Carolina.

That was before Germany, which was ten years ago.

I am NOT a hoarder!!

Anyway, this week I will be prepping rooms and light fixtures and even wall decor. Hopefully things will be ready by next Saturday. But if I know Hubby, he’s hoping the majority will be done before then 😉

My Boring Life

Today finds me waiting with bated breath for the mail carrier. Why? Because the only thing I have to look forward to today is my shipment of felt.

Yes, the stuff we played with in elementary school to make Christmas decorations with Elmer’s Glue™ and popsicle sticks. But the felt I ordered is wool, so it’s more sturdy to use for the flowers I am addicted to making love to make. Hopefully this evening I will be sitting in front of the TV cutting out shapes in preparation to hot glue my fingers together make the pretty new styles I found on the interwebnets.

I did tell y’all my life is boring.

Anyway, I’m off to stalk the mailbox check to see if it’s here yet. Hope y’all have a far more exciting Saturday!! 🙂

Sacrilegious Awesomeness

This post has nothing whatsoever to do with Lent, or religion, so stop freaking out. It has to do with books.

Old books, in fact. Old, cheesy books. Old, moldy, cheesy books that no one wants, found in a dustbin at the the thrift store.

I’m trying to justify my actions here.

I found an old RD Condensed Edition book in a “free” bin, and my mind reeled. Who would just throw away a book?? It’s a BOOK!! You don’t just…. discard a book. You revere it, treasure it, pass it on to someone so that they can gather knowledge.

But this is a “condensed edition” book. Like the Cliff Notes™ of Society.

Anyway, I saw this and decided to try my hand at making one. Never would I have thought of doing it, save for the fact that it’s a condensed book from 1953 that no one wanted. Besides, I read it already. All four condensed books, of which I had never heard. So, I will mess around with it, and post my DIY instructions once I figure out all the bugs.

Hopefully there will be no bookworms 😉

Spring Loaded Cleaning

I know. It’s not spring yet.

I’m not loaded yet, either.

But I do have a lot of cleaning out to do. For years I have had all of my scrapbooking supplies in the storage closet upstairs. Also in that closet are the Christmas decorations. And last but not least, the many, many paperbacks I own.

Yes, I totally do this. And yes, I do look like Ginger Rogers, at least if you squint hard enough. And look straight into the Sun.

Anyway, today I am getting rid of a lot of stamps sets, scrapbooking papers, albums, and other what-nots. I’m sure there will be some kids toys and random crap I have shelved in there in a feeble attempt to “clean” before, but I am buckling down. No more Mrs. Nice Gal! If I don’t have a use for it, haven’t read it in a year, is out of style, or otherwise doesn’t contribute to the general well-being of the house, out it goes. I will endeavor to have before-and-after pics for y’all.

It will be like “Hoarders”, but on a very small scale. Miniscule scale. STOP JUDGING ME!!! 😀

A Place to Stick It

I use pins a lot. I use them not just for sewing, but also in my altered art. Pins are useful, needful things, aren’t they? You see them everywhere in your house, until you absolutely need one.

Then you can’t find one to save your hem.

Anyway, I decided to make a few pincushions from old tea cups for the Craft Pay-It-Forward. There are several tutorials on the internet and all are very easy to make, and have few variations. So, without further ado, here’s my simple tutorial on making teacup pincushions.

You’ll need:

• old teacups
• scrap fabric
• poly fill
• needle and thread
• scissors
• hot glue gun and glue sticks
• round template, like a salad plate

First, cut out a circle of scrap fabric using your choice of template. My teacups are about two and three inches in diameter, so I chose an eight inch salad plate for the larger cup, and a six inch dessert plate for the smaller cup.

Two Days Later

I know I am not getting off to a good start, keeping to my “one post a day” habit. But to be fair, I never made a resolution to do a post a day, so it’s not like I’m breaking one.

Today marks the Twelfth Day of Christmas, and Epiphany, which means it is now time to take down the Christmas decorations. But before I can do that,  have to filter out the unwanted decorations to toss out.

Along with the old lights that don’t work.

And the wrinkled wrapping paper saved through the years.

Oh, and who can forget the broken ornaments??

Normally this would be easy to do. However, the Christmas stuff is in the same storage area as my scrapbooking stuff, and of course, everything gets mixed up because that’s Newton’s Law at work with Murphy. No, I don’t know which Newton’s Law. I write for effect, not veracity. On top of that, I have not cleaned up after myself after the whirlwind craftmaking of the past few weeks. It looks like Archiver’s™ exploded.

So, today will be a very busy day. How do I know? I have been writing this post off and on for the past four hours.

Hope y’all’s Sunday is far less hectic!! 😀

Pins and Pretties

Well, start of the New Year, and no resolutions for me. That’s what Lent is for, in my opinion. But I want to be more social and make more friends, and if that’s a resolution, so be it. At least it’s a fun one!

Yesterday, my friend MsOz put up a challenge at the social-site-with-faces: 2013 Craft Pay-It-Forward. Basically, the first five people to reply get a handmade item from her, with the stipulation that those participating also place the same status on their social site and do a craft for others as well. After thinking and thinking and more thinking, I decided to make these:

Pincushions made from vintage tea cups! This one I made from leftover fabric and a cracked demitasse cup I found somewhere. So, today I am going out to scour the antique stores for lonely little tea cups in search of a home. I will post the tutorial later this week.

I don’t know if this would work with voodoo, but it would be fun to try 😉