Sands in an Hourglass

Seriously, I have no time for anything lately. I still have gifts to wrap, and baking to do, and groceries to get, and dogs to board, and Guilder to frame for it.

Just seeing if you’re paying attention.

Every year I tell myself the same thing: I’ll start to wrap and decorate early. And as usual, something happens. Obviously, the accident played a HUGE part this year. But c’mon! I can use gift bags instead of wrapping paper. I just have this….block, for lack of a better term. The Christmas tree is finally up, but I have yet to put up the stockings. Or the garlands. Or the mistletoe ball.

And I just remembered the outside lights. Eh, forget that. I don’t have enough strings of lights to spell “D-I-T-T-O” anyway.

Maybe if I do the tree like that next year, I won’t have to worry about gift wrapping.

I hope I’m not the only one procrastinating. Am I?? 😀

My Inner Muse Has Laryngitis

I can’t think of anything to write for today. I have to go grocery shopping, and then have the kids help with decorations and cleaning. On the upside, I get to completely supervise. On the down side, anything on the tree that I can’t reach will necessarily stay there.

That goes for lights outside, too.

My house is the one on the right…

Anyway, I hope my muse gets better soon. Until then, have a great Saturday 🙂

What a Mesh

Seriously, decorative mesh is awesome!!

My sister Reno Queen made those for her front door, because her house is so far from the road, she wanted them to be seen. A wreath just looks like a splotch on her door. You can download the instructions for it: How to make a Santa

You can find deco mesh in any hobby store, but some florist suppliers usually carry it for far less, so shop around!!

Hm….I wonder if you can make a wreath with those bath poufs, too. Yay!! PROJECT!!! Time to drive down to the Dollar Store wait for Hubby to come home to drive me to the Dollar Store.

GAH!! I hate waiting… 😉

If You Wait Until the Last Minute, It Only Takes a Minute…

Seriously, I am not the biggest procrastinator around. But for some reason, I completely thought I had plenty of time to make ten Christmas cards for a swap I am attending this evening.

I only have to die-cut the ornament pieces, paint them, decorate them, measure the cardstock, decorate the front of each card, embellish the ornaments, embellish the card, adhere everything, and voíla!! I will be done.

In a couple of hours….

Hope y’all have a more productive Friday 😉

Struck by Lighting

Sorry for my absence yesterday. I was busy playing chauffeur and had to go downtown to purchase myriad random stuff for the kidlets. And lack of sleep was sure not helping to motivate me.

Anyway, last week my friend Flower Girl and I went to a friend’s open house. I have to tell you, Flower Girl is obsessed with light fixtures. She went to Ikea waaaaaaaaaaay north of here JUST to get a light fixture for her bedroom.

I would be afraid to sneeze with that giant dandelion dangling over my head.

At the open house she fell in love with the drum-shaped fixture in the foyer. Unlike my foyer, my friend’s ceiling was at normal height, so the small fixture was just right for the space. Which then got me to thinking about my two-storey ceiling area in the foyer. It has a flush mount fixture the size of a salad plate, and with the lumens power of maybe two candles in a storm.

Seriously, it provides enough light to identify shapes. On the ceiling…

So now I have the lighting bug. And I thought that it would be easy to just find one and be done with it. But as usual, nothing that simple is ever easy. I had thought to get just a wrought iron looking pendant with maybe three bulbs. How hard could it be, right? OMG… There are different finishes, different metals, different lightbulbs, different cords, different everything! As the photos of fixtures swam across my eyes, I had a sudden thought: why not look for something more….Sithy?? And I found just the thing.

I can just see Hubby’s face when he walks through the door to that. After the “What the hell is that thing??” and before the “This is a joke, right?” he will just look at me and shake his head, wondering if it’s too early for a drink. Which is silly because he should know that a drink would be waiting for him on account of me getting a Sithy light fixture. I am that considerate. Besides, he would eventually realize it could be worse.

I could go out and acquire a giant metal chicken 😉

Because Stained Carpets Means Move Furniture, or Something.

Today I decided to tackle the stains in my carpeting. I have Berber carpet, so it’s maddening to get anything off, but I was willing to try some ammonia to it. Only I couldn’t find the ammonia, so I used Oxy-Clean™. Y’all know Billy Mays is smiling down at this very minute. Anyway, right beside Hubby’s nightstand is a stain from when he spilled water with lemon juice. It has always bugged me, and I decided that I was going to scrub it, as soon as I finished scrubbing the red wine stain that is right by the bathroom door, from when he spilled his glass a few nights ago.

He’s not clumsy. Considering these two spillages occurred five years apart, he has a pretty good track record.

So, I get down to treat it, only there are fifteen books that I have to move. So, I decide to move the books, only to find the rest of his medical papers and lectures, so those get moved, as well. Pretty soon, there are five big stacks of books and stuff out of the way. And then I remembered the books he has under the bed because he has no place to put them. I’m sorry, but  THIS WILL NOT STAND!!!

Up the stairs I have a tall bookcase that is just displaying some of my many, many lighthouses. Hm…. my little braincell decides to twitch its axon and bother the dormant braincell and an idea is born. And this is what transpired:

• Remove all lighthouses, then shelves.
• Bring down behemoth, taller-than-me bookcase to room.
• Find out it doesn’t fit.
• Cry.
• Braincell reminds me of Son’s smaller bookcase.
• Go to Son’s room, remove books, and move smaller bookcase to my room.
• Fits fine!
• Move taller-than-me behemoth bookcase to Son’s room.
• Find that it fits only if I move the chests of drawers and the treadmill, which outweighs me by 300 pounds (137 kilograms for my foreign readers).
• Cry.
• Begin to move treadmill. Curse the earth where it was made.
• Move chests of drawers. Think of an explanation for Son. Braincell not co-operating.
• Keep moving treadmill. Swear to all that is holy to set it on fire at the earliest opportunity.
• Keep moving treadmill.
• Keep moving treadmill.
• Cry.
• Finally finish moving stuff around, set up Son’s room to normality levels.
• Come back to my room, set books on shelf.
• Remember the lighthouses.
• Cry.
• Begin taking boxes down.
• Finish putting almost all of the lighthouses away.
• Begin putting boxes back up.
• Remember stain, the little thing that began the whole journey.
• Scrub a bit, stain still there.
• Scrub harder, stain remains.
• Places old book over stain.

Luckily, the red wine stain came off just fine. Otherwise I would have been forced to dye my carpet a nice maroon 😉

Down to the Wire

I have been crafting like mad, trying to get a bunch of Christmas presents done well before Christmas.

This year, I WILL BE ON TIME!!!

Ok, I will try. But I do have a lot of incentive. This year we are travelling down to my brother-in-law’s for Thanksgiving. Which means I want to have all of their gifts done so they can have them under their tree. Of course, that also means taking down gifts for the rest of the family in the area. And that also means birthday presents because December was a good month for those who celebrated St. Patrick’s Day.

This is me, only not young, male, or blond.

And no, I can’t post any of the stuff I’m making because there are some recipients that actually bother to read this fluff. So, y’all will have to wait until after Christmas. But that’s ok. I’m making plenty of other crap with which to bore you, so don’t despair 😉

Out of My Gourd

I love pumpkins. As an Aggie, I had…. issues with their color for a long time, but once I had my first slice of pumpkin pie, my issues were over. Carrots weren’t such a big deal because Texas A&M figured out a way to make maroon ones. But not pumpkins, which is a real shame because I bet a maroon pie would look amazing.

Anyway, yesterday I showed y’all the paper mache, or if you are a stickler for correct terminology, papier-mâché pumpkins. I had waffled around trying to figure out what to do with them for months. But finally I managed to decorate them.

First, I applied a thin coat of medium and laid strips of Ideaology™ tissue as I went along, pressing it into the curves. Once it dried, I sprayed some Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist™ in Tattered Leather, a dark brown, and then rubbed in Distress Ink™ in Spiced Marmalade, repeating the process twice. Once THAT was dried, I glued jute twine into the crevices for definition. I applied some Distress Ink™ in Peeled Paint to the stem, as well as to some Sticky Back Canvas™, also spraying it with the brown glimmer stuff. Then I cut out leaves from the canvas, peeled the backing off, and stuck it to some more tissue paper. I crumbled it, and then reformed the leaves to suit, gluing them to the stem. I curled some more twine and voìla! Rustic pumpkins for my Great Pumpkin Mantelscape of 2012!!

And yes, the big one in the middle is a mercury glass one that I purchased a while back. It is open in the bottom, so I placed some Christmas tree lights inside and light it during the holidays. I couldn’t light it for the pic because A) it would be too bright for my crappy phone camera, and 2) the extension cord was too short. After Thanksgiving it will be moved down to the hearth area so I can once again plug it in.

Oh, and I just remembered the rest of the pumpkins I have stashed away. I may or may not have enough room on the mantel, but hey, that’s what the fireplace is for 😉

Saturday Sithy

And I know just how they feel, especially after going junking for Eldest’s room stuff.

You have to start somewhere 😉

Have a great Saturday!!

Guest DIY Post!!!

My sister, Reno Queen, puts my DIY skills to shame. Actually, compared to her, I have no skills. I am a total and complete n00b. In my family, we all agree she is Bob Vila’s fraternal twin, only prettier and far younger. You need new screens? She builds them for you. New backsplash? She will cut tiles to fit and make a mosaic that would rival those of Pompeii. I’m telling y’all: the gal can do almost anything.

And I say “almost” because she never got around to working for SpaceX™.

Anyway, she was gracious enough to write a tutorial on making a beautiful work of art for your home. So without further ado, here you go!

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How I Planned to Paint Furniture and It Turned Into Some Other Craft 🙂

Supplies: Cabinet door, sander with 60 grit sand paper, Krylon™ Fusion paint in Satin Black, Paper towels, 180 Grit Sanding block, Stencil, Precious Metals liquid leafing, sponge paint applicator, E6000 and a Cross.

First you take your piece (in my case it was a sample cabinet door) and using 60 grit sand paper you sand off the original finish. (Image 1) I used my mouse because it is easier and faster, but if you don’t have one you can do it by hand (but it will take forever). Make sure you sand the grooves well. (Image 2) Make sure you do this in a well-ventilated area because dust will be everywhere!

Image 1

Image 2