Craftastic!

a few of the things I've been working on...





distressed frame with chalkboard finish with last name monogram for sister.
--White picture frame from Michaels with half off coupon. Used several different "distressing techniques"--first distressing ever! Spray painted glass with 3 coats of chalkboard paint (cheaper if you buy the paint at Wal-Mart versus hobby/craft store). Painted an unfinished wooden "B" from Michaels black.



First time using chalkboard paint. Later learned to buy $1 frames from Dollar Tree to practice on. Turns out 12 hours in between each coat is better than 1 hour :)

first set of napkin rings!
--Unfinished napkin rings from Hobby Lobby/Michaels spray painted with textured spray paint. Decorative buttons from Michaels with 40% off coupon applied with hot glue gun.

same as above but hand painted with acrylic paint.

middle one: napkin ring idea for girl birthday party. Other 2: idea for baby girl shower (the rattles have little orange balls in them and actually rattle)! Hand painted.

First 2: idea for boy birthday party. 3rd one: idea for baby boy shower. Hand painted.

Next project...
--in the process of turning chunks of two by four-type wood into barnwood (quite a process). Will paint and distress and nail on this antique guest towel hanger (found for $3.99 at an antique shop)!

Cork board in the making...
--Deep wooden frame from Michaels with half off coupon. Wine corks from all over the world bought in bulk on Ebay(cheap and worth the shipping). Will hand paint with acrylics and distress. Will hot glue wine corks.

And this is only the beginning! :)

Today was so pretty outside...not a cloud in the sky, 70 degrees, sunny. I took a 5 mile walk with a best girlfriend and after couldn't resist my (almost weekly...eeek...thanks to almost weekly half off coupons) trip to Michaels.
After, I drove around in true-sunroof open, windows down, hair a-flyin', music blarin', arm out the window, I'm enjoyin' this weather and am trying to soak it in before having to be stuck inside from 8-5 Mon-Fri-fashion, pulling over my car whenever I saw something cool to take a picture of with my Holga. Ahh and then when I got home I just couldn't help but take a few photos of the amazing roses in bloom just outside my door when the sun was at that perfect place in the sky that you could take a picture of a tree stump and it would turn out amazing. So here's a few...






And my favorite...a peach rose! Who knew?



Much love!

Crafty Miss Crafterson...

So Etsy and Tannehill Trade Days are a callin' my name! I have been sandin' painting, carving, gluing, clippin' and printin' coupons for Michaels and Hobby Lobby, goin' to antique stores in search of cheap, unique items that are just waiting for me to take my paint brush and sandpaper to them. I am having so much fun "creating" and excercizing the right side of my brain (I think it's the right side). It's addictive. It's healthy. It's my therapy. Even if I never sell one of my "creations", I will be satisfied.

My favorite part of all this "creating" is that I have just found crap or scraps of stuff and made something beautiful out of it. Ahh, how this is so true of life. Kinda like the ole' saying, "when life give you lemons, make lemonade". When life hands you troubles and stuff we view as scraps, crap, the stuff we don't need or could really do without (aka: heartache, loss, suffering, dropping your smoothie in the middle of Old Navy, while trying to balance it and an armful of clothes and it exploding when it lands, in a 4 foot radius of you and ending up on a not kind lady's white linen pants- yes, this happened to me today and i still cannot believe I was LITERALLY in the very middle of the store and the lady who it spilled on had her Sunday best on)...you can take all of it and get something beautiful out of it. Like...grace, patience, kindness, strength, capability, wisdom, understanding, gratitude, humility.

It's amazing how an old piece of wood that has been in your garage for years can teach you a valuable lesson. Ahh, this thing called life. How beautiful but yet tragic it can be at the very same time. All you can do is have an open heart and know that nothing is for certain and things can change at the drop of a smoothie...err...dime.

Pictures of my "creations" to come...

Here Comes The Sun Again...

Sometimes...after the nasty, gloomy, dark clouds roll in and rain pours down...sometimes as the skies are clearing up, or even sometimes before the skies start to clear up and there are still the dark clouds looming, just hangin' out...there sometimes... comes a rainbow. This has always amazed me. I think it's the sometimes part that gets me. The rarity of it. It doesn't happen every time it rains or storms. It's rare...and that makes it all the more beautiful. It happens so seldom that still to this day, whenever I catch a glimpse of a rainbow, no matter how big or bright it may be, where I may be or who I'm with, I find myself staring and pointing saying, "Look! A rainbow!"
It serves as a great reminder that even after the nastiest of storms...something beautiful can come of it. And...the sun will always shine again.

No, I haven't seen a rainbow lately, but I was reminded of them this past week. As the pattern of life goes...there are the rough patches which are necessary for the so called blanket we are weaving...called life. But to truly enjoy the beautiful parts of life...we must endure the crappy parts...or the storms that sometimes, bring...a rainbow.

It's been a rough week but at the lowest of my low...I kept in mind that there must be a rainbow at the end. And when I see it...my, will it be a site to gasp and point at.

See...rainbows might lose their beauty and uniqueness if they appeared after each and every storm. Life isn't all rainbows and butterflies and that is exactly what makes rainbows and butterflies so...well...rainbow and butterfly-ish.

It sometimes seems impossible to keep this positive spin on things but it makes you stop and wonder how we ever get down when we have this promise? I say...screw it! I say...more power to the people who own rose-colored glasses, the constant-smilers, the stargazers, the glass-half-full people, the dreamers out there!

So what do the ones who have lost their rose-colored glasses or see their cup as half-empty do? We put on our big girl panties and deal with it. We pull ourselves up by our bootstraps...errr...stilettos...or flip flops...and we move right along. We keep going. We keep going...knowing the clouds will clear, the rain will dry, the sun will come out again and sometimes...we will get to point and gasp...at a rainbow.

...and become the glass-half-full persons we know we can be...or already are.