Oil Spill Disaster

Hey everyone...I haven't been very crafty the last few days as we have had so much going on....my creative juices are clogged with thoughts of oil oozing into our beautiful Gulf Coast...It has taken a toll on my desire to do anything but worry...Don't you hate when things you have no control over consume your every thought. I fear that after everything this area has been through the past few years we are about to feel the effects of Mother Nature like never before. Katrina packed a wallup but this is going to be just as devastating if not worse...our economy is suffering as it is..but we somehow managed to start rebuilding and rehabilitating what the Hurricane destroyed. Now life as we know it will come to abrupt halt...the lively hood that sustains many people from this area has already been closed. There will be no more commercial or recreational fishing in the areas affected by the oil leak. The restaurant owners will have to resort to purchasing from outside vendors for the food that they provide to our visitors and people who live on this gorgeous part of the country. They will have to incur more costs which will in turn be handed out to the locals to pay for, which will inevitably resort in the closing of some of the local restaurants. Our helpless wildlife is being affected and we have already seen deaths of sea turtles and birds on our shores and the oil hasn't even made it here..





So, I am at a loss of creativity. I am sad and grieving for my city and state. We have been through such tragedy and have scraped and clawed our way back to some sort of normalcy, a new normal, but things were getting better. Now I feel we are being hit below the belt. We are living through a disaster of epic proportion and I hope and pray that we won't be forgotten. That we don't become a sacrifice for big business. I ask the few of you who follow me, when you say your prayers please consider offering up a special one for the Gulf Coast. Please ask for guidance and vision for the higher ups who are addressing the oil leak. Please pray that they will find a way to preserve the beaches, the wildlife, the way of life for the people of this area. I will try and update everyone on what is happening and I can tell you that as of this afternoon there is no sign of oil on the shores, however, the smell is pungent and of course I've already mentioned the wildlife. Please keep us close in your thoughts and if you can volunteer or help in any way...please contact these numbers...MS Contacts for Oil Spill Response Information To discuss spill-related damage claims, please call (800) 440-0858. To report oiled or injured wildlife, please call (866) 557-1401. To report stranded dolphins or sea turtles, please call (888) 767-3657. To report stranded marine mammals, please call (888) 806-1674. To report oil on land, or for general community and volunteer information, please call (866) 448-5816.
Thank you to everyone and I will update everyone soon.

To Bird's Nest or not to Bird's Nest...that is the question??

Here we go with a new season and time for a new mantel. I have been inspired so much since I started blogging to try and bring out the creativity in myself. I think sometimes women get so busy with doing daily chores and mundane tasks, they forget how to use their minds and body in ways that reflect how creative they are. I truly think God has given us all talents, we just have to take the time to figure out what they are....so anyway, I'm really trying to utilize my ability or so-called talent of being a copycat. That's right..I admit it, I AM A COPYCAT!! So if you are worried about someone using your ideas, you better block me as a follower, because I'm out there and ready to steal all the ideas. Seriously, when I see something that moves me into action, I do try to give it my own spin. But sometimes it's just difficult to improve on perfection. So while stumbling around bloggerland, I came across some beautiful mantels that were decorated in all white. I loved the look and how clean and crisp it seemed. So, I searched around the house and of course had a few white things but definitely not enough to fill the mantel. So off to the local thrift store and guess what I found...REALLY UGLY VASES AND PITCHERS.

YIKES!!! I know, but I only paid $6.00 for all of them....then sprayed them with white primer and then white spray paint....now look at them...

You'll notice that the little brown teapot that I picked up for a dollar isn't in the picture...when I was getting ready to paint it, I noticed the "Made in Occupied Japan" mark and thought, I just can't spray paint this. It probably isn't worth much, but the idea made me shudder...so I will use it somewhere else. I also want you all to know that if I ever had a job as a professional spray painter, I would be standing on the street corner for additional funds...I'm terrible!!! There are streaks and puddles all over these things, but hopefully I can hide them where nobody will notice.
So here is the finished product...


I made this plate with my cricut...it's just a dinner plate I had in the pantry and black vinyl design


Here is the debated bird's nest...she's crazy...it's precious!!


I've had these little iron bugs for quite awhile, I thought they looked sweet on the mantel to tie in the darker pieces.





I really like it; it isn't exactly what I had pictured, but I like all the same.I swapped out my mirror that I normally use above the fireplace with this white one I had in the garage. I added the little brown Occupied Japan teapot in and sprayed another little vase with ORB...it looks horrible up close, but unless someone is standing inspecting the mantel, they shouldn't be able to tell what a screw up it is...Then there is the bird's nest debate; my sister hates the bird's nest on the bud vase, she tells me when she comes over she will "flick it off"...what do you think? Bird's nest or no bird's nest?...I think it adds a little sumpin' sumpin'....plus I saw it on someone else's blog and thought it was adorable.
I look forward to everybody's input...good or bad I would love to hear it. Trust me, nothing anyone can say will compare to my sister and her bird's nest aversion, I say she's cuckoo, cuckoo!!!

My Front Door is Complete

So here is the completed front door with both of the re-purposed canvases. I love how they turned out and thanks to Amanda at Imperfectly Beautiful for the fantastic Cricut tutorial. I am so thankful to find out that I don't have to hand place letters onto things anymore. Thank heavens for helpful bloggers or I would be completely craft challenged. Happy Blogging everyone!

Trash to Treasure...with a little help from SCAL

I have completed my project that I've been working on for about a week. Butterbean and I stopped by a thrift store a week or so ago and found these not so clean but lovely canvases...I especially liked the Fleur de Lis scroll on the top of them.




I asked the sales lady how much they were and she sort of made up a price of $3, then quickly added "a piece"...well, honestly I didn't really want to pay $6 for something I may or may not be able to re-purpose, so I asked her if she would go lower...she told me "NO"!!! So I begrudgingly put them back and low and behold, guess what??? Those not so clean canvases suddenly went down to $2 a piece....YAY ME!!! Anyway, I began to pay for these jewels and call it karma, bad luck or what have you...but I had no cash and the "oh so helpful" sales lady didn't know how to use the credit card machine...Oh well, it wasn't meant to be...Butterbean and I loaded up in the car dejected and somewhat annoyed that my husband was right about me maybe needing cash one day (I never carry cash, it just clutters up my purse), when I look over and see something shining at me like a great big beacon of "buy what you want" joy. I scraped together enough quarters, dimes and nickels to buy my coveted art....
Now that I had them home I sprayed them with the garden hose, because I was a little heebed out about where they may have come from. They dried and I removed the great Fleur de Lis scroll and spray painted it with my favorite crafting item...ORB. Then I painted over the somewhat hokey art work that was currently on the canvas with an acrylic paint. I let it dry and reattached the scroll....wow, I loved it.





But then I was really perplexed as to what to put on these newly re-purposed canvases. It took me about a week to decide that I wanted to monogram them. But what type of monogram would I use? I only have two Cricut cartridges and the letters on them aren't that great. While lamenting I decided that this would be a great time to bite the bullet and download SCAL (Sure Cuts Alot). Per my previous post, I had a coupon code and it was on sale at Craftedge. Boy am I glad I did...this is the result....I have never been so pleased about a purchase in my life. If you have a Cricut...you definitely need SCAL. Right now, open a new tab and buy it. It is the best investment ever.


So what do you think, this is just one, I am probably going to do the other one the same way and hang them on my doors for the summer. I love them and especially for $4.
If you have a suggestion about what to put on the other one let me know...I haven't started it yet and would live everyone's input. Happy Tuesday!!

I'm in LOVE!!!

Hello everyone, I know I have been MIA for the past few days but I have the greatest excuse ever....I finally bit the bullet and trusted all my blog peeps that have taken the giant step before me and downloaded SCAL (Sure Cuts Alot) to use with my Cricut. And to be perfectly honest....I am completely in love with it. I have ignored everything for the past few days except my new found toy. My husband is starting to feel neglected. If you haven't heard of SCAL...or if you have been reluctant to purchase it...run, don't walk, to CraftEdge and purchase it now. You can use any image available to you on the internet to cut out on your Cricut. It is the most fantastic addition to the Cricut I have ever seen... No more $90 cartridges...no more trying to find a place to store all my boxes of $90 cartridges, no more trips to Hobby Lobby and Michaels to look for $90 cartridges and did I mention...NO MORE $90 CARTRIDGES....It was so simple, inexpensive (a mere $53 after a coupon code) and I'm ashamed I was such a "doubting Thomas"...I should have taken the advice of the talented Blogger's World and done it months ago. I did have to download Inkscape to use along with it...this will convert any jpeg. file into the svg. file that Cricut uses...but it was free and very simple to use...I will be posting pics of what I have been working on when it is complete...I just can't decide with everything that is now available to me, what to use for a design.
So I apologize for being a slacker and I hope to do better with my new toy....be sure to come back soon to see what projects I've completed. Happy Sunday!!

Re-post....Shower Caps for kids!!!

My kids love to wear a shower cap...I don't know what the fascination is with these plastic head wraps, but they are the biggest fans...So, I thought to myself this year for Christmas I would buy them one of their own...They have been wearing mine, it is huge on them of course, but safety pins are a fix all for all things big. Anyway, much to my chagrin, there is no such thing as a child size shower cap...yeah, yeah, I know what you are thinking, sure there is, you've probably seen them hanging in the dollar store, but what I meant to say is there aren't any "really cute" shower caps for kids....So what's a crafty gal to do....make her own!!! I found fabulous caps for kids in the UK...but who knows how to purchase something from over there and honestly I just don't understand the whole money conversion thing...I'm sort of math challenged. I can't even do my six year olds first grade math, much less change euros into American money...but I did find a website belonging to our British neighbors that had stylish and fancy caps. I scoped out the design and went to my favorite store, Hancock Fabric, and wouldn't you know it, they had satin fabric on sale for 50% off...it was meant to be...a deal!!! I bought all the notions and accessories and headed home to venture into the unknown...I cut out a pattern from old wrapping paper (it was the biggest thing I could find) and used a shower curtain liner that I hadn't opened for the inner lining. They turned out FANTASTIC!!! I have posted pics here and on my Facebook page and wouldn't you know it, I've already gotten an order for one...I think I might try and sell them...you never know this could be my fortune...I could be the "Shower Cap Lady"...hmmm...we'll see, my friend Denise says they are awful...it's a good thing I like her or I would make one for her kids for Christmas...I know they would love it...her youngest would probably want to wear it to school!! Happy showering everyone.

Our Work Here is Done!!

We are now finished with our Easter preparations...here is the Sunflower Peep Cake we made...well, Butterbean helped...Sweetpea was too busy with her program "Sonny With a Chance" to be bothered with helping. But it turned out precious. If you haven't seen them done before, there are numerous examples on the internet, however, we did ours a little different. Instead of the Peeps being upright, we turned ours upside down, that way we got more of a sunflower petal effect. Then we added a fondant ladybug (note to self..remember to slather hands with Crisco before coloring your fondant next time, now I have nice red hands for Mass tomorrow) and we used cocoa powder to color the middle above the chocolate chips. Let me know what you think and we are off the enjoy the rest of the afternoon!

Easter Eve....

Happy Easter Eve everyone...we had a busy day yesterday and I wanted to share some of the pics. First off, Sweet Pea lost a tooth (it had been hanging on for dear life for approximately 4 months) so the tooth fairy finally showed up to do her duty...But prior to her midnight run, we needed to take care of some serious Easter activities. We dyed 3 dozen eggs, using store bought dye (I hit the motherlode last year at a clearance sale).


We also made Resurrection Rolls...this was a huge hit with Sweet Pea..she loved it and truly got the concept, however, Butterbean insisted that I tricked her and removed the Jesus marshmallow. That kid, she is so skeptical of everything. If you have children, I highly recommend this easy recipe. It really hits home with them and I think it helps them understand that Easter isn't about the Easter Bunny. Anyway, here is the recipe for Resurrection Rolls:

Resurrection Rolls

Ingredients:
1 can refrigerated crescent roll dough
8 large marshmallows
Melted butter
Cinnamon
Sugar

Directions:
Give each child one triangle shaped section of crescent roll. This represents the tomb.
Each child takes one marshmallow which represents the body of Christ.
Dip the marshmallow in the butter and roll in cinnamon and sugar mixture. This represents the oils and spices the body was anointed with upon burial.
Lay the marshmallow on the dough and carefully wrap it around the marshmallow.
Make sure all seams are pinched together well. (Otherwise the marshmallow will "ooze" out of the seams)
Bake according to package directions.
Cool.

Break open the tomb and the body of Christ is no longer there!!



Please pay no attention to the "lovely" tablecloth on the table, it is our crafting cloth...UGLY...I KNOW!!!




After eggs and rolls, our in-laws came over and we celebrated my MIL's birthday...our niece and her dad came over as well, so we of course had to dye more eggs...It was a great day, today we will complete our Easter activities...I think we are going to attempt a Peep sunflower cake. I have been seeing them on different blogs and really think they are adorable. I'll post pics when it's completed. Have a great Saturday...

Keep Calm and Carry On...Mirror Redo

Happy Thursday everyone!!! I feel so creative this week and have wanted to start all kinds of projects that I have been putting off...well, here is one of them. I have had this mirror for close to 10 years. I have had it propped against every wall in the house and just haven't found the right place for it. My home isn't really shabby chic style, but I loved this mirror and it was a steal at the time.




Anyway, I have been redecorating my girls bathroom and decided that this would be the perfect place for the mirror. but it still looked too plain. I have been seeing all these wall plaques with the British phrase "Keep Calm and Carry On"...I loved them, but again, had nowhere in my home that it would fit in. With a little help from my Cricut, I have finally found the perfect place. Here is the big reveal on my simple mirror re-do. Please forgive the photos, my bathroom is tiny and I couldn't get directly in the center of the mirror or I would have been sitting in the sink.




I will be posting the girls bathroom reveal very soon, I just have a few small touches left to complete. Have a great day...oh...and I will be leaving for Africa today for a month long safari that I won on a local game show...pfffft!!!! APRIL FOOLS!!!!


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