Past-Due Christmas post

In the beginning, this was going to be an ornament - as in a tree ornament, however in the end it seemed more fitting for a doorknob  or armoire ornament.  

I started off with a 3 inch styrofoam ball. and some coordinating fabrics.  I snipped the edge of the fabric to allow me to tear the fabric into strips. They were about 1" wide and ended up being about 7" long.  I folded the strips in half and put a dab of hot glue on the ball and adhered the loops to the ball.  I did this over and over until the ball was full.  

On great thing about this project is that you can take it anywhere.  I literally took my gallon zip lock with my fabric, scissors, ball, pins and glue with me and when I had a few minutes waiting in the car or something I would work on it.  Another great thing is that it would be great for kids too - especially if you opt not to use hot glue *see below*.

On the others I made, I found that it worked better if I used no-sew fabric glue and quilting pins. By putting a dab of glue on the ball then securing it by taking a quilting pin through the fabric and sticking into the ball. After it dries you can just twist the pin out but I just left mine in - they couldn't be seen. The glue gun, after a while, got too hot and I would have to unplug it to cool it down and start over. A "too hot" glue gun and a styrofoam ball aren't a good mix :) Another thing I found was that I liked using the 2 1/2 " ball a little better....sounds small but it still ended up being a really nice size.

Wish I had thought to take pics of the other balls before I gave them away.  They ended up being hostess gifts for Christmas parties we went to.  These pics are of one I made with more whimsical fabrics. The others had fancier fabrics because some of our friends (and their homes) are pretty fancy ;)

I was thinking this would be so cute in red or pink, white and black for Valentine's Day.  Maybe I'll try to fit that in soon. 

Like Old Times

It has been FOREVER, but today I made bread. It is SO good and with bread baking our home feels all nice and cozy! I buy our wheat and other grains from BreadBeckers . If you go to their website, you will find all the info you need on milling your own wheat and why it's so healthy for us!  It does take a bit of time - of which there isn't much of around here but once you get the hang of it, it can be done pretty quickly.  My husband and my kids LOVE it - and with 3 teenagers in the family there isn't many things I can say that about! :) I hope that I can get around to making it more in 2009 (one of my goals). At this point, even an occasional baking session is ALOT more than what I have been doing of late! 

So, my encouragement to you is - Is there something you used to do around your house or for your family you haven't done in a while?  A yummy dessert you used to fix, a favorite casserole, a special b'fast? What about calling an old friend? Or touching base with a neighbor? If so, plan a day to do it! 

Is this considered Re-Gifting?!?!?

I don't know if you ever bought really nice blank artist canvases but they aren't cheap! Of course, I normally try to get them on sale or with a coupon but recently I found some great canvases (already painted) at Hobby Lobby (LOVE that place!) on clearance.  Some were long and some were square but all had 1 1/2 inch sides and were gallery canvases - meaning they didn't have staples on the edges. They also were ready to hang with wire already on them....so I bought them all.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know that if and when you see canvases on sale that are already painted - don't be scared of them! Yes, you can use them! Buy them!!!  and cover up what is already there.  That is a great way to get awesome prices on canvases.  You can staple fabric on them, decoupage them, paint them - the sky's the limit!  

So, I painted this for my friend's birthday. I hope she likes it!

Here is one before I repainted it.

Here it is painted with a few thin coats of a base color, then some decorative free-handing.  The fabric next to it was the pattern inspiration. Still gotta spray some sealer on it.

Another shot of the fabric - Amy Butler, not sure of the actual name.

Kim Wheeler - Painter Extraordinaire!

Ok, I have to tell all of you about this amazing artist I have been following for quite some time.  I came across Kim Wheeler's blog  and loved it from the first time I saw her work.  This Christmas she came up with the cutest idea to make some decorative canvases.  She was SO overwhelmed with orders that she had to tell people she couldn't take any more. BTW, she has 4 little kids too! Anyway, I attempted to make some canvases like hers (since her orders were closed) for my house.  They lack her special touches - she adds shimmer and some bling to her canvases -  but they will have to do until I can get an original Kim Wheeler work of art one day!

She can do anything it seems!  You will see that quickly by viewing her gallery and the various patterns she creates for different orders.

I even emailed her to tell her how much I admire her work and she might be coming to Atlanta soon and we might get together!! I'm so excited!  I will keep you updated! :)

A quick card holder

Yes, I realize it has been a LONG time since I last posted.  I have the great privilege of decorating our church and since Thanksgiving that is what I have been doing....along with planning many events! I didn't even get my own tree and decorations up until the 18th at 2am!!

While tidy-ing up on Saturday morning, I found myself with a stack of Christmas cards needing a home.  I, of course, wanted to display them but no where seemed suitable then I remembered I had an empty frame and some chicken wire (don't ask me how I had chicken wire!!)! So I took the frame out to the garage and started stapling chicken wire to the back of it.  It took about 10 minutes from start to finish! I brought it back in and propped it on our little buffet in the dining room.  I took some small clothespins I had and pinned the cards and pictures to the wire and had a great display!

BEFORE

STAPLE WIRE TO FRAME

TRIM END

READY FOR DISPLAY!

You mean I missed Halloween!?!?!?

Just kidding!  But it DID fly by! Somehow it got lost with everything else I had going on.  I used to make awesome costumes for my kids but now they just pulled something together on their own. (granted, they are 13 & 16 and one is a college freshman!!) But for some reason my girls wanted to Trick-or-Treat this year.   It's the latest craze amongst teens - pretend for one night that you're still little!! I actually like that they want to stay young for a bit!

Our son did come home for the weekend and I did help him with his makeup - he was the Joker from The Dark Knight.  He came home because we had tickets to see Wicked! If ever you have a chance to go see it...GO! It is SO worth every penny! The minute it was over, I wanted to see it again!

Anyway, I didn't get a chance to post some altered letters I did and I will give you a peek at my mantle - or should I say my dusty mantle but hey! who wants to dust when there is paper to play with?!?! I love mantles!! The jack-o-lanterns have been taken down and put away for another year but it is still ready for Thanksgiving. :)

If you were wondering....here's a peek at what I've been up to lately!

I was working on an event for our annual Mission's Conference where I work (First Baptist Church of Atlanta).  My sweet friend Tracey, our assistant pastor's wife, was put over the annual Shower of Love - an event for the women missionaries and I got to plan the event with her.  That's my job at FBA. Isn't that the best job ever!?!? I plan events/parties and get paid for it!!!

White paper lanterns were hung to bring the ceiling line down, table linens were floor length (LOVE that!), individual bottles of sparkling lemonade and REAL dishes were at each place setting.  It was an banquet type event for our missionary women, who were visiting for the conference, and the women of our church bought tickets to come.  The whole event is to get the know the missionaries on a more personal level and to "shower them with love".  We made prayer books with the awesome Bind-It-All for each person!  Yes, all 210 people in attendance had a prayer book at their place setting!! The chipboard cover and the 80 or so pages of each book all punched by hand!! So if you were wondering if that little manual machine was durable, the answer is YES! And if you were wondering if our hands were sore, that answer is also YES!! 

At the end of the event we gave each missionary a monetary gift but we wanted to give it in a unique way so we came up with the idea of a origami type money flower.  I was thinking more along the lines of a bouquet of money roses, but Tracey found a pattern that was an even better idea.  She made each of the 33 missionaries a corsage out of crisp bills and then put them in corsage containers. They were SO adorable! 

So now on to Christmas for me but keep checking back because I have some fun stuff coming up for EveryDay with Marcus and Lisa!!