Cassie's Stool

About two weeks before Christmas

Gaye and I decided Cassie needed a stool.

A fancy painted stool, 

ala MacKenzie Childs but not at the $295 price point.

 I have paint and I have power tools.

Better yet, I have a friend who is a craftsman extraordinaire!

A collaboration formed 

and Cassie had a stool in time for Christmas. 

Now we just need her to get born.

Details.

Quiet Toys

It was a totally new concept to Honey.

 I don't know that I felt the *need* for quiet toys

quite yet, but this was too cute 

not to make.

I'll link where I got the pattern.

The only thing I would do differently is, 

she suggests you make each piece double thickness.

I wish I would have thought to make the 

second side a different color.

I may make some new eyes with 

lashes and maybe some heels?

Oh the possibilities!

http://jocelynandjason.blogspot.nl/2011/11/mr-potato-head-quiet-book-pages-10-11.html?m=1

SteamPunk Frame

Steampunk is a subculture

Maggie explained to me. 

I had seen a girl with this way funky hat

in Valpo and asked her if I could take a picture of it.

I showed it to Maggie and 

she schooled me.

She also advised me only nerds were 

Steampunk. 

So, I'm a nerd too. 

As best I can explain, it's a subculture, 

that derives it's identity from 

kind of futuristic Jules Vern 

sort of stuff. 

Like around the era of steam power.

Kinda. 

But here:

The 

widgets, 

whosits, 

and 

whatchamacallits

make this Streampunk.

I had been wanting to try the technique

on the base of the frame.

The explanations all have you using glue

to create the raised pattern. 

I felt the fabric paint

would give me better control because of the 

fine tip and the paint would flow easier than glue.

It did. 

Once it's dry you just spray paint the whole thing. 

But I never leave good enough alone.

Necklace Rack

Yep, wine corks.

Frankenpants

Maggie taught me the concept. 

You take bits and pieces of existing clothing to 

make something new.

 I had these great pajama pants but due to 

a company policy that demanded employees wear pajamas to work, 

the bottom of this pair of pants got so beat up from outside wear

 that no amount of bleach was ever gonna fix them. 

And before you get all, what a great gig, 

you get to wear PJs to work,

it gets old.

Oh, and it was a pajama store.

Cute.

Gag.

Anyway, not one to throw anything away, 

one might recognize bits and pieces

(or long strips)

of Maddie's First Birthday dress.

Not taken from the dress itself, just the 

bits and pieces I had left over.

WaLa!

I've Been Doing A Little Crafting

It's a good thing Maddie is a girl.

Automatic Sprinklers

Kind of. 

Carol and Ava gave me this cute set of flower boxes

for Mother's Day.

I really like them but I put them on my front porch.

I don't think to water much on the front porch.

See that bit of glass peeking out on top, 

in the back?

TaDa!

(kind of like WaLa)

Those are bottles that I filled with water

and inverted into the soil.

The water will dispense as needed. 

Cool, huh?

Not my idea, I stole it from Viki.

But I do have my own bottles!

Giant Kerplunk

Remember that game with the marbles?

You had to pull pick up sticks out of the cylinder

and try to not make the marbles fall through?

Well, someone came up with a giant yard

version and they have called it

Shishkaball.

I had to read it a couple of times.

It was one of those things that most 

people look at and think, 

"that looks like fun." 

And then never think of it again.

I'm not most people.

I also put a spigot in a 

watermelon. 

Watermelon Dispenser

But it doesn't dispense watermelon.

 And in all honesty, it didn't dispense the 

white sangria I filled it with very well either, 

but it was a lot of fun nonetheless. 

Here are the parts it took.

To the guy at Home Depot's credit, he didn't

even flinch when he asked what I needed the 

spigot for and I replied a watermelon. 

The spigot was in plumbing, the 

hose washers in garden,

the flat nut kind of thing in electrical, 

and the reducing washer in hardware.

 Enjoy your day at The Depot.

Here's the order,

spigot and rubber washer,

watermelon,

reducing washer and nut.

I set the watermelon in a bowl to make it sit up

and it appears that was a good thing

because at the end of the night

the bowl was full of sangria.

Not quite sure where that came from.

Also, I had the fruit in a bowl on the side 

so you could add it to you glass

but it wasn't in the watermelon getting

in the way of the opening.

I chilled the melon in the fridge for a few

hours, it helped keep the sangria cold.

Next time I would save the top that I cut

off and place it back on to keep

it cooler and keep out any flying friends.

Oh, and PS, I 

pre-washed all those parts in 

really hot soapy water.

Pretty sure none of it was intended to go

into a watermelon.

Salt Painting

It's a bucket list item.

You make a design on paper using 

Elmer's glue.

We found it best to draw a design with

pencil then go over it with glue.

Then sprinkle liberally with salt.

Let it set up a bit and then shake off the excess salt.

The salt kind of stuck to the paper a bit

on the ones we didn't shake off. 

We did that yesterday so that

today it was all dry and ready for

the water colors.

 The more wet your brush is, the better. 

All you have to do is touch it to the salt.

It spreads on it's own.

 Happy Ava.

Here is one that I shook off while the glue

was still wet. 

It's hard to see in the pictures but the salt

left a crisper line here.

It was a fun project, 

we just might do it again. 

Ava wants to make them for 

"all the elderlys."

Watch out Carriage Oaks, 

I think she means you!

Whittling Down The Bucket List

Playdough.

Homemade.

We've made it before but really

wanted to do it again with

neon food coloring as opposed

to the regular.

This is regular.

THIS:

is neon!

Oh yeah!

Much better.

Here's the recipe:

3 cups flour

1.5 cups salt

6 tsp. cream of tartar

3 Tbsp. oil

3 cups water

Combine it all in a large pot and put over

medium heat. 

Start stirring!

Keep it up till it forms a ball and 

pulls away from the sides.

Ava asked how we would know

 when that happens, 

trust me, you'll know.

Then take it off the heat and divide for 

your different colors, add the color and 

start kneading. 

WaLa!

Summer Bucket List

I made one for Ava.

It's got about 25 items on it.

You've already seen one of them:

I thought this would be good for rainy days. 

This week may be pretty rainy so

we will most likely see more progress.

I have other items that involve money like,

movies and Chicago. 

There are some that are more

a time commitment like a

nature scavenger hunt.

There are arts and crafts like,

create a Monopoly board, 

make play dough.

Some that having a friend along

will be the most fun like,

water balloons.

And some stuff that we

can do any day/every day like,

the pool or the library.

I have made my life a bit easier by collecting

all the supplies for each of the projects

so that once we choose an activity or

project it's ready to go, 

like lots of salt for salt painting,

and t-shirts waiting to be decorated.

Today it's 

VBS, 

a movie, 

and

mural painting.

Like I said, it's going to be a rainy week. 

Way to put a bucket list to the test!

Lighting Bug

I saw these at the garden center 

last weekend and I thought, 

Hmmm, wonder if I can make one of those...

Turns out I can.

Just another good reason to keep that big box

of dead lightbulbs.

Batik-ish

Always on the lookout

for projects to keep 

one Ava busy, 

I happened across this one on 

Pinterest.

I gathered all the supplies,

pre-washed the t-shirts

and stashed it all for a 

rainy day. 

Or spring break as it turns out.

It's hard to tell from this photo but you use

the Elmer's Gel glue.

It's washable, very important. 

You just make a design on a pre-washed 

t-shirt and let it dry.

Then you water down some 

acrylic artist paints. 

And I mean 

Watered Down!

We really started to get the right

consistency towards the bottom of the 

shirt on the left.

After the paint dries you soak it in 

warm water to wash off the glue and then

toss it in the dryer to heat set the paint.

Nice!

That kept her busy for oh, 

about 1/2 hour!

WhereYou Gonna Put That?

My husband's mantra.

I spotted this while perusing the internet.

I was drawn to the bare wood on the sides.

I like the juxtaposition of the beautiful wood grain

against the elaborate floral design.

Now, what to paint, what to paint.

A little foray into my sister's basement

uncovered a small bookcase in the

exact wood finish.

It started it's life at

 7710 Oakton Street.

About a bazillion years ago.

Since then it has resided on

Winchester Way

and 

Hampton Course.

It's had a brief stop on

Prairie Street. 

Now, where does it go from here? 

Sometimes Creativity Just Takes

Time.

Remember this much maligned project?

http://makingitmerry.blogspot.com/2010/11/work-in-progressmaybe.html

I started on this table in 2010.

Today it has met it's destiny.

PS,
it's 2013,
for any of you keeping track.

Turkeys All Around!

 Remember this?

Shanna needed one.

As did her friends whom she will be doing 

a turkey day run with. 

And that is that.

Turkey Onesie

 Did I mention  Pintrest isn't just for recipes?

The best thing about making this myself is

that I could match the feathers to

the pants I found.

Here's hoping Maddie doesn't outgrow 

this before 

Thanksgiving!

Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder

Remember this?

Here's the journey:

There was a technique I saw on Pintrest that

I was anxious to try. 

Read: 

had to do it NOW, 

can't run to the store, 

where is there a canvas in the house?

Well, looky there!

A willing victim, 

er, participant!

So the technique is crayons hot glued to a canvas.

All the examples I saw were on blank canvases and, 

honestly, I was wondering what if there were some sort of pattern 

behind the crayons.

So, lucky me!

OK, you hot glue the crayons on and then using a 

blow dryer you melt the crayons. 

 Very cool, huh?

I used crayons that repeated the colors in the painting. 

The ones I've seen have been done in rainbow progression. 

All the comments I've read also tell you to use only

Crayola brand crayons. 

That makes sense, I would imagine you need the 

correct ratio of wax to color additive. 

Next time

 (because there will be a next time)

I'm going to try a heat gun and see if it goes faster,

or burns the paper off the crayons as Val wondered. 

I've had comments as to why I would ruin my painting.

 I don't feel I have. 

I rather think I have enhanced it.

And I had the perfect room for it. 

With the added bonus that my powder room 

now smells like a box of crayons!

Peeps Vase

This was a really cute idea.

And the pictures on the internet looked really cool. 

You get two vases, one smaller than the other,

place the one inside the other and then line the space

between with Peeps.

Easy.

In theory. 

Just try finding those two vases. 

The good news is I found acceptable containers at

Goodwill.

That's a rather smallish vase with a votive holder inside.

The chances to find a vase big enough to accommodate

another vase inside along with the width of Peeps

on all sides is 

slim to none.

I wound up freezing the Peeps, 

cutting them in half, coating the sticky backside

with cornstarch and smooshing them down between the two containers.

It works. And probably would look better with a different

choice of flowers but, hey, six roses as Aldi for 

four dollars and two "vessels" from Goodwill for 

three dollars means this 

whole little endeavor only set me back seven bucks. 

I'm good with that. 

And now the next time you see something on the internet and think, 

"How easy is that?"

You'll know, look to the details. 

The devil is in the details.