My hands

This

... Is how I know I've had a great day playing!!! When I can't get my hands clean from spray paint, glue (hot glue blisters, needle pokes, scissor cuts) or other staining agents, you know I've been having fun. Yes, they don't look very pretty, they look plain dirty!! I can't keep nail polish on for the life of me.

But, when I look at my hands, and see how used and abused they can be, I smile and thank my good Lord.

I'm happiest when my hands show it!!!

Christmas came to our home!!!

Remember my pumpkins?!?!?!  I had so many, I couldn't figure out what to do with them all.

For Halloween I did these.

So...  For Christmas I decided to use them to make a SNOWMAN!!!  I love snowmen/women, they are my favorite Christmas decorations.  They are just so cute!!

I decided she was going to be a she!!!  Haven't names her yet.  OT has already knocked her head off once too.  She'll eventually go outside once it gets cold and stays cold (and isn't so dern WINDY!!)

Each morning as I'm drinking my latte, I'll look around at all the beautiful things others make to get inspiration, or ideas.  A while back I came across this tute on how to make lampshade covers for a chandelier.  Well, I have these wall sconces that I don't mind, but once the walls were painted, they pretty much fade into the wall color.  I've never found any other shades that I likes, OR if I did, they were $$$$.  That dern champagne taste on a beer budget.  Ugh!!!  So, when I saw this, I got inspired!!!!

My boring, camouflaged wall sconce shades

closer look; they are pretty, just blah.

Went to Jo Ann's one day for glitter and they were having a scrapbook paper sale.  5 sheets for $.95.  I bought 4 of the glitter'ish red, 4 of the glitter'ish orange (the color of my living room) and then purchased the snowflake stamp sheets.  Cut them apart and glued to the red shades.  For my first attempt, I'm not disappointed.  Not perfect, but...  Gotta wait for the next sale and try it again.  I'll post when I do my "regular" ones.

Need to put up the big tree in our living room and do my outside decor and I'm ready for SNOW and CHRISTmas!!!!

Ceiling Fan Blade Iron 're-fashion"

My little cousin, well, not little, she's a TEENAGER, recently had her first teenage bedroom make-over.  The little girl room, with all it's pastel beauty is gone and in it's place is the contemporary, adult'ish, I'm growing up palette of young womanhood.  I STILL remember my teenage room make-over.  *sigh*...  Went from Care Bears to all white and ruffles.  20 years later (wow, that sounds OLD), but yes, 20 years later, I still have that comforter.  It's been stitched and sewn quite a bit, but it's so soft.  I just can't part with it.

Anyway, on to the point of my story, my big cousin asked me if I could paint her big girl's ceiling fan irons.  Of course I would!!  Anything for our little lady!!

A blank little flower slate!!

painters tape and a blade

cut away the tape

Tape the whole iron and then tape the ends in some grocery bags

low grit Steele wool

I decided to hot glue the center of the flower, thought it would be easier than taping.  Didn't  "pop" off as easily as I wanted, but got a nice clean end result.

prime, black then silver

The black

the silver on top of the black

Now I took a firm brush to the silver while still damp to smudge the black back

Watching paint dry...  

I used the metallic silver Painters pen to touch up around the edge.

The best accident control I've found yet!  Takes paint  oopsies off almost everything.  Including wood floors.

Taa-daa!!!

Brushed nickle looking flower blade irons!!

Wish the pictures showed the true color better.  Oh well...

Pin Cushion Chair

I recently stopped by my Father-in-Law's home to get my late Mother-in-Law's sewing gear.  While there, I found this little cutie!

 I thought for sure that Kris's grandfather made it, but there was a label in the drawer with another name.  Anyway, I couldn't wait to update it!!!

As I was going through all the beautiful fabric that Mimi brought me, a few pieces stood out from my past.  Don't you love it when you see a piece of fabric, or furniture, or some other little something from your past and you get that warm feeling all over?  Well, in Granny's container of quilting fabric, there were quite a few of those warm fabrics.  One was the fabric from my "Bullfrogs and Butterflies" church cantata/program when I was a child.  I was a butterfly!  The one I used to "reupholster" my MIL's pin cushion chair was one of those fabrics.   I'm not super sure where it was in my past, but I remember it and I LOVE it.  There wasn't much left, so I knew it would be just perfect for this little project!

After uncovering the cushions, I found that I wasn't the first person to "reupholster" this bad boy...

Not too bad!

That was some dirtiness, I'm sure from the wood backing, but ...

After a coat of primer, some black satin paint and a squirt of pink paint, this is the 'new' chair!  I just love to look at it!!

Ever time I see it. I just have to smile!  I automatically think of my beautiful MIL AND get that warm feeling all over from childhood!  Little bit of heaven I say!!!

Harvest Day!

Well, today (not the best day as it was nice and cold, rainy and WINDY) I harvested some of my last pumpkins.  About three still growing.

My bounty. Some of them have a few defects.

Then I became a bit overwhelmed!!  What to do with all these pumpkins?   Truthfully, I don't like carving pumpkins.  Some years I'm all about it, others, not so much.  Just messiness really.  But the seeds are fantastic.  Hmm, maybe I'll carve one up tomorrow.

So, Allie and I picked a few of our favorites and hit my nook and had a pumpkin party!  This is what I came up with.

All three together

All three finished

And.....  Drum Roll please!!  

The closeups!!!

Funky lil pumkin'!!!

My favorite

The silver paint was a bit wet, so the glitter stuck in the wrong places, but.  May turn this into Rella's carriage.  Hmm?!?!

So...  Fun stuff, fun stuff!