I love my flowered mirror!!! It was hanging in the entryway of my last house, but in my new home it’s going to be over the sink in the guest bathroom. I’ll pick some of my favourite colours from it for the towels, wash cloths, rug and other accessories. Now watch, I’m gonna have a line up of people wanting to visit my bathroom!!!
It was very easy to make. First I bought a plain unfinished framed mirror. Or you could find an ugly old mirror from anywhere – and it doesn’t really even need a frame, you could just glue onto the edge of the mirror.
Next step was to glue Spanish Moss all over the frame – I just used my glue gun. Sorry, I don’t have step-by-step pictures – I made this a few years ago – but the frame covered in moss even looked good! (Just ignore the spot of wax from the glue gun on my moss. I promise you don’t notice it on the mirror, but of course that would be the spot I took a picture of!)
Then I just started gluing my wild flowers on.
I did larger flower arrangements on the bottom of the frame to anchor the mirror. Then I placed the rest of my larger flowers around the frame and used the smaller ones to fill in the gaps.
Taking pictures of mirrors is not easy, especially with the short person around! After looking at this photo, I realized how dirty the mirror was. So I cleaned it – but didn’t retake my pictures!
I think it’s so pretty! I just love all the colours of the flowers together. It would also look great done in a single colour, or a single type of flower in various colours – oh the possibilities!!!
I love making something cute and useful from garbage!!! I got these from the Primary cupboard at church. I had to empty out the cupboard a little to make some more space and so I lugged these to the garbage can that I had just watched the Young Men empty a few hours before. So rather than fill up the garbage can, I decided to carry them home and put them with my recycling.
So on my trek all the way across the parking lot to my house, I realized that they were pretty sturdy little boxes that could be turned into something very useful for some of my girlies.
The first and only task for my girls was to choose the paper they liked best – this was probably the most time consuming part of the whole process!!!
Eventually they chose these – two for each. And they also chose what pieces they wanted on the front and edges – again, very time consuming!!!
Then it was my turn to get to work – me and the mod podge. Have I mentioned before how much I love mod podge?
Anyway, I had no real plan, I just started. It seemed like the sensible thing to start with the edges, and it was.
I just applied the mod podge with a small foam brush and put the paper on, smoothing it down and around the edges.
I didn’t bother to cover the back any more than this.
After I had all the paper in place, I let it dry overnight and mod podged over the whole thing the next day. I didn’t need to wait overnight, but I had to clear off the table and get supper ready (can’t wait for a craft room in my new house!!!)
How cute is that? My practice one is covered, so I tackled the other two together.
I just laid the box on my paper to figure out the approximate size of the angled pieces, then trimmed to fit.
Cute paper eh? I’m really loving shades of teal these days.
This project used exactly two 12 x 12 pieces of paper. I used contrasting papers, but you don’t need to.
Love lime too!
Boxes are all covered – time to get on with other things and let everything dry.
The next day I attached some names and mod podged over everything.
Now for the decorating . . .
Lee’s name was attached with pop dots to make it, well, pop!
Jen’s was antiqued with ribbon and flowers added.
And Kat’s is more cutesy – she was thrilled with the bow and flowers!
Aren’t they adorable???
The light through the blinds makes them look wrinkly, but I promise you they dried beautiful and smooth!
Still can’t decide which one I like best.
Lee loves hers and . . .
Jen loves hers and . . .
Kat loves hers!!!
Want to see what they’ve done with them?Lee filled hers with this sort of girly stuff.
For now Jen has animals living in her caddy.
And Kat’s holds her library books!
My Jo wistfully said to me “Mom, you know there’s another one of those in the Primary cupboard and you could make me one.” I replied, “I know, but it’s holding Primary things.” What she doesn’t know is that I’ve been thinking that I could easily find another container for the Primary things, and use it to make one for ME!!!
I invented a recipe!!! Well, sort of. It’s a combination of something my mom used to make called Western Surprise, and something I found online. And it actually turned out pretty good. Probably still need to tweak the recipe a bit so don’t blame me if you make it and it doesn’t work!My family loves to eat rice. After spending two years in Korea and eating rice every day, you’d think my guy would be tired of it, but no. And with a gluten free daughter, rice dishes work well for us.
Hope you can read my writing – I just didn’t feel like retyping it!
I guess the first line should say “1 package wieners – thinly sliced” – I don’t think you can find a package of thinly sliced wieners!
The part I like best about this is the “throw it in a pot and let it do it’s thing”. I’m so lazy in the kitchen!
And they all liked it!!! (That orange thing looks like a piece of carrot – don’t think I put any carrots in, but you could throw in anything else you wish. Just remember, if it’s dried, you may need to add a little more water to allow for reconstitution.)
There’s my Mac in pony tails for the first time – kicking back enjoying her lunch, dog waiting for crumbs to fall and sick sister on the couch in the background. A typical day!
Here are some photos of our Grad decorations with beautiful people in the pictures too!
(See the no-people pre-Grad decoration pictures here, including the banquet tables.)This is my second daughter Min and her date Clay – don’t they look fantastic!!!
Now, at this point of the evening, I was getting very frustrated because my camera batteries died, and my freshly charged ones didn’t work for more than a minute. My guy went off to buy more, and they kept dying too. Grrr! So the next few pictures are fuzzy because my camera died right as I was taking them.
The hanging frames were fun to pose in. Unfortunately, because of my camera troubles, we didn’t get a single shot of them with the photo booth props on the other side of the stage.
Remember the sneak peak I gave you back here? Well this is what we did with it.And as for Min’s “shiner”, you’d never know she had one.
This is how her eye looked before big sister started doing her makeup for grad . . .We were able to borrow some corrective cover-up based on the colour that her bruise was that day, and it worked perfectly! Thanks Barb!!!
The Star Archway.
Beautiful girls in their beautiful dresses hanging out with the blue moon. It’s a little hazy here because this was during the dance when they DJ was sending “fog” out onto the dance floor.
The proud parents!Min had the honour of being her class Valedictorian.
Our seven beautiful daughters! One of them got a little creative with photo editing!
Back to the decorations . . .
Love the casual yet classy stance by the 2012.
The fabric on the walls did a great job of hiding all sorts of uglies – like the huge mats under the basketball hoop.
And the bicycle built for two!
For sure a much cuter picture with people in it!!!
I was one of six parents on the Decorating Committee for our High School Graduation this past weekend. Our job is to transform the gymnasium into something that resembles the theme the grads chose. That was one tiring week of decorating, not to mention the meetings and mental work before that!!!Their theme greeted you at the doorway. (I’m showing a few decorations here. This is Friday morning, a few hours before everything started – and we’re almost finished decorating. My next post will be after grad, with actual people in the pictures!)
Big silver sparkly numbers made from MDF. They stand about five feet tall and the kids could move them around and pose with them.
This picture shows the star lanterns hanging from the ceiling. They were pretty and had a remote control to activate the LED light inside – pretty smart!!! All set up for the banquet. That was a late night of setting tables – didn’t get home til almost 11:00pm. The grads on the decorating committee chose the colours of teal and silver – very pretty.
Notice the huge star archway on the stage made from balloons. It’s the perfect size for a couple to stand under. To the left we had frames hanging for photo shoots, and to the right, we had all sorts of props for fun photo booth pictures against the black curtains.
We had some teal netting and flameless candles and stars as centerpieces. The theme “Our Time to Shine” was printed on the paper that was wrapped around a large candle. They glowed very prettily when the lights were dimmed. Aren’t the napkins adorable!
One of the mom’s made these for each grad and they looked so cute on the tables.
It had a Grad photo on one side, baby picture on the other – a lovely keepsake for the grads. The baby side says:
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.”
That’s my guy up there in the Genie – he’s actually stuck up there. He’s hanging the moon and went up fine but the thing wouldn’t let him come down again. That’s why they got the ladder, and then found the emergency drop lever – glad he didn’t have to maneuver onto the ladder!
We put a little stool behind the moon so when you sit on it, it looks like you’re sitting on the moon. And no, the moon corner is not finished yet!
We used gossamer along the walls to hide the bleachers – making it look much prettier than a gymnasium. We had white Christmas lights in behind, just sitting on the bleachers, adding soft lighting. I must mention that it was disappointing to come back on three mornings and have to re-attach some gossamer that fell during the night!
Some of the grads felt very strongly about not having any plants used in the decorating. They wanted a more vintage look. So there is not one bit of greenery in the whole gym. The old doors and bicycle built for two was our “vintage” corner.
The doors were really cute with snapshots of the Grads throughout the year.
It turned out lovely and represented their theme well. Great job Mary and everyone else who helped!!! (And may I say that I’m glad I don’t have another Grad until 2015! And I’ll probably sign up for the Decorating Committee again – it’s a lot of work but I love seeing the gym transformation!)
(Edited to add: here’s the link for seeing the decorations with dazzling graduates in the pictures.)
I look forward to the Sabbath – a day of rest. While attending Church and fulfilling church callings often makes for a busy Sunday, it is certainly different from the regular routine of what I do each day.
I love to make crafts and create things, and have had a craft business in the past and hope to again. So crafting for me is “work” and therefore I don’t do it on Sunday. The Sabbath is a day for me to rest from my labours. So if that crafting bug hits, I’ll only do it if it relates to my church calling.
So last Sunday, we had a craft fest of making Primary birthday gifts.
I became the Primary Secretary in January. These cute little birthday printouts were already planned and I know they came from online somewhere, but I don’t know where so I can’t link it. I didn’t create them, I’m just assembling them!
Lee and I in our living room work station. We were planning to put a “church movie” on from our lovely shelf of appropriate Sunday visual entertainment (there are a ton of great and inexpensive ones from the Distribution Center), but we just chatted instead – always the best thing!
That’s a tub of Ring Pops for the children and a bag of Lindor Chocolates for the teachers.
The scripture marking pencils are from the Distribution Center at $0.25 each.
“I Know the Scriptures are True” is the theme for this year.
Stick the pencil through the tag . . .
(I write the name and date of the birthday person on the back so we know who they belong to. Then they go in a little mailbox that gets opened during birthday time.)
and then . . .
. . . attach the Ring Pop with ribbon and curl the edges – Primary colours of course!
Teacher ones – glad I’m an adult!!! Seriously, do you know how hard it is for me to not eat these Lindors while I make them? I’ve only had one so far and that was because my baby got ahold of one (that was already attached to the card of course!) and started chewing it without removing the wrapper. Well, it was damaged now so I had to sacrifice myself and remove the wrapper and eat the damaged chocolate! The ring pops, however, hold no such temptation!!!
Aren’t they great? I’ve made 74 so far and that takes us to the end of October and then there will be 14 more after that. I made a big batch because we are going to be busy finishing up our house (at least enough finished so we can move in) and moving in the summer. Now they are all being stored in the Primary cupboard and that will be one less thing to think about and move.
So that’s how I craft on Sunday, my day of rest. Or sometimes I work on my Conference Project! I don’t blog on Sunday either, unless it’s my family blog because I consider that Family History and keeping records – it’s my journal writing with lots of pictures thrown in!
We encourage our children not to do school work on Sunday either. They are students, so homework and studying is their “work” and they need to “rest from their labours” as well. I know they have been blessed for their obedience to this commandment, especially during exam time when it is so tempting to study.
No one ever said obedience was easy, but it is always the right thing to do.
I saw them over at Sassy Sanctuary and knew immediately that I needed these . . . because . . .
. . . my towels are never where I need them to be!!! I need them to be hanging from my stove. And of course it’s not me that moves them!
I’m not showing too much on how to make these because Krystal at Sassy Sanctuary gives such a great tutorial with measurements and everything, that I really don’t need to!!! (That and the fact that I was so excited to make them that I forgot to take many pictures!)
Basically you’re sewing a tube and putting velcro on the ends. I wasn’t too careful about how I sewed my velcro because it’s on the back and no one sees it anyway! One piece is on the inside and one is on the outside so it wraps around and sticks nicely.
I love this blue plaid fabric! It speaks to the “country” in me!
I made two for variety, but I can see that I just might need to make some for all the holidays!!!
This one used the rows that I took off from my table runner because I sewed them smaller and the squares didn’t match up. (You can read about that here.) So now my towel and my table runner will match!
The cute little button was the perfect finishing touch for this wrap.
And there they both are – love them! Can’t wait to see if they’ll do their job and keep the towel in one place!!! And obviously I’ll only have one out at a time!There are my towels – I just bought plain bathroom hand towels. And now the towels and wraps are packed away, waiting for their new place of honor on the stove we purchased last weekend, that will be in the house that we’ll be moving into at the end of July (well, we might be living in the camper for awhile!). And that will be a new adventure!!!
I love this family magnetic frame, but it needed an update.
For one thing, see the part of the star that’s bent and lost its paint?(Thanks to our dog who got under the bed to eat all the chocolate that was all ready to go in everyone’s Christmas stockings. In her chocolate frenzy she broke the star that Santa was so thoughtfully planning for my stocking. And yes, the dog lived.)
So first I spray painted the star and sanded the edges so some of the beige could show through.
Then I glued some black buttons onto my plain magnets.
Better, but still needing something.
(Isn’t that a great picture? It’s in our new back yard, just days before we broke ground to build our house.)
That’s what it needed – scrapbook paper for the background!
Mac came by and we had to go through the lineup of who everyone was.Much better! Family loves you for who you are.
This is my Min and she is having her Graduation Ceremonies on Friday. This is not what you want your eye to look like five days before Grad!!!Wonder what colour it will be by Friday? Gonna have to get creative with the makeup!!! Although right now it kinda matches her red Grad dress!
I had two girls in a softball tournament on Saturday. In the final game, Min (on the pitcher’s mound) took a line drive to the face. Luckily it hit her glove first so it got slowed down before it hit her eye. It’s not very pleasant to be watching and suddenly see your child bent over, holding her face, staggering around in pain. The coaches of both team and the ump went running over to tend to her. She was still on her feet though, and I was very relieved not to see any blood when she took her hands away from her face. Ice was quickly produced and while she iced her eye, the coaches stood around her talking and laughing – giving her time to see how she was doing, making sure she wasn’t going to keel over or anything. She switched spots with first base and a coach stayed near her – just in case! But was able to play the last few innings. She said she felt fine – no headache or anything – but said it was really weird to be able to see her eyelid protruding from the swelling. This picture was taken about 18 hours after the hit – the swelling is gone and now it’s just the lovely red.
As for Grad, here’s a sneak peek!
That’s all you get right now! I’m on the decorating committee and will be spending the next four days transforming the gymnasium into something representing the theme they chose: “Our Time to Shine” (Hey – that theme works great for Min with her “shiner”!)
Stay tuned because you know I’ll eventually be posting pictures!!!
I’ve had this pencil caddy for years – think I got it for about a quarter at our band garage sale. It quietly sits there on the ledge above my computer, never complaining, just doing it’s job, and getting all dusty (yes, that is indeed dust!)
But it’s not very pretty is it?
Actually, when I first got it it had all these stickers along its sides and ends. So you see that I was thinking about doing something to it, just hadn’t gotten around to it yet.
But then . . . I follow this crafting group called . . .
Their project for this month is toolbox/caddy type things. So after seeing all these other cute ideas, it gave me inspiration to give my little green pencil caddy a long overdue makeover.
The first step was to sand it down. Alas, where is a sander? When you’re living in transition you don’t always have what you need nearby. My guy kindly brought me home a Black & Decker sander which really gets the job done, but my hands felt like they were about ready to fall off!!!
I didn’t get rid of all the colour because that would have been pretty much impossible! But I sure smoothed it down and got rid of all the sticker glue residue. It looked so much better already – why didn’t I at least do this much years ago?
Then I painted it – just with a craft paint called Tan (how original!). It took two coats to completely cover the green. On the inside I only painted the very top edge, for two reasons actually: 1) the pencils don’t care what colour the inside is, and 2) I’m too lazy!
Then I sanded it again. Some of the green still showed through but I really liked the way that looked – phew!!!
Then I stained it with a Minwax wood finish stain called Provincial. I always love this step – the way the stain makes it look and feel so good (but not smell so good!)
Then I antiqued it – another favourite step of mine. Next picture shows the only tube I’ve ever used to antique and it works great. I put a small dollop on the newspaper and then rub a smidgen into my rag and then rub it on, lightly at first, where I want it to look aged. (See my rubbings on the newspaper?)
Burnt Umber – you can see the tube is hardly dented – you use such a little bit.
Then I wanted to cover up the handle because honestly, I don’t really like the handle!
The thought came to me to wrap it!!! I wanted to use a hemp type twine but all I had on hand was this string. I don’t have time to run to town for things. So I got this much done and realized that I didn’t like it so I pulled it off. Now what to do?
I decided to wrap it in fabric. The piece on the right is the one I used – sorry the colours aren’t showing up too well. That worked out much better – and now the handle matches . . .
. . . one of the little fabric flowers I made to decorate the front. They are just made from a long strip of fabric rolled up and glued once in a while. The green leaves blend with the original green paint peeking through.
And it’s finished!!! And I’m lovin’ it!!!
Jen purged our pen/pencil collection – isn’t it amazing how many pens we keep that don’t work? Or is that just me?
So little pencil caddy is now back at work and doing a marvellous job!!!
Now, I look up from the computer and see something so much cuter – yay!!! Maybe it won’t even be a pencil caddy in my new house. Wouldn’t it look cute in the bathroom with wash clothes in the slots? and greenery around it? or in it?
And always the perfectionist, I’m still looking at it wondering what else I could do to make it even better. I think I’m gonna tie some fabric on each each end of the handle – just short and knotted. It’ll hide the ends better. I think after that it will be about perfect!!!
It was very easy to make. First I bought a plain unfinished framed mirror. Or you could find an ugly old mirror from anywhere – and it doesn’t really even need a frame, you could just glue onto the edge of the mirror.
Next step was to glue Spanish Moss all over the frame – I just used my glue gun. Sorry, I don’t have step-by-step pictures – I made this a few years ago – but the frame covered in moss even looked good! (Just ignore the spot of wax from the glue gun on my moss. I promise you don’t notice it on the mirror, but of course that would be the spot I took a picture of!)
Then I just started gluing my wild flowers on.
I did larger flower arrangements on the bottom of the frame to anchor the mirror. Then I placed the rest of my larger flowers around the frame and used the smaller ones to fill in the gaps.
Taking pictures of mirrors is not easy, especially with the short person around! After looking at this photo, I realized how dirty the mirror was. So I cleaned it – but didn’t retake my pictures!
I think it’s so pretty! I just love all the colours of the flowers together. It would also look great done in a single colour, or a single type of flower in various colours – oh the possibilities!!!
