I'm an ebayer!

I've bought an awful lot of stuff from ebay in my life. I've probably sent someone's kid to college somewhere along the lines. Today though, I have started selling. John got a call this morning about a storage unit sale he might be interested in and so we're digging through the stuff that isn't useful to him and ebaying it. Funny, listing the stuff doesn't go nearly as quick as buying it does. Oh well, hopefully I'll get through my pile of stuff tonight!

Hope everyone has a great week!

candle makers!

Hubby and I poured our first candles tonight (I still feel like shit though thanks for asking). They turned out pretty good and it was a lot of fun! Pictures to come!

We're passing the flu back and forth. It's back to me, he's settled in with a cold. We aren't a whole lot of fun this weekend.

Weekend Cat Blogging #182

I just discovered Weekend Cat Blogging. This week it's hosted by Diamond Emerald Eyes.

Here's a picture I took of Molly about 30 seconds ago, sorry it's kind of crappy but I had to be quick! She's tying to go fishing, note the paw in the water.

Probably not a post for the dudes...

Because I'm going to talk about birth control and dudes don't like to talk about that stuff... normally. So I've been going to an ear, nose and throat doctor about some problems I've been having, yesterday was my second appointment. The first appointment, no personality. I tried to be witty, but mr. ENT was not having it. Well, yesterday must've been an off day or something because homeboy was cracking me up. So, on to the birth control. He's reviewing my medical history and the medications I'm on and he asks what kind of bc I use. I say Nuvaring and he snickers a little. Of course I shoot a little evil eye in his direction. He said that one of their drug reps there used to be a Nuvaring drug rep, so he asked the drug rep what kind of words he could use associated with Nuvaring. Could he say shove? No, the rep said they were forbidden from using words like shove, thrust or poke. To that, I cracked up! He said the drug rep kept a straight face the whole time!

Sunday

Still not feeling 100%, but definately a lot better than yesterday! I thought since my craft room is nearly ready for me to move in, I would use the big empty space today to make some french memo boards. I kinda put a twist on them though because I want to use them for Christmas cards. Now, in all honesty, I read my cards over the trash can. I know it's not nice and I do save the ones with the pictures, but what am I going to save them for? I usually hang them around a doorway, but this would be way neater. Cute no? I like the way the snowman one turned out, I wasnt' sure where I was going with the ribbon pattern but thankfully it worked itself out. I'm also having to put a dab of hot glue on the ribbons to hold them together so the cards don't fall out. Thank goodness I tried it first! Hubby hooked me up with a new bff for making these too. An electric stapler. Those manual things are hard on the hand, I can whip through these things with the electric deal.

Oh, and we got another early Christmas gift this morning. Right under my desk. I'm so glad I looked first. Access to the cat door has now been limited. No Karen, I absolutely did NOT pluck it and eat it. I returned the little guy to nature.

Sick Day

I was supposed to do some Christmas shopping today, but I woke up sick as can be! Yuck! I finally rolled out of bed at like 1 because I just couldn't sleep anymore. Watched Bad Santa (funny as shit if you haven't seen it) and worked on some stuff. So here's the progress for the day:

I made one of these before with construction adhesive and I wasn't thrilled because the adhesive dries white and at least the hot glue is somewhat clear. I really like the red ribbon in this. It's a candle ring, I'm not sure if it needs something else or what. Some red berries would be awfully cute on it.

Lots o' stockings! I stuffed some tissue paper in these to make them look fuller, I'm pretty pleased with them though. I finally got my bobbin to load so I could sew these up and the embelishments I just hot glued on.

Are these too precious? I could make these little things all day I swear. Little button tree ornaments. Can you tell I have a little button obsession? I am just eat right up with these little guys. I finally had to tell myself to: step away from the buttons. I kept coming up with cutsie color combinations I wanted to try and I just needed to leave it alone. There's a pink and green one in here that I'm totally in love with though!

Oh, and a funny little story. Thursday when I got home, I found some feathers next to my desk. I asked the kitties and nobody had much to say about it. I had a bird experience a few years ago with a still living bird in the house that someone had brought in. Anywho, I thought maybe someone just brought in feathers to show me since I couldn't find any other evidence of a bird. Well, the dogs have been very interested in the door that leads from our kitchen to my new craft room. this door always stays pushed open and earlier John checked out what was behind the door, yup, an early Christmas gift for us. I guess Molly heard that birds nests in your tree were good luck so she thought a real bird would be even better... thanks.

All cracked out on pictures...

You've probably realized by now that I love posting pictures. I enjoy looking at posts though that have pictures. I don't read books with pictures though. Anywho, I have a lot of catching up to do so I'm going to mostly do it with pictures.

Here's the progress on the craft room. The paint swatch looked lovely on the paper, on the walls, not so much. The yellow is a little... blinding... So we're going to tone it down this weekend. Makes for a nice base coat though.

Almost threw the sewing machine out of the window last night. I could not wind a bobbin to save my life. The thread kept winding *under* the bobbin which made for a gigantic clusterfuck of thread. I left for a while, came back and damn if it didn't wind perfectly the first time. In the meantime I made this stocking with hot glue. Ghetto I know. Just wanted to give you an idea of what I was going for here.

Another styrofoam wreath project. I got this 7" wide red ribbon from DG and wrapped it around and secured it (hot glue of course). Oh, the wreath was a whole dollar, the ribbon was two.

Added corks and some berries and viola! I am actually really pleased with how this came out. It took a very few minutes and it's quite festive. I put $10 on it to sell just to see if I have any takers.

I had a doorway in my craft spot that I had to decorate so I wanted a Christmasy garland to go over top. I had seen these made with wooden spools so I thought I would try a country kind of rag garland. It was surprisingly quick to make. Once I cut the strips of fabric I could really go to town with it.

You can see here how I alternated with some Christmas ribbon and beads. Again, I was pretty pleased with this.

This is probably the first thing I made that is really *me* I can totally see this on my front door. Very simple. Just took the cheapy wreath and sprayed it with some spray snow and put different silver balls around it. Top it off with a silver ribbon and bow.

Button Icecicles. The hardest part about these was digging through the buttons to find the right sizes. I think they're terribly cute though.

Do you have any ideas as to where I can find cheaper tassles for these? I think the're adorable and I would make more of them, but the tassles were like 2 for 1.50 and that makes these cost more to make than they really should.

I believe I showed this before but I still thought it needed something. I think the solid red ribbon to hang it does it for me. If I did anything else to this it would be to put a couple buttons on the ribbon, but really I'm quite happy with it as it is.

Last and least... This little button tree. I just don't have big love for him. I kept trying to make him better but it just wasn't working. I must've replaced the top 5 times. Oh well... I guess I can't be in love with everything I make.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!!!

odd experiment, interesting results...

So last night we were sitting on the sofa watching 'House', our favorite show. I had a kitty on my lap, John had 2 dogs on his. My kitty (Shorty) rolled over and I noticed that even though his paws are white, the pads of his paws are black, like his nose. Well, I commented on this and that meant John had to pause the TV and off we went to catch all the kitties to see if the pads of their feet match their nose. Sure enough, we have 4 cats, they each have a different color nose and all of them, their paw pads match their noses. So you cat people out there, catch the kitty and flip it over and see if this holds true for everyone.

some cute kids, as promised!

Here's a couple collages Peggy made for me, I am tickled with them!

freakin adormable, right?

So... I did make more stuff today...

Did I say earlier that I was done making stuff? If so I lied... I really am slightly nervous about this whole craft space idea. Mostly because I'm scared I don't have enough stuff to fill up any amount of space and she's giving me a lot. So I've been trying to take stuff I already have and make stuff out of it. Because I'm broke and I guess when you're in a pinch, that's when you're the most creative, right?

So I bought this styrofoam wreath at the Dollar Tree last week. I knew I could find a use for it. I also have a massive bin of buttons that I bought off ebay cheap. So, I thought it would be supercute to glue red green and white buttons to this styrofoam wreath for kind of a kitschy crafty project. Well, my bin apparently has a shortage of red buttons, I did come up with a few though. Well, I glued them on first and I decided it was too cute with the red 'polka dots' to add the green in, so I just did red and white. Here's a couple pics. I'm torn now as to how to hang it of course. I'm thinking hanging it from red ric-rack would be adorable, of course I have none here though.

I've been kicking around with this project for a while. I work on it when I'm watching tv (which isn't much!). Today I finally just sat down and finished it! Obviously it's garland, but can you tell what it's made of?

How about now?

Wine corks! I may do another one with green and red beads, or maybe just red, I thought the browns accented the different cork colors for this one though. I'm quite pleased with how it came out. I wasn't sure how to finish it with the loops, but I knotted the fishing line, slid a bead over the knot and then glued the hell out of it. It's holding very well!

I can't believe I forgot to post this earlier! I asked hubby to pick me up glue sticks the last time he went to Lowes. Too funny right? Feel free to be as graphic as you want with your comments.

Another too short weekend!

Well, yesterday I watched Beth's kids. I have a surprise planned for Beth and her husband Brian that I tried hard to pull together yesterday. Since I know she doesn't read my blog, I can share it with you. I had a friend who is a budding photographer come over and do some shots of the girls. I was so scared it was going to be pouring! I had a backup plan that involved galoshes, rain coats and mud puddles, but I wasn't sure I wanted to go there if I didn't have to. Luckilly, it cleared off to be a gorgeous day, aside from the tornado force winds. Peggy got over 200 shots of the girls and has sent me a couple previews, I'm so excited! I know I can't wait til Christmas to give them this gift because I would like for her to be able to use a picture for her Christmas cards. I'll share my favs this week, I promise!

So, I've got this back room on my house that's never really had a *purpose*. It kind of catches junk and the dog food is out there, and it's where hubby built my pantry earlier this year. We used it as a 'dog room' for both of our dogs while we were house breaking them but that's not necessary anymore. So hubby decided that since I've been working on crafts and stuff so much he wanted me to have a craft room (I really think he wants the dining room table back). So yesterday while I was out, he started working on it for me, got some paint and when I got home we got a coat of primer on the walls. I should've taken a before picture, duh, but that never quite works out. The walls previously were very dark paneling. We realized after the primer started turning brown that the paneling must've originally been light and it was stained dark. Either way, it did not make for the bright, sunny room I want. So here we are after one coat of primer. John and I decided at about 1am that the current color should be called 'stale piss brown'. Hopefully my 'peach tickle' (your eyes aren't fooling you, it's not peach at all) will make the color a little prettier.

I've been kind of thinking in the back of my mind how I'm going to hang my newest snowman wreath that I made. It's going to be the first addition to the shop I'm renting space in so I want to try hard. I don't want to use the white ribbon like I did on the first one, the fabric scarves on these snowmen make it a little too country for organza ribbon. I had some more of the fabric so I cut a length for the hook and then I woke up this morning with an idea for a bow for the top of the loop. I need to figure out how to stiffen it, I thought I had some spray starch but that's not the case. I think I'll be making a walmart run tonight or tomorrow so I guess I'll have to wait til then to find out if it works like my plan.

I basically cut a bunch of 4" strips of the same fabric and put them on a needle as I went, when I was happy with the amount of strips, I pulled the needle through and stitched the hell out of the center to hold it in place. It almost kind of looks like a snowflake doesn't it? I wonder if I used white fabric and stiffened it and tossed some glitter.... hmmm...

must share!

I just rented a little space in a thrift/craft shop today for my crafts. Now I need to get to makin stuff! Wish me luck!

week in review

Had kind of a crappy week at work. When you're in IT and something goes wrong, for some reason it always goes VERY wrong. I'm at the bottom of the totem pole, and since we all know shit flows downhill, it all lands on me. Ugh. I understand people's frusteration, but when things are broken, they don't understand that I didn't break it on purpose, believe me! It makes my day hell, the last thing I want to do is screw something up. In this case I wasn't the cause of the problem, but hopefully I will be the cause of the solution. Let's hope next week is better.

I'm watching a girlfriends kids tomorrow so she can get some Christmas shopping done, so I won't have much time to craft this weekend. I worked on a couple things tonight though. First, I found some of the fabric that I had given to Karen, and then she gave some of it back to me, well, I thought it would make cute bows for my next snowman wreath, so I chopped it down tonight since I had everything else ready to go for the little guys. It gives it more of a 'country' look, which isn't really my thing, but it definately complements the whole idea a little better than the plain red did. Most of the time when people are into snowmen, they're into country stuff so we'll see how this works out.

Secondly, I had seen these cute little cupcake ornaments on etsy and when I read the description, it cautioned very strongly: DO NOT EAT. Hmmm... got me thinking I wonder what they could be made out of. After studying them for a minute, I realized it looked like 'great stuff'. If you're into home improvement projects, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's this yellow spray foam that you put in the crack around doors and windows before you put your molding up and it kind of insulates that gap. Soooo... I asked hubby theoretically tonight if you could paint great stuff, of course he says. Well do you have any? Yes, he says, I happen to have a half a can left from the windows. Well here's some cupcake liners brother, get to it! We decided they probably needed a pan too to hold the shape. No friends, I won't be making real cupcakes in this pan anymore fyi. They haven't fully expanded yet, probably will by tomorrow morning. I can definately see where they're going though. Maybe Sunday I'll get a chance to put some paint on them to see how that works out.

Did I mention hubby finished up the siding project Tuesday? I think it was Tuesday. It's been raining ever since so I haven't had a chance to take pictures, I will post some soon of the finished product. It's so cool to pull up to a fresh, clean, gray house!

Have a great weekend!

scanner

I thought I'd burn up the scanner for a while this afternoon. Trying to get them cleared out of my work space. This is pretty much an ongoing project that will never be complete. I have boxes and boxes of pictures that belonged to my parents and other family members. Someday they will be scanned and organized and I will burn them to CD's for people who want them. Until then, I must say, I was a pretty fuckin cute kid huh?

another christmas craft

I started this one on Sunday. Super easy because you might already have everything you need right in your house. A balloon, some string, glue and glitter. Bringin back an old Martha Stewart craft, I made snowflake balls.

Start with a balloon, blow it up so it's as close to round as you can get it. Smaller ones obviously work better and if you go to an actual party store you can get *round* balloons. These balloons I purchased 50 to a pack from the dollar tree, in assorted sizes. Dab a spot of glue to get your string started and go to town wrapping every which way. The first balls I completed, I really used a lot of string and they are quite stable. I was surprised when I popped the balloon that there was no hint of them collapsing. So, the more string you use, the more stable this structure will be.
String shot:

Next you coat this baby with glue. Again, the first ones I did I really laid it on them and there are places where it kinda clumped between the strings. I tried to be a little more careful with this next one I did, but I have a feeling since this one is larger and has a smaller string/balloon ratio, I will be doing either a second coat of glue or a coat of white paint.
Glue shot:


Wait for the glue to dry thoroughly. I used cheapy school glue and it took less than a day to dry. I took the end of a paintbrush and kinda pushed on my balloon to make sure the balloon would separate from the string before I popped the balloon and used tweezers to pull it out. I then did a lighter coat of glue and glittered.
Completed balls:


Problems: My completed balls look.... dingy or something to me. I don't know if my glitter has a funny color to it that caused this or if it was the string wasn't completely white or if the glue wasn't completely clear. Either way, I think I'd like for them to be more of a pure snowy white so I may paint this next one with white paint as an additional hardening tool and so I can get that bright white I'm looking for.

Use: Put a hook in the top for an ornament, gift tags, tied around the neck of a wine bottle, put a group of these in a bowl for a cute centerpiece... The larger one, I would love to put a little light in it for my front porch. Once the string is hard, you should be able to cut out sections carefully as needed for projects like that. I would probably recommend using a florescent light since string and heat may not be such a good combo. Or put some borax on it, I've heard that helps with fire retarding. Either way, don't leave this unattended. It would also be nice just as a little festive table lamp. I'll probably come up with 20 more things to use it for before I get these pictures uploaded.

Weekend update with Norm MacDonald

God how I miss the good old days of SNL when the people were funny... oh well... here goes:

Got a funny late night call tonight. One I didn't mind receiving. John had done some electrical work for his uncle a couple weeks ago and refused to be paid (bastard!). Well, tonight his uncle called, he'd been crabbing and wanted to know if we wanted to reap some of the catch. Um, hello! Free Crabs??? Being the true eastern shore girl that I am, I couldn't turn that one down! Already steamed too, aren't they fatties? It was just enough for the 2 of us... good thing since it was pretty late.

I got my first snowman wreath done tonight. I believe I showed you a picutre a while back of my inspiration for this. I'm awfully impressed with how it turned out. I'd love to be able to sell a couple of these since I still have some supplies. I'm going to get to work tonight on painting some more snowman faces so I can put another one together if need be. I'm not as crazy over the red bows as I'd like to be, but once I had all my supplies I was pretty anxious to get one made.

In progress

Whole wreath

Detail

Things I can buy for less than $2

GAS!!!! OMG! $1.99 a gallon, as of today!

Politics: one and only post

Let me start this by saying, I voted McCain. Just like every other white person out there is saying, it wasn't a race issue for me, I just don't trust Obama. Perhaps more specifically, I don't trust the people he associates with (or marries!).

However, after watching all the coverage today, I have to say, I'm so excited to be living in a time when a black man (well, halfway) can be voted as president of these great United States. I'm a huge fan of equality for blacks, women, gays, whatever and the fact that we've made it this far in a relatively short period of time is quite astounding and it definately says something for the nature of people as a whole. While I don't agree with the choice for president, I'm ready to go on this 4 year journey with him and learn what he has to teach us. History has taught us that when one sector of a nation grows stronger, they all grow stronger and I hope we have the opportunity to find this out.

Did you?

Vote? I did

Ketchup...

Wow, it's been a while. Lots of stuff going on and unfortunately blogging took a backseat to all the action. So here's some of what's been going on in my little world:

Here's a couple of our besties dressed for halloween. No, he's not Jesus, Brenan says he's Zeus. Doesn't Sam make a lovely Grecian goddess? Her hair was gorgeous! The dogs, who normally think it's Christmas, Thanksgiving and 4th of July when Brenan comes over, were absolutely terrified of the wig and beard!

Here's my house! Hubby's been working so diligently on the siding. I think it's absolutely beautiful! It looks like I live in a new house. We estimate that the aluminum siding was put on sometime in the 70's. Our house was built around 1940, so this is a much needed facelift. These pictures hubby took last week, the drive side complete:

The front, in progress:

The other side prior to taking down the old siding and shutters:

My Grecian goddess Sam and I took a pilgramige to our local Michael's store today. I haven't been there in AGES! It's about 40 minutes away but I hate to make needless trips with gas prices being what they are. So, I had a few other reasons to make the trip so off we went! EVERYTHING was on sale of course! I loaded my truck up with fun supplies and spent surprisingly little. Their fall stuff was already marked down 70%!!! Remember I showed you all those balls I got from ebay a couple weeks ago? They're shaping up awfully cute don't you think?

Hope everyone has a fabulous week!