My Summer Project

I can't believe that I haven't blogged since 2011!  I guess I've been busy and haven't had much time to craft or write.  Lot's going on in 2012.

This has been my summer project.  It's been going slow since I've been working and I'm tired when I get home.

 I have 13 of these brown, metal chairs and I wanted to make them bright and colorful.  So, out comes the spray paint!

I used these colors...all Rustoleum brand... Berry Pink in Gloss, Lagoon, Green Apple, Fire Orange, Aqua and Violet in Satin finish. So far, the only two that are completely done are the two in the back.  I used Rustoleum's Clear Enamel as a sealant.  Don't they look pretty?  :)  I still have 7 more to go...oh the possibilities!

As you can see, I'm not a neat painter.  I have a plastic tablecloth as a tarp and even that's not spread out anymore.  The cement in our backyard tells you the tales of my spray paint adventures.  Love it!  

Grief and Healing

As some of you know, I lost my son, Andrew, 3 years ago... just 10 days after he turned 18. It's never easy to lose a child but there's something about losing a teenager- just when their life is supposed to be starting, like a flower bud that's just starting to open...to become that thing of beauty and potential. In the blink of an eye, he was gone and I'll never know what he was truly meant to be in this life.

It's been a tough couple of years but at the beginning of 2011, I started to see a glimmer of hope. A little slice of light at the end of a very dark tunnel. It has been a crazy year yet one filled with new friendships, stronger old friendships and well, just HOPE. Hope that things really do get better, hope that one day we'll find a cure for that life robbing thing we call cancer.

I feel that God really speaks to me through music. One song that spoke to me enough that I felt it was a turning point in my healing is this one... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZhQOvvV45w

I don't really even know what the song is about but it's catchy. Then I really started to listen to the chorus. When the chorus finally sunk in, I was mad! What's so good about this life? How can life be good anymore? It was then that God spoke to me. He let me know that I needed to MAKE it good. I needed to find ways to honor my son's memory by living...really living. For 2 1/2 years, I did what I had to do, what was expected of me, enough so that people wouldn't worry about me but there was little happiness in it.

Now, I'm crafting and sewing and blogging (irregularly). haha

It's only through God's strength that I'm here today. I can look back and see, like the Footprints poem, how He carried me through those tough times and walks beside me now. In His strength, I can focus on helping others and bringing love and care into their lives using the gifts that He gave me.

It's not that I'm "over" the loss of Andrew. Of course, I still miss him but instead of focusing on the fact that he's not here, I can focus on the day when I'll see him again. I still cry, I still ache but I'm also REALLY living! All glory be to God! Amen...

What I've been up to...

I can't believe it's been a whole month since I last posted. I guess I've been busy. Doing what, you might ask? Sometimes, it feels like a whole lot of nothing. Other times, I've got so much going on that I can't think straight.

Here's a little glimpse into my life this past month...

I was cutting out a pattern at church on a Sunday (a way to pass some time at work-lucky me) and a friend sees me and asks if maybe I could make him some wings. Hmmm..."Show me a picture", I say. He shows me this Disney character from the 90's...some cartoon called Gargoyles. I tell him that I'll try.

I only have 5 days to get them done. I think it's going to be fairly easy. I find great fabric at an outlet store for only $3.00 a yard! Woo Hoo! I'm in business. I find what seems to be an easy tutorial. My son has the exact wire I need. Everything seems to be falling into place. And then, it all goes wrong. I'm pretty busy Monday through Wednesday every week, so instead of 5 days, I really only have 2 days. On Thursday, I went to my sisters house for our last craft day of her vacation from work. I figure I'll get the wings done while I'm there. Hah! First of all, her house doesn't have a lot of room to be stretching out wire. So, I pack it in and decide to wait til I get home and ask for help from my son or husband.

Instead, I make a felt bracelet. Then head for home.

Ok, so it's not the most flattering picture of my arm It looks like I have no fingers and my arm looks like a tube of raw, ground chicken. :/

Thursday night, my husband helps me shape the wings and I figure it'll take me half hour at the most, to sew the casings into the wings and feed the wire through. Yeah right! I get up Friday morning with every intent of getting these wings done and then preparing for fun times with friends that evening. We were going to make pumpkin rice krispy treats for another group at church.

I shouldn't have been surprised when everything went downhill. The casings were easy to sew but they made the wings sit too far back. I couldn't get them to stretch out to the side. I ripped out a casing on each side and sewed them a little differently. No luck. I ripped out two casings on each side and tried another approach...still no luck. What the heck was I going to do? This had already taken me hours not the half hour I thought. I had to make a run to Joann's and buy different fabric and start all over again. Worked a little better but I still wasn't thrilled. Nor was I finished but I had to go meet my friends at church by 6pm. I took my sewing machine and everything I thought I would need to finish those darn wings.

My friends and husband start making the rice krispy treats and I continue sewing. I needed to be done by 7:30 pm and that time was coming fast! Well, don't ask me how, but I finished and here is Jimmy trying on his wings. He's a TALL guy and, while the wings looked ok on me, on him they just looked too small. He's holding the picture I was working off of.

Here he is at his Halloween/birthday party all dressed up. Wings=way too small! But, he was happy and I guess, that's what counts. :)
Also, during my non-posting month, I made a few scarves. This is one I made for a friend who likes cats. It's made with different pieces of fleece.

I also made a ton of tissue holders. Here are just a few...
I made my own buttons for this bracelet and used a fabric webbing to put them on.
I sewed a sheer ribbon on a satin ribbon for this look.
The same weekend that I had to make the wings, I also needed to make this frog cake. This was fun until it came time to cut pieces to make the legs and feet. The cake got all crumbly and I couldn't frost it. UGH! Had to make a late night run to the market for Ding Dongs and Twinkies to use for legs and feet.And here's my dear friend Jeremiah, who had no idea we knew when his birthday was. Such fun! There's an old song called "Jeremiah was a bullfrog", which is why I made the frog cake. :)

This is a laptop bag I just finished. This is only the second bag/purse I ever made. It got a little tricky but with Matt's help, I was able to get it done.

I lined it with zebra print fabric and used a red rose, black tattooish looking fabric for the pocket.

ALL that = reasons that I haven't blogged in a month. And that's just the stuff I have pictures of!

Happy crafting!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brimming with Ideas and Weight Update

No pics today. My mind is brimming with ideas from Pinterest and fellow bloggers. I'm working on some Christmas presents and trying to get a business going. I already have orders to fill. I need to get some business cards soon.

As for Weight Watching...it's going quite well. At this past Monday's weigh in, I lost 5.4 pounds which brings me to a grand total of 16.6 pounds! I'm hoping to lose 40 pounds by the end of the year. It won't be easy with the holidays, all the food and goodies plus my yearly cookie baking for gifts (of course, I have to taste everything to make sure I'm giving the best). :)

Happy Crafting!

The Weight Game and Garage/Yard Cleaning Time

The Weight Game:

The week after I gained 2 ounces, I lost 4 ounces. This past week, I lost a whopping 8 ounces. This all leads up to a grand total of 11.2 pounds. I'm happy I'm losing but it's driving me crazy that it's going so slow. I thought losing a pound a week would be slow but ounces???? UGH!

I know that I'm eating less and that's a definite plus. I'm eating mostly the right things. I guess it's those little treats that are doing me in. That, and the fact that I'm not exercising. I walked for about 10 minutes on Saturday and 30 minutes on Sunday. I thought that would lead to a better weigh in on Monday...NOT!

Oh well, I'm proud of my 11.2 pound loss. I need to focus on the positive. :)

Garage/Yard Cleaning Time:

I was given these two great metal shelves. I have a small patio so there isn't room for them to be side by side but I have one butted up against the other.

Here's the treasure inside the big one. All of our spray paint! LOVE this. I guess you can tell we're loyal to Rustoleum brand. :) Looking at this picture and seeing two little nozzle things sitting there, I realize that I need to contact Rustoleum to see if they sell replacements. Sometimes they just get clogged and there's almost a whole can of paint left. I then play the switching game...taking off a good nozzle from one color to put it on the one I'm using. The only problem with this game, is opening a can and there's no nozzle. Not a big problem but a little irritating when you've taken the can to your spray area and then have to walk back to get a nozzle...(like 10 steps but STILL). lol Matt gave me the great idea to save nozzles when the can is empty so we have a reserve.

Ignore the wax paper on the top shelf. These used to be my storage shelves at church and I guess I forgot to take this out. :)

Side view. They are lined up by finish...gloss and satin. There is one lonely semi-gloss off to the left side. The next shelf down is all the oddballs...plastic paint, clear coat, primer, etc.

And now to the bane of my existence...garage bins. My husband and I have a system in the garage...we each get half. Somehow, he manages to ooze over past his half. I have most everything in bins. At one time, I took stock of everything in the bins, wrote it down and numbered the bins. I had a little notebook with the bin numbers and list of items. I intended to put this all on my computer since I knew I would inevitably misplace the notebook. I got about half way into logging this info on my computer and got bored. Oh well, I still had the notebook. Over time, I shifted things, got rid of some stuff and that whole number business went out the window. I finally just got a sharpie and wrote (on the bin) what was in there. If I change it, I just cross it out and start again. I can always wipe it off with bleach if I run out of space. :)

Every year, I remove all the bins from my side and go through them. I toss out stuff that I realized I don't need or want. I sweep out the garage and put everything back in. Ah, I love it when it's all neat. Little by little, things get shifted or added. I get tired of undoing the stacks to get to the bin I need that may be at the bottom of the heap and I'll just leave it on the side. Matt might buy a couple of bags of potting soil and place them in the garage. Hubbys stuff oozes over more and before you know it, there's not much of a walk space to get to the back shelf. Then things just get put anywhere. So, the next year comes and I start all over again.

That time is now. Here are just some of the bins. See that clear one right behind the bright blue one? I was excited to see this one. It has enough new containers in there for my Christmas baking that I give as gifts!! Woo Hoo! I don't have to buy any this year. Well...until they go on clearance and I buy them for next year.

This is the inside look at the madness. The empty space is where all the bins in the previous pic sat. As you can see, I still have more to take out before I can even get to my shelf. This picture is also proof of the ooze from hubby's side. See that orange nosed rocket hanging from the top? That's the middle of the garage. As you can clearly see, the homemade (awesome) telescope, the towel covered welding thing a majiger is past the middle and on MY side. What you can't see is a pile of boxes and packing peanuts that sit behind the telescope. I'm telling you, one of my home improvement dreams is to gut this garage and have people come in and put drywall and peg board to make it all nice and bright looking. :)
This picture shows the overflow. I have about 3 different sets of craft drawers blocked by this IKEA bead frame that my son is supposed to put on Craigslist. The red Christmas looking bins hold my Goodwill treasures that are waiting for their transformations. I've forgotten most of what's in there. :/

Needless to say, I have A LOT of work ahead of me and here I am blogging about it instead of doing it! Ah well, that's life. Please God, no rain. :)

Link Parties!

Linking up to these great parties. Check out all the cute stuff that everyone's making. :)

Crafting and Sewing go Hand in Hand

I should be taking a daily walk to get some exercise. I should be cleaning and/or organizing my house. But instead, I am making almost daily trips to Michael's, Jo-Ann's, Target and the Dollar Tree. I don't even have a lot of extra money but Oh! The possibilities!!! :)

I made my fall wreath today. The wreath form, ribbon and goldish leafy thing, I got from the Dollar Tree. The little berries and apple sticks, I got from another little dollar store in Brea, the wooden leaves and "give thanks" pumpkin I got from Jo-Ann's. Funny story about the yarn...I bought an autumn looking one at Jo-Ann's and when I showed it to my son, Matt, he went to his room and brought out all his yarn...he had the exact same one! Saved me a few bucks. :)

My sister and I are still on our fabric buying extravaganza! We've been to different Jo-Ann's and Wal-Marts and just keep finding stuff we HAVE to have. :D

My sister bought this fabric with the intention of making me a purse. I went

to her house for our monthly craft day to make fabric bracelets and she decided she would show me how to make the bag for myself. Here it is...all nice and finished. You can't see the strap but it's a black strap like the kind on backpacks. I forget what it's called.

Here is the (cool) inside. Love the contrast of the zebra (outside) and leopard print (inside). :) It has a simple velcro closure.

So, our monthly craft day turned into two craft days and here's another bag I made. We found some beautiful fabric at Wal-Mart with these flowers and leaves. I cut around one flower and it's leaves and sewed it onto the bag. I love color, so I added the fuschia button and made a fuschia strap.

So, that's what I've been up to and now, I need to go get ready to meet my sis at Jo-Ann's. The fleece is half off!!!

Happy crafting!!!!! :)