So, I found this awesome tut through Pinterest.  It’s a rather modern art piece, simply made by any of us and quite stunning.  You can find the original here: Two Girls Being Crafty. It occurred to me while I was looking at it that it would be a little difficult for a young child to accomplish.  So I set out to make it really kid friendly.  Here’s what I came up with:

Nearly Instant Dot Art

Materials:

Canvas or canvas board

Brown Paint Pen or Sharpie

Paper in your choice of colors

Circle punches in 2 sizes

A regular hole punch

Non-toxic glue stick

You don’t need to prep the canvas in any way.  Although, if you would like a slightly warmer background, you might want to paint it with a coat of cream acrylic paint.  That’s up to you.  Make sure to have adequate ventilation when you let your child use the paint pen.  Fumes can be a bit strong in a small space.  Get the pen ready for them, then let them go at it.  There’s no precision here, just some random, unstraight lines.  Varying the length and which sides of the branches the “twigs” are on adds interest, but it really looks better the more random it is.  This is what we had at that point:

The stems should look something like this

Now the REAL fun starts.  Give your child the hole punches and paper and let them go at it!  All different sizes, all colors, whatever they want.  We chose colors that go with our house: Brown, apple green, and turquoise. I told Katie to lay the dots on without glue at first, to make sure they looked just right before she committed to glue.  That’s when we had a little mishap.  It was my fault.  I had a totally mental moment.  A dog hair had become ensconced in the middle of the picture and I couldn’t seem to pick it off.  So, I gave it a good blow and…you guessed it!…the dots went flying everywhere.  We recovered, gathered them up again, and put them back in their places.

Don’t be surprised if your child has a little trouble with the glue stick at first.  I found that school kids are very used to just smearing the glue stick everywhere, safe in the knowledge that it “dries clear.”  It may dry clear, but it will leave a sheen wherever it is applied.  I helped with the glue.

When the gluing is all done, slowly (I cannot emphasize this enough) tilt the picture up to see if you’ve forgotten to glue down any of the dots.  Glue them down.  Tilt again…and keep doing that until no dots are left unglued.  Then….you’re done!

The finished Original

We think it turned out great and we sure had a lot of laughs making it.  Especially when stupid Mommy blew the dots across the bed.  This project inspired Katie to make another one.  Still made from cut-out circles, this one depicted two caterpillars and a butterfly with a little flight trail.  I’ll post a picture of that one when Katie wakes up.  Maybe it’s the mom in me speaking, but I think it’s genius!

TTYL

Trish

Well, another year has come and gone.  The decorations are put away….mostly.  And the kids are back in school.  Katie gets three weeks for Christmas vacation, so there was a lot of time to spend shopping and crafting.  We made sparkly snow playdough and cinnamon ornaments.  We made fudge and egg nog.  And we spent time with her brother, Bill, who got leave from the Navy.  The day after Christmas, Katie made cupcakes in her Easy Bake Oven.  Thanks, Santa!  They were delish.

So, with all that done, we packed up our Christmas goodies to store them for another year.  For the past 20 years or so, I’ve been storing most of our ornaments in an old Yaffa Blox box.  It’s tattered and torn but it has served us well, if not beautifully.  This year, I decided to trust our precious ornaments to something a little more conventional.  I rushed out to Walmart and bought every Snaplock storage container they had: 3.  They come with awesome dividers and they stack and they have handles.  Can you tell I’m giddy with excitement?  Here’s a picture of our little beauties…

Wonderful storage for your ornaments

Each of these babies holds 32 ornaments.  Here’s a little tip: Place a coffee filter in the bottom of each divided square to give your ornaments some extra cushion.  I even stacked 2 ornaments in one square when they were small enough.  I just put 2 filters in.  There was another container which held 4 spindles in a hanging file fashion and which now houses all our lights.  It was a wonderful find but I didn’t get a picture before I put them all in the attic.

We had a few days of down-time, during which we started to feel the boring monster creep in.  So, we took the chance to do a few small projects.  We organized Katie’s sock drawer with a new divider:

Super neat sock solution

And then we went to the thrift store.  I found these nifty old holiday cans.I threw in the Corinthians can from our snack time.  As you can see, they were in need of some help.

Old cans from the thrift store

I gave them a coat of primer and some paint to make them match my decor.

Better than new!

Now they will live in my pantry, where they will be labeled and will house my family’s many batteries.

That’s about it for our Christmas.  Valentine’s day is fast approaching, so we’ll be crafting some neat decorations for the event.  And I’ve started organizing my pantry (a huge job) so that I can blog about that when I’m done.  Next will come the big linen closet, the little linen closet and finally our own walk-in closet.  We’ll ignore the other two closets for now.

Tomorrow I’ll be posting a neat little project tutorial based on something I found on Pinterest.  Ah Pinterest!  Owner of most of the hours in a day and the cause of more than one crafting binge.  I love it!

TTYL

Trish

We moved into this house right after last Christmas, so this is the first time we’ve decorated for the holidays here.  A test-drive, if you will.  New house, new decorations.  I have pinterest to thank for almost all of it.  The Penguin was compliments of David and Katie.  They found it at Big Lots on a shopping trip and couldn’t resist.  He has given us fits in the wind as of late: Blowing away, deflating, ripping free of his moorings.  But he’s still with us, intact, with a duct tape bandage covering one battle scar.  He suits us.

The front of our house

Ornaments hung from ribbons

Repurposed wreath with an ornament from the tree

We already had the wreath for this one, so I just added an ornament from the outside tree to make it match.  I couldn’t find a decent wreath hanger and wasn’t willing to wait for one to surface, thus the black one.

Tilted presents

This one was made using repurposed trash cans (our garden departments had no pots or anything available, so I did what I could) and a dowel which is anchored in rocks and holds the packages in place.  I found this on Pinterest and couldn’t resist.

More will be added each year, no doubt, as we discover the true personality of our house, our neighborhood and the crazy folks who live inside.  More will be added as I cruise Pinterest for hours at a time.  That site has stolen more of my time than any other.  I love it.

Always clean from the top down and the right to the left. Gravity does work.  If you start cleaning at the bottom, your cleaning solution at the top will drip down over your newly cleaned surface.  It’s a simple thing, but you would be amazed at how many people don’t think about this simple fact.  And if you clean from right to left (left to right if you’re left-handed) it will shave 60% off the time it takes to clean something.  Remember to spray with one hand, wipe with the other, simultaneously.  Most of us spray and then wipe, which takes longer.  Also, did you know that cleaning a room counterclockwise saves time?  Make one pass, cleaning and gathering clutter as you go.  You can put things away in that room at the same time you’re cleaning that spot, thus saving time.  If the room is overly large, you can clean in a counterclockwise spiral to save time.  Happy cleaning!

We were in a thrift store in Norfolk this past weekend, when I saw the biggest, most glittery tree.  Sadly, it wasn’t for sale, but I did manage to snap a few pics.  It was made entirely of safety pins and clear plastic beads.  Remember making jewelry this way in the 70s?  Well, unfortunately, I couldn’t deconstruct it on the spot, other than to see that there was a huge 70s lamp underneath it all.  It appeared to be free-standing.

I’m going to try to make this.  I’ll try first to find out if it is indeed free-standing.  If not, it will either have to hang from the top of a lamp or have some sort of support to it.  It’s possible that the wires which attach to the pins are actually graduated lampshades.  In any event, as soon as I figure it out, I’ll post a tutorial.  Then we will all have our gorgeous, glittery, safety pin trees!

Safety pin tree awesomeness!

Tree close up

Use gift bags to store items.

Gift bags come in every size, color and design imaginable.  You can find them at the dollar store for as little as 50 cents.  They are large, beautiful, and require no effort to look nice.  Painting boxes or covering them with scrapbook paper takes a bit of time and money.  Putting things into a gift bag, and lining those bags up on a shelf takes no effort at all, and darn little  money.  And as a bonus, most gift bags come with a tag attached, allowing you to label the item in a matter of seconds.  As an added bonus, you can remove the handles, turn the bag upside down, and use it as an appliance cover.

Before

After

Before

After

My adaptation of an elf hat.

Use a hat as a tree topper.

If you have pets or small children and you’re just not willing to risk great-grandma’s angel or that blown glass star, consider using a winter hat as a tree topper.  You could use a store bought Santa or elf hat, or you could simply recycle one of the hubby’s old ski hats.  I couldn’t find anything locally that thrilled me, so I dug into my stash pile and crocheted a nifty striped elf hat.  I was in a big hurry and so didn’t want to muck about with making my own pattern.  A google search brought me to the same place it inevitably does, when I search for such things: It took me to Kim Guzman’s site.  Kim is a friend and one of the most talented designers out there.  Her hat pattern is free, quick, and easy enough for beginners.  While you’re there, check out some more of her patterns.  You won’t regret it.  (And I swear the pom-pom didn’t look that ratty before the wind lashed at it.)

Victorian Santa Hat pattern

Always store things close to where you will use them. You wouldn’t put the toothpaste in the garage. Or the pots in the bedroom. People would be amazed at how many steps they take across the kitchen to get a pot or across the house to fetch the iron. If you keep the iron and ironing board in the room where you iron, you’ll save time and energy. Keep the pots and pans in a cabinet next to the stove, the glasses next to the fridge. Think of the stress that will melt away when everything you need is at your fingertips when you need it.

It’s been a long time since I posted here. I’d like to say it’s because I was busy, or just couldn’t find the time. The truth is, I’m lazy and there hasn’t been much going on around here.

Well, Steph is in college and Bill went off to the Navy last August, so I have a bit more time on my hands. We’re all really proud of Bill. Somewhere up in heaven, my father is looking down with pride. His only child (sadly, me) didn’t go into the Navy. My grandfather was in the Navy. My uncles were all in the Navy, my dad was in the Navy. And now my son has redeemed the blood line. Currently, he’s at the sub school in Groton, CT. He’s doing well, getting ranked up, and learning tons. We really are so proud.

Zach is fixing to follow in his footsteps, with Zane not far behind him. Katie is getting straight A’s in school like always. She’s genius enough to skip a grade or so. For example, she’s reading (by choice) “Pygmalion” and “Moby Dick.”

So, what to do with my new-found free time? Well, for one thing, I’m getting the new house into shape. It’s still a new house even though we’ve lived here 11 months, right? Yea, in typical ME fashion, boxes live in the garage, unpacked since the move from FLORIDA. Right. That was 3 houses ago. More still remain from our move last January.

Believe it or not, most of my life was spent in blissful organization. I had lists for everything, containers for everything, plans, alphabetized files, etc. I’ve gotten a leg up on all that by starting my Home Management Binder. I’ve put all our random and cast-aside instruction manuals in three binders according to type. And I’ve organized our bathroom closet into containers.

So, I’m going to start down this rather long road again by simultaneously organizing the HUGE hall closet and the HUGE pantry. And I shall do this while preparing for not only Christmas, but 4 birthdays besides! Oh yea! Faster than a speeding bullet, able to leap tall piles of clutter in a single bound….

My next post will start with the hall closet. I will post the inspirations for my organizational project and I will post the dreaded BEFORE pictures. That’s right, I’m going to let you into my befores, expose my closets in all their disruptive hog-town glory. And then I’ll show you my sorting process and the final result. The pantry may take awhile. It’s enormous and the amount of food and the number of appliances stored there are daunting.

For now, full speed ahead. I must finish my outdoor tree, wrap Stephanie’s birthday presents, make out the invitations for Katie’s birthday party, and have a little chat with Santa.

Let me preface this by saying that I am, by no means, a great seamstress.  My mother was exactly that.  She could whip up a new party dress, a suit for my father, or upholster the couch and in each case, the results would be stunning.  I live in fear of zippers.  I dread darts.  Mostly I sew curtains and things with straight seams and not much detail.

My mother started her career with a treddle Singer machine, which she later converted to motorized.  About six years before her death, she finally talked Daddy into buying her a new machine; a White basic model with about ten stitches and a new-fangled bobbin winder.  She sewed like the wind and she loved it.  When she died, it passed to me.  I gave it heavy use for about ten years, then lighter use as time wore on.  But the fact of the matter is, it got fairly heavy use for 28 years before it finally gave up the ghost.

When the trusted White sewing machine died, I went in search of a new one.  I wanted bells and whistles, something to make my sewing life easier.  I bought a Brother, with the self-threading needle doo-dad and the drop-in bobbin.  It had a TON of stitches, all computerized and easily accessed.  In short, it did everything in the world.  It did everything in the world but sew.

Now, I bought this machine about 2 years ago for a little less than $400.  Within a year, the self-winding bobbin mechanism gave up the ghost.  The machine shook and rattled when it sewed, no matter what stitch I was using.  And it was feeble enough that it wouldn’t sew through two layers of thin denim.

Yesterday, I was making a skirt for my daughter….using a light, woven knit material.  All of a sudden, it began making this ratcheting sound and then the needle simply….froze.  Try as I might, I couldn’t get the needle to move.  I couldn’t change stitches, couldn’t get the threading mechanism to work at all.  The bobbin refused to pass its thread through the plate.

Seriously.  I got this machine from a Brother authorized dealer.  It is NOT a cheap machine….not top of the line…but far from the bottom.  I don’t think I gave that machine more than 5 hours of work in 2 years and it’s dead.  Warranty?  Nope.  It was open box and the warranty is voided.

I bought a new machine because my experience in these matters is that I could pay postage and ship this thing back and forth with the customer service center until I was broke and blue in the face.  Nothing would come of it other than the obvious end result: buying a new machine.  I look at this thing and every single part of it is made of plastic.  The gears inside are even made of plastic.  It is a plasticized, volumized, computerized piece of SHIT.  My mother’s machine was heavy, with a metal housing and it made a noise something like a 747 when it operated.  But that sucker lasted a LONG time.

Looking at all the machines, they’re almost all made of plastic.  They have what they call a professional series and a mechanical series in almost every brand.  THOSE are the good ones.  The electronic machines…not so much.  They’re feeble and have no power.  They snag and give you fits every chance they get.

Will this new Singer live up to its heritage?  I’m not sure.  If I could have located another White machine nearby, I would have bought that.  But in the face of one store and two brands (one being the awful, dreaded Brother) I made the choice to buy the one that was NOT Brother.

And so, in a long line of complaints about Things That Do Not Work, I offer up the Brother Sewing Machine.  It is worth about a tenth of what you’ll pay for it and the anxiety of having it die way before its time isn’t worth the pretty, shiny gingerbread that they place on their machines.  Give me a solid, cast-iron, Hemi-powered, get a hernia lifting it, sews through steel machine any day.  But do not…I repeat…DO NOT….give me a Brother.

Trish