5 X 5 Challenge Plus, My New Best Friends.



Stuff I've made in the last week (that didn't earn their own post)
 embroidered "W",  embroidery needle pincushion, and a scale model of a
handcart (from a kit).
New Best Friends? My Dollar Tree reading glasses and my needle threader.

 Lately I've been celebrating the completion of TUJD (The Uncrushable Jersey Dress). Reading and reviewing one book a week for sixteen months was satisfying in one way - Keira and I did exactly what we set out to do in our 'mission statement' - which did give me a sense of accomplishment - but there were unfortunate side effects, most notably, the lack of time/energy for more creative pursuits.

I've been making up for lost time (creatively speaking), and really enjoying myself.  So here's the challenge. Next week, Monday-Friday I plan on making OR organizing at least one thing each day and blogging about it.  I've roped in a few of you - the only real rule is that I want to see a picture (before and after if you can, but at least after).

Who's in? Leave a comment on this blog, so we'll know which blogs to watch next week.

Not so long ago, in a galaxy not so far away...

While browsing around the interwebs this week I came across a painting tutorial on Lil Blue Boo (she does a great job at explaining the process).  I thought to myself, 'Self, you could do this technique.' And so I did. I'm trying to gather up all the stuff I need to tart up my upstairs hall bath (the only room in my house that hasn't been painted at least once!). Anywho, I have a totally awesome theme (does it help if I mention that it's my 16 year old son's bathroom?)...

Let's get started on the painting!

1. I thinned down some Elmer's glue with water, and basically decoupaged torn telephone book pages onto a 12x12 canvas frame ($5.00). I'll never be able to call anyone whose last name starts with an 'l', but that's a small price to pay.

2. I covered the entire canvas and wrapped the paper around the edges.  You might notice the canning jar rings...I didn't want to glue the frame to the counter, so that's what I use to give a little height to my project.

3. I painted the entire canvas True Blue.

4. I printed up my phrase on the computer (using a free downloaded font - from www.fontspace.com/category/Star+Wars), then cut the letters out and traced them with a pencil.

5. Two coats of white paint, then I dry brushed some Leaf Green paint on the bottom and part of the top.



6. Allow paint to dry, then take some sandpaper to it to give it a distressed appearance.

 

7. I mixed some Bittersweet Chocolate(paint-not the stuff you eat) with water and then started the business of making the picture look even older. After applying the antique wash, I periodically wiped it down slightly with a damp papertowel (thus, the streaky effect).



8. Do I stop now? I think I will...

 I think my end product has a sort of Dagobah vibe. 
Total cost? Maybe $6.00.

Did I forget to mention the theme for the bathroom?  Wait for it...wait. for. it....

The Empire Strikes Bath. (With special thanks for the idea from a blog of the same name.)

Don't Hate Me Because I'm Organized.

First of all, I know I don't have the smallest master bathroom in the world. Second of all, I'm grateful that I don't have to share my bathroom with anyone except my husband. Now that I've got that out of the way...I really do have storage issues therein.

Or at least, I thought I did.

before

I don't have any drawers in my vanity, except for the wire pull-out drawer that Steve installed a couple of years ago.  As you can see by the 'before' picture, it wasn't really doing a very good job.


during



So, I pulled everything out and started over. I picked up some containers at the Dollar Tree...and then proceeded to purge and sort.  Or maybe it was sort and purge? Whatev - I managed to trim down most of the excess (except for the dozen-ish containers of dental floss...does it ever really go bad?), and organize what was left into the totes I bought. Hoo. Rah.



after

I didn't really plan on organizing under my bathroom sink today - it's just that I had some time to spare while waiting for some glue to dry. You heard me.

Needed: One Doohickey.

Now that Keira and I are pretty much done with our blog (The Uncrushable Jersey Dress), I have a little more time on my hands. I haven't really done anything particularly 'crafty' in a while (I'm not counting the awesome airplane I made...I owe that all to Keira), anywho, I've decided to do a few little embroidery projects. 

I saw this cute little airplane on google images and thought, hey! I can do that!

And here it is.  I love how quick it was - and the fact that I could do it while sort of watching tv. I did find one thing to be much more difficult than I thought it would be. 

Threading the needle was such a pain!  I am so going to have to go out and buy one of those needle threader doohickeys.  Before I do that, I'm going to try and figure out how to tidy it up so that I can hang it on the wall.

needle threader doohickey

How the Other Half lives.

Yes, it's an enormous desk, but it's got lots of storage to go with
its massiveness.

If you pasted this picture with the one above, you'd have a panoramic
view of Steve's side of our office.  If you were absolutely compulsive
about such things, you could also paste the picture I previously posted
of my desk and pretty much have a view of the whole shebang.

Now that I have the office done, it's time to go unearth my bedroom...which has become more than a little overrun with office detritus.

Let There be Light!

I put in the lights this afternoon, and I must say, I love them. They each cost $10 at IKEA. The only tool I needed was Steve's power drill (to drill 4 pilot holes in the ceiling).

I kept waffling about what to put up on the walls - I finally brought out the picture (bottom left) with the 4 trees - I had originally planned to use it as my 'inspiration' piece...then I forgot about it as we changed from green office walls to yellow...but it all came full circle...back to green, and voila! I knew what direction I wanted to go.  I had another tree picture (upper right) that I had painted along with the inspiration piece, so I filched it from the laundry room wall (trust me, no one will miss it), and I framed the pic in the upper left (which I also painted). Stephanie painted the pic of the Seattle temple, and I drew/wrote the family tree picture). My new cork board was free - I had a 12 inch square of cork that I cut down to fit a frame I already had.

Family names...in no particular order. Special thanks to Suzanne for the idea.

This quote from Serenity has become my decorating motto.

My Father-in-Law...in a box.

Now that I have a picture of it, I can definitely see a little puffiness from
un-taut fabric. I wonder if I should try to spray glue the fabric?

This is my first attempt at putting together a shadow box.  I'm pleased with the composition - all the elements in it belonged to my late father-in-law. I love the picture I found of him working on an automotive assembly line (I had no idea he had done that for a little while).  My only complaint is that I didn't get the backing stretched tight enough.  Aargh.

I am hoping to hang this today...we'll see if I get to it.