Done, AT LAST!

Isn't it just fun when something is a whole lot more difficult than it should be!?!

That seemed to be the story of my frame.

I got this frame from my grandmother a little while ago and knew exactly what I was going to do with it.

I took off the back board and started cleaning the frame so I could paint.  Turns out the brass around the edge was a sticker!  I had to peel it all off and then scrub off the residue... um - just a little time consuming.  A five minute project quickly turned into a 90 minute project.

I spray painted the frame with black in a matte finish - it looked lovely.

The backboard was the next project.  The dead plant pieces had to go!

This frame has had several lives apparently.  I was surprised to find a painting under the black felt fabric.

Cute?  Maybe a little.  Just not on my wall :)

I covered it up with textured wallpaper from Lowes.  Really pretty stuff that could be painted but I wanted it left white (for now). 

Now came the hard part.  I envisioned a layered look on my wall.  Frame, silver platter & something pretty on the platter.  The silver platter is special to me and my husband.  It held our wedding cake and everytime I look at it I remember that wonderful day.  Hence, wanting it on my wall. 

Unfortunately, the platter didn't really want to be on the wall.  Lets just say I won after a few extra holes in the wall.

YAY!

Ready to review...

BEFORE

AFTER

I Heart New (to me) Frames!

Bad Blogger!

Feel free to slap my hand next time you see me.

I have neglected in posting my projects, which have been many. 

I'm sure all my readers...

(HA!  You probably didn't catch the joke there - I think I have one!  Hi Grandma)

...anyways... I'm sure all my readers (smirk) have been missing my projects. I'm going to try to catch up writing about most of my projects over the last couple of months, mostly because I view this blog as a journal for myself.   I've also had the bad habit of not taking pictures of finished projects and then giving them away as gifts... oops.

Last week I got a treasure trove of  frames sent home by my Grandma.

I have firm plans for two of the six frames.  Possible plans for a third - we'll see.  One is going to be a Christmas decoration (is it bad I'm thinking about Christmas deco in May??).  Another is going to be used to fill a very blank wall.  YAY!

This thing is HUGE!  It holds a picture that is 24" x 48".  My hubsand says it looks like it once held a picture of 'The Last Supper' but the dead plants glued to the board are a giveaway that it didn't.  Yuck.

I scrubbed, peeled fake brass, and painted the frame last night.  Tonight I'll be putting the dead plant remnants to rest.

I can't wait to get this one done.

A New Love

I went to my second Card Party this week. It is so much fun and while I don't do a lot of crafts with paper but I can definitely see the appeal. The best part about these parties has been getting to know some awesome ladies in my neighborhood.

It only took me 5 years to start remember names... I'm pathetic.

Since I didn't ever give away the first set of cards I made I was excited to see that we were making journals instead. I am a freak over journals. Not writing in them mind you. I think each of my journal entries start with "It's been a long time, I'm going to do better." I absolutely LOVE owning them! I have to be careful when I go to Barnes & Noble. Every single journal calls to me and they have some very nice (and pricey) ones.

Back on track… I went to a card party and tried a new thing.

Embossing.

Neatest thing since sliced bread.

I. Love. It.

Now I just need to find some embossing stuff for cheap.

I made this simple and lovely journal:

mmmm... Glittery goodness

Last time I made these cards.

Yup, that’s a valentines card. I put it somewhere safe after I made it and forgot all about it. I’m prepared for next year now.

Oh, I made a new bookmark too.

Valentine's Card

My 3 1/2 year old has his first Valentine's Day Card Exchange tomorrow.  He's getting so big! 
I came across this idea from 24-7-365 and knew it would be perfect for Xander. 

I convinced my kid to hold is hand out just so... 
Added some words to the photo... 

I had them printed and bought cute Valentine's pencils to go along with them.

My husband was nice enough to inform me that only the mean moms send their kids with pencils for V-day gifts so...

I got suckers! 

See... I'm a nice Mom.  I swear.

What A Sexy Beast

Want to see what I find incredibly sexy?

This man right here:

Forgive me for the poor picture quality.  I took this picture on the sly, through a window that I don't remember when I cleaned last, during a small snow storm from quite a distance away.  Had to be sneaky!  Knowing all that it looks pretty good huh?!?

Anyways... This is a picture of my husband crafting in his own way.  He is so creative.  I'm pretty sure this little something is for me because he got that "I'm not doing anything" smile that he gets when he's trying to be sneaky.  I could make a guess at what it is but I don't want to jinx it so I'll just wait to be surprised.  Now you can wait with me :)

The Cutest Ribbon Storage EVER!

I am WAS constantly loosing track of my ribbon.  Seriously, it would disappear never to be seen again.  I even began to suspect some creative little bird found my random pieces to decorate her nest.  Or maybe the racoon in the field next door was trying to steal more than just dog food.  To this day I cannot find the ribbons I've used in past projects.

I saw this idea from the wonderful blog The Idea Room and had to make one for myself.  It has been probably one of the fastest and easiest ways to organize my crafting supplies so far.  I went to DI in search of a container and came across the cutest glass box/jar thingy with a glass bow on top.

Here's my ribbon storage... ahhhh...

Check out this cute little bow

Now I catch myself checking out the ribbon at stores just to see if there's anything that catches my eye.  I never used to buy ribbon without it being needed for a project in the works because I knew I'd loose it (or those pesky critters would steal it).

Now I have ribbon to do fun things with at a moments notice!  If you know me, then you know I spend more time reading than I do thinking about fun things to do around my house - which speaks volumes for the amount I read.  In a bookclub I'm in we do bookmark exchanges and I always try to make one.  Here's one I just made for a friend of mine using ribbon that would've been lost forever without my new ribbon jar.

Magnetic-Chalkboard Frame

One of my goals for 2010 is better menu planning.  I'm horrible at it and we often end up scrambling at dinner time to figure out what to eat.

One of my biggest problems is that after the initial menu planning before going grocery shopping I don't think about dinner.  Here's an example of a common conversation between my hubby and me:

Hubby: "What's for dinner hun?"

Me: "uh..."

I check my menu and see that I should've pulled stuff out of the freezer hours ago. Now we're left with either peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or hot dogs... but oh wait... no hot dog buns....

Me: "uh..."

So, my first step is to force myself to think about dinner before dinnertime.  I have this little wall between my family room and kitchen that I pass a bajillion times each day.  It's plain, boring and in need of some attention.  PERFECT!

I found a frame, hunted out the perfect spray paint and had my husband cut me a piece of steel (because he has stacks of it laying around in his garage and if I'm going to have to deal with it being everywhere then I should get a piece of it - right?).  I pulled out my chalkboard spraypaint and came up with this beauty.

I know Mustard Yellow isn't for everyone but I LOVES IT!  See,

Besides the location it's really not much more useful than the paper menu I keep by the stove.  This is where I got excited about the idea... and the reason I had my husband cut the steel.

I typed out all of my family's standard meals, printed them up & attached magnets to the back. 

Now I can move meals around when I need to without re-writting the whole thing.  That shouldn't be a problem anymore though - the menu is so cute I can't stop going over to check it out.  No more "uh..." moments for me!

If you are into Mustard Yellow this is actually called Cat Yellow - as in Caterpillar Machinery.  After searching through several stores for the right color of spray paint with no luck I came home to find out my husband had 8 cans of it in his garage so I commandeered one (after asking of course).

(For the font on the magnets I used 'Hand of Sean' from dafont.)