Archive for the 'crafting' Category

The Christmas Tea

Every holiday season for as long as I can remember, our community comes together to present a “Christmas Tree Fantasy” to benefit local charities, and I was honored to be invited to decorate a table for their first-ever Christmas Tea this year. Let me be clear here…we’re not too fancy about table settings at my house, and after several years of presence in my home, my ‘good’ dishes haven’t seen a lot of use. (I think I’m going to be changing that, though…why not enjoy them now?) Even so, we’ve managed to misplace a few pieces of flatware and nick a plate or two, and I had only eight settings to begin with. So a fancy eight-place-setting table was a bit of a challenge to conjure. The solution? Vintage, layered, and mismatched of course! Here’s how it turned out:

A candle centerpiece featured spunky vintage pixies (inspired by Wendy’s)…I love these old-fashioned-girls more every time I see them:

Mismatched dishes, glassware and flatware:

And for the favors, I attempted a new skill–soldered glass pendants…these were tricky, but a lot of fun to make!

The ‘Tea’ itself was charming–it was fun to sit down and enjoy all the prettiness in the room. Definitely worth hitting next year!

Upward and onward,
Audrey

It’s My Party…And I Want You to Come!

Apron

Okay, so it’s not really my party. But I want you to come! This little pretty will be for sale, along with several more unique, colorful, fun apron styles made by moi. Here’s the 4-1-1:

Date: Thursday, October 8th
Time: 6:30 – whenever, it’s an open house…come and see LOTS of cute stuff, eat something yummy and hang out with the girls!
Location: Katrina Van Orden’s home, email me for directions if you need.

Can’t wait to see ya!
Audrey

Pretty ‘New’ Trinkets

I received the latest J. Crew catalog in the mail the other day and immediately stopped what I was doing to spend a few quiet minutes drooling over how they’ve styled their Fall ‘09 looks. So gorgeous!

JCrewJewelry

While I’d dearly love to snap up a gazillion dollars worth of J. Crew goodness…it’s not in the cards this year. So, I decided to do the next best thing–make something I already have work! I purchased this necklace at da-da-da-daaaaa: Walmart for about $5 a couple years ago, and it just wasn’t sitting right with me as-is. It’s cute-ish, but just a little too bulky and blah at the same time:

BoringNecklace

I fiddled with the necklace until it had the drape I wanted, then tacked black grosgrain ribbons to the links:

RibbonCU

And just for fun, I attempted a little self-portait. (OK, that was harder than I thought it would be!) I’m LOVING my new trinket, especially the fact that it cost nothing and took literally minutes to do!

FinishedNecklace

Back to sewing now…I’ve got some fun things to share soon!
Audrey

P.S. Disclaimer: I’m *not* the professional photographer in the family, so please don’t judge Kayla’s work on my blurry, blotchy photos!! ;) )

Accomplished: One Thing

KatFlower

Someone special dropped by today for a quick lesson in flower-making, resulting in this huge 8″ blossom…it was nice to actually complete a project, as I’m literally swimming in dozens of unfinished tasks!

I’m so behind I think I’ll just keep swimming…
Audrey :)

She’s Got the Bug

HorseHat

Miss J asked me to teach her to sew this afternoon. As much as I’d like to, my desk and sewing area are a disaster right now, and I’ve got a long list of other critical things to do tonight. So we settled for a quick lesson with needle and thread: Shoney-the-Horse was threatening to lose her stuffing, so we mended her. Following the fix-up, Miss J decided her horsey needed a hat, and a sleeve I cut off her favorite T-shirt last week made a perfect visor. We pulled out the glue gun to add a little bling, and VOILA! One project down…we’ll see what happens to all the fabric scraps the girl is cutting into as I write…

Loving my girl,
Audrey

What to Do with Your List When You Don’t Want to Work on Your List

Because I have a gazillion things on my list, but feeling a bit…uninspired by said list, I decided to do a quick makeover on it. You know, to inspire me. Anyone else out there feel like they’re developing adult ADD?

 Before, blah:

Before

After some mod-podge, lace, paper, ribbon (great tutorial here):

After

Sigh. That’s better. Now I think I’d better get down to crossing things off that list!

Wishing you all a lovely, inspired, productive day,
Audrey

Diapers and Wipes Cases

Since my baby girl arrived, I have wanted to make a LOT of different things. I am just loving it all.  I have been gradually making a list of the things that I want to attempt.  Here is one project that I got done this week. I love how they turned out!   I got the pattern for the diaper case from Audrey, and I found a wipes tutorial here

JD diapers and wipes

One on One Time

Last week was a busy one, with new babies and dance recitals and homework and…you know the drill. ;) One afternoon my two younger children spent a few hours at Grammie’s house, and didn’t want to leave when it was time for big sister’s school bus to arrive, so I left them there to play for a while longer and headed home solo. Miss J was thrilled to have some “alone time” with Mommy, so I decided to deviate from ‘the list’ and asked her what she’d like to do with our little unexpected time treasure. She wanted to make jewelry, so we pulled out the supplies that I seem to keep accumulating and put a little something together for her.

Stringing

We lined everything up:

Assemble

And giggled and made some faces:

Silly

And she went to school the next day with something pretty, with which to practice time management.

OffToSchool

Shabby L-O-V-E

l-o-v-e

I came across this picture tonight of a project I did for last Valentine’s day, and thought I’d throw it out there…it’s a versatile and easy little craft.

You’ll want to round up:
-small wood or paper-mache letters in the word combo you want
-2 colors of regular-old acrylic craft paint
-bottle of crackle medium (found near to the acrylic craft paint in any craft aisle)
-old rag
-sand paper
-sealer spray
-magnet sheet
-glue gun
-ribbon bits
-sealer

1-Slap some paint on the letters–whatever you want to use as the base coat…I used red here. Let it dry a little.
2-Mix 1 part water, 1 part paint (I used pink), 1 part crackle medium (a little goes a long way here…think teaspoons if you’re just doing one set of these), and slap it on top of the red paint. Let it dry for just a minute or so, then use an old rag to wipe it off (in one direction) till it looks as weathered as you want it to. If you’re not liking it, you can water it down, wipe it off and start over. (I found this technique on Sandi Henderson’s blog…LOVE her.)
3-Sand the edges, tops, wherever you want to make it look a little more worn
4-Hit the letters with a bit of sealer spray to set the look, let dry.
5-Tie bits of ribbon & trims around the letters wherever you please.
6-Cut strips off the magnet sheet to fit the back of the letters, hot glue them on.
7-Stick these babies wherever you like and SMILE–you accomplished something today!

 

Every Girl Needs a Pair of Pearl-drop Earrings

llnecklace

My mom “surprised” me with this necklace from Lisa Leonard Designs for my birthday (thanks Mom!), and I’ve worn it constantly since. I love it’s simplicity, the meaning of the three little initials, the hammered texture of the silver discs, the luminous pearl charm. I’ve been wanting some cute earrings to wear with it, and finally found some time to sit down and make these little babies:

pearlearrings

They came together in about three minutes (once I gathered the items I needed), and they look perfect with my favorite necklace. Here’s how they work:

Items needed:
1 pair silver french hook earwires
2 freshwater pearls
2 silver 2″ headpins
1 pair round nose pliers
1 pair needle nose pliers

Thread the head pin through the hole in the pearl, form a loop using the round nose pliers, slip the earwire onto the loop, then wrap the rest of the pin around the base of the loop using the needle nose pliers. (You might need to trim a little bit off.) Since I forgot to take pictures of the process, here’s a good demonstration of the technique.

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