It's my Monday!

Today is my day for a feature on Tessa Ann’s Button Shop Blog and I decided to mix it up a bit and do a Jewelry holder. I’ve had one hanging in my room for months now and the girls have always loved it so I made one for Ashlyn’s birthday tomorrow and thought I’d do a how to while I was at it.

~Strawberry Fields jewelry holder tutorial~

You’ll need an inexpensive frame (mine is 5 x 12”), scrap wood cut to fit the inside of the frame, scrapbook paper or fabric, Mod Podge, a 7/16” dowel, a 5/16” dowel, two 7/8” cup hooks, wooden spools of thread, and Tessa Ann’s Buttons.

First cut your scrapbook paper or fabric the same size as your board and Mod Podge it down. You don’t have to have a fancy ridge cut into your board, my husband is just a rock star and cut it that way for me, a flat board works to.

Cut the 7/16” dowel down to a length that works for you, mine just happens to be 9 1/4” long and paint it. Cut your 5/16” dowel into three 1 1/2” long pieces. These are your pegs to keep your spools on. Drill holes in the bottom section of your board for the pegs. Screw your cup hooks into the top of your board so everything is spaced nice and evenly.

Then put your pegs in the bottom holes and push the thread spools on. Thread your painted dowel into the cup hooks. Now we get to the fun part! Glue those adorable buttons on the ends of the spools and then glue the back on. I used E 6000. You can add a picture hanger to the back if you want or use plate stands to prop it up.

Now stand back and admire your pretty new jewelry holder. The dowel is perfect for rings or earrings and the bottom pegs hold your bracelets and necklaces.

I really think the buttons and the colored spools make the project.

Have a fantastic Memorial Day and I’ll be back later this week with Ashlyn’s dress reveal, if I can get it finished by tomorrow night anyway. It’s still in 8 pieces…

Got a spare towel?

I’m about to reveal a little secret about myself.  It’s not something I like to admit, at least not until someone catches me doing it.  No, I don’t pick my nose or anything gross like that.  I know you were thinking it!

I stress out about every* little *thing.  Okay, so that’s not a secret because I’m pretty sure that 97% of women do.  It’s not so much what I stress about or why, it’s how I deal with it big or small.  Here goes, go easy on me… I’m a crier.  I’ve never done it for attention and in fact I’m completely embarrassed if anyone sees me but when I feel like I’ve got too much on my plate or someone is really bugging me I can’t hold it in anymore.  This is a bi-weekly thing for me.  If I’m in the company of anyone but myself I can cry out of one eye.  Yes, I’ve trained my eyeballs to secret cry so that person can’t see it- I’m that good/bad.  A good sloppy snotty cry in the wee hours of the night every so often always makes me feel better.

Now that I’m pregnant this has become bi-hourly.  Move over morning sickness and make room for the water slides. I cried over the need to make a routine phone call.  I cried over a Disney movie I’ve never liked.  I cried over Glee- twice.  All this in the space of 1 hour. In my medical chart from having Mary it actually states “Very tearful”.

I cried so much over nothing yesterday my water soluble pen won’t work.  I’m not kidding.  I must have cried on it or the fabric because it’s wet and won’t work today. I can’t finish Ashlyn’s dress without it and I only have a few days left. You might ask why I don’t use the purple disappearing side?  I cried on that to.  Stupid hormones.

So there you have it.  I’m not perfect and I ruin water soluble pens with my eyeballs.  If you need me I’ll be crying over my pen in the corner.  Sheesh.

 

Sealing my fate

My fate for the next 10 to 14 years anyway.  Today the kids and are heading off on a long road trip to go pick up one of these two.

Seriously, next to my bun in the oven is there anything cuter than bulldog puppies?  I think not.  I’m sure I’ll be singing a different tune once I have to house train it, but I’m not thinking about that today.  I thinking about cupcake collars and the cute dog bed I get to make!

 

Bathtized

Ashlyn is turning 8 in 2 weeks and she’s choosing to get baptized, or as my kids call it bathtized. It’s tradition in our house to get baptized on your birthday so I’m going to be really busy trying to birthday it up and plan a baptism. I’m super excited for her and she’s bouncing off the walls excited. I’m a freak and have had all her gifts for months now but I still have to make the dress. THE dress. She’s made a few requests so I’m trying to piece them all together into something I’m willing to make. Should be interesting. When will I learn to keep my mouth shut and just surprise them with what I want them to wear? White flour sack with a burlap tie, if it was good enough for the pioneers it’s good enough for me. Ash didn’t like that idea.

The yuck is still circulating through our house so I never got a chance to post about what we did as a Primary for Mother’s day. I baked a bunch of pendants from Sculpey clay and cut a ton of white pillow boxes with my silhouette. Using my trusty rusty ink pads we put their tiny little finger prints on the pendants with their name and date on the back and they decorated their boxes with big butterfly stickers and crayons. I think they turned out great, but I might be a bit biased.

* I was originally inspired by this necklace and couldn't for the life of me find the link until now. It's really cute but needs to be baked after which is fun but didn't work for the group project I was doing. You should check it out though.*

I know it’s too late for this year but I thought it could help someone out for next Mother’s day. Thinking ahead you know. Have a great Monday!

My internet has been down for over a week now.  I have a 1/2 hour magic window of time that it chooses to work every day and that’s it.  Do I know when that is?  No.  Extremely frustrating.   As soon as I can I’m going to fire my internet guy.  I’m so over him and his spotty service.  He promised to fix it Monday… we’ll see.   I’m also so over my entire family having the flu.  I think I’m going to fire my family to.  Yeah, I’m done cleaning and doing 50 loads of laundry a day.  I think it’s time to crawl back in bed and see what falling out the other side will do.  I’m not feeling it today (or yesterday or tomorrow).

Here’s to a better weekend and real internet Monday.  I’m going back to bed forever and ever.  Anyone feel like sending over their nanny?

 

Caring for the Cannons

Today is a good reminder of why I shouldn’t feel badly about milking all I could from Mother’s day.  24 complete hours of not doing anything mother-ish unless I wanted to.  No meals, no diapers, I didn’t answer to a single “Mom… she’s breathing on me!” because Cody is awesome and took care of it all. 

I was down and out yesterday and today I’m back in the trenches with Kaci and Kennedy who have the flu.  Kennedy has never had the flu so I’m very grateful for that, but she’s not quite 2 yet so I never know when she’s going to lose it and where.  Crafting is taking a back seat to my cute little sickly cannons for now.  So is cleaning my oven, my personal hygiene, and paying bills.  In that order.  Hopefully my couch and I make it out alive!

 

Lookin’ good…

Slowly but surely my pillows are coming along. I love them so far, even in their wrinkly half finished state so that’s a good sign. I still have to find a good chair picture for pillow #3 of the set. I’m thinking maybe a chaise or an armless chair. I’m having so much fun with this. It’s like picking out and bringing home your favorite furniture and not spending anything- what’s not to love?

Have a super Thursday and make something today. Thursdays are always my favorite day of the week.

Birthday girl and chair couch pillows

My Kaci Weeds turned 4 yesterday. My 4th little one is 4! I love this little girl so much. I really can’t believe she went from that tiny little thing to such a big girl. She loved her “birsday” and even though we’ve been sick all weekend she had a great time. She’s princess all the way and had a mini pink cake with a princess on the top. I wish I could share pictures of her special day but we all looked like death (especially me), not that she cares but I do ;).

After I blow my nose for the 1,000th time and come out of my head cold coma I’m going to try to muster up the strength to finish my couch pillows. I hate being sick but I’m not one of those wussies that can’t craft during an illness. Bring on the thread! Okay, so that’s not totally true. I’ve been complaining and coughing and sleeping all weekend and now I’m on the downhill side of this bug so I think I can pull it off today.

I’m making chair pillows for my couch and a couch bolster pillow for my chair. I’m so clever, I think, unless they look like crud when I’m done. We’ll see after nap time.

Thanks for the well wishes with baby #6! I’m doing fantastic, other than this nasty cold. I don’t get sick when I’m pregnant usually (not fair I know) but I have been more nauseous this time. If I have one complaint it’s that my hormones have taken over and I’m completely insane. I cry at the drop of a hat and I’m pretty dang moody, but I don’t notice it until after the storm. It’s like an out of body experience where the sane me is looking down at the bawling mess of myself and going “what the heck?”. It’s hard to describe but I apologize in advance if I cry or make you cry. I’ll realize it later and feel really badly, unless you have it coming ;). I hope this isn’t an indication of what I have in store with this little one later!

Have a fantastic Monday!