Jewelry Box to Fancy Pincushion

Several months back I went on a little thrifting spree and picked up lots of little things to refinish/repurpose.  One of those things was a cracked little metal jewelry box with a broken lid (for $1.00).  I think I remember having one just like it when I was a little girl.  I quickly fell in love with the tiny Queen Anne style legs and swirly flourishes on the sides.

I didn't care for the lid, and it was half dented anyway. Luckily it was broken clean off with no jagged edges, so I just discarded it.

At first I was thinking of painting the box and using it as a dish to store quarters for laundry. (Might as well have something that makes you happy every time you reach for more, and more, and more quarters to do laundry, right?) Then I had a different idea.

I pulled out the E6000 (for the first time ever, can you believe it?), glued the crack and clamped it in place overnight. Painted and sealed it, then made a little densely-packed pillow (made with a fat quarter and poly fil) to stuff inside.

Voila! I have a fancy new pincushion! (For a total cost of $2.50)

Not much evidence of the crack!

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I'll be linking up to these fabulous link parties!



Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Pink Hippo Party -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party -- Making the World Cuter Monday -- Making Monday Marvelous -- Tuesday - Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Take a Look Tuesday -- Show Me What Ya Got -- Tuesday Time Out -- Show and Tell at Blue Cricket -- Tutorial Tuesday -- Anti-Procrastination Tuesday -- Anything Related -- Wednesday - Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Show Off Your Stuff -- Create and Share -- A Crafty Soiree -- Whatever Goes Wednesday -- We Did it Wednesday! -- Your Whims Wednesday -- Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- We Did it Wednesday -- Passionately Artistic -- Thursday - Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Chic and Crafty Thursday -- Friday - Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Furniture Feature Friday -- Show and Share Day -- Fun with Food Friday -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Fantabulous Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- No Rules Link Party -- Pity Party -- Saturday - Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special -- Let's Get Crafty Saturday -- Show and Tell Saturdays -- Saturday Spotlight -- Sunday - The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays

Shutter Love - Hair

I've decided to participate in this week's Shutter Love Tuesdays at The Trendy Treehouse.  This week's theme is hair.




One of my first thoughts when I hear the word "hair" is my daughter's curls.  They make me melt.  Every day.  She loves her hair, too.  She loves to touch it and twirl it around her finger.

Raising a Boy is Difficult

Sometimes I think, would it really be that bad if I donated him to the zoo...at least for a little while?

I had this cane-back chair I was planning on painting and reupholstering (I found for $5 at a yard sale). It was great. I loved the curve and the cane was in perfect condition (which is rare!).

Well, today my son did this:

With one swoop of a tape measure. Sometimes I am dumbfounded by the level of destruction that this child can inflict on innocent belongings. He just runs and jumps around the apartment hitting, ripping, banging, stabbing, etc, etc.

We need to move to a house with a yard. Stat.

I'm still going to keep it and refinish it... It is just going to take a whole lot more work than previously planned!

Mourning for Norway

I was very shocked and saddened by the news I heard this morning about Norway, a major part of my heritage.  My heart aches and mourns for all those lost and affected by the attacks.

Dream Bubble Pillowcases - Cute Wedding Gift Idea and Tutorial

My cousin's daughter was getting married and I knew I wanted to make something.  Usually I'm a stickler about keeping to the registry (since there's a good reason those things exist!) but I wanted to give them a little something interesting and unique.  Besides, by the time I got around to ordering a gift I realized it wouldn't arrive in time for the wedding.  Oops! 

So I turned to my newly-discovered provider of ideas wonderful, unique and fabulous -- Pinterest.  I did a quick search for "wedding gift" and ran across lots of great ideas.  Including this one:

I thought it was rather adorable and knowing the happy couple is very fun-loving I decided it would be perfect.

So I headed on down to my local Bed Bath and Beyond to pick up some plain white pillowcases.  ... I was blown away by the prices!  Holy cow!  Who pays $60 for two pillowcases?!  Yeah, so they're 750 thread count, so what?  I just need something basic.  The most basic they had was 200 thread count for $15.  I still think that's a bit much.  Unless, of course, they are sewn in the USA with fair wages and decent working conditions... which I doubt.  (But that's a rant for a different time and place)  I picked them up anyway because I didn't have time to go anywhere else.

I pre-washed them so it wouldn't cause any problems if it shrank after painting.  I'm not sure if that step was necessary, but I've seen far too many things bunch up in strange ways because they were not pre-shrunk.

Using a water-erasable marker (found in the sewing notions department of a fabric/craft store) I drew a cloud and circle shapes. If you don't get it right the first time, just redraw until you do.

If you want to you can erase the lines you won't use prior to painting, but you MUST be sure it is completely dry before painting. I'll show you what happens if you don't later.

I used this textile paint:

Using a foam brush (to better achieve a sharp edge) I painted around my outline.

At one point I messed up and smeared some of the paint. So I tried wiping it off with a damp cloth. It worked well enough that I could just paint over the worst part of it, so I did. BUT I didn't let it dry completely beforehand, so when I painted over it the paint bled.

Noooooo!

So if you need to correct mistakes or erase guide lines, make sure it is totally, completely, 100% dry before you continue painting! Unless you want the paint to bleed... which could be cool, too, depending on what kind of effect you're going for.

So even though it was a little bit of a fail (including the fact I think I should have placed the circles a little lower to have them point to the cloud in a different place), but I still like the idea and thought it turned out pretty well. At least it was only intended to be a stand-in gift until I sent them something from their registry.

P.S. Did you know Amazon has wedding registry now? Man! I wish they had that when I got married!


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I'll be linking up to the wonderful parties listed below!

Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Pink Hippo Party -- Craft Catwalk -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party -- Making the World Cuter Monday -- Making Monday Marvelous -- Tuesday - Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Take a Look Tuesday -- Show Me What Ya Got -- Tuesday Time Out -- Show and Tell at Blue Cricket -- Tutorial Tuesday -- Anti-Procrastination Tuesday -- Anything Related -- Wednesday - Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Show Off Your Stuff -- Create and Share -- A Crafty Soiree -- Whatever Goes Wednesday -- We Did it Wednesday! -- Your Whims Wednesday -- Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- We Did it Wednesday -- Passionately Artistic -- Thursday - Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Chic and Crafty Thursday -- Friday - Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Furniture Feature Friday -- Show and Share Day -- Fun with Food Friday -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Fantabulous Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- No Rules Link Party -- Pity Party -- Saturday - Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special -- Saturday is Crafty Day -- Let's Get Crafty Saturday -- Show and Tell Saturdays -- Saturday Spotlight -- Sunday - The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays

New Blog Look

Just wanted to do a quick post to let everyone know about my blog's new look.  Come check it out if you're in a reader.  I wanted something a little more cool and summery. The drawing of the woman is by Alphonse Mucha, an artist whose most famous work is from the art nouveau period.  The poppies in my banner and buttons were drawn by me. 

Oh and if you had my button before there's no need to grab the new one, it changed automatically. 

Let me know what you think of the new look!

Flower Arranging, Three Ways - Part 3

Welcome to the third and final installment of the floral design series.

This time I used a metal container (the seams had been sealed so it wouldn't leak) and fresh flower floral foam.

When buying the floral foam make sure you get the kind intended for fresh flowers. There is dry foam that looks similar but won't hold water. I started by cutting it to fit the container. You don't want to push it in because it will compress the foam too much and it won't hold water as well.

Next I filled a container with enough water so that it's deeper than the foam is tall and placed the foam on the surface.

Let it soak up the water by itself. If you push on the foam it will end up with dry pockets inside.

I placed inside the container, secured with waterproof floral tape, and filled with extra water.

I like to lay out all the flowers and see what I have to work with.

I started by adding greenery to the foam in a soft triangle shape with the tallest part in the back half of the container. Remember to cut the stems at angles and remove any leaves from the stem that will be inside the foam.

I happened to have some bear grass in this bunch of flowers so I added that after the main greenery.

Now, at this point I accidentally switched to auto pilot and completed the whole arrangement without taking any more step-by-step photos. Doh! So I apologize for the following few photos and hope you get the idea.

After the greenery I placed the bigger flowers that would be the main focus of the arrangement. The most visual weight should be at the bottom in the front, close to the rim of the container. From there the flowers should be spaced out in various directions, at varying heights, leading your eye to travel around the arrangement. The flowers can also be facing different directions; they don't all need to be facing the front.

Next I placed the tall linear flowers towards the top of the arrangement creating height, and a couple of Queen Anne's Lace to fill out the sides.

Side View

Finally I took the daisy mums (Chrysanthemums) and filled in the gaps all the way around, front and back. The arrangement doesn't need to be densely packed, but you do want to conceal the foam and tape.

And there you have it!

Back View

Part 1 - a simple arrangement in a low glass vase
Part 2 - arranging with a tall glass vase

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I'll be linking up to the wonderful parties listed below!

Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Pink Hippo Party -- Craft Catwalk -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party -- Making the World Cuter Monday -- Making Monday Marvelous -- Tuesday - Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Take a Look Tuesday -- Show Me What Ya Got -- Tuesday Time Out -- Show and Tell at Blue Cricket -- Tutorial Tuesday -- Anti-Procrastination Tuesday -- Anything Related -- Wednesday - Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Show Off Your Stuff -- Create and Share -- A Crafty Soiree -- Whatever Goes Wednesday -- We Did it Wednesday! -- Your Whims Wednesday -- Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- We Did it Wednesday -- Passionately Artistic -- Thursday - Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Chic and Crafty Thursday -- Friday - Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Furniture Feature Friday -- Show and Share Day -- Fun with Food Friday -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Fantabulous Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- No Rules Link Party -- Pity Party -- Saturday - Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special -- Saturday is Crafty Day -- Let's Get Crafty Saturday -- Show and Tell Saturdays -- Saturday Spotlight -- Sunday - The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays

Out on a Limb No. 10

Thank you to everyone who linked up to the party last week.  Here's a few of the projects:

Esther at Fleur Cottage had patience with some hydrangea plants that paid off in a beautiful way

Rach at Family Ever After made some delicious strawberry freezer jam

and Darcy at Smart-Bottom Enterprises made a fabulous 6 layer rainbow cake

Be sure to grab a featured button from my sidebar!

Now for this week!

Come link up any creative projects from your blog. The linky will remain open until Saturday night. (Please keep it family friendly).

**Please grab the button (or use a text link) and put it anywhere on your blog (your post, sidebar or party page).** I would like to get more participation and be able to help promote fellow bloggers!

<div align="center"><a href="http://catonalimb.blogspot.com/" target="_blank" title="Cat on a Limb"><img alt="Out on a Limb Tuesdays with Cat on a Limb" height="135" src="http://catonalimb.hostwebs.com/Blog_Party_Button_Final_copy.jpg" width="135" /></a></div>

Attention Bloggers who use Google+

More people are joining Google+ all the time and it's quickly becoming part of everyday interactions. However, there is one issue I have just become acutely aware of in regards to all the different companies Google owns and how they are all connected.

Did you know when you upload pictures to your blog, using Blogger to upload, they are placed in a Picasa album. Even if you never signed up for Picasa on your own, an account gets opened for you and attached to your Blogger account.

Then, when you sign up for Google+ you have to give Google+ permission to link your Picasa account. If you don't want to give permission, you don't get to sign up for Google+. Once you do sign up, all your Picasa albums appear in the albums section of your Google+ account. Well, changes made through your Google+ account end up changing everything else along the way: Picasa albums and Blogger images. So if you happen to not understand this connection and delete random old images that appear in Google+ that you don't want to be there (which I, along with quite a few other people, did), they will be deleted from your blog. Just to let you know.

I live near Google. Anyone want to go over there with me and kick someone in the head?

P.S.  Recently I have been using a Flikr account to host my images and using the html code to place them in my blog posts.  So thankfully all those images remained.  Only the ones I uploaded directly through Blogger disappeared.  It will take quite a while to go back and replace all the images! 

Flower Arranging, Three Ways - Part 2

I hope everyone is having a great week so far! The kids and I have been enjoying going to the park daily in perfect mid-70's weather.

Today I'm following up my first floral design post with part 2 - arranging in a tall glass vase.

Often flowers come semi-arranged in a plastic sleeve like this:

If you just open it up and stick the bunch in a vase it looks like this:

Of course it would be better if you cut the stems shorter, but I like to separate the flowers (to see exactly what I have to work with) and start fresh.

If your flowers come with a packet of flower food, begin by filling the vase with water, adding the powder and stirring until it is dissolved. (I like to use a conveniently provided stir stick aka flower stem.) It will clear up in a few minutes.

I usually start the arrangement with the greenery, but these bunches didn't have any so I used the flowers that were not the main flowers. Hold the flower up to the vase to estimate how much you need the cut off to get it at the height you want.

Cut the stem at an angle, above or below, but not on, where the leaves grow out and remove the leaves that would be below the water line. Leaves decay quickly in water and will shorten the lifespan of your flowers.

Repeat this process and crisscross the stems as you add them to the vase. This will allow you to stand some of them up straight as well. Vary the heights of the flowers and create an overall round shape to the arrangement.

When you have flowers like roses, take a look at them before you add them to the arrangement. Often times the outer-most petals will be damaged or shriveled.

To remedy this gently grasp the petal at the base where it attaches to the flower and pull it off.

Add the main flowers, crisscrossing the stems and varying the height to continue the rounded shape of the arrangement.

Space them out somewhat evenly as you continue to add flowers.

Add the remainder of the main flowers and fill in the gaps with "filler flowers" (usually stems with lots of tiny flowers on them) if you have them to complete the bouquet!

Come back next time for part 3!

Part 1 - a simple arrangement in a low glass vase
Part 3 - a one-sided arrangement using floral foam

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I'll be linking up to the wonderful parties listed below!

Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Pink Hippo Party -- Craft Catwalk -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party -- Making the World Cuter Monday -- Making Monday Marvelous -- Tuesday - Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Take a Look Tuesday -- Show Me What Ya Got -- Tuesday Time Out -- Show and Tell at Blue Cricket -- Tutorial Tuesday -- Anti-Procrastination Tuesday -- Anything Related -- Wednesday - Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Show Off Your Stuff -- Create and Share -- A Crafty Soiree -- Whatever Goes Wednesday -- We Did it Wednesday! -- Your Whims Wednesday -- Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- We Did it Wednesday -- Passionately Artistic -- Thursday - Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Chic and Crafty Thursday -- Friday - Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Furniture Feature Friday -- Show and Share Day -- Fun with Food Friday -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Fantabulous Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- No Rules Link Party -- Pity Party -- Saturday - Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special -- Saturday is Crafty Day -- Let's Get Crafty Saturday -- Show and Tell Saturdays -- Saturday Spotlight -- Sunday - The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays