Saturday, February 15, 2014

2014?!

It's hard to believe that it's 2014 and already past Valentine's Day! I hope you and yours had a nice day, however you happen to celebrate.

In 2013 I did a lot of art journaling, some in conjunction with work and some of it just for fun. More on that will follow.

I also traveled a bit in 2013. Here's a little shot of The Beaver House in Statesboro, Ga. It's a lovely little place with friendly service and wonderful food. We enjoyed the Boarding House Style meal and dessert, and the sweet iced tea...mmmm, good! If you are ever in the area it's delicious and a treat to the eyes. Each room is filled with charming antiques and beautiful furniture. This one of the cabinets in one of the rooms! So precious. Worth the visit, nice scenic area and delicious food!  Two thumbs up!





A little closer to home, in 2013 I was inspired by the nature at The Enchanted Forest Nature Sanctuary. This is a great free attraction to anyone visiting the Central Florida area. Close to Kennedy Space Center Visitor area, this is an example of a more low tech Florida. Free science center, free guided walks(when guides available) and when there area special events the are also mainly free or have nominal additional costs. Beautiful park filled with native animals and plants. Very quiet, slow paced and family oriented - spend an hour or a day!  Small handicap accessible trail also available.







2013 was also a time for a couple of inner journeys in the floatation tank at Souler Float in Melbourne, Fl. It is wonderful! I enjoy this so very much that it's hard not to sound like I just saw a UFO. haha :-)  I may look like it too afterwards, just a little bit!





So, here's to the rest of 2014! Let's go out there and make things beautiful!










Sunday, September 23, 2012

It's a bright, beautiful and unusually cool morning here in Florida. The neighborhood is quiet and the birds are singing. It's a great day for ideas.
Yesterday we spent the entire day surfing Pintrest, shopping and cooking. I wanted to make some things for work lunches. We made Grape Salad(delicious but rich, the brown sugar makes a nice topping), Cinnamon Sugar Pretzels and Sydney made some Bruschetta(sp?) from a school recipe. It was a lovely day.
I'm making muffin tin hashbrown breakfast things right now. I'm not sure what they're called but it looked good. I'm not sure how it's going to be coming out of the pan. Some of the reviews said it stuck really bad so I did some in metallic muffin liners and some in paper muffin liners. It will be a good test of what sticks and what doesn't. The thought of washing it out of twelve little muffin tins made liners a must.
I'm hungry just thinking of how delicious breakfast will be(i hope). yum yummy!
The Verdict: overall, pretty delicious and easy, next time I won't use liners.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Where have I been?

Time flies when you're working...

Wow. I hereby promise, on my honor, to be a better craft blogger sometime very soon. I'll let you know when that will be.

Noone has died since I've blogged last, so that's always a plus. I've been working full time so my craft time is shoved into what's leftover from my "me" time which is usually cancelled due to someone else's time. C'est la vie.

The good thing about that is I've been starting to pare things down. Over the weekend I should be listing some dollhouse furniture lots on Ebay. I'm never quite sure whether to list the whole lot as one big mess or to sell each room full of stuff separately. Hmm..what to do?

I've been working on some larger projects like painting sticks.

I was in Hobby Lobby on Saturday, just minding my own business, looking for floral doodads because one cannot possibly have enough faux nature. I have this huge urn with a fern that I got at a yard sale because it was a big ridiculous decorator piece. The plastic fern smelled like slow death so I got rid of that thing and it's been sitting empty.

So, in Hobby Lobby, minding my own business, I get this idea that the big urn needs sticks. Did you know there is a whole aisle of sticks? An aisle! So many sticks. $6.99 for a bundle of gorgeous Salt Cedar. Only $13.99 for some tall black painted beauties. One problem. I am cheap. So cheap. So cheap that buy sticks sounds re-friggin-diculous.{I mean, buying sticks is kind of ridiculous. I'm just glad that Hobby Lobby doesn't have groceries. I'd hate to have to be in the line next to someone spending their hard earned money on things that they need to survive and here's me, buying $14 worth of sticks.}

I also have a yard full of trees which, incidentally, are full of sticks. So I get this idea that I should just get a can of spray paint and go home and cut my own sticks. Special organic homegrown sticks. Artisan cut. Right? I could practically smell granola. Long humiliating story short; three hours, one thunderstorm, an empty spray paint can and one broken nipper later I had six sticks. One of them was a bit too short.

Not one to give up easily I got another can of spray paint

I know.

I set forth that day to find better sticks. Sticks with character! Sticks of distinction! I got three sticks trimmed and ready and it started raining again.

Let's do the math, shall we?
Spray paint $9
Labor (@ $10 per hour)$45
It seems that  $14 sticks don't sound so bad to me now.

I still can't believe that it's been so long that I've been here to blogger. I guess part of it is that I have a bit of a Pintrest problem. I pin and pin and comment and look at my boards and my friends boards and all of a sudden it's two months later and I've got a bunch of pallets in my yard.

I did do that really cute painted wooden salt and pepper shaker project though. That was cool. Mostly I've just stockpiled random supplies like chicken wire and rusty coils

My job is an activity assistant at a nursing home. I do crafts and play games with seniors. It's fun and fills the soul. We made an easy inexpensive fabric garland in just a few hours. We used donated items, yarn and fabric sample books from local interior designers.

We took the fabric books apart and cut the fabric in 1" wide strips. The best length was 6 - 8 inches. I laid a string of yarn across the tables and distributed the strips among the residents. They set about tying knots like nobody's business.

That's all there is to it. Just tie a simple knot and then scrunch them all together to make your garland as full as you like it. There are many ways to change it up like using bows, rustic items, seasonal items, crystals. The possibilities are endless. It was a great project.

 So hello, and goodbye.

I will be back sooner than last time. So in the meantime make art, it doesn't matter if it's good or not. Just keep  making stuff.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Mini Mania




Well, Hello, Internet!!

I've been busy working on Christmas gifts, random candy box forests and my contest project for the Hobby Builder's Supply Creatin' Contest(I think that's the name of it). I love the HBS contest, the entries are simply amazing! What a great source of inspiration! The ideas people come up with from one similar kit are just mind-boggling.

I am thankful that miniaturists are so generous with their techniques and ideas. What a great bunch of people! I've been learning so much lately. The cactus pic above is my version of the great project idea found here. Thanks, Casey!

The candy box forests are an idea that came to me while I was trying to figure out what to do with these two cute little boxes that I bought a while back. They have inspirational quotes and cute paper inside. I brought a few branches in from the yard and cut them to fit like little trees. Then, I glued some green and dark green foliage to the "branches" and added a little bird to each. They're really cute! So cute, I had to try it on every little box I could get my hands on! Pics to come! I'm supposed to be cleaning right now. ;-)

I promise not to be such a lousy mini-blogger. Chores first, then fun! I'll be back!

Have a Mini Day!

Thursday, July 1, 2010

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

I've not been a very good blogger lately. We took a summer vacation and visited a wonderful place for miniatures called Roadside America. It's an amazing 6000 square feet of interactive minis! Explore the link, visit if you get the chance, it's incredible.

Have a Mini Day!

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

It's been a while...how are ya?




These miniatures are from Disney's Epcot. I forget exactly which building...but it's on the way to Soarin'. I was pretty excited to see some minis there, so had to take a pic!

Been busy making little Easter baskets, eggs and bunnies. Wallpapered the bathroom of the San Fran, which is one room away from being "done". If there is such a thing as a finished dollhouse, that is.

Am I the only person in the world who did not like Avatar? I found it boring and predictable. The images were nice, but I'm not a fan of science fiction.

Just a quickie to break the silence. :-)

As always, Have a mini day!