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.