Saturday, March 27, 2010

Why is this a headline?

Beyoncé and Jay-Z Not Expecting a Baby

Can I just make up  headlines and call US Weekly to have them published?  I have some ideas... 

  • The world is NOT made up of strawberries and whip cream

  • Britney Spears does NOT need gas in her car 

  • Saddam Hussein has NOT been resurrected from the dead

  • "Juno" is NOT going to come back to theaters to make $50 million more


DUMB.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Thursday, March 11, 2010

I love Etsy...

the other day I was trolling Etsy to check prices on messages boards like the ones I made last weekend, and while I was there I did an item search using 'Richmond' as the keyword.

I got a ton of results, but most were items made or being sold by a seller in Richmond, not Richmond-related items, which is what I was looking for.  But then I saw some awesome items, and I bought my favorite!

First, there was this Richmond pendant, made from a map:

There are a ton of buttons made out of old newspaper articles about Richmond or maps - do people accessorize with these?


















There are some awesome artists around here, like the one who made this drawing of Maymont...

....and the one to took this picture of the Rivah:
 
We all know my love for these photo collages, with local themes:








My absolute favorite was a wallet made out of a local map and (I assume) covered in clear contact paper...it's a simple one that only fits a couple pieces of plastic and some cash, and the perfect size if you just want to throw it in your pocket, rather than carry around your purse.  I decided that I neeeeeeeded it, and at $6, I didn't think I could go wrong, right?

Isn't it cute? 





















I've been using it for a few days, and it seems pretty durable...hopefully we will be friends for a long time.

What's your favorite Etsy find?  Do you have your own Etsy site?  If so, let me know so I can favorite you and take a stroll through your shop!

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Thrifting...

Last weekend, on my visit to the consignment shop (the one with the awesome Longaberger display), I picked up 2 things I've been looking for.  One is a miniature dressform for my craft room - it might need a quick coat of white paint since it's pink, but it's so cute!   And you can't beat the price of $2!

I also picked a vintage Pfaltzgraff mini casserole dish to use as a key bowl!  I tested it and it makes the perfect CLINKing sound when the keys hit it!  Awesome!


Don't worry, I'm not stealing Ashley's Pyrex habit!  I just loved the color and vintage-y feel of the casserole dish...so I had to bring it home with me.  While I was there, though, I got the scoop on some black Pyrex the place is expecting this week from a seller - Ashley says black pieces are really rare, so she better call that place to check out the pieces before someone else snags them!

I think I'm on to something here...

According to the internets, "when a person leaves home on a journey, throw an old shoe after him so that he will have good luck (Superstitions: 10,000 You Really Need)."

Remember that dude/journalist who threw a shoe at GWB when he was giving a speech in Iraq?  Perhaps, he has been misunderstood.  Maybe he was just wishing GWB safe travels on his way back to the US?  No?



I'm calling FoxNews!

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Can't believe I wasted all those brads

So after I recommended leaving more space between the strings to avoid buying 24 brads, I tried it that way.  And now I'm mad at myself for not doing that before!

Only doing 3 strips of ribbon each direction instead of 5 means you only need 5 brads instead of 13.  A-Ha!

Here are the boards I whipped up tonight.  I couldn't quite do 10 - I ran out of ribbon and my hand hurts from squeezing the staple gun, but I finished 7.  The small ones are 11x14, and I made 2 16x20 toiles with leftovers from Bonnie's curtains:


Message boards...

After running some errands today, I stopped in a few shops at Lakeside and Glenside.  The first stop was Feathernesters, a really cute shop with crafty items and a tea room.  I love everything in there but didn't buy anything.

Then I went next door to Pass It On Consignments, a store that just opened on Tuesday.  It's not a junk shop, an antique shop, or a thrift store, but a wonderful combination of all these.  They had some great old furniture for good prices, and little handmade items, along with some vintage products that are hard to find, like these Welch's juice glasses from the 80's.  I was going to buy a couple for Bonnie, but she wouldn't separate the set, so I left them behind.

I noticed the owner had a stack of applications for booth space sitting on the counter, so I asked some questions about selling items.  I've been looking for an outlet to sell message boards, and have an Etsy shop set up, but I think it would be awesome to sell them locally, too.  She gave me some info, and I came home motivated to whip some up so I can show her my work.  I bought a bunch of canvases a few weeks ago on the cheap, so I have plenty of materials to make at least 10 boards.

After running a few more errands and heading home, I lugged everything I needed downstairs and got to work on my first board.

Here's what you need:
-stretched canvas boards
-fat quarters or bigger of random fabrics (needs to be about 4 inches longer and wider than the canvas you buy)
-quilt batting, cut to the size of the fabric
-ribbon to match your fabric (yardage varies based on your canvas - 2 yards should be plenty for 16x20 board or less)
-brads to match your fabric and ribbon (you'll need 13 brads, which is inconvenient because they usually come in packages of 12, although you can modify the project to use less - stay tuned)
-crafting staple gun and staples
-scissors
-1 nail

The great thing about these is you can use any fabric, ribbon, and brads for whatever look you want, whether it's for a holiday, kid's room, kitchen, etc, there's something for everyone out there.

Let's build one, shall we?

First, place your canvas on top of the fabric and batting and trim it so it is 2-3 inches wider and longer than the canvas:

Fabric should be on the bottom, oops.  Here's how it should look:


Then, anchor 2 sides of the fabric, so you don't pull too much on one side and run out of room on the other side:

Then start pulling the fabric along one side, stapling about every 3/4 inch.  Stop when you get a few inches away from a corner, and fold the fabric on an angle, pull tight and staple:

Here's how it looks all stapled:
back

 
 front

Now, it's time to add our ribbons where you'll put your coupons, notes, to-do's, etc., once the project is all finished.  Start in the middle, going from top left to bottom right corner, stapling the ends of the ribbon on the back of the canvas:
back

 front

I like to do 5 strips of ribbon going each direction, but that's how I run into the problem of needing 13 brads, and only being able to buy 12 or 24.  You can cut it down to 3 strips in each direction, just leave more room between each strip:
one direction finished

both sides done

Once your ribbon is all finished, it's time to add the brads.  I use a long nail, about the diameter of a pen's ink cartridge.  Use the nail and a lot of elbow grease to punch a hole at each ribbon intersection, going through both layers of ribbon along with the canvas.  You'll hear it when the nail has punctured the canvas, and sometimes it takes a lot of twisting and pushing, but it does work.  Once you have your hole, push your brad through:

Once all the brads are through the nail holes, separate the tails of the brad to anchor them.  The back of your canvas will look like this:

And you're done...here's the front.  Voila!

One down, 9 more to go.

Here's hoping the store will like them, and if so, here's hoping customers like them too! :)


EDIT:  I forgot to share the awesome Longaberger display they had at the consignment shop.  They had an old mattress with all the fluffy stuff taken out so it was just the springs...and they had baskets hanging from the springs.  Awesome.  Here it is:

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Head in the game...

This is where my attention and focus should be...



....and this is where it is:
10 more days!