lost socks and drunken cork boards ...

Today was one of those stupid days.  

Within 20 minutes of waking up I'd decided I was going to do nothing productive. 
NOTHING.

I fell asleep early last night and somehow woke up late, this morning.
I woke up, scared from a strange dream that I couldn't remember.
I forgot to plug in my cell phone & it was an unhappy 94% dead.
My cinnamon rolls didn't turn out anywhere near as delicious as I had planned.
The teenager didn't complete her homework as she had promised.

It was very obvious that today was to be a day for crafts, the whole crafts and nothing but the crafts.   So help me crafts.

- home of the lost socks-

-we painted a thrift store wood plank
-we washi taped clothes pins

-we gorilla glued 'em onto the now avocado plank

-I created a 'LOST SOCKS' print out of alphabet letter art
-we embellished the sign with awesome metal flowers and brads from Pick Your Plum

-  DONE !

one happy little lost sock sign for our Laundry room

nobody wants to be alone

even if you are just a sock ...

 

-a drunken cork board-

this one's easy
.. drink a bunch of wine
keep the corks and glue them into a frame
decorate frame
DONE ! lol

but don't craft after the third glass of wine.
friends don't let friends drink and hot glue.

a frozen desert ...

If the title of this post had ONE MORE S, we'd be discussing malt chocolate milkshakes and the magical power they hold inside their delicious frozen walls of cocoa.

Unfortunately my spelling is fine and I did, in fact, mean to put desert.

I'm not a stranger to the freezing cold but I could never be mistaken for a fan of the winter, either.

Our town hadn't even seen any snow since 2010, so most of us were pretty enamored with the winter wonderland bestowed upon us right before Christmas.

In the beginning, I didn't find it completely annoying.
It was even kinda charming on Christmas day.
Now it's 2 weeks into 2013 and I'm ready for the white stuff to be gone.

I much prefer sunrays and leaves over icicles and shivers.

our driveway ... what a difference 2 months can make.

I know the 'before/after' photographs of our seasonal driveway appear backwards; but I did it on purpose.  I am looking forward ... 

In 2013 I'm trying to focus more on the positive ... so I'm at least grateful for the fun we had and the beautiful pictures I got to take; even if my fingers almost fell off in the process.

Nugget got to play in his first snow fall and the girls bought their first sled.  They stayed out until their noses were cherry-red and Nugget was shivering through his fur.

Of course we still had to force them to come in ..

After playing in the snow with new sleds and taking pictures of the kids in a sea of the dreadful pretty powder; we also wanted to get crafty.  We decided to make birdfeeders since our winters in Moab aren't usually so cold that your face feels like it's gonna freeze off.

The girls didn't want anything to do with the project, leaving G. man and I to save the world one cold bird at a time. 

We found some stuff lying around the house  and crafted together a plan for feeding our feathered friends. Creating all three 'hangers' only took an hour and cost nothing, since we had everything 'laying around.'

bird feed hanger # 1 .. milk jug

G. man cut out the side panels of a milk jug. 
Poked a hole on each side of the jug, underneath the cut outs
placing the twigs through for a perch. Then, poked 

2 holes through the top and laced the twine to hang the feeder.

bird feed hanger #2 .. spaghetti holder + a plate

We glued an old saucer to the bottom of the spaghetti holder
then, we drilled two holes through the top (for twine, to hang) 

as well as two holes through the bottom. (for seed dispensing)

 

The milk jug and noodle holder were the 'original' bird feeder projects.

After hanging the 'originals' outside; G. man ran into the mud room, grabbed some firewood and threw together the third bird feeder in less time than it would have taken me to get my camera back out of it's bag.    

ssooo .. needless to say - I didn't get any pictures of the 'process' for this one.

bird feed hanger # 3 .. got wood?

G. man drilled 4 holes in the corners of the firewood,

looped some twine through the holes ..  done.

 He's so cool.

The birds love the feeders and we love the birds - so it's a win-win situation!

Now, to work on gettin' rid of the damn snow ...

the necklaces were framed, framed I say!

I really don't think I could live without my weekly trip to the thrift stores.  It's retail therapy at it's cheapest and G. will sometimes takes the afternoon off work, to come thriftin' me.  

Other than spending quality time with my favorite man in the world - my 2nd favorite part is to raid  pillage browse their collection of previously loved picture frames.

While we were recently remodeling my crafting area, I had to relocate all the stuff in order to organize.  I stood back looking at the wood and glass cluttered walkway and even I found my frame stash to be ridiculous. 

So, while Pinteresting that night, I made the board dedicated to using up the hoarder's stash pile of frames and made a silent promise to myself to not purchase anymore until I cleared out at least 50% of the pile. 

A promise that I may or may not have broke 3 days later.

onto the craft ... 

I pulled out a ($1) frame for my star wars subway art.  I simply spray painted it with an 'aluminum' color, because I find it very galactic and futury.

1 frame down ...

Since that wasn't really anything complicated, I decided to take on a second frame.

I found this ($1) gold, glassless hexagon frame in the pile and immediately had a mental picture flash of the necklace holders I'd seen on Pinterest.

I am not a gold kind of girl.

I'm a silver and red and teal kinda girl.

So, of course this also got a healthy coat of spray paint.  

dark plum

G. screwed in some little hooks for me and I was done

I love it and can't wait to tackle the other frames.

I wonder what other ideas are out there, that I have yet to see for repurposing frames.

anyone .. anyone .. Beuller ? :)

 

words that stick out .. 2 ways

For the third time that week I found myself in the Volvo, rumbling aimlessly down the highway. Of course, by aimlessly - I mean I was headed towards my thrift store.

Friends of mine ''work" at my 2 favoritestest stores, so I can always stroll in dawning slippers and pajama pants; no fear of judgment for my thrifting addiction & fashion backward looks. :)
I may or may not be jealous of their jobs and make a little bratty face when I say ''work'' ..

Today, though .. this thrift store visit; it was going to be different.
Not different as in 'actual shoes instead of my fuzzy slippers different'...nuhuh.

I was hellbent on locating those damn scrabble pieces for some fun craftsies ...

Clearly, the powers that be are aware of my 'not messing around' face ..


The thrift Gods were smiling down on me & I found a "3D rsvp edition" instead of flat scrabble ..

I cringed a little bit later, after finding out it was the 1966 version. But forgave myself by reminding myself that the craft Gods approve of merging vintage with modern.

ok .. onto the craft

supplies

1. frame

2. fabric

3. scrabble word jumble

4. glue gun

5. mod podge

high heel necktie ring display + holder

when I stumbled upon the pinspiration for this craft - it appealed to me for a couple reasons. It looked simple'ish, it was cute, clever and I could have sworn I had everything I needed in a closet, somewhere ... ( famous last words ... )

Despite being five foot nothin' - I am not a high heel girl; I'd die without my flip flops & sandals. So, when I said they were 'in a closet' .. I meant I hadn't worn them for over 2 years. *shrugs* I do barbecues and bowling .. not formals and fancies.

I also knew I had ties from when I waited tables at a fancy-shmancy restaurant, years ago.

Long story short .. we ( mostly hubby) tore our closet apart and I had neither ties nor heels!!

For the life of me, I just could NOT recall throwing away all those old shoes.
I mean really .. what women throw away shoes ?!?
Apparently five foot nothin' women with 1,100 square feet, 2 kids, a puppy and no crafting room/garage/storage shed.

No biggie; I now had a legitimate reason to head down to the thrift stores :) *yay*
LoL I don't really need an excuse - he loves thriftin' as much as I do. double *yay*

we piled into the car, down to the store, and bought the things we needed for this one craft.
and ONLY the things we needed for this one craft ....

ok .. I lied .. LoL

onto the craft ..

Supplies are regular stuff that everyone probably has lying around .. except me :)

neckties / glue guns / scissors / high heeled shoe

personalized dry erase message boards

Our local thrift stores stock in lack of picture frames can 100% be blamed on Pinterest.

I had recently stock piled almost 2 dozen different size frames.
But, since creating the picture wall, making Christmas gifts and this latest project - I am down to one.
ONE picture frame !!!
ahhhh !!
*breathes*

I'll get to the thrift store, tomorrow
... onto the craft !

I had seen 'i love you because' versions of this over & over & over ...

but this is what I did with mine ..
I found a scrapbook paper and a font that matched each girls style.
printed "_______ is awesome because ....."
cut & fit paper into frame
hung on wall with dry erase marker & wait for shenanigans ! :)