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.

team pretty - team washi

I like to pretty.   

I've always decorated around me.

rewind  - I'm 3.
My mom bought a brand new bathroom 'cover set' ..  one of those awful 80's sets of shag carpet covers for 'prettying' bathroom stuffs.  One on the toilet, one onto the back of the tank, and a couple matchers on the floor. Then, BOOM!  your bathroom is totally matching .. totally hideous

As a toddler and lover of anything colorful - I found her new pure white pieces offensively boring .. so I decided I needed to decorate for her.   

what can I say ? 

I've ALWAYS been a giver.

I took her brightest, prettiest, reddest nail polish and flung the liquid stain EVERYWHERE!  Making sure to not miss a single spot on her lovely carpet decor. 

WHAT?!?!?

I thought it was pretty.  However, she screamed and cursed a lot more than I would expect coming from someone who had just received a free bathroom makeover.

fast foward - I'm 6.

My mom hasn't changed the curtains in my room since I was a toddler.  

I don't LIKE Winnie the Pooh, ANYMORE !! So ..I randomly poked 42 billionty holes with a metal nail file.   

Voila!  

Now they are 'fancy' and let the sun into the room. Clearly not the kind of 'fancy' my mom likes.  I know this, because the next day she went out and purchased me 'whole' curtains again; throwing away my 'refashioned' curtains; without regard for all my efforts in redecorating.

fast forward 30 something years later : 

 we laugh about these stories, until we cry and/or snort.

it's apparently just in my nature to pretty :) 

and yes - I sometimes use 'pretty' as a verb .. don't judge me.

so, in my recent efforts to pretty the world - I joined the washi tape movement. 

I'm a little late on the 'craze' - but I'm Danielle and I'm far from trendy.

so what if washi tape was ''cool'' last year .. that means I'm cool this year !! right!?!?! >_<

wrong - but who cares?

moving on ..  I know someone just said - 'What is washi tape?'

it's a cute, fancy, japanese tape with the feel of masking tape. 

I may or may not have gone a little mad after seeing so many Washi crafts on Pinterest ..  which may or may not have led to me ordering a box filled with $50-60 worth of washi tape ..

special thanks to both WillowWashi as well as Consumer Crafts for contributing to my craftaddiction.

Once I opened up my box of pretties, I realized I needed somewhere to store the sticky cuteness.

the wipey board of awesome ..

In our town, when the world is a frozen Hell winter comes - it gets super quiet.

so, this time of year, the stuff is pretty 'hit or miss' at the thrift stores.

luckily, this winter I've found lots of 'treasures.'

(that very word conjures a mental image of Hoarders *shudders* I promise to try not to use it again)

... moving on ...

when I picked up this serving tray, to look at it 

our 8 year old giggled as she said to us

"ooooohh he can bring you breakfast in bed, Mom!"

then ran off laughing at her announcement

LoL .. she's awesome.

I wanted to turn it into a 'dry erase drawing tray' for the aforementioned goofy girl.

But at $4 .. this is a spendy thrift for me.

I actually had to rethink it .. twice. 

lol  *shrug*

I got home and  it sat for a week got started

I removed the wood sides of the tray, then spray painted them

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 ! :)