Quite Possibly the MOST Expensive Thing I’ve Ever Made

Welcome back!  This here is a little project I saw on Marthastewart.com.  When I saw it I was instantly attracted.  I flirted with the thought of making it.  I thought how hard could it be?  I thought: I’m crafty I can make it and make it cheaply.  How wrong I was!!!  This little, o.k. not so little, piece ended up costing me like 50 bucks!!!  What?!!!  You see, I didn’t have any of the required tools and supplies on hand.  I had a needle nose pliers but I couldn’t find it.  So, needless to say, everything on the materials list needed to be purchased.  Then, because I’m impatient, I ran right over to the craft store with nothing but my debit card.  No coupon, no rewards card, no teacher’s discount card, no clothes, no shoes.  I kid about the clothes and shoes but you do see what I mean.  I paid full price for every last thing!  Yuck!  Here are some of the steps I took as explained in Martha's tutorial. 

                                                          This is what you'll need. 

This is how you will start the first loop.

                                                          About 40 minutes later.

Luckily, the necklace turned out SUPER charming!  I got sooo many compliments on it and there is nothing finer than being able to say, “Yeah I made this”.  Martha doesn’t mess around. 

I did some math and figured out I could make more necklaces to give away; inexpensively.  So these are the pictures showing the process of making the second one.  I crunched some numbers and the second necklace cost about $8 to make.  Much better than the first one!!  I’ll be giving this one away to my friend, who bugged asked me to make it for her about 6 months ago!  Hey Hellcat (you know who you are <3) it’s finally done!!!
                                    

Fun Facts About Me

Over at The Idea Room there is a fun put it all out there type of party going on.  If you would like to check it out just click the link.  I decided to jump on board because there are few things I enjoy more than making fun of myself.  Here are some silly things about me that you probably didn't care to know. 


1.  I am CRAZY afraid of maggots!!!!  I don't know how this irrational fear came about because strangely enough, I'm not afraid of snakes.  A couple of summers ago my husband threw out $5 that were in a paper bag.  Being the cheap-o that I am, I couldn't bare to part with 5 bucks so I went to the trash can to fetch it.  This is where my logic went right out the window.  The cans had been sitting for a couple of very warm days full to the brim and covered.  I was wearing flippy floppies.  I lifted the lid without thinking and without hesitation an entire sheet of white landed on my feet.  Yep you guessed it!  An entire sheet of maggots!!!  Immediately I went crazy trying to shake them off.  Those suckers bite!!! Couldn't sleep for days!!!!

2. My hair grows FAST!  Superhuman fast in fact.  Two years ago I sported a bob, now I have hair down to my butt.  It's super annoying because I hate sitting for a haircut or dye job.  Locks of Love has been very thankful for the many donations over the years.

3. I've been in EIGHT car accidents!!! What?!!!  Yup eight and not so much as a scratch on me.  Thank God!! Three were actually my fault, the others were the cause of some other idiot.  I guess I've been lucky.  I usually let people know this before I give them a ride somewhere.  They usually opt out of said ride. 

4.  I count everything in my head.  I don't know why I do this.  I've never talked about it before but it's a little strange.  I'm not like Rainman or anything like that.  It's just a quirky thing I do that no one knows about.  I guess until now that is.  Who am I fooling?  My secret is totally safe because no one actually reads my blog. 

5.  I can't kill anything.  No people (obviously), no animals, no bugs, no plants.  My philosophy is this: If God gave it LIFE then who am I to take it from them?  I've been known to lure ants away from the house via food baits.  Thankfully my husband loves to kill flies and other vermin, otherwise I'd have a house full.  You might be thinking I'm a noble soul for being a kill free zone, but here's the catch... I am not a vegetarian.  I love me some animal muscle!!! I'll eat the skin too.  I feel like such a hypocrite.  I blame God for giving me incisors.

6.  The last thing I am willing to share is the fact that I had a pacifier habit up until the ripe old age of TWELVE!!! Can you believe it?  I had such an addiction that I would even take it with me to school!  I kept it in my pocket.  Gasp!  What's worse is I would pretend to look in my desk and put it in my mouth when no one was looking.  I never did get caught.  I don't know how I didn't end up with discintary.

Well that's me in a NUT shell.

The Ghost of Christmas Past

Did Christmas just happen or was I dreaming?  It feels like I spend all this time in anticipation and then... POW it's over.  It seems the most fun is had during the wait.  Pooh.  I'm going to start preparing for next Christmas NOW!  I'm putting it out there folks, next year will be a homemade Christmas.  No more spending upwards of two grand on my kids for things I'll find covered in dust and barely used.  Every year it's a request for a new video game system and it rarely gets used because once the novelty wears off my kids return to being yard dogs.  They would rather be outside that is.  Here's how this year panned out. 

The kids each get their own tree because I don't let them touch the other trees.  Here's Midgy decorating his. 

Greatroom "nature tree". 

Foyer "winter peace" tree.

Santa's "official" tree.

        It's Christmas morning and everyone looks like something a cat would drag in. 

Midgy presented his Christmas present to the family.  I was impressed and I think we'll be making more. 

Isn't it to die for!!!  Fireworks in my heart, hearts in my eyes, I love it!!!  I'm a sucker for school crafts. 

                                               

A few over the top reactions later and we were done.  That's it, that's all she wrote.  Actually, not really because then we went to Granma and Poppop's and did it all over again.  See what I mean though?  Lots of prep, one big bang, and lots of cleanup.  Ahh but alas I wouldn't have it any other way. 

                                 The engineer in charge of the whole operation; me.

A Table I Didn't Need. At All.

The title says it all.  You see...my husband *swoon* bought me a sander and so that prompted a sanding frenzy!  Anything and everything was getting sanded around these here parts.  Problem is, when you sand something you have to refinish or paint it.  Or not.  I'm rambling.  Anyway...I was in search of some Goodwill treasure and came across this dear thing.  Goodwill was asking $15.00 for it!  What are they Neiman Marcus?!  I paid it though, that's how addicted to sanding I was!  Gasp!!  Normally a table like this should cost no more than $7.00. 

Iphone pictures; you've got to love them.  The table wasn't in terrible shape but I wanted more from our relationship.  Plus it didn't match my overall look which I haven't figured out yet.  Hence the blog's name. 
In a harried fit, because it was getting cold out, I took apart the table and painted the legs with my trusty can of oil rubbed bronze. (hearts in my eyes) 

Pedicure courtesy of Rustoleum.  As those puppies dried, I took to sanding the table top.  Apparently this looked ever so fun because my daughter, God bless her, volunteered her slave labor.  I love it when kids find chores fun!

I made her wear a mask.  She sanded that thing for hours!!!  Finally, after what seemed like a week, it was ready to be stained.  Because I know nothing about staining furniture and because I'm super lazy and impatient, I coated the table top with a layer of Minwax in Walnut.  I didn't wipe it off.  It just sat there and dried.  This took an amazing four whole days. 

Luckily it was windy out because it had the potential of becoming a fly strip.  Gross!!!  The planets aligned for me I guess.  Anywho after four long days, I was able to carry that sucker inside and poison my family with toxic fumes display it proudly!

Not too shabby I think.  I'm in love with those gorgeous legs.

New Jersey is in a state of emergency

So... I make candles.  Well I don't really make them I embellish them.  See for some time I've been eyeballing candles like these.  Pottery Barn had them beautifully displayed and it was love at first sight.  I took one look at the price and suddenly my burning passion cooled to a mild crush.  Still, I couldn't get these lovelies out of my mind so here is my version.  With a cost of $0 it really fits well with my decor and budget. 

                                             The first step was admitting I had a problem. 

I took the candle from the stand and cut some music to size.



I mixed up some glue and water concoction to adhere the music paper.

Here's the finished product.  Bamm!!! Fancy candle.

Here it is in its proper place next to Saint Nick.

Mama like.  Best of all, if you change your mind all you have to do it wet it and take it back off.  DO NOT, FOR ALL THINGS HOLY, LIGHT THIS CANDLE!!! For obvious reasons.

Noel Pottery Barn Knockoff Sign



Ok, yeah it took a blizzard to finally get me to start a blog.  Why blog you ask?  (As if anyone will actually read this.) Well, I make a lot of crap, observe a lot of unusual things, and get very crafty at times and I was told by my therapist felt the need to share it with others.  Here is some crap I made recently.  I saw that everyone and their dog on blog land made one of these, so I decided to jump on board.  I spent about $8.00 on this and Pottery Barn sold something similar for $150.00.  Full disclosure; theirs is MUCH better quality.  However, if you're not much of a quality freak this version will do nicely.  What can I say?  I have low standards.  Actually, I'm broke.

First I got some wood type letters from the craft store and arranged them like the picture in the Pottery Barn catalogue. 

I turned them over and went crazy with the staple gun everywhere the letters touched.  After the staple gun gave out, I took my trusty can of oil rubbed bronze and went to town on it. 

Here's the final product.  Ta da!  I got yelled at by my husband because I didn't wait for the paint to dry completely before putting it against the wall.  Yup you guessed it; paint on the wall.  I'm a happy camper!!!