lacquer box d.i.y.

now that my master bathroom is all done and fly looking, seriously, you should stop by and hang out in there coz it's pretty freakin awesome, i have a little project planned for that bathroom.
it involves slices of agate and a whole lotta UPS waiting time so while i sit and wait for these agates to arrive....

we had this one blue agate coaster and it just felt lonely.
it's so pretty but it spent most of it's days in an old fish tank out in the garage. the poor little 25 cent carnival fish had long ago floated to the top of the tank and now it sort of rested in this sad graveyard with other colorful pebbles and shells.

the blue is the wrong color for my bathroom project (coming up soon, i think. damn UPS!!) but i wanted to do something with it.

i decided to use it and make a decorative box. i've been adding more and more blue to my family room and thought it would probably work best there but right now i'm floating it around to see where i like it best.

if you don't have an old box around that you can use or paint then you can hit up michael's.
michael's has a pretty large selection and i found mine for maybe $5 or $6-use a coupon and you will really be cool.

i didn't like the clasp on the box because it felt too office like. i removed it, filled in the tiny holes with putty and sanded it.

i sprayed the box with a few coats of glossy white spray paint and let dry.

once all dry, i used a few tiny dots of gorilla glue in just a few places around the very edge of the agate then placed it on the lid. i'm sure there are better, and faster, options than gorilla glue since gorilla glue needs to sit for some hours but i wasn't sure what would work best with agate. this worked really well so i will be using it on my bathroom project coming up for sure.

i absolutely love how it turned out. the pictures really don't do it any justice.
now i really can't wait to get that bathroom project done!

p.s. if you work for UPS or have any inside info can you ask where kendra's dang agate slices are? it's taking forrrrrrrrever!

check back for my master bath reveal, it's gonna be soon. i think.

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lately....

lately i've been crafting.
not sure what it is about this time of year but it casts a craft spell on me and i'm lost in gallons of glitter, mounds of metallic paints, pounds of plaster....

the biggest little had a day off and she asked me if i wanted to....craft! gasp! gulp! get me the defibrillator!!! um, i mean, yea, okay, sure, i guess if i have nothing else goin on...*puff of smoke and squeal of tires on road as i am halfway to jo-anns, then michael's, then the hardware store*...

she did a few really cute projects
see-

her picture wall and gold glitter mason jar vase (she's definitely mine)

i decided that i was gonna try my hand at plaster of paris. i've been a little intimidated by that stuff.
i have no idea why, it was super easy. i did plaster a spoon to death (on accident of course) but it's a small sacrifice for these awesome candle holders!

my inspiration came from this concrete & brass lamp-my favorite lamp in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD (at the moment) which you can find in my online boutique, but i'm too pansy to start mixing toxic cement in my backyard. baby steps ya know.

here she goes...

making my molds...

breaking open the molds and taping them off.
i am in love with the 64 fl. oz. imprint from the water jug.

is there anything that a lil metallic gold can't beautify! that's not even a question.

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pumpkin envy cure and how to not cut off a finger

when you live where it's still really warm in october you can't really carve your pumpkins til maybe 3 days before halloween.
well, that doesn't really work for me. either does a moldy pumpkin on my porch.

oh, you can keep your cold october. i came here for a reason ya know and she's big, yellow, round and loves me back. believe it.

i've seen so many great pumpkin creations out there this year and we try to control our pumpkin envy as we sit and wait for it to be time here for us. by mid october i can't wait to start carving our pumpkins!
ya know, i'm totally lying.
i hate the carving part, i just want to roast the seeds. i'm actually on high stress alert the entire time my kids are stabbing and jabbing their pumpkins. they are gripping that large knife and their little fingers are slipping dangerously close while trying to hold on to that slippery pumpkin. high stress alert!

anyway, the littles and i decided it was a good idea to buy small and mini pumpkins and just do whatever we wanted that didn't involve carving.
well, a lil paint, glitter and metal later we ended up here, exactly where a lil paint, glitter and metal should take you....

 

i love how the gold "dipped" pumpkin turned out. i've seen people go about it a few ways but i'll just explain the genius behind mine.
well, not really 'genius' but i like to use that word in a sentence as much as possible when talking about myself. try it, you'll feel amazing.

step 1:
spray paint pumpkin white (or buy pumpkin already white- the 'genius' mighta saved herself a step here, ahem.)

step 2:
once white paint is dry, rip a piece of aluminum foil and wrap it around the top of your pumpkin making sure it's wrapped pretty tight. leave out the bottom part you want to be gold "dipped". 
*i like to tear my aluminum by hand so the edge is uneven as shown above.

step 3:
starting at the top where the stem is you will hold your pumpkin at an angle and with your metallic gold spray paint you will spray in a downward motion while keeping foil tightly in place. don't spray back and forth.
just start at top, spray downward in a single stroke and then start over again at the top and repeat until one side of your pumpkin is done. let pumpkin lay on it's side and dry.
once dry, repeat with other side and then lastly, spray the bottom, unwrap the foil and leave pumpkin sitting on a square of tin foil to dry.

step 4:
if any of your gold got under the foil you can just take a small paintbrush and do touch ups when it's all dry.

of course you could just tape it off and then spray the gold which will give you a straight edge. 
i prefer the uneven look, almost like a gold peel.

next year i should remember to do these with the fake pumpkins so that i can keep them, although i guess picking out the perfect pumpkins is part of the fun!
well, that was our week-end, along with 2 soccer games, football, some baking (coming soon), eye appointments, peanut butter-always peanut butter, and some walking dead. how was your week-end??

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friday's fab favorites

d.i.y. sharpie mugs with tips!!

this is not a new concept, these mugs, plates, whatever have practically been around since the reagan era but last time i did them i made a few mistakes so i never posted them.

one learns from her mistakes and shares so that we can all drink our coffee, tea (or wine, shhh, i won't tell) out of these handcrafted mugs that show off our talents and personalities. right?!

this time i have tips:

- i bought some cheap mugs. can you say, "dollar, dollar tree y'all"? 
good. go there. they are, you guessed it, a dolla! you want the mugs to be cheap because it means the glaze isn't high end therefore a sharpie will stick to it better in the end.

- i cleaned the cups so that dust, dirt, oil from hands, etc. isn't left behind. i'm not calling your hands dirty but...ya know. wash those too.

- once fully dry you can take a sharpie and do your thang. if you mess up, use glass cleaner to remove your sharpie and start over. 
*fine tip sharpies fade after baking and you should use a thicker tip sharpie for filling in when you're coloring bubble letters or objects. if you really want to ensure yourself no fading, wiping off or coming off in the dishwasher you can buy the paint pens that are meant for ceramics.

- let your masterpieces sit for 24 hours. i don't know how important this is but i was told to do it, so i did it. no, i wouldn't jump off a bridge if someone told me too.....i'm sure, smartass.

- place mugs in oven first and then turn your oven on to 425 (not 350) so that the mugs heat up with the oven. remember your mugs only cost a dollar you cheapskate so if you put them in when the oven is already heated, they may crack. 

- after 30 minutes turn oven off and allow the oven to completely cool before you take your mugs out.

- hand wash these. some say you can put these in the dishwasher after following the above tips but i haven't especially since i used fine tip sharpies.
*some people say they've put a clear finish (at hardware stores in spray paint section) but i didn't jump off that bridge, it sounded a little too toxic to me.

-enjoy. hide yo wine in them, sip your tea from them, guzzle your caffeine from them or just display them, coz their cute!

hope you have success, otherwise, you ain't heard nothin from me.....

 

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wreathy cute! (so i'm not the best at post titles)

i had been thinking about making a university of washington front door wreath for like ev-ah, and since my hawaiian bleeds purple and gold (truly) and since the dawgs are kickin ass and takin names faster than i can heat up my glue gun i thought i best do this thing! 

i am also severely behind schedule on all things fall décor. by the way, this lil craft project is from 2 weeks ago so i'm behind on posts as well and we won't go into saturday's game. let's just say that at one point i video taped the conversation my hawaiian had with the refs and the players. oh yes, hand motions, words, hand motions......few more words. they can hear him ya know.

i need to start the halloween stuff this week but i haven't even had a chance to spend time thinking about september even being here and now it's october!
i'm still wearing shorts and spraying my littles with spf as they rush past me jumping hurdles to avoid the sun protection 100 spray coming at their lil white (hawaiian??) bodies.
why do kids hate getting spf'd? is it just mine?
anyway.
i made a wreath, i made a wreath (<----you should sing that, not read that).

i'm not leaving real instructions but first, i do strongly suggest you start with festive shoes and a witch hat while you pick out your team colors, and to answer your thoughts, yes, i would have bought a pair if the shoes had fit.

this is all supplies ya need.

lil paint, lil sparkle.

the look of tied fabric strips isn't really my style or decor 

but it was easy so i was sold!

every week the game and time is displayed here

so don't even think about knockin',

unless you have beer, and chips, then you can knock.

whose house?

and then the board changes to the final score

until next week when it starts all over again.

love me some husky football!!

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i made a table runner and a few gray hairs.....

not in that order.
and although i made the gray hairs myself i cannot fully take the credit.
my mom gave me the gray hairs.
it's all her fault.
aren't I suppose to have given HER the grays?

i noticed a gray hair earlier this month right about the time of her surgery a few tuesdays ago. then, little mr. gray hair (and i most definitely am calling him a mr. because a woman would never do such a thing!) decided it was a party and he was fully entitled to a plus 1.
so he brought a guest which now leaves me with 2.
2 gray hairs.
i am naming them tuesday and saturday.
tuesday for surgery day and saturday because the saturday after her surgery she went out and got into a car accident in palm springs breaking wrists, cracking sternums and bruising up like she went 3 rounds with floyd mayweather jr.
yeah, i know. i am locking her up.
parents nowadays!


i did let her out this past week-end though. i even took her to the craft store. she can't really craft with one arm in a cast, but i can!!!
i bought stuff to make a table runner. i can never find a table runner i like, and since i am just now getting out my fall decorations (seriously, 90 degrees in southern cal doesn't entice me to pull out fall leaves and burlap) i thought i would just do it and make my own. 

jo-ann's sells this burlap roll with both ends finished so it won't unravel



i just used hot glue to attach a 4" black ribbon edging to edging

did one side, rolled it out, cut another burlap strip and did it on the other side of ribbon

decided the ends needed feathers.

glued them on and ran a smaller strip of ribbon over the ends to

make it look reaaal nice (says clark's cousin eddie)

i made the runner long in case i want to display it like this or cut the

feathers off if i am ever over that feathered end look (as if)



i love the look of burlap in the fall and it goes with my house décor already

love how simple and classic my fall table turned out. 

oh, but wait... 

this cat.

he has a feather fetish.

he is trying to act all uninterested waiting for me

to walk away so he can get all 'personal' with my new runner.

oh, well looky here.

there is a cat.

on the kitchen table (nasty!)

and, i do see you ya know.

 

 hmmmm...interesting, he found his way to the feathers.

he is sure acting like he isn't doing a thing wrong.

he is sure doing his best to give me full "huh, me" eyes

yet one paw is strategically placed on a feather.

he has no self control.

embarrassing, really.

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