Farkle in a Can

As usual, I saw this cute can project on Pinterest:

I immediately knew I wanted to do it. 

I introduced a couple of our friends to the game Farkle this year and they were instant fans so I thought what a perfect way to give them Farkle! I'll make it! :o)

Here's the end result:

The front

The back

The bottom

Outside: Open the can from the bottom, empty out the contents, and clean the insides. Decorate the outside as you see fit. Put the contents inside the can, and hot glue the bottom shut. When I sealed the bottom shut, it looked really messy, so I just cut out some card stock and glued it to the bottom of the can to give it a cleaner look.

Inside: 6 dice and some cheat sheet scoring cards which is the same as the instructions on the back. After it was too late, I thought I should have made a little note pad for them to use to keep score and a couple of those little pencils folks use at the golf courses.

The only thing I couldn't (or didn't want to) figure out was how to provide a seal/cover once the can is open so they can continue to use it to store the game and not have to worry about losing it's contents. The lid to a Pringles can almost fits. It's a hair too big, but like I said, if I wanted to take the time to work with it, I am sure I could have figured out a way to make it fit. Maybe some string on the top of the can to make it thicker... or a thin ring of hot-glue on the inside of the lid to give it some grip. K suggested dog food/cat food lids. I will suggest that to our friends, but I felt weird giving the gift to them with that type of lid. Merry Christmas - here's some dog food. Just didn't quite seem right. :o)

I'll definitely be doing this project again.

Budget Wreath

Earlier this month, K and I stopped at a Christmas "tree farm" - by tree farm, I mean the one set up in the parking lot of the local shopping center - to get a wreath. We do a fake tree every year, but we both love the smell of the fresh tree so we thought maybe a wreath might be enough to give us that fresh tree smell.

When I saw that the wreaths were $16 for a small one - that wasn't even decorated of fancy, mind you - I was reluctant to get it. $16 for a smell that will probably be gone in a week and then we're just going to throw it away? $16 may not seem like much, and it isn't, but for a couple on a budget, I just couldnt wrap my head around spending $16 on something that we were going to throw out. We might as well just put the money in a trash can and skip the wreath all together.

I convinced K that we should go to Michaels and see if there's one there that I can make. Sure enough, they had plain fake wreaths with nothing but a bow on it. So we kept browsing and they had an entire section for wreath making... Ornaments specially designed for wreaths. Who knew?! I certainly didn't. We loaded up our basket with goods that totaled close to $16, but it was a wreath that I made so it had sentiment, and we can use it year after year after year.

Nothing fancy, but cute enough!

Bad lighting, but you get the idea~

The wreath wasn't even the best part. When we were at Michaels, we found nifty things that TOTALLY smelled like a fresh tree. (I am positive we didn't pay $6.99 for them though.) We just put two on each tree and vwalla! It smelled like a fresh cut tree in our house. Granted, I don't think they smell anymore, but they worked for a few days anyway. It might have worked better to just use one and keep replacing it. Now we know for ext year. :o)

Dry Erase Board

Earlier this year, my sister Denise sent me this blog showing me how to make a personalized dry erase board.

At the time, I decided that was what everyone was going to get for Christmas this year. That didn't happen, but I had made two of them earlier this year as trials and kept them around the house waiting for the perfect person to give them to.

Then on Pinterest I kept seeing cute sentimental dry erase boards made to put daily messages for the ones you love. Like these:

I really liked the concept of these, so I thought I would do something like that for the ones I had already made. K and I have two sweet nieces that love home made gifts and are absolutely adored by their parents (and Aunties) so I thought, what better way to tell them every day how much they are loved than with these:

Our hope is that their parents will put a message up for them at least once a week. And every once in a while, we can send a text to their Mom or Dad and ask them to put a message up for them from their Aunties.

These really are great gifts. I am not sure why I didn't make them for everyone as Christmas gifts since they can really be personalized and fine tuned for the people you're giving them to... maybe next year. Or as Birthday gifts!

Disclaimer: I am well aware the picture quality of these photos suck and do them no justice. I am working on improving my product staging. :o)

Total Count:

16 of these bad boys!!! 

That's the most I've done so far!

 I called to tell my mom today how many I did and told her I was out of material so if she wanted them again next year, it meant she was going to have to head to the fabric store and go through the grueling process of cutting the strips. She said she thought this was the last year. My initial reaction was to jump for joy... but then I think I was a little sad. I have made these for the last three years and as much as I hate them and they literally make me angry sometimes when I am doing them, they have become somewhat of a tradition. Perhaps I will take Teenah's advise and sell them on Etsy. LOL

Scrubbies

Scrubbies - Oh how I hate thou.

Every year, I crochet beloved Scrubbies for my mom's Christmas Craft Sale at her church. She says they sell like hot cakes to all the little old ladies. (Ssshhh, we wont tell her that she qualifies as one of those little old ladies she so fondly refers to.) Supposedly, they sell so fast she can barely get them out on the table before they're all sold. They're a hot ticket item.

The first year she asked me to make them, K and I had just started dating. Imagine my embarrassment when I told her I was "crocheting scrubbies". I am certain her first thought was, "How old is this chick?" and her second thought, which is what her response was, "What the hell is a scrubbie?"

This seems to be the general response from those in my generation. The only way I know how to explain it is they are like homemade SOS pads. I guess. I dont really understand them either, I just make them.

They are kind of a pain to make. The material you make them with is netting bought at the fabric store - by the yard. In order to crochet these little boogers, they have to be cut into 1-2 inch strips. WAY too much work for me, so that's where my one stipulation comes in - "I will make them for you, Mom, but you have to cut the netting." aaaand, it's a deal.

Last year my mom sent me 4 neatly cut and rolled balls of netting. I couldn't have possibly done all four balls in one year, so I promised her that I would hold on to what I didn't use and use it for my supply the following year.

Now... it's the following year. I have a little purple left, a whole roll of red left, and a whole roll of green left. I have been putting off doing them for over a month. Every day telling myself, I'll start them tomorrow. Tomorrow never came... but then, Episode 17 of Lost happened and instead of finding a dull knife, I got out the scrubbie material and started crocheting.

Here's how I make mine:

Chain (CH) 4, connect to make a circle with Single Stitch (SS) in first Ch
Ch 3 (counting as your first Double Crochet), Double Crochet (DC) 15 into circle (16 total - it's a tight fit) connect the first and last DC with a SS.
Ch 3, DC twice in each DC space in the ring below (32 DC total), connect first and last DC with SS
 Tie off.

Repeat the above directions.

Connect the two messy, netty circles with a Single Crochet around the edges.

I typically make them all one color

I despise making these little boogers. The material is difficult to work with. When I crochet with yarn, there becomes a flow... a rhythm that you get into. The needle flows smoothly in and out of the loops. Not with these little boogers.It's constantly getting tangled and you cant be too rough with it because if you do, you'll tear it and it will break.

The material is also rough so after making a few of them, my fingers begin look red and swollen and feel raw. This adds to my anger and frustration as the needle refuses to smoothly flow through the difficult material.

They're timely. I timed myself last night and one scrubbie takes me almost 45 minutes to complete from beginning to end. And that doesn't count all the times I throw a small tantrum and have to put it down while I allow myself a moment to breathe and count to ten. 

Lastly, I especially don't care for doing these little boogers, because after all that pain and suffering I go through to make them, I don't take a step back and think, "Oh, but they're so cute." Because they're not. And even if they were, I would always think in the back of my mind, "They're so cute... and someone is going to ruin the cuteness by cleaning their dirty dishes with it." So I guess when looking at it like that, it might be better that they're not cute.

BUT, for as much disdain I feel towards these little boogers, I have 100 times that amount of love for my mom and I know that making these makes her happy and that's all that really matters. So, I will continue to make these every season until my generation becomes little old ladies and no one knows what the hell they are.

If I make two a day from now until the 28th, I will have made about 30. That's totally doable and twice the amount I have made in years past. Stay tuned for a final count update!

1st Christmas Craft of the Year

I saw this pin on Pinterest and thought in the day and age of the Words with Friends craze, this could be cute, but it would definitely need some dressing up.

Here's my version of dressing up.

All I did to dress them up was to put color to the ribbon, and as you can see, I tied little bows on Barbara's.

Simply hot glue the letters together. The glue will ooze out on the front and back of the tiles when you put them together, but don't fret. When it dries, it's super easy to just pick off and it cleans right up.

They're kind of fragile. I dropped a few while assembling them and they just snapped right apart, so I thought a little reinforcement might help.

Here's what I did to add reinforcement.

I just added a little ribbon on the back. It gives more support to the tiles and dresses up the ornament even more.

I am planning on using these as the gift tags for their actual presents. Hopefully, actually people will keep them and hang them on their tree!

Obviously there's a lot more you can do with these to dress them up. I may do that as I do the rest of them. I only have about 40 more to make!

The biggest challenge is going to be finding enough Scrabble games to complete all of them. Watch out thrift stores and garage sales, I'll be coming for your Scrabble games!

Happy Halloween

A couple of weeks ago, my sister, Denise (her name not changed to protect the innocent), sent me an email with a link to a project she thought would be right up my alley and she was right!

With Halloween just around the corner, I needed to get this project done before it was too late. So, Friday after work, I made it my mission to get the supplies.

After avoiding Walmart for almost two years, my mission took me there thinking it would be a one-stop-shop. I could get groceries, jars, and tissue paper and then head home. I was wrong.

Groceries: The Walmart by my house is apparently not a Super Walmart, thus their grocery selection consisted of cereal, chips, candy, alcohol, and a very small freezer section. Definitely wasn't going to cover my grocery needs.

Jars: They had jars, but I had to buy them in cases of 12. I didn't need 12 not to mention, I want varying sizes. Hmmm... I am thinking about what I can do so I don't have to make a third stop at Michaels and I remember that I put some spaghetti jars in the recycling bags the other day. Perfect! I will just use those.

Tissue paper: They had that and it was cheap. All under $1 except for the bulk of white tissue paper I got. I figured with this project and all the coasters I will be making people for Christmas, I would need the white tissue paper. Only problem was, they didn't have purple. Seriously? I think the Michaels Gods are working against me and doing ALL they could to get me to go there.

I buy the tissue paper and I head out of the store to the grocery store. I grab the things I need, even looked for some Mason jars there and thought I would check out the wrapping paper section for some purple tissue paper. I knew it would be a little more pricey here, but it could prevent that Michaels trip I am so desperately trying to avoid. Annnnnd, they had it! SCORE!

I head home all excited to dig my jars out of the recycling and get to crafting. I dug in the recycling, all right, but I didn't dig out any jars. :o( I guess we already took that bundle of recycling to recycle center. I was heart broken. I did find one jar, but it was an odd shape and I wasn't sure I wanted to use it. I ripped the label off and threw it in the dishwasher anyway.

The next day, when I got up, my sister-in-law had left her old pickle jar soaking on the counter for me. So sweet of her. She knew how disappointed I was the night before because I didn't have any jars.

After cleaning that jar, I suddenly remembered that someone had given us a small Mason jar of homemade apple butter last year and started frantically looking for it in the cupboards. YES! I found it! This was starting to come together. :o)

I wont bore you with the details on how to do the project. You can read that other chick's blog for step by step instructions. The only thing I did different was I used black tissue paper for the faces and just Mod Podged it right onto the jar. She used black paper and glue.

Oh, and one tip: the tissue paper is very fragile when doused in Mod Podge. There are a number of spots that the tissue paper ripped while I was working on another part of the jar, but don't fret!! I just patched it up with a small piece of tissue paper and more Mod Podge. Only the close inspector will be able to tell.

I made these little guys first:

This was the one that was a weird shape that I wasn't sure about wanting to use. Turned out perfect if you ask me!

And while I was making them, K (the wife... I decided to just start identifying her as K... less to type) reminded me that we had a really big Mason jar in the garage from a 50/50 raffle we did for the Relay for Life event last summer and it would be perfect for a ghost!

Off to the garage I go, to begin crafting the ghost. He was a little more special, this ghost. I drew his face on the black tissue paper and I just did two small ovals for the eyes and one large oval for the mouth. As I was cutting the mouth, I decided I wanted the mouth to have a different shape... like the mask from the Scream movies. Well, let's just say my free-hand cutting abilities aren't what I thought they'd be.

WARNING:  This blog may contain different images, some of which are considered objectionable or offensive by some readers.

That's not going to work. :o\ Hmmm... How can I fix this? So I went to the computer and Google imaged the Scream Mask and literally traced the face right from the computer screen, onto my black tissue paper and got this:

Here is what they look like all set up together:

Pretty stinking cute. Thanks to my sister for finding the blog with the project. Special thanks to K and my sister-in-law for not letting me get all suicidal over another failed project and helping me find the jars I could use around the house. I had a lot of fun doing it and was even a little bummed out when I was out of jars to do. This was the extent of my pumpkin carving this year. Quite frankly, I would be ok if this was the extent of my pumpkin carving every year.

Did you notice that I was all upset because Walmart didn't even have the purple tissue paper? Did you also notice that out of all the jars, not one of them had purple?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Pumpkin French Toast

I saw this pin for Pumpkin French Toast on Pinterest the other day and knew I was going to have to try it! French toast is my favorite breakfast and I love all things pumpkin. Once I looked at the recipe and realized it was a baking recipe and I wouldn't actually have to put the stuff in a pan, I was even more excited.

I followed the recipe pretty closely. I didn't use the entire loaf of bread. There was maybe two slices I didn't use, plus the heels, but who actually uses those?

I got a little impatient with the "topping" mixture because the butter I used wasn't quite soft enough so it was taking more arm muscle and energy than I was willing to spend on it. So I added a little more of the butter. This made it turn more into something that was spreadable, not so much sprinkle-able. I did my best to sprinkle anyway.

The general consensus of the house was it was a hit! The error I made with the topping being more spreadable ended up being a good thing and when I make it again next time, I might just make more of it It gave it a glazed effect that was absolutely delicious.

OH! Be forewarned!! If you don't already have crushed cloves on hand, they are PRICEY!!! $10 for a bottle and all I needed was 1/4 of a teaspoon. I was considering foregoing the cloves when I was fortunate enough to find some off Mexican brand that came in a cellophane bag for $.99. Huh, maybe that was why we felt funny after eating it. Was it really cloves in that baggie? Just kidding, just kidding. We all felt fine!

Project Success!

A little while ago, I blogged about attempting to do these these little coasters and kept hitting road blocks. Between my cat shredding the tissue paper and printer drama, I was about to give up, but someone super rad left me a comment to please keep trying so I decided to keep at it.

I started a new job last week that I am not totally thrilled about. I am thrilled about the promotion because it means more money, but I loved my old job and my old boss. There's something to be said about being happy in a job, even if it is for less money. So leaving a job I actually enjoyed doing for a job that I am not sure what to expect makes me a little nervous.

On my first day, I was doing my usual in trying to find the silver lining in all things I don't think are very shiny, I realized along with the new job, comes a new printer. "Huh," I thought. "Maybe this printer will like printing on tissue paper." And.... YES! Yes it did! I was so excited I immediately sent a text to the wifey telling her to - "Clear off the table! I'm coming home and crafting!" (On a week night! *Gasp*)


I got some 4" x 4" Travertine tiles from Lowe's for like $4.55 cents. I am not 100% sure that you have to use that kind of tile. I'd like to try some others because they really have some beautiful tiles. Anyway, the tiles come in boxes of nine which is annoying to me because if I am going to make coasters for someone, they're going to come in a four pack.. But I guess if I am tiling my kitchen, I would want nine of them to make a perfect square.

I trimmed the pictures with a ruler and razor blade to be about 3.5" x 3.5" because I like things to have a border (which in the long run is never a good idea because I get all anal and freaked out about the picture being perfectly centered.)

Next, I took the tiles out of the box to discover they were covered in a white dust that was now all over my clothes too. So I got a paper towel  and dusted them off. I put a layer of Mod Podge over the coaster and very carefully laid the picture on the coaster. The first one I did has several bubbles and creases in the tissue paper which, of course, freaked me out, but I remembered someone saying try not to fret about them because they will tear if you mess with them too much. So I just tried to prefect the technique with each tile and by the fourth one, I had it down. I just placed an edge down first and then put it on like a sticker or a decal on your car... slowly roll it down and smooth it as you go.

I went and cooked dinner while I let the first layer of Mod Podge dry. As I have mentioned before, this sitting and waiting for things to dry is painful for me. I much prefer an instant gratification. Multi-tasking seems to be the solution for me, but it also runs the risk of triggering my self-diagnosed A.D.D.

Once the first layer of Mod Podge was dry, covered the coasters with two more layers of Mod Podge (letting each layer completely dry before applying the next layer). The perfectionist in me didn't like the way it looked because you could see the brush streaks in the Mod Podge. I am not sure there's a way to change that. Maybe a new(er) brush? I don't really know. Suggestions? 

Here they are:

The pictures I took don't do them much justice. Again, I need to really work on my photography. These pictures were also taken pre-finsihing spray and pre-corking of the back side, but I was excited to share my success so I couldn't wait for all that.

I'll spray them with some clear sealant and put some cork (some people chose to use felt) on the back to help prevent scratching tables.

I have yet to see how well they work with a drink on them. Perhaps a future blog.

Project Fail

Original Inspiring Blog

I saw this great idea for DIY photo coasters on Pinterest, of course. A day or so later, this rockstar crafting friend of a friend chick, did them and blogged about them. She made them seem so easy, I decided I was even going go home and do them on a work night! *Gasp* Crafting? On a work night?!

(For those of you that dont know me, I prefer to just go home and lounge on the couch and watch bad TV with the love of my life... doing anything beyond that is nearly a pigs flew kind of miracle.)

That was Monday night. The night when my cat proved he was still a kitten and shredded my tissue paper. It was also the night that I was too lazy to actually dig out the printer from our closet.

Well, yesterday, I finally got motivated enough to dig the printer out and give this simple project a shot. I hook up the printer, choose the photos to print, click OK and hit my first road block.

I ignore this message and click "Continue Printing" because, after all, I am low on color ink, not black ink and I am doing black and white photos so it shouldn't really matter.

I wish I had pictures for these next parts, but I don't so you'll just have to do your best to visualize.

This project requires you tape some tissue paper onto some cardstock in order to print in tissue paper. Well, I didnt tape the tissue paper down on all sides, just the top and the bottom so the printer immediately started eating the tissue paper. Welp, that clearly didn't work.

I tear it from the claws of the printer and try it again, this time taping all four sides of the tissue paper to the cardstock. This worked like a charm... picked up the paper and started printing, no problem.

THEN, the final product comes out. Apparently, you do need color ink in order to print black an white because the pictures came out printed in a faded purple color with horrible streaks all through the pictures. FAIL.

I wasn't willing to go to the store, let alone spend the 50-ish dollars it costs for an ink cartridge, so I put the printer away and decided I would take the material to work and try it on my printer Monday at work.

I have been patiently waiting all day to finish with all my important work so that I can work on my personal project. LOL It's finally time. I copy the pictures to the computer, load the paper, and hit print.

Sounds good... the printer grabs the paper, no problem. You can hear it making it's mark on the tissue paper, and *CLASH CLUNK SILENCE* Ugh!!!!! The noise was so loud, my co-worker even came over and was like, was that you? Uuuhh, embarrassing. The printer decided to think it was jammed. It wasn't. There was no crumpling of the paper, there was no jam of any sort. However, the fight to get the paper "unjammed" did just that. Crumpled and tore my tissue paper and even mangled my cardstock. I, of course, brought more tissue paper in case the first attempt failed, but the cardstock is so mangled, I am not sure it's safe to try again. 

So after my third attempt at making this project, I am starting to think that no matter how thrifty and how cute everyone else's look, maybe it's just not a project for me. :o(

Conquering the Thrift Store

I have recently started reading DIY blogs. The one common denominator for most of these blogs is thrift store shopping. All Things Homie is the specific blog I have to thank for this new inspiration - or obsession, however you want to look at it.

So last weekend, against her will, I dragged the wifey to the Goodwill. We did this after spending hours in Bed Bath & Beyond. While I love that store, I always leave that place feeling overstimulated and a little frazzled. Off to the thrift store we go, frazzle and all.

We get there and as soon as we step foot in this place, I know it's going to be a failure. There was stuff everywhere... I am sure there was some kind of logic in how they set the store up, but it just seemed like stuff was thrown all over the place. And it was dirty... not the store, the stuff. There was a carpet cleaner that had years of someone else's funk and DNA caked in it. Gross. I am new to the thrift store scene, so maybe this is the norm, but it's my opinion that they could (and should) at least try to clean their products before taking them out to the sales floor. It was gross. Not to mention the people. It seemed like that place was as busy as an ice-cream shop on a hot summer day!

I decide I'm going to try and give it a chance instead of turn right around and exit the store as fast as I entered (which is what I really wanted to do). We start browsing the aisles and I am looking for pretty specific things, mostly frames, so I want to just find them and get out. My wife, however, is browsing other things (like the dirty carpet cleaner) that is distracting me from my mission and not helping my frazzle.

Not long into the adventure, the wife starts complaining about the smell and that was it. I was over it... we walked out of the thrift shop overwhelmed, defeated, and disappointed.

Then I remembered the American Cancer Society Discovery Shop over by our house. I am at my limit for the weekend so I decide I would check it out the following weekend. The girl who writes All Things Homie gave me a tip (well not me directly, but through a mutual friend). She said she never takes her husband with her. Ah, this makes sense. As much as I love my wife and I love doing things with her, I knew she didn't really want to go to the thrift store last weekend, so there was some added pressure, for lack of a better word. I would feel that way if I went with anyone that wasn't into the thrifting adventure.

This weekend finally came and I had a renewed determination to conquer the battle of Me vs. The Thrift Store.  My beautiful wife was leaving town on Sunday, and while I was very sad to see her go, I was excited to go in for my next battle. So, after I dropped her off at the airport, I headed to the Discovery Shop and...

HAD SOME SUCCESS!!! YES!

As soon as I walked in the door, I found these bowls for $2. I love fall and the leaves on the bowl reminded me of fall. Not sure if they will be part of our everyday decor or if they will just become fall decorations, but I love them.

I looked around a little more and didn't find anything I couldn't live without so I headed to the cashier. As she was ringing me up, I was making small talk and told her what a great job they did with the store. Clean, organized, it was a breath of fresh air. She thanks me and says, "Did you check out next door?" Next door?! Well, no.. no I didn't.

There was another bigger shop right next door that was also the Discovery Shop. It held more of the bigger furniture items and small appliances. I didn't think I would find anything... and then I found it. A table full of frames. It was like in the movies when someone finally finds the mother lode and it's all illuminated in gold and there's glorious music playing in the background. My search for frames can finally be complete.

I have a project in mind for these frames, which is why I was on such a mission to find them. I didn't want just plain old simple frames... I wanted ones that had character. So, I found these five frames for either $4 or $5 each and I plan to do this project with them (which I credit to this blog.)

Finally! I left feeling accomplished and excited for the projects ahead! The prices at the Discovery shop weren't as cheap as they were at Goodwill, but I was OK with that because the money benefits the American Cancer Society. No better way to feel good about finding a bargain!

Simple Post-Its

This creative gift idea was stolen from http://violetpaperwings.blogspot.com/2010/12/post-it-present.html. I think these are a great idea for gifts to give co-workers and a really thrifty gift at that!!

The one on the right (5 x 7) needs some embellishments, but the one on the left (4 x 6) is cute as can be.I think I like the proportions of the 4 x 6 frame better than the 5 x 7, but the 5 x 7 allows more room to embellish.

All you need is a clear picture frame (usually only a couple bucks), some scrapbooking paper (single sheets are less than a dollar), some glue, and some embellishments. Took me about 10 minute to do the completely finished one. Simple

Such a Witch!

My wife left today and won't be back for until next Sunday. I think in an attempt to make my week without her a little less painful, she took me to Michael's yesterday and we loaded up on craft projects I could do while she was gone. (Gimme a break, we're newlyweds!! We still don't like to be apart from each other for extended periods.)

The first one I started last night is still not done so that blog will have to come later. (The process of having to spray clear coat on things is a lengthy, tedious process that is tough for someone like me that doesn't have a lot of patience when it comes to having to wait for it to dry. I'm a more instant gratification kind of girl.)

I should preface my first craft blog with this: I wish I could take credit for originating the projects I do, but I cannot. While I do think I am creative, I am not good with creating things from scratch. I need someone else to come up with the idea and then I will steal their idea and make it my own.

With that said, I will start with the Sock Witch. I actually started making her a couple weekends ago, but I didn't care for the way she turned out. Her head was too big, her hair was scraggly, her face wasn't right (eyes and nose), and she needed something more.

Here is what she looked like last weekend:

See? She was a mess. After I took the above picture, I added a couple buttons which helped, but not enough.

This weekend, I went and got her some cute eyes from Michaels and I used a pipe cleaner to make her nose. I also gave her more hair and cut her some bangs. A major make-over in my opinion.

I couldn't find a broom that was small enough for her, so I made my own. My wife found this broom at Michaels in the Halloween decorations for just a couple of bucks. At first I resisted it. I thought it would be too much work to make a broom out of it, but my wife insisted it wouldn't be that bad so I gave in and just got it. I cut a little chunk off the bottom and just wrapped black waxy string I had to make the handle and bind it together.



And vuala:

Oh yeah, I reshaped her head and body to maker her look a little more proportionate.

She's cute, she's easy to make, but she taught me something. I dont really like working with a hot glue gun. Perhaps it's because I just have a cheap one that wont stand up on it's own, but I am pretty sure no matter how expensive of a glue gun I get, I will continue to burn the crap out of my fingers!!

Blog Schmog

A few years back, I blogged on Myspace about blogging. I didn't get it. I'm still not sure I get it now. Really? I am going to put my thoughts out there into cyber space for complete strangers to read? Who's going to read it? My friends and family get bored when I talk to them... and now I want them (and strangers) to read what goes on in my world?

I don't really know about this whole blogging thing, but.... 

My sister has a blog she started after her son was born (http://oliverchronicles.blogspot.com/).  I loved reading her blogs about being a new mom and things her son was doing as he grew up. But let's keep in mind that my sister went to school for journalism, so her writing skills are pretty phenomenal. 

Then while she was pregnant with her second child, she started a cooking blog that I also enjoyed (http://denisemadethis.blogspot.com/). We talked about sharing that blog. She was much further along in her chef-ing experience than I was, so we thought it might be a good idea for the experienced chef and the new chef to share recipes, successes, and failures. That never happened. I was still skeptical about this whole blogging thing... and let's be real, my writing skills would never compare to hers. I was not willing to face the self created sibling rivalry of not only cooking skills, but writing skills too.Thankfully, that second child, a beautiful baby girl, arrived and she hasn't blogged since, so the pressure is gone... for now. 

Along came the movie Julie & Julia. This was the first time that I felt truly inspired to blog. It proved to me that random people just might find an interest in what I have to say. And if the right random people find it interesting, maybe I will make it big and someone will make a movie about my blog. YES! I just might have to do this. 

The inspiration was gone as fast as it arrived. Who really wants a movie made about their life anyway? I know I wouldn't. 

Sure, I have had the occasional fleeting thought about starting a blog, but I always end up back where I start. Who's really going to want to read it? 

Well, I still dont have the answer to that question, but... I have recently found the ever so addicting website www.pinterest.com which inspires creativity and with a couple of clicks usually takes me to external blogs that I read and enjoy. In addition to Pinterest, two of my friends, Ms. Rink & Teenah (names and identities have been changed to protect the innocent), have recently started blogs. Teenah's is about DIY Projects (or do it her way or else projects LOL). Ms. Rink's is about Fashion and Shopping (bows and leopard to be exact). Ms. Rink has encouraged me for months to get a blog because she loves all my random thoughts and thinks I should share them with more than just her. I am positive she's the only one that feels this way.

So there it is. Peer pressure. That's what has finally got me to try out a blog. I have a lot to say... some of it meaningful, some of it not so meaningful, and everything in between. So I'll give it a try. I guess if I have at least one loyal reader it will make it worth my time. 

When I asked Ms. Rink every time she encouraged me to blog, "Who's going to read them?" Her response was always, "I will!" So I guess I will have that one loyal reader that will make it worth my time. :o)