Jan
07
I don’t think I ever posted the final product of the 35mm lampshade I made this summer. It’s a project that has far, far exceeded my expectations and I love how it turned out. It would look a heck of a lot better without popcorn ceilings, but hey – you can’t have it all. Not yet anyway.
We are starting off the year in serious home improvement mode. We have purchased materials for new floors which we are thinking will go down sometime in March. So to prepare for the glory I am going to repaint the entire downstairs. One thing I have learned is that a dark color and dark curtains in this house = cave. It’s way too dark. We are thinking of doing a light grey (I know, grey is so hot right now) with a hint of blue. I went to the paint store the other day after reading about Benjamin Moores Aura paint line and got a sample. It’s so amazing how light affects color:
Yes, it’s the same color on the right in both swatches. It’s perfect and I love it in the living room (left) but it’s too dark and too blue in the hallway (right). Oi, the dreaded hallway. It’s really important to me to have a paint that is low VOC and has amazing paint coverage over the darkness in the living/dining area, but I am starting to think that I am going to need a REALLY light color in the hall. I am not going to make the same mistake and settle for something I don’t like, so…back to the paint store!
P.S. Don’t you just looove the texture on my walls? WTF?
Dec
09
Tomorrow night I have a little party with the gals at work, and I had to come up with a gift. I didn’t really want to buy anything so I dug through my stash of fabric and I found a little bit of embroidery I had done a while back (and had forgotten) and thought – sachets! Super easy to make, and they use all of those bits of left over fabric hanging around. I happened to have a lot of lavender I have been saving over the years, so I just supplemented it with some cedar tips from the trees outside, a little bit of cedar shavings (for packing my dahlias) and some lavender oil for extra smelly oomph. I am so pleased, I want to make more!
Oct
05
I really love papier-mache. I’m doing some Halloween crafting this year and am making treat containers. The pumpkin with the cat mask in the photo above is my inspiration, or one of them at least. Being able to flip through a binder of Halloween themed magazine pages for inspiration makes it worth the ordeal of organizing them, let me tell you.
I have cut the eyes out and am using paper clay to build up my features and then I will follow with more layers of newspaper. I am a little (okay, a lot) unhappy with the oval shaped they have dried into and am trying to talk myself into being okay with it by saying things like “They look homemade!” and “Real pumpkins are shaped funny too!”
Ill let you know how that works out.
Anyway…as much a I love this part of the process, I can tell you that I am really looking forward to the glittering. I don’t glitter as much as I should, really.
Jun
09
Yay! A post about something other than my yard! Last week I attended a wonderful Craft-Tea party at my friend Christina’s house up in Seattle and I had to think of something to bring. My crafting has been pretty much nonexistent of late. I am not sure why, but perhaps Anita Blake Vampire Hunter has something to do with it. I have been carting this Aunt Martha peacock pattern around for years (so long that now it’s a “retired” pattern!) and finally decided to start it. It’s made me remember how much I love embroidery. It’s one of those things that I keep coming back to, but get lured away from by the temptations of more complex projects like woodworking, or something equally complicated and expensive that I never end up doing. I am planning on making this piece into the skirt of a sundress and it’s actually coming a long quite quickly, which is nice. This project is also an exercise in finishing things, which I am notorious for not doing, so I am extra motivated.
