Painted Hearts

This afternoon, I felt the little creative juices beginning to get restless.  So, I asked the hubby to cut my piece of plywood in half.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but I was gonna do something. 

With all the news about Sandy and the devastation she has caused so many, I turned off the TV, turned on my favorite CD and began.

This was one long piece of plywood and hubby cut in almost in half.  I sanded all the sides with a palm sander.  

 Then, I applied a thin layer of Kilz2.  Love that stuff.  Most of the time one good coat is all it takes.

The two pieces of plywood with Kilz2 on them, drying in the sun. :)

 I then took this white paint and covered both boards.  Two coats, letting dry between coats.

 Once they were good and dry, I took different colors of acrylic paint and drizzled it onto the board.

 I took a paper towel and smeared it all together.  I love the look on this one.

 Same process, pick out your colors, drizzle onto the board, take a paper towel and smear.

 I REALLY love the look this one has!!  My son said it looked "old".  After I smeared each one and they became a bit tacky, I took a clean paper towel and wiped any excess off.  Then I took a fine grit sand paper and lightly sanded each board.  Take a dry towel and wipe clean.

 I got a pencil and drew on (as best as I could) hearts.  Chose my colors, and painted them.

 There is no right or wrong way to do this.  Just do it!

 I took some paint on a paper towel and dabbed on some other colors to highlight the hearts.  Then took some white paint and added a little dimension to the hearts.  On this one, I took a red paint pen and free handed the word "Love" in the corner.  Then outlined the hearts with the red paint pen.

 On this one, I took my distress ink and with paper towel, distressed the entire board, even the hearts.  On the silver one at that bottom, I used the red paint pen to draw in another heart, then painted it in.  Used the white paint to add a little dimension and outlined with the red paint pen.

I didn't do the edges.  I left them wood.  I will added frame wire to the back and these will hang in the master bedroom.  Probably above the bed. :)

What creative ways have you used plywood and paint?  I would love to hear about them!

Sandy

I live in Oklahoma.  Today will be sunny and warm.  While watching Headline news this morning, I felt compelled to do something.  Watching the stories on the flooding, the rescues, the economy, feeling the helplessness of not being able to do anything to help these people so far from me, I said a prayer.  While I am sitting in my home, nice and warm, these people are in shelters wondering if they even have a home to go back to.  While I am sitting here with power, some are without power.   Now it is snowing, blizzard like conditions.  I wonder how much more Mother Nature can throw at these people!

Today, lets take a moment to remember all of those affected by Sandy.  I searched the Internet for quotes to bring a little laughter and hope today.  If these belong to you, feel free to link up to them.  And, have a blessed day.

Projects and More Projects

If you ask my sister, she will tell you I'm not happy unless I have some kind of project going on....YOU THINK?  She would be right.  What can I say?  I thrive on doing things that make my family (and myself) happy.  Is that a crime?   Seems like I have many 'projects' going on right now.  Problem is, funds are a bit low.  So I have to wait...a bit.

I thought I would share a few things going on that I will be working on over the next year.  First and foremost is making hubby happy by repainting the walls in our bedroom.  We FINALLY agreed on a paint color.  We just have to get the primer and paint and begin.  This time, though, we will do it right.  Make sure we have enough paint and primer to cover all 4 walls, for one.  And, buy primer! Last time we did not prime the walls and the ugly neon green is showing.  YUCK!  NEVER skip priming the walls.

The next item on the "To do" list is this:

 We have two of these shelves.  They are "fake wood" or laminated to look like wood.  I am trying to figure out what exactly I want to do with them.  They are in our living room as end tables.  I stuck some silver scrapbook paper inside to see if I liked it.  Still not sure. I think what we will do is prime them and paint them an antique white and distress them a bit.  We have a lot of brown in the living room, so lightning them up a bit would be great, I think.

 The next item on the "To Do" list is this dresser.  My hubby brought it in when we were married.  I hated it then, and I still hate it.  It is sitting between our closet doors.  Those will be replaced eventually.  It is 'fake wood' as well. "Sigh".  I am going to prime it, then paint it a antique yellow or butter yellow then, I'm going to decoupage some roses on to the drawers and distress the entire thing with ink or stain.  Which ever is easiest.

The last thing on the "To do" list is our dinning room table and chairs.  You can see how the wood stain is coming off.  And, you can also see that the chairs and the table are two different colors.  Again, using primer and paint and a bit of creativity I will transform this hideous table into a work of art.  hahaha....I can't complain, really.  The table cost us 5 bucks at an auctions and the chairs were 15 dollars each at a yard sale.  It will seat up to 8 people.  Yeah, it's huge.

As I do these, I will post a tutorial on how I did it.  I am thinking these 'projects' will take me all of next year to do.  I'll be busy for sure.

Hamburger Stew

I did not take any photos of the process of doing this.  I was in a rush to get dinner started this evening and totally forgot.  Next time I make it, I will post photos. :)

I remember growing up, we had this a LOT.  Mom called it "Ice box stew".  She would take all the weeks left over food, throw it in a pot with some tomato sauce and it was really good.  No kidding, it was!

However, as I have grown up and become a bit wiser, I have taken mom's "Ice box stew" and changed it....a LOT!  I do not use left over anything. Mainly because we don't normally have left overs. 

I totally renamed it "Hamburger Stew".  Some call it Goulash, others have called it Beef Stew.  It's a simple recipe, but packs a lot of punch!

Depending on how many you are feeding will depend on the amounts you use.  I am feeding a family of 3, with (hopefully) a little left over for tomorrows lunch.

NOTE: I always do this in my crock pot, but it can be done on the stove top.

3 lbs. Hamburger Meat/Ground Beef (lean or not)
1 medium white onion, diced
1 8 oz. bag of mixed veggies
1 8-16 oz. can each tomato sauce and diced tomatoes (depends on how tomato-y you like it)
3 chicken bouillon cubes
2-3 teaspoon minced garlic
1-1 1/2 cups dry elbow pasta
salt and pepper to taste

Throw everything in the crock pot, set on high, let cook for 3-4 hours. Give the stew a good stir, add water if a little thick, add your pasta and let cook for another 30 minutes or until the pasta is to your liking.

Optional: Cheddar cheese, Jalapenos, sour cream, saltines.

When the stew is done, you can top your stew with the above or just eat it.  Either way it's good, especially on a cold evening.

Enjoy!

Picking out the right paint

I have totally cleaned out our bedroom!  It's so HUGE!  Seems like our bedroom is the dumping grounds for...everything.  I started cleaning on Tuesday and finished up Wednesday night.  the room was so nice and peaceful.  I couldn't sleep.  IS there such a thing as "Too clean"?

Originally, the walls were white.  I paint, what was suppose to be sage green, but in reality was neon green.  After a few years of that horrid color, we painted it a pretty caramel spice.  I like it.  DH hates it, no, he loathes it!

Love of Interiors; http://loveofinteriors.blogspot.com/2009_10_01_archive.html  This is the color of our bedroom now.  Pretty!

So DH and I have been trying to find a paint color that goes with what we already have in there, bedding, curtains, accents pieces, etc., and that we can both live with.  The bedroom is suppose to be a place to rest, relax, rejuvenate, and a place of intimacy between you and your partner.  I have the first three, but apparently the last one needs some work.  ANNNND, apparently, it's the wall color killing it (according to DH, anyway).

Our curtains are a very light shade of beige.  Our flooring is concert painted a reddish-brown.  Our bedding consist of blue-green sheets, a quilt with tans, blues, golds and greens, and a comforter set with gold, tan, burgundy, and green.  The style is a shabby-sheik Victorian..lots of lace, candles, flowers, wine bottles from the past. We also have a huge black cast iron gas fireplace that I absolutely LOVE!  Not very cost efficient but I love it still!

We thought about a goldish tan, then a very pale lavender.  We even thought about going back to white (I HATE white painted walls). We know we do not want blue, red, pink, black or any dark colors or anything neon in there. We just can't agree on what we DO want.  We also agree that it should be somewhat neutral so IF we do find another bedding set we both LOVE, we won't have to leave it behind because it will clash with the color in the room.  That's the difference between males and females, I suppose.  We can't agree on color. 

So the search is on for a new paint color for our bedroom that hubby and I can both live with, will promote relaxations, rest and intimacy.  I will keep you advised.

Have a happy day!

A Thought: Every Action has an Equal and Opposite Reaction.

A thought, a word, a feeling.  Sometimes these can be helpful or hurtful.  Sometimes the person means to help and sometimes the person means to hurt.  Most everyone in the world knows Newton's Laws of Motion.  They are the three physical laws that form the basis for classical mechanics.  They describe the relationship between the forces acting on a body and it's motion due to those forces.  It is the third law that gets most people: Every Action has an Equal and Opposite Reaction.

For today's thought, every emotion has an equal and opposite reaction.  This means every hurt has the same amount of healing.  Every hate has the same amount of love.  Every enemy, has the same amount of friendship.  Or does it?

When my children were younger, I taught them that every thing they do in life, every word they say, has an equal and opposite reaction and the chain of events will begin.  There were times when even I thought this was not correct.  However, I believe it more now than I ever have in my life.

When you see someone you love very dearly hurting due to another person's action and you see the REACTION of that hurt, you, by human nature, want to see the person that caused the hurt to hurt more.  Is this the right thing?  It is the natural way in life, "an eye for an eye".  But is that the right thing?

Not wanting to get religious, but God does tell us to "Love they neighbor as thyself", to "Do unto others what you would have them to do you" and to "forgive those who persecute us".  However, human nature tells us, "YOU hurt me, YOU did me wrong, YOU will pay."  Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.  In the real world, do we sit back and allow this person or another person to hurt us, to cause us to have bad things happen?  Or do we fight back with the opposite emotion knowing people will continue to hurt, and cause bad things to happen?  I'm afraid the answer is still blowing in the wind. 

People who cause bad things to happen will "Get theirs in the end."  How long is that?  How long do we wait to see them 'get theirs'?  No matter what, everything in life has an equal and opposite reaction....everything we say, everything we do, everything we think, every action we preform has an equal and opposite reaction.  If we do good, bad will happen.  If we do bad, something good will happen. Or so says Newton.

The Beatles said it best, "Love is all we need".  There is so much hate in the world today.  People causing other people to hurt by their selfish, unfeeling, hate for life. This "I'll get you my little pretty" attitude everyone seems to carry with them has caused more harm than good.  No one stops and thinks that their actions will cause a serious reaction in another persons life, work, relationship.  They are full of anger and vengeance; misery and hate.  They don't stop and think that what they say may cut another deeper than a knife.  Those 'wounds' take a lot longer to heal for the mind may forget but the heart does not. 

God says to "love your enemies", to 'forgive those who have hurt you so you will know forgiveness from the Father".  Sometimes I think God asks more of us than we have.

What are the answers?  I wished I knew.  But, it is something to think about.



Have a great day!

It's a GIRL! Baby Shower decortion ideas

Good Morning!

I have been working like a busy bee all week.  We're having a baby shower tomorrow. 

When my wonderful daughter told me she was indeed pregnant, I went immediately into "grandma" mode....in my mind and heart, anyway.  One never wants to get overly excited at first.  Yet, now, that she is about 8 weeks away from giving me my first grand baby, the excitement can not be contained any longer!

So, tomorrow is the baby shower.  And I have been working on the decoration.  DD is not a fancy, frilly, type of girl.  She likes things simple, neat, organized,, in short, she's OCD, just like her mom! :)

I though I would share a few of the things I'm doing for the decorations.  I flipped through the page's of the Internet and found all kinds of things.  And, the things I found, seems like EVERYONE is doing them...so I have no one to give credit too for this...just do a search and there is the credit.   But, if I am able, I will, of course, give credit.

DD told me, "Mom, don't do everything in pink, please."  We both feel that pink and the combinations of pink are a bit over done.  There are many colors out there and DD being the artist she is, sees them all.  So we decided to do a rainbow of colors, as you can see in the tissue paper butterflies.  What I did, is I cut out a butterfly template, folded it in half.  Took 4 sheets of tissue paper, folded it in half.  Laid the template on the folded side, and cut out.  When open, you have a butterfly.  Now, scrunch the middle and add some string to hold in place or use pipe cleaners, twist and curl the ends for antenna's.  Simple, easy.

Tissue paper butterflies

 

This is the welcome banner that will hang in the dinning room door way.  I don't own any fancy crafting machines.  I do my crafting the old fashion way, scissors.  I made a circle template in two different sizes, then used my crafting scissors to cut them out.

I used letters I already had, traced, and cut them out and layered everything together to create the banner.  For the side "Welcome" piece, I took card stock, and made my own little square templates, glued with Elmer's, then took a paint pen and wrote in "Welcome".  Took some baby embellishments and put them on, as well.  The ribbon I had in a jar.  I used a hole punch, threaded the ribbon to tie it all together.

I have also made tissue paper flowers like these.  We will hang them in the den and dinning room, along with the paper butterflies.  

Now, the door way, when the guest come in will look something like what you see above...this is from Eventlucky.com.  Of course, ours will not be as large.  It is a doorway, right...but as the guest turn to go into the den, they will go through the streamers into a world of color.

Some of it,  I want to keep it a surprise.  But, I will post photos of the shower for all to see.  

What a wonderful time we all will have.

Chcken for Dinner(s)

As I have posted, I had the flu last week.  So, I sent my DH off to the grocery store with a list of what we needed.  He does a great job!  I was very happy!

I decided to take out a package of chicken.  Remember, we are a family of 3...not 10.  I took out a package of chicken thighs...10 thighs to be exact.  I only needed 4 of them, so I went looking for a recipe or three!

I found this great recipe here "Penne with Chicken Thighs".  I followed the recipe to the letter, except I didn't have any Penne pasta, so I used Rigatoni pasta.  It worked great.  And tasted wonderful.  DH LOVED it.

So, I had 6 more pieces of chicken left.  I looked inside my pantry found a can to diced tomatoes and some balsamic dressing, some rice and some spices.  So, I went back to the drawing board....the Internet. 

You can find all kinds of wonderful things on the Internet.  Recipes, crafts, gardening tips, information over-load!  I found so many wonderful ideas for the ingredients I have.  One thing in my kitchen I love the MOST....my crock pot.  It's a wonderful little gadget, is it not?  You can make anything in a crock pot, from side dishes and dips, to cakes and cobblers.  LOVE my crock pot.

Anyway, I found this little recipe over at "Heather's French Press".   I had to do a bit of changing up of this recipe.  Instead of chicken breast, I am using my chicken thighs.  Instead of the red onion, I am using a yellow onion.  And, instead of the Roma tomatoes, I am using a can of diced tomatoes.  I am also marinating my chicken in the balsamic vinegar over night and putting it in the crock pot first thing in the morning a letting it all slow cook.  We will have this with rice and buttered broccoli.  I will let you know how it turns out.

Halloween Witch

Well, we have the witch complete.  She isn't exactly what I wanted and hopefully next year, we'll be able to redo her.  For now, she will work.

The head consist of news paper, tissue paper and a LOT of duct tape.  Once I got the size right, I covered it completely in duct tape.  Then, I covered it with a large zip lock baggie.

We recycled a couple of stands from a wedding.  We stacked them to make it a bit taller.  Cut a piece of wood to help give it some form and then used an old black sweat shirt to cover the bottom.

I also added the corner of a black trash bag to help water proof the head. Then taped it on top of the stands.

She didn't have much of a neck, so we took some left over batting and duct taped it onto the stand.

The only color gloves we could find were purple.  We did spray paint them brown and black once we got her outside.  I took 2 wire hangers, bent and shaped them for the arms.  We attached them to the piece of wood.

I bought a rectangle black table cloth from the Dollar Tree (LOVE the Dollar Tree), found the center and cut a hole just big enough to go over her head.  The mask went over the form, We hot glued the hat on.  My DH bought some 'eyes' from the Dollar Tree and I hot glued them inside the eye holes.

Here is a close up of the eyes.

That's pretty much all there is to her.  Like I said, not exactly how I wanted her, but for this year, she'll work.

We took 3 6-7 foot limbs about 3-4 inches in diameter, some rope and made a tee-pee.  We then hung her cauldron in the center of the tee-pee.

We spray painted the ends of the wood with brown and black spray paint to make it look old.  We are still trying to get the 'fire' just right.  When we do, I'll post photos. :)
Until then, happy haunting.

Arms with No Body..Tutorial

I have been looking online for weeks now for a 'how-to' on how to make just arms and hands...with no body to put inside my witch's cauldron.  I've had no luck, so I am going to post one.

I asked my son if he had any black long sleeve shirt he couldn't wear...he did.  I cut the sleeves off the shirt.  (No Photo) 

I then stuffed the sleeves with old plastic bags.

 Once the sleeve was all stuffed, I got out my handy-dandy hot glue gun.  I glued the sleeve at the shoulder.

 Then, I added the hands that we bought at the Dollar Tree for a buck.  Creepy, no?

I folded over the sleeve at the opening and hot glued the hand to the sleeve, folded the material over and hot glued it.   Then I took paint pens, and drew on the veins, let that set for a few seconds, then took a towel and smudged it.

Finally, the finished product.  I just added some Jute Twine to the cauldron and tied off. 

Next step is to construct the witch's body...which we'll be doing this weekend and there will be a tutorial on it, too.  Happy Haunting!

Ham Casserole

"MOOOOOOOOOOOOM, what's for dinner?  Of all the days, I did not need to hear this.  I woke up feeling worse than road kill, the house a mess, DH doing is normal thing...talking....and talking....non-stop!  Went to the clinic and low and behold, I have the flu!  THE FLU!  IN OCTOBER....only me.  I came home, took two pain relievers and went right to bed....only to be awaken to the above question.  I crawled out of the bed and looked into the fridge.  My DH had put the ham in the crock pot..just the ham.  What to do with just a ham.

I remembered what my mother would do with left over ham...after days of ham sandwiches.  She made ham casserole.  And it was delicious.  And, it was easy.

I didn't take photos of it, sorry...I just wanted to get it done. So here is the recipe:

1 bag of egg noodles
1/2 to 1 whole onion (depending on the size of the onion)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup milk
1 cup mushrooms (optional)
1/2 cup green bell pepper (optional)
1/2 to 1 cup of diced up left over ham
Plain chips
Salt and Pepper to taste

Start a pot of water, dice up the onion, add to the water, add egg noodles and cook till done.  (If adding bell pepper, add those with the onions).  Dice up mushrooms and ham.  When noodles are done, drain and place in a bowl.  Add ham and mushrooms to noodles.  Take the can of mushroom soup and milk and mix.  Add to the noodles and ham and mix. Add salt and pepper to taste.  Place in a lightly greased baking dish and top with crushed chips.  Place in the oven uncovered at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until bubbly and heated through.  Serve with a side salad or other veggie.  Easy as pie!  And so creamy and tasty.

Hope you all enjoy it!  We did. :)

Ohhh Man! :)

So, I attempted to do the jars found over at Doodle Craft yesterday.  I followed the instructions to the letter and time and temp.  This is what I ended up with

bubbles

They came out streaked and had bubbles, almost like spider webbing or a crackle.  Which is fine, since we're using them for our "Fall-O-Ween party".  I tried again today, and that turned out almost perfect.  The top had a lot of bubbles on it. But, these will work great for the effect we want.  I didn't take a night time photo with the candle in it, but it is amazingly creepy.

On the same website, she has a blog doing basically the same thing except use paint and not food coloring, place in the oven for 30 minutes at 400 degrees and you get a crackle look.  She spray painted the insides with silver paint.  I might do this to these jars to give a little 'filler', but use a Halloween color like orange. 

I suggest you go check out this blogger.  Her name is Natalie and she has a LOT of wonderful ideas.  Here is the link to her blog: http://doodlecraft.blogspot.com/ 


Have a happy day!

A Creative Mind: Mason Jars, Moss, and Witches: Oh My!

A Creative Mind: Mason Jars, Moss, and Witches: Oh My!: Hello!  What a 'last few months".... I had to take a few months off....from life...to get myself put back together.  A Series of Unfortunat...

Mason Jars, Moss, and Witches: Oh My!

Hello!  What a 'last few months"....
I had to take a few months off....from life...to get myself put back together.  A Series of Unfortunate Events occurred and I quit school.  "OH MY GOODNESS", you should say.   "WHY?" you should ask.  Don't feel bad for me...it was the BEST decision I have made (other than marrying my husband).  The stress of keeping up the grades, the pressure of student teaching and being someone I wasn't, expectations from both the University and the host school for me to look a certain way, act in a particular manner and the fact that I was never allowed to teach the way that would guarantee the students would have fun and learn at the same time was, well, too much!  I snapped.  Had a mental and emotional moment of whatever you want to call it...I had it and made the decision to quit.  Now, I do not advocate quitting...especially when it comes to education.  However, there are times in our lives when we must make a decision on whether to continue into the darkness or save our mental state and move on.  And move on is what I did....and what we're doing.

My husband and I have been reconnecting with each other by spending a lot of time with each other and with our families.  We are having a "Fall-o-ween Party".  This is a combination of a Fall Party and a Halloween Party.  We have been scouring the Internet looking for ideas and we have found a slew of ideas.  Some we are using this year, some we will use in the years to come.

This is one idea that I am doing.  We have one of those canvas gazebo's in our back yard.  I thought these painted mason jars would look great hanging from the inside of the gazebo....just not in blue.  My first attempt turned out not so wonderful.  Good thing these just wash off in hot, soapy water. :)  SO, I am going to try again this evening.  And, I am going to follow the instructions to the letter and pray it works.

We also have made tombstones, with homemade moss that I found here.  I strongly suggest you use the gloves.  This is a really super messy project!  The first time I made it, I didn't use anything but my bare hands and it was a ...well, mess!  The second time, I used the gloves and saved a lot of time scrubbing my hands.  My 6 year old niece helped me on the second batch.  She was not impressed with the 'messy', but loved the effect!

We have hit the Dollar Tree, General Dollar Store, Wal Mart, and of course, Thrift Stores for items we can use in our garden of terror...aptly named "Rose Hallow Garden".  I found a huge plastic cauldron at a Thrift Store for a buck!  YES!  ONE WHOLE DOLLAR!!!!  We found this great tutorial over at Mega Spooky that we are going to use to create our witch for the grave yard.

We have also been helping plan our daughter's baby shower.  I'm in 'charge' of all the decorations...that's another post. :)

Until then, have a wonderful Fall Y'all!