Beaded Dresser Pulls

 I have this old three drawer dresser in my bedroom. It was handmade and I am the third generation to use it. When I got it, it was painted a color not naturally found on earth. I repainted yellow and white crackle. And of course, it needed beads.

 I replaced the pulls with some very inexpensive metal ones. Then I pulled out bead soup (my bead stash of leftovers and donations). First, beads got strung on a wire. Then the wire was wrapped around the drawer pull.  So easy, a preschooler could do it.


To add dangles, I cut a 10-inch length of wire, used pliers to made some bendies at the bottom, strung on some beads and wrapped a simple loop at the top. I cut another 8-inch wire, wrapped a simple loop at one end and wrapped the rest of the wire around the pull support.  I connected the loops and voila.

No two drawer pulls are alike.

It is absolutely atrocious technique for a beader, but I was interested in fast, cheap, and easy. The beading adds some fun additional visual interest, and that was my goal.

Not sure if Grandpa would be proud or cringe at his dresser.  I love it because it is a collaboration between us.

Take your Vitamin C and see what needs updating in your bedroom!

Home Goods - A Visual Party

 I am not much for shopping. ...aka I really hate it.  However, there are a couple places I like to go to just look at the colorful, texturedy, I want it, how cool is that?, oooooooh yeah, visual party time.

I like Party City for that reason. The color in that store is so GOOD. And now, I have found Home Goods. If you don't have one, let me know if I should mourn or celebrate for you (it is a really tempting store).

Home Goods is a discount store and they don't stack the shelves with multiples of things. If you see something you want, you have to get it now. It won't be there when you come back. They merchandise by grouping things together so you can see the big picture. Prices are pretty good. And I don't see the things they sell everywhere else. That makes them able to have a huge variety of items in the store.

I can only allow myself to go once in awhile because I WANT EVERYTHING.

So, I took a few pics while I was there. Which of these things do you think went home with me today?

 There is a big peacock that makes the third leg on the back of this outdoor bench. Love it, very creative.

 Isn't this just begging for iced tea and a wrap around porch?

 Cute little patio set... in my color.

 Green wicker chaise. Just need a little pillow and a book.

This is wild and bold and green and won't go in everyone's house!

You might like the Home Goods blog if you are looking for inexpensive decorating ideas or follow home dec trends.

Home Goods is a good dose of Vitamin C!

Umbrella Journal

It is still raining, but my journals finally dried.  Remember, I have umbrellas on the mind? It mixed around in my head and came out a journal.

Here is what I did. I started with a bound journal.

I took it to the scroll saw and cut the journal in the shape of half an umbrella.

I used Mod Podge and fabric to cover the front and the inside flaps of the journal. When it is open, it looks like an umbrella.

I did a little painting to show the umbrella sections and a ribbon trim.

Opened, a view of the inside.  Looks like an umbrella this way too.

It was screaming for a little bow of zebra ribbon at the top. I also added a long black ribbon at the bottom to look like the umbrella handle. You can use the ribbon/handle as a bookmark inside the journal if you need one.

Cute!

I added a couple, in different colors, to my Etsy shop. Check it out!

I love it when something sticks in my mind and works its way into something fun.

Take your Vitamin C and see what happens!
Sumo Sweet Stuff
UndertheTableandDreaming

Umbrellas



I have umbrellas on the brain these days. Is it because it is a trendy design element? Or is it because it has been raining for 40 days and 40 nights? Either way, I have been collecting images of umbrellas used in different ways. I am looking for an event to use a pile of umbrellas as a decorating theme. It will make me happy.

I would love to share with you a few of my collected umbrella images from my Pinterest board:


1. Wedding Reception Decor  100 Layer Cake
2. Umbrella Art  Toad Ranch Lady
3. Umbrella Door Decor    Moxie Fab World

4. Cartoonish Umbrella
5. Table Centerpiece  Party Frosting

I have been working on an umbrella project and hoping I will be able to share tomorrow. Since it has been raining 40 days and 40 nights, my project just won't dry.

Really hoping the next thing on my mind isn't mold. It will be hard to make a project with it.

Take Your Vitamin C and think about umbrellas......

Thin Bangle Series #9 - Double Bangle


Ninth in the series, this bracelet uses two thin bangles. You could use any beads you like or have, as long as they are all the same diameter.  I have been saving these beads for something good. They look like turquoise M&Ms.

To make the bracelet, you need:
  • 2 thin metal bangles
  • 22  gauge wire
  • beads
  • wire cutters

Start by wrapping an end of the wire around one bangle two or three times. Put a bead on the wire.  Wrap the wire around the second bangle. 

Reach the wire across the bangle and wrap it and repeat the process. Keep wrapping and adding beads until the bangles are full.

Check out the whole Thin Bangle series:

Take your Vitamin C!


Craft Hope



Craft Hope.  Just ran across this web site and I LOVE it. These people see a need and do something about it. They have two current projects running. Take a look. maybe you can pitch in.  I am thinking hard about how to contribute.

Maybe a dose of Vitamin C would inspire...

Word of the Day: Collaboration


Collaboration
It’s a word that I think accurately captures the essence of our work with God, because He wants us to be fully engaged with Him. It is not a forced cooperation from an overbearing dictator, but an act of joining our will with His, using the talents, abilities, background, and personality that He has given us and discovering the joy of working with Him for His divine, benevolent will.
J. Scott McElroy
Finding Divine Inspiration:

Working with the Holy Spirit in Your Creativity


Today, I had the opportunity to spend time at the high school with a group of artists and art lovers discussing Christian Art.

Aak. I am not an artist so much, but those kids were!  I am also not an expert on the subject, but I talked about my own story and then we got into some good discussion. Made us all think. It was good.

The preparation for the presentation was a gift for me. It made me see all of the amazing things God has led me to in my art ministry. 

Several years ago, I visited an art ministry house in Grapevine, TX. It was a small house in an historic community that was so stinking cute. The artist owners decorated it very artsy. It made me want to move in immediately. They had classes, parties, bible studies, all kinds of great stuff going on. And I wanted to have one just like it. I felt God saying yes to an art ministry.  I waited and waited until finally I realized He gave me an art ministry of a different kind.

It has taken me to different locales and taught me many things. When I was preparing today and made a list of all the things I have been allowed to do in my art ministry, my eyes were opened. And I am very thankful!

Take Your Vitamin C!

Idea Management by Imaginina

The boss has assigned me a job this week. I will be organizing her ideas. I know, it does sound frightening. She keeps journals, idea books, notebooks galore, of ideas she finds everywhere. Ideas come from magazines, TV shows, stores, other people, the internet, and her scary little brain. Mostly, her ideas are in notebooks on pages like this. Perhaps you have something similar. Most fast brain people do.

Yes, you have heard of right brain and left brain people, but believe me, there are also fast brain people. Someday soon, I will give you a thorough intro to The Human PinBall and you will see.

So, the boss is the queen of ideas, but so not the queen of communication. She put this container in the doorway with a note on top that said, "do something with this." All of these notebooks are filled with ideas. In another room is a shelf that has several more. And we are not even talking about the ones currently in use. She has been at this some time.

I will comb through the books, toss out stupid ideas, and save the good ones.

After I steal the best ones. Oh. She wants me to.

In the spirit of organizing ideas, I think you should see this. It is apparently new, except that it looks pretty much like the 235323435 notebooks here already in the office.  The accessories look pretty interesting however. It amazes me how people come up with ideas to sell us what we already have and don't really need. Them = smart.  Us = broke...and wishing we were them.


And then, there is Pinterest. If you are not on Pinterest, you are way behind. Get with it.  Pinterest is an electronic idea book/bulletin board. They let you start your own boards, and pin onto them whatever you want to save or remember.

This is an example of one of our boards. You can add as many pins as you want.  Why you want a Pinterest account:


  • You are lazy and can take other people's pins for your own. You don't even have to go looking.
  • Each pin comes with a link to the website it came from. If you need the instructions or more info about the pinned pic, just click on the link at any time.
  • You can follow trends by those people with nothing better to do  cool trend trackers.
  • It takes no room on your bookshelf and doesn't break your toe when the boss put it in the doorway and you walk into it.
  • You can get pics from everywhere and anywhere about anything and everything.
  • I said so. Get one!
Let me know if you need an engraved invitation to Pinterest. Really.

Beware, Pinterest can suck down more of your time than Facebook. 

Do I sound like I am kidding?

Imaginina





Spare Tire Bracelets, A Mission Trip, and I Heart NYC

I was cruising my old blog tonight looking for some photos I would like to put in a presentation I am giving on Monday. I got caught up in the memories and the smarmy Imaginina posts, laughing, until I realized I was not working on the project I was supposed to be.

Now I have to get to work, but, I am posting what I wrote on May 21 for the last three years. Just for the fun and the history of it.

May 21, 2010

I had a few things to get done tonight: some homework, some design work, a potluck project. How did I arrange my priorities? I blew off everything and made a new bracelet. I am calling these the Spare Tire bracelets because they are kinda big. But oh so fab.

Remember when bought these bits when I was in Florida? Yes, I finally got around to using them, and they are a perfect fit to this spare tire bracelet.

Maybe they should be called Treasure Bracelets. There are so many things wired in there, you could examine it for an hour to see it all.

Anyway, it was SyFy Friday, so I watched my fav show and made a spare tire. Way better than what was on the list.

Tomorrow is another day,
Normal Girl


May 21, 2009
I very seriously considered licking the plate after I ate this.  It was dark in the room and I was sitting in the back......


We were invited to a fund raising dinner for the Dream Center tonight.  It was their first, and was well done.  We sat at a table with the Bookers.  The Bookers are the couple who run the ministry called Safe Haven.  They take neighborhood children into their home.  These children are from homes with absent parents, or addicted parents, or parents who just can't cope.  The kids live in their house Monday through Friday and go home Saturday and Sunday.  They also do parenting classes with the parents so that they will eventually be able to take the children back into their own homes.  When they are ready, the kids live in their own homes during the week and at Safe Haven on the weekend.  Right now they have three siblings from one family and one child from another family.  Sounds like a lot of work and a lot of invested emotion, doesn't it?  

This ministry was started when they found a three year old girl home babysitting her infant brother, and the folks at the Dream Center realized the kids in the neighborhood needed help.

It has been really interesting hearing the things God has called these people to, here at the Dream Center.  They are amazingly selfless and donate endless amounts of time.  I would say the Bookers donate their lives.  

Food for thought and prayer....
Normal Girl


May 21,
I'm home from the Big Apple. The Human PinBall and I packed alot of stuff into the time we had there, even today before we went to the airport, we went to one of our fav stores. Unfortunately, the most notable thing that happened today was me falling on my face right in the middle of the street. Spaz. But, we did get to ABC and here are just a few things I liked there:



Cute paper covered frames, embellished with vintage flowers and ribbons and buttons.


Can you see the little pink lampshade in there? This is just a neat hangy thing. It is a small pink lampshade hanging from ribbons, covered in tulle and flowers. I saw a similar one with a wire lampshade that I really liked. It was $600, that is why it is not hanging in Girl World right now.


Chandeliers are super trendy right now. Not the stuffy chandeliers in ballrooms, but colorful, funky chandeliers. Check out this room. I really liked the simple wire formed chandeliers (look at the very left side....$3000) with a light bulb or two.

I think I can make some of those glass tear drops. I can hang them from my fake, cheapo IKEA chandelier or make jewelry with them. Are those flowers or mermaid tails on the right side at the bottom?


Loved these charm bracelets with vintage everyday stuff. See the pencil and key and scrabble tile? I am thinking about offering a round robin charm bracelet event. Those who participate in the round robin are mailed the bracelets of all event participants. You hook a charm on each then mail them to the next person. At the end, we all have a cool charm bracelet that our new round robin friends have helped to make. Think about it. More details later.

It is great to go away, but great to come home again,
Normal Girl


Hope you enjoyed that a bit. It was fun for me to see what I was up to the last three May 21sts.
Take your Vitamin C!


2 Word Story Bracelet

Here in the Detroit area, more than 500 churches have banded together in a program called E.A.C.H. Meaning Everyone a Chance to Hear, the program is about evangelism and service here in our own community. This is one of the most desperate areas of the country. Detroit needs what this program is about.

Service projects like mobile medical and dental, and programs to feed people are being manned by a variety of churches. Every church agreed to a certain amount of service hours and there have been all kinds of creative projects like building a house and giving it to a family, tutoring in downtown Detroit, and tons more.

Evangelically, we have all joined together  in prayer walks that have covered almost every neighborhood in SE Michigan, and in 2 Word Stories. Thousands of us have 2 word stories that we are sharing. I have seen yard signs, t-shirts, buttons, bumper stickers, and banners with 2 word stories. The stories reflect something about ourselves before we followed Jesus, and something about how our lives changes since following Him. They are stories of victory and joy, all with happy endings.

Thinking that I would like a 2 word story bracelet, I realized that many women might like one. So, I am offering a class to make a bracelet with profits going to the Divine Design summer mission trip. 

My two word story: Purpose? Purpose.

Jesus has always been a part of my life. I grew up in the church. But, I did not always have an understanding of what it meant to have a relationship with Him. Before that realization, I wondered what my purpose was in life. I always felt blessed with jobs, skills, talents, independence, everything I wanted and needed. But, it did not feel like I had true purpose in all of it. 

Now, that I know Jesus personally and follow Him, I have found a definite purpose for my life. He calls me to an art ministry that encompasses so many things. I am able to use my skills and some of His to encourage and serve people in His name. Instead of trying to use those things to make a name for myself, I now use them to glorify His name. It is much more fulfilling.

I use my Vitamin C in new way! How about you? Can you think of ways to serve and encourage others with your Vitamin C?

Big Fat Craft Failure

It is so sad about my brain. The same brain that recently managed to get very close to all A's in grad school...could not manage to figure out I was painting the words upside down on this simple craft project.  Blech! I had to start over.  One of those days...........

Maybe you could read the words while you are drinking it, if you just look down.  

Vitamin C did help me here!

Garden Party Lights

Whether you are actually in the garden having a party, or just pretending, these lights are fab! I painted a string of 25 big outdoor white lights with flowers, ladybugs and bumblebees.

 You need:

  • a string of lights
  • Folk Art Enamels Paints
  • small brushes (a flat and a liner)


 Do this:
1. Decide what you want to paint on the bulbs. You might practice on paper a couple times if you need to.  Then freehand the designs onto the bulbs. I painted all sides of a bulb and then dangled it inside a glass until it dried. In some instances, like yellow and pink, I needed to either paint two coats, or one really thick coat.

Outlining in black covers a multitude of sins and makes your design pop out.

2. These paints require baking in the oven for permanence, but you can skip that step. When you plug the lights in and they get hot, it is just like baking in the oven!

You could make lights for any occasion. Princess lights with tiaras on them would be cute.  I am thinking about doing a set for my niece with her school colors and logo.  I am sure you will have lots of ideas.

Take your Vitamin C and see what happens!
Tip Junkie handmade projects

UndertheTableandDreaming

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