Open Door to Happiness

 

Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn’t know you left open.   --John Barrymore

 

del.icio.us Tags: happiness,open doors,marriage

Frankenstein and Spiders

I have been a busy bee. I have 2 things to share today.
I started out with this block of wood I found in the wood pile.
Then I painted it a candy apple green.
Some more painting, purple felt, white buttons, and 2 screws later, Frankenstein was born.

When I said before that my dad had a lot of golf balls, I was understating it. There were even more out in a tub in the backyard. The yucky ones. I took one and drilled 8 little holes, stuck in some nails, sprayed it black and glued on little eyes. I think I will make sure I put some glue in with the nails on the next one and try to bend the legs. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I linked up over at

and over at
 
and not to ever forget

Where I Blog

…and create my crafts. Mind you this isn’t exactly my choice, this is the space I had to work with.
My desk
Dr. Pepper is my Red Bull. LOL. See my chair. I had to take that back off that wouldn’t stay because no matter which screw I put in first, the other wouldn’t screw in. I am going to nail a board. Funny thing? This is my main computer but most of my blogs are actually composed on my laptop. Live Writer wouldn’t download on my desktop and I also have Adobe Photoshop on my laptop. I just sit in a big chair in this same room, right about where I am standing taking this picture. (I really like Martha Stewart’s Living magazine, but usually the cover and a few pages in the front are all that I care to see.)

This is where I am doing most of my crafting, some is outside in the backyard. This is the table that I posted before that I redid with paper and Mod Podge. The green chair in the back is the one I was talking about where I sit with my laptop. The bag with the polka dots is where all my paint is. I am trying to figure out a better way to store it where I can see the colors. Maybe a spice rack would work. (The white little bird cage is now orange and will be shown in a post tomorrow. I need a little black bird or something for it.)
The calendar looking thing hanging on the door of my computer desk? I got way creative yesterday. Got a 12x12 piece of scrapbook paper. The squares are playing cards with another piece of paper over them. It’s my blog partying schedule. I have a lot more to add.
One other thing to share.
Another thing I took out of storage, but I always hated that it was white. I inherited it that way.
I found the brackets for $2 at Goodwill. I passed them up when I first saw them. I was looking for some other way to store my ribbon. Then I saw one of the ribbon “cabinets” at Michael’s and I went back to Goodwill for the brackets. I just had to drill a bigger hole in them for the dowels to fit. Used liquid nails to attach them to the side. I want to attach a piece of peg board to the other side but I would need to find someone with a leftover piece. I taped up the Plexiglas and hinges and sprayed it Cowboy Boot brown. I didn’t spray it so that it looked even, I like how it came out looking like it could be real wood. Of course it would work better on the other side of my desk, closer to my craft table, but that is where I had the room for it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I linked this up at

and over at
   

Stone Fox

I was out walking the dogs this morning, 3 of them, it's more like they walk me. 3 labs. The shortest one has some strength let me tell you. Last night the two young ones almost drug me out of the park to go after this baby bunny (they run wild around here so it isn't cute) that my dog was already after. Don't worry, they have never killed one. They go crazy after the wild frogs too. Having a dogs snout on them makes some of them pee all over. So the lawn guy next door tells me I need a dog sled. No joke. Except that I wouldn't get my exercise. I am walking down the hill thinking about that and the book Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner comes to mind. I read it to my son a few months ago. Loving the book until the end. Bam! This crazy ending. He hated it. We both cried. He told me to throw the book away because he never wanted to see it again. Not sure if any of you have read it but the ending is not something that would make me want to have this a 2nd grade reader like it is supposed to be.

Nobody ever told me not to try...

 

 

Color Hues from Nature from Benjamin Moore paints

I was sitting here painting a project, listening to iTunes, when Jack Johnson's "Talk of the Town" came on and the words stuck with me. 

 

 

...And if the sun comes out

I'll paint a picture all about

The colors I've been dreaming of...

...It's a part of my mind it begins with a dream

And a feeling I get when I look and I see

That this world is a puzzle, I'll find all of the pieces

And put it all together, and then I'll rearrange it

I'll follow it forever

Always be as strange as it seems

Nobody ever told me not to try...

Just a little inspiration to brighten your day. I came over to look up the words to the song after I painted and knew I had to share it in my blog. As well as pictures to go with the words. What things help inspire you? Love for you to share in a comment.

Re-done Office Chair

I had an office chair that I really liked to sit in, it was comfy. But it was too big and it was that fake suede and got really dirty looking. The arm rests were really soiled. The room that my computer desk is in is also the media room so that big chair really got in the way. Now that I have moved the table in there to work at I needed a smaller chair I could move between the two. I went cheap knowing I was going to redo it. I got the $20 one from Walmart. Comfort was not the priority in making that chair but it also makes me get up more often.

The fact I didn’t have to take it apart to do what I wanted was nice, but the back piece doesn’t screw on good, one screw won’t screw in no matter which hole I screw into first. I can’t take it back since the chair isn’t black anymore, but wonder if they would just switch out the piece that doesn’t work since it is still as is from box. I removed all the staples from the bottom cushion. Tedious work.

This and went together with  to make. A little extra padding never hurts.

The black piece is the one that won’t screw on right. Well, I also wasn’t able to take it apart to put the new material on it. So I wondered what I was going to do. Looks funny like this. I tried sewing and learned I couldn’t. But then my mom came home and showed me what I did wrong so I was able to sew a little slip cover together, not fitted by any means though.

I love the green color of the paint. The green fabric was left over from when my mom made table runners for my brother’s wedding reception. They didn’t match as well as I thought they would but with the green of the ribbon and some purple thrown in, it all works. If only the stupid back cushion would screw in, it would all work nicely.

Halloween Candelabra

Once again I have been inspired by a project seen elsewhere.  I loved this candelabra that Sandra shared over at Sawdust and Paper Scraps

I decided I wanted to make one of those too. I went perusing at some local thrift shops and came home with some parts.

I think it was a coat rack and they removed the hangers because there were holes there.

I sprayed everything purple before I started putting it together. I removed the base and attached a candle holder with a dowel stinking out from it. The hole in the base didn’t get drilled straight so the whole thing didn’t really line up right.

My cousin took the chandelier apart and I used it upside down on top of the coat rack.


I found a big pack of beads on sale at Hobby Lobby in the Christmas section, also sprayed purple. Cut what I needed.  Decided in the end to wrap some around the top of the spots where I was going to put candles. I also used the plate and another top of a candle holder to create place for a candle at the top.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I linked this over at

and at