Wading through Small Changes….

My creativity this week has been limited to getting back to basics…in lots of areas.

Stuff and the storage of it.

Food and menu planning.

Planning and practicing meaningful FAMILY time.

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Life just gets so busy/complicated/full that we need to remember to stop every now and again and just reconnect with those parts of our souls that need refreshing.

I’m working on sorting / organizing / wiping out all the cupboards…deciding if we really NEED half of the stuff that’s in them….

I’m looking for ways to get better organized when it comes to food and menu choices so that we can stop throwing away things that have gone bad….

I’m making sure the TV gets less ‘face-time’ than we do with each other….

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So, I haven’t sewn anything, painted anything, glued anything, drawn or written anything this week, but in the still, small, quiet moments I’ve taken it back to remembering the goodness in our lives, being thankful for every provision, and sending love and prayers into the lives of people who I’ve been blessed to have in my life.

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I have a new opportunity looming (read: job) and I am weighing the pros and cons of it. In no way do I want to give up the focus I’ve been able to gain on home and family….anything that takes the balance away from that is not for me…

I’ve failed already!

When I wrote this,  I had every intention on purchasing less stuff, and if I had to buy something, as in a gift or something, that I would try to buy handmade…

Well….a business trip to Atlanta last week saw me purchasing over $50.00 in the Atlanta Aquarium Gift Shop…ugh!  My intentions were good….I bought the boy a few things, something for hubby and a gift or two for upcoming occasions.

I think I made good purchases overall and got good value for my money, but I felt like I let myself down…..none of us need more stuff.

I love fabric!!!

Warning for those of you who aren’t so much into fabric / sewing….this was the week that I sewed, and sewed and sewed….just for fun. There is something about the feel of fabric that I just love…! Not to say that’s all this blog will be about, but this week, it is!

I have been very tired of my bedding for awhile now…

I’ve been looking in the stores ( I have some gift money I’ve been holding specifically for this – so I didn’t feel like I’m totally breaking my ’spend less’ resolution )…but I just haven’t found anything that I wanted to spend that much money on.

On one of my thrifting excursions, I stumbled upon brand new, never been washed flat sheets. Hmmmm, my little pea brain started doing the math….how much fabric is in this for the mere price of $5.99????

Hmmmm…how quickly I snapped them up – took them home, washed and dried them all, and repurposed them into a duvet cover to go over my old bedspread…! For all of $12.00!

I also found a new bed skirt for 5 bucks that was really for a King-sized bed, but some artful folding and a few safety pins and it fits my queen size just fine!

I also found some (also brand new!) Pottery Barn pillow cases, which right now, don’t look like they fit so well, but as soon as I paint my walls (and remove the hideous border), I think they’ll look quite swell.

HBI was pouting since I never make him anything, so he got a duvet cover too! I use that term loosely since I have no idea how to make button holes, so there is just an opening right now. One day I’ll learn….but as of right now, this project fit quite nicely into my propensity to not use patterns, and be finished in less than one evening!

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I’ve also been hating our 1980’s bathroom vanity ever since we moved in 6 years ago. A bathroom reno is in the works but is being done at the same time as the major job of lifting our house and putting in a new basement. We’ve kind of put all renos on hold till then b/c we may as well do it all at once, right? So anyways…hubby calls me to tell me he bought a second hand pedestal sink for $12.99 at a local thrift shop….a few pipes and new fittings brought the project to $40 or so and he has one very happy wife.

Before:      

After:       

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While thrifting I couldn’t resist some really pink, really girly sheets. The first one I made into new pajama bottoms for me – keeping the contrast on for the bottom…!

**Also repurposed another girly sheet into this great little dress for my niece! I think I’ll make her a matching bag too. The sheet was $2.99 and it was queen sized, so there is still lots of fabric left.

I bought a tablecloth for 89 cents and made four tea towels out of it

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I whipped up a wallet for my chequebook and not-so-often used cards / receipts etc.

I managed to figure out how to install snaps and made a little change purse.

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And instead of going out and buying more of these…

I took some juice boxes, cut em up, wrapped em with some spare ends of paper and I have new drawer dividers!

I’ll not be posting next week – I will be at a conference where I will be having creative withdrawals I am sure…however…I should have lots of new inspiration by the time I’m back!

Bloggy Art Awards

Nan has given me this great award!

Art Prize and Award

“This prize has arisen from the daily visits that I dedicate to many blogs which nourish me and enrich me with creativity. In them I see dedication, creativity, care, comradeship, but mainly, ART, much art. I want to share this prize with all those bloggers that entertain me day to day and to share this prize with those who enrich me every day. Doubtlessly, there are many and it will be hard to pick just a few, the people I will name today deserve this prize, as do the very long serious list of bloggers I also enjoy to read, but I will name the first 10 and will leave the rest of the work to all the bloggers that visit other’s blogs and are nourished by them.”
The rules of passing on this award are as follows:

- post award in your own blog: [Post who gave it to you] (http://nannybird.blogspot.com)
- indicate its origin and a link to the site: [Arte Y Pico from Uruguay ](http://fazendoarte67.blogspot.com)
- give it to 5 blogs that you enjoy. [That are creative and inspire you]

My choices are:

http://realworldmartha.wordpress.com/
http://peacockchic.wordpress.com/
http://lentilsandrice.blogspot.com/
http://www.messythrillinglife.blogspot.com/
http://modobjectathome.blogspot.com/

Very busy creating last week….

…in fact..it’s already Wednesday and I’m just getting around to my weekly post now….whew – here goes.

I had an absolute tragedy occur early last week….my sewing machine stopped working. It stopped picking up the bottom thread….grrr…So I went a few days without it and then got back to trying to figure the thing out. Turns out, I had the needle in backwards. Who knew something that simple could throw the whole thing out of whack? Anyhew…it forced me to come up with other things to create..

First I went ’shopping’ in hubby’s junk and came up with parts from two clip-on earrings that were missing the clips. Quick as a wink, I wired them up to some earring hooks and now have some ultra-glam earrings!

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Next, I spotted a couple of typewriter keys that we were going to sell on ebay, but the typewriter doesn’t want to let go of the keys so easily, so we have to saw each arm off individually…and you can imagine how that little project has come to a grinding halt, so I pilfered a few keys, glued them to a brooch thingy and there you have it….a neat little pin!

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Next, we found a Knit Magic machine from the 70’s….in one evening we ended up with a tube about 4 feet long…now what do you do with it??? Any ideas???

We just sewed off the ends and it’s become a small, but nicely sized scarf for HBI!

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This is vintage awesomeness at it’s best. Look at the fabric swatch ( cotton I think ) and how I found the perfect pin/brooch to go with it !!! Now, what do I make of it? It will probably become a bag of some sort…

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Still in my ‘no-sew’ slump, I had this great t-shirt that had a saying on the front and on the back, so I slipped them into a coupla embroidery hooks and I think it’s some pretty nice wall art!

Lots of fabrics could be made into ‘art’ this way….I have a vision for a whole wall of vintage inspired prints in a rad polka-dot pattern….but that is for another week and of course when I find a stash of embroidery hoops for next to nothing!**

Then, I still had the sweater arms from my earlier ‘repurposing of a sweater into a pillow’ project….so I cut off one of the cuffs, glued it around a tuna can…stitched up a little ball full of scraps for the center, and I have a new pin-cushion!

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I’ve been looking at a lot of altered art. I have so many bits and pieces lying around the shop that I should be able to create mounds of ‘art’. I still like pretty tho’….I like things that will have a use and a purpose. I took a vintage postcard, a french-ivory frame (that we have listed like 3 times on ebay and never sold, so I don’t feel bad for defacing it a little)…some words that I cut out of a fairy tale book…and a clip-on brooch. I’m quite happy with this little beauty….it’s pretty sweet.

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The rest of the week, I spent working on a very special event. On February 9th, I become older than my Mother. She lived to 37 years, 38 weeks and 4 days. On February 9th, I will have passed that by one day….so to commemorate that, I’ve been working on a little party for her best friends and sisters. Just a little time in the afternoon to get together and talk about the way she influenced our lives. I was just about 13 when she died, so that is nearly 25 years ago….hard to believe, but it will be nice to be in a room with so many women who meant so much to her…!

I’ve worked on the tablescape…

I’ve put together some bookmarks for everyone to take home….

I’ve put together some packages of seeds for everyone to take home, plant and then in turn, give those flowers away. The idea here is that she planted many things into our lives and it would make her so happy to know that she is continuing to bless people, even 25 years later…

There will be photos up next week of the actual display and event.

Happy Creating!!….now if only I could find something creative for supper tonight…!