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Fall Wreath

Last year, T had a thing with wreaths.

She has spells where she is into "decorating" the house.

I guess that's a good thing. 

And I should be glad that she transitioned out from
her decorations being something she drew, colored with crayon,
cut up and taped to the walls.  ;)

So when she said, "Mommy, I want a wreath..."

I told her we will make it out of what we have instead of buying something new.

So in the attic, we found old strands of berry that we had used to decorate for Christmas.

I showed her how to take two strands and wrap them around each other while creating a circle.

It was already pretty with just the entwined strands.  

We found some  loose leaves in the bottom of a box and tucked them in the twigs of the strand.

This time around, after unearthing the wreath from the attic,
I scrounged for something orange and maybe some fall-ish items.

Tuck one here....

Tuck one there...

I also wanted to make a banner sign.

so I went in my scrap quilting pile and picked out a fabric.

I cut them up into small triangles.

Since I was working on some of my pillows, I had some fabric already with iron on fusible interface.

I  cut out the letters free style then ironed them to the fabric.

The plan was to then hot glue gun the triangles to the jute but
I could not find where I put the glue sticks and I ran out of patience.
Soooo....  Duck tape to the rescue.  ;)

On to the next problem.
Our front doors are 10 foot doors and most standard doors are only 8.
So it is extremely difficult in my part of the world to find wreath hooks for tall doors.
So I bought a piece of bendable metal.
 (I have no idea what it is used for or what it is called.  I just looked for thin bendable metal.)
And bent it on both ends to form 2 hooks.

My front door is in espresso/black finish and so I took the metal and
painted it with Rust-oleum dark bronze in a hammered finish.

Once painted and dried, I hung it on the door and followed by the wreath.

TA-DA!

I like it!  now I gotta make another one!  O_O

Yeah, my holiday wreath from last year is still up... don't judge me.  ;oP


I'm linking at Get Your DIY on Week 2 by 
Confessions of a DIYer
Just a Girl and her Blog
The Hankful House
The Happy House
House by Hoff

For Tabatha?

I've just never had any luck in photographing the color purple....

It just doesn't seem to matter whatever angle and in what ever light.  :(

Something Blue

There's a design challenge going on by several bloggers that I follow

 and I wanted to get in on the action.

For this week, we had to design something blue.
Here's what I came up with.

It's been a while since I've put some of my handmade pillows in my Etsy.

It has got to be my cutest pillow yet!  ;)

I love the rose with the bead detail.

What do you think?

I'm linking at
Get your Fall DIY Party Challenge by Confessions of a Serial DIYer
 for the Blue Challenge
Sew Cute Tuesday by Better Off Thread

Driving Me Bananas

In the side yard, which is also our dog run, and what we call our orchard, 

something's been digging.

It's driving me bananas.

actually it's driving me and hubby bananas.

It sure is making a whole lot of mess.

And if you can't tell by the pictures, the holes are at least a foot or so deep.

Even the somewhat heavy pavers are not a deterrence!

What is it digging you ask?

This.

There is absolutely nothing that will get in the way of this pup.
Don't let his poise fool you.
For he is a bundle of energy!
Whatever it is he is looking for, he is creating havoc around our trees.
It,s a good thing it is not affecting our bananas though!

They actually seem to like the excitement.  ;) 

Feeling Blue

I had been working extremely hard and without any breaks this past month.

...and have accrued so much comp time.

I was excited for the long weekend.

Actually, since I was using some of my comp time, 

It was an even longer extended weekend.  ;)

And what do you think happened?

(Hocking House grounds, Logan, Ohio)

Oh no, I still went down to Sarasota and saw my son place silver in their division
in the soccer tournament.

And I still ate at some of the awesome digs in town...

BUT
I got sick.

(Ash Cave Trails, Hockinghills, Ohio)

Yup, really sick.
No, not just THAT sick....but really, really sick.
So sick that I spent most of the last couple of nights on the bathroom floor next to the commode weakly and unceasingly emptying every ounce of anything that was in my body.

(Happy Trails, Logan, Ohio)

The pain so intense that each heave caused me to urinate shamelessly.
Until finally I told the hubs to take me to the urgent care center.

Logan, Ohio Cemetery

Doc said It was a virus.
DUH!  Like I didn't know that.
But he gave me something for my nausea because if I didn't keep anything down
he was going to have to admit me for dehydration.
So the meds helped and Gatorade was a lifesaver yet again.  Yeah Gators!! ;)
But not even my bed was friendly.
I ached all over.  ;(
...and no solid anything was happy in my tummy.

(Jean Magdich, artist/ Hocking House, Logan, Ohio)

But there is always a silver lining!
1.  I'm almost positive I lost some weight through all of this.

(Jean Magdich, artist/ Hocking House, Logan, Ohio)

2.  I actually stayed in bed for almost 4 days straight.  Seriously.

3.  I saved on gas this week because I didn't go to work.
(my van, also called The Big Red Tomato, guzzles up a gazillion gallon of gas).

4.  And my son's team placed second in their tournament!!!  Woohoo!!!
Goooooo PREDATORS!!!! ;)

Ahhh....but all things come to an end.
And tomorrow, it's back to work.
 REALITY.

Playing with Wire

It's a long weekend!  Yeay!  It's especially long for me since I got today off!

We just checked into the hotel here in Sarasota since S2 has a soccer tournament  here this weekend.

As usual, I brought my To-Go craft bag.  ;)

It is so full because I shoved my beading blanket in there.

On this trip, I decided that I am going to bead and make some jewelry.

So are you curious as to what I made on the 2 hour trip?

First let me show you the road so you know I'm for real.

I can't remember now if this was before or after the I-4 exit.  

That intersection was crazy.  Heavy backed up traffic.  Good thing we pass right by it.  

Soooo.......here's what I pulled outta the bag.

Its copper colored wire... Probably 20 gauge.

I cut a piece approximately a foot long.

Then I wound it around very loosely around my ring finger leaving enough wire on each end of the loop.

I wound it around 4 times to the thickness that I wanted.

(You will want to make sure that it is loose enough on your finger that it does not get too tight once you start wrapping.)

You then take one of the ends and bring it around the wire as if you are tying a ribbon.

Then keep looping it through, winding around the wires to hold them together and in place.

Its up to you how much you want to keep wrapping around.  

I stopped after a couple of wraps and clipped the wire to stop at the top of the wire.
This will keep it from snagging on things too much.
Make sure to pinch the wire down too so it is not sticking up.
(Again, this is to control the snagging)

With the other end, I strung a bead (a large seed bead) and then looped it around.  

Strung another bead and looped it around. 

I kept doing this creating a design.

(Sorry for the blurry picture....don't forget that I was in the car!)

After adding enough beads and wrapping the wire and looping it through in between the beads and wire, this is the result.

It actually only took me about half an hour to do this including the time it took me to find the beads that kept falling into the bag and car.

What do you think?

This is the very first ring I have ever made.

I think it's a keeper!  ;)