Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Wednesday's Window


     Every Wednesday is Wednesday's Window,  I will be featuring a new way to repurpose old windows.  I have seen so many great ideas out there.  I also have an abundance of windows, as I will explain in a minute. 
    So it all started some years ago when I saw an old wooden window that someone had taken these gorgeous black and white pictures iof thier children and put them in each of the panes.  So I came home and searched and searched for a window and finally found one, purchased it and its still sitting waiting for me to add the pictures.  Sigh...  In the meantime, my husand, the carpenter, installed some new windows for someone bringing home a huge load, or at least what I thought was a huge load at the time of old windows from an old plantation home.  We made all sorts of things out of them which I will show in later weeks.  Then another window job came in and another and another each time bringing home more and more windows.  The reason for the abundance of windows.  I've had all these dreams and hopes of what to do with them but lacked motivation, and quite overwhelmed with the quantity.  So I thought by featuring a new idea each week will motivate me to get something done with them.  We are also selling them as is if anyone is interested.

So this week I am featuring the bulletin board you see above.  For this project I started with a six pane window, the glass had broken on half of the panes already so it looked good to use for this. 
At first I just cut and put into place the cork board tiles ( found at Michaels, Walmart, etc), but that was waaay too plain, it needed some personality, also the cork board itself was just too thin, it needed some meat behind it.  So I thought I would stencil a design on there.  Don't you hate it when you have the idea of what you want in your head, you know you have seen it somewhere but can't find it?  Well that was me, I had this image of vines, leaves, flowers dancing around in my head.  I searched the internet for clipart, I searched fabric suppliers for a fabric swatch I could use for a design, I searched scrapbook papers, even bedding and could not find what was in my head.  So after drivng myself almost completely crazy I was walking through my sewing room and caught one of my clear stamps out of the corner of my eye.  That's it that will be perfect to make a stencil.

I found my ink pad and stamped it on a piece of paper, then blew it up on the printer, it took a few tries to get the right size.  Finally I was happy with the size and stuck some clear contact paper on top of the design. 

Then painstakingly cut around the image with an exacto knife to make my stencil. 
Placed the positive image (the piece you cut out) onto the cork board and painted all the tiles with celery green paint. 

Once the contact paper was removed, this is how it came out, not too good.  The image wasn't clear and it still needed more personality.  So back to the drawing board, I blew up the image one more time, it needed to be more bold to show up.  Cut it out again and placed the negative image on the tiles this time.  I needed a color to show up on the green, at first I was going to use white but my husband thought that was too boring and since I have been added little bits of red to my kitchen I thought red would be perfect. 

Here is a very blurry picture of the tiles before I put them in the window
I cut pieces of foam core to place behind the tiles to give them more meat, you could always use some sturdy cardboard also but I had an unused piece of foam core so I used that.  Taped them all into place and
Voila!!!
Here's the finished product.  I love that its the right mix of retro and modern.  I left the window frame as it to leave that old worn character. 

Photobucket                The Girl Creative
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Praise God for YOU!!!
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Tuesday, May 25, 2010

What's for Dinner?

What's for dinner at your house tonight?  We're having country style ribs with homemade bbq sauce, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob and corn bread.  Sounds good don't it?  I thought I would share a recipe I learned from my husbands oldest brother, the fireman.  Fireman are the best cooks, hands down.   This one is easy as can be. 
Easy as can be Cornbread Recipe
1 box of Jiffy corn muffin mix
1 egg
7oz can of cream corn
( the small size is hard to find and is more expensive so I get a whole can and freeze the rest for later)
That's it!
Mix together, bake according to cornmuffin mix directions, can be made into bread or muffins whichever you feel like making. 


MMMM...mmmm!!!! I just taste tested the ribs, boy they are good.  I'll have to give you the recipe for the bbq sauce some day. 


Praise God for YOU!!!
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Monday, May 24, 2010

Office Redo/Organization - Part 2

     This is the second part of the office redo.  I finally finished the bulletin board, it seemed to be a bigger task than what I first thought.  I have a tendency to do that sometimes, sometimes its just hard to reign in all the ideas whirling around in my head.  And its so frustrating when something doesn't come out the way you have it pictured in your head.  I will have a tutorial on how I did it on Wednesday.  Starting this Wednesday I will be featuring Wednesday's Window, a redo of an old window that either I or another creative blogger has come up with.  You can email me or leave me a comment if you have a great idea to repurpose an old window or you have blogged about it. 
     Anyhow here is what my office looks like now, next on the list dealing with all the cords that seem to have multiplied and twisted themselves up.  That would mean crawling on the floor under the desk, unplugging everything, untangling, coming up with a better system and making sure I plug them all back where they should be.  I've read some great ideas out there in blog land but none that seem to solve my problem.  Like I told you before my office is off of my kitchen but it is also right where everyone comes in and out of the house by the back/side door.  So this means lots of dust and dirt so I need to come up with something to bring it up off the floor.  Anyhow that will be another day and another post. 


Made the butterflies out of cardstock and glued them to thumb tacks
To the right of the monitor is shelves that hold bills on the bottom
on the middle shelf I have our gardening journal and notebook with recipes I get off the internet
the top has thumb tacks , and oh the Off clip on thingy
To the right of the monitor is the thing that hold the cords to our ipods, camera, etc that I posted about before.


I found these notepad/mousepad at Michaels in the $1 isle
I thought perfect two birds with one stone
I can keep all my notes from all the great ideas I get in blogland

I made these a while ago and are hanging from the bottom of the window.  I used them to keep papers from school for each child. 
The window probably should have been hung a bit higher. I didn't want them to consume space on the bulletin board so I decided after I hung the window to put them on the bottom. But they are kind of hidded behind the monitor.
The Girl Creative                    Keeping It Simple             Sumo Sweet Stuff 



Praise God for YOU!!!
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Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Office Redo/Oganization - Part One

I have taken a couple online courses on organizing recently with Aby at Simplify 101. 
Which is totally against my nature but I need some things simplified in my life so I have more time to do the things that are important in life, like shopping and getting great creative ideas in blogland.  It seems that every day I find a new creative soul mate out there in blogland.  Its so awesome to see what creative minds are out there.  Anyhow back to the organizing thing.  One of the projects I conquered after finishing my second course was figuring out some sort of system for my office area.  This area is a desk just off my kitchen, which should technically be a breakfast nook but it just wasn't big enough for our entire family to sit there so the table just ended up being a catch all when we came in the door.  This office area also serves many purposes, its the home to our only computer, home bill paying, my husband's business paperwork and invoicing as well as all the other home/ business/school related activities.  So I needed a system that would stream lined since there are many things going on.  Here are a couple things that I did to stream line things a bit.  First thing on my list was the top drawer to the desk, it was impossible to find anything I needed, everything was just thrown in there and piled on top of each other.  I looked all around in stores for something that would help me organize all my things and being that I am cheap  I mean frugal I thought to myself I have got to have something around my house that I could repurpose and would work to hold the items that I needed on hand.  I went home and started scouring my house for unused containers that I hadn't thrown out yet in one of my decluttering sessions.  That's when my creative juices started to kick in and it started to get fun.  I find almost everything in my house but did purchase two boxes from the $1 isle in Michaels. 

1. bottom of a recipe box bought at Michaels - holds staples, and stamps for paperwork
2. cup that was sitting on my desk, all signed by my MOPS friends at convention - holds rubberbands and bandaids (I have to mention this is now empty... see post on minor set backs)
3. bottom to a facial cream container - holds paperclips
4.top to the facial cream container - holds thumb tacks
5. cardboard box that held stationary - now holds scissors, staples, tape, etc
6. was a wooden  box bought from Michaels - holds pens, pencils
stashed in the back is the box of checks and checkbook

All but a couple of things that have come up missing,  it still looks just like this today.  I am so proud of myself, I don't think I have ever kept anything this organized this long.  Each of the boxes I covered with scrapbook paper to give a clean uniform look. 

I also needed some place to keep the cord to my camera and ipod cords for our family.  Before there were about 20 unused misc. cords and we would have to untangle all of them to find the ones we wanted.  So I have a desk organizer on top of my desk that holds incoming and outgoing paperwork for our businesses.  I guess originally this little drawer was supposed to hold things like paperclips and what not but I thought it would work perfect for the cords if I wrapped them up. 

I am still training myself to clear the top of my desk every day.  Some days apparently I need extra training but for the most part the system seems to be working.  Everything in a place and everything in its place.  :) 

Now for the rest of the house... the journey continues. 


Praise God for YOU!!!
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Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Double Trouble Baby Shower

This past Saturday was my niece Lindsay's baby shower.  We are so excited because she is having twin girls!! With all the boys around here some little girls make me very excited.  I only wish I lived closer, she lives in my hometown in upstate NY, :(.  Her sister Jenn was putting on the shower for her and after both of us scouring the internet and  looking around at local party supply stores, we found that there wasn't much out there in line of twin decorations.  So I made her a few things and shipped it up to her. 

A Double Trouble banner

A diaper cake -
notice the dolls on top, one with blonde hair like Daddy and one with brown like Mommy

cupcake centerpieces (my Niece Jenn stamped footprints in the middle of the circles)


and a skirt for my niece Nykesha (Jenn's daughter)

I have to fess up, I acutally made this as an outfit to wear for Easter but it didn't get shipped out in time so it became a shower outfit instead.   I bought a brown cardigan to go with it and added the same fabric roses.  Waiting for pictures of her in it from my sister, just know this could take awhile.  When I get more actual pictures and any other ideas they did I will post them. 








Praise God for YOU!!!
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Saturday, May 1, 2010

Minor set backs

So I'm having some minor set backs...

While trying to finish up some notebook clutches I was making for a promo I thought I was going to do for Teacher Appreciation Week and Mother's Day.  I sliced my finger pretty bad with my scissors. 
Who said sewing was for sissies. lol 


Look for the pictures of the clutches early next week.  I should have at least 6 available on Monday.  They are great for moms as organizers or for teachers as well to hold note card, note pad, coupons, grocery list, you name it and small enough to fit into most purses.  Have a great weekend, I'll be nursing my finger.  ☺




Praise God for YOU!!!
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