The Map & the Ruler

I just completed this really neat world map project that I wanted to share.

The hardest part was taking apart the pallet. They are put together with these nails that act as screws and are quite difficult to get apart. Thank goodness I have a best friend with a very strong husband!!! THANKS CHRIS!!! 

The map was 24" x 36" so I knew I needed a pallet with 4 wide pieces to have enough room for the whole map. So I hand sanded each piece and then wiped them off with a damp cloth to get rid of any remains of dirt or dust and I used a rotary cutter up against the side of the wood to cut each piece of the map. I cut one piece then applied mod podge to the wood and applied the map piece. I did NOT put mod podge on top of the map at all.

I then grabbed my handy dandy grill lighter and tried to burn all the edges of the map but quickly discovered that my map and the mod podge glue under it seemed to be fireproof!!! I ended up getting a wood burner at Walmart for under $10 and burnt all the edges. That took about 3 hours to do all the pieces but I love how it turned out! This picture really doesn't do it much justice as the lighting in my living room doesn't always cooperate with my camera.

Before the edges were burnt

Finished! I love how the grain of the wood comes through,
sorta gives it a painted look.

This PIN is where I found and fell in LOVE with the old-time feel of this map and since we have a bunch of left over pallets from the The Pallet Garden  I thought wow! I could defiantly do this one! 

Now, if you click on the link on the pin, it brings you to the really lovely blog of Ms. Smartie Pants who did not make the map, she saw it in a magazine and did share how she thought it was made, so I just took her suggestions and made up the rest as I went along. :)


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A while back, I made a few of these, one for my 2 year old's room and one each for some really great friends:

This will eventually hang 6" off the floor.

I can not seem to find the original pin where I got the tutorial but if you put 'ruler' into pinterest's search, a ton of these will come up. VERY simple and cheap to make!!!

Bottle Cap Magnets

I took a short break from the Quiet Book to make a little gift for my In-Laws. That would be my husband's Dad and step-mom, who we adore! They are coming to visit this weekend as I just recently adopted my step-son and we are having a family cookout to celebrate! 

So, I came across THIS PIN a while back, which I actually didn't pin or like (hmm... what is wrong with this brain of mine?! Don't answer that! ha ha!) and it stuck in my head, so I decided to make some as a gift.

I used my Photoshop program to cut out 1" round parts of the pictures I wanted and put them into word to print. 
Then I proceeded to drink an entire 6 pack of Mike's Hard PINK Lemonade! 
That was absolutely the HARDEST part of the whole project! 
Cost me TWENTY weight watcher's points!!!!

I then used mod podge to glue the pictures into place and to seal them in. Once they were dry, I added dimensional magic to them to give that 3d look BUT the dimensional magic seems to somehow get under the seal and distort the images, so they look all fuzzy. Believe it or not, I actually did this TWICE.

Yes! That does mean 40 points gone!!! hahahah!

Here is how they came out the second time:

Dreamy looking?

And, if you look close enough (I don't think you can see in the picture) the top middle one has a fingerprint in it!!! Hmm... I wonder who that could have been?!

Well, I think I will put magnets on the back and give them anyways?
It's the thought that counts, right? *sigh*
Maybe I should chalk this one up to a big fat FAIL?
Thoughts anyone???

The Quiet Book - The Barn Page

I have the barn page completed! I really like how it came out! I did have a few hiccups*** along the way but I worked them out. :) Here's the finished page:

Barn doors closed

Barn doors open and the piggy is loose!

So the piggy, cow (who does resemble a dog more so than a  cow ) and the chick are all finger puppets! and the 'gate' area behind the barn doors is a pocket for the puppets. 

I am unsure what I will have on the facing page, as this is the only page I have done that does not have a matching facing page. Maybe i'll put a pond with fish and ducks? Or maybe some hay and a horse?!**

Hmmmm we will have to see what develops.....

*** HICCUPS: Yes, I mentioned the hiccups above... ok, so see the red SILK that adorns the pretty barn doors? The fabric came from the $1.99 scrap bag I got from Lorraine's Fabrics and did you all know
 - you should NOT steam iron silk?!  

Now, I must add here that I only just recently bought an iron. I did not own an iron nor do I use my current iron for anything besides projects. Wrinkly clothes? Into the dryer for 10 minutes. Still wrinkled? Don't wear 'em!

I know, I know... soooo very lazy. BUT i'm not lugging out an ironing board, heating up the iron, worrying about burning myself (which I have done twice already, once pretty bad) or the kids or the pets, ironing the wrinkly item, then cooling off the iron and packing it all back up and putting it away. I just don't see the enjoyment in that! :)

Anywho, back to the hiccup - so, the last setting I used on my non-clothing iron is the steam one to attach Pellon or interfacing to the dress-up page so the little people aren't all naked. I used that to iron the Barn page and part of the silk turned a deep dark red! 

Yes, your right... it burned. lol

So I thought, well I can take it all apart and start over OR I can burn it all! <insert evil laugh here> so it is now all burnt but I do love the way it came out. So it's not the bright red barn I imagined but a kind of a burnt sienna one! hahahaha.....

Then I had the issue of how to attach the doors, as they are on the thick side, and how to assemble the pocket, but I worked all that out without too much trouble. :)


This adorable template for the barn and finger puppets came from homemade by jill who has an amazing array of tutorials! Her projects are perfect! and beautiful! Check them out here! Thank Jill!!!




 **Hey LIZ!  I know you can draw horses... wanna make a felt horse?!**

The Quiet Book - The Dress Up Page, TAKE TWO

So I have decided to start over with the dress up page. I wanted the ability to dress up a boy or a girl and I tried to make hair for both but the hair is so little and thin that it will defiantly fall apart quickly with the pull of the Velcro and I would be remaking it over and over again.

So I have decided to make this page TWO pages that will face each other in the finished (cough, cough!) book. Looking something, sorta, like this:

Can you see the problems?

The poor girl has no neck at all and seems to have her head permanently kinked to one side and the boy has the same tilt to his head so they must be related, right? *sigh* 

And... the clothes, while cutsie, are thin and will have the same issue I was worried about with the hair on the original page. *sigh*

Hmmmm... to start over or not to start over... THAT is the question.....

Not to mention HOW to get the Velcro to not only stay on but if I use sew on Velcro, HOW do I hide the stitching??!! 

Ummm.. help? Someone? Anyone? 
How is this done??!!! 

I see another few hours trolling blogs and you tube tutorials in my immediate future... good by nap-time! 

The Quiet Book - The Dress Up Page

I spent almost ALL DAY yesterday trying and trying and trying to sew the cover for my quiet book. I thought that would be a great first place to start, right?
WRONG!
I ended up with TWO covers I can't use and not enough of my cover fabric leftover to make a third attempt! This was sad and frustrating. I had a lot of trouble with the bias tape (ha! that's a sewing term I just learned!)
I think the tape I picked was a bit too thin, and I kept missing the other side no matter how carefully I pressed and pinned it. *sigh*
I did find two interesting videos on You Tube on how to sew it and how the HECK to get the corners right although I don't think I can do both the techniques at the same time so I am still stuck on the tame and am unsure of how to get the edges right without buying double the fabric and sewing them like a pillowcase.
*double sigh*

BUT THEN..... I decided to try my VeRy FiRsT PaGe!!!
and LOOK:

A few little snags, but not too shabby!!!

Clothes to go into the 'bureau' 

I am unsure how to cut out the hair - i'd like to make it so the figure can either be a girl or a boy depending on hair and clothes. Any suggestions or patterns?

I am THRILLED that the page was so much easier to work on than the cover!!!
Maybe i'll just leave the cover until last! :)

The template for the person and the clothes came from here:
Serving Pink Lemonade 
Thanks Jeanine and Amy!!!

The template was modified from Stephanie's Treasure Chest at
Imagine Our Life
Thanks Stephanie!!!

The Quiet Book - Prep

In preparation for my upcoming massive project, I've decided to be as organized as possible for it!  

So... I have gone from this:

Messy, knotted and time consuming mess!




To THIS:

Yeaaaaa me!





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The other day, I took a trip to my neighborhood fabric store (haha - it's only a 40 minute drive!) and discovered SCRAP BAGS!!!!! They offer these big bags of scraps for $1.99 for the whole bag!!! The bag was about the size of my toddler! 

Insert name of blog here and remember that I don't have scraps of anything left over from other projects because until recently, I didn't DO projects. So needless to say, I was quite thrilled and my little one and I had a ball going through all the scraps in our bag! 

He was waddling around the house with his arms out humming like this - very cute!
hmmm... does he look a little like Snow White here? Aren't those her colors?!

He kept trying to get the piece of pink silk to stay on his head - haha!

So I now have a great little pile of scrap materials for my quiet book project! AND I finally went through the bottom of my Mom's sewing basket - OH MY GOODNESS! There was sooo much STUFF in there!!! haha! I guess I should have done that BEFORE I went tot the fabric store and bought new needles! Oh well, I've an excuse to go back now!  hehe!

The Quiet Book - The first purchase!

Today, I bought the unbleached muslin!

I can't believe i'm really going to attempt this massive endeavor! :)

I also found these cute little buttons that i'm going to incorporate somehow. 
They remind me of The Providence Children's Museum's kitchen area, or at least the way it was when the museum was in Pawtucket and I was really little. 

Too cute!

I checked out Walmart and Michael's today for buttons, beads, snaps and the like but didn't quite find what I was looking for so i'm going to spend my youngest's nap time looking online, wish me luck! :)

For my Mom, A beautiful bag for her chair.

My Mom recently got me a brandy new sewing machine, which of course helped fuel this crafting rampage.
To say thank you, I sewed her this bag for her wheel chair:

Her favorite color is pink! 

I think it came out pretty well for my very first attempt at sewing anything besides curtains! And the weird part? I didn't know there was even a pattern for this! 
It practically jumped off the shelf at me in Wal-Mart one day! Hmmm... Thanks Nanny?

The Quiet Book - So far, Just an Idea.

Ok, here it is! The reason I started this blog!
This is going to be a HUGE MASSIVE project for me!
I can't even believe i'm attempting it!
I get that wiggly feeling every time I even look at ideas for pages!!!

*Deep Breath*

HERE is the pin that introduced me to this concept of a Quiet Book, which I had never heard of before.
It originates from Tidbits !
Cami - I can't think you enough! your book is great!!!! I hope mine comes out one quarter as amazing as yours did!!!

Ok people, go look at the pin!

Right now!

I'll wait......

Dee de dummm... de dahhh da da... Lah dee doo da dooo da deee........

Amazing, huh?!?!?!

Here are some of the pages I hope to make and where the ideas came from:

Farmer's Market Page from: Imagine Our Life 
Stephanie - Your talent is amazing!!!!

Seasons Page from: Dabbler Has A Baby
Great work Drew!!!!!

Family Page from: Dabbler Has A Baby

Mailbox Page from: Imagine Our Life   

Sock Matching Page from: Imagine Our Life   

Teeth Brushing Page from: Imagine Our Life   

Astronaut Page from: Imagine Our Life

Time & Shape page from Tiffany's Book

As you can see, I have my work cut out for me! I think I will get the materials for the cover and then attempt one page at a time. slowly.

Any suggestions? I could use all the advise possible!

Twig Plant Markers

These were simple and easy to make BUT the longer they are outside, the harder they are to read. I think if I were to do these again, I would spray them with a water sealer.

I only made them for the herbs and not the produce as they were small.
Produce  markers would need much bigger 'twigs'.

Here is the pin that inspired this project which originated from Martha Stuart's Site.  
Thank you!

Re-Growing Produce

I love plants. I mean REALLY love them!
If you walk into my living room in the wintertime when all my plants are indoors you may feel like you've walked into a jungle. I grew up with lots of plants as my parents had a huge passion for them too. Naturally when I discovered 're-growing' I HAD to try it!

Here are some of my Re-Grown items:

Pineapple!

Peanut plant, YES! its from an actual peanut!

Celery

Sweet Potato plant from one little sweet potato!
Oh PLEASE Oh PLEASE let there be actual potatoes from this!!!

Garlic!

Sigh.... my poor poor Horseradish plant. 
It was this big gorgeous amazing plant until the caterpillars got to it.
I sprayed it and cut off all of the affected leafs, which unfortunately was ALL of them.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this grows back!

Here is the pin that started this ongoing endeavor, 
which originated from Chickens in the Road a really neat site chock full of tons of useful information! Thanks Suzanne!
Here is another Pin which originated from Tickled Red. Thank you!!!

The Laundry Bag

I recently purchased all new jeans for my 12 year old and was trying to figure out what to do with his million pair of old, too short ,too small jeans when I came across this pin.

I was wowed again and immediately went out and got a few supplies. I couldn't wait to come home and make these adorable bags!
BUT WAIT!
Oh my goodness, my 2 year old needed a new laundry bag! Oh! Wouldn't that be great!? I would just double the size of the largest one and i'd be good to go! (Insert reminder of blog name here)

So, I got half way through my project and realized that there wasn't  a way to get this bag to stand up straight like the adorable ones in the original pin. It was way too big and heavy.

So here is what I ended up with.... NOT at all what I envisioned, but functional and hand made all the same!

This is the outside - It will hang on the wall instead of standing up.

Inside is fully lined (yea me!) and edged with
the same material I used for the curtains.

Here is the original pin that started this project (that looks NOTHING like my bag)
which originated from Daily Grommet Blog 
A big Thank You for the inspiration!!!

The Directional Yard Sign (A Very Special Birthday Gift!)

For as long as I can remember, I have wanted a really good friend or two. You know, the kind you can really tell anything to and they will love you anyways? The kind that you can call on no matter what and they will be there for you. The kind that shares your sorrows and triumphs equally right along with you. The kind that you are totally comfortable being yourself with and the kind that you don't feel walked over by being exactly that kind of friend right back.

For those of you that have friends like this, congrats! They really are few and far between. For those of you still looking for that type of friendship, keep looking - you never know who you will meet!

So, as I'm sure you have guessed, this post is is a Birthday Gift I've been working on for  my very best friend.

I did ask for and receive her Husband's help in coming up with the exact places, thanks Chris!!!

Here is my process, as of this posting, I have not yet finished this project but i'm really close and will update as I go along!

We had this useless piece of fencing in our yard

So I ripped it down to use it for this project.
AND I have plenty pieces left over for a sign for my yard too!

Here is the pile of posts.

I used a paint remover and an exact-o knife to scrape the majority of the paint off.

Scraped and sanded! Phew! This was the hardest part. 

I printed out the place names and placed them on the wood.
This took allot of printing and trial and error to get the right size.

I placed the paper on the wood and with a pencil, traced the 
letters so there was a slight impression
on the wood, then filled the impressions in with a paint pen.

The impression

Paint pens.
I used a black one for the lettering 
and a white one for highlights.

The finishes pieces, now I need to figure out how to  attach them to the post
AND I need to  rip the post  out of the ground! Hmmmm....

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UPDATE: 

So the sign is finished! Check it out:

Ta Da!!!

The post was easier than I thought to get out of the ground - (Thanks for helping RYAN!!!)
I gave it a light sanding and attached the pickets to the post with 2" galvanized screws and I sprayed it with Thompson's water sealer. 

I can't wait to give it to her!!!
I hope she loves it!



Here is the original pin that started with project which originates
from Fresh Picked Whimsy
Thanks so much for this inspiration!
Lori also sells these signs in her Etsy Store! Check it out!

Here is another awesome sign that I love from Two Men and a Little Farm

My Menu Board

I have recently mentioned that I have been having great success with the Weight Watcher's Online program. Previously, I would go to the grocery store and purchase groceries based on dinners I cooked often and I would just look around the kitchen and throw stuff together. this made for wasted/spoiled food and lots of pre-packaged meals, not to mention take out food!

Now a days, I plan our dinners out ahead of time, something I have always wanted to do but never really knew how to get started. A HUGE thank you to Robin from RobbyGurl's Creations for the inspiration to get this going!!!

Now, Robin's menu board is way cooler and much more organized than mine BUT if It wasn't for hers I would never have gotten mine together AND I have a meal planned for every night and there are no more take out nights, no more wasted food and ALL of my dinners are weight watcher friendly! I purchased Robin's menu board templates and created my own system from there.

Here is my board:

This is September's board. I currently have enough recipes for 2 months! 
And all my dinners are  weight watchers friendly! Yeaaaa!

Here Is the original pin from  RobbyGurl's Creations

Thanks Robin!!!

I'm Bored Jar

My 12 year old son will often say, "I'm Bored!" and when I saw this pin, I got that wiggle in my belly, you know, the one that makes you want to rush out to the store and buy all the items you could possibly need for whatever project has got you going?

This project came out really well, I was pretty proud of this one!

Check it out:

The Finished Product

A few of the 50 ideas


I waited months for him to say, "I'm Bored!" And when he finally did, I was soooo excited! I jumped up and grabbed the jar (which he had not laid eyes on yet) and presented it to him.
The first one he pulled out said: Design and draw a comic strip.
I picked things that I was pretty sure he would like to do but unfortunately, he thought it was dumb.
Yes, I was heartbroken.
*SIGH*
But I can save it for my 2 year old, maybe he will like it better!

For the record, he must have noticed how heartbroken I was because I got this a little while later:

Sweet, huh? He's a really great kid! 

Here is the original pin from Shabby Beach Nest
Thanks Nicole! I love that you found your inspiration on Pinterest too!!!