Hoo Are You #28

Here are this week's questions!

1. What is your favorite magazine?

I used to really love Marie Claire.  I currently subscribe to BHG.

2. What color are your eyes?

My eyes are green.

3. Do you go to the dentist on a regular 6 month schedule, or do you put it off?

I usually put it off.  I haven't found a dentist since I moved. I guess I should get on that. lol

4. Do you use anything to make your house smell good?

ex: candles, spray,etc...

areI use Gla-day (Glade) scented oil plug-ins.  Next time Bath and Body Works has their Wallflower sale, I'm going to get some of those.  I also have those little Renuzit air fresheners in the bathroom since outlets at a minimum.

5. Do you have any pets?

 Why, yes I do! I have two cats. Sophie and Lucy. Read more about them here. 

Home State Art

In May of 2010, my husband and I moved from Georgia to the St. Louis area.

I grew up in Southeast Georgia and have never lived anywhere else. 

So this move was  traumatic for me.

Charlie and I moved to Atlanta in 2005.

THAT move was QUITE the adjustment.  

Charlie and I also got married on top of a mountain in Georgia almost one year ago.  

In short, I have a soft spot in my heart for the peach state. :) 

So, I decided to make something to signify that.  

I wish I'd come up with this idea all on my own, but I didn't.  

I saw some home state art on a blog (can't seem to find where, though).  

I did find an example on etsy.  

I also saw this blog post from Taylor Made, and was inspired.  

So, I decided to give it a shot.

Random side note:

Every time I go to Michael's I always scour the clearance section. 

I have found a lot of good deals in there! 

Yes, something maybe be slightly wrong, but the item will still work most times.  

Example:  these canvases.

A pack of two canvases for $1.50! Yes, one of them has a hole in it, but the other one was just fine! I figured I could use this for a project where I was going to attach something to the canvas.  Like the project I finished last night! So, here's how I fixed the hole.  

I totes just put a piece of tape on the back of the canvas. That was all! 

You can still tell on the front, but I'm going to cover it so no one will even know! 

Ok, well now you all know, but that's ok. :)

Just so you know, that's how I am in real life.  I'll start talking about one thing and randomly switch in the middle.  At least I give you guys warnings! 

End random side note.

I knew I wanted to go with the ever popular grey and yellow color combination. 

Now, I just had to figure out how to set it up and what to use.  

In Taylor Made's post, she uses the freezer paper method to pain the state on the onezie she made.  I thought about this, but then decided against it because I didn't know how I'd paint stripes (I was thinking chevron) and paint the state.  

Then I thought about painting the stripes and putting vinyl over them, but I only had ivory vinyl.  I didn't really want to have to go out and buy anything, because I usually don't think that far ahead and try to do projects after I get home from work. :) 

SO, I decided to use card stock! I had one light yellow piece.  So, I got to work.  

Taylor Made shows how to take a picture of the state, and with your silhouette machine, make into an outline.  I've had my machine since Christmas and had no idea it could do that! It was awesome! 

Ok, so here's a list of things I used for this project.  

-8x10 Canvas

-Black, White, and Silver acrylic paint

-foam paint brushes

-masking tape (there will be a note about this later) 

-Silhouette machine

-Ink pad

-yellow card stock

-grey card stock

-Mod Podge

First things first, I measured the canvas and put marks in one inch increments down the canvas.  Then, I taped the canvas to create grey and white stripes.  PLEASE DON'T USE CRAPPY TAPE! I did because I was trying to use what I had on hand.  

You'll see why in a moment. 

Ok, so here's the canvas all taped up. I didn't have any grey acrylic paint, so I mixed some up. 

Here's the canvas before I pulled off the tape. 

Here's the canvas after I pulled off the tape.  I was a little disappointed, but I figure the non-clean lines give it some character.  This could've been avoided if I'd used painter's tape.

Also, you can barely tell where there was a giant hole in the canvas! 

YAY! I let this dry overnight.

The next step was cutting out my state with my Silhouette machine. 

This is where things got a little ugly.

The only yellow card stock I had was Bazzill and it's textured on one side.  I didn't really want my state to be textured so I put it on my thick cutting mat textured side sticking (or not sticking as in this case) to the mat.  Well, I was a little concerned it was going to shift around so I used a little readjustable adhesive to attach it to the mat. Turns out that didn't even matter right then because my machine wouldn't cut anything.  It would slide to one side and say "cut was successful" grrrrrr... I was annoyed. I scrapped the saved file and started over and it FINALLY cut the shape.  

Yeah, it also shifted and didn't cut my last piece of yellow paper correctly. 

So, I'm freaking out thinking I have no more yellow paper and it's a lost cause.  I'm tearing through all my scrapbook paper violently searching for some yellow paper. I finally fine a solid piece from BasicGrey's Urban Prairie collection. YAY!  

So, I was afraid it was going to shift around again on the mat, but it didn't. YAY!

Here it is all cut out! 

I was going to put a heart over my home town, but decided to put "on my mind" on it instead. You know, like the Ray Charles song. :) 

Originally, I thought about writing or painting "on my mind" on the state, but I chickened out. I decided to cut it out with my Silhouette and used the "Georgia" font.

So, then I had to find a piece of grey paper. I had one REALLY light piece of grey paper. I knew it was too light, so I found my Tim Holtz Distress Ink. It was given to me by a friend (Thanks!) I used the end of my sponge paint brush to tap the letters on the pad. 

Once I had all the letters done. I attached them to the yellow paper. To do that, I podged the whole canvas and then attached the state and added another layer of mod podge.  Then, I placed the letters on the state and pressed lightly and covered with another layer of mod podge. 

Now, let it dry! 

My husband was SO not pleased with me last night.  We were supposed to watch the season 4 finale of BSG and this took me FOREVER and I had to go to bed shortly after. So, I still don't know who's a sylon! Goodness!

Here's the finished product!

I know it's not perfect, but I love it! 

I put it in my office at work. :) 

Whew! That was another long post! Hope you guys enjoyed! 

Oh! Something I wanted to mention to those that comment, please leave me your email in the comment form! I love each and every comment and respond to all of them, but I can't if I don't have your email address.  If you don't want to leave it, that's fine. I'd love to talk to you guys, though! 

Thanks for reading!

<3,

Marlie

P.S. How freaking cute is this cat?!?!!?

I'm linking up to these great parties!

Weekend Update and a Confession

Hello peeps!

Hope this Monday is treating you all well! I think I'm coming down with a cold so it's kicking my butt so far.

Well, I had a pretty fun and exciting weekend!

Friday:

Well, Friday was pretty low-key, but one pretty exciting (I was excited) thing happened.  

I was checking my page views on blogger (excessively) and I saw this:

80 page views in one hour! WHAT?!?! Now, this may not seem like a lot to some, 

but that's crazy for me! 

I looked on my stats to see which site referred the most people, but it'd

 already changed for the day.

So, today I caught up on my weekend blog reading and saw that I'd been feature (sort of) at Young and Crafty !

I say sort of because I had the most page views in her Free For All! So, I don't know if that technically counts, but I'm still excited. 

Saturday:

I watched some Battle Star Galactica with the husband in the morning and then went shopping with my Sister-in-Law in the afternoon.

I went to the flea market where my father-in-law has a stall and bought some goodies. 

This one guy has a dollar stall and a quarter stall and I spent $8 and got TONS of stuff. 

I got picture frames, some canisters for my kitchen, an adorable thermos, and various other things.  I'll take some pictures and do a post!

We hit up Goodwill and found nothing. 

We went to Kmart and they were having their winter clearance sale. I got two sweaters for $3 each! I got a pretty blue one and a red one.  I'm going to cardigan-ize the red one (like this) and keep the blue one as is.

I also purchased (I'm a little scared to admit this) my first pair of leggings.  

They were on clearance, too.

I held off a LONG time with leggings.  These are the one that are like pants. They go all the way down to the ankle.  I wore them on Sunday with a dress that I think is a little too short for me (it comes to the knee, I'm weird).  I don't think I'll ever wear tights again. EVER. 

After K-Mart, we went to the Salvation Army.  I found this for $0.69!

Then, I went to the Dollar Tree for some crafting supplies. I'm hoping to get those projects done and posted soon. 

So, now it's confession time....

I eat my spaghetti strangely.

Well, I guess technically this is fettuccine and meatballs. We saw egg fettuccine at the store and decided to try it. It was yummy.

So, how does one eat their spaghetti separate you may ask.

First, Take a bite of meatball. 

Then take a bite of noodles. And yes, I know it gets mixed in my mouth and a little on the plate, but I still like to taste them separately.  

So, I've confessed.  People at work used to make fun of me when I'd bring leftovers, because I'd bring the sauce in one and the noodles in another. 

Now, I'd like to share with you how I make my meatballs! I do the normal stuff, Italian seasonings, salt, pepper, parmesan cheese and garlic salt.  I don't put eggs or bread crumbs in my meatballs.  Instead, I use this trick I learned from some cooking show. Instead of breadcrumbs, take a slice of white bread and remove the crusts.  Then tear it into small pieces and place it in a bowl and just slightly cover it with some milk.  Let it sit for a moment and then pour the milk and bread pieces into the meat mixture.  

I think this makes the meatballs stick together well and also makes them moist. 

I should probably know, but I just do what the people on the food network tell me to. :)

I made spaghetti for my in-laws one evening and realized as I was cooking that I didn't have any garlic salt. So, I just put everything else except the garlic and then put a little bit of spaghetti sauce in the meat mixture.  It turned out really good! It makes the meatballs taste like they've been cooking for a long time. 

So, how do you eat your spaghetti?

<3,

Marlie

Parliament

Yay! Check out my new parliament of owls! I saw them on another blog (I will link to it in my completed project's post). She told me she found them at Target so I went to one last weekend, but they didn't have them. I checked today at a different one today and they had them! I have plans for these babies!

I heart Owls

Hello followers new and old!

I had a VERY small amount of time to craft this weekend between giving my house a good deep clean and organizing the finished part of the basement. However, I still had time to make something! YAY! More on that later.

First! I want to show y'all my owl bathroom!

My Nana actually started my owl collection with some things she bought from an estate sale. She even offered me this HUGE owl lamp, but I turned it down. I  mean it was like three feet tall.

Speaking of owl lamps,

How cute is this lamp?!?! It's from Target! It's a little steep for me at $40, but it's still super cute.  Maybe I'll try to make my own someday.

Anyway...on to my owl stuff!

The little owl parliament (that's a group of owls) on the left is one of the things from my Nana. They are so cute and I love that little green mushroom! The candle was a gift from a friend for my birthday.  It smells like peaches. The last owl I got as a gift from my in-laws.

The following things are hung on the wall above the toilet.

Found this at the Salvation Army for $0.50!

One of the things from my Nana

My friend bought this for me! Love it!

This was one of my first projects with my Silhouette machine.  It's hanging on the wall to the left of the door.  I got the frame from my father-in-law.

I used BasicGrey (I think it was from the Urban Prairie collection) paper for the background. The little guy is just a stamp. This is hoot picture 2.0 because the first one I made lost one of it's "O's"

This was the first one.  Now, that I look at it, I like the one I have now better.  Guess it was meant to be! 

These little guys sit on top of the toilet. 

And now, the project I made.....

AHHH! I love his cute owl-y face! 

Wanna see how I made him? 

Supplies:

-soap dispenser (I got mine from the dollar tree for $1)

-Mod Podge

-Glue to assemble owl parts (that sounded gross but you know what I'm saying)

-Acrylic Sealer 

-Owl cut out (I used my Silhouette machine to cut out my owl.)

Step 1:

Gather your supplies and fire up your Silhouette machine! 

Step 2:  Select and cut out your shape.

Since I used card stock for my owl as apposed to print and cut, I grouped the pieces of the same color together and made four separate cuts. The print and cut option wouldn't have worked with the mod podge because I have an inkjet printer.

3. Assemble your owl.

I used the above adhesive to assemble my owl. This is where I made an error.  It was a little difficult to glue the owl together without attaching it to something.  So, I glued the owl directly to the soap dispenser.

At this point I realized I should've put Mod Podge on the soap dispenser BEFORE adding any paper to prevent bubbles. It was too late at this point to turn back now so I soldiered on. I figured if it didn't work I'd start over then.

So I'm adding in a step that I didn't do.

4. Apply a light coat of Mod Podge to your soap dispenser BEFORE you attach your owl.

5. Place your owl on the soap dispenser and apply a moderate coating of Mod Podge.

 6.  Let dry and apply two more coats.

7.  YAY! It didn't turn out horribly! I was afraid it would have tons of bubbles.

8.  Spray with a light coating of acrylic sealer.

And he's done! I think I'll name him Harold.

Whew! That was kind of a long post! Thanks for sticking it out! 

<3,

Marlie


Linking up to these awesome parties!

Preach on, Abe!

"The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just."

-Abraham Lincoln

I found this quote today on the back of my Argyle Sweater comic-a-day calendar.  
I needed to see this today.

This applies to SOO many things in my life.

For personal reasons and for creative reasons.

Personal reasons (hehe, every time I say or type that I think of Edward Cullen in Twilight. I'm so lame.):

-getting healthy

-working on and maintaining relationships

-keeping a better budget

etc, etc

Creative reasons (and the point of this post): learning to sew

I know these things aren't causes, but the idea is the same.

Don't be afraid of the struggle.

That's what I'm focusing on. 

I've had my sewing machine for a while.

Like three months maybe.

I've sewn ZERO things.

What the what?!?!

I've purchased some fabric and have these dreams of sewing quilts and clothing.

Yet, I've done nothing.

I'm scared I'm going to screw it up. 

So scared, that I haven't even tried.

Pretty pathetic. lol.

Then I saw this quote today and have been inspired.

What does it matter if I mess it up?

That's what seam rippers are for. :)

I've decided to make myself a lunch bag.

I take my lunch most days and usually 

use a re-usable grocery bag.

It's kind of too big and not at all cute.

I found this super cute tutorial at prudent baby.

I don't have a baby, obviously, but I love their site.

When I first read through the tutorial, I got scared again.

I just got to remember that if I never try, I'll never know.

So, what fabric to use? hmmm.

I thought about just using what I have 

at home just to practice.

Once I've made one and succeeded, I'll reward 

myself with some super cute fabric.

Here's what I'm thinking: (all fabric found at fabricworm.com)

This reminds me of some sheets my Nana used to have.

Butterflies and flowers. What's not to like?

I like the colors and the vintage look of this print.

Owls. Nuff said.

I love cherries. These are super cute. At the very least, I'll use this for my apron or something in my kitchen.

This print is so fun and happy.

Let me know what you think!

Thanks!

<3,

Marlie