I've been a bit lax in doing these weekly posts, but definitely want to try to get back to sharing these glimpses into my week. I feel like it adds a personal touch to my blog and helps me make a real connection with y'all. And, I really love making those connections.
What's been happening around here? Well, it's summertime so the days are almost unbearably hot and humid with afternoon thunderstorms. Yet, this past week we saw a real lack of widespread thunderstorms. The ones that rolled through seemed to miss Silverlox (our property) entirely. It was rather odd.
I worked some on trying to get the garden back in order. Weeds have taken over my raised beads so I pulled out the one vegetable I had planted there: carrots. Alas, you can see the result of my lazy gardening in the jumbled mess of carrots. I should have separated the seeds a little more. Lesson learned. Once those were pulled, I used the weed-eater to chop down the rest of the plants in the two overgrown boxes. I've since laid cardboard over what remains of the weeds and am hoping that will aid in smothering them so I can use the boxes to plant again in the Fall.
I began to tackle one of the home decor projects that have been eating away at me. My generous sister-in-law gave us two pairs of chairs a while back. I wasn't super-keen on the cushions but was positive I could change them out to suit my taste. It really was pretty easy, and I may share the process on here later. The old look is the chair on the left with the new one on the right. This was just the first set, I have another set to go with some different fabric (as I am just using remnants).
I did quite a bit of tin work this week, experimenting with different ideas and techniques. I really enjoyed the process and result of the Harvest Moon Earrings I made in October so I toyed around with that some, fiddling with the process. As well, I made a pair of bead caps with tin (they're blue and just above the white paper in the picture above.)
While at my mom's one day, I worked on other projects from my bead box. I'll have an update on what's new in there very soon. I also took one of my nieces to the DMV (joy) to get her driver's permit!
And, then there was more tin jewelry experimentation as I layered mismatched discs for a patchwork flower look. After that, it hit me that I could create a bail with tin too. Oh yeah, there will be more of these, possibly with more layers.
We've also been watching Castle Rock on Hulu and the newest season of Orange is the New Black on Netflix. We're REALLY digging Castle Rock! It's from Stephen King and JJ Abrams...what's not to like about that?
I've shared quite a few tutorials and other inspiration via social media:
Jewelry
- Easy wire-wrapped pendant DIY at Moms and Crafters
- Double Pendant Cord Bracelet at The Beading Gem
- Using Memory Wire from CraftyHope (that's me ;) )
- Bracelet Trio and Long Necklace Tutorials from Lorelei as sponsored by Beadchest
- Embroidery Thread Wrapped Bangles via Oriental Trading
Other Crafts
And, for some other inspiration and tips
- Crafty Chica shares How to Price your Crafts
- This Book Art Bracelet at Craft Gossip is pretty awesome
- Cat Kerr is sharing some of her amazing-ness is her new class, The Collector.
- A Japanese artist is making needle-felted cats that look lifelike!
I'm itching to dive back into the tin, so that's all from me for now. I hope July has treated you well. Can you believe it's almost August and time for school to start? I cannot.
Looks like you will become an expert gardener - learning from your own mistakes is second best to learning from those of others ;) The chair refashion is a success and it's cool to use different fabric - when we were in the UK, lots of pubs had different color fabric and even different styles of chairs! I am following your tin experiments with huge interest!
ReplyDeleteRosantia, We'll see about the gardening. I've never had a green thumb but desperately desire to be able to grow my own food (and flowers). I still have to tackle those other two chairs, but have stayed busy with other tasks (like experimenting with the tin). I'm sure to share more as my craft room has pretty much been taken over with the tin. Ha! If course, eking out the time to work with it proves to be a bit harder.
DeleteContinuing our conversation of FB, I have finally given my chairs to a local carpenter to refurnish as the cushion needs to be changed apart from cover. But if not for your posting of the chair pic, we would have never gotten around to doing it. Thanks to you we might get good looking chairs next week. :)
ReplyDeleteWoohoo! I hate that it wasn't something you could do on your own. But, I'm so glad that I inspired you. I've been ticking off simple home decor/repair items on my list over the past couple of weeks. There's plenty still on it, but it's nice to finally get to some of these tasks that have somewhat intimidated me. Enjoy your "new" chairs!
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