Sunday, January 18, 2009

Weekend Projects

I had an amazingly productive weekend. We had subzero temps all week but finally on Friday we made it to 6 above; however, I still wanted to stay indoors snuggled in my slippers and 7 sweaters (I have a medical condition that makes me cold...all the time). So, with that said, I was busy working in my "studio" all weekend long. As if the cold weren't enough, we've gotten more snow this winter than I ever remember us getting...I work at the local ABC affiliated TV Station so I'll have to ask one of the meteorologists tomorrow how much snow we've gotten so far, especially since our heaviest snowfall seems to come in March.

Anyway, here is a quote book I'm working on, there aren't many quotes in there yet but I've got a bunch written in my journal so I'll be transferring those this week. I've got a great quote by Martin Luther King Jr. so tomorrow would be a fitting day to transfer that to the book.




I can't decide if I'm going to put this birdhouse in my Etsy shop or not...Shelby wants me to keep it but if I kept everything I made we'd be buried in goodies. I took pics of all the steps from beginning to end so if you want to make your own you have a little guide to follow. Incidentally, Tom and I went "Goodwill hunting" again and this was one of the treasures I found. Who would have ever thought that your local thrift store would be a treasure hunters haven?

Naked birdhouse

I painted the entire thing with ivory colored acrylic paint

Then I covered it with patterned scrapbook paper. This was the fun part, it was very challenging getting the paper to fit all the odd nooks and crannys.

After all the surfaces I wanted to cover were covered I sanded it to give it a somewhat distressed look.

After the sanding was done, I inked it with Tim Holtz's distressing ink in Walnut.

Get ready to decorate...

I used blue vintage seam binding for the bow, adorable vintage red velvet millinery here and there, aged vintage lace around the rooftops and a cute little vintage yellow bird perched on the post.


Here are pics of the other Goodwill treasures I picked up and pics of how I used them around the house. The book is for Sebastian, I can never resist a cute book...my house is busting at the seams with books. I want to mention (for my sister's sake) that I had to disinfect it due to his severe germ phobia...wonder where he gets that?
I filled the cute cherub planter with a yellow flower I got at the grocery store yesterday...I, for the life of me, can't remember the name...help Lisa, is it a persimmon? or a mmmmmmm, I can't think of anything.


And here it is nestled in among my other plants.

And this little junk holder, I almost didn't get this but Tom called me a cheapskate and sort of coerced me into buying it...and I'm SO glad that I did.
I have a very extensive collection of vintage valentines, I'm very very proud of my collection but never have enough room to display them all, this little treasure helps out with that problem.
Arn't they pretty...I love Valentines!

And finally...I've had these vintage bottles lying around for years along with the vintage victorian scrap...so I put the two together and this is what I got.


Some these bottles will definitley end up in my etsy store...aliceandelsie.etsy.com.
I started my "Week in the life of Me" mini album today in addition to all the other stuff I've been doing. I sold a few of these in the store but kept one for myself. I thought this would be the perfect week to record events since our new president gets sworn in on Tuesday. I haven't been this excited about a president ever, this is really big for our country and for history and I'm so hopeful for what Obama can do for our struggling country. God bless the USA!

2 comments:

Scraps Of Inspiration said...

Love the bird house AND the goodies from Goodwill. I doubt the Goodwill near me will have anything half as good as those treasures. The plant you bought is a primrose (or primula). I hope you have better luck at keeping those alive than I do! How do you get so much done?? I can't even spend an hour or two on my digital class without someone needing me for something.

Rachel Carpentier Rydel said...

Of course you would know the name of the flower...where did I get persimmon? Is that even a flower? and I have to say if you guys had come this weekend like we were all hoping you could have got some MN Goodwill treasures. Matt's at dads house, Shelby was out with the girls most of the weekend and when she wasn't, she and Sebastian were watching movies. I'll have to take pics of Shelby's cat and mouse she made...so so cute. One of these days I'll use that for my pic of the day. I'll have to check out your project 365, we have so much fun looking at your pictures...I'm glad you decided to do this, kinda makes it almost as though we see each other more than we do...Bus was so upset that you didn't come but none of us miss you all as much when we can look at what you do everyday. Talk to you later sis.