Button, Button.

Suffice it to say that I LOVE
PINTEREST!  Saw this really sweet button bracelet and started digging through my jar-o-buttons.  SO easy and so fun.  Now I need to find some really unusual and fun buttons....

Seeing the bones.

I was tired of my bulletin board.  But looking at my bb, I realized that to get to it and dismantle the whole mess, I would have to get rid of the table that was directly in front of said bb.   It was piled with stuff and one of my printers.  That got me to thinking.   TOO many surfaces make it tougher to keep things clean.  Whereas I have plenty of drawer room, I have a tendency to pile stuff.  Knowing this doesn't really keep me from doing it.  I just admit it and try to do better.  (Man, this sounds like the lecture I gave my son just this weekend....bah!)
ANYWAY, I decided to fold up that table and put away the stuff and do something different for a printer table.

My plans were finding something for less than 40 bucks either at IKEA or maybe luck out and find something at DI.  Well, it was my lucky day!!  I found this....
 I sanded and patched, and wiped and then I painted it an aqua color, 2 coats.

I then decided that I wanted an antiqued look, so I went and bought Gel antiquing medium.  But rather than crack it open I decided to just mix up an acrylic type and use that.  I brushed it on and then wiped it off.

It was looking great!  I then went to find the hardware I wanted and it seems to always be that my taste is  better than my wallet.  But I found two or three things I didn't use from the DEPOT and returned them and came out with enough refund to buy hardware.  YAY!

I also decided that I wanted to paint some flower detail on the front.  All and all, I love this new addition to my studio and I remembered yesterday that oh, yeah, I can put STUFF inside it!  And total cost? Less than 40 dollars....
And now onto a new bulletin board.

My mother's kitchen

Oh for the love of aqua, or turquoise or sea glass.  Whatever you wanna call it....I LOVE IT.
(And I read somewhere that it is the universal good color on every skin type.)  I had such a great result adding my painted Kerr Jars to my studio that I wanted to add more.
I did some deep cleaning this week and threw out 6 sacks of stuff.  Trying not to break my arm patting myself on the back.  But really some of this stuff deserved the heave ho.  I am so glad that the company paid for us to move and that I DIDN'T pay for some of this junk to come....really.

But I had this mirror with no home....I had painted it to match my red kitchen 10 years ago.  (It had fruit and checkered edges everywhere...).

So, I primed and waited...it is very HARD TO WAIT..

Then I got my aqua paint and began.  10 coats later.. I had just kept painting on more variations...I HATED IT!!  It was tooooo aqua or turquoise and not enough sea glass. GRRRRR.

I put my kiester in the truck and went over to the DEPOT and looked at Martha's colors and did some homework on PINTEREST.  I found what I wanted...

I started again.
I mixed some colors and made a glaze of chocolate brown.



It looks quite pale here in the sunlight...but in reality it is a perfect color of SEA GLASS.

But with the glaze of brownish paint, it turned out PERFECT...


Now onto my next DI find....YAY!!
Oh and about the title....my mother had an aqua kitchen when I was a little girl.  I loved it.

Along comes "CeeCee"

Well, here she is.  And she has a sweet little crown.  Better to let ole grumpy beak know who is in charge right away.

She is looking for her spot...right up

 there.

Now aren't they a cute pair?

 

Whitman, the bird.

I am embarrassed. Sometimes the designer, sewer, painter in me cannot  GIVE it up if I can't figure something out.

I saw some darling little birds on Pinterest and I have a particular OBSESSION for birds. Not sure what that says about me, but at this point in life, I don't fight it.

Sooo, rather than send for the 4 dollar pattern, I decided that I would make it myself.

 I probably made 300 ( okay probably more like 20) birds outta muslin.  Yes, it even bothered me in sleep and I woke up trying to get my brain around the specific dimensions that I wanted.  Oh, my, GOODNESS.  I am so picky about what I saw in my brain, and what I came up with...bah.  I would throw it down and go bake more cookies.  (see previous post.)

I finally decided that enough was enough and I could let someone else be a successful designer of cute fat birds. GRRRRRR.  I ordered the pattern off of ETSY.  The seller promised a download in 24 hrs or less. 

 I waited.

I waited more than 24 hrs. 

 I waited more.

 I emailed her and said very politely..."please send me that pattern". 

( I found out that her PROMISE was not so great...)  I emailed her again and I wasn't as patient.  I told her to "resolve the matter soon." 

 In the mean time, I finally made a little bird that I  liked.  It was an accident.

I named him WHITMAN.

He looks a bit mad doesn't he?

I rather like his fancy tail.

He sits all alone in his plaster dipped nest

with a few feathers for comfort.

I think I need to make him a mate.

He looks a bit lonely in his nest all alone.

The pattern I used for him is here someplace.....I think.

Up to my eyeballs in DOUGH...

At the end of the week, I always look back and wonder.  Just what did I do all week.  With no "little ones" underneath my feet anymore, I should have huge accomplishments.  Uh, okay, I will settle for small victories.

Yes, I will.

So, I was asked to teach a decorating cookies class at church.  And you know me, can't do just a B- job,

it MUST be overdone and marvelous...

Here are the candidates.

I  saw Martha on Friday and she had a lady that decorated the cutest GNOME cookies, so I simply used my Santa cookie cutter and  voile'.

I feel like I cracked the code for making pretty cookies with the decorators icing...yes, the one that sets up like cement.  Pretty to look at but the cookies taste like cardboard and the frosting, well, like cement.

I decorate the cookies and let them set for a few hours or even better overnight

Find a plastic container and line the bottom with a  paper towel that has been saturated with water and then wrung out.

On top of that I put a single layer of wax paper.  Then layer the cookies in a single layer on top of the wax paper. The cookies should not touch the paper towel.

Put on the lid and seal.  Wait over night and  surprise the next day, the cookies are soft again and the frosting is still cute.

YAY!!!

 I teach the class tonight so I am off to package and make another pedestal with a tree stem (did you see that one on pinterest???)

I will post picture of my students glories.

Until, then ugh, YOU go and eat 

a cookie, I am never going to sample them again.

Well, until I make cookies next time.