Today Was A Good Day

I am truly blessed to have such a good friend as J!  Check out her blog at Just Another Anonymous Witch.  Today she sent me this gigantic box of goodies.  And it was wrapped like a ninja.  I told her she should wrap for the secret service, lol.

Here is everything she sent me in one teeny-tiny-ninja-wrapped box.

A beautiful journal with one of those magnetic closing covers.

Cupcake cuteness inside.

 

Pretty note inside almost made me cry!

She MADE me this necklace. And two turquoise stones came along for the trip.  Awesome!

A super thoughtful coupon.

A purpley purse for all my purple purse needs.

A crap-ton of stamps for crafting.

2 nail polishes, and some makeup samples.

Squee!!! Pens in my favorite colors, pink and turquoise!

A box of stationery.

A totally uplifting book.

Inside the book.

Love you, Jen!

She knows I hate scary stuff.

This purple shirt, no joke, I have been wanting for 2 years. I even have the magazine ad clipping to prove it...somewhere. 

In addition to my bff's awesomeness, I had some postcard stuff too, today.

Here's some of what I sent out:

Here's one I got in return.

PLUS, my 4 year anniversary with my husband was yesterday.  Here's the card he got me.

Bahaahahahaaaaaa

 And Mother's Day is tomorrow, so he got me a Dog Mom card.

Inside:

See? Today was a good day.

It has happened. I'm officially FAMOUS.

So today I was going along in my Google Reader, just checking out the various blogs I follow, when I saw this:

I was like, "how did I subscribe to my own blog? That's weird. Oh wait...that's not my blog.  That's Recycled Crafts." Then slowly it dawned on me....I've....been....featured!  OMG!

Look! Just Look! That's me! That's my backyard! That's my head!!!!!
I've been mentioned before as a buddy on Finding My Spark, but I've never been featured for one of my crafts!

I mean, I've only been blogging for like 3 months. I never thought anyone would read it, but some people did, and that was cool.  But this!  I immediately left a comment.

I called my husband downstairs, yelling, "Nate! NATE! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!" He ran up the stairs because he thought maybe I was dying or I saw a huge hairy spider, then I started hopping in my seat and screaming, "I'VE BEEN FEATURED! OH MY GOD!" Then the dogs got into it and all 3 of them were barking and jumping around and running into walls and stuff.  Meanwhile, my husband calmly read the post, said, "That's great, dear," and went back downstairs.  At least the dogs love me. 


Then I wondered, was she going to tell me? Isn't that a basic tenet of blog etiquette? That you should tell someone you are featuring them, using their pics, or linking them? I always do....Oh well.  I'm just happy this happened! SQUEE!!!!

Pink Saturday: Vintage Postcard

It's Pink Saturday!  Beverly at How Sweet the Sound hosts this little party every week and I love it, because I love all thinks PINK!
I'm an avid collector of postcards, and when I can afford it, vintage ones. I love the pictures and the stories they tell.  This one was purchased in Omaha's Old Market at a vintage store.  And it's pink!

Here is the reverse:

If you can't read that light handwriting, I can't help.  It's written in a different language.  I do see that it was sent on October 4th, but not what year.  And it's addressed to Mr. H. something Glissmann in Omaha, NE.

Coincidentally, one of my best friends from college and bridesmaid was from Walcott, Iowa.  And I have been there.  They boast the I-80, the world's largest truckstop! And no, I'm not kidding. They call it that. I've been there.

Each week, Beverly of How Sweet the Sound, the hostess of this wonderful Pink Saturday, challenges us to visit the blog of at least one participant that you have never visited before.  Then next Saturday include that blog and a link in your post.  So this week I'm featuring two because I can't decide which one I like more.  


Maria at Bubble Gum and Duct Tape is the bee's knees. And the gal at Cabin & Cottage posted this to die for stackable pink teapot, butter dish, and creamer set.  Happy Pink Saturday!


**EDIT**

Sparks says that my blog is being bitchy and won't let her comment.  Well, she didn't say that exactly, but I couldn't click on the comment thingy myself.  While I try to sort that out, ponder this: she sent me an email transcribing the postcard.  Apparently it says 

Lieber freund,

Einen herzlichen grüss um ?? und familien.

Um, thanks.  I don't speak German.  Google Translator to the rescue!

Dear friend, Sincere greetings to ___ and family. 

**EDIT 2** I think I fixed the problem, but I need a commenter to test it out.

Pink Saturday: Bow-tie Hair Clip

Hello and happy Saturday! This week is my first official week on the Pink Saturday blog (even though I totally missed the deadline by 12 hours, she was fabulous enough to let me in anyway).  I've decided to write a tutorial for all you lovelies.  Be sure to visit her blog and check out all the Pink Saturday bonanza!


I've seen lots of tutorials out there for making bow-tie hair clips out of ribbon, but I have this fabric leftover from a previous project that I was dying to use.  So this is a tutorial on how to make a bow-tie hair clip from a strip of fabric.

Fabric Bow-tie Hair Clip

Time: 15 min.
Supplies: 

• 1/4" fusible webbing
• Measuring tape/ruler/etc.
• 7"x1.5" strip of your favorite fabric
• Hair Clip
• Glue gun
• Iron

Cost: Free for me, I had it all on hand.  But if you want to be picky:

• Fusible webbing - $1
• Hair clip - $2 for 6
• I'm gonna go ahead and assume you have the rest.  Probably because I have no idea how much a tiny strip of fabric would even cost, lol.

1. Gather your supplies.  Here is a photo of the fusible interfacing I used.

2. Measure your fabric, and cut to make it 1.5" wide by 6" long.  I know, I said 7" in the supplies list, just cut it off. You will need it later.

3.  Cut a piece of fusible webbing long enough to run the length of your fabric scrap.  Fold it over and iron according to the instructions on the webbing package.

Now your strip should be 1" wide.

6. Using your ruler/tape measure as a guide, fold the right side to the middle, or the 3" mark. 

7. Fold the left side to the 3" mark. 

For this next part, I kept it all in place with the clip for photo purposes. The clip isn't really supposed to be there until the end. I'll let you know when it's for real.

8. Fold the bow in half, with the layered side facing outward.

9. Fold each side of the "sandwich" back by half, like below.

This is what it will look like if folded correctly. Now put that aside for a moment.

10. Use the cut off end of your fabric to create the "pincher" for the bow-tie.  It should be 1" long and 1.5" wide.  

11.  Lay a length of fusible interfacing along the middle, fold in, and iron.

12. Wrap this piece around the bow and loop it through the hair clip (for reals this time! Use the hair clip!).  Hot glue it in place.

You're done! Here it is on my head (for scale).

And it even matched my shirt! I swear, I did not plan this.

I got the inspiration for this project from Hip Girl Boutique LLC, who did it with ribbon.

I swear I am going to get the best use out of that ratty old handkerchief I possibly can! LOL.

Storage from Kool-Aid Box

I think you've picked up by now that I'm a super-organized person.  While I'm at my computer, I often have things I need to jot down, like passwords or quotes or reminders.  I am so obscenely organized that I do this on 3x5 index cards. I know. Well anyway, I needed a pretty place to put them.  I found that they fit perfectly into a box for those little packets of kool-aid you put in a water bottle and shake up.  You can still see the edge of it in the picture.  I covered it in pretty paper using glue. The paper fell off.  I used staples (you can see one on the pink part).  The paper was too heavy.  So in a final effort, I covered the whole thing in clear packing tape.  Ha! Take that, anti-gravity/anti-glue paper!

Sorry there's no tutorial.  I did this before I started a blog.  Just imagine it in your mind.  

Pink Saturday: Decopage With Cloth

I've been watching the blog How Sweet The Sound for a while, and she does this amazing thing called Pink Saturday, Pink is my favorite color, everyone.  When I was a single gal, I had pink bedding, pink pillows, pink blankets, pink artwork, and now I have to limit my pink to crafts.  But I do have a pink cell-phone. And even though I don't have a regular phone line in my house, it would be fantastic to own a vintage pink rotary phone.  Ahh, a girl can dream.

Evidently, a girl has to email her intent to participate the day before, so this isn't an "official" Pink Saturdays entry.  But it's Pink, and today is Saturday, so here we go.

I was reading the directions on my Mod Podge the other day, and was amazed to see that included in the list of items one can mod podge was cloth.  I decided to try it out.

Here is a completely adorable bandana that I tied around Lucy's (the beagle) neck ever now and then, but then we got Hannah (the spaniel) and she ripped it to shreds. :(.  

I got this little cardboard box for $0.10 at Goodwill, and saw loads of potential.

I was originally going to cover it with that pretty paper in the background, but I didn't have enough.

Note the pink phone. Fabulous, is it not?

Before I did anything to it, I wanted to take away the tacky seafoam green and gold sponging.  So I covered it in a light coat of white paint.  

I didn't document the process, mainly because it was an experiment that lasted a whole week, bits here and bits there.  So ... ta-da! Fully covered in cloth, inside and out, held on by decopage.

Later I sprayed it with a matte Mod Podge sealer, and some of the weird textures went away.

I had one problem with my brilliant plan, however:

Box won't close.  I should have seen this coming. *facepalm*

If I jam it on really hard, it only tears the lid a little...

The question: Can one decopage with cloth?

The answer: Yes, but not very well.  I had pockets of air that I couldn't get rid of no matter what I tried.  It stripped the white paint off in places. As you can see from the photos, some of the corners had to be folded over, and it doesn't work so well through three layers.  

The verdict: Oh well.  At least it's pretty ;)