Avoidance at Its Finest

I had the privilege of going to a workshop. In Florida. By myself. This caused me some serious anxiety. There were so many reasons why this is the case. One being I had only flown four times. Three of those were under two hour flights. The other one was a over 20 years ago.

I don't know about you, but I HATE that anxious feeling. So, a couple days before my flight I was sort of in avoidance mode and trying to forget the anxiety. I should have been packing or cleaning but instead I made a wreath for my front door. I wanted a winter wreath. As I have mentioned before I prefer seasonal decorations to holiday related decorations. I found some variegated yarn that had white, green, and blue and sort of made me think of winter. I had also picked up some snowflake ornaments and bells with snowflake cutouts on them at Dollar Tree.

I wrapped the wreath form with strips of white felt stuff I got from the "extra material" (my mind just blanked and I can't think of the correct term) bin at Walmart. I cut strips, crooked strips at that and used pins to secure the ends. I then wrapped balls from the multi-size ball packages at Dollar Tree with fuzzy yarn (I don't know the real name and the package is home and I am now in Florida). The yarn made great looking "snowballs".

Once I had wrapped all the balls and the wreath I just started putting the balls on the wreath using hot glue. I just sort of put one here then put one there until I liked the look of it. I had some ribbon from decorating our tree a few years ago that was blue with silver snowflakes. PERFECT! I tied it on and hung it on the door. Done and done!

From the Winter Wreath

The Painted Door and a Wreath

At the beginning of the summer I painted my front door. I mentioned it briefly in this post as one of the projects I didn't take a before photo of. I guess technically I didn't really take an after either because the photo below was really taken for showing off the wreath (focus on the door in the picture below).

The door use to be white. . .just like so many other doors you see. Using this post from Chris at Just a Girl as my jumping off point (yes, I have had this post bookmarked since originally posted in July 2009) for information on the type of paint and technique to use I finally got around to doing it. I chose to go with Mountain Ridge from Benjmin Moore as the color since I thought it went well with the brick on the exterior of our house and it popped a little more than black. When it finally came time to put up or shut up I also used this post from Freckles Chick for a little added information.

Now, I want to know if after reading their posts you feel like you could paint any door and do a bang up job. That is exactly how I felt. I had very little apprehension going into the whole thing. Is that how it happened for me though? Oh no. First, I couldn't remove the ugly builder brass exterior hardware so I could paint the door without it. Know what that also meant? I couldn't paint the hardware. I was so excited to paint over that ugly brass but no, the stupid thing wouldn't come off. I used all my muscles, the drill, and PE's muscles--the damn thing still wouldn't come off all because of one (ONE!!!) screw.

Second, when PE tried to loosen the screw it tweaked the hardware which buggered up the paint a little. (Completely my fault because I had already painted one coat.) Then I had to fix that which wasn't too traumatic since I felt like the whole door needed fixing anyway. During the course of my painting the first coat I had to call Jabba for a little direction and a pep talk. Then during the second coat I had to call her again and bribe her to come over and fix it with a third coat. The main problem for me is that I have painted the total of two small rooms. Jabba, on the other hand, has probably painted more rooms than I could count using all my fingers and toes plus PE's fingers and toes. She has mad painting skills. She had the door painted and looking fabulous in under 30 minutes. . .it took me over one hour to paint the first coat. **Pathetic!**

Now I have a fabulous not white door with ugly brass hardware. While I wish I had been able to paint the hardware, it doesn't look too bad.

Now I am talking about the wreath (focus on the wreath now. . . I posted a close up so it would be easier). I started with one of these green foam wreaths from Dollar Tree.

I then wrapped it with some jute that KLB's mom had left over from her days of macrame (should give you a little clue to how old it is). That was as far as it went for months. I wrapped two wreaths with jute three months ago and they had been sitting in a tote with various other crafty crap until a couple weeks ago.

Armed with this post, my jute covered wreath forms, and the only fabric I own (muslin from another project), I set to work. I don't own any of the tools necessary for cutting fabric in a straight line (for me it would require more than just scissors) so I just ripped it into strips. I then followed the directions in the post and made the rosettes. It does take a little practice but it comes together. I found it easier when I made a triple knot because then the center was easier to wrap the fabric around. I also didn't glue until the end. I just put the glue in spots where the fabric looked like it was going to unravel or not lay how I wanted it to.

I believe the photo above encompasses all that is SCP as it is a pretty craptastic photo. Even marred by the craptasticness of the photo you can still see which rosettes were my first attempts (the back ones). I hot glued the rosettes on the wreath and used a strip of fabric to hang it from the door hanger. I also made a wreath for KLB since I felt it was the least I could do considering she let me use the jute. In true Sparky fashion, I did not take a photo of that wreath. Oh well. I will try to do better with future projects (of which there are many).

One of the Many Reasons. . .

I am not a home decor blogger. I am horrible and capturing those key moments in the making of an item. You know key moments such as umm. . .the before. I also miss the during. I am thinking I could get away with not capturing the during if I at least captured the before. I have three projects so far that I have no before pictures for. Not one. I am thinking I could use PhotoShop for one (maybe two) of them and make a before with minimal effort but that would be going against the entire essence of the "c" in SCP--if you need a reminder. . . that "c" is for crappy. So, I guess once I get around to posting the afters you will have to forgive that there are no befores.

Since I haven't even taken pictures of the afters for two of the projects I will share photos of two other items. I went to a group dinner with SS last week. At the dinner we exchanged cards (I made 16, I received 15 different cards back) and there was an altered 3D item swap too. For that we each placed our item on top of a card that was face down on the table. A card was then given to each of us and we received the item on the card that matched the card in our hand.

Here is my 3D object. Since I was on such a roll with decorative balls I figured I would carry that through to this project. Now KLB and SS want to make some glitter balls too. While the making was messy it was not difficult so I told them I could oblige. I made the glass hurricane from a vase and a candlestick that I purchased at thrift stores then glued together with E6000.

Here is a close up and description of the decorative balls. (If you can't read the labels, you can click on the image to see it larger.)

All of the balls in the hurricane came from one package of styrofoam balls I purchased at the dollar store.

Here is my lame ass card. We were supposed to use red, black, and white for the cards and it was to have a play on words. I made the sheep (even the feet) with punches. I then added some chunky glitter to the base in the hope of giving it a little fluffy look (I think I failed). I should take pictures of some of the other cards and prove to you how lame ass it really is. I really will do that since there were a couple pretty spectacular cards.

There you have it. That is what I have been up to the past week.

It is Only the Beginning

Boy. . . KLB and I can sure have a good time together (this isn't news to me). Before the fun below could ensue we had to do some hard work at the local thrift store. Scouring shelves for the perfect combination of loveliness is really, really difficult. Really, it is. Don't believe me? Ask KLB.

Once we had the items collected we had to wait for a day when we could get together to work our magic. When the day finally arrived it started with some vinegar fun. Some of the items had stickers and others had a film so we used the vinegar to get them all cleaned and sparkling. With everything clean we were ready to assemble. The most difficult part of the whole thing was the aforementioned cleaning. The next part in line would be getting the tops centered on the bases. Some were easier than others but even the "difficult" ones were not really THAT difficult.

We felt very accomplished after getting them put together. We can't wait to get them displayed in our homes. BUT first we have to make some of those decorative balls I like to feature in my "Top Reader Posts". We started the process after making the lovelies below but I will wait until we are finished and present them all at one time.

The best part of this entire project? The price tag. Less than $20. Awesome! (If only you could hear me sing that.)

These:



Plus:



Equals:



LOVELY!!!