Mother's Day Gifting

Mother's Day was so much fun this year. 9 hole, 3 par golf, dinner, and family time. My mom also enjoyed her gift I made. Last minute touches were painted on Mother's Day morning but fortunately acrylic paint dries really fast and I didn't wast time sleeping in too late. Here is the final project. Look forward next week to the how-to for this project and a similar one my friend made the same day.

- Cerise

Add Color To Your Planters: Part 2

Well I didn't really get the photos up that I wanted to post on Wednesday. I realized too late that the pictures I used were already posted! Oh well. Here are more spray-painted creations. Oddly enough I got both these from a neighbor a LONG while back and have been toting them around all ugly so I finally spruced them up. I used terracotta pots in the hanging planter and spray painted them. Terrible quality spray pain. Did I mention this is the summer of spray paint?

Happy Color Sprucing,

- Cerise

Add Color to Your Planters: Part 1

Pretty pots are my favorite for flowers and herbs on the deck. But price is always a factor and since I find a lot of freebies and cheap pots for planting they can be ugly or drab. This is the summer of spray paint and I'm starting early by revamping some old garden pots and plant stands that have been lying around growing ugly for the last few years. My favorite color so far is a sweet ocean blue turquoise paint that I happened across at the hardware store. It looks amazing with the yellow I picked up and is going to look fabulous with pinkish red carnations.

Painting pots is super easy and fast. I used old and new terracotta pots and some grubby plastic planters. To keep it looking good all around, I painted terracotta drainage dishes and old plates I use for drainage dishes. The spray paint is easy to scrape off slick plates so be aware that this won't last forever on your fancy china. I still need to find some chalk to label the plants in my chalkboard painted pots. I also went crazy on plant stands that I will post about tomorrow in Part 2 so stay tuned.

Here are the pots and plates I painted. I'm going to hunt for red and a better quality yellow this weekend and more pots so I can mix and match the drainage dishes and experiment with patterns. Check back next week for Part 3 to see how it goes!

(Don't forget to do this in an open area away from pets and plants)

Happy Painting,

- Cerise

Visiting Fort Bragg

The next stop for our journey last week was to Fort Bragg for a family reunion. We had to stop at a store and pick up some pie. On the way into the store the word fabric caught my eye on a store sign near the market. I ditched the pie buying group and ran over to the little corner craft store. Fabric Indulgence carries fabrics by the bolt (some really nice ones too!), fat quarters, silk ribbons (they are so beautiful), paints, beads, patterns, and sumi-e supplies. Lucky me, Iwent in during their 20% off fabric sale. It did get me to buy two yards of wonderful fabric I was trying to stay away from. Some pretty little fat quarters made it home with me too!

There was a cute little yarn store on the other side of the market. The dog and I peeked into the window, but I still wasn't in a yarn mood. They will definitely be a stop next time I pass through.

There wasn't much down time at the family reunion with playing music, catching up with family, and throwing the dog off the paddle boat into the salty river. I did sneak out my fabric and thread and work on some little pumpkins toward the evening. My niece even wanted to sew with me. It was her first time sewing and she made half a pumpkin, sewed on a leaf, and put a silly patch on the side of her creation. It ended up going to a cousin who was very excited. The hotel was a better sewing environment that evening. It can't get much better than staying by the ocean with family and a stinky, salty dog and sewing pumpkins while watching the original Planet of the Apes!

Happy Crafty Travels,

Cerise : )

It IS Done

Yeah! I finished the Archaeopteryx stool. It was good painting practice and a fun project. Anyone want to bid on it? Come to the Museum's Prehistoric Ball on October 24th!














I also managed to make a nice pillow cover in a brown home decor velvety fabric I got on sale some time ago. I used an old vintage button that Cerise found at a thrift store. I stuffed a big 27" x 27" pillow form in the cover (another sale item from JoAnn's) and presented it as a father's day gift to my husband.
Now it is time to get sewing some new projects and new yoga mat bags!
Theresa, OmMama

Petrified

I work at a museum, which means we are always fundraising. This year is the Museum's 20th anniversary so we are having a first ever Prehistoric Ball. We are auctioning off stools, made with legs from the original display cases. Since I aspire to be artistic, I am offered to decorate one of the stools. I was petrified (no pun intended) to begin for two reasons. As a museum staff person, I felt there was more pressure for the stool to look good so that it actually got a decent bid. Second, the first artist, a tiler named Laurel Skye, brought back a gorgeous tiled stool with a lovely koi. Every speck of the stool is covered in tile. Mind you, they are little stools. I was kind of expecting I might paint beetles (about the only thing I paint lately) but as it was expected I really wanted to do something else.

Finally I struck upon the idea of something petrified. The legs are turritella (a fossilized sea shell compilation) and the top will be an Archaeopteryx when it is finished. Of course this is keeping me from sewing and writing about fabrics. essentially I am discovering that each project is helping to procrastinate on another. I will post the finished product when it is done and perhaps someone will pay big bucks to help "save the museum!"
Theresa, OmMama