Treasures Tuesday - Cook in Style

So one of my next creative endeavors will be learning how to sew.  I'm asking for a sewing machine for my birthday (my 15 year old self would not believe it!) and I plan to look for somewhere in the Houston area to take sewing lessons (suggestions welcome).  Anyways...below is something I hope to someday be able to make.  For now, someone else has made it and its adorable.  I think that if I wore an apron like this, I would look forward to cooking more.  Although I might just have to put on some pearls too :).  Here are some of my favorite designs:

Scalloped Sassy Red - $30
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Original Sassy Black - $35

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Original Blue Chocolate - $35

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Even get one for your sweet little girl!

Original Pink Chocolate for girls - $25

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Vintage buys I LOVE!

Last weekend, I went with some girlfriends of mine to the Country Market Days in Bel Vieu, Texas.  We took a little road trip east across I-10 and went to the complete other side of the world Houston.  The main reason I wanted to go was to meet and buy some things from a little furniture company called Altar'd.  I love the few little things I got and instantly found a place for them.

I love the idea of decorating with hymnal pages.  I have this one right by my coffee pot and the song gets stuck in my head every morning...wonderful.

Love birds.  Esspecially vintage ones.

Great Aqua chair.  I put it my my fireplace for now.  The cats certainly love to sit on it which I need to find a way to discourage.

The pattern on the seat - it has all the colors of my house - green, blue, brown.





Crazy Caps

This year, I am a member of the Houston Calligraphy Guild.  I love it!  Two summers ago I took lessons from a member of the Calligraphy Guild.  This year, I decided to join the Guild to learn more about Calligraphy and meet other people who love it.  At this month's meeting, the early bird tutorial was about "Crazy Caps".  It was so simple but so fun!  The idea is basically to write in all caps and to make them crazy!  There's no real rules to it except for that it can't be too neat.  Below is what I wrote in Crazy Caps. Have fun with it!  I apparently love this verse :).  I didn't realize I did the same verse as my sister's gift.  It's just an awesome verse.

Treasures Tuesday - Girly party accessories

I love a girly party.  Recently, I had my college roommates over for the weekend and we ate our breafast on polka dotted plates.  It was lovely.  Below are some accessories you could use for a girly weekend or party. Click to go to my open sky page to buy.

White cupcake stands - $17 (Great deal!).  You will receive 4 small white cupcake stands.  Make the jumbo cupcakes and display each on its own cupcake stand. 

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Scallopped Green plates - Set of 4 $60

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Happy girly partying!

Happy Birthday sis!

My sister's (and mother-in-law's, and father-in-law's, husbands, and friend Jamie's) birthday is this month.  I wanted to give her a girly, shabby chic gift so I decided to write a verse in calligraphy and put it in a cute frame.  I went to a local store and found a light pink frame that was very shabby chic.  Here's what I did...

1. I wrote out the verse I wanted to use on graph paper so I could get the spacing right.  I cut it out (couldn't find my straight scizzors, only the curvy ones) and cut up the words so that I could see which words should go on which line.  I wanted it to be nicely centered. 

2. I made faint straight lines with soap stone so that the words would be straight and then I wrote out the verse with white Ziller ink on brown paper.  Soap stone erases really easily and leaves no marks behind.  I do this for dark paper that I can't shine the light through using my light box.

3. I erased the lines, cut out the verse and  put it in my frame.

Ta-Da!!

Treasures Tuesday - Pretty in a cup

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It's Treasures Tuesday...the day I will share with you treasures I have found on Shop Open Sky.  Today's treasure is a cupcake wrapper.  It's so elegant and pretty that it would dress up any special occasion.  And my favorite part is that this one has a little spot that you can write someone's name on.  So cute.  Have a black, white, and red themed party, make some red velvet cake and use these to display them in.  Adorable!  Love it? Click on the picture above to buy for $12 for a set of 12.

Framed Calligraphy

I loved doing this project for my family recently.  My sweet dad asked me to write in Calligraphy a powerful quote he had gotten from a pastor.  I made one for each of my two siblings, my mom, and myself so that now we each have this quote framed in our house.   I love going to their houses and seeing it displayed. 

Go to my Etsy shop if you are interested in having something like this done for you and your family or just for yourself :)!  And if you want the quote, I can give that to you as well.

My Top 8 Reasons to Craft

So why craft? When you could go buy just about anything at the store, why spend your time and money at home making things? Here's my top 10 for why to craft instead of buy.

1. To add a personal touch to gifts - I love receiving a gift someone made, ironically, especially when its something I could have bought. Possibly its connected to my love language of service, but I just love knowing someone took the time to create something for me. It becomes a treasure.

2. To beautify your home - There are so many ways to create decorations for your house. Sometimes I just sit on my couch and look around at the different things I've created. It gives joy and a sense of pride in the atmosphere I've made.

3. To save money - I'm not gonna lie...this often is my first motivation to do a craft project. Then all the other reasons begin to come into play, but knowing I can create something for a TON less than buying it and enjoy it in the process is a HUGE draw for me.

4. Relaxation - This one speaks for itself. Creatively working with my mind and hands is a wonderful stress reliever. It takes my mind off the stress and works the creative juices.

5. To be energized - On the other hand, crafting (do you think "craft" can be used as a verb?) can energize you to do other projects such as cleaning out that old dresser so you can repaint and distress it.

6. The "Wow!" response - Have you ever had something in your house or given a gift and someone asks "Where did you get that? I love it!"? And then you get to humbly say, "Well, I made it myself." And then they say, "Wow! I'm impressed!" That's pretty fun.

7. Making money - When all the stars align and you work hard at the advertising and promotion part, your craftiness can actually make you some money (a dream of mine!).

8. For the pure joy of creating - Admittedly there are many crafts I've done that turn out ugly and that's ok. I had a fun relaxing time making it and I probably learned something in the process.

Happy Crafting!

Candy...for your walls!

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A great way to add color and fun to a kids room is wall art! This cute tree could go for girl or boy room, play room, or school room. $54 from Wall Candy on Open Sky. It's a sticker decal that includes: Parts for 1 (65” tall) or 2 (45“ tall) trees, 28 leaves, 2 birds, 2 butterflies & 4 flowers.

The birds are my favorite for sure. I'm just loving bird decorations right now...very trendy!

Repaint and Distress your old furniture

Every summer, I have projects. Its the time of year I have the most time to try new projects and crafts. This summer, after getting some inspiration from a company called Altar'd, I decided to try repainting and distressing my own furniture. I bought an old, kinda beat up dresser on Craigs List for $35. Now, I'm no professional, but this is how I did it.

Materials:
course sand paper
brown (or whatever color) primer paint
small sample jar of paint from Home Depot
paint brush

1. Sand down dresser to take off old stain. I have read that it makes the paint stick better.

2. Spray with primer paint. Choose a color that you want to see when you distress it. I chose brown. Let dry before applying top color.

(This is after I had taken the drawers out and taken off the hardware...ready to be primed)

3. Paint 1 or 2 coats of the color paint you want. Let dry.

4. Sand down corners and edges to see primer color underneath. Sand patches of the surface to give it a worn, old look.

5. Hardware - you could keep the old hardware if you like the look. The ones on my dresser were old and black so I took them off and put on Crystal knobs that I bought on Amazon. It's up to you.


And you're done! Next, I want to try a glaze...but I'll have to do some research on that first. And be bold! Try a color that you like or try white which is very shabby chic style.

After pictures