First Six Months Gone Already

I swear I just put my decorations away and now it's less than six months till Christmas.  I really need time to slow down already.

It's hot and humid....typical New England summer weather which I really can't stand.  Little Shadow's still visiting us for a couple nights each week.  She's so silly.  Now she will actually demand we go to bed.  She will sit in front of us and pant really loud, then walk down the hall to the bedroom....come back a few minutes later and repeat this till we finally go to bed.  Even if it's 8:30.  She's so silly.

I saw a big coyote trotting down the street in broad daylight.  So I was happy to see this mom turkey and her babies have managed to avoid it.  

Reminded me of the beginning of 'The Partridge Family'.

Everyone's fave babby is 3 months old already and starting to smile and giggle a lot.  My daughter in law sends me pics and videos just about every day.  I always refer to him as a babby, not baby.  😍

This is another Russian bead embroidery that was a free gift with one of the kits I ordered.  Came with the little frame and a magnet for the back.  Knocked this off in an afternoon.

I was trying to replicate a San Francisco Victorian colour scheme and motif.  

My windchimes broke so I refashioned them on a piece of driftwood and added the mirrors. 

I love this Russian bead embroidery kit. 

It's hard to put down.

Craft table:  Cluttered but comfy.

Pretties in the backyard.

My mother in law gave me the green, blue and red floats.  Does she know me or what?  😊

Now if time could just slow down, that would be great.

March Miscellany

As I suspected, I was unable to keep up a daily, finished craft project all month.  I did, however, work on some kind of project every single day, so I did make stuff; it just need to be finished.

Another painted birdhouse done on March 14.

This one, which I call 'Celestial House', took both March 15 & 16 from start to finish.  There was a lot of drying time involved.  I got that large circular pin somewhere in my travels.  I snapped the pin back off it, and was saving it for a special project. This one is definitely not for sale.  I also like that 3D Saturn charm and was saving that as well.

I really, truly cannot get enough of the celestial motif!

The weatherpeople got everyone all whipped up into a frenzy about a 'big storm' for March 21st, with around 8"-10".  I woke up to this....it was barely snowing.  And it was melted by late afternoon too.  I am hoping this was the last gasp.

I'm a sucker for heat activated mugs.  

I'm also a sucker for all things Harry Potter.

We went out to dinner w/ my stepson & his g/f for Russell's bday, then they came back to the house for his fave pineapple upside down bundt cake.  

Decided to give casting resin another try.  One thing I am learning, paper does not do well in it, despite all the photos I've seen of resin jewelry with pretty paper.  I'm using what I thought was heavy paper but maybe it's not.  I hope that they lighten up after the resin dries.  I put some marbles in the mold on the right.  Also beads and glitter. 

Another ongoing project is this Create Your Own Calendar which I've been meaning to do for years. 

I wasn't sure just how many years, till I came across this page at the back of the calendar.  I'm going to guess I purchased it in 2006.  So far I have all the pictures processed and mounted on 12 pages.  I still have to put the day numbers for the year too.  I have no stickers for it so it looks like I'll have to use a stencil.  After that it will be a matter of filling in bits and bobs and birthdays.

I'm cranking away on this cross stitch.  I've worked on it every day, for hours at a time, since about March 16 or 17.  If I can keep up that pace, I should have it done by the weekend.

Kind of a crazy month....hoping that winter is over though.  It wasn't near as bad as people were expecting and definitely the best one since 2012.  Looking forward to spring and warmer weather!

Craft Month Projects, Cont.

Continuing on with this self imposed project extravaganza, I was able to finish up my cross stitch on March 7 & 8.  Already framed and hung. 

Val had heart shaped boxes filled with black & white M&M's as wedding favours and I snagged two from our table that night.  I made a St. Pat's Day altered art box on March 9.  Green & gold glitter inside with Irish castle pic.  It's stacked on foam tape to make it more 3D.

Glued the cover on, added the shamrocks and rhinestones.

And some ribbon on the side.

March 10 wasn't very productive except for setting up some projects, which I guess counts since it was craft prep.

March 11 I did another box but Valentines themed.  Used red and irridescent white glitter inside with the 3D saying.

Added the pearl strand around the lid.

And some ribbon and lace on the side.

Cupcakes from scratch count as a craft so here is March 12th's submission.  I cheated with the icing and used store bought.

March 13 was spring forward day and I got about 3 hours of sleep so I was somewhat of a zombie.  I did manage to paint a couple birdhouses and finish this one.

I am seriously running out of projects to fill this month which I never thought I'd see happen.  Wish me luck!

Redemption

I used to belong to a few Craft Kit of the Month Clubs back in Washington.  I love them because they send you everything you need to try a new craft, and it's really inexpensive - around $16 a month.  It's a lot of fun to try new techniques and I've had a lot of success with them but a few have been duds.

I got this one a few years ago.  The birdhouse was, thankfully, all assembled.  This project was just painting and adding the flower and butterfly rub-ons, and sticking the chimes to the bottom.  I remember not having a good time with this, and there wasn't enough paint to really adequately cover the whole surface.

When it came to adhering the chimes to the bottom, I encountered a great deal of trouble.  Nothing would work.  I finally decided to use Gorilla Glue.  That stuff is amazing, it really, truly is a strong adhesive.  But for the annoying problem of the foaming up as it dries.  I used too much glue, and the foam lifted the chime base right of the bottom of the birdhouse.  It was stuck on permanently, but it looked really messed up.  I made it worse by trying to paint the foam green like the base.  

God this thing looked like shit.  I think I donated it to the Goodwill when I was packing to move east.

I was solicited to join the club again, and it looked like they had a lot of new projects, as well as a couple of the old ones.  Imagine my dismay when the birdhouse chimes showed up as my first kit.  I was disappointed and almost sent it back.  But I thought I'd try it again, now that I have an arsenal of better adhesives.  So I opened it and guess what?  The paint was completely dry.  That's OK, I'll just use my own in the same colour palette, but brighter shades.  Once I added the dots and squiggles, it really looked 100% better than the first time I did it.

Then I did the rub-ons and glued the pre-painted birdie on the base.

This time I used E6000 to glue the chimes to the bottom.  They are centered, it just doesn't look that way in this pic.

Redeemed!