Recently Completed Projects

This pretty silver locket was included in that awesome bag of stuff I got from my friend Monica awhile back. It was all tarnished so I polished it up nice.

Then I added red suede-like paper on the inside with some steampunk gears and a key.

Spotted this design online and it was a very quick, two day work up for my bff Liz.  It fits easily in a 4x6 frame.  

My stepdaughter loved the black & red egg I made for Lady Axe so I offered to make her one too. That meant hunting down another skull & cross bones cabochon, which I finally found on ebay.  The seller also had a purple and black one so I got that too.  

I used lilac paint and then purple glitter paint on the outside and trimmed the edge with chain, similar to the red & black one.  I gave 'em both to her.  

Marsha commissioned 15 beach-themed bookmarks and 2 bracelets. I assumed that beach-themed paper supplies would be easy as pie to find here, but I was wrong.  There were lots of cutesy pie, cartoonish fish, flip flops, umbrellas, shells, sunglasses, etc. but not a lot of more upscale items. I couldn't even find a nautical map to buy!!  I bought what I could and dug out the rest from my supplies stash.  I made them all in one day.  I didn't take pics of all of the backs, but there are sea-themed quote stickers on each one.  Sorry for the bad pics.

The 2 bracelets were to have a sea theme and the other with 'faith' and a music charm.  Do you think I could find a music charm anywhere?  Liz came through for me by finding one at her local bead shop in Northern Vermont.

I wasn't sure if E6000 would dry enough to be waterproof so this windspinner project started off using LockTite which is supposed to be the best waterproof super glue for glass to metal.  I let all the pieces dry for a couple of days and when I picked one of the discs up, all the glass blobs popped off!!!  Slight delay as I re-glued them with E6000 and so far they've held up through some rain and wind.  We'll see how they do by the end of the summer.

I found some amazing beads 50% off at JoAnn Fabric and Crafts and used one to make another useless hanging thing that's based on a picture I saw on Pinterest and which were for sale in the Moonbeams & Mayhem ebay store.  I have no intention of making these to sell because this one was a pain in the ass.  Seriously.  The frustration to figure out how it was made and adapt it to my supplies on hand and skill level (which, to be honest, ain't so hot when it comes to seed bead art), wasn't worth it.  Also, I had to deal with thread and eye pin breakages at really bad times.

This heart hanger was leftover from that Christmas shelf I made a couple of years ago.  It was already curled on the ends but I had to unbend them in order to get those beads on there and I didn't do a very good job of bending them back.  The steel was difficult to work with.  Then I painted the heart part black and glued wood beads on each end to keep the beads on.

It really does look better close up and in real life.  Used a bunch of the JoAnn Fabrics beads for the bottoms of each strand, with glass pearls, Czech glass, square lavender beads and silver beads of different shapes.

The weather's been so nice and I've been between projects so this is all I've gotten done in May.

How I Spent Memorial Day Weekend 2014

We had some nice, cool weather for Memorial Day weekend.  My honey was home by about 4:00 on the Thursday before, and on Friday I flew into Sandwich at 8:00 to do a couple of things so as to be home by 9, long before the horrendous traffic started.  This is the unofficial beginning of summer on the Cape.

I decided to try this 'food colouring swirled in craft glue' idea from Pinterest.  It's easy - just fill a plastic lid with craft glue, drip some food colouring in and swirl it around with a toothpick.  I knew that the colours would continue to blend but I didn't think my pretty swirlies were going to all but disappear as time went on.

It took 3 days to dry and kept blending the whole time.

This is the final project.  It's pretty, but not really worth the effort and lengthy drying time.

We spent a lot of time kicking back and watching TV.  The pups were lazy too.

Except when The Beeb was demanding pets and snuggles (which she always gets when she asks).

Sagie and his cherished ferret toy, 'Fertie'.  He's been taking it to bed with him at night which is quite endearing. 

First attempt at dots-on-rock art.  This is pretty fun to do once the bigger layers dry and you can really get into the dot work.  I traced round objects for the large center circles, then used the tops of a coloured pencil and paintbrushes for the smaller dots.  Way, way easier than trying to dot with the brush end.

Also made a couple of shrinky dinks that I'd hoped would be a little bit larger for suncatcher purposes.  I traced a couple of designs out of an old colouring book, using a black sharpie then colouring in the flip side with coloured sharpies.  I discovered that if you try to use the colours on the same side as the black lines, the black will run into the colours.  Oh, and make sure you punch the hanger holes prior to putting them in the oven.

They ended up coming out the size of Christmas ornaments instead which was kind of disappointing.

 But they are still pretty anyway.

I figured I'd also take a crack at the boat in a bottle kit I got at the Whaling Museum.

Ssssshhhhh!!!!   Secret instructions!  DON'T TELL!!!!   Actually they were pretty poor instructions, only pictures and no tips or explanations so I pretty much had to wing it.

After fighting with the ship's mast for awhile I finally got it to stand upright, but not before pushing the poor ship so far down in the blue clay 'water' that the deck looks like it's going to flood.  :D  The coloured flags represent letters so I spelled out my future last name with them.  

That's not to say we didn't get out and take some walks.  I took a really cute pic of Russell walking Sagan but he didn't like the way he looked so I promised not to post it.  He happened to pick a black shirt and tan shorts that day, so he totally matched Sagan's colouring, which cracked me up to no end.

Russell had to do a quick overnighter to NY and back on Sunday, so I was alone most of the day.  I took my 2 mile walk on the Canal, which was a people-watcher's dream that day.  There was a charity 5k walk/run, plus lots of other people walking, running, biking and fishing.  I saw one guy riding his bike w/o using his handlebars, while blasting Marty Robbins' "El Paso" on a continuous loop and kind of acting it out a little with his hands/arms.  Saw another couple of bikers go by and one guy asked the other, 'where the entrance to the tunnel is'.  Not sure if he was serious, but I got a chuckle out of it.

And what's a long weekend without Chinese takeout?

Closed out the weekend by coming down with a horrible cold and sore throat on Memorial Day itself.  We went out for ice cream, for 'medicinal reasons', because I knew it'd feel great on my sore throat.  Betty Ann's Dairy Freeze really has the best soft serve combos.  I got a pineapple sherbet and coconut ice cream twist (Russell got a smoothie).

So all in all a nice, quiet weekend together, although I would have preferred not to end it sick as a dog!

East Wareham

After being a prisoner in my home all winter long, wondering if the second ice age was indeed upon us, 65 degree days feel pretty damn good.  I've been getting out and walking a whole bunch because I know that the humidity is gonna land on us like a sumo wrestler in due time.  One early Sunday I decided to walk over the little bridge to East Wareham.  

Those are the railroad tracks.

 This channel of water that flows into Buttermilk Bay is called Cohasset Narrows.

This building used to be a junk/antique shop but now it's condemned.

Then I decided to walk around The Clam Shack Antiques.  So much to look at there!

Curiosity got the best of me and I decided to open the door to see what was inside.

Boy was I startled to see this guy inside!  That wire attached to his hand made it move as the door opened too!  "Can I get a little privacy?!?!?!"  

I have always wanted to see this on a barn but unfortunately there were no Mail Pouch barns on either the drive west in 1989 or east in 2011.  So this sign will have to do for now!

On the way home.

This silly little doggy barks his or her head off at me along it's fence whenever I take my walks.  It's hilarious. So I took a picture of the little toughy.