Showing posts with label Weekend Retreat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Weekend Retreat. Show all posts

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Cute Little Bottles for Buttons

Wow, 66 degrees here in the Twin Cities yesterday!  A record breaker for sure.  The old record was 59 degrees in 1878.


When the weather gets nice, I love getting outside and walking.  I did that yesterday but maybe I should have thought more about where I was going.



Some of the trails in the park are used for cross country skiing and therefore the snow isn't removed from them.  Oh well, it was fine if you walked carefully.

{Operation Organize the Craft Room}
When I was looking for a jar in my parents basement for my chalkboard jar project, my dad showed me these super cute little milk bottles.


He said they were in a box of stuff he bought at a sale for $3.  I knew right away I had to have them.  I even had an idea for them.


Aren't they a cute way to store buttons?




Sunday, March 4, 2012

Recycled Window Picture Frame

Okay, here's the truth - the reason for my weekend retreat was one project in particular.  I needed my dad's help in completing this project.  And let me tell you, I love how this came out. I mean, I am over the moon happy with the results.  I am pleased as punch!  Do you get the picture?



Here's the story on how this project came to be:  Sometime last year, I think it was late summer, I took a weekend trip to my parents house.  When I got there, no one was home so I grabbed my camera and started exploring.  I wasn't looking for anything in particular, just some interesting abstract shots.  Then I wandered into the top of the barn which my dad was remodeling into something - a storage space I guess.


It was here that I found the jackpot.  There were all kinds of odds and ends including the kitchen sink {okay, maybe it was a bathroom sink} that my dad had been collecting.  The pile of doors was intriguing.  {I've always admired the painted doors windbreak on Normandale Blvd.}  But it was the stack of old windows that I really wanted.  I had this great idea about using the windows as frames for my flower photography.  {Of course, had I been on Pinterest at that time, I would have known that wasn't an original idea.}  So, after checking with my dad, I picked a couple of them out and took them home with me to start cleaning.

Cleaning them up wasn't that bad as they were in pretty good shape.  But I wanted to take the old caulking off around the panes since some was chipped off anyways.  That took more elbow grease than I had so the windows and I took another trip to Iowa for help from my dad. Unfortunately, the result was one cracked pane in one of the windows.  That one will have to wait for later.  And somehow in the transporting I managed to lose one of the screws from the handle.  Oh well, that could easily be replaced.  The handle and latch on this window made it my favorite because it was unique.


Now, I had to select a photograph to use.  I had so many choices since I love taking pictures of flowers.  I selected this one that I took of some dahlias at the Arboretum.


It was taken last fall when I had met my girlfriend Jenell and her two sons there for a morning visit.  I had forgotten to bring my camera so this was taken with my iPhone.  I wasn't sure how it would turn out enlarged but it looks great.  I love this picture because of the vibrant colors and I thought the depth would come across great behind the window.

So, I finally had all the pieces and now I needed to put them together.  I'm not too handy with a staple gun so that it why I enlisted my dad's help once again.  Thanks Dad!  As I said before, I just love how it turned out.  We hung it up in my parent's kitchen to see how it looks.

It looks awesome!



My original idea was to sell this in my etsy shop.  But it's too lovely for anyone else so I'm going to keep it.  Now, I just need to find a spot for it.


Just recently I was thinking this spot in my dining room needed some updating.  {Honest - I was really just thinking that the other week or so}  I don't have many windows in my townhouse {just three, I counted them.} but this will give me one more and the view will be so sweet.







Saturday, March 3, 2012

Chalkboard Jar

{Pinterest Challenge}
Thanks to Pinterest, I'm finding lots of ideas that I didn't know I needed to make!  I pinned this project from craftaholics anonymous and on my weekend retreat I made it.




It's a pretty simple project once you find a jar.  (That was part of the reason I made it while I was at my parents house - to raid their recycle stash since I didn't have any jars available at my house.)  Using Martha Stewart Chalkboard Paint found at Michael's, I painted the clean jar with four coats of the paint.  Per the instructions, you should wait one hour between coats and then let it cure for 24 hours before conditioning it by lightly rubbing the painted surface with chalk.  I finished my jar by gluing some variegated yarn around the top of the jar and adding a bow.  Lastly, I drew on a design {with chalk of course}.


My original idea for this jar when I decided to make it was to store buttons in it.  But then when rummaging in my parents basement, my dad showed me something even better for the buttons.  (Don't worry, I'll show that to you soon.)  What would you do with this jar?

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Salted Caramel Lava Cake

{Weekend Retreat}
This weekend I went to my parents for a visit and to finish a project or two.  It's a great place to work on projects because there are fewer distractions there - mainly no internet and no cable tv.  And Sasha loves to see me.




Each morning, Sasha and I went for a walk.


Our Saturday stroll.




Sunday - This hill looks innocent here but it kicks my butt every time.





{Pinterest Challenge}
I'll post later about the projects I did but here is the dessert I made Saturday night that I found on Pinterest - Salted Caramel Lava Cake


The cake was good.  I loved the salty caramel taste.  I wish the caramel would have melted better.  I cut it into pieces like the recipe said but it still didn't melt very well.  Maybe the caramels weren't fresh enough.  Verdict - Must make again.