to sell or not to sell???

THAT IS THE QUESTION.....

See all of these pictures........ Well, I made them for my home.....

This one out of an old frame, some wallpaper, and some cardboard....

.....YES! Cardboard! That is what you do when you are on a budget! A girl has got to do what a girls got to do! ;)

I do hope to try and work with some cork in this same way soon. We will see how that works out?!?!?!

I did not do a fantastic job cutting the cardboard because that is the way I do things when I get an idea...get excited to see the outcome...and am making it for my own home. (you can see by the crooked tine on the fork.....heehee.)

I also made these out of wallpaper and cardboard, but I did do a little bit better job cutting the cardboard this time.

Meet Bruce. I don't think I have introduced him here yet. This is good ol' Brucey.I got this old window from a friend...painted it and got the idea to put a map behind it. I LOVE maps. I had looked at a few stores and couldn't find one, then happened upon this map a few days later up in a cupboard. This is a map my husband and I used while we were searching for our home. You can kind of see little teeny tiny Xs that we had drawn on there to map at all the houses we were going to look at. The little heart is over the house we bought. Awe. I painted the word faith to remind us to have faith through out the journey that Lord is going to take us on and that we are going to end up exactly where we are supposed to. I had a couple of old doors to a cabinet my husband made that I had saved so I cut some of our old fence boards to fit and VOILA.

Now back to the question... TO SELL OR NOT TO SELL?!?!??!

I think I could spend a lot more time making things for my home...but I really have a yearning to sell my "creations" whatever they might be. Would you buy stuff like this???

or THIS ?? .......or THIS ??

That is my question!!

**side note** I had to take all of my pictures of of my wall because the lighting in my house is terrible...which equals horrible pictures and glare. I took them outside one at a time IN THE RAIN!! And then for some reason chose to stand in a spot that was right under where all the water drips off of the roof. (I suffer for my art..hehehe)

♥ Orange you glad...♥

So...things went a little different in the bedroom than I had planned...

with the decor...that is.

We don't spend a whole lot of money on home decor items or things for the home (unless we are renovating), which I have come to find as a blessing in disguise becuase this means that I have to get creative and pull together things that we do have....maybe even altering them a bit to fit what I am going for. And since we recently put our house on the market I have had to put those "skills" to use and do a little de-cluttering and a teeny bit of "staging".

As you can see in my now orange bedroom...... This is where de-cluttering and getting creative with what I have around the house meet.

I don't know if you can see....but on the far right wall above there is a cd "rack" hanging. You can't see the whole thing but it spans pretty far on the wall. Well...prior to our de-cluttering there was another one hanging that went across the wall above the bed. My husband has an enormous cd collection and there is always an issue on where to put them ALL. With a small home there are not a lot of options so the bedroom was the solution. Since the bedroom only has two walls to hang things on......we had ourselves a cd headboard. (lovely and romantic) That is until we had to "stage" and my husband was ever so gracious to take down ONE of the racks.

The orange started to take place when I noticed that the only picture hanging in the room had orange in it and so did an old painting that I had done which was just lying around in the basement. (my husband made the frame for it, isn't it lovely?) I had also bought my son a BRIGHT orange microfiber sheet set that seem to catch every little fuzz and since he has allergies they had to find a new home in our room.....and that is how the orange room began. The fabric on the stool that matches one of the pillows on my bed is from an old skirt/vest combo I picked up at a church clothing giveaway. I picked it up because I loved the fabric...and what do you know....it has orange in it. The stool was gifted to me from a friend. (it's not finished.)

I made these two little pillows a while back from fabric I picked up at a thrift store and screen printed on them. They are still not finished but they do hang out on our bed until I get around to them (I am horrible with finishing work). I would love to start making these pillows with couples actual hand writing....wouldn't that be cute? (don't you go stealing my idea now!)

My husband made me the sturdy little night stand out of old flooring our neighbor gave us and I just felt like it needed a little something to go with the room.....so I threw some stenciled letters on it. Stencil a word on something and it adds a whole new dimension. At least that is how I feel. If it were up to me everything in my house would have some sort of lettering, label, or decal on it.

Orange isn't for everyone. Heck, I wasn't even plannin' on going orange...but it works and I like it. FOR NOW!!!!

I know it's not FaNtAsTiC...but you should have seen it before (remember the cd headboard?!?)

♥ time flies ♥

This past week we celebrated my little girls 4th birthday. I can't believe it! My baby is 4! Where has the time gone?

My mom came in to town to visit and spent the last couple of weeks with us and was able to help celebrate. We had an eventful week and had a lot of fun planning a fun little party. This is the first time I have ever attempted to invite more than one little friend to the kids birthday, so I felt like I had to prepare a little harder and plan a few more fun things to do.

I got started making a guest list and picked a "theme".....

We went with Strawberry Shortcake....or all things Strawberry! I couldn't believe it but we managed to find some things with "classic" Strawberry Shortcake on them. YAY!

Then, of course, you have to have some snacks or treats...

Menu:

Strawberry Lemonade

Chocolate dipped strawberry marshmallows

Strawberry shortcakes (the kids made their own)

Sparkle strawberries (they were supposed to be dipped in white chocolate and then sparklized, but I had some issues with the chocolate so we just had strawberries with pink sugar sprinkled on them. Hahaha.)

Lots of strawberries and lots of sweets!

Next on the agenda was coming up with some games and some thank you treats to send home with the kiddos. I bought little seed starter pots with hopes to put a packet of Strawberry seeds in them along with some other goodies....only to be shot down by the lady at the store who told me you can only buy strawberry plants! Is this true?? The plant has to start from somewhere right?? I am obviously a novice gardener.

For games the kids played pin the missing jewel on Strawberry Shortcake's tiara and the strawberry bean bags I made were for a bean bag toss game (go figure).

A friend of mine gave me some tissue paper to try my hand at tissue paper pom poms and I have to say that they are not as easy as one might think.You have to fluff the pom pom......but not too much or else you get a crinkled disaster!! They are worth the trouble though, even if they don't look that great they add a lot to the decor.

We had planned on 9 other kids (this includes 3 toddlers) coming in addition to my two, but unfortunately some sort of bug hit our area and only one other little girl made it and our little nephew. This worked out fine because our teeny house was filled to the brim with family too.

All in all I think the birthday girl had a good time and in the end that is what matters.

I am not much of a host or a party planner for that matter, but it was fun getting creative with it all. I am just a little nervous thinking that I have to do this twice a year now.

♥ Project update ♥

I have been absent from blogger land for quite some time...so I thought I would jump on here and share a few projects that I have been working on. I have really been enjoying my sewing machine ......

My little nephew just had his 1st birthday and my sis-in-law put together a little gnome themed birthday party for him.....which I think was one of the cutest ideas (I love gnomes), so I ran with her theme and made him a little gnome plushie and also some soft blocks. I made one side of each block crinkle and put a few jingle bells in the middle. The bells didn't make much sound once inside all the stuffing so I ended up putting the bells in a small Nerds candy box (whatever works, right?). This was my first go at a plushie and I think I am addicted now, this definitely won't be my last gnome

Since I am a beginner sewer working on small projects is so much fun for me because you get to see a quick outcome of your work and not to mention the fact that you get to play around with different fun fabrics and use up your scraps. I just might end up with a huge stockpile of pin cushions, zipper pouches, and tissue cozies.

I made my son a robot, which for some reason, I can't seem to upload to my computer, but here is a different smaller version of a little robot monster I made. My daughter has now requested a pink one......which I can't wait to work on.

I actually started this organizer quite a while ago.....but just completed the finishing details this week. I wish it matched my decor!!!

(These pictures came out kind of poorly...sorry. )

I recently inherited some wallpaper sample books from someone I know (YAY, score!), and the wheels started to turn. I have been using the wallpaper for tags, but this is the first project that I made from the wallpaper. They are little notebooks...if you can't tell from the pictures.

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I have been keeping an art journal and have been filling it with lots of ideas, so I am hoping to be getting some product up on Etsy soon. Maybe!?! If I don't make it on Etsy I will at least have some stuff made for Spring Craft Shows.
I have been doing a better job of organizing my time, so hopefully I can get some posts up a little more frequently and maybe just maybe a new blog reveal.

♥ freezer paper "screen printing" tutorial ♥

Okay....here it is, my first ever tutorial. It didn't go as smoothly as hoped....but here it is!

When I saw this idea I knew I had to try it. I have always wanted to learn how to screen print and even had a little piggy bank to try and save for a small screen printing machine. I have only done a few projects but I thought I would share the process with you, so you can try it too, if you haven't already.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL TUTORIAL!!!!

It is such an easy project to do......don't let it scare you....just try it. I have so many ideas that I want to try that I had to start writing them down. I know I will be covering some stains up on my kiddos clothes. There are a few shirts I just bought that I thought were going to be ruined, but now I can just "screen print" somthin' cool over the top and it's wearable (in public) again.

I also want to include my kids........ so the next project I want to do is to re-create their drawings on to a shirt or maybe a pillowcase. They draw some pretty cool little guys that would look really cute and I think it will be a great way to preserve some memories.

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Here are a couple of my completed projects....

I can't wait to get started on more and to share them with you. I would love to see anything you create.....so please send me a picture or link.

♥ more hair flair ♥

I finally finished a few more things for my upcoming etsy shop....pictures and all. I was feeling like I had more unfinished projects than I did finished, but I am getting there......SlOwLy!!! I haven't had all the supplies I need so I have been working on what I do have which is felt......some of the colors are a little bright because I am using what my mother-in-law gave me, but I think they turned out pretty fun.

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The hardest part of it all is trying to take pictures of yourself.....especially with my little Kodak digital camera and wee ones hanging on your arm (the one with the camera in it). I ended up with a lot of pictures of the wall or ones with the top of a child's head, but it was a lot of fun to be a little creative with my photographs....that is all new to me.

Sooo....whatch think??

♥

P.S....The sewing machine I got in the mail a few weeks ago doesn't want to work for me, I think the timing is off. I have been itching to sew. I can't make any hair scarves or bows without it......not to mention the laundry list of other projects I want to do. So sad!

♥ hair flair ♥

Here are a few felt flowers I have been working on for my hair accessories...some may look a little better as a pin, but they turned out pretty cute....(I think). These are the first ones I have ever made, so most of them are not sell able, but that doesn't mean I can't wear them, right?I had to use what I had, for now at least, scraps of felt and buttons. I am liking the little embroidery embellishments that I am adding to them. I am also really excited because I am going to a friends craft night tonight and am going to learn how to make fabric flowers.....then I must master the BOW next!! Can't wait. ♥

♥ sneak peak ♥

Here is a little sneak peak of what I have been working on for the Etsy shop....

This has been a lot of fun working on my goods, just a little difficult finding time. There have been a few late nights, AND some long awaited nap times, AND maybe a little neglecting of some housework or a little added pep in the step to hurry and get things done last minute (the schedule needs a little tweaking and organizing). Ohhh.....and a lot of praying that I am using my time wisely.

I am almost ready to put stuff up, I just want to work on a few more things. I want to include some hair accessories as well....hair scarves, bands, bows, flowers....you name it. What do you think about that? I am so excited to work on them. The hard part of all this is wanting to keep some of the stuff all to myself. :)

♥ doodles ♥

Okay, so I sat down to color/draw with the kids with some crayola markers, a pencil, and a ball point pen and some blank copy paper. I have been drawing since I was little, mostly in high school and my early 20's, and mostly little characters that I made up, but I have not really drawn at all in the past 5 or 6 years. Well, when I sat down today....I caught the bug...it was fun. Here are some fun little doodles I did during our color time........

Some of the doodles say 'your photo here'....BECAUSE I recently started an etsy store account and am going to start working on some little projects to put up. There is nothing on there now, but I am definitely motivated. One of the things I want to do is make some frames and I came up with an idea to put my drawings in the photo spot as a little personal touch. It will give me a reason to doodle up some of my characters again. FUN! Maybe I will post some of my old-school characters later. As for the etsy shop.....I will keep you posted and let you know when items are up for sale.

♥ touch of red ♥

Well.....here it is....touches of red added to my kitchen. I already had this cheese board so I just turned it over, put scrapbook paper on it and painted a little rooster for an added touch and to tie in the green with the red.

I already had this cookie (or bagel) jar, so I decided to paint the top red and just sanded it up a bit to dull the paint and make it look as vintage as possible.

This is a sign I made out of an old baseboard and a little red craft paint. I want to add a couple of hooks to both sides to hang dish towels or spoons on.

I bought this chair at a garage sale a while back for about $2, I was going to put it in Chloe's room but it has been down in the basement for sometime now. So I brought it up, painted it, added some paper I liked and now it will act as a step stool for the kids or a place to sit while I am making a meal.

I have to say I am extremely happy with the way it turned out. The red makes the biggest difference.....it is so much more HAPPY! The best part of it all.....I didn't spend very much. I think the only item I bought was the little tomato timer ($2), the rest was all paint and paper ($7). I don't use spray paint very often but I spray painted the little watering can and boy what a time saver. I think I will start paying the couple extra bucks for the spray paint to save me the headache of painting it with a brush. So, what do you think? Pictures always make things look so much better......I was able to cut the pile of dishes out of the shot. :)

♥ pray often ♥

I love this sign by my kitchen sink. What a great reminder while I am doing the dishes day after day....after day....after day. PRAY OFTEN!........need I say more.
♥ Don't worry about anything: instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. --Philippians 4:6-7

♥ love hope grace joy ♥

A bowl full O' magnets. I made these little magnets for my sis-in-law's baby shower. I thought they looked kinda cute all piled in the bowl, so I took a pic. I had to make 50 of them, but it ended up only costing me about $3.00 (for the magnets)to make all of them since I used extra stuff I had in my "art" room. ♥ being thrifty.

♥ shed shred ♥

My husband tore down an old shed when we moved into the house we are living in now, during the demolition I was able to salvage a few boards and this is a sign that I made from the scrap wood that now hangs in our dining room. This was difficult to capture on camera because of it's large size, it's 7'4 x 7".

This is one of my favorites. I love the old world look.