Rick Rack and Bottle Caps

In July we went on a trip to Las Vegas and had a fabulous time. We went to the coke factory and all guzzled down a coke or two. Hannah kept the bottle caps, and of course, wanted to do something fun with them. She decided she wanted to make a necklace out of them, so when we got home we experimented with a few things, and came up with this fun necklace. We made holes in the tops and sides of each bottle cap and added large jump rings, then attached them together and added the chain. After all of this hammering and finger smashing, this awesome, funky necklace was born!

It's so cute on, and I had to show it. You can do so much with bottle caps, jewelry-wise. And we don't even need to mention what can be done when you embellish them, or use them as an add-on to anything else. Endless fun.

     Next up is the easiest ring to make. Ever. Really. I saw it in a magazine and it's made with plain old rick rack. I bought the kind that had sparkly stuff in it, but any kind or size or rick rack will do.

     Here's how it works. Just start gluing the rick rack into a circle (some people sew it, no way for me). No twisting necessary. Then you just hot glue it to a cheapo ring form you get a the craft store. This seriously took me 5 minutes. You can glue them onto bobby pins, make earrings out of them, put embellishments in the middle or around the edges if you want. You can make them large or small, whatever works for you. Here it is on Han's hand. Very chic.



Table Top Art

Summer is in full swing and I have been a complete blogging slacker! To backtrack a bit, in May we went to many dance competitions with Hannah, and she had a great time taking pics in Logan. What an awesome photographer! I love this picture she took of herself. Then in June we had a big event with Lucy graduating from Hillcrest High School and also Seminary at Hillcrest.




Hannah, Lucy and Emma at Lu's graduation

 

Lucy, Bryce Hunt and Madeleine Homer at
Seminary Graduation

 

Then a few weeks ago we went to girls camp up near Park City. It was so fun and I was so happy to be there most of the week with Hannah and a bunch of darling girls and their leaders.   
    We have done some fun projects in between our summer fun, and I had to show a great one that Hannah helped me with. We had an old, really beat up end table that needed painting and I wanted a coffee table outside under our little gazebo. 

    That meant I needed something to put on top of the end table to make it have an actual table top. As usual, I was standing in my garage just looking for some random piece of junk to use. I saw a big piece of canvas I was going to use for a painting but never did. So Han and I decided we would have her paint it to match the cushions on the outside loveseat. I have always admired the artist Georgia O'Keefe, and we both liked the idea of using a large flower motif. Han is so talented at many things, and evidently painting is one of them!

She just got to it and created something fabulous, as usual!

When she finished we sprayed it with a coating of clear protective spray, then reinforced the underside with cardboard to make it more sturdy. It is a table, after all...

As usual, I hot glued it to the top of the table, and barring some crazy wind or rainstorm or wild party guest, the table top should stay in place. This idea would work well with an old framed wall picture. And the smaller, rectangular pictures also work great as serving trays, but that is another blog altogether!

I'm so proud of Hannah and her artsy table top painting. It totally changed the feel of the whole outdoor patio area.

  

Shabby Chair

Since it's gradua-tion time at our house, it's time for senior pictures. We have a cute friend who is a fabulous photographer, and decided to take Lucy's pictures out at the barns and orchard of Lu's grandpa's house. It turned out to be the perfect setting. You can see more of Andee McDonald's wonderful photography at: http://andeemcdonaldphotography.com/. I got some great pictures of Andee taking Lu's pics that cracked me up. Lucy is obviously good at being fierce. We had such a fun day! Andee took a few of the two of us that I really treasure.

Now on to the actual repurposing project! Andee asked me if I had any vintage-looking chairs around and of course I didn't. But I admire anyone who does have them sitting around! I decided I could just re-purpose one and see how it went. This was one of those one-night jobs that got the old adrenalin going. Once I started it, I just went hog wild.
    I went to D.I. and found a metal kitchen chair from about the 90's I'm gessing. I liked that it had a nice wood seat and figured I could somehow distress it. Oddly, I also realized it was the matching chair to the bakers rack I re-did back at the beginning of my blog! Too funny. Same metal, same design, etc. Somewhere out there are 3 other lonely chairs looking to get re-purposed...



The chair...before



     I decided I wanted to have a skirt on the chair, which seems sort of french-country and fun so I found this white skirt in the women's section and figured I could make it work. Then I tea-dyed the whole thing which took a few hours but was worth the wait. I threw it in the dryer after soaking it for a bit in some tea, and it came out perfect. Thank you Earl Grey!

I hot glued it (of course) to the underside of the seat, and then tore some strips to make into a rose. The white metal needed some serious work to make it look old, so I just took regular brown acrylic paint and wiped it on. Then I wiped on a little bit of black in certain parts, and stained the seat with the brown paint also. 

I love how it turned out and had to include some of the pictures Andee used for Lucy's photo shoot. (I also kind of love how Lucy turned out!)

A tacky 90's chair turns into a French Country/Shabby chair pretty quickly!

Happy Mother's Day!

My darling family helped me to have such a fun Mother's Day. They all made me beautiful cards with such heartfelt messages inside, and that's all I really ever want. I did also get a beautiful hanging flower basket, which I loved.

     Cute Hannah has fallen in love with the idea of Shabby Chic. I have never been great at it, and it's never really been in my style of decor, but hey, I am always willing to learn! She made me this card from various cut-out pics from magazines and I think it is so clever and sassy...totally Hannah!

We had my mom over for dinner and Neal made a fabulous lime tilapia (Paula Dean recipe, very wonderful). Han wanted to try to do the table Shabby so I was game on and decided on the black and creme theme. She helped re-paint a flower arrangement I bought at my pal George's yard sale by painting the pot antique black. Very crafty little chick, that Hannah!

 Yesterday, I re-purposed a D.I. kitchen chair for Lucy's senior pics that I will post this week, and it is very Shabby and vintage-y looking, and it was my first attempt at it. I tea-dyed a white skirt and then tore it up and used it on the chair. Han and I also used it to decorate the chairs.

     I had some dollar store roses and I spray painted them creme colored and spritzed them with black to make them look weathered. I put them in a dollar store vase with tulle and a little ribbon, and it became a nice addition to the table. I used the faux

mercury glass candle holders, and the cute cards the girls made for the rest of the table.

    And here is a cute pic of the my 3 favorite girls! They make my life so wonderful, and I am so grateful for them.

      And I can't end Mother's Day without saying thank you to my own dear mother! She is a young 80 year old who is so fun to be around. Everyone loves her. This is a picture of my sister and my mother and I at Lucy's birthday dinner yesterday. Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Happy May Day! Oatmeal Box re-do

When I grew up, May 1st was a big holiday. It's May Day! The holiday symbolizing that the terrible winter is finally over (wish!) and Spring is here.  We would spend hours making baskets out of paper and filling them up with flowers and treats, then putting them on a friends porch and ringing the doorbell and running. I'm sad to say there are only a few of us die-hards left on May Day who like to give friends goodies or flowers.

 I found this adorable vintage card and it reminded me of what Emma, Lucy and Hannah looked like when they were little. I would love to get those little Scandinavians to dance around a May pole now!
My cute friend Michelle always celebrates May Day and she is a fabulous chef, especially with the baked goods. She brought us a plate of goodies yesterday, so I decided to make her a cute and easy May Day box for cookies, flowers, or whatever.

      Oddly, I save oatmeal boxes, very shocking, I know. I think they are fabulously easy to re-do and I love making oatmeal cookies so I usually go through them pretty fast. This little project was so easy that I want to keep making them to put gifts in, etc, since it didn't take long at all.

I measured it about 4 inches from the bottom, then cut it all the way around. Then I got a variety of scrap book papers and just cut them a bit bigger, and glued them down. I traced the lid a bit bigger also, so I could fold the edges under. Next I hot glued it down and cut the edges in intervals so I could fold it down and glue it under.

Then I put some tissue and cookies in it (wouldn't it have been miraculous if they were homemade? No such luck here, I owe it all to Paradise Bakery!)

Then I tied some ribbon around it and put a yellow tulip on top with a card and took it to my cute friends Michelle and Vanessa!
Happy May Day everyone, and lets keep hoping for Spring!