Found this today on Life in Rehab.

I first saw artists like these down on Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco quite a few years ago. Still amazes me every time.

Happy Feet: Spray Paint Your Life

I swear the wind watches and waits until I have the spray can in my hand before it starts up. No matter, I still paint with abandon. And splattered cement in a pool area is very artsy.

I got a wild hair one day and decided I had to get myself out of my funk I'd been in for months. I had stumbled across these shoes, and thought to myself, "Hey, I have a whole can of purple spray paint!"

(image source)

Purple is not usually a color I use, but it had been for one of the boys' Halloween costumes and I'd only used a tiny bit.

I rummaged around in my closet and found some shoes that I hadn't worn in a while:

Personally, I like these guys, but people told me I looked like I was about to go rock climbing and my husband thinks they're hideous.

So I used the remainder of a roll of painting tape and some napkins, and started priming.


These soaked up a lot of primer and paint, and took quite a few applications. Still, I was happy with the result.

(There's a spot by my right big toe with primer peeking through. Meh.)

I'm not sure why I insisted on contorting myself into odd positions instead of just taking the darn things off.





I'm sure the hubs still thinks they're hideous, but he's been sweet enough to stay quiet about it.


Another project I thought turned out well was painting some bowls from the Dollar Tree and a jewelry holder. I got the holder as a gift and loved the concept, but not the pink.

I was painting the shoes at the same time, mostly because I was too impatient to just sit around watching paint dry.


I glued a candlestick onto one of the bowls,

got jiggy with the spray paint and then set them up like so:

Sorry I didn't get a closeup of the individual pieces, but trust me, they really do look nice. (You can click the pics to enlarge them a bit.)




The cloth on the jewelry-holder dress absorbed a lot of paint, and there's still a bit of pink showing through, but it just makes it look a little more antique, I think.


I say, spray paint whatever you like: cloth, leather, one of the kids. What have you got to lose?

For more awesome spray paint projects, go over to Thrifty Decor Chick's Spray Paint Party!

Just Random Bits and Trying to Focus on the Positive

(source)

Nothing much to report other than I'm finally beating back the depression a bit. It's been a long bout this time, and it's still threatening to pull me under again, but I'm working on it. Mostly I try to ignore it by filling my mind with other things to do, but then it just wags its finger at me as if to say, "Oh, you and your silly diversion tactics. Don't you know they're futile?" Then it wallops me in the head and slows me down to a crawl.

This, of course, means that I don't get nearly as much done as I'd like, and I've been watching my to-do list grow exponentially. It's enough to just want to pull the covers over my head and not come out for another month.

Maybe one of these would help?

(Buy it here!)

BTW, the owner of that hand has quite lofty goals.

Anyway, with all the crap tasks piling up, I'm making a concerted effort to focus on some of the things I have gotten done recently to silence the naysayers in my head. [Plus, I'd like to remind them that I still manage to get up, go to work, and do all that other daily nonsense.]


Naysayers: You've totally slipped on your organization resolutions. You're just like everyone else who fails after the first week of January.
Me: I've maintained what I have organized so far, and just last week I did a full organization of my neglected cubicle at work. [That was quite refreshing, actually.]

Naysayers: It's about time you started spray painting those picture frames. They've been languishing by the couch for months. Plus, you only did five this weekend. There's about 20 more to go.
Me: At least I finally started. It's going to be a long project, yes, but I even if I just do one at a time, that's one more than I had finished before.

Naysayers: Speaking of spray painting, those shoes are going to take a long time too, and you know they're already not what you had pictured in your head.
Me: Hey, it was worth a shot, and you never know. I'm not going to give up just yet.

Naysayers: You mean like how you've given up on every other craft you've ever started?
Me: Hey, maybe I just needed to realize that I need super-short, easy crafts to do in order to complete them.

Naysayers: Yeah, well than everything you do is going to look cheap and shoddy.
Me: Yeah? Well tell that to Sew Can Do because she featured my grapefruit scrub this week! Boo-ya!

Hopefully that will shut them up a bit.

How do you try and silence the naysayers (real or imagined)?

Last-Minute So-Easy-a-Guy-Could-Do-It Valentine's Day Gift

Ladies: Thank you for your patience while I walk through this project with the men. You can just skip down to the pictures if you'd like, since I know you're all intuitive enough to figure this out in 4 seconds flat.

No offense to the menfolk out there; I'm just sayin' that I know you last-minute types are super stressed right now and can't imagine taking on a big project for a gift. This will take you less than five minutes. Seriously.

And you have everything already at home. Or if you don't, you can race to the grocery store on your lunch break and get what you need:

• jar

• sugar

• dishwashing liquid

(bonus points for nice-smelling and pink)

I used Ajax's Ruby Red Grapefruit liquid; it makes for a perfect pink for Valentine's Day and it smells AWESOME.

I found this super easy recipe here:

She has lots of awesome ideas and I loved this scrub recipe of hers because it doesn't use oil, which I found to be a bit cloying in other recipes I've used.

Okay, so here's the play by play (like my sports lingo guys?):

1. If you don't have an empty jar, find one in your fridge and clean it out. I know you have at least a jelly jar or one with spaghetti sauce in there. Or, if you're already at the store getting sugar and dish soap, look for canning jars. [Bonus: canning jars come with cute labels you can use. I didn't realize this until I'd already made mine.]


2. Pour about a cup full of sugar into a bowl and then squeeze a dollop of dishwashing liquid in after it.

See how pretty?

Kind of cotton candy pink.

3. Mix the liquid and sugar around until you get a nice consistency, not too dry, not too runny. You do NOT need a lot of dish soap. Start with a small squirt and work your way up. Add more soap or sugar as needed.

4. Dump it in your jar.



5. Add a label. (Guys, you can make one of these at work [I used InDesign] so that all you have to do is slap/glue it on when you get home. Handwritten is fine.) Greenbean had a great idea for decorating the jars, too.



I put contact paper on one side of the label so that it could get wet without ruining it. Then I Mod Podged (Guys, that's craft talk for a product that's similar to white glue) the back of the paper and stuck it on the top of the jar.

The moisture from the Mod Podge discolored the paper a bit, but I actually like the different variegated colors it created.

I made these for women at work, and they all loved it. It's soooo easy! I might just add a drop of food coloring next time and use it for other holidays. St. Patrick's Day scrub, anyone?

So there you have it guys.* Super simple. And cheap.

And your lady won't think it's either one.

Now hurry!

* and lovely ladies who were so nice to click on my link!



P.S. Ladies, feel free to make this for your man. When I was making my batch, my too-cool teenage stepsons came in and tried it out of pure curiosity. They LOVED it!





Linking to:

Friday Favorites

So many creative ideas, so little time.

I am so doing this project from the Creative Crate when I get home today:


I also want to try my hand at this necklace with fabric flowers at Pretty Ditty:



She also has an amazing scarf/shawl tutorial I want to try too:



I've been wondering what to do with all my foreign money sitting collecting dust in the kitchen drawers. Katie at Bower Power had a great idea:




I've been seeing eggs all over the place, and these are just a few cool crafts to do this next week:

Book page egg wreath by Lemon Tree Creations:



I like the idea of an Easter egg tree, too, like Domestic Fashionista did here:


I can't wait to try some fabric Easter Eggs, like these here at Attempting Creative:



Have a great weekend everyone.

Things I Learned About Myself When Making an Apron

I haven't sewn since I was in seventh grade. In Home Ec, (do they even have that anymore?) I remember that I made a couple of felt stuffed animals and a turquoise shirt (with darts!). My mom bought me a used sewing machine so I could make more amazing creations, and I think I used it all of two times before promptly forgetting about it.

I recently decided to take up sewing again, as I've seen some amazing tutorials online and wanted to try my hand at some. I figured starting with an apron was easy enough, since it doesn't have to fit perfectly and it's all pretty much straight lines and simple stitching. That's when I realized the first thing about myself:

1) I can't draw, cut, or sew a straight line if my life depended on it. Seriously. If a deranged gunman broke into my house, held the gun to my head and demanded that I make a straight line, I'd be dead.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Exhibit C:

(The line above is supposed to go in between the carrots and the onions.)

2) I should never try to match colors when I don't have what I need right in front of me. I should always bring a scrap of fabric with me and not trust the color I see in my head. Ever.


3) I have very little patience.

4) I mess up a lot when I try to rush things.

5) I should not use contrasting colors of thread and fabric as doing that only highlights all my mistakes (see exhibits A and C above).

6) Everything takes at least twice as long as I think it will.

7) The image of the finished product in my head never matches the actual finished product.





On the plus side, I probably only spent about $3 on materials for the apron. (I'd add #8: I'm cheap, but I already knew that about myself.) I already had the dark red material, and I bought the veggie dishtowel at the Dollar Tree. All I needed was matching bias tape for the strap and some thread (neither of which ended up matching the fabric). The pattern in my head was kind of a combination of different tutorials, like this dishtowel apron tute and this pocketed apron tute.

Well, I wanted an apron with large pockets, and that's what I got. That, and some new knowledge about myself to boot.

Flower Pins Galore

Everyone seems to be making fabric flowers nowadays. Some of the tutorials I've seen and loved are from Whatever and Stuff:




Sew Ritzy ~ Titzy:



and Wise Craft:




I also loved It's in the Details' idea for using paper:



Those are just a few of the many. You can check out my Tumblr list for more.

After gazing longingly at these lovelies online for decades days , I finally decided started fiddling around on my own. I started with fake plastic flowers from the Dollar Tree so I had some sort of frame to work with. I used different layers from different flowers and hot glued them together.


Then I started layering plastic with fabric.




I finally graduated to all fabric.



I even practiced making a paper flower.


I sprayed the pages of the book with tea to make them look aged. After they dried I Mod-Podged them to make them a bit more sturdy.

I never seem to get the petals of the flowers the right shape, so I tried one of the current "yo yo" methods; I used this tutorial by Heather Bailey. Here are hers:



They are so easy! Plus, I don't have to worry about having my petals look all funky and lumpy and misshapen, since they're kinda' supposed to look that way. These first couple I just whipped up and didn't really pay attention to how I stitched them. Next time I will probably make the stitches closer to the edge like Heather did. I think they still turned out pretty cute.




There are so many cool tutorials out there, I don't know where to start next! Try one out with some fabric scraps, that's all you need! (Well, that and a needle and thread and glue gun).