~old bottle turned girly vase~

 I am going thru this phase where I want to

make everything in my house WHITE.

I want to buy a shload of white spray paint 

and just go to town. My brain is so consumed

with what I have to do each and every day

that it feels like I have a lot of clutter in my head.

Because of this, I am trying to diminish the 

real, tactile clutter in my house. I just want clean,

white, easy, breezy, beautiful (cover-girl),simple,

monochromatic EVERYTHING right now.

 

I actually love rooms where everything is white or

very muted and earthy. Just because a room

is all white doesn't mean it's boring. By using

many different TEXTURES of white stuff,

it looks interesting and multidimensional. 

Add in VERY FEW pops of color just in a 

couple little details and that's the look I 

am loving right now.

And now finally, the whole point of this post;

found this old bottle while up camping and decided

(of course) to spray paint it white. I thought I would

do something a little different and make stripes 

on it. It turned out like this:

Didn't like it. Even with a flower that isn't pathetic

and limp looking, it still looked weird and harsh.

So-I stumbled upon a great idea at the blog

"A Beautiful Mess" and knew immediately 

what I was going to do to salvage this cool bottle.

click (here) for their version

This is my version:

 Cover the stripes with white lace and buttons.

I had everything here on hand and did it in 10 minutes.

White on white with lots of texture.

 Doesn't it look lovely?

It's gone from being a weird old bottle I mucked up

with stripes to a feminine, delicate and 

fabulous VOZ (exaggerate that "O").

A nice little addition to my collection.

Next project on the docket this week:

lampshade re-vamp to fit this great little

vintage glass lamp base I found at Goodwill.

~turqoise bib necklace-DIY~

 As promised, here are some better pics of 

the other project I worked on while camping

a couple weeks ago:

It was so easy.

I got the inspiration and idea for it from 

"P.S. I Made This".

click (here) to be directed to the tutorial

I did mine a little different and 

used different materials. She used plastic

key identifiers for hers, which are adorable

I might add, but I decided to use these round

beads I found at the gem show for $2/strand. 

Here's a better picture.

 I love it! 

It's definitely my go-to statement piece

when I want to add a little color to an outfit. 

It took about an hour to make and cost me 

a whopping $2.60.....not bad eh? 

Susie....I know-you are saying out loud right now,

"You really need to belt that dress or something."

Although I totally agree with you-it's just not 

happening. It's hard enough to pull the dress 

clear up over my boobs when I have to feed

the babe-let alone unbelt it too. 

Now you see my dilemma...

~necklace teaser~

I have a new favorite necklace:

I'll show you some REAL pics of it tomorrow.....

 

~t-shirt turned tank top~

 I wasn't kidding when I said I cut up pretty much

every t-shirt I have and turn it into something else.

Here's another:

I cut the neckline wider-

cut the sleeves shorter 

and gathered them up in the front and back

with a piece of grommet/ribbon I had in my scrap jar. 

I slit the underside of each sleeve clear up to 

the armpit seam so it wasn't as bulky.

Here's a view from the top:

(I want to snip that string SOOOOO bad in this pic)

So easy.....did it in 10 minutes.

I finished it off by snipping a little hole in the 

bottom hem of the shirt. The hem then became a

casing that I used to string a ribbon thru in order

to pull it tighter at the bottom. 

ANYONE can do this!

My only regret with the shirt is that it's a band

who I haven't had the opportunity to see yet.

Bummer....I'd love to cake on the black eye make-up,

throw on some tight-ass jeans and rat my hair 

as high and big as it can get....good times.

Next time I'll share one of my more 

intricate t-shirt re-vamps. 

And by intricate I mean I cursed a lot

when making it.

~thread wrapped wire bracelet~

 I want to share pics of the bracelet I made myself

last week. It was Thursday evening and I was

going thru my jewelry-making supplies to 

see what I wanted to look out for at the Gem Show,

which I was going to attend the following day. 

I came across a string of big beads that I purchased 

there a couple years ago and decided out of the

blue that I was going to whip something up right

then and there with at least one of them.

This is what I ended up with:

I just strung the wire thru my bead and went to

town bending and shaping it. Once I had it in the shape

I wanted, I added some more color by wrapping some of

the wire with coral colored embroidery thread.

 Initially I made the big shape to be a pendant

for a necklace but realized I couldn't find a fast,

 easy and nice looking way to attach it to a chain or wire.

So-I decided to string some beads on the side of it

to make it a bracelet. This is the view of the sides.

 I went ahead and made a loop with the thread on the

other side to hook thru the end bead. I'm not gonna lie-

it stays on just fine like this but it is a BEEYOTCH to

un-fasten. I've got to figure something else out. I will

probably just end up hooking a lobster clasp to

the end and closing it that way.

 This is a fake arm by the way.

I may be white but I'm not quite this pasty looking!

If you can't tell, I love very organic and 

primitive looking jewelry. I know it doesn't 

suit everyone but I sure love this piece.

My 5 year old son informed me that it's

"kind of creepy" and my 5 year old niece 

said it was, "not a pretty shape because it's 

not straight." I'm thinking it's safe to say

that 5 year olds aren't really impressed with

this aesthetic either. 

Total time it took to complete this bracelet:

about 2 hours. I had all the supplies on hand.
And speaking of supplies-
you should see the loot I scored at the Gem Show last Friday.
I need to take a picture of the PILE and show you.
Gem Shows are a jewelry maker's paradise!

I have so many jewelry projects in the works now.
I'll be sharing a rockin necklace with you that
I made while camping over the weekend.
(see-I wasn't kidding about crafting while camping)

~flowers last week~

 My flowers last week were a combination

of roses from our garden and the supermarket....

the roses from the supermarket live 

exceptionally longer than the ones from my garden.

Why is that?

 Behind my sofa in the living room.

 See the little spider on the wire?

 On my kitchen table.

 The red ones were on the center of my china hutch.

Can't wait until all of our summer flowers are bloomed.

Hopefully next week we'll have day lilies.

~hand stamped Aztec inspired shirt~

Did y'all have a nice Father's Day weekend?

I spent the weekend gazing at this:

 Yeah-my husband wanted to go camping

for Father's Day so we packed up the RV and

took it out for 2012's maiden voyage.

I have to admit-I'm not really an outdoor gal.....

I LOVE and appreciate the beauty of the Earth

and I thoroughly enjoy seeing all of God's beauty.

BUT- (and this is a big butt)

I like to enjoy it without getting dirty,

crapping in the woods or sweating.

So-with that being said, you won't be

surprised to hear that when we go camping I

usually pack up a bunch of craft projects

and work on them inside the motor home or

outside while sitting at a picnic bench 

IN THE SHADE.

This first project I'm going to show you 

was one that I read about on the blog

P.S. I Made This.....check out the blog-

it is FULL of fun DIY ideas!

 I took these pics out in my back yard.....I 

was totally trying to pose and look cool

and then I realized when I came and put them

onto my computer.....I didn't have any make-up on!

NICE. 

I'm sure if any of my neighbors saw me

they got a good show-

trying to balance the camera on the hot tub

while running to get into place before the timer

snapped the photo.....and trying

not to trip over this little darling in the process. 

My glamorous life.

I try to be cool but most of the time it 

just doesn't happen.

~DIY wire word necklace~

This past week I stumbled upon 

some REALLY fun blogs with A TON

of DIY projects. How have I not known about these?

HELLO?!

I've pinned so many things and already attempted

a couple of the projects.

Like this kitschy little number:

I made it in 12 minutes.

No joke.

I swear, my head is smoking from all the 

ideas I have brewing in it right now!

I got this idea from the blog

"Studs and Pearls"

click (here) to check it out

Definitely one of my new must reads!

Hope you have as much fun as I did 

browsing thru all the DIY projects.

 

~t-shirt transformation~

 My friend's son has really cool taste in 

t-shirts. He likes them rock-n-roll style.

On Sunday I was lucky enough to intercept 4

of these shirts that he had discarded into the 

"donate" bag because they no longer fit him.

SCORE!

These are the exact shirts I love to transform.

I've already re-vamped two of them....

Here's the first one:

One thing I love about re-vamping t-shirts is 

that they are so easy and they don't have to

be perfect to be cute and wearable. 

I mean....it's just a t-shirt. 

 The first thing I do when I re-vamp a shirt is 

cut off the crew neck collar.

HATE THEM.

For a person who is well endowed in the boob

department and very short (which I am both)

-crew necks ARE NOT flattering.

In fact, in my humble opinion, crew necks

are really not flattering on most people.

After cutting the neckline much bigger, I needed

to do something to bring it in so I made this little

tuck in the center. I then cut the sleeves off a little

and  did pull thru slits all the way up both sleeves.

I still needed it to fit tighter around the neckline

so I went ahead and did pull thru slits across

the top back of the shirt.  

Not perfect.....not any of it.....

but it's cute anyway and has more personality

than just a plain 'ol t-shirt. 

And here's the back story to this concert shirt.

TRAPT.....

A spur of the moment concert that Jolie

and I went to. I had just had my daughter

about 3 weeks prior and I was needing

to get out of the house. The concert was

at a small venue downtown.

At some point during the 

concert the place in which we were standing

had turned into a mosh-pit and we were 

almost dead center of it. Jolie puts her arms

out and screams as she's dragging me out 

of it, "Precious cargo! Full momma boobs

right here folks! Make a path!" 

Obviously-I had VERY 

full boobs because I had a newborn baby

at home and they were extremely tender AND FULL 

at that point in the night. 

Jolie wanted to get her little guy a

shirt from the concert and this was the shirt

she got him. We ended up meeting 

the band after the show......

Two words.

Douche. Bags.

At least the shirt is cute.

~flowers this week~

 It was slim pickins in the floral department

here in our yard this week. We are in-between

blooms and I don't have a lot to choose from right now.

This is what is sitting on the table 

behind my living room sofa this week.

 However sparse they may seem compared to other

weeks arrangements, it still lends a real

breath of fresh air and life to the room.

I love the energy of fresh flowers.

Here's a peak at a little something 

I whipped up on Saturday:

An old boat-neck shirt I had lying around....

finally got around to making it more

wear-able for my body type. Have I

mentioned on here that I DO NOT DO

boat-neck or crew neck tees? 

They look horrid on me and I try to stay as 

far away from them as I can.  

 

Seriously....I really need to take the time to

photograph and compile a few different blog

posts specifically about all my t-shirt transformations.

I have so many of them.

One day......

 

I suppose I could start with a tutorial for this

shirt eh? Tutorial and more pics of the shirt

to come later this week.  

  

Until then-have a great week.

What's blooming in your yard?