Make your own miniature potion bottles!

We made these halloween bottles using these items below. 

-Glass Bottles Rounded

-Glass Bottle tube style

-Foam Ball to make eyeballs

-Red feathers for the Phoenix fathers

-White beads for the human teeth

- Blue beads for the Unicorn Tears

- Green Sculpety for the dragon scales

- Red food coloring for the various organs 

- Ribbon for the various organs

Other items in this halloween scene...

- Mirrors

- Fire Place Mantle

Most of these as you can see you just put the items like the beads or feathers into the jar. For the eyeballs we colored circles on the balls to make the colored part of the eye and the black part of the eye. For the organs we put bits of white and red ribbon and cording into the jar and added the red food coloring. For the dragon scales we flattened a tiny bit of sculptey clay and baked it. Then we cut it up into tiny scale like pieces. 

For all of the bottles we made tags or labels out of paper and either taped or glued them on and some we added a bit of thread around the top.

These were so easy and fun to make... Happy Halloween!

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Game Chair Makeover

In the winter when it's cold and windy outside I love to sit next to my fireplace. But just sitting near it in a chair is not enough... no I like to plop myself right in front of it. But over time that's not the most comfortable and my butt or leg would usually fall asleep. So I looked around for some options and I thought these game style chairs would be perfect. Light enough for me to move around and more support than a bean bag. But man are these things ugly, they scream man cave or teen boys room.

I picked up these two used game chairs on my neighborhood swap and sell for $10 each. A dear friend of mine had this perfect fabric that she generously gave to me (I had been looking for the right fabric for weeks and she walks into my house with it! I was meant to be!)

I did not take photos of my process but here is what I did to recover the top of the chair.

1. Cut your fabric a few inches wider that needed and heat up your glue gun. Fold the fabric under and start gluing, holding it a minutes or two until the glue sets. Fold under and glue all the way around pulling the fabric tight as you go.

2. Now I did not think the glue would hold over time with me and the girls sitting on the chair so I reinforced the edging with upholstery nail heads. The frame of this chair was wood so I could hammer them right into the edge. I love the finished look it gave the chair.

Click here for the nail heads I used.

Pretty easy right? Now you can make that ugly game chair match our own decor... yes it's still a game chair, but it's a pretty one and super comfy to sit next to the fire.

Corners of my home - Garden Bed

 We have a lot of bunnies in our yard and last year they chewed through my netting, so this year we stepped it up a notch! We had picked up this bed frame from the trash curb a while ago, I had plans to make a bench for the yard. But then we had the idea to use it for our garden bed... get it "bed"... I know a bit cheesy. But it was free wood! Brian painted it white to match our picket fence and lined it with chicken wire. I think it looks cute and it should keep those pesky rabbits out of our little garden!

Amelia digging a hole for the tomato plants!

Corners of my home - Backyard Loveiness

These are my neighbor's roses growing so pretty on our fence!

YUM...The lettuce is growing, we have to cage everything,
we have a rabbit family living in our backyard!

Corners of my home - Rudolph

Our Rudolph toy collection sits on top of the tv cabinet.

It took us several years to collect all of them.

They are so cute and makes us all smile!

Making the swap

Time to do the swap... our house was built in 1941 which means very small closets! So twice a year we do the swap. Brian drags out the large, blue bins out of the basement and I swap out the summer clothes to winter clothes and vice versa. I've gotten this ritual down pat and it helps me clean out all the drawers and get rid of any out grown clothes.

Corners of my home - Singer

This is my new old toy, isn't she pretty!

A dear friend was moving and gave me this vintage Singer machine in a neat art deco style cabinet. She had given it to me when Amelia was about age 1 and it sat at my Mom's house (3 years) until last year when Mom wanted it out. It came to my garage and sat there until this summer when I thought I would give it away, but then I read up on it and found it to be a nice sturdy machine to have.

I deiced to keep it and took it in to be rehabbed, the cording crumbled when you touched it. But other than a good tune up and rewiring this heavy beast was back in my hands. Studying the manual I got the thread set up and took it for a spin.

First thing I noticed it was soooooo quiet compared to my modern machine, plus it turns on a dime, but my favorite thing is it can sew through anything... leather and layers of thick felted wool. This 40lb baby is a keeper! The only down side is there are no fancy stitches on this machine. Just a simple straight stitch which is what I use 90% of the time, so not a big deal.

Plus it makes me feel a bit nostalgic sewing on this machine made between 1939 - 1941. My house is made in 1941 so they make a good fit. It makes me happy to bring her back to life and I think she is smiling.

Corners of my home - the blue photo

Which one of these look like the other, which one of these isn't the same?

These are a grouping of photos in my upstairs hallway right by a window. As you can see 3 of them have a blue tint to them. They were once black and white photos but over the past 6 years have turned blue. Why you ask? The "blue" photos were printed by a local photo chain store and looked great but over time with natural light nearby they have faded. The photo of my sweet dog Bud was a printout from a laser copier and still looks great.

So keep this in mind when hanging photos near a window. I suggest making a photocopy and hang that or just know that you might need to replace the images every few years. I will reprint these, laser this time. I can't forget those wonderfully sweet first few days with my Amelia!

Happy 4th of July - 2010

Garden - Perennials

I love perennials and how they come back year after year with almost no help from me! I don't enjoy buying flowers that only last one season. I almost feel they are a waste of money and time. That's why I have been filling my garden beds with bulbs and perennial plants and flowers.

Aren't these clematis flowers so pretty! I planted it two years ago and every May there are lovely pink flowers blooming. They make me smile.

Garden - first harvest

We had our first harvest this week, bib lettuce. They girls really enjoyed cutting the leaves and eating our small salads at lunch. We just took the large leaves so we can harvest more later.

This weekend we added two tomato plants and one cucumber plant to the garden bed. We also hung two tomato plants in our upside down planters.

Beans are growing

I love spring and everyday I walk around the yard looking to see what is peaking out of the ground. I have been working hard to fill the large mulched area we have in the backyard. Planting hostas, small trees, azalea bushes, tall grasses, etc. This year it is finally looking good so far, but it does need a little bit more color... next year.

We also have a small 3" x 3" garden and the beans are growing, they seem to growing so slow or I am just impatient? I have never grown beans before, actually the whole garden thing is a new experiment for me. We'll see how it goes.

Corners of my home - the CLEAN office

Ahhhh, you can see the desk and I can breath again! So much better than this!

Corners of my home - the fridge

Another peek at my home... the fridge is usually cluttered with Amelia and Anna's cute art work. I don't really like this mess of stuff on the fridge but I can't resist any art work the girls make, they are so proud of it.

After something has been up for awhile I either put it in the save folder in the office or I hide it in the recycle bin. But... I have been caught several times and they ask... Mama why is my picture in the trash? I usually play stupid and say it must of fell in there by accident. Then I hang it back up until I get another chance at the recycle bin. Well... I just can't keep it all, especially the amount they both create each day! But it is cute stuff!

Corners of my home - the office

Believe it or not there is a nice big desk under all this junk! Ugh... I really need to clean my office before I end up on the hoarders show! O.k. I'm not that bad but I do need to clean this desk off, it's very hard to work in clutter!

I am not usually like this but ever since I had kids it's hard to keep the house picked up. They just go from room to room making one mess after another. And my poor office has become the dumping ground. It doesn't help that I use this room to work, craft, sew, scrap book, pay bills, file, sort mail and much much more.

O.k. it's getting cleaned up and I give myself untill Monday.... go, go, go!

Garden - the start

So after our failed attempt to grow pumpkins last summer we are still hopeful to produce something from the garden this year. We planted seeds and already have little sprouts growing! We are going to try to grow zucchini, beans, and have some flowers starting. I have also been gathering info about growing tomatoes and cucumbers upside down in hanging containers. So we'll give it a try and see how it goes... I'll keep you posted.

Corners of my home - Wedding

This is in my dining room... I am remembering 10 years ago, our wedding day. I remember at the church before our wedding I sent my maid of honor to give Brian a small gift, the two penguins with a note. Then years later I found the two matching baby penguins and saved those for him as gifts when Amelia and Anna came along.

Another step toward "Green"!

I love to recycle and I have a say I have been bringing bags to the store before it was cool to bring bags. At that time I sewed my own bags because then you couldn't buy them. I remember getting annoyed looks from the baggers, I know it's a bit harder, my bags didn't come with a stand to keep them open.

I am so happy with the progress of reusable bags, did you know that some stores give you money if you bring your own bag? Target gives you 5¢ back and Whole foods gives you money or you can donate the money to their charity. It's just good all around!

When shopping I still used the plastic bags in the produce dept. and when I saw someone who made these tulle produce baggies, I thought wonderful... why didn't I think of this? I had some tulle from some gift wrapping that I had saved and made these super easy baggies. So... if you have a sewing machine get crackin'. If not, your not off the hook because there are several great etsy shops that make these bags, no excuse!

Need to buy bags? Check here or here or here.

Thanks for being GREEN with me!

Corners of my home - Watto

This is on top of a shelf in my office, my Watto collection, stocked by my husband. He loves Star Wars and likes to find Watto toys for me since I like that character.

Just in case your thinking... please no Watto gifts from anyone but Brian.

Corners of my home - circus

This is in my downstairs hallway, I believe this little niche was for the telephone, it has a fold down drawer that is the perfect size for the yellow pages (I can't remember the last time I opened the phonebook) . I bought these Fisher Price circus figures at a church rummage sale for 50¢ and love them... they make me smile.