Totally In Love Tuesday- 4th edition

Another fabric by Fabric Worm today! I love the green, aqua and grays! I'm seriously thinking this might be the studio's curtains. I'd like to paint my frenchy chair grey and upholstered with linen seat and back. This fabric as a pillow and curtains in the room would look great!

The name of tis fabric is:

Emily Taylor, Verona, Main Gray

Visit Fabric Worm here and enjoy browsing!

Hope each of you is having a wonderful Tuesday!

Until next time Dear Reader...

Chatty Cathy

I was featured!

Okay so this may not be earth shattering news for others, but I have spent many months doing blog posts, lots of tutorials and feel sometimes I'll never grow! I'm not sure if others out there feel depressed as I have, but it's discouraging to not see the followers numbers go up more than I have. I keep plowing along though, sure that my blogging is helping someone somehow? I just had the best news (for me). I was featured on Debbie Doos! She highlighted my "No. 2" post! I was so excited today when I saw it. For me it means that someone actually thought something I made was worth sharing! Yahoo! Here is the link for her post that highlighted my piece. click here

To all of you who follow, I love you dearly and truly. I blog for me, but one can't help but look at the number of followers and hope they go up. It's like confirmation that what you are blogging is worth something to someone.

Thank you for being there for me, I appreciate you!

I have 2 tutorials planned for this week. One involves metal green brillo pads and one involves a mystery item. My husband came to me and said he had a challenge for me...held up a plastic thingy and said what can you make out of this. Well, I am German, a bit Irish and a bit Scottish, none of these quit! I accept the challenge my dear and wow have I got a cool idea for this plastic thingy. More to come this week!

Faux Zinc Letters

Today I'm going to show you another method to make something look zinc. There's so many tutorials out there and this is just one more. I think it's about the easiest! I actually made these letters for our Valentine's Day dinner. I had made so many posts for that holiday I left this post out. I was thinking, people may want to hear this method, so here you go. I plan on doing the other letters in this kit by Tim Holtz and making the letters for family. I'm going to mount them on board and then hang them mixed in with black and whites of our family going up the stairs. When that project gets done, I'll post it as well.

Okay, these great letters brought to you by: Tim Holtz. I bought these at Tuesday Morning for $3.99. They retail for $19.99 and unless I had a good coupon wouldn't buy them. I did get them cheap though and once opened found they were the feel of leather. They are compressed board and patterned and really cool. Chipboard letters, wood letters etc. would work for this technique.

Label of package so you can go find them if you want :)

First I coated in black acrylic paint. I only use Ceramcoat or Folkart brand for non-professional paints. They are good for coating items and usually only require one coat.

Coat with black.

Looks like Urban Art when you pick up letters....cool...focus!

Next take Rub 'n Buff (bought at craft store under $4-goes a long way)

and lightly brush across letters. Careful to dry brush this or everything will turn silver. Just go back and re-coat with black and try again if that happens.

See how little I have on the brush, just dry brush this.

That's it folks! I mean really simple. I had the letters done in less than 10 minutes. I'm trying it on chunky letters as well.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial. I'll be back later this week with a great tutorial on bright green metal scrub pads from the Dollar Tree ...oh the suspense!

Until next time Dear Reader,

Chatty Cathy

No. 2

French Bee and Wreath

I have been in love with this image for a long time. I had an old door from an armoire I knew it would look great on, so this Presidents Day with kids milling around I found my peace painting this.

It was an easy project. You could also do this with a paint pen or the Citra Solv method, but as I've mentioned before I love to paint so I painted it.

I took the old door and painted it out with old white chalk paint 

(a homemade recipe for this found here )

image

Next I transfered the image from Graphics Fairy, LOVE HER, onto my piece using a print out of the image and graphite paper. I make my own graphite paper by shaving the lead of a number 2 pencil (or softer lead if you have it) and then rubbing it on the back of the image. It puts a thin layer of graphite on the back of the image and then you can easily transfer it right onto your piece. I just put guide lines on mine and hand painted the details by looking at the original print.

Now if you look closely (please don't!), you'll see that the painting for this is really just a bunch of little hash marks and lines. The image is an engraving so the painting isn't really anything but little lines.

Here it is after just the Bee and Wreath. I felt it was missing something.

ahh a number. A French Number!

I simply used Academy Engraved font to make the number. It is a nice looking engraved type and works great for making the Frenchy looking numbers!

It was really that simple. I love the way it turned out and hope you enjoy the project!

I think I will add some small hooks to the sides and make this a 

jewelry organizer in my bathroom.

Why the number 2? I am so very happy at this stage in my life and when trying to come up with what number to use I thought to myself...2 because my husband and I are so happy being a part of 2 instead of 1's alone. 

Goofy I know, but that's how I came up with it.

I am off to do massive cleaning. No good deed goes unpunished and my having fun painting and playing with kids means much housework to catch up on. Have a great day and...

Until next time Dear Reader,

Chatty Cathy

Sharing with :

Debbiedoos

between naps on the porch

alderberryhill

you are talking too much

diy show off

a simply klassic home

and

Graphics Fairy- Brag Monday

Good, Clean Fun!

Aren't they the cutest?

These are not my kids, but the neighborhood kids. It's Sat. and the kids (my kids) woke up, we're bored! DH and I look at them and said go outside and play! DH and I are building units for our living room. We've finished one and are now working on the other. We had our day planned! 

My youngest asks if they can use the boxes I'm taking for recycling to build a fort? I say sure. I remember tent and fort building with my sister when we were little. It was with blankets and the dining room table. We loved it! Mom would bring us pancakes under the table and we'd eat happily in the tent.

This is the tent my kids and soon lots of neighborhood kids were building! What imagination. Stakes, ropes, drop cloth!

A front door which the neighborhood boy (I adore him) told me I had to have a "pastword" to get in.

They all worked together and used their imaginations and discussed the various entrances and position of blankets. It was so cute and kept everyone busy while DH and I worked. Our neighbor was moving top soil around her yard and one daughter was down there helping her. We had her two children here helping with the tent.

As I looked at the kids having so much fun and glanced down the street to see my daughter helping the neighbor move soil, while another daughter chatted with our next door neighbor, I thought, this is what it should be like. Neighbors helping each other, kids playing and having fun, husbands and wives working side by side. It's sounding very ideal and I guess today was one of those days. I cherish them when I can.

The value of neighborhood kids playing and laughing.

Sharing moments of rest under a tent one's built

and reveling in one's own creation.

This is what a simple life of joy is. Taking those ordinary moments in life and highlighting them as special.

Here's my sweetheart building our base unit for the built-in.

I hope each of you had a great Saturday as well.

Until next time Dear Reader,

Chatty Cathy

A special night

Every year for Valentine's Day I make sure my family has a special dinner. I decorate the room and make special items we don't get all the time. I make a special dessert and try to make the night special so my girls feel how much they mean to me. I am super blessed this year to also have a wonderful husband! I'm going to highlight a couple of pictures of the pretty table we had and then show you a great little project I did for the table setting to surprise the girls!

Yummy chocolate cups with cheesecake pudding and whipped cream and strawberries.

Sugared strawberries ready for the whipped cream.

The girls were all excited when they saw the room fixed pretty. I know it seems like overkill, but I really do love my family so much and making things look pretty makes me happy as well.

I put a Heart covered table cloth on the table- Wally World 3-

Made a cute paper art dangly thingy (it's an industry term) for the chandelier.

and...when the girls came in for dinner I had a surprise for them. Fairies in a jar!

aka: glow sticks in a jar!

This was easy, cheap and thrilling for all!

Here's how I made these:

Happy Valentine's Day

I have never been a huge Valentine's day person. Well, not in the sense that most people think. I never had any fuss made over me. I was in an unhappy marriage for more than 16 years and it was a painful reminder of the fact that I didn't have someone that loved me like I was supposed to be loved. I know this is a bit of a downer. Most of you will wonder why I'd start like this? 

I spent years feeling alone. Like everyone was happy and in love and that would never be my life. I spent many unhappy years being reminded by all the kissing couples, flowers arriving on neighbor's doorsteps, jewelry commercials. For those of you out there who feel like things didn't turn out like a fairy tale romance, don't feel alone.

Blessed that this year I received these...not in the past

I didn't have a happy marriage before and now I have a magical one, truly. I'm loved unconditionally. It's wonderful, but for years I didn't have that. I could have grown resentful about the holiday all together. Commercialism making me feel like a loser in the love department and all of that! Instead I made it a happy time each year. I do have 4 amazingly beautiful and sweet daughters by that marriage. Each year I get them  a little treat, stuffed animal or something and a card I've made or bought. It's something they look forward to every year. I also make them a special Valentine's dinner. It's usually pink and red themed. Sauce for a dinner tinted pinkish, red velvet cake, cranberry ginger ale. I always set the table pretty and make it special. All day I focus on making my house look pretty and making it a special night for them. In doing this I was able to turn the sadness I felt for my own personal situation into something positive and giving to another. This made the years more joyous to me. I now have a wonderful husband and we went out last night for dinner. It was so nice. He surprised me with roses and a little straw owl (I love owls). I also had a beautiful owl card that was precious. You can't see what he wrote on the back, but it brought tears to my eyes. I'm joyous this year that I have a wonderful mate. I do not take it for granted, because I know all too well that it is a very special thing and not everyone has this. 

I think the point I'm trying to make...

If you don't have a happy marriage, if you are single, childless or just feeling blue today? Find the joy and blessings in your life. Make your happiness where you can and remember that at one time. I drove around in a nice Expedition, pulled up in front of a pretty home with my 4 darling girls and went inside to a home where someone did not love me. It looked great from the outside, but there was sadness. My faith that God loved me no matter what was key to my choosing to be happy. We sometimes look at others and envy their life or happiness. It's okay to want more for your life, but don't ever let that get you down and rule you. There is something in front of you that can give you joy and that you are lucky to have:

health, family, a job, a place to live, food on a table, or the computer you are reading this on?

Find something or someone you love and make a happy day no mater what your circumstances. Make something if the money isn't there to buy something.

I speak from experience.

Sorry for the not so upbeat blog today folks, but I have been there and sometimes people need to know, they are not alone. God does love each one of us and He has a purpose for us each day if we are just willing to ask what it might be. I'll leave you with a verse that I have always loved and shows His love for you:

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? Matt. 6:25-27

Until next time Dear Reader,

Chatty Cathy

Totally in love Tuesday! 3rd edition

Hello! I have another great fabric find from the wonderful Fabric Worm site again!

This week's pick is:

Natalie Lymer Woodland, Village White

This picture isn't the greatest. You'll have to go to her site to see it clearer. It's little mushroom houses and ladybugs on tulips! I have always found these little red and white mushrooms darling and am thinking of some project I can use this fabric for!

Join me next week when I highlight another great fabric find!

Until next time Dear Reader,

Chatty Cathy

These are a few of my Favorite things Friday! #1

So I thought it would be nice to share with my readers all the fabulous favorite things I come across or have used for years and love. I'm going to do this every Friday and hopefully you will all inbox me and let me know if you have any Favorite things. 

Today's picks:

#1

Ikea clips

I LOVE these! I live nowhere near an IKEA. I went twice. The first time I picked up a bag of these. I loved them. I sealed everything. No more stale cereal, no more chips falling all over the pantry, no more crackers in bags that cannot be sealed! Can you tell I love them? $2.99 for 30. OH MY GOODNESS.

LOVE THEM. Want an IKEA to move to Charleston, SC Please Ikea....PLEASE!

Next pick:

#2

Sprayway glass cleaner. I also love this. It foams and stays on the glass. It gives me a streak free shine every time. I've been seeing Fishfoam around on some blogs and wonder if it can beat this. I buy this at Sam's club and I've used it for years. Does an awesome job on outdoor windows that have pollen buildup as well!

#3

My toothbrush holder. No more toothbrushes that don't fit in those traditional holder's holes. Plus who knows what happens to the water that runs in there? A cesspool for bacteria I'm thinking? I used to balance mine ever so carefully on the soap dish hanging from the wall, but I no longer have that at the new house and really it wasn't the best plan! I originally saw this at my sisters house. She uses it to dry her bottles and small items next to her sink. I believe Umbra puts it out? I bought my hot pink mini version at Marshall's (Love them too) I couldn't find a picture of my pink one and I'm too lazy to walk up and take a picture, so this one is green but just like mine! LOVE it. Each morning I rinse it in hot water and it stays clean as a whistle...what does that mean really? Clean as a whistle? Really with all the saliva being blown into a whistle I wouldn't think they'd be clean. Anywho....

There you have it folks. 3 items I couldn't  wouldn't want to live without!

Until next time Dear Reader,

Chatty Cathy

On the wings of Love...

Today I am bringing you a project That uses Paper Cutting, quilling and a wonderful graphic from the Queen of Graphics: The Graphics Fairy. She is so wonderful. If you haven't been to her site.... go as fast as you can! here is the link to the image I am using today. You can search her site for literally thousands of graphics. Free! She's a wonder!

So do you want to make this? 

Let's go:

Totally in love Tuesday! 2nd edition

I'm back with another great fabric. I was tempted to do another owl one, but I went with a great floral one today from Fabric Worm!

Patty Sloniger Bella Butterfly, Blooming Butterflies Pink

I think the soft greens and pinks are so soothing, yet there's enough movement in the pattern to not be boring. I love this and could see a cute apron or runner for a table in this print.

Check back next week for another great fabric from the web!

Until next time Dear Reader,

Chatty Cathy

Miss Flibbertigibbet Mosaic China Dresser

Some of my followers know that my Mom also blogs. She's a talented seamstress and also refinishes furniture for her business. She has more talents than I can list here, so I'll direct you to her blog!
Miss Flibbertigibbet
Today I am going to showcase her Mosaic china top dresser. It's really cool and she gave a tutorial on it. I could do this, but leave this stuff to her. I think paper is more my speed! She does amazing re-dos on furniture and if you need inspiration in that area...head on over.

Here's a picture of her great dresser:

A direct link to this post is here

Hope you enjoy and I'll see you tomorrow. Today I get to take my poor chihuahua Apollo to the Vet. He isn't happy and I'm more nervous than him! Claw trimming is not fun with him as he is so little! (5 lbs.)

I'll be back tomorrow with an new fabric pick of the week. This one is a cute one too!

Plus Wednesday I have another great quilling project to show you. oh busy, busy, busy week!

Have a great day Dear Reader,

Until next time this is Chatty Cathy signing off!

Fringed Flower Wreath

Are you ready? Here it is!
I have finally finished my fringed flower wreath. I know, it took long enough. I had everything I needed to finish this except for pink ribbon! I live 1/2 hour to the closest craft store. I settled for Wally world instead. I layered the ribbon since the color I liked wasn't wide enough and the color I wasn't too keen on was just wide enough! I think it turned out great.

Here are the supplies needed and instructions. I hope you enjoy and make one of your own! I'd love some feedback and/or pictures!

Linky Followers

As most of you know Google is making more changes. The Follow feature is changing/ deleting. I'm not so sure completely. I think they will still have something through Google+. I have gone ahead and put a link about the change and a lead for Linky Followers. I have added this to my list of ways for people to follow my blog. You can se it on my right sidebar. Have a skip over to this link DIY club and check it out.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day and check back tomorrow for a tutorial on a fringed flower wreath!

Yes I'm finally making it!

Until tomorrow Dear Reader,

Chatty Cathy

www.graphicsfairy.com We love you!

United in love.

Tonight I have a project for you that is really special to me.

I have shared in earlier posts that I am remarried. I have 4 girls by a previous marriage and my husband is very much in love and dedicated to all of us. We didn't have a wedding, just a ceremony with our lawyer in his office and my parents and their kids with them. It was not much ado, but still very special. I know what true love is and uniting with that person whether a big or small (or minute in my case) is something to be celebrated! The "marriage certificate" from SC was a copied piece of paper (crooked I might add) with our names on it, but nothing you'd hang up. I felt we should have something in our home that stated 

"this was the day".

It was not just myself being united in love. My husband gave each girl a ring from him telling them he was committing to being there for them for life. That was my favorite part of our ceremony. My girls have a wonderful man to lead them in life and we are all now United in love! So the item I made above isn't our names but a statement that we were united in love and the date. That was every time we walk past it we will all remember that special day!

So on to the tutorial.

The impossible.

So I had joined the Make the Impossible Possible challenge. Well....

I have worked on a piece for submission to a large publication. The waiting period is long to hear back, which is why originally I thought...I won't post about it. Visiting the party yesterday I realized, that's part of it. Saying out loud "I did it" "I did something I never thought was possible!". So Dear Readers, are you out there?, I did it! I was so scared but realized: nothing ventured, nothing gained? No one will see my face and say, it's not good enough. No one will say gee you stink at art and don't submit again. It's just me sharing my work. If they like it, great, if not, I LIKE IT! 

IF I ever hear back that they actually want to show my work, I will share with you. If not, I will lick my wounds and realize I still did my impossible!

If you didn't participate in this challenge, no worries. Each day we can look ourselves in the eye (well in a mirror!)  and say: "You can do impossible things!" I know each of you has something you've wanted to do and hesitated for whatever reason. I believe our minds are so powerful, for positive and negative. We might know something in our heart and yet our mind says something totally different.  Think about it and try something this month. Go ahead and just try, that's half the battle, the first step. Yes step, my word of the year! Oh and great news for me. I did a challenge AND stayed true to my word of the year and took another STEP. 

Yeah me and yeah you!

Until next time Dear Reader,

Chatty Cathy

To the challenge team: I could not for the life of me get the link button to appear on my blog. (maybe the challenge I should have put was: master blog buttons and links?) I have put a link to each of your sites 

The Space Between ,THISTLEWOODFARM, A Sort of Fairytale Girl, the cottagemarket, It all started with paint and eclectically vintage

Thanks for the challenge girls!