it’s a cinch-spiration

See what I did there?  We all love a little inspiration … and what do you get when you’re looking for inspiration for easy peasy projects – It’s a Cinch-spiration.  ðŸ™‚
I mean, we now have pin-spiration.  So why not cinch-spiration?

No?!?

I tried.  ðŸ˜‰

Aaaanyway, I’ve found some other great ideas for simple little projects from a couple of my favorite blogs. (more…)

it’s a cinch {gallery wall items}

Hey, hey!  Happy Hump Day!

Right now I am on a flight to Miami…or waiting in the airport for my delayed flight.  I would say there’s equal probability of each option.  Sigh.

But there’s a cutie patootie nephew at the other end of the journey, so I’m stoked either way.  You saw a sneak peak of #5 here.

Who am I kidding, that post was in November so the only people who saw it were #5’s dad – because I sent it to him, my mom, and maybe 3 others.  ðŸ˜‰

Aaaanyway, I thought of a few more It’s a Cinch ideas for you. (more…)

the month in minutes – january 2012

Hello, hello!

A little reminder, if you haven’t already linked up your blog goals, we’re keeping the party open until Thursday night for anyone getting a late start…we’d love to hear yours.  And you can find mine here.

the space between

Now, I’m going to start a little something new here today.

Can you believe this little blog had more page views in February than in its 3 previous months combined?  Serious!  That’s incredible to me.

So, I shout out a Welcome! to everyone who is relatively new around here.  Thank you so much for coming by, please make yourself at home…and let me know you’re here.  🙂

And, to everyone who has been around from the beginning…don’t think I don’t know who you are…even if you’ve never left a comment.  I sure do appreciate you all sticking around…and would love to hear what you have to say about every single post things every now and then.  🙂

In light of all of our fun new traffic I thought it makes sense to do a little month in review, if you will.  But,…I’m going to start with January…total rule breaker here.  Seems like a nice, clean, appropriate place to start, don’t you think?  And, I’ll be sure to mix in a few new things too…just to keep it fresh for ya.

So, I guess I should start by saying HAPPY New Year!  I’m sporting my party outfit and blowing my noise maker right now.  🙂  But, the girls rang in the new year looking a little more like this.

(more…)

doing a lot…and gettin’ nothin’ done

Hi, hi!

Nothin’ like waiting all off-season to get wrecked on the 2nd lap.  I can’t even imagine the disappointment for the team.  😦

Anyone else watch the Daytona 500 last night?  Or, just judge me for the habit?  🙂

And I move on…

Do you ever feel like you’re working on so many things but not really accomplishing anything?

That is where I am right now. (more…)

imperfection is the new black

Seriously.

I mean, who’s into perfect anymore?

Well, I’m sure there are many out there.  But not this girl.

Is there really any better way to set yourself up for disappointment…than to expect perfection?

For starters, I would never be living in this house.  Oh, how you are imperfect…let me count the ways.  But let me only point out the tile…oh the tile of which you have an abundance.

But what was it that someone once said…where ever you are, I am home…or, my favorite thing about my house is who I share it with…or, as long as we’re living here together I can overlook the tile…it was something like that.  😉

And it really isn’t about the structure, or even the things in it, is it?!?

Oh, if it were about the perfection of the things…

I would probably shudder at the sight of that silly, un-level driftwood shelf in my new one screw gallery wall every time I walked in the room.
 Or, I might have finished re-upholstering that chair by now…8 years later.
Or, I might not have gotten disproportionately excited when I bought these hideous couches for $65 for the pair.
I can’t even tell you how hard it is to find “American” sized furniture for a reasonable price on an island.

As an aside, if you’re looking for perfection, definitely don’t move to a Caribbean island…I know some people who learned that lesson the hard way.  Please refer back to that comment I made earlier…something about the expectation of perfection = surefire disappointment.  🙂

Now, I have to give a shout out to the Nester for the idea of Celebrating the Imperfect with a link party.

And, in contemplating her idea, I realize, that through my never-ending search for a steal deal, my need to find ways, albeit more difficult or time consuming, of doing things that hardly cost me anything, and my complete and total aversion to keeping up with the Jones’, I live in a space full of imperfections.

And that, my friends, suits us absolutely perfectly.  🙂

I crack my knuckles, I shave as infrequently as possible, I don’t clean as often as I should. I overlook dog hair everywhere on the couch, I leave unfolded, clean laundry lying around for days, I love to swear.

I often waste time, I don’t keep in touch with people I love, I am not nearly as involved with my nieces and nephews day-to-day lives as I’d like to be.

I am emotional, often times erratic and sometimes just a plain ol’ pain in arse.

But just call me Ellen because “I want to be clear and here are the values that I stand for. I stand for honesty, equality, kindness, compassion, treating people the way you want to be treated, and helping those in need.”

Everything else…in all of it’s imperfection…is just gravy.  🙂

Wedding #1 Memento Part 2

Happy Day after Valentine’s Day.  Hopefully everyone is feeling incredibly loved.  It seems appropriate to finish up my wedding memento during this week of love.

So, where did we leave off?  Like a month ago…geez, sorry!

Ah yes, with this beauty.

I had a box that, size-wise, was going to work great to just set my newly made frame (check out part 1 of this memento to get caught up on how we got from California to married and then from Curacao to a little driftwood frame), trace the inside edge and cut.
Really, I couldn’t even at least get my pen tip on my already traced line so it would kind of look like an action shot?  Guess not. 🙂
As you can see, my cutting wasn’t perfect.  But, my plan was to wrap the cardboard with the brown napkin so it didn’t really matter.  I only had to make sure that the cardboard wrapped in napkin was 1) big enough that there were no “air gaps”, meaning that there were no spots I could see in between the frame and the napkin to what was behind it and 2) small enough that it could be wedged in and cover all of the shims so only the driftwood part of the frame could be seen from the front.

It was just a process of trial and error really.

I also decided I didn’t need to cut the napkin.  I just wrapped the cardboard and used some pins to pin it tight on the back side.
I did play around with ways I could layer the veil so I wouldn’t have to cut it, but I liked the look of only one layer of the tulle so I ended up cutting a piece that I could then just pull tight and pin to the napkin and cardboard.

I had these ribbons in my stash.
The cream colored ribbon I used to wrap my bouquet (read: three hydrangea blossoms I cut that day from a bush in the front yard of our house) of hydrangeas together and the green ribbon we strung our rings on for our youngest nephew to carry as ring bearer.

Truth be told, the ring bearer action…including the green ribbon…only happened at wedding #2, but I’m including it anyway.  Because…I had this idea to make it kind of like a charm necklace.
The charms include a very inexpensive, but very sentimental, ring.  One Joel had given me almost 9 years previously and that I had worn on my left index finger everyday since…I’m not really a switch up my jewelry sort of gal….clearly.  :/

I also cut out a pair of champagne glasses from one of the cards we received.  And I made a little “pendant” out of my wedding dress tag…which I happened to buy at Anthropologie.

And there just so happened to be the perfect rusty nail in the driftwood frame I could tie my charm ribbon to.
The cream ribbon was long enough that I could just use it as sort of a boarder, just folding it over at the corners and hot gluing…
Please excuse the dog hair stuck to the glue gun.  🙂

I then used the same embellished pins I used to hold my bouquet together on wedding day to add one more fun corner detail.
I cut out meaningful parts of each of the cards we received that day and randomly glued them on top of the ribbon.

If you don’t know, or remember, why we only got 4 cards at wedding #1, here’s the refresher.

And then, I made what I think is a cute little “framed” picture…other than that stupid house right between our heads.  🙂
I just cut off a couple corners of one of the cards we received, squared them off, and then cut a square to size from the lining (Yes, it was one of those fancy shmancy cards with a lining layer!  We have fancy shmancy friends.), glued it on the bigger square and then just hand cut the picture of us with rounded corners to fit.

It looked a little like this.
And this.  🙂
What can I say, I’m much more of a trial and error sort of gal.  Measure-and-do-it-right-the-first-time is highly overrated.  😉

All in all, I’m left with another FREE and uber-meaningful addition to our gallery wall.
She fits in so well right below one of my favorite pics from wedding #1.

Here she is all together and up close.
What do you think?  Did you do anything fun with your wedding cards?  We still have wedding #2 cards…so I’m in need of ideas.

Have you ever made a frame out of driftwood?  If you want some tips, check here.

If you did happen to do anything fun with your little wedding mementos I’d love to see it. Feel free to post it on my Facebook page.  🙂

And, have you gotten signed up on the new Linky Follower tool? If so and want to follow me please let me know you did in the comments so I can follow you back.

Click here to follow this blog and view my other followers…

I am sharing this project here and at:
BNOTP, Home Stories A to Z, Savvy Southern Style, Remodelaholic, and Sugar Bee Crafts.

The Little Black Canvas

It’s the new must-have…the replacement for the little black dress, or maybe the accessory to…I don’t recommend trying to wear it.

But, I actually finally decided what she’s going to wear.
You might remember her back story?  This entire project only cost the $2 I spent for the canvas at Goodwill.  Heck yeah!

She did manage to find her way onto the gallery wall, even though she wasn’t done.

Now…she’s done.

I am quite infatuated with all of the word and letter art out there.  I recently turn a pallet into word art.  But, as I mentioned here, I don’t have any of those fancy machines that can create what I tell it to.

And I can’t always create what I want to.  :/

Luckily, this one worked out.

I first made a paper template the same size as the canvas.
I just scribbled with pencil, used different stencils I had to see what size lettering might fit, played around with ideas.

I had received some GREAT suggestions on what to do.

Maybe some string art like Zoe.

Love the idea, but think this little black canvas is too small for it.

Then I got the awesome suggestion to put my word of the year on it in a dictionary type font.  Who put that comment?  And on which post?  I’ve looked all over and can’t find you…I want you to get credit for the awesome idea.  Let me know if it’s you!

Update:  It was Leena!  Thanks for the great suggestion!!

I had a moment where I thought I might put something kitchy, maybe a funny saying taken from a little DIY group therapy.

But the moment was fleeting.

In the end, I went with dates that are important to us.

I picked 5 different fonts I liked.  I figured it would give it a more eclectic feel.  AND, I would have a better chance of pulling it off if I wasn’t trying to make all of the numbers look the same.  Can you say…intentional imperfection.  🙂

I increased the number size so the width of each date fit the whole canvas.  Then I laid them out in order of date…and was not bothered when I discovered I was going to need to overlap them a bit. (Read: not interested in re-sizing and reprinting the numbers.)
My plan was to trace over the outline of each number hard enough that I could see it on the canvas.

 Again, I say, luckily the plan worked.

I just used some paint I had on hand mixed to different shades.  And for a couple dates I added some water for a more paint wash look.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say this project was easy peasy.  Very good light is necessary to see the vague outline imprint.  A very steady hand is necessary to create good looking numbers essentially free hand.  And patience is just always a necessity.  🙂

A little before and after just for fun.
Once I knew what I was going to make and had picked out my fonts, this project took me a few hours…including the drying time between dates that wouldn’t be necessary if your numbers don’t overlap.

I have to say, I love her.  She’s meaningful, a bit whimsical and not overly crafted…a nice addition to an already busy gallery wall.

What about you…what would you have done with the little black canvas?  Have any number art of your own I should check out?

And, have you gotten all signed up on the new Linky Follower tool? If so, and want to follow me, please let me know you did in the comments so I can follow you back.

Click here to follow this blog and view my other followers…

I am sharing this project here and at:
BNOTP, Home Stories A to Z, Savvy Southern Style, Remodelaholic, Today’s Creative, and Sugar Bee Crafts.