Category Archives: craftiness

Aug11

Finally some rain

Posted on Monday, August 11, 2008 by Dianne

Bri kept telling me it was going to rain-he must have known. I did go out and water my plants as it was so nice and cool for a change. I had more energy to do so as it wasn’t humid. I also picked a few flowers to photograph in these cute little vases I have. I’ll share on I photo shopped as a ‘sneak peek’ for Saturday’s Photo Hunt:

I love that Paint Shop Pro!

Ever have a pretzel from ‘The Pretzel Factory’? They are pretty good and we got 10 for $5 plus chocolate and cinnamon dipping sauces. I believe the yeast plays havoc with your digestive as we all took Rolaids. Or it was my homemade tomato sauce (?), but I added a pinch of baking soda to it to help with the acidity. The sauce was good (tasted so fresh) and while we ate, it poured outside. We needed the rain so badly.

My shoulder area is better, but I’ll still go see the chiropractor tomorrow. It’s not my only issue. My neck on the left has been hurting off and on and my knees aren’t that great. We’ll see what happens-never been to one before! My uncle was teasing me-saying that first he’ll use the little rubber hammer, then a metal hammer and I better watch out for the tongs! He had a good laugh, which was music to my ears.

I’m sorting out my papers and craft stuff, or I’d show you a photo of the desk. Bri couldn’t believe it was messed up already. I had to take a break. ; )

Was a bit teary-eyed to see the American male swimmers on the relay team (Michael Phelps was one of them) take the gold a little bit ago! They were hooting and hollering!

Aug10

A desk with a view

Posted on Sunday, August 10, 2008 by Dianne

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This was all yesterday:

Since Bri and I were flying solo (Sean made a day trip to a Delaware Beach), we got moving on my craft area. I’m not saying everything is honky dorie yet, but things are in place. It has a great view of the overgrown butterfly bush and the butterflies that have been visiting there. Lots of dust and sorting. Uggha. So my ‘antique’ Shaker desk is now under my dining room window. It’s painted a funky blue-will have to do something with the paint. It’s ‘sister’ desk was stripped somewhat by me and use to hold the microwave in the kitchen. We made the switcher-roo between the blue and the wood (blue was in the guest room, the wood in the basement). We had to put our teak tea cart in the basement for now-hated to, no room up here. I may offer it to a family member, but it’s not in the best of shape. May end up getting rid of it in the long run. It served it’s purpose. Just taking all the crap stuff off the dining room table and moving it to the desk a big difference. That’s my plan. I really need a super cute storage unit with drawers. The plastic boxes look ugly. When I get it a bit more tidied up, I’ll post a photo.

Sean got home around 7-it was really crowded down in Delaware. They tried Rehoboth first, no parking whatsoever-ended up down the road in Dewey. I was glad to have found a coupon for buy one, get one free at a popular pizza place down there for $10. Mentally I’m taking the $10 of the price of the $35 coupon book. I usually get my money’s worth out of it. : ) Sean has sunburn only on one upper arm. It was probably the way he was sitting on the beach. We go to Atlantic City in a week. Just saw where a guy fell off the escalator where we will be staying (he was sitting on the arm and got killed-geez).

I hope you got to see the opening ceremony of the Olympics-what a techno fabulous show! My mom called me to see if I had it on as she was so impressed by it all. Terrible about the Americans hurt (killed) there.

Sorry to hear about the passing of Bernie Mac-just his facial expressions made you laugh.

Better go to bed soon as we need to go to church tomorrow. I hope my sinuses will forgive me for all the dust I inhaled today.

One of my latest creations-she’s eating glitter-opps:

Don’t the jewels look real-they’re stickers! The lady is from a Victorian inspired catalog. The painting they offer of her is called a ‘yard long’ as she’s 36″ long. I wanted to try some new rubber stamps too.

Jul8

Photo cards

Posted on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 by Dianne

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Last night I ordered a bunch of blank cards to put my photos on. I tried Cafepress.com, but only sold a few things to friends. I figure etsy is a better audience. I may manipulate the photos a bit, adding poetry verses (maybe my own?), we’ll see. I still would like to ‘make’ items for etsy too. I hope you go see Barbara’s Quaker birds there (Mainly Stitching). She really came up with a new original idea. As soon as the blanks come in, I’ll print out some photos and post a few on etsy.

Remember the mystery bird from a few posts ago? Looking through my bird book, it sure looks like a Phoebe to me. I thought it could have been a Pewee, but they have definite white on their wings and not as much of a contrast on their noggins.

Not too much new. I had to take a rare nap today (for like 10 minutes as the phone woke me up) as I had a caffeine induced wakeful night. Darn that Coke!

I’m trying to finish up a stitching project, but my eyes have been really bothering me lately. I think it’s the catkins from the Chestnut trees. I have to use drops to clear them up. I also need to visit the dentist as my gums around a few teeth look like they have craters in them. I have a lot of dental work near the gumline (fillings) and using an electric toothbrush seems to have eroded that area. I hope it’s a quick fix. Bri said he had to get skin grafts on his gums one time. No thank you. I have to go out in the hot, hot weather tomorrow and my van’s air needs recharging-ugh.

Jul6

Beach Ladies ATC series

Posted on Sunday, July 6, 2008 by Dianne

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Beach Ladies ATC series, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Thinking of the beach and making ATCs. That’s really colored sand. Target sells it-6 for $1! I had one more space, so I added my blue hydrangea.

Jul3

What you can do with a mint tin

Posted on Thursday, July 3, 2008 by Dianne

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Inside of Donna’s tin, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

I recently was involved in a swap on Flickr and we were to alter Altoid mint tins. This is what I sent my partner. It is suppose to resemble a little suitcase with travel stickers on the outside. I used some real seashells and a little cocktail umbrella for the inside. I want to make one for myself. : )

Jul2

Give me an inchie-I’ll make a mile of them!

Posted on Wednesday, July 2, 2008 by Dianne

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These are called ‘inchies’ and they are more or less, one inch square. They are a bit challenging to make, but I find there are teeny pictures in books that these are perfect for that wouldn’t work on the 2.5″ x 3.5″ cards that I usually do. These are cut up paint chips from Lowes and also a gold candy box band. Watch for more! I love miniature anything!

~~Zoey asked what I would do with these-I would think making similar themed ones for a picture or a greeting card would be neat. I read where people store them in those plastic coin holder pages. I keep the bigger cards in baseball card pages. I’d love to trade too.~~

That’s colored sand around the photo of the children, and the mini butterfly is part of a rubber stamp set I just bought at Michaels.

Jun24

Those who plant kindness

Posted on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 by Dianne

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Yeah, I have a cross stitch finish to share! It has those words in it-‘those who plant kindness, harvest love’. The chair legs were terrible, but I just did what I could. I figure if you are going to use chairs for plant stands, they are too rickety to sit on anymore. I may redo a few of them. ; ) So I’m thinking (this is added later) that I should tear out all the legs, get a vanishing pen, draw straight legs, and stitch over that! I think I would be happier with it. It’s a kit I had and on white aida. Aida doesn’t bother me most of the time, but of course I can change out the fabric that they give you with the kit. If anyone wants this chart, let me know.

Almost broke my left, little toe at 4am when I got up to use the bathroom. I got up too quickly and stumbled a bit and misjudged the door in the almost pitch dark. It hurt for almost an hour and I had to get the ice pack. I didn’t wake anyone up either. It’s still sore, but better. All the times I get up in the middle of the night and I finally missed the opening! Geez.

I wanted to go to Longwood Gardens tomorrow, but I’ll have to see how my toe is-drats!

Jun18

Finally assembled!

Posted on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 by Dianne

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I mounted this piece on the cigar box today and now I have a scissor box! I bought some grosgrain ribbon to finish it off even more. The apples aren’t that red and I think the ribbon helps, though I’m not crazy about the corners-maybe little buttons? I believe I had started this at least 9-10 years ago and by the date, you can see that I finished it last year. I haven’t done anything to the inside except to stain it. These boxes are really reasonable-under $5 if I remember correctly.

I also did this ATC card a few days ago, but I have finished another item that I will share with you in a couple of weeks when I mail it to its recipient.

The girl was printed on vellum paper and glued to paper with a pattern. I added some tissue paper and glitter to make it ‘cloud like’.

Sean went to fill out his paperwork and I took a ride with him as he was going to Walmarts. I got to sit in on the meeting with the assistant. Isn’t your birth certificate from the hospital the ‘real deal’? Brian said no, but it’s signed and sealed and has his baby feet prints and my thumb prints on it. I think because we sent for ours from Harrisburg, he thinks those are the real ones. Also, he just got a paper back and got a ‘B’ on it. He had talked to my mom’s friend about the Vietnam war era to help with the paper. The teacher said he could have had a bit more info on Jim. He has to work on his resume and do one more paper. He wanted to fix a paper about NYC that he got a ‘C+’ on. Hope he can!

The weather is really nice as it’s cooled down. I went out after dinner and pulled lots of weeds and didn’t even break a sweat. I noticed deer or varmints munched on my gorgeous rose bush, Hollyhock, Dinner plate hibiscus and some Nasturtiums, but left the lettuce alone. I sprayed all the above with bug spray to make them taste nasty.

Sean has to get up at the crack of dawn. He’s really a night owl like me. I don’t know how they are going to keep him busy in an empty school, 8 hours a day for 8 weeks. The lady mentioned painting. I just don’t want him lifting heavy stuff and hurting his back. Maybe he’ll hear from one of the other half dozen jobs he applied for.

Jun17

PS..I ♥ You…pass the tissues

Posted on Tuesday, June 17, 2008 by Dianne

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Sean was nice enough to rent me a movie (he got it free anyway!), so I watched it last night. He had seen it with his gal pal when she visited PSU earlier this year. Hilary Swank is such a good actress (she has 2 Oscars), and every time she started to cry, I needed a tissue! That was meat for the two men here. They couldn’t believe I was getting choked up. I was already kind of down from Father’s Day since I never celebrated it my entire life, and knowing it was really never going to happen again (because my father passed away in Feb, well that didn’t help). And it didn’t help that Gerard Butler, the lead actor ,looked like my late father a little.

Hilary wore lots of hats, and if you didn’t know it, I am a ‘hat person’ as I have a big head. I don’t wear them as much as I should.

I almost missed the third episode of ‘The Mole’ as the movie ended after 10. I’m interested in it as there are (were) three guys from a 35 mile radius from where we live, the closest is from West Grove, a few towns away. Bobby, from Philly, just got ‘eliminated’ last night.

I’m trying to finish up some craft projects that are laying around. I finished an Altered tin swap for a lady in Iowa. I wrote her a note and she said she wasn’t affected by the flooding, but her neighbor was. Then I stained a cigar box that I bought to glue my Amish children and apple tree cross stitched design on. I think I’ll make it into a scissor box because Vonna from ‘The Twister Stitcher’ inspired me! I didn’t do much cleaning, but doing the above motivates me to do more!

My poor mom wasn’t well yesterday-in pain and laid up in bed. She forgot she had hung out clothes a few days before as her dryer is on the fritz. She was using muscles she hadn’t used for a while. I hope she can get that repaired. She’s a constant worry to me. Her car is fixed, but the transmission is going, as are the shocks. Looks like my brother is trying to locate another used vehicle for her.