Stuff and Stuff

Here's some stuff I've made recently, or at least semi-recently.

I cut out this "T' all by myself with Jim's tool thingy. I don't know what the tool is called. I told Jim, "I need to use your thingy that does this." Then I mimicked cutting out a shape. He handed me the tool and I went to town. The rest of this was made with scrap wood from Jim's shop. Slap a little paint on, drill some holes for the ribbon, and wah-la!

I painted and decoupaged a large canvas in a bird and flower motif for Tralee's room. I LOVE the way it turned out.

This is just to show what our dinning table looks like when I'm in one of my creative frenzies.

I painted this for Tralee's friend Jovie. Jovie's favorite stuffy is her bear in a pink tutu. Also, Jovie LOVES the color green, and has a favorite green dress. I thought it might be cute to paint Jovie in her green dress, with bear, in a famous setting. I know I'm no Monet, but it was still fun to try.

I recently completed these skirts and camis for Tralee and her cousin Haylee.

I really love this canvas I made of Jim and me. It adorns our bedroom wall. I wasn't going to distress and stain in it, but then I decided to just go for it. Now I'm really glad I did. I love it. Also. . . notice my red fuzzy slippers. I love those too.

Here's a painting of Tralee and Corky wishing on a star. I made this right after we taught Tralee "Star light, star bright. . . " Not sure why this is underlined.

I took this frame below and did some different painting/sanding/staining techniques to age it. Then I framed some vintage sheet music with my daughter's namesake on it.

Before/After

I LOVE LOVE LOVE craigslist. In fact, the thought of going into any of the big name furniture stores to buy new furniture depresses me a little bit. I love re-using/re-purposing old things. I found two old chairs on craigslist for about $5 each. I took them home, sanded, painted, distressed, stained, and recovered the chairs with fabric and clear vinyl. I think they turned out pretty cute.

Before above/After below

In fact, all of our dining chairs are criagslist/garage sale finds. I've repainted them all. I was inspired by Monica's table in Friends. Our dinning table was a thrift store find. Jim refinished it for me. LOVE it!

I just had to put this next one in cause it's Tralee's first painting -- EVER! I painted, distressed, and stained the frame. I think Tralee is SO talented!

When we were first dating, Jim wrote me a love letter in my scriptures. He didn't tell me about it, I happened upon it one day while I was flipping through to find a particular verse. I decided to showcase my favorite love letter in a floating frame that I painted and stained. I used scrapbook paper for the background. Kind of fun, I think.

Here's the letter close-up, in case you feel like seeing Jim's mushy gushy side for a second. I accidentally cut the ending off. It says, ". . . for all eternity. - Your Love, Jim August 18, 2001"

Jim helped prune his mom's cherry trees this spring. I asked him to bring home some branches. I sprayed them purple, strung some Christmas lights through, and hung little fabric flowers on them. This purple tree is now Tralee's night-light.

I made the Jacobs sign a while ago, but never hung it. I finally decided to paint some canvases and do our family's silhouettes on them. I think they turned out cute. Now I have a proper place to hang our family name thing.

So, there you go. I've worked on some other crafts lately as well. I might post them eventually. I've been flirting with the idea of starting an etsy shop. Not sure I want to make that kind of commitment though. I'm very wishy-washy about the whole thing. I wasn't even sure I wanted to do this post. I get stressed when it come to sharing things I make. When Jim and I used to do craft fairs, I spent the first few minutes of the fair agonizing that nobody would like our stuff and we wouldn't sell one thing. We always sold almost everything. So, maybe I should just snap out of it and go for it. I'll sleep on it. . . again.