rag rug sneak peak

At the County Fair I met this woman who was demonstrating how to make rag rugs. I got it in my head that I just had to learn how to do this. Her rugs were soooooo beautiful! I just knew I could do it. Of course I needed some assistance from Dynamo! Yes, it did require construction! But, here's a sneak peak of what I'm working on.



I'll share more with you next week!

applejacks

I couldn't wait to share with you the latest soap creation.



Yummy! I'm calling it applejack! The whole house smells like apples!



And, what do you think of the round bars? I really love them! Dynamo made me this awesome round mold for my soap. The bars come out the same size as the squares (in ounces that is), but I like the variety of having both shapes. I figured that some people might like the feel of a round bar versus a square bar. It is personal preference.

Dynamo is so clever! He even assisted me with the pouring of this soap into the mold. It definitely takes two people. And, I think it turned out lovely. And, it's a great Fall scent. It's almost apple pickin' time!



I also just made some pet soap too! Once we cut that up I'll share pics with you! I can't wait to test it out on Lexi! She was going crazy over the smell yesterday. Maybe she knew it was for her!

paint + stitching + composition books = grungy journals

So, at "back to school" time I found these composition notebooks. You know...the black and white ones that we used to use in school? I guess they do still use them, but now you can find them in all sorts of colors and styles. But, I went for the cheap ones. Yes, the 40 cent/each ones!

I wanted to jazz them up so I coated the front and back covers in gesso, then put many layers of acrylic, and topped it off with some wild free-motion stitching and vintage lace! Here they are!

















I think I may have these for sale at the craft show I'm preparing for in November! I think they're fun and turn a plain notebook into prettiness! More details on the craft show soon!

Some fabulous thank you cards

I wanted to create some very special cards for some very special ladies who helped me recently. So, here they are!













And, I don't know why, but this one is my favorite!





Have a great weekend!

Recycling at the Isle of Wight County Fair

I don't talk about my job much on this blog, but since my volunteers and I worked so very hard to pull this project together and it was part of my life at home for some time as well, I decided to share some pictures from the Fair.

Each year I have varying responsibilities related to our County Fair. This year the goal was to advertise the recycling program, Isle Be Green. I had a volunteer to come to me and offer her assistance because she really liked the program and wanted to help get the word out. So, we decided to turn trash to garden treasure! We literally dumpster dived for many items you'll see in the pictures, gave them a facelift, and then repurposed them into garden art. Enjoy!



Yes, that was an old ironing board as a directional sign!



Some may say tacky, but we say beauty! Look closely for the plastic bottle chandelier!



My co-worker, Gloria, was a super awesome helper this year! She hasn't learned to avoid offering to help me at Fair time. Anything I am involved in requires manual labor, mud, rain, sweat, and exhaustion!



My co-workers collected and cleaned the labels off of all the bottles shown in the pics. Thank goodness for friends!



Dynamo made this lovely bottle tree (yes, while he had his cast on)!



This great creation was made by my volunteer JoAnne! She made this fabulous spider named "Spideroo" out of a trash can, pool vacuum hose, and reflectors we found at the dump.



He even had baby spiders made out of lighbulbs...



The screen doors were salvaged, painted, and embellished with stained glass from a local church. My other co-worker cleaned the "gunk" off the glass, which was quite a job!



The stars of the show were the plastic bag animals made by the local elementary school students. In partnership with a local VA Beach artist, the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, and Isle of Wight County Elementary Schools, students were taught to turn trash to treasure! The "guts" of these animals are plastic bags, the legs and other extremeties are made with recycled cardboard, wire, etc. and then they used paper mache to cover them. They were fantastic!

This is super hornet with his bling!



And, cardinals, lions, and bulldogs!





And penguins...



And, horses...



We also had three awesome crafts for the kids to do! Overall, it was a fun time. But, we are exhausted. And, Dynamo was so kind to come and help me all day on Saturday and Sunday with the "booth." He was a huge help! It takes a village to teach recycling let me tell you! We also got to walk around a little and enjoy a funnel cake together. He's such a trooper to put up with this for 8 Fairs now!

I hope y'all had a great weekend!

I'm back...

I promise I didn't drop off the face of the earth! I was super busy at work setting up for our County Fair. I am very pleased with the display we came up with this year and will share that with you in the next day or so. Until then, here's a journal page I finished a while ago for September!



Happy Monday!

Labor Day weekend fun!

Over the holiday weekend we visited my parents' house.

Lexi got to go to "the farm" and she had a big time! She got to eat watermelon (her favorite)!





Surprisingly, she didn't attack the watermelon when we put it on the ground. She was being quite prissy and wanted us to cut her a piece. She didn't want to get her nose all sticky, I guess. So, Dynamo had to show her how to eat it! No, he's not eating the melon, just acting!





She didn't respond too well to the demonstration, but she tried...





Dynamo finally cut her a piece and held it for her! What a spoiled dog!



Look at this face! It's the face of satisfaction!



And, mom and dad were busy cleaning out the garage and dad's collection of M&M men got a cleaning! Yes, M&M men! Lots of them. Over the years Dad has collected them. Hey! Eveyone has to have something they enjoy! Momma will NOT allow them in the house, so Daddy keeps them in the garage on shelves. The garage is Daddy's domain! So, Momma allows him to do whatever he wants (for the most part). Mom has instructed everyone to STOP purchasing them. So, oftentimes to be funny we get one to add to the collection! All you men know that women take over most everything, so you have to have one small place in the world that is yours. Well, that's the garage! At least he has one area of the garage. Mom has managed to take over some of it with her stuff just like I have in our garage.
I thought this was a hilarious picture! We were shocked to drive up and see M&M men all over the yard "drying." They got a bath with the water hose! You would have thought they were a part of a game of lawn bowling or something!



Hope your weekend went well!

Vintage photo cards

My latest project has been turning vintage family photos into greeting cards. So, I asked my mom and Grams for some photos! Here's one of the first cards I created...



This is a picture of my mom as a baby and I just loved the expression on her face! I found a quote that was just perfect as the sentiment!



I enjoyed looking through the photos. I'll post some more in a few days. My Grams is 92, so there are some really old ones I'm photocopying!The best part of all of this is learning about family!

I'm getting geared up for a Fall craft show, so I'm trying to get my product assortment/inventory together.

Some artwork...

Before the storm kicked in I had some time to finish up a journal and card for a friend whose birthday was yesterday.



I think it turned out nice!



Her name starts with a "C" so that's why I used that Scrabble letter. I wanted it to close so it served as the clasp.

Here's a view from the back...



Sorry that the photos aren't the usual. I had to take them outside since the power was out.

Here's her card...





Hope you have a great weekend!