Coffee and Cross Stitch

Non-traditional Halloween Smalls | Cross Stitch

Plum Street Samplers is quickly becoming one of my favorite designers.  Paulette has been coming up with some super cute designs recently, and I've had to grab every single one of them.

One of her graphs which came out last year (but I didn't get it until this year) is called "Stranded Jacks".  It's five different Halloween smalls, which can be stitched as one piece all in a row, or each individually as smalls.  I chose to do them each individually.

They're not your typical Halloween graphs, that's for sure, but they are super cute.

They're not named individually, so I've been naming them as I go.

This one I just called "31 October", but I feel like it needs something more...

(I'm semi-obsessed with that anchor, btdubs....)

This one I named "The Pumpkin Sails at Midnight"...

And then this one, I named "Merwitch Floats Over Pumpkins"...

Wicked, cute, right???  They all have traditional Halloween elements, but then that flair of the open sea.  Who knew this could be so cute & clever?!  

I have two more to stitch up, then I'll finish them as smalls and display them....somewhere....no idea where....

(PS - Paulette is having a Christmas stitch-a-long, if you're interested in joining!  Click on the link for her blog above!)

Shadowbox Fun | Scrapbooking

Wedding invitations can be absolutely gorgeous.  We spend all this money for invitations, and then sadly, they all get tossed into the trash.

One of the things I've been doing recently for my friends is creating shadowboxes with their wedding invitation and a picture.   I've done this for my sister, my friend Danielle, and my friend Erin's brother and sister-in-law (if you remember - they're the ones who got married in a CASTLE), and they've all turned out super cool, each one unique to the recipient.

My friend, Jamie, sent out beautiful inviations in black and white, complete with ribbon.  So, I set out with a black shadowbox, and was able to adorn it with multiple colors, since each of her bridesmaids had a different color gerbera daisy bouquet. 

I chose a Core'dinations black for the base...which had pink inside.  I sanded it, and viola.

The pink came right through :-)

I took my Heidi Swapp Color Shine sprays and some of her Color Magic flowers, sprayed, and stuck 'em in between the two pieces of the invitation on the one side ~~

I'm still obsessed with the gold Color Shine, btdubs.  Sprayed it all over the top of these flowers.  I'd've sprayed it all over the damn place, but I refrained.  Love that stuff so much.

On the other side, I put a picture of Jamie & Rich, plus the ribbon and monogram that held the invitation together.

The "Love you" card on top of the picture is from the Project Life Midnight Edition.  Love those PL core sets - they can be used with anything, not just PL!!

And here's the whole thing!  Yay!  I was leery of having too much negative space, but couldn't figure any embellishments that didn't make it look overdone, so I just left it.  

There you have it, folks.  Another fun shadowbox by yours truly, preserving another memory of a wonderful day.

Happy  Friday!  Enjoy the weekend!

 

Wedding Shower Goodies

We all spend so much time with our coworkers, so it's only right that you have some fun during the day.

In our office, we sometimes have too much fun, but when you become good friends with your coworkers, it's bound to happen.

Last week, we were able to celebrate our friends Angela & Joe's pending nuptuals (they got married this past Saturday - yay!) with a combined work bride/groom shower.  Yes, Ang & Joe both work in our office.  In fact, Joe works on my team and Ang works on my sister's team.

Ang is my baking buddy - she worked at a bakery during college, and makes crazy amazing cakes like this one that she did for another coworker's baby shower.  A.MAY.ZING.  We always seem to find ourselves chatting about opening a bakery one day.   

Oh, to dream.

Anyways.

My sister was in charge of most everything, but a bunch of us chipped in to help out with decorations and baking and buying gifts.

I put my Cricut to work, and made this banner for the event --

Her colors were champagne and black, so I did a cream-ish color with the black background and lettering.

As for baking, I made these little maple cakelettes ---

I didn't make these gluten free (I decided to back off the baked goods...I'd inhaled an entire orange spice pumpkin loaf earlier in the week....), but they were gone in no time, so I'm assuming they were fabulous :-)

Erin brought in these cupcakes for the event --

Wicked cute, amiright?!  

Since we were doing a combo bride/groom shower, we had to have a few things that were more manly, so my sister made these a-freaking-dorable cupcakes ---

OK!!!  And they were chocolate with some sort of Irish cream icing with beer batter or somethingorother.  I don't know.  They looked and smelled beyond delish.  

Here's the dessert table in all its glory -

There were also pumpkin oreo bites which somehow didn't make it into the picture, but they also looked devine.  I'm obsessed with pumpkin this time of year, so I was drooling all over the place when they walked into the door.  

Ahem.

No shower is complete without gifts!  We had a table set up with all the gifts, wrapped all nice and pretty from Bed Bath and Beyond for them both to open --

Yes, that one gift is wrapped in dish towels.  Eco friendly, and a great idea!

It was a team effort, led by my sis & Erin.  We had a great time, and Ang & Joe were extremely grateful.

Now they're in Hawaii, relaxing and drinking passion fruit smoothies.  Heavy on the rum.  And I'm totally jealous.

Ang & Joe - love you guys - I hope your honeymoon is off to a fantastic start!  Enjoy every second :-)  

Much love ~~~

Refinishing Part I

I need another hobby like I need a hole in the head.  Most of you know I cross stitch, scrap, and sew.  However...I've recently become intrigued with this whole furniture refinishing idea.  Enter my grandmother's secretary, which I'd originally planned on selling, but then decided, "Hey!  I can just refinish it and use it!"

Now, in my head, this was going to be simple.  Paint, wax, done.  Easy peasy.

It was easy, I just wasn't prepared for just how long it takes to do a piece of furniture which I'd grossly underestimated in size.

This is a before picture ---

It's a cool piece, right?  I just wasn't sure what to do with it.  I had the bottom piece in my living room, and it didn't fit right.  Then I moved it to the dining room, and it just doesn't belong there.  So, I was in a limbo state with this piece of furniture.  Which just sounds weird, but now I'm picturing doing the limbo on a beach somewhere tropical with a fruity drink in half of a coconut.  

God I need a vacation.  

Anyhooter.  One day, when I was at my friend Sue R's house for a stitch fest, I asked her about refinishing furniture, since she's a pro at it these days.  Sounded easy enough - paint, wax, sand, wax, done.

So, after talking with Sue, I went and got these --

They sat on my dining room table for a solid two weeks before I was able to find more than 30 seconds to string together and get to work.

Again, for those of you who are thinking of doing this, it's not hard - just time consuming depending on how big the piece is that you're finishing.  Plus, I was really taking my time, making sure everything was right before moving on.  Considering it's, you know, my first time attempting this type of thing, and what better to do it on than a giant secretary.  Go big or go home, right?!  

Ahem.

The above pic is of the top and bottom pieces, drying in the sun.  Good ol' frog tape kept the paint off the glass on the doors.

Then, the next day, it was time for the wax ---

I apologize for the shadow, but you can at least see the dark wax, and how it brings out the variations in the paint strokes and the wood.  I sanded some of the edges and corners after the clear wax and before the dark wax, to kinda give it a rustic look.  As much as a secretary can be rustic.  Ya know.

This is a close up of the front of the bottom piece, which flips out to become the desk ---

So cool.

I just have to finish waxing the drawers and the insert for the desk, and I'll be able to move the entire piece back inside. 

Then, you'll get to see what I intend to use this piece for, since it's not going into my home office.

Stay tuned for Part II!!

Much love ~~~