Snow Where it Rarely Snows

Once in a while I miss the snow. Not often, mind you. Especially without a garage. I would gladly take the deluge of rain in an Oregon winter than have to scrape my windows and preheat my car without in an apartment parking lot, but I do miss the gleaming sparkle of fresh powder early in the morning. You know those days; When you wake up and peek outside to see what things are doing and the air is crisp and still, the sidewalks, streets, and trees covered in a smooth sheet of white that glistens under a streetlight or as the Sun begins to rise. Oh, it is lovely. {Said while wearing sweats in a 70 degree house and contemplating making hot chocolate to enjoy the current lack of rain.}

I can appreciate the beauty of snow while also appreciating that I don't have to deal with it, right?

In keeping with my blinging up Christmas, I made this silly little sign rather spontaneously. This frame holds a simple Valentines Day sign I made last year and I just decided today that it would become part of the normal Holiday rotation.

As I often do, I started with rummaging through our recycling. This box was just the right size so I chopped it up and kept a piece that 5x7 inches.

Then began the highly technical process of painting the cardboard (paperboard? whatever it is) white and sprinkling with snow while it was still wet.

Yep, it looked about like that. I just put the school paper down to keep glue off my cutting mat. I let it dry for a while, and naturally the paper started to curl.

So I flipped it over...

... and put grad school textbooks to good use flattening it out!

Where I let it hang out for a while until it was completely dry. Then I grabbed this package of thickers:

And ended up with this:

Which was fine, but I didn't completely love it. I like the sparkle and the simplicity, and the grey letters which are more subtle in person, but I just looked at it and said "meh." Until I played around with different locations, added some glittery snowflakes, and ended up here:

Much better.

Now I've got a sparkly bit of Holiday cheer to stare at as I wash dishes.

About Me

Hello.

Nice to meet you. My name is Michelle, but a few of my good friends call me Micha. 

It's actually a nickname given to me by a client at work years ago back when I had disposable income and glamorous employment. 

I'm an "unintentional" housewife in that I really want to be working but haven't been able to find a job. For the better part of a decade, I worked in fine jewelry and have been fortunate to have my hands in multiple sides of the industry from wholesale to retail to custom design to appraising to overseas manufacturing to cutting operations to trade shows and so on. I'm a trained diamond grader and I love it so much. However, my wedding band is plain. It's not even a standard metal. I know too much to have affordable taste and I'd rather have nothing than something I will see fault in every time I look at it. (That attitude is both a blessing and a curse, btw.)

I spent 6 years as a single parent, at which time I went back to school full time to complete my bachelors degree. Squirt and I mooched off my parents while I became a high school science teacher. My area is Earth Sciences - which I actually came to love as a result of my time working with gems. Or maybe it's the other way around. I found some old report cards and it seems I've always had a knack for it. 

After graduating from college at 33 with a first grader, I worked my butt off to stay debt free, buy a house, and be on the doorstep to tenure (in an economy where most of my fellow graduates didn't get interviews) just to meet my now-husband, walk away from all of it  choose the better part, and spend my energy building our new family. 

The Hubs is in school for his PhD and I try to pass time by working towards my MS in Science Education, applying for every job opening I see, baking delectable treats, running to burn off those delectable treats, and trying to fill my crafty desires without spending any money. It's me, the Hubs, Squirt who is almost 10 and Munchie who just turned 6 and is with us part time. I dream of being a pro photographer, graphic designer, trained pastry chef, world traveller, new mother, and actually beating my husband at Just Dance 4. Dream big, I say. 

Kindly leave a comment so I can get to know you a little too. I really look forward to getting to know your story. 

{This post was prompted by the linky party over at 30 Handmade Days}

Craving Some Sparkle

I have long loved natural, rustic decor for Christmas but lately I've been needing a little more sparkle in my life. I blame it on a friend who's no longer in the Grad school world and has a lot of fun decorating her home. I'm determined to stick within my budget of $0, for a little while at least, so I tried to add a little sparkle using only what I could round up at home.

For a few years now I've had these foam cutouts from American Crafts waiting to be used:

That was my launching point. Since my tacky glue is running low, I turned to a staple in our house: regular washable school glue. Tell me I'm not the only one who stocks up on this stuff when it's on sale for a quarter...

I decided to try a couple different types of sparkle. First, was fake snow. I bought a bag of this a few weeks ago hoping to make snow globes but it hasn't happened yet. I love the mixture of textures and opacities in the bag and wanted to see if this would work.

After covering the snowflake with glue I buried it beneath a pile of "snow" and pressed down to make sure it was stuck pretty well. Then I just let it sit as a happy little haystack and dry for a few hours.

You may have seen this coming, but the snow stayed put in a bulky pile and had to be cut away for the snowflake shape to show. I don't have a picture of the cutting because I was a little all-consumed by it, but I'm sure you can imagine that part. And yes, it is very messy. I'm lucky my kids weren't home during this phase. Oy Vey. That would have been a mess and a half more than the mess I ended up with on my own.

Next, I tried a tube of silver Crayola glitter glue. My kids love the idea of those things but once it gets about halfway used they really struggle to squeeze the glue out and we have a bunch of half-used tubes hanging around. It seemed perfect, and not messy since there would be no loose glitter or snow floating around.

I found the glue really thick and tricky to maneuver so after doing this one snowflake I decided one was enough and moved on.

Which brings us to regular, fine grained, silver glitter of awesomeness. Seriously, who doesn't love a little glitter? In other news, this project got me to finally vacuum.

I love the mixed pile of glitter/snow leftovers all mixed together. You better believe I scooped that stuff into a baggie to use next time I feel like blinging something up a little.

Which ones do you like best?

I can't quite decide. I had more fun making the glitter snowflakes because the snow ones were a bit cumbersome to cut out afterwards, but I really think they are worth it. The texture is awesome from the fake snow, but the glitter bounces light around better. So, really, I like them both and keep changing my mind about which I like better. 

I mixed some into my garland just for a little bit of contrast and I really like how subtle they are. Then I used some for another project I'll show you tomorrow!

How do you feel about a little bling in your Holiday decor? I'm rapidly becoming consumed by it.

Today

Today is just one of those crazy days, that doesn't seem like it should be crazy at all. We are picking up our munchie for the Thanksgiving holiday and in typical fashion I decide that it's time to undertake a project. Never mind that I should have been doing laundry, vacuuming, or finally washing last nights dishes. Instead of getting ready to drive, I made pillows.

I couldn't help it. I was drowning in a sea of beige and needed to do something about it before the rain hits and all around me is grey.

See what I mean? Sea of beige.

A pillow back sofa makes it hard to add extra throw pillows without making things way too... Pillowy. I figured I could zip the covers off the small accent pillows and make new ones. On Monday's trip to JoAnn's I scored the decor fabrics I wanted for $10 total (3 yards in all!) and today I procrastinated my life responsibilities to get 'um done.

It's a start. The wall looks really naked now, but I like it so much better already just having just a touch of color. It still needs more. What would you add?

Make Gift Bags from Scrapbook Paper

This is one of those things I really love; making simple things just a little bit special by being homemade. At last years favorite things party, I took a very simple gift (chocolate and nail polish) and wanted it to look a little bit dressed up, so I made gift bags out of scrapbook paper to package them. It really didn't seem like a big thing to me since I do this quite often, but at the party this year (yes, one whole year later), friends were still commenting "remember those bags you made last year?" I'm a little surprised that it made such an impact but as is often the case in life, it really is the little things people remember.

With gift giving season rapidly approaching, I wanted to start getting ready for all the little things I'm going to package and figured it was a good time to write up how I do this. There are no fancy tools required. All you need is scrapbook paper or lightweight cardstock, a ruler, something to score the paper with (I've used a pen lid, popsicle stick, or the plastic transfer pen from rub on transfers), and an adhesive. I'm going to give you the measurement templates for two sizes I really like, the process is the same for both sizes.

Finished bag: 4x1x11

This size is perfect for card games, kitchen gadgets (an egg slicer fits perfectly), bangle bracelets, socks, gloves, or any number of smaller things. This is the size I use most often.

For this bag, you will score your paper according to the following template:

Finished bag: 3x2.5x10

This size is a bit more versatile since it is a little thicker. It is good for small pillar candles (up to 2.5 inches), rolled up scarves, kitchen gadgets, treats, bath & body works lotion or soap, etc.

For both bags, the process is the same. Just use the scoring template that matches the size you want. 

First, score the back side of your paper according to the template. You can see my vertical lines pretty well here, but the horizontal line is less obvious. I usually do the horizontal one first and then do all the vertical. 

Now, don't laugh. I'm going to show you how this whole scoring business usually goes down in my house: 

Yes, I'm in my pj's and yes, my dining room table is covered with miscellany. This is how I score my pages perfectly straight: I take the blade off my Fiskars paper cutter and use the cutting groove. Pressing down on a firm, skinny object (here, the side of a popsicle stick) I simply slide it down the groove and end up with a perfectly straight score line. Plus, it's got a ruler built in so I don't have to fidget with a loose one while marking my lines. 

After the lines are all scored, I fold the paper along each line. Make sure you fold the horizontal line - it makes finishing the bottom of the bag so much easier. 

Then I try to make the folds take shape. The large flat spot in the center of the paper is the front of the bag, while the narrower folds create the pleats on the side. 

Fold the paper so the two edges overlap and you end up with an accordion tube something like this. Using whatever adhesive you like (rolling scrapbook adhesive works great - but make sure it's permanent or it won't hold), adhere the paper in place.

To finish the bottom, fold the sides down as though you're finishing the side of a present lining up the score lines as you fold to keep a nice square edge. And.... you're done! Time to fill, embellish, and have quick, cute, gifts ready for the Holidays.

Chevron Inspired Clothespins

Today I had a few minutes to spare and grabbed my daughters art bucket. When I saw the clothespins, I  just had to play around with them. Add a bag of Sharpie's and this is what I came up with.

They are crazy easy, and just take a few minutes. 

Forgive me for the black & white but the creative urge seldom cares about lighting.

I truly didn't think I was going to like them - but I do - and my mind is reeling with ideas for what to do with them. They are pretty dang cute. 

If you scroll up and down really fast they look like they are moving...

Simple joys :)

Thrifted Pear Gets a Facelift

On Monday Squirt and I headed out to do a little shopping. I knew I wanted to visit the new Jo-Ann's that just opened a few miles away from us and that right next to it was a Goodwill location I had heard good things about. I didn't really scheme up a wish list since there's no telling how long kids will endure thrift stores on any given trip. As it turns out, she loved it almost as much as I did and came home with a "new" pair of rollerblades she scored for $2.50. While I wandered around I found this little pear I just couldn't live without. 

I love pears. 

Ripe pears of any variety, pear art, and last (but definitely not least) the juicy pear jelly belly of awesomeness. 

At $1.99 I had to have it, but I wasn't sure what to do with it. It had a somewhat endearing rustic appearance but I'm not much of a rustic style girl. When we got home it landed on a shelf in the living room where the hubs asked in a somewhat less than thrilled voice "What IS that thing?" He is so patient with my endless collecting of things to refurbish, but this one he just couldn't envision. I'm sure the fact that it's made of cement contributed to that. 

Looking back at it now I can see his hesitation. It looked to be caked in dirt and though I scrubbed and scrubbed it just wouldn't come off. Which meant it was time for paint. 

I started with FolkArt metallic in Antique Copper, which was an immediate improvement. 

It seemed too flat though so I started mottling different colors from my stash. Don't we all have a stash of little acrylic paints? This is when that decorative effects stuff from the background came in to play. I have LOVED that little bottle of paint. It's leftover from a wall I painted in a house way back in 2002 and there is honestly 2/3 of the bottle left. I may cry when it finally runs out.

What 'cha think? In person there is a little more variation because the different sheens (metallic, matte, gloss) that I dabbed on here and there do nice things with the light. 

I can hardly believe it's the same little pear. It's such a pretty little touch of autumn. Never underestimate the impact of a little paint and patience. 

Favorite Things

Tonight I get to go to a favorite things party. Have you been to one before? They are a serious blast. I love to hear what people like and why, and of course the time to eat treats and just hang out with friends is greatly appreciated too. The hardest part for me is picking out something that is my *favorite.*

From the time I was a little kid, I've never been able to give one answer to any strain of that question. Color? Purple, blue, and green. Food? Cheesecake, garlic bread, lasagna, ice cream, ripe nectarines, etc. Thing to do? Craft, watch movies, hike, bake, etc. There's never an easy answer. When you couple that with a price cap like $5-6, how ON THIS GREAT EARTH am I to pick one favorite thing???

I always feel like I'm cheating picking just one thing, like all the other things I really like too are getting shafted. I know that's weird. Last year I took my favorite metallic purple nail polish and my then favorite chocolate bar (Lindt Intense Orange) and felt the entire time like I was being untrue to myself by picking something so... boring. This year, I'm going with my favorite hobby: Overthinking. Only it's overthinking that is masquerading as useful objects. Ha!

In truth, this method glass cleaner really is my very favorite. I love that it smells like mint and my house doesn't have that gross chemical clean smell when I use it. It's worked it's way into my heart enough that it's pretty much all I use, even to clean my floors. Since I love other things too, I couldn't leave it at that and had to add my favorite mint tea (Trader Joes) and my favorite mint chocolate (Ghirardelli). Since that still didn't cover the gamut of my favorite things, I packaged it all with a list. Yup, a list.

In the darkest moments of my life when it's been hardest to be happy I started a habit of making lists. Wanting to keep my focus on the good things in life I would just scribble down random things I was thankful for. This wasn't a November habit, it was every single day. I quickly found that if I made myself come up with something I was thankful for first thing in the morning, my entire day went better. I used a lidded glass jar and kept it right by my front door. Next to it I kept precut strips of scrapbook paper (because everything feels better when it's pretty) and a pen so I could easily jot down a thought on the way out the door.

The first few days were hard. Before long, it was easy to come up with something and I found myself writing two, three, or five things. I turned my habit of overthinking toward thinking about why my life was great and it really helped those moments when life didn't feel great to be so much better. Since then, I've had a greater respect for my addiction to overanalysis as I've found it can be a good thing if I choose to channel it that way.

So, I naturally had to incorporate that into my favorite thing.

Packaged with the cleaner, chocolate, and tea is a list of many of my favorite things. Is it cheating? Perhaps. This is a list that makes me smile, and helps me to remember that a trait I didn't love about myself for many years can actually be one of my favorite things.

Curious what it says? Here it goes:

* brownies fresh from the oven * acts of compassion * thunderstorms on camping trips * quality over quantity * flirtation * sleeping under the stars * children bearing testimony * toads * ad jingles that stick in your head * creative IM status messages * orchids * acoustic guitar * the restored gospel * a glance, a touch, a good kiss * 80’s Cure songs * appreciating the little things * painted toenails * grilled salmon * the inevitable girly rehashing of every little moment * pesto * cuddling in bed on Saturday morning * elderly couples holding hands * Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food * closets after spring cleaning * quotes * baking cookies with my munchkin * movies that can be re-watched a hundred times and not get old * HOT showers * candlelight * being able to laugh at oneself * elegant stationery * friends who’ve seen the good, bad, and ugly but love you anyway * realization of potential * forgiveness * sea turtles * sunsets of the beautiful southwest * individuality * black & white photography * polka lessons in the park * cool mountain breezes * puppy kisses * SPF 45 * playgrounds * 2nd chances * catching crawdads in water bottles * a life of plenty * natural food stores * introspection * back scratches * children’s literacy fund * living to avoid regrets * hugs from my favorite little ones * pinterest * the opportunity to vote * education * lazy sundays * mint * crazy, but totally devoted, extended family * boots with everything * gemology * the chance to hone creativity by being bored * baby snuggles * the rare instance I beat the hubby in just dance 3 * endorphin rush * how awesome the house feels after dropping off donations * planned spontaneity * golden leaves raining from trees in autumn * kid giggles * worn out library cards * homemade pasta * kids with flour on their faces * pretending to be martha * cello * starbucks salted caramel hot chocolate * ferry rides * waterfalls * finding beauty in the little things * instagram * deep belly laughs * imagination * candlelight * beloved old cookbooks * grandma’s wrinkled hands * how small I feel when at the ocean * tide pools * optimism * love*

And that is just the beginning...

Chocolate-Streusel Coffee Cake

It's the beginning of a 5-day weekend for Squirt. Five. This morning was parent-teacher conferences and though it's always nice to have some one on one conversation with her teacher, it's also nice once it's done. I promised her that we could put her entire head in little braids since there wouldn't be a need to take them out for a few days. While we spent an hour watching some random Pokemon movie and getting that done, I really needed to smell something baking to get the morning going. There is just something awesome about the smell of something in the oven, and it was a good distraction from Pokemon.

This is something I've been wanting to make for a while. I love that it has chocolate, pecans, and coconut, but also that it isn't too sweet. It's also easy. Very, very easy. I modified it from my mom's old Betty Crocker cookbook (Copyright 1969!) which lends a sense of nostalgia as well.

Kid tested, mother approved. Just like almost anything else that has chocolate in it.

Chocolate-Streusel Coffee Cake 

1/3 cup flaked coconut
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup sugar, divided
4 tbsp. butter, melted
scant 2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup chocolate pieces, melted

Heat oven to 375. Grease a square pan 8x8x2 inches. In a small bowl, stir together coconut, nuts, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1 tbsp. of the melted butter. Set aside.

Mix flour, baking powder, salt, remaining 1/4 cup sugar, egg, milk, and remaining melted butter. Beat vigorously until well combined, then pour into prepared pan.

Spread the chocolate over the batter. Using a knife, cut through the batter several times for a swirled effect. Sprinkle the coconut mixture evenly over the top. Bake 20-25 minutes. Serve warm.

Cozy Sweater Pillow

I love my living room, even if it is a constant hodge-podge of chaos. It's the one place where our tiny apartment feels like a house and is mostly coordinated. It's where the hubs and I had furniture that matched each others when we blended our little families last summer. Grad school is teaching me to be patient and appreciate what I have now rather than being on a quest for all new things. Except boots, but that is another story.

Despite the fact that I'm pretty happy with the room, it feels like we're swimming in a sea of neutrals, which I think I'm over. I need some color in my life, especially as the winter rains start to kick in and the only color I'll see outside for months is gray.

The hubs really likes blue and so despite my own aversion to it, I snagged this pillow on clearance at Target a couple weeks ago. I like the print and that it isn't beige, but it just seems a little lonely and plain on it's own. After dreaming up all sorts of color combinations that didn't quite feel right, I realized we both like orange and an idea was born. Then I hit the thrift store, found an old sweater, and the idea was realized. Don't you just love when that happens?

Now, I just have to say that blue and orange has been my least favorite color combination of all time. I blame it on my 7th grade English teacher who was in love with John Elway and taught us grammar using sentences about the Denver Broncos. Imagine my surprise when blue/rusty orange was the first color palette to get my heart all a-flutter for this room.

Now, there are a million ways to do this, and most of it comes down to the sweater you are working with. I'll show you what I did, but this is very much a do-what-your-gut-tells-ya kind of project. I planned on covering a 16" pillow form so at the thrift store I carried a measuring tape to be sure whatever I found would actually be big enough. True to form, the one I really liked was not big enough, but it had a lot of stretch in the weave so I bought it anyway.

After snipping it up the sides and removing the sleeves, I started pinning.

The ribbed detail made it really easy to sew a straight line, so I picked which rib I was going to sew along and matched it up with the corresponding rib on the back piece. I just pinned them together but didn't cut it yet.

After pinning the sides I measured how tall the cover should be and pinned it there. I chose to leave the sweater bottom mostly open (I did stitch it a couple inches on each corner) to shove the pillow in because I figured that the finished edge would be easier to hand stitch closed than a fraying cut one.

I didn't trust myself to sew the top straight without a guide so I just snagged whichever crayola marker was the closest and marked the stitching line straight onto the sweater. Using a zig zag stitch to preserve the stretch, I sewed along the three pinned lines and then cut off the excess.

Which left me with a funky rectangle I honestly wasn't positive would work. I started to get nervous that I'd banked too much on the sweater's stretch, but shoved the pillow form in anyway.

One reason I chose to do this -even with a sweater that was a bit too small- was that I really dislike loose, floppy pillow covers. I was not excited to cover a pillow with a sweater just to have it ill-fitting and lumpy looking, and I figure that the sweater having to stretch over the pillow form actually makes it more polished looking.

Voila! Thoughts? I like the color but think it's too small for the couch. I've got 20" pillows that came with the couch I plan to recover that will be a better scale. This one will go quite nicely a our brown leather club chair, don't you think? I'm happy with it, and love that it brings a little autumn texture into our home. Now to move things around and figure out where to put it!