Go Big or Stay Home

I'm hosting craft night at my house this week & have agonized over what to choose for our project. Although our group has worked successfully for over two years, it seems that our tastes are starting to diverge a bit and as is natural, not everyone has the same taste or style. I use Pinterest to keep my project ideas in one place, and even started a board for our group to share with each other (all of us can add pins). Here are a few ideas I would have loved to choose, but I didn't think everyone would like them as much as I do.

Originally I had planned to host craft night a couple weeks ago, and chose oversized cross-stitching for the project, but the date ended up getting changed, and none of my friends seemed too excited about my craft - even though I thought it was awesome! So after thinking long and hard, and searching high and low, I decided to choose ....  mega cross-stitch art! I mean, who can argue with the awesomeness of these pieces?

All these images are of artwork created by Jessica Decker, check out her amazing work! I was tempted to copy her anchor exactly, but decided to go with something else for my first try. I liked the idea of a monogram, and was tempted by this pin.

But the letter C isn't that visually appealing to me, so I finally decided to go with the number 5, for the five people in our family. I used a 11x14 canvas, which I spray painted in a metallic champagne color, and I used hot pink mason twine from Home Depot instead of embroidery thread. It was a bit challenging, because the twine is thick and requires a wide-eyed needle, which was hard to get through the canvas. I was developing some pretty good blisters, depite my thimble use, before I had the idea to wear my yellow dish-washing gloves. I felt pretty silly, but it worked very well! Here are some shots of my project. The first picture is the design I made on the computer.

I finally convinced my sis-in-law to do a giant cross-stitch at craft night too, and I spent an afternoon last week helping her with this design. (She's a chicken nut.)

I hope these project ideas inspire my craft group friends and that they will all take on the project this week. I say, Go Big or Stay Home! Just kidding though - I hope they all come, even if they don't do the mega cross-stitch. Next week I will post some more detailed instructions for anyone who might want to try this, and hopefully I'll have the wisdom of several of my friends' projects behind me too. Wish us luck!

Mother's Day Loveliness

My Mother's Day started off with a delicious, surprise breakfast with fancy food & drinks; my family knows breakfast is my favorite meal! There were gifts, cards, and large Mama hugs. At church my sweet husband tried to divert the kids as much as possible so I could enjoy the nice program, which included two great talks, and some musical tributes to mothers. After a much-needed afternoon nap, I had a little free time before the super delicious Sunday dinner Aaron put together all on his own. He is a fabulous cook but doesn't get the chance to shine as often as he used to. This meal convinced me we should give him more opportunities! It was a lovely Sunday and Mother's Day and I felt the love of my family. I am lucky to be the mother of three handsome young men, who are growing up so fast. I am proud of their accomplishments and love them dearly!

Need Some Happiness

This afternoon I will attend the funeral of a sweet 4 year old boy from my ward. It has been an emotional and unhappy week for me and I didn't even know him well. I can not comprehend what his parents are going through, despite my own having done it. I don't think I have ever seen this boy's mother without a smile on her face, and I don't want to see it gone now. The family has sent out some messages thanking everyone for their love and concern and has talked about temples, eternal families, and Heavenly Father's Plan of Happiness for us. It gives me hope.

In case you are in need of a little happiness today too, here is a darling video I ran across this week.

Pinterest Challenge 01

I am a big fan of Young House Love, along with half the universe, it seems. This week Sherry is hosting a Pinterest Challenge: take something you have pinned and actually make it, or your own version of it. This should be a monthly challenge for me because I have so many great ideas pinned on my boards but if I never get around to actually making them myself - what's the point?
I love all the DIY jewelry pins and wanted to post about a project I did lately. When it was my turn to host my monthly craft group, I chose painted bead necklaces. I made one for myself, then one for my sister's birthday and one for my neice for Christmas. I loved this for my craft group because everyone could personalize their necklace how they liked: different lengths, different sized beads, different color schemes: monochromatic, ombre, multi-colored.

I was inspired by Kristina Klarin necklaces, which she sold on Big Cartel and then through Anthropologie. She now has her own site, House of Kami. The necklaces are amazing - hand-crafted, original, fabulous pieces and I would buy several if my budget allowed. Colored bead necklaces are no new thing, but I love Klarin's color mixes and how she makes multi-layer pieces. Click on each piece to go to the best source. (As I said, Klarin no longer sells thru Big Cartel and Anthro.)

Then I found these other pins to add to my inspiration board, and some of these blogs have tutorials too - not that you need much help to paint and string. Click on each image to go to the original source.

So for our craft night we used waxed cotton cording and hand-painted all our beads with craft paint and small brushes. Spray-painting also seems to work well, especially if you are going with all one color. I bought lots of sizes of wooden craft beads, up to 3/4" inch. Most of us with longer necklaces just tied them off so they can slip over the head, but if you have a shorter length you would need some kind of clasp - lots to choose from at craft stores. And most of my craft group chose to spray glossy acrylic over the top to protect and add a nice shine. Here are some of the (mostly) finished products.

A New Project

I love our "formal" living room. I never thought we needed or wanted one, but now that we have one we use it so much. I think much of our successful use of the room stems from it's location and our floorplan. We have a continuous loop from foyer to family room to eat-in-kitchen to dining room to living room. And the boys run that loop often. We use it for reading, playing games, spreading out large sets of toys that need floor space, entertaining, and just relaxing. We have a couch and a loveseat and that works perfectly for our family but anytime someone else is over I always wish we had more seating. The dining room is part of the same room, so we have all those chairs, and we use the piano bench when we have to but I have been keeping my eye out for a couple of matching chairs to add to the mix. And recently at Saver's I found them.

Perfect wingback lines, classic legs, and comfy cushions - still in good shape despite the dirty exterior. Truth be told: I love the flame stitch pattern! And I don't completely hate the color. It matches our rug perfectly, which is unfortunate since I'm not fond of the rug & would like to get rid of it. But it also matches the pink in our artwork, which matches the green in the couches. But eventually I'd like to replace those couches too so we have a lot of scheming to do.

I have convinced myself that I can recover these chairs at home, after reading a bunch of posts like this, this, and this. I certainly can't afford to have them professionally done, so we'll be on the hunt for fabric soon. When my Mom asked what my husband wanted for his last birthday, I convinced him that his fondest wish was for new chair fabric. And the next month I asked my Mom for the same thing for my birthday so between her contributions and a little scrimping of our own we will start shopping soon. And I told Aaron that what I wanted for my birthday is for him to go fabric shopping with me. (I'm sure that gift will be coming along soon - 5 months later!) I have no idea what we're looking for... but I know I want a pattern, and probably a bolder color choice. Now if we can only figure out what that color might be.

We need to come up with some overall design decisions for our living room; things like color and style. I started Pinterest boards for ideas for the chairs and the entire room. Any suggestions?