Craft room inspiration

So I am still working on setting up my 'craft' room.  But for now here is a little teaser- my inspiration board wall. 

Bye Bye Birdie...

Looks like the doves have left.  It's probably for the best, but still as Ann Margaret would say, 'Why'd you have to go away?'

A bird in the hand....

Let me tell you a little story... 

Way back when Gabe and I lived in 'the apartment' I had this birdcage shaped votive candle holder with these little birds and leaves stuck on the top.  It looked like this:

Wedding gift from by brother.  Thanks Juan!

Well, one day I looked out onto our porch and thought it looked like maybe there was one 'extra' bird on the case.  Look closely and you can see what I'm talking about.



Blends right in, right?

Turns out a hummingbird decided to make her nest onto the cage and hide out amongst all the other fake birds.  Check it- 


Crafty!



Initially I was all- OMG! This is so cool! A hummingbird! WOW! (Seriously, I was VERY excited).  But the excitement wore off rather quickly once I realized that this little bird and her two babies would be living in my porch for the next two weeks.  Two weeks were I would be unable to water my plant, two weeks were they would be pooping ALL OVER MY PORCH! Eeeks!

I mean sure I got some pretty cool pictures, got to see the eggs hatch, and the feedings....

But the clean up afterwards was no bueno. 

I assumed she wouldn't re-use her nest, but of course I was wrong.  The next year Doodie (Oh yah, I named her Doodie) came back and had two more babies.  She probably would have kept coming back if hadn't moved to our new home.

Which brings me to these little guys.  Everyone, I'd like to introduce you to The Doveys.



Lovey and Philip Dovey

 This pair just showed up the other day and I thought, 'Oh how cool these doves are just poking around my patio.'  I even watched them through the sliding glass door for like 10 minutes while they 'made out'.  I assumed they were just here temporarily.  I was wrong.  They have been here for 3 days now and asside from Philip flying around, Lovey just sits and occasionally walks on the ground.  Thankfuly they don't flip out when I go outside to water my plants, but still... Am I destined to always have birds have babies in my patio?  I mean I don't even go out of my way to feed or water them.  C'est la vie, right?

From 2 bucks to Too Awesome!

So I was at this yard sale and saw this little piano bench which had seen better days.  But for 2 bucks I couldn't resist.  Of course, I didn't take a 'before' picture because I suck and was just too eager to sand, stain, and reupholster it.

Not too shabby!

In the end, I decided not to keep it and instead gave it to my mother.  I know, I know...I'm such a good daughter.  *Sigh* That's why I'm her favorite (Please don't mention this to my 5 other siblings).  

What to do with an old popcorn tin

So a while back my mother spotted these milk pail shaped popcorn tins at a yard sale.  They had pictures of dairy cows all over them but at a buck a pop I was like what the heck I can probably do something with them. 

Unfortunately I didn't get a 'before' picture, but I did find something similar on Google.

Notice the cows, don't they look happy in the snow?

Here is the 'after'

Some paint and a black pen will work wonders!

 All it took was some spray paint, a little bit of flat paint and a template from the The Graphics Fairy.

First I spray painted over the cow design on the tin with some primer, then I used some leftover flat paint I had lying around, then I traced the printed design onto the can (I went old school and just penciled over the back to create my own 'stencil').  Easy-peasy!

Getting Saucy!

Whilst visiting the parents this Friday, I mentioned to my dad some interest in purchasing apricots.  Patterson being the 'Apricot capital of the world' I knew I could score some pretty good 'cots.  So off we went straight to the source and picked up TWO boxes of delicious Del Puerto Gold Apricots.
                                                 

I am now the proud owner of 48lbs of Apricots.  That's right, 48lbs.  Crazy right?
The good thing is I can give some away to friends and family and still have plenty left over to try my hand at making apricot jam.

24lbs of apricots! 

After numerous internet searches I figured out that I while I didn't have the desire to create a true 'jam', I could easily create a sauce which would totally fullfil my needs.  So I have now turned some of those delicious little fruits into this:

Sweet and Tangy just bursting with Apricot goodness

Making this amazing little sauce was pretty darn easy, but getting the portion of sugar to fruit ratio down took two tries.  The first batch was a bit too sweet, so I made a second batch with a lot less sugar and just mixed in the first and BAM- instant awesome-sauce!  I mean apricot sauce.

Up next- Apricot cobbler, Apricot pockets, and of course just plain old Apricots. 

My first time...

At Paintball!  I was SUPER nervous at first, but soon found I really enjoyed shooting little balls of paint at people. 

I was also very hungry after just two rounds.  Conveniently enough, there was a Famous Dave's very close by.  Sampling the sauces was almost as fun as shooting paintballs.  I couldn't resist taking this picture of Gabe

Blogging aint easy

I gotta say this is tough!  Between work, working out, and just doing my thing I just can't seem to take the time to write a 'decen't post.  

Promise to try and do better next time!

Taking the plunge...

Well I did it.  I started a blog!  Eeek.  I'm not sure what the 'theme' will be (crafting, sewing, painting, gardening, baking, or making) but hopefully whatever this blog becomes it will be fun.