It's been an interesting week.

It started out so nice, you know? We had mostly sunny skies although we did get some weird clouds...

Even so, it was hot and humid and the flowers and plants were LOVING it...

The first indication of something weird was from the honeybees.

There's a honeybee nest in the oak tree... (inside that lump)

They apparently got too big for their oak lump or there was a bloody coup because they swarmed...

Difficult to see, but notice how the sky has that "film grain" look? Those are all bees. And no, I'm not a crazy person and I don't care if they allegedly won't hurt you when swarming; I took this photo through a window.

Once they calmed and clumped I ventured outside to snap this one. A solid clump of bees is pretty darn freaky. Pretty much any small thing en masse is pretty freaky though.

Thankfully they didn't all leave, there are still bees going in and out of the oak. With all the problems wild bees have been having lately I'm very grateful to have my very own hive to pollinate my garden and flowers.

Thursday I went to visit my friend Karen and her just-weeks-old daughter (whose middle name is Molly...after me!) and while there was treated to a freak lightning storm and a tornado warning. Tornadoes are incredibly rare here so I was freaked. out. Can I use the word "freaked" or "freak" a few more times in describing this? You bet! But I won't. :)

And tomorrow my babies are graduating. They were my first real class and I had them three different years on and off since they were about 13 and now they are graduating from high school. *sniffles galore!*

*sigh*

Here's hoping next week is a little more calm.

An answer to a question - the headband version!

Most of the time my projects start out as "I don't know what I'm doing but I'm going for it!" And lucky for me they usually turn out. My pin-up hair clip seemed to catch quite a few eyes (I know I was pretty happy with it!) but I had a question about doing something like that on a headband. The Y and R Lady and I emailed about flowers, bows, and feathers so I came up with a plan to do all three.

Ages ago I bought a three pack of thin headbands and they have been sitting in my bathroom cupboard pretty much since. I think I wore one or two of them a couple times. I decided to dust one of them off for the flowered headband but I still have two left! So I dug out another. The pattern was not so much my favorite but there's bound to be one of those in every multi-pack. Just fine since I planned to cover it with ribbon anyway.

I chose a grosgrain ribbon just wider than the headband. I prefer using grosgrain ribbon for a lot of my projects because it seems to handle gluing and such much better.




I only put glue in a line down the middle of the headband; it will squish out enough to the edges you won't need more than that.





It may still get a out of line (if you apply it by looking at it from the back it helps) so if you place your fingers in this position:


And lightly run your fingers along the ribbon edges while the glue is still very much wet, I found it straightened out just perfect.


While I was waiting for it to dry I prepped a rose to go on by clipping off the back, which connected it to the stem, removing the greenery (it just wouldn't stay on), and applying a piece of ribbon with tails.





Then I had to wait for both things to dry so I made a bow.

If you loop your ribbon like so...





trim the tails and glue and hold...

wait until dry and then loop a small piece around the middle and glue...

It makes a cute bow.

Which I oddly didn't take a photo of when it was finished...erm...next!


When the bow and flower were done drying I decided to...

This is a little crazy, just to warn you, but I had so many ideas to work with!


...add velcro!

You'll notice I cut the tails off the rose ribbon. If I were ONLY attaching the rose, I would leave the tails on and wrap them around the headband and glue to secure. Simply gluing the flower directly seems like it wouldn't have enough stability.

I also added velcro to the headband (duh) - please make sure you put the same side of the velcro on the embellishments and the opposite side on the headband.

Now you've got options! Albeit they are kinda weird but I wanted to try both and didn't want to glue things onto my last remaining untouched headband.

Don't feel like a bow today? How about a rose? Riiiiiiiiip!

Tada! Crack me up.



Of course if later you wonder, "what was I thinking?!" you can glue a feather into the velcro and wrap that spot with ribbon and you won't even see it.

(Feather courtesy of my neighbor's peacock's molting) If you actually do it, and not just pretend to like I did for the photo, it will look better, but you get the idea.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Mom!

Isn't she too cute in that photo?

Yes, on June 2, 19*coughcough* the little girl was born who would one day be my mom and the woman who taught me to be crafty and creative.

And she must have some good kind of birthday wishing because she got the rain she was hoping for out of a completely dry forecast!

The cake plate catch-all I made her was a hit and I will show you her other gift a little later this week!

Goodwill transformation

Thrifty Decor Chick is having a Goodwill party! When you're done here be sure to check out the other fab projects!

I loooooooooooooove Goodwill. I'm always telling everyone it is my favorite entertainment because you will find things there that make your face turn inside out it is so weird. Or ugly. Or something. But it is by far my favorite bookstore and by far my favorite place to find those "diamonds in the rough."

I recently found these at one of the stores near me. They were .99 cents apiece and they are nice, solid wood with hangers on the back.

I'm kinda hoping there were more plaques and they got bought already. What in the world are these letters supposed to spell? When I look at them together I keep thinking "as is" and "Asia." Huh. Who knows.

I sanded them a bit and coated them with matte black spray paint. I had this gorgeously patterned paper to put on the face of the plaque but...I put off applying the paper for a few days because I have this little paintbrush to apply my decoupage glue and I was not thrilled about the idea since I figured it would wrinkle my paper anyway. Then Thrifty Decor Chick did a similar project in which she mentioned using spray adhesive - head slap! - I have a can of that stuff and I didn't think to use it! So really it was fate I hadn't finished the project yet.

It took me all of three minutes, tops, to glue and affix them.

Then I took a damp paper towel, gently dapped a wee bit of black stamp ink and rubbed it over the paper - making sure all my motions were in one direction - and that pretty embossed pattern really popped.

I think they shall be gracing the wall in my bathroom soon.

Project total: around four dollars

(we have to round up a bit since I used the fancy scrapbook paper)

Check out these other transformations: totally hideous vase and the creepy kid watering can.

Sunday Shout Outs

If SITS can do it, so can I!

The magic of etsy...where else can you find such fabulous stuff being made by crafty folk the globe over?

A couple months ago I hearted a shop called Pretty Perch because I'm having this slight flower obsession lately and she has all kinds of lovely flower items. Last week I finally read her shop announcement and noticed she has a blog! It just so happens I visited during a giveaway and it just so happens I won! My prize was...

Aren't these fabulous?! They are even more pretty in real life. Love them! A perfect summer accessory. So stop by her shop and give things a look, I'm sure you'll find something you like.

My other recent etsy purchase was this lovely handbag from Syl Syl

It's the perfect bag! It holds my wallet, my glasses case, my "just in case" pouch (filled with every goody imaginable) a book and a bottle of water! And it's not like this is a huge purse either. It's a magic Mary Poppins bag that seems to be "practically perfect in every way." (Also, note the floral print continuing my flower obsession)

So not only am I thoroughly please with all my swag but I supported fellow crafters, and I have to say that is a very nice feeling.