Flighty

I have been so busy this year between traveling for work and keeping up with my family.

I am going to try to keep up with the blog from here on out....

I have been getting a lot of orders for my BIRD IN A CAGE light fixtures lately. It's exciting! I

love making them, and trying new ideas out on each new endeavor. Last week, I made a mobile version of the light fixture (minus the light!) for a woman in Virginia who is decorating her

newborn's nursery in a bird theme. Right up my alley!

And as soon as I finished that one, I had a man in Ohio who ordered the three-light version. He is surprising his family with it by having it installed in their playroom before his wife and daughter return home next week. I am furiously putting the finishing touches on it tonight so that it is ready to mail first thing tomorrow morning!

knots and knobs

About a month ago, I bought a 60" long piece of knotty pine wood that had once been a wall from a barn in Kansas. It had Great Stuff filling the knots and it was pretty ugly.

Perfect! Just what I was looking for.

We loaded it into the backseat of my little sedan, along with my daughter. The ends of the board hung out of both windows, and my poor teenager had only a few inches of wiggle room for the next 45 minutes while we drove to Paris to visit my folks.

It sat in my dad's shop for a month.

Over the next month, I pieced together some old, oval doorknobs and assorted backplates. I Gorilla-glued these together. Then, I screwed them all onto the board. After attaching some hangers to the back and digging out the foam insulation that was clogging up all those beautiful holes, I was ready to hang my new headboard in our bedroom.

Total cost: $26.

I love it!

Great Things

For the next few days I'm gonna be giving some shout-outs to some great fellow Etsy entrepreneurs.

There are hundreds of thousands of shops on Etsy. You can find anything you want there--handmade or vintage. They even sell sweets and vegan treats. Yummy!

So, today I'm singing the praises of: wish it was sunday. (Yes, that is a link. Try it!!)

This shop is all about protective cases.

For the Kindle, Nook, laptops, iPads, phones. You name it. Handmade. Customized if you ask

.

She made me a padded case for my new Macbook Air. It's amazing!! The fabric on the outside is nature-themed with vines, a stag, spiderweb, birds, butterflies, etc. The inside is contrasting fuschia white little white polkadots. And since I didn't want the button-clasp that the original came with, she made mine with a zipper. It has a sweet pink ribbon sewn on to act as a zipper pull.

I had a fear of crumbs and junk in my purse getting into a button-closed side and destroying my new baby. Can you really blame me?

Here's mine:

I'll Procrastinate Tomorrow

After a loooooong hiatus, I am back to my blog.

I missed you, blog.

*smooch*

I have been so busy lately! I lost my job after taking care of the most adorable boys for 3 and half years, found a new one (love, love, love this family), traveled with the new family for a month, and now I have finally settled back into a normal routine!!

Oh, and we have been going through the process of being approved for an exchange student!!! (Can't wait to meet her through Skype in the next few weeks!)

I've been planning out the next month's worth of posts, so I am going to start tomorrow.

Nothing like a little procrastination!

Maggots

Today's post is not for the squeamish.

Or the kind.


It's only for those of you with control over your gag reflex and a devilish streak.

I was making dolmades this afternoon for our dinner tonight. If you don't know what dolmades are, they're a ground meat (usually lamb, but I Americanized them with beef) and rice mixture rolled up in a grape leaf. Good eating!! Anyway....

I had 1/2 of the ground beef in the mixing bowl with the rice and various other ingredients. The other 1/2 of the meat was still in the syrofoam tray beside me. As I was squishing the mixture with my hands, some of the rice flew out of the bowl and onto the beef on the kitchen counter.

Later, as I was putting the extra, unused beef into a ziploc to freeze for later use, I noticed that the rice kinda looked like maggots in there. Ewww. Then, the first thought in my head was to leave the rice in there. Why? Because I am leaving for a month next week and my hubby is going to be the one cooking dinners. And wouldn't it be funny if he got this bag of meat out to use for the spaghetti sauce one night while I'm gone, and he noticed what appeared to be maggots in it!!! *Evil grin* Of course, I won't be here to set him straight and he would freak out!!

But I didn't. I picked the rice out like a nice wife, and let out a sigh of disappointment as I was putting it in the freezer.

XOXO

Happy Valentine's Day!

I am not into buying big presents or store-bought cards, so I made Mr. Rust Magnet and Baby J my own cards on Photoshop. I love heart-felt, homemade sentiments. I hope they do, too!! I wasted so much cardstock trying to get these printed just right--I am ashamed to admit it. (All those test sheets did at least make it into the recycle can. That has to count for something....right?)

His:
Hers:


I hope all of you are feelin' the love today!!

a 1000 words

This has been a three-week long project, and I finally got it all put together.

I started with this:

Blocks of wood (maybe candle holders??)

Vintage reflector numbers (a Canton purchase MONTHS ago)

Broken photo holder ($0.99 at GW)

And this is what I made today after drilling and painting and sanding!:

They are for sale in my Etsy shop!