Button Wreaths

Here's the button wreath I saw in a magazine a few weeks ago. I got busy and made some this week. It has been fun crafting again. I'll store these until the winter show I do at Riveria. Step by step instructions follow if you want to give it a try.

First dig through the buttons and find six or seven to form a circle. Then look for smaller accent buttons and start laying it out until you have the combination you like best.

Glue them together and layer some on top. Glue gun did not hold so I switched to super glue.

Let them dry and choose string or ribbon for the bow.

Here's some of the finished product.

It's getting there.

I hadn't been out to the shop in over a week so I stopped by this afternoon to see what was going on. This shot is looking across the back end of the shop. This will be "living space". We will be in there until the house is built. Then it will be an extra man cave of a room for Gareld to hang all this trophies in. A sportsman room I guess you could call it. There is a bathroom, a bedroom, a TV room, and a large game cooler. The framing is the main focus now.

NOW GET TO IT

I planted this when we moved in this house Dec. 3. It finally bloomed last week. It was fun to watch it change everyday. I bought another one on clearance after Christmas and have it started now. Little by little we can make a big change. I am working on my word: "create".

My first attempt at getting my crafty on this year. I got out the paint. I saw gray pots at Expo last October and have had this paint since I got back from there so I started painting just to get the juices flowing.

Here are the treasures I found yesterday at the antique show and the antique malls in Kalama, WA. It was great to get out of town and look for fun things. There were lots of sales in the booths so I found some bargains. All this is sitting on a great blue stool I got for only $6. It was 70% off! Notice the funnels. Did anyone see the cute Christmas trees made by stacking funnels? I bet a lot of people out there did so now they will be hard to find or priced really high.

I saw these pretty jars at a craft store and thought I could come up with a variation of the idea using real keys or costume jewelry.

I have two years of photos stuffed in a drawer just waiting to be organized and put in a album. It's a good way to record what happens in our lives. I don't keep a journal so this is my substitution. I had better lay these all out while I have the room.

I saw a really cute craft made with buttons. I was looking through all my Christmas magazines and books before I put them away. I decided to go get my buttons out of storage and make up a few. I will post them soon. It was hard not to buy more buttons yesterday but as you can see I have quite a few to get me started. Happy Crafting!

I NEED A FIX

As I mentioned before my antiquing has taken a hit along with my creativity. I need an antique show fix! October was a long time ago. I decided to give up my March show for something better, ( a trip to see Wyatt in NY), so when the chance to go to this one came up I was all over it. Down and back in one day and I can't wait until 4:00 am tomorrow to hit the road.

SQUISH

My dumpster diver hubby brought these home for me yesterday and you can see why they are needed! Anytime it is warm the mud oozes out at the property. I told you about the cement truck getting stuck after he sank in the mud. Well we had rock put in from the gate to the shop. One thing we hate to buy is rock considering how many rocks are out there already. Anyway, that rock drive is slowly sinking into the mud! It is a sloppy mess this week. Progress is happening though. The electrical inspection passed and we now have a power pole and power in the shop to run the compressor and other tools. Lights will soon follow.

WHAT'S IN A WORD?

A friend of mine at work told me about something her and her daughters are doing instead of resolutions. They each chose a word that they wanted to focus on for the year. One word that they could develop goals around to enhance their lives. I thought it was an awesome idea so I spent a little time thinking about my word. I chose "create". People always tell me how creative I am. For the last two years my creativity has been packed away with the boxes from my craft room. Since we decided to sell the house everything wasn't readily available for me to get to. I am two years behind on my scrap booking again. No sewing, stitching, painting or gluing. I miss the craft nights I had with my friend Tonie and others. Even my antiquing has taken a blow. I'm about to change all that. This year I am going to create some wonderful things and I will share them with all of you. What's your word?

GARELD'S SHOP

Sitting pretty in the snow.

Work in progress.

The shop is coming along. It will also have a cupola on top. I am going to have my nephew, Mark (McLain) make me a weathervane. Every saturday Gareld gets to help. Look at him in his new Carharts!

Framing up the backside.

The view out the window looking toward Aunt Della's. There will be a room on the back of the shop for all Gareld's hunting trophies and hobbies.

Putting in a back door. There's Grandpa Tony working away day after day.

Covering up the newly poured concrete to protect it from the cold. Jeff has been a big help.

CHRISTMAS PAST

Christmas morning is long gone now and I really missed being able to share photos on my blog with all my family and friends near and far. I am getting caught up so here you go.......

There's this big built in book shelf that has 5 big shelves. It was a perfect spot to pull together a holiday scene with silver, cloches, Christmas trees, balls, books, stained glass and more.

I know Christmas is over but I wanted to share a few pictures of my holiday decorations. I used things left over form my antique show and I found some neat "new " items at the local thrift stores.

There's Gary in his favorite spot. I have since put curtains on those big windows.

I love having a "great room". The kitchen and family room are one big space and that island there behind the couch is huge. It was perfect for baking Christmas cookies. I picked out all the black appliances because the counters were already black. They look good in there.

The counter space in this kitchen is huge. There was lots of room to decorate. In fact it was hard to fill up the one room we live in. Living here gives me an idea of how I would like my new kitchen and living space to flow together. Morgan requests that we have lots of counter space. All the kids want a room big enough for everyone to gather in at the same time and at the same table for holidays and special events. I need to get pouring over all the house plans and start narrowing down the choices.

I didn't want to get lots of stuff out of storage so I used christmas cards on my tree this year. It was simple and still pretty. I put it up on a sunday after church without watching my traditional decorating the tree DVD's so I kind of felt like something was missing to my experience.