The Linen Closet

Here is a real sign that spring will be here soon. It shows up just like crocuses and robins: the inexplicable drive to tidy up odd areas of your house. For me, I have looked at jumbled linen closet for TOO LONG.
I yanked everything out, refolded it the correct way and put it all back.

You would think that we were the Duggar Family instead of only five of us with all of these towels. Where do they all come from? I think they divide and multiply like amoebas.

My Mom makes these great seasonal pillowcases for all of my kids. They love them and it's a fun way to decorate in your child's bedroom for a holiday. Right now I have Easter's pillowcases on their beds. I first started out putting them in a shoebox but there are 3 pillowcases for each child per holiday. That adds up to a way too big pile of pillowcases to stuff into a shoebox! I commandeered this plastic bin that was housing old photos to put them in when not in use.

Ta Da! All neat and tidy. Now, on to Linen Closet #2! And my sewing room closet? That is too scary to even think about yet!

checked off

Sending your procrastination confession out into cyberspace can be a great motivator to start checking tasks off of your list. Here is Miss K. on her new ladybug bean bag. Note the small ladybug in her hand.

Here are the two Goodwill shirts on which I used Celtic Mommy's freezer-paper stencil tutorial. They came out really nice, almost like a real silkscreen! I cannot decide whether or not to keep them or sell them. Here is my once favorite yellow t-shirt. I spilled coffee dead center in the middle so it's getting a little paint too. I'll post when it's done. Now, back to finishing off that list!

Unfinished Business

A To Do List

My friends and family often ask "What are you working on?" Often, the answer is this blog, networking, some more networking...I think a fairer question might be "What are you NOT working on?" I have a whole host of unfinished projects. Some of them only still in the "Yeah, I ought to do that!" stage. There is that old joke that goes around about Dr. Phil saying you ought to finish things to feel a sense of accomplishment--then the writer goes on to say she finished a whole bottle of tequila, a box of Godiva chocolate, a novel she's been reading etc. But all joking aside, once I took a bit of inventory, I realized--Dang! I've got lots of unfinished business!
First, and most avoided on this list is the tidying up of my sewing room. Right now 75% of the stuff in there is Christmas decor that needs to be sorted and put away. Usually I go in there to get supplies. After clambering over mountains of stuff, I grab my scissors/pens/thread and hightail it out of there. That room is pretty overwhelming. I don't know where to start with it so I don't.


There are so many cool ideas I get from the internet (maybe I ought to stay offa there?) I found this cute skirt pattern by Oliver & S on the mmmcrafts blog. You use a ribbon for the hem, it's really simple and so cute! I'm going to make one for my daughter out of this pink frog fabric, hopefully before summer has come and gone.

I saw this really neat diy bind your own mini book tutorial--can't find the link to that so I am improvising. I found these charming grommets at Wal-mart and the covers are going to be made of a recycled cardboard box. I'll glue some of my original art over them to make it paisleyfied. If it comes out half decent I'll offer them in my Etsy store.

There are projects I started long ago and forgot about; it's been buried under other stuff I forgot about. I started this ladybug beanbag chair (also for my daughter) before Christmas. Perhaps I'll get it done for her birthday....

Another vague idea I had was felt appliques--they look great if they're done right and you can sew them on clothes or purses or whatever. This is an attempt that I've made at one. It needs some tweaking. I also took a stab at sewing in a circle which you can see if you look very closely at the denim piece in the corner. Not sure what I'll do with that but it's got potential!

Recently, I discovered ACEOs. This stands for Art Cards Editions and Orignals. They're the same size (and idea) as baseball cards only instead of athletes, you put your own artwork on them. I just bought one from TRMack Studio just to see what a good one looks like and because it is an easy way to purchase some great artwork without paying a small fortune. I'll be offering these and more ACEOs in my Etsy Shop too.

Found these two shirts at Goodwill. The one in front I HAD to buy. I really can't resist anything periwinkle. It's a sickness. My plan is to paint some small paisleys on them using this freezer paper technique I found on Celtic Mommy's blog.

Sometimes I know when I should just leave the creating to people who do it really well. I had been toying with the idea of making a polymer clay covered pen for myself. I really wanted a paisley one (did I mention that I like paisley?) But then I found Silver Fairy Creations Etsy shop and she does a great job. The one on top (guess which one) I had custom made--isn't it cool?

So I have my work cut out for me don't I? (At least I got to the cutting out stage!) Now the next thing to do is decide which project to finish first.

Happy St. Patrick's Day and good luck with finishing all your own To Dos :)

Watermarking--a wee tutorial

It's a sad truth. There are unscrupulous people out there who will simply right click and save a picture off of the internet and then paste it onto their site as their own. Or, worse yet, they upload it to Zazzle or Photobucket or similar, make a bunch of things with YOUR image and sell them. It happens. You don't want it to be your picture. Now, watermarks can be Photoshopped out, but it is a long arduous process and even if you remove it, the picture will never look as good as the original. It's a very good chance that someone who can't be bothered creating their own art to sell isn't going to have the time or skills to bother with all of that. Fortunately, adding a watermark to a picture is a lot easier than removing one!

Step one: Open your picture in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. You can also use Corel Draw. Immediately, before you do anything else, save the file under a new name.  Call it "picturewtrmk" or "picturecopy" something that indicates that it's not your original scan.  Now you can start editing.   Down in the bottom of your layers menu, there is a little icon that looks like a paper pad. Click to make a new layer.

Step two: From your tools menu, click on the "T" to make a text layer. It will show you the bounding box over your picture. Adjust the size of your text so that it is as wide as your picture.

Step 3: To get that copyright mark, open your character map. You can find it in your start menu under accessories. Select and copy the mark. Not all fonts have this mark so you may just want to use a regular font like Arial.

Type in your mark.* I usually prefer the Blackadder font, but I used Arial here so you can see it better. I also use white text because it fades well and blends with your photo rather than compete with it.

Now set your opacity to about 50%. If you have a lot of busy detail in your pic like this one, you may want to set it higher. Fiddle with it until it looks the way you want it to.

You want it to be visible, but not look like it was stamped over your picture. Sort of like it was drawn on there with water (hence the name.)


Then, flatten your image by choosing 'merge down' from the layers palette and save. 
Viola!
And that's it.

This is what the US copyright office has to say about the subject:
* Form of Notice for Visually Perceptible Copies
The notice for visually perceptible copies should contain all
the following three elements:
1 The symbol © (the letter C in a circle), or the word
“Copyright,” or the abbreviation “Copr.”; and
2 The year of first publication of the work. In the case of
compilations or derivative works incorporating previously
published material, the year date of first publication of
the compilation or derivative work is sufficient. The year
date may be omitted where a pictorial, graphic, or sculptural
work, with accompanying textual matter, if any, is
reproduced in or on greeting cards, postcards, stationery,
jewelry, dolls, toys, or any useful article; and
3 The name of the owner of copyright in the work, or an
abbreviation by which the name can be recognized, or a
generally known alternative designation of the owner.
Translation: You write "copyright, the © or Copr." on it, it's yours for the rest of your life plus 95 years after. For more information you can go to: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.pdf

Mutant Cookies!

This is what happens when you don't put the right amounts of ingredients into a cookie recipe. Rich says this is what Jabba the Hutt would look like if Jabba were a cookie. But the good news is that they've got chocolate and butter in them so it's impossible for them to taste bad even if they aren't the prettiest cookies....

Tools of My Trade

I just acquired 2 new colors, Magenta and Avocado. The best thing about a new Prisma marker is how much ink comes out. You barely have to touch the point to the paper and it's colored. This is one of my paisleys in progress. I don't have a name for this one. I'm leaning toward "pink and brown paisley." But I'm willing to take suggestions about a name for it.

They make me happy just to look at them, all those colors. My children covet my markers. They are always asking to use them. I am always saying 'no.' Katie and Collin both have said that they'll buy their own when they are old enough.

My top 10 favorites in the Prismacolor line are: Slate Blue, True Green, Apple Green, Rhodamine, Deco Yellow, Lilac, Mulberry, Scarlet Lake, Deco Blue and Ballet Pink. In that order.

I am working on designing a give-away bookmark but haven't found the perfect idea for it yet. I'm sure it should incorporate both Periwinkle and Paisley though :)

Grown Up Things

Once in a while, Rich and I make the effort to do some grown up activities, like eat at restaurants that don't serve chicken nuggets or watch movies that are not animated.


This weekend, we went to a wine tasting at Woodhall Winery in Maryland. If you are going to a winery, I hightly suggest bringing some of your own food. They don't have any and after a while, your mouth gets tired of tasting wine. They did give us some little crackers but I wish there had been cheese too....







I am not an expert about wine. I don't know one from another unless the name's printed on the bottle. I only know what I like.


After sampling some of their wares I was able to confirm what I already know: I don't like rose', I don't like sweet wine, I like merlot and chardonnay and one glass of wine will make me tipsy. (You get about 12 wines but each little taste added up equals about a glass and a half.)

Salute!