This summer I spent some time at home in Canada with my dad. My dad is amazing at wood work! Creating things, refinishing things, and fixing things. He can look at a piece of wood and say "You know what I could do with that!..." I was inspired to do a like wood work myself.
My living room lacks any way of telling time unless you strain your neck just the right way at just the right angle to read it off the microwave. I set off to find just the right thing, something simple I could refinish, so I hit the local thrift store and found this. (Sorry I forgot to take a picture until I was part way into sanding.)

And I got it for this price...

I thought it would look great in black!
I removed the glass and tried to remove the face plate but that baby is on there good! No amount of prying and unscrewing screws worked. I really wasn't keen on keeping the Ducks Unlimited logo! I would have to think of something later.

I spent a whole day sanding this baby. We had saw dust on the kitchen table, in the carpet, on the back porch and all over the front porch, everywhere ape baby wanted to go (or where I could find something to entertain her) I would take it with me and kept my hands a moving as long as she would let me.

My intentions were to stain it ebony, but after sanding it I kind of liked it just the way it was! It looked almost white washed antiquish.

So I grabbed some scrap paper and cut a few circles out and tried them on. Found one I liked and modge podged it over the DU, I put it back together, muted the chime that rings on the hour and VOILA!
I LOVE IT! Now we have a decent way of knowing what time it is all for less than $10!

Patriotism

In our family we are so lucky to celebrate two countries birthdays in July! A week to focus on our different up bringing- as different as Canada and the US can be LOL. Every year the kids get their Canadian shirts and then their American shirts but this year I wanted to do a LITTLE decorating.

For July 1st- Canada Day I created this.
It is actually the first Canadian decoration I own/have made. SAD!!

For July 4th- Independence day I created this
I had recently found 8 window panes on Craigslist for free! Then bought another 10 at an auction for $0.88! When I saw this here I just had to start using these windows.
(can't find the link to where I found this idea)

Lessons learned
Canadian deco-When on a budget, you use what you have and live with it! The original I saw used berry sprigs and branches instead of leaves and used red and white leather instead of hemp. The original was much more elegant looking.
US window Flag- Never paint in the humid southern heat! It took three days to complete because the paint just wouldn't dry. I had star stickers which were just the right size. I cut them out with a razor blade and used the remaining back as a stencil. It worked well for the first half then started to fall apart as it got saturated with paint. I reminded myself not to swear, I had to improvise! I made another stencil out of a cereal box which worked well enough to finish the project.

Next year I am going to introduce my kids to Nanimo bars, and butter tarts for Canada day and then do some sort of red, white and blue dessert for Independence day.

Heritage- making it perosnal

When my soldier boy and I started having children, we made the decision to name them after ancestors. Each of our children is named after someone from their family tree, and for the most part we are able to tell them something about each person they are named after. For us this is very important. I wanted them to have a daily reminder of who they are and that they need to honor the names they have been given. So this is what I came up with. (Each frame has their names on it now, I am still working on Ape babies since the ladies she was named after both died in infancy there are no pictures. I will have to be more creative with hers).

My flittering butterfly's

My sensitive child

My emo boy

My soldier boy's wall at work.
Soldier boy is the sixth generation to serve in the military. So to pay tribute to those who have served before him we created this wall and added the kids hand prints on each side of the photos to remind him of who he is and why he serves.

Cakes

Stole the idea of a cake post from my SIL here. Granted her cakes are amazing in comparison. Thought I'd share any way.

My sister the creative genius, and I love to be creative. When she comes to visit it never fails we craft something! I am more productive when I have someone to work and laugh with! More fun is had when you can bounce ideas off each other. One year we were into cakes.

my flittery butterfly's birthday cake one year. She asked for a turtle power princess and this is all I could come up with

My sister the creative genius loves frogs, so she got frogs for her birthday

A dinosaur birthday cake we make for a friend

A double birthday party- one for the sensitive child, just his size.

And one for my soldier boy. These were my favorite. We spent a good long time in the German candy store imagining things we could do.

Here's one I did for a garden party. I had made a round cake for the head, but my emo boy, and my sensitive child decided to lick all the frosting off while I showered in preparation for this party. I ended up taking the newly cleaned cake pan and flipping it upside down and icing it moments before I had to leave. No one suspected a thing ;-)

Here's the lazy man's cake. But for him it was the ideal cake!

He could eat it ALL by himself! Which he tried.
My other sister owns a marble slab ice cream shop. These are two of my favorite! The one was a last minute cake for a wedding. I think it is stunning!

I dibble and dabble

I love to quilt! I wish I had all the money in the world to quilt all day and all night and never be restrained by time, space, resources, or finances! Maybe one day...

(my first patch work quilt for my BIL for his wedding)

I have fond memories of sitting under quilts in my grandmothers home as she would quilt and tie her various quilts for new cousins, or newly weds. She seemed to always have her frames up and my mom and her would keep their hands busy as they visited.

(my oldest sons rag quilt)

Two years ago I joined a quilting group and started to learn different techniques of piecing and machine sewing a quilt. I got to thinking outside the box of the typical patchwork quilt and found a new love.

(my first sample quilt before the binding, I gifted it to my niece for her birthday last year)

I love sample quilts! You can learn new techniques and finish a project in a matter of a few hours. Instant gratification! I also like the idea of making the back as interesting as the back!

Big quilts are fun but time consuming and tend to wear on me. I work on it for a few hours then pack it away for a few weeks then bring it out again. Ask my sister who is still waiting eight years later for her wedding gift LOL... all it needs now is the binding (which is all cut out, ironed, and ready to be sewn). Or my Three year old emo son, awaiting his baby quilt...ugh!

(Ape baby's blanket)

My goal is to finish my sons quilt by Christmas!! And maybe talk my mom into finishing my sisters quilt by then too *Please mommy*

(sensitive child's recent grandma quilt, he picked out the accent material for a panel she had purchased. We had to improvise with the foot prints as the material we had looked funny. After years of trimming off the bottoms of her pants and saving the extra material we finally found a use for it!)

BlumenBs

Once upon a time a while back I started to create barrettes for my flittering butterfly. I would dream of things I could put in her hair. After a few people loving on them and paying to have some of their own I opened an etsy shop which I let flop! I put them in a salon and forgot about them. I am not a business woman! I like to create because I can not because someone is paying me to.

I learned how much I would rather sit and do as I please when I please, and then see the joy on someones face when I "give" my creations as gifts. Crafting is more personal for me. Maybe in teh future I will try again but for now why mix business with pleasure?!

Time to create

I wasn't about to separate my private blog from my crafting time highlights, but have decided to jump on the band wagon when a few of my creations ended up on someone elses blog! It gave me the courage to say I can createI love to craft! I am married to a busy soldier boy and have four over active kids; I don't get much time to craft. During the day I am either holding my ape baby, calming my emo son, tending some sort of animal/reptile/insect with my sensitive child, or trying to keep up with my beautiful flittering butterfly-time never stands still with them around! I stay up all hours of the night just to let my creative juices out.
Creating to me is knowledge.
I love to learn! I love to be frugal! I love to develop new talents! Creating helps me to understand where my strengths and weaknesses are- to better understand myself. So, in so many words here's to documenting my journey on becoming ME...

Under construction!