Jellybean Wreath or Shelf-Sitter

It's beginning to look like spring around here, and that always makes me excited about pastels, warm weather, and jellybeans! I always think that jellybeans (and a lot of the Easter candy) are almost too pretty to eat. I also took a look around my holiday tupperwares in the attic and found that I am woefully remiss on spring/Easter decor. So I created a modern jellybean wreath.


It's actually become more of an empty frame that's sitting on a shelf with some other pretty photos with a pastel, spring theme. But it's really easy to convert it into a wreath (my doors here are all solid wood and since we're renters I can't really poke a hole in them to hang up my wreath).

Anyway, here's what you'll need for this project:
a photo mat, or cardboard frame, or an artist canvas panel (prestretched)
one to two bags of jelly beans
small filler beads, one tube or one bag
hot glue gun and several hot glue sticks
a length of coordinating ribbon
a spray can of shellac or clear protective gloss

If you're using an artist canvas panel like what I did with my project, you'll require a pencil, a ruler, and an x-acto blade. I used an artist canvas panel because I had one sitting around that wasn't being used, and likely would never be used. It was 8x10 and I cut the middle out of it to create a border, but if you have a photo mat around it'll work just as well.



Here's a photo of my prepared canvas panel. I've measured 2 inches into the surface all around the edges, then traced a line, and cut along that line with my x-acto blade. Here's an x-acto blade tip for you: always make several lighter cuts along the same cutting line rather than forcing down hard and making one single bold cut.

Once I had the template, all I had to do was go to town hot-gluing down the jellybeans.



I may or may not have eaten a few while completing this project. Anyway, once I had gone all around the perimeter, being careful to make the pattern seem random but not putting the same color next to each other, I filled in the small voids left behind with some cute seed beads that I had leftover from a previous project.


Once those were in place, I took the whole thing outside and cleaned off the spiderwebs that you get from using a hot glue gun. I HATE those things, but I haven't yet found a way to avoid them. Once I had the design like I liked it, I put several thin layers of a clear protective gloss over the entire surface. It's best to use several thin layers rather than doing one thick spray-over. After it had dried, I hot-glued a pink ribbon to the back for hanging.



I think I like mine best as a shelf-sitter, though. It's right in the middle of my shelf composition and it provides a beautiful pop of spring color.

Finer Things Friday

Continuation from a previous post:

Things that I am thankful for this week:
11. Sixty degree weather full of sunshine, parks, and two happy boys
12. Finally having both boys over their illnesses...hopefully...maybe
13. Drake learning all his numbers, well all the way to 10, both recognizing them and saying their names
14. Spring! In particular my daffodils that are a happy spot of yellow in my landscape
15. Turkish rugs brought back by the hubby from his trip
16. Two genuinely sweet boys who sneak up and give you hugs for no good reason at all
17. Constantly being surprised at how intelligent and good at problem solving both of my boys are...even when it's something they're not supposed to be figuring out or getting into
18. Bagels with low-fat strawberry cream cheese
19. Friends, of all varieties
20. The smell of my sweet babies after their baths

What about you? Anything you're thankful for?

Sunshine!

Finally we had a beautiful day here in Germany. There's been some that have been really close to being absolutely beautiful, but today was exceptionally great. The boys and I took a walk to a nearby park, where they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. They both came home not tired like I had hoped they would be, but completely dirty...just like little boys should be.

DE-clutter

I'm inspired by all these bloggers posting about losing the clutter. I'd love to lose some junk around here. I know just how much junk I have too, since the military moved us a little over a year ago. Everything was weighed...and let's just say it wasn't pretty how much junk one family can accumulate.

As much as I want to say that most of it is furniture and stuff for the boys, the honest truth is there's a lot of unnecessary crap too. Do I really need 9 skillets for instance? Even if I have three skillets on at once, that's still six extra. And let's not even mention all the knick knacks that clutter up a space. I don't have them on display here in Germany (I sent most of that junk to the storage facility back in the states). However, there's still some sitting about in boxes, in my attic and in my garage. I've realized that by the time I get back to the states, I'm not even going to like that stuff most likely. I guess I'll have to deal with it then. Until then, though, I'm set on cleaning up this house.

So far I've already moved a bunch of baby clothes and little baby toys into the attic. I'm reluctant to get rid of them since we're not entirely sure that we're done having children. If we decide to have another one, then we'll need that stuff, and if we don't, then we can get rid of the excess stuff.

I also went through the playroom and got rid of quite a few toys (both stuff that they don't play with anymore and broken toys). With two little guys, stuff gets broken pretty often. These toys I dumped (recycled if they were plastic, trashed if not). The rest of it's getting donated.

Then came the attic. I came across a post by Amy at finerthings.com, and she's decided to declutter by two items per day for a total of 730 items over the year. Can you imagine your house being lighter by 730 items? Wow, that sounds awesome! (Yes, I know I'll buy stuff that will count towards my accumulated number, but don't burst my bubble--I plan to be more picky on what comes into this house and having a purpose for every purchase.)

Since it's not possible for me to actually every day go and find two random objects that I can live without, I'm going to do this in random surges. Today I managed to declutter most of the attic. I am happily losing ninety items, that's enough for 45 days worth of the challenge! Still a long way to go, but atleast I'm losing some of this clutter. What about you? Any plans to do some spring decluttering?

the Finer things in life

So the header at the top of my blog says that everyday's a blessing around here. While that's true, some days are more blissful than others. That happens when you have two little children in a household all to yourself, I suppose (the hubby is deployed).

Yesterday was one of those less blissful days. The two boys were at each other's throats all day long, tears were pretty much nonstop, and they refused everything I made them to eat...again. Not to mention the little guy's still trying to shake this illness that he's had for a bit over a week. He's on antibiotics, but they don't seem to be doing too much for him. He has these wracking coughs that eventually force him to vomit. Lovely, but atleast I know it's coming and can hold him and soothe him while he vomits all over me. I know that sounds gross, but once you're a momma (or a daddy) it's second nature.

So I think that I need to focus on my blessings this week, rather than dwell on the negative (particularly after yesterday). In the spirit of Amy at amysfinerthings.com, here are some of my blessings this week:

1. A sweet three year old that will randomly insist that you stop what you're doing RIGHT NOW THIS INSTANT to give him a hug and a kiss.
2. Circus peanuts...yummy and gross, all at the same time
3. All the cuddling that I get from the baby since he's not feeling up to par
4. My three year old making some great progress with his schooling, even tracing letters and learning, learning, learning!
5. A sweet husband who I miss like crazy when he's gone
6. My Kindle...best. invention. evar.
7. Getting to stay home with my babies full-time
8. Finally getting my oldest boy to eat something new, which he ended up LOVING
9. The smell of my kitchen and foyer area after a fresh mopping
10. The anticipation of this summer's visit from my step-daughter. I can't wait!!!

Have anything you're particularly thankful for this week? Any blessings? Feel free to share some of yours :)

Favorite New Author!

So after reading my fourth novel by this author, I'm convinced she's my favorite author. This title doesn't come lightly, since I love all genres and all (well, almost all) authors. I love to read. I have for as long as I can remember. I don't know that I've ever had a personal favorite author before, but Michelle Moran is definitely noteworthy. She writes historical fiction, also my new favorite genre. It's like learning about history without suffering through the dry reading of a textbook. She makes everything so lively and her books are hard to put down. I first started with Nefertiti, which was of particular interest to me since I love all things Egyptian. I loved the book so much and finished it so quickly that I moved onto her other books. The only drawback about having her as my favorite author is that she only has four books (so far) to her name. Boo. I could read her all day long!

Her latest book, about Madame Tussaud of wax figure fame, didn't appeal to me at first. Doesn't sound very interesting. A woman who made figures of wax. So what, I thought. But I bought it anyway since I love this author. It turned out to be a GREAT read. Maybe even my favorite novel of hers. It tells the exciting story of the French Revolution, all through many important figures of that era, many of whom knew Madame Tussaud. You can read more about her books at her website, http://www.michellemoran.com/. If you're looking for a good read, I highly recommend her.

A sweet pea of a baby shower design

I'm at a loss for topics to write about on my blog, which is pretty insane since there's been a lot going on around here lately, so I'll just post a cute new design that I created for a customer. They're having a baby shower with a sweet pea theme. I think it turned out pretty cute. I had a lot of fun creating it. Definitely designing is the best part of this job that I have!

So what do you think? Have any suggestions for designs you'd like to see? Or cute new themes?