Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Salvaged Whimsy and Sobo Style

Do you see what I see?

Anything look familiar?

...waiting...waiting...give up?

Did you spot one of my pink wreaths hiding in there?
I mentioned a couple weeks ago that a local shop had ordered some of my wreaths, which I delivered last week.  

 
Welcome to Sobo Style - a darling shop located in Clintonville, Ohio (near Ohio State's Main Campus in Columbus, Ohio)

 I contacted the shop owner several weeks ago to see if she might consider selling some of my wreaths, and to my surprise, she agreed!  I honestly expected to receive a form-letter telling me "thanks, but no thanks."


Less than a week after delivering my first set of wreaths to the shop, they've placed another order for more.


If you've made one of these wreaths before, you know that they can be pretty time consuming.


...so now, I'm trying to decide whether I'd have better luck teaching my toddlers or my currently-one-handed-husband to make paper flowers.


Sleep is overrated anyway, right?


Doesn't she have gorgeous things?  I could pretty much move in to the store and live very happily.


There are more pictures of Sobo Style on the store website and on their blog. 
take care -
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Monday, January 30, 2012

Blessings and Thank you.

We are blessed, so very blessed.  My husband's injury is serious - he was in surgery for over 4 hours.  The doctor said he didn't know how Bryan's middle finger didn't come off - so little of the joint was left that the bone had to be fused together.  However, the doctor doesn't think he'll need additional surgeries in the near-future.

So, needless to say, this was welcome news.

And from the lady who admitted Bryan to the hospital (and came to check on him the next day), to the nurses and doctors - we were blessed with the most amazingly kind health professionals.

Then, there are our parents...who all stopped what they were doing, came from hours away, and made themselves available to help us any time we needed them.

We are so fortunate that Bryan's employer has been completely understanding and supportive - I know this isn't always the case with employers these days.

Finally, there are all of you who offered your thoughts, prayers, and well-wishes - I have been so touched by your support.  Reading through your comments and emails brought me to tears.  I can't believe how blessed I am to know each of you.  Thank you.  From the bottom of my heart, thank you so very much.  Even though we haven't met face-to-face - your kindness means the world to me.

This whole incident seems to have brought our family closer together and put things in perspective for us- yet another blessing to come out of such an unfortunate situation.

I'm determined that 2012 is going to be a wonderfully great year, regardless of this "obstacle"...

take care -
 

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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Just an Instant Changes Everything.

On Monday night, I was sitting in the kitchen working on the wreath while the kids played and my husband, Bryan,was cutting a piece of wood for a sign I wanted to make in the garage.  I heard him make a horrible scream that still replays in my head, I just prayed to myself..."please don't be hurt, please don't be hurt."  As I heard him fumble to get in the kitchen door from the garage, I knew he was hurt.

He came in, frantic, and told me to call 911--his hands were full of blood.  It was horrible.  Horrible.

He was flipping a piece of wood on the table saw and brushed his index finger on the blade, and it grabbed the rest of his fingers.  Thank God, it's a miracle - he didn't lose any fingers, but they are really, really mangled.

He's so, so careful when he's working - just an instant changes everything, so please be careful.

Anyway, I'm just not in much of a mood to talk about projects right now, so it may be a couple days before you hear from me or I'm able to respond to comments.  I apologize.

I really, really appreciate every single one of you.  Take care of yourselves.

Erin

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Saturday, January 21, 2012

A Bevy of FREE Fantastic-ness...Blog Bling and Printables and Fonts!


As I was doing a Saturday morning stroll through a couple of my favorite blogs, I stopped by Just Something I Made to see if she had any new blog bling, and I found a bevy of bloggy fantastic-ness!  (and I love me some bevies of bloggy fantastic-nesses, in case you were wondering)...

Click above to be led to a wonderland of free stuff!

I bet you thought that was the end of the fantastic-ness, but NO....

Check this out....(and if you aren't the crafty type, just hold your pants on, I have stuff to take up some of your free time too)


Cathe Holden has created 14 beautiful vintage-style labels in 4 different colors for WorldLabel.com.

Fun, huh?!

While over at WorldLabel.com I did a little lookin' around, and found even MORE free fun fantastic-ness! 

Follow me, won't you? 
(I meant "follow me" as in "let me show you the way"...buuuut, if you want to "follow me" as in "follow my blog"...well, I guess you could do that too if you want to...but no pressure...it's not like I've led you to a virtual utopia of free fantastic-ness or anything. Like I said, no pressure.)

Check this out....

Valentine cuteness:
Critter Love


and Birthday cuteness:

and apothecary cuteness (my grandfather was a pharmacist, so gotta show some love)
apothecary labels

 and baby cuteness:

and some vintage frame cuteness:
vintage-labels

and that's maybe a fifth of the printables that you can find for free at WorldLabel.com..


If you like the font I used above, I found it at another one of my favorite blogs, Kevin and Amanda.  This one is called Pea Lovey Dovey and I found out about this site from ANOTHER one of my favorite blogs, Jones Design Company.



....oh, you like that little flourish, do you?  Funny, it's FREE TOO!  (Is this better than Christmas morning, or what!)...it's like I'm givin' stuff away...teehee!  I found the link to this website via Makin' Cute Blogs who has pages of great freebies and freebie resources including clip art, fonts, backgrounds, blog bling...

I think I just might add Makin Cute Blogs to my list of favorite blogs.  Oh, haven't I mentioned it before? it's here.

If you don't know how to use all this free fantastic-ness, most of these blogs offer tutorials and FAQs to help you out...I'm going to leave all that up to the pros, as all this free fantastic-ness has just about worn me out!

(If  there's anything at all I can help you with, please don't hesitate to let me know :) 


I'm sure it goes without saying that I have not been compensated by anyone, including all of the blogs in this post and those on my list of favorite blogs (you didn't think I'd have the guts to sneak it in there again, did ya!), or anyone...unless you count the invaluable feeling of happiness I have from sharing this with my lovely friends (that would be you).

Now go have some fun...

Spreadin' the word of free fantastic-ness at these linky parties:
MONDAY:
TUESDAY: 
Domestically Speaking (Paint Projects)
Faded Charm (White Projects)
THURSDAY:


 take care - 
 

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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Corbel Table

Don't you just love when things turn out even better than you've imagined?

I found a big, old corbel at a barn sale a couple months ago and immediately envisioned using it as table legs.  It came home with me and sat with the rest of my "collection" of items (aka - the disorderly configuration of random furniture, baskets, fabric, pillows, paint, etc that is our "garage")

After mentioning it a few times, my mind had moved on to other things...so a couple weeks ago, imagine my surprise, when I opened the door to the garage and found this wonderful creation...

(I'm using a new version of Picasa, and I'm still trying to figure it out...hence the double watermark...can't figure out how to get rid of the darn thing!)

I'm going to be mushy-lovey-dovey for a moment, so close your eyes and scroll down if that grosses you out.  My husband is my soul-mate, he's the man I'm meant to spend my life with, and I knew from the first time I met him that he was special. I wish I could fully express the many ways this man has changed my life, but that's for another day.


My reason for sharing this with you is because I thought I knew everything about him...we've gone through a lot in the 4 years we've been married. 


I knew he was "handy" around the house, but I never had any idea that he was so creative and talented.


It's like Christmas morning every time he works on a new project...I never know to expect...


He asks for my input...but I don't need to say anything - he always exceeds my expectations.


The legs are obviously made from the corbel I brought home...but can you believe that the bottom shelf was the side of a broken drawer that we found in an old barn?


The top is made out of old barn siding...and I love the edge he put on it by ripping a piece of barn wood to show the un-weathered portion.


I'm trying to talk him into writing a few tutorials for my blog to share his furniture-building expertise with you...so we'll see...

I'd love to keep this little corbel-cutie, but Bryan wants to sell it to make room for all of the goodies I'm planning to bring home this weekend...so if you're smitten, she can be found on Etsy.  She loves walks on the beach, candlelit dinners...oh, wait...wrong website. 

Hopefully, I'll have some..uhh...salvaged whimsy...to share with you next week. (teehee...get it, salvaged wh...oh, never mind, I know I'm a dork)

Mary from Boogieboard Cottage featured this project on her blog.  Thanks so much to Mary!!


Sharing this at these link-up parties:
MONDAY:
TUESDAY:
Domestically Speaking (Paint Projects)
Faded Charm (White Projects)
THURSDAY:
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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Shades of Pink...or Not.

Despite the best efforts of my 2 toddlers (who I love and adore), I  should be able to finish all of the wreaths that a local  store  ordered, on time. 

I'm sorry if you're getting bored with all the wreaths "hanging" (ha!..uh, never mind) around these parts lately.  I promise that I have some furniture goodies on the way...I just need time to add the finishing touches.

Out of all the wreaths I've done so far, this one is my favorite...don't you think it's perfect for Valentine's Day...or a wedding, perhaps?
 

This wreath was featured by Courtney at French Country Cottage - if you haven't visited this blog, you're missing out - it's beautiful!  Thanks to Courtney!



I've had a lot of  requests for a tutorials on how I dye the coffee filters, and I'll try to get one put together soon. 

And here's another that the shop ordered...based on this design, but using coffee-dyed filters and book pages.  So, if your valentine isn't so much into pink, you could make this more neutral option:
 




If you're new to my blog and are interested in seeing more wreaths I've created, the best place would probably be my Etsy shop. 

Also, I have created a couple tutorials on how to do a basic coffee filter wreath and how to create the rolled paper flowers wreath.  The coffee-dyed wreath above is just a mixture of the 2 styles.  Now that I've done a lot more, I've changed things a little, and will explain further in an upcoming tutorial.

I'm always available to answer questions, so please don't hesitate to comment or email me.  I have about a bajillion flowers to make, so I'm off....but I miss all of you and haven't had as much time to check out other blogs, so if you have time, please let me know what you've been up to.

I'm plan to share at some of these parties:
MONDAY:
Thrifty Decor Chick (1st Monday of Each Month)
TUESDAY:
Kammy's Korner (Trash to Treasure)
WEDNESDAY:
Domestically Speaking (Paint Projects)
Faded Charm (White Projects)
THURSDAY:
FRIDAY:
Miss Mustard Seed (Furniture Only)
SATURDAY:
SUNDAY:


take care -
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