Sparkles and Sticks

wandering under overcast skies

I went on a walk this early evening.  It was the first time I left the house all day (after driving my husband to work in the morning) and it was lovely.  The sky was grey, which made all the pretty greens, blues, pinks, of the plants, trees and other general signs of life seem extra bright.

Just like my grey shoes and highlighter color socks.

The air was light, and nowhere near cold or hot.  Just perfect.  The clouds had woven themselves into an airtight blanket that let some light seep through while hiding the brightness of the sun.

I realized that it was the sky that was making me feel so light, happy, and safe.  Most people hate overcast weather, but I love it.  There is something about the way the cloud blocks out the rest of the universe that allows me to focus on the universe inside my head.  I know I can let the ideas floating around in my head out for a little run without worrying that they will venture out to Jupiter and get lost in it's perpetual storm.

I can wander without getting lost.

The skies here, at The Real Home, tend to tinge blue when grey.  The skies in The Home Away From Home tend to tinge pink.

I became an independent, roaming, life loving adult in The Home Away From Home.  Today, I miss it's pink skies.

What I Wore: To Meet Marissa Meyer

Today I went to my favorite place in the whole wide world (ok, my favorite place in the town that sits next to mine): the bookstore!  Why did I go?  To meet Marissa Meyer, author of the new YA dystopian novel Cinder.  Meeting her was a blast- she was very friendly and everyone around me was talking about how wonderful her book is.  I'm sure a book report is coming down the pipeline, but for now let's get down to the really important stuff: my outfit.  Everyone knows that its always super important to wear interesting and fancy clothes when one wants to hang out with books and the people who write them, yeah?

purple t-shirt: Rubbish, silver shrug: Anthropologie, denim skirt: Old Navy, tights: unknown, boots: Anthropologie, silver star necklace: unknown, bag: Steve Madden/thrifted.

My only regret: that I didn't wear my red shoes. 

Birthday Party Crown Tutorial

Guess what?  Today is my birthday!  I turn 29 today.

To celebrate, I want to share a little tutorial I did for Mary Rebecca's Birthday Blog Party last month.  You can wear these fun birthday crowns at birthday parties, bachelorette parties, on tuesday nights... anytime you feel like celebrating!

Supplies: 

a pack of sparkly pipe cleaners in assorted colors.

strong scissors or wire clippers

Star Crown

 

 

Step One: Attach two pipe cleaners together to form a circular base for your crown.

Step Two: Make your center star.  Start by making a very small crease at the end of your pipe cleaner.  You are going to use this "hook" to attach the two ends of the pipe cleaner.  Then, make ten crisp creases in your pipe cleaner.  The 10 segments you make with these creases form the perimeter of your star.  Manipulate the pipe cleaner until you are happy with the shape of your star.  Make another small hook at the end of your star.  Cut off any excess pipe cleaner and hook the two hooks together to complete your star.

Step Three: Make four more stars (two medium sized, two small) as described above).

Step Four:  Attach your stars together and to the base of your crown by twisting small pieces of pipe cleaner around the pieces you want to connect.

Heart Crown

Step One: Attach two pipe cleaners together to form a circular base for your crown.

Step Two: Make your hearts.  Start by making a small crease at the start of your pipe cleaner- this bit will serve as a hook that will help complete your heart.  Bend the rest of your pipe cleaner into the shape of a heart.  Make sure the top humps a round and smooth while the center is a hard crease.  Make another hook at the end of your heart, trim excess pipe cleaner, and hook your heart together.  Make five more hearts, or however many you need to fill your crown.

Step Three:  Attach the bottom points of you hearts to the base of your crown by twisting small bits of pipe cleaner around both.  Make sure your hearts are evenly spaced.

Step Four: Attach the tops of your hearts together with small pieces of pipe cleaner.  Twist excess pipe cleaner into little circles for a pretty, royal effect.

Sponsor Swap in February

Sparkles and Sticks runs an ad swap program!  We're looking for bloggers and/or handmade shop owners who want to make new online friends/fans.  If you like crafts, geekery, handmade, books, setting goals, making art, travelling, or just general silliness, we'd probably be a good match!

Here are the swap details:

• We exchange buttons, and keep them posted in our designated button areas of our blogs for the month (or longer).
• I need an image that is 170x100, and the link you would like it to point to.
• I can supply an image in any size that suits your blog.
• I usually tweet links from my sponsors.  It would be awesome if you chose to support me in a similar way.
• You have the option of doing a guest post or giveaway on my blog, at our mutual discretion.

Ready to swap?  Email me at welshgrl2 (@) gmail (dot) com.

Hi. My name is Jaime, and I am addicted to the library.

Wedding Blanket In Progress

This week has been all about projects in progress.  You already know about the Dresser Dress Up, but I have also been working on The Wedding Blanket, Scrapbooks from 2010-11, a blog re-design, and a really cute DIY Planner for 2012.

Phew!  It's an exciting week, maker-wise.  But right now, let's just focus on The Wedding Blanket.

I started making the wedding blanket just a few weeks after Ashley and I got married last October.  I saw the pattern for this gorgeous, flower-y blanket on a shelf at Michaels.  I don't think I have ever fallen in love with a knitting pattern I found at Michaels before, but there we go!  I saw this project as a brilliant opportunity to learn how to crochet, and I saw Ashley and I cozying up together on top of this finished masterpiece, with a champagne picnic, in the garden we were supposed to have had our wedding ceremony in, on our one year anniversary.

This is what actually happened:  I learned to crochet.  And we had a champagne picnic in the garden we were supposed to have had our wedding ceremony in... with a different blanket that I made before we were even engaged.

Needless to say, the project is taking a little longer than I anticipated.  I need to make 70 squares.  This is my status report:

Flowers made without sparkly trim: 11

Flowers with sparkly trim: 4

Flowers with leaves: 5

Complete squares, sewn together: 15

I am still totally lovin' this project, but I'm tending to work on it in bursts.  It will be the only thing I am working on for a week, then I won't even look at it for another two weeks.

The hardest part: taking good photos of this blanket.  In person, the flowers are a lovely ivory and eggplant.  In photos, they are the color of a decades old, uncleaned wedding dress with pit stains... and blue.  I try photographing them in different types of light, with different camera settings, with different editing procedures... I don't know what to do.  Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Project Details:

Yarn:  Loops and Threads Impeccable: Amethyst, Aran, Chocolate, Fern Loops and Threads Dewdrops: Pearl, Amethyst

Pattern: Rose in Bloom Blanket

Dresser Up Cycle Progress Report

Remember how I bought a dresser at a garage sale about a million and a half years ago (AKA, last July)?  And remember how excited I was to dress it up?

Well, six months later, I have finally started.

So far I have sanded the entire unit, primed it, painted one coat of paint, and done two coats of spray paint on the top of the handles.

I've also decided to take the project in a completely different direction, aesthetically speaking.  I'm painting the entire piece white (before I was going to leave the gold trim and add some baby blue around the drawers).  Once I discovered that the handles had already been painted and therefore were not originally gold, I decided to spray paint them silver, instead of trying to retore the gold.  There was a brief moment where I was all set to paint them purple, but I decided that the bold color and the scroll-y nature of the handles would be too much.  I reminded myself that simple is better. 

Next up: two more coats of paint, a sealer, a sparkly secret, a few coats of silver on the back of the handles and some pretty papers in the drawer.

My favorite part of this project: listening to the audiobook of City of Bones while I work.  I do love me some shadowhunters.

Q&A a Day Book

I bought this little Q & A a Day book when I stepped into Anthropologie just after Christmas last year.  I was instantly smitten with it's old fashioned cover and gold edged pages.

The deal is this: There are 365 questions in this book, and there are five slots for answers under each question.  So, for the next 5 years I will answer these 365 questions five times.

(Don't you love my chipped black nail polish?  Try as I might, I am no Amy Pond.)

I got this notebook on December 26th and have eagerly written in it every day since.  That's one of the beautiful things about this book- you write in the year numbers, so you can start any day, any month that you choose.

You may begin any time.  I love that.

(Isn't the title page gorgeous?)

While I found the aesthetic of this book fetching, the real reason I bought this book is because I want a way to show myself how I move through seasons of life.  I want true evidence of progress where needed and sameness where it is lovely that I can show myself in days of self doubt.

One Little Word: Star

So, there's this little thing called One Little Word.  Ali Edwards invented it.  It's sort of a way of focusing your year without making crazy-strict resolutions that last about three days before we feel guilty about not doing them 353 days later.

My word for this year is STAR.

I'm going to let my story for my word choice unfold over the next few weeks.  I'll start by saying that this word means a lot to me.  I have been feeling it's shine seeping its way into my life for, gosh, over a YEAR now. I truly believe that focusing on the word STAR this year will help me be in a different place, a better place, 353 days from now.

I plan on incorporating my word into my life by exploring it in art.  I already have a few projects up my sleeve that I can't wait to share.

For now, let's begin here:

When I was at Renegade Craft Fair in December I asked Silvi from The Poetry Store to write a poem for me based on the word STAR.  After asking me a few questions, she wrote the above poem for me.

It's a brilliant start.

A Christmas Surprise from Vintage Jules (and my aunt)

Back in October, when I was spending pretty much every weekend at the Farmers Wife Barntique, I fell in love with a pretty pink apron that Vintage Jules made.  It looked about 100% just like the one I am wearing in the picture above.

One day, I came to the barn and it was no longer decorating the sewing mannequin that it usually did.  I was sad for myself, but happy for Julie for selling it.

Then, Christmas morning comes.  I open a box from my aunt.  Low and behold, what do I see in the box?  (Hint: I am wearing it in the picture above).

(This dude is my favorite character on this apron's print.  He just looks so... bored.)

Then, I remember that the apron dissapeared on the exact day that I brought my husband, bro-in-law, and probably-someday-sister-in-law to the barn.  And we ran into my grandma, aunt and cousin!  And my aunt is very good at being sneaky when it comes to buying gifts right under peoples noses.  And I was slightly suspicious at the time, but then proceeded to forget about it for the next few months.  So.... surprise!

Kudos to Jules for making such a pretty apron (did I mention it's double sided), my aunt for being so sneaky, and Lesley for being in on it and never letting on!