200 Blogs!

Tags

beaded lights, book page wreaths, Charleston bonnet, children's Halloween costumes, coffee filter ornaments, fabric back packs, jeweled Christmas tree ornaments, trumeau mirror

A quarter of the world’s wealth is controlled by just 200 companies.  Two hundred miles a day was the average daily distance covered by the Pony Express.  Each dandelion flower head produces 200 seeds.  In Greek mythology, Typhon the Titan, the “father of all monsters” had 200 fire-flashing eyes, two for each of his 100 heads.  And…this is my 200th blog entry!

I started this blog experience at a time when I was helping to care for an aging family member and I needed something in my life to be creative.  There wasn’t time to paint or do crafts, but there was time to talk about that sort of thing.  I challenged myself with figuring out exactly how to make a blog actually happen.  For me, it was not easy but in time I learned the intricacies of WordPress.  

Now, as I sit down to write number 200 I am thinking that there should perhaps be something profound to share.  Alas!  All I can say is that if you really want to do something, you should just go ahead and give it a try.  Julie Powell said the same thing more eloquently in her book, Julie and Julia, My Year of Cooking Dangerously.  When she started cooking her way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, she had no idea that the experience would change her life.

Let me show you what I mean by “where there is fear, there is no creativity.”  Here is a light fixture that Kathleen, my daughter, made because she wanted one but did not want to pay full retail price.

She started with a metal planter basket and cut it in half, spray painted it gold, and spray painted a small shelf unit the same color and then hung it upside down. Following that she wove turquoise stones into the looped cut work around the top of the half basket.  Next, she hung white wooden beads from the upside down shelf bracket.

It casts a beautiful pattern of light and shadow on the wall and looks like a million bucks.

In the spirit of, Where there is fear there is no creativity,”  here are some of the special projects that I have reported on from the last 200 blogs.  I use them here as examples of what you can do when you set your mind to it and as a retrospect of some really good ideas.  I do hope that you enjoy!

1).  My friend Barbara makes dozens of sandal foot cookies every year for her annual beach party:

2.  Kathleen wanted a better looking shed in the back yard.  

3 .Kathleen “dressed up” her IKEA storage units using fretwork she bought over the internet.

4.

4.  I wanted a botanical chart so I made one out of wrapping paper, two dowels, and some twine.

5.  My mother taught herself to make exquisite Christmas tree ornaments.

6.  I painted a floor cloth to go under my granddaughter’s high chair.

7. …and another for two more wonderful grandchildren:

9.  …and another for the triplets:

10.   One daughter made her daughter a candy corn dress for Halloween:

11.  ….and another daughter created a Cabbage Patch box:

12.  I met a crafts person who makes warm mittens from old sweaters.

 

13.  Beth made a precious bonnet for Amelia.

14.  …and she made a backpack for the first day of pre-school!

15.  Kathleen created a trumeau mirror from plywood, molding, and some embellishments.

16.  I used Krylon mirror paint to spray crystal prisms.

17 .Kathleen created this light fixture from two metal planter baskets and some crystal prisms.

18.  When we bought it this mirror was black, but I faux finished it with Rub”N Buff and silver paint.

19.  I made a table runner from old book pages for my book club.

20.  For years I had a small business making angel pins from the handles of forks and spoons.

21.  I made these ornaments from coffee filters and old jewelry.

22. …and this wreath from old book pages.

23.  I printed the fern image on top of an old dictionary page print.

24. This collage was fun to make using manila tags and old stamps and shells.

25. It was fun to faux paint this bamboo “frame” around some majolica plates.

26.  My friend made me this divine shell picture.

27.  I glued shells to the top of a wooden box.

28.  My mother did pencil drawings of Hollywood stars from the 40’s.

29.  I made a book of all of her drawings and gave them to our daughters.  

30.  My father wrote letters home from WWII and I published a book of his letters and pictures for our daughters.

The last 200 blogs have lots more information and ideas. These were just a few of the ones that are near and dear to my heart.  I am glad that you stopped to read a blog or two and I hope that you will subscribe so that every time I write a new blog it will show up in your e-mail account.  Who knows what twists and turns the next 200 blogs will bring?  I hope that you enjoy the sharing of ideas.

Create and be happy!