Fourth of July wreath!

I wanted it to look like a firework, and even though it's not exactly what I pictured, I still like it a lot.  I used metallic spray paint I already had, (I considered buying some really bright silver and brass spray paint, but I didn't want to go to the store last night, so I used my brushed nickel and hammered gold I had laying around) a wire wreath frame, gold and silver glitter, and some of that glitter foam paper.  I got the stars from Roberts' with a 50% off coupon. 

I drilled a hole in the side of each of them, I used the smallest bit my husband had.  Then I used Gorilla Glue to secure a length of wire in each drilled hole.  After that I painted and glittered and cut out foam stars.  I used the wire from the wooden stars to secure them to the frame until it was pretty well covered, then glued the glitter foam stars directly to the frame to cover up and wires and fill in empty spots. That was it!  I used some ribbon I had to secure it to the door, and voila!

There it is.  I kind of wish I'd done it bigger- I had leftover stars, but the frame was already pretty full.  But of course, if I'd used a larger frame, I wouldn't have leftover stars, which I now have plans for.  Hmmmm. 

I want to win this so bad.

How cool would it be if I actually won this?  If I had a silhouette, I would have to use it for everything.  I already have a project in mind for every room of the house.

Basket light!

I was hooked when I saw this.  I went that same day to DI and found a basket that would work.  But of course, there wasn't a bottom on it.  So I bought another basket and cut a circle out of it.

After I wired them together, I spray painted it brushed nickel.  I considered using black, like my inspiration, but I just didn't think it would look right in my kitchen. 
So I took my silver basket, added one of these:

And two of these:

And some paint.
Here's what I got:

Don't mind the top bit looking kind of gross- I'm doing some touch up.
I love how it looks.  The old fixture wasn't awful- it did have a brass bits, which I always meant to paint but never got around to- but it was just kind of blah.
Here's a wider shot:

Pardon the flash, but it was really back lit and I didn't want to wait until tomorrow to get a picture.

So, overall, I'm loving it.  I just started to wish I had used a smaller flower pot saucer for on top of the basket, but I'm ok with it.  In fact, I love it.

Check out these bad boys.

I couldn't just leave those flower pots empty, right?
Enter styrofoam balls, dollar store flowers, cheap grapevine wreaths, and sheet moss.  Mike actually thinks these are pretty neat (not that he dislikes my other stuff, he's just mostly indifferent).  The original plan was to cover all the spheres in moss, but after doing three I was pretty sick of working with the stuff and its mess, and I had the leftover leaves from the pulled apart dollar store flowers, so that's where the guy on the left comes from.  I'm loving it.

Yep, still loving it.
Tonight I embark on an electrical journey.

Nothing much

I needed something more on my kitchen table:

That little red tray just wasn't enough, and my only table runner is also red and is a heavy fabric and feels more fall/winterish to me (it's funny, even a few months ago I would not have thought about fall/winter vs. spring/summer fabric types, but now I do- and I care, which is weird to me).

So I made this little runner/mat.  I had all the fabric already (I'm also making a top for Mim out of the white stuff- stay tuned), so I just cut some strips and ruffled them.  The ruffle took more than twice as long as it should have, because for the first three strips I had the tension on my machine turned way up, instead of down.  If you don't count the time it took to unpick all that business and do it again, this definitely took less than an hour.  I didn't hem any of the white edges; I wanted them to fray.  I love the look of all that ruffly white next to the rough burlap. 

I think I'll make a bunch of table runners now, and change them for seasons and holidays. 

Shirring

I don't know how to say the title of this post (is it like sure-ing or shearing?), but I've done it now.  I got the idea from ~Ruffles And Stuff~, specifically this post.  I love all the repurposing ideas on that blog.  So here was my shot at it:

Very simple to make, and now Mim has another summer dress, a summer tunic for next year, and possibly a shirt for the year after that. 
You can see in the last photo that I'm still having a bit of a gapping problem between the first two shirt buttons, despite the two snaps I sewed in there, so I've decided to just sew down the open side of the button strip and rely on the stretchiness of the shirring to get it over her head.
A few other things I did differently than the Ruffles and Stuff version- I did a few more rows of shirring (I think I ended up with 15 or 16), and I didn't start the rows until about 3/4 or a full inch below the top hem.
PS- Aren't those eyelashes just perfect?  Everything eyelashes should be?  She can thank her daddy's genes for those beauties- my eyelashes are almost blond and my eyes look naked without mascara.