Another Lazy Day!

 Good morning. It's another hot one out there so I am once again finding things to keep me busy here in the house. Not only are the girls (my granddaughters) wanting to make this ghost pillow but I also had a friend ask about it as something she might do when her two sisters come from Nebraska for a visit so I thought today just might be the perfect time to try a sample. Here is the picture I am working from.

I found this on Pinterest and, as you can see, it is from "The Button Box". It is definitely the simplest of the three designs I picked and one that will be cute as a smaller decor pillow rather than a truly functional one. I have blown it up as much as I can and I think it employs a small amount of reverse applique-much less than the jack-o-lantern required-for the eyes so that is how I am going to proceed. lol

I ended up deciding to go with a pillow that will be 9 1/2" X 12". This one is stitched on the outside so the size you cut is the size you get.

I decided to use chalk paint because I didn't want it totally filled in with white but, even though my chalk paint was a brand new jar, I have had it for awhile so I ended up having to water it down a bit so it would spread and I got full coverage whether I wanted it or not. Lol I think I can go back with some distressing ink when all is said and done if I still feel like it needs it.

I'm pretty sure the eyes need to be sewn and then cut away revealing black paint underneath. My first thought was to just paint the area on the pillow front that will be under the eyes but I'm afraid the black paint might show through so I am going to just cut it out and paint it then. Fingers crossed.

So I am back and the pillow is now completed. And, as usual, I am very glad that I made a sample because I think there are a few things I will recommend that the girls do differently if this is the pillow they choose to make. I cut my ghost out of the same drop cloth that I used for the pillow and after the paint had dried, the ghost is very hard. The edges of the ghost are supposed to be frayed and that is almost impossible to do with the hard cloth so maybe I would suggest the ghost be cut from a different fabric-maybe muslin?

The assembly was pretty easy. I played around with where I wanted the eyes and #31. Then I stitched it up, cut out the top layer and painted inside the eyes and along the stitch lines with black paint. I used the black chalk paint and it wasn't easy to keep the lines straight but again, these things are supposed to look rustic so I'm OK with it.

When the eyes are cut out you are also supposed to be able to fray the inside edges of them but again, the hard cloth wasn't letting me do that as much as I wanted.

Next I stamped on the 31 and stitched the front of the pillow to the back. This pillow has outside seams and is also supposed to be frayed. Here I am getting maybe a bit too much fray because this part of the drop cloth is not painted. I thought about running a bead of glue between the two layers at the edge but was afraid it might show so I am going to see how it goes. This pillow is just meant to be stuck somewhere decorative so I think as long as no one is using it as a cushion, the fraying should stop where it is. We shall see.

I left a bit of the bottom open to stuff it and instead of going over the stitch lines with paint, this time I used a Sharpie and it was so much easier to control. Then I stuffed it but not too much, stitched up the remainder of the seam and went over it with a marker as well.

And voila! It's finished. Again, I made some mistakes on this one that I hope will make a difference on any others that we make but it will look cute stuck somewhere and, my new Halloween pile continues to grow!

That pretty much took up my yesterday but it was a good day. Two game wins on our side-one for the Coast Guard Academy and my grandson who started and had a really good day and then one later that night for the Gators!

And, while all of that was taking place, granddaughters #1and 4, who both happened to be in NYC for different things, managed to find each other and meet up! 

Looks like my Labor Day is going to be pretty much what a lot of the many last days have been-dreary and wet! I'm off to clean things up a bit and then have some lunch and we'll see how the rest of the day plays out. Stay safe and stay tuned.

 

Crazy Day!

 Didn't think I would be back so soon but I guess I was anxious to make sure that the kerfuffle we had yesterday was indeed corrected-and it seems to be except that I am pretty sure that my photo editing app must have had an update because some things are still different than they have ever been but that is OK-that wasn't my problem yesterday! Since I am back up and running, why don't we take a peek in the dining room?

I still find myself sometimes having to catch my breath as I look at these colors. There is just something about the beautiful shades of autumn that make me so happy. In fact, at one point I actually thought about just keeping autumn out-and maybe possibly add a few jack-o-lanterns in October and turkeys in November. Since we don't do our big Halloween parties here at my house anymore and I am more often than not down in St. Pete for the real day, I thought that could work...until I mentioned it to my granddaughters last weekend and, as they say, if looks could kill. Lol And then I started to look at all of my new treasures for this year as well as the new decor ideas I am thinking about and I knew I couldn't go forward with that plan. What was I thinking?! In any case, let's go into the dining room while these beautiful colors are still here. And look at the pretty flowers my grand dog brought me to thank me for letting him be here this week.

I love this cross stitch that I made as a gift for my mom many, many years ago. She loved it and when she passed away, it found its way back to me. The sentiment remains the same.

And I think this is my favorite way to use that huge dough bowl daughter #1 gifted to me a few years back.

The same daughter also gifted me that chunk of an old balustrade. It is chippy and cracked and I love it so much. It's the kind of thing that would make my husband ask "how much did they pay you to take that off of their hands?" but, for whatever reason, those things speak to me! Lol

So while things remain quiet around here, my family is so scattered this weekend and I am thrilled to be getting lots of photos of their adventures. Daughters #1and 3 are in CT for my grandson's football game and then on to Cape Cod and a whale watching cruise.

 After that, daughter #1 continues to Sleepy Hollow for another decorating job. Granddaughter #1 is in NYC to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway while granddaughter #4 is in NYC to see Harry Styles at Madison Square Garden. Of course, grandson #1 is the one playing football in CT...

...while his brother is back in Gainesville pledging Kappa Alpha fraternity.

Whew! I'm glad I don't have to try to keep up with all of them! Lol But, it is fun living vicariously through them every now and then.

I will say that as I sit here and look over on my counter and see this...I am reminded of how much I do enjoy sewing when I finally get to it. I think I may have burned myself out because I used to sew A LOT! But just making those simple pillow covers this week may have rekindled a spark-we shall see. Lol

And this little cutie brings back so many memories. I made it in a junior high (that's what it was called back then) shop class-which was required of all students as was home ec. My mom was quite a sewer and I made it for her and it is now mine as well. I'm really not claiming any talent but it IS still usable probably 65 years later so that must mean something. LOL

Surprise! I hear thunder so it seems as if another one of the several thunderstorms we get every day is coming in. I am SO OVER this summer in Florida! Please Mother Nature...let autumn in!! I'll be back soon. Until then, stay safe and stay tuned.

Rainy Day

 It is kind of a rainy, dreary day here and the kind of a day where you just want to stay inside and do something comforting. A lot of times, for me, that means crafting and, since I started that witch pillow when the girls were here, I thought I might as well see about finishing it today.

So this is where it was last time we spoke. Once I got this far, I realized that my inspiration photo was probably a lot smaller-more like just a decorative pillow than an actual functional one. I considered just "calling" it but for whatever reason, here I am still moving forward. Lol

There is a lot of dead space here and, as I said last time, the embellishments on the inspiration were not anything that I wanted to use so I started playing around and here is where I am at the moment.

I started by ripping a small piece of muslin and making the tag. If I end up using the tag it will get distressed around the edges and maybe put on with a rusty safety pin. I used an old set of stamps and permanent ink to do this.

The "3" and "1" are stamps but I am thinking I will do them-if I use them-with paint instead of ink...we shall see. And then the other side was so unbalanced so I decided to go with the bats. I had originally thought about cutting them from fabric of some kind and sewing them on-maybe even leaving a bit of their wings free to "flap" but, I think I am now leaning towards painting them as well. And, because I ended up really liking the stripes I painted on the jack-o-lantern pillow, I considered more of those here as well.

 Decisions! Decisions! Not my forte so I think I am going to go grab some lunch and then I will be back at it. Lol

OK. I decided to stamp the numbers and I love the way they turned out.

 I wish I had been able to do the same with the bats. I actually considered cutting a bat stamp out of a sponge but I only have the cellulous sponges with all of the holes and that isn't what I wanted so I went ahead and traced my shapes and started to paint them in. As expected, the paint is too thick to flow nicely on the nubby drop cloth so I watered it down some and it was doing fine...until it wasn't. It was now so watered down that it started bleeding. I ended up doing what usually happens next-making your shape bigger and bigger to cover the "bleed"-which also distorts your shape. In the end, the large bat is much larger than wanted and definitely more close to the hat than I would have liked but.... and, me being me, the bleed that you could still see was driving me crazy so I took some tan paint and tried to cover it a bit. It was one of those "if you give a mouse a cookie" kind of moments! Lol

I will say as I look at this closely I realize that the blurry edges around the bats where I tried to cover the bleed look similar to the frayed edges around the hat so I guess I lucked out. It isn't bothering me as much as I thought it would. Lol

Once I got here, it was later in the day and I had things to do and places to go-lol-so I left it at that but the imbalance bothered me. If I had sewn on the bats, I would have moved them but, since they are painted, my options were few. And so I left it for a bit and when I came back I played around with this.

Honestly, if I loved this pillow a little more than I do I might have kept playing but I was ready to be done so, out came the paint again and here is where I have landed.

So that is it for what has turned out to be a very LONG day. Something happened to my phone between last night and this morning and pictures that always transferred as jpeg were now HEIC-don't even ask. I now know way more about this stuff than I ever hoped. Thanks to my sweet granddaughter #3, who has been on the phone with me for hours and walked me through everything she could think of until she thought of this and VOILA! Still don't know what happened but I am finally back up and running and we shall see.

Off to take my furry friend out and then sit down, put my feet up, pour a glass of wine and call it a day! Stay safe and stay tuned.

Never Too Early!

 I'm back and I will admit that I had the time of my life but stayed up way too late and am now paying the price! I'm kind of working at slo-mo speed today so I thought I would sit myself down and tell you all about it.

Granddaughters #1 and 3 were here this weekend to replicate some of the memories they have from "Halloween weekends at Nana and Papa's". It always makes my heart so happy when any of my grands start talking about their childhood memories because we truly had some epic times! The girls got in touch with me a bit ago and asked if they could make this happen and nothing could ever please me more so...

They arrived on Saturday morning (after granddaughter #5 and the 2 grand dogs left on Friday night) and we got crafting pretty much right away. I had a number of things for them to choose from and they brought their idea as well. They chose to start with something I had done last year and quickly both put their own spin on it.

By the time these were done, we were moving on to dinner plans. The girls went with turkey "eyeball" meatballs, Halloween salad and mummy garlic bread. 

Me being me, I had to scramble a bit because I forgot that my house isn't currently decorated for Halloween and no self respecting Halloween meal could be served on anything other than Halloween dinnerware. It might not be up to October standards but it fit the bill. LOL

We cleaned up a bit and chit-chatted until VERY late. The next day we made a quick run to Walmart to pick up some things where I was very excited to find yet another "My Texas House" Halloween goodie I had been looking for and then the first of my mums. That isn't what we went for but...Lol We were looking for the framed picture I used last year to "add" the ghosts to but, after having it there for a year, it was completely sold out. I'm guessing that lots of people who saw that go viral last year are wanting to do it just as we were. We did find some that were possibilities and Hannah had also found a few before coming at Goodwill.

When we got home, the girls prepared one of their favorite "old" breakfasts-scrambled eggs and "witches hats"-cinnamon toast cut into points. The meal was delicious but not necessarily the prettiest plate so we skipped the photo op. Lol

Then we were on to the painting. Morgs used the ones we found at Walmart after we managed to get it out of its frame and away from the glass. Hannah used one from Goodwill but took the other home to paint when she has a minute. I love how they both turned out. Unfortunately, we never got a shot of Morg's after it was back in its frame.

And, of course, before they headed home we had to revisit a favorite-the chocolate covered pretzel rods. I'm not the world's biggest pretzel fan but I love these things. Just the perfect combo of salty/sweet. 

And then this morning, just as I was thinking about this week, I got a visit from grandson #2. He had come home from UF to pick up some more things for his dorm and he stopped by to fill me in on how life is going now that he is an official Gator. And it sounds like he is keeping busy and loving his new adventure.

When he headed off, I went into my office to think about where the rest of the day would go. My "new Halloween" pile is beginning to grow and I'm starting to think about where the new things will go. That framed raven picture that I found yesterday will definitely find a spot in the living room with the Poe vignettes.

The dark plum leaves can go anywhere and the pumpkin board has already found its way to the kitchen.

And that just leaves the witch hat pillow front. That is what I was working on as the girls were painting. Making a pillow was in the plans for the day except that no matter which pillow we were going to tackle or how simple it seemed, it took much longer than expected-or even what we had. And so, we came up with an even better solution-the girls are going to find another day they're both free and come back and their mom-my daughter-is going to join in on that fun.

That being said, I am going to go ahead and finish this pillow one day this week, I'm still deciding where to go next with it because it won't work as a functional pillow the way the inspiration was finished-a sprig of dried "sweet annie" and a large, rusty bell. I can't imagine leaning back on either of those things so I am going to see what I can come up with...I'll let you know.

I'm off to plant my new mums and then grab a quick lunch before figuring out the rest of the day. Stay safe and stay tuned.