I've been enjoying the heck out of this whole blogging adventure.
I decided about two weeks ago to stop trying to plan a blog and just jump in and do it. That was a great decision for me. Everything I know about computers, I taught myself, and I was confident I could teach myself about blogging as well. So far, so good. In fact, after I was well on my way, I came across these posts from At the Picket Fence called Ten Things I Wish I'd Known About Blogging and Ten Tips For New Bloggers. After reading these excellent posts, I realized that I'd taught myself most of what they explained there. I could have saved myself some time and effort by reading these blogs first, but learning it on my own was an adventure that I don't regret. So I was feeling pretty smart and patting myself on the back. My blog wasn't Young House Love or anything, but hey, it wasn't too bad for a brand newbie.
Then the other day my daughter sent me an email telling me some of the photos on my blog were showing error messages instead of photos. All of a sudden I wasn't so smug and smart. I was upset and anxious to think that my blog might be seen as anything less than professional, and I scrambled to fix my mistakes.
What struck me afterwards was how upset I was. I was really stressed out by this little mistake. Just how little a mistake was it? I only have ten followers. I'm pretty sure no one is reading my blog. That little.
And all of a sudden I realized I had not taught myself everything that At the Picket Fence suggested I might want to know. I had skirted over the most important lesson there: Ten Reasons Why Women Should Blog. I hadn't considered really deeply why I wanted to write a blog and what I wanted out of the experience. No matter what a person's reason might be, writing a public blog is an intensely personal expression of who we are, and that means our motivations for writing it deserve to be very well understood.
Once I understood my motivation, I realized that my real mistake had been in trying to create a blog styled on blogs I love, rather than on who I am. So when I made a small technical goof, my reaction was, "The Lettered Cottage would never make a mistake like that!" and I freaked out. But I'm not The Lettered Cottage, I'm The North End Loft. And, hell, I make mistakes ALL THE TIME! I'm impulsive and don't always think things through as well as I should, and I make mistakes.
So I took At a Picket Fence's advice and figured out why I'm writing a blog. I decided my blog is a record of who I am and what I do. I decided I want to find my own voice, portray my own life, and be able to make mistakes without freaking out. No "keeping up with the Jones," no comparing myself and my blog to others and their blogs. Making a commitment to myself to do these things and to keep it real has been strangely liberating, like giving myself permission to make mistakes and not be perfect.
So this is my first post as the "real" me. It's about taking Tucker for a long unhurried hike up in the hills without planning my next post in my head or wondering how I can entice new readers to my blog.
We're heading for those hills up there.
It's about standing still for ten minutes listening to the wind in the trees while watching an eagle circle way above me. (That's not lint on your screen, that's an eagle.)
It's about wearing hiking boots instead of high heels.
It's about coming home and making a big pot of this corned beef soup for my family.
Because the most important things in my life are my family, my dog, and being outdoors. My blogging adventure is a creative outlet, an expression of who I am, and it's for fun, not for being perfect, and not to stress over.
Feels great!
And while I'm at it, my craft table looks like this a lot of the time.
Not like this
And the other side of my loft behind my loveseat doesn't look like this
It looks like this
Just keepin' it real. : )
I thought I knew it all, but I was really just beginning this blogging adventure. Everyday is a learning experience, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I can't wait for whatever comes next.
Recently, I made some pillow covers for my craft room loveseat. For inserts I used a couple of old throw pillows from my family room sofa, and I just wasn't happy with them. They were flat as pancakes and made the new pillow covers look terrible.
New pillow inserts at the craft store come in various qualities, and I'm kind of a pillow insert snob. I don't like the stiff inexpensive foam ones; I like the more expensive soft squishy down or down-alternative ones. But I don't like to pay the high cost for
them. I figured I could just wait a couple of weeks and buy new inserts during two different trips to the craft store using 40% off coupons each time, which would save me about $15.00.
Or I could get creative so I could save some money and not have to wait. (Don't you hate waiting?) I went to a nearby store that sells bedding and found this soft squishy just right (as in Goldilocks and the baby bear) king-size bed pillow on sale for $8.00.
I measured to find the middle of the pillow, and while smushing the filling down drew a line across it using a yardstick and pencil. Then I cut all around the pillow cover on the line.
Next, cutting one scissor-size layer at a time I cut through all of the batting.
I smushed the batting inside the cover and pinned each opening closed, then sewed it on my sewing machine. As you can see, the line isn't completely straight because I had to smoosh the filling down with one hand while guiding the fabric with the other. A zipper foot may have made this step easier and straighter, but hey, it'll be inside a cover, so no one will see it.
The two finished pillows weren't perfect squares (18 x 20). I thought I might have to cut the 20-inch side down to 18 inches and sew it also, but trying it out first with some more smushing inside their new covers, they fit just fine and look square.
As always, everything is more fun with Tucker there.
I figure I saved at the very least $8.00 by remaking a king-size bed pillow into two throw pillow inserts. This project took me about 15 minutes to cut, pin, and sew, and I didn't have to wait for coupons and make two trips to the craft store. You could make this project for free if you have any old king size pillows already on-hand.
I'd love to hear if you have made your own pillow inserts before and how you did it.
Last week The Graphics Fairy posted this beautiful Vintage-Style German Glass Glitter Easter Egg at The Graphics Fairy - Crafts.
Because she is a Fairy who bestows wonderful vintage copyright-free graphics on us, the Graphics Fairy also posted a printable .PDF of these bunnies
Thank you, kind Graphics Fairy!
Seeing the smaller bunny made me think of the leftover undecorated decoupage eggs I had from this project, so I adapted The Graphics Fairy's idea to one of my smaller eggs.
From this...
...to this
Here's how to do it:
Decoupage a plastic egg following the instructions here.
Print the Graphics Fairy's graphic found here onto regular printer paper. I used my inkjet printer. (Please read my reply to the first comment at the end of this post for more information about using inkjet copies for this project.)
Cut the small-size bunny graphic out and cut notches in the edges, so it will lay flat against the curved egg.
Using a paint brush, coat the back with decoupage medium and apply it right side up to the egg.
Using the paint brush and more medium, carefully brush the bunny so it lays flat against the egg. Let the egg dry completely. (Very important!)
When the egg is dry, apply a thin line of glue around the edge of the graphic.
Holding the egg over a piece of paper that has been folded in half and opened flat again, sprinkle glitter all over the glue.
Turn the egg upside down and tap the extra glitter off. After tapping, there was still a little glitter sticking to the sides of my egg.
If your egg was dry when you started, don't worry, just leave it like this and set it aside to let the glue dry completely. (I left mine overnight.)
Meanwhile, pour the excess glitter on your piece of paper back into its bottle. (The fold you made in the paper earlier will help guide the glitter into the bottle.)
Once the glue on your egg is completely dry, tap the egg again over a waste basket to remove more excess glitter, and use a dry clean paint brush to carefully brush the rest away, leaving only the thin raised glittery line around the graphic.
Now just find the perfect place to display your new egg...
....perched on a candlestick perhaps?
This egg found it's home on some moss under the dome of a pastry stand from T.J. Maxx.
You may also like the
Decoupage Eggxtravaganza.
Find it HERE.
and the Shabby Chick(k) Egg #1.
Linking up to:
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Homemaker on a Dime
Monday
The Graphics Fairy LLC
Tuesday
Today's Creative Blog
Not Just a Housewife
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Home Stories A to Z
Wednesday
Ivy and Elephants
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Faded Charm
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From My Front Porch to Yours
These Peas Taste Funny
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Centsational Girl
Friday
French Country Cottage
2805
Common Ground
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At the Picket Fence
Stuff and Nonsense
Last fall my husband and I tore out our small side yard and installed a tall trellis above the fence. It's a lot of bare wood to look at, so we decided to cover it with vines. We planted three different kinds of tall clematis, one against each of three posts supporting the trellis. Last summer they got a few flowers, which I snipped off to direct more energy to the roots and stem growth. I sacrificed those poor beautiful flowers to the future betterment of the plant.
Like a lot of the west this year we had almost no rain for months late last fall and over the entire winter. We're used to not having to water the yard during this time because the ground is usually frozen. This year, though, in addition to no rain and snow, it was unusually warm and the ground didn't freeze much at all.
The established plants in our yard have roots that can reach the water down deep in the ground and withstand a dryish winter, but our clematis roots were still not much deeper than the pots in which we purchased them. Therefore, we should have been watering our new clematis pretty regularly, but we never even thought about it.
I remember walking outside one day earlier this month, looking at the vines there with their brown winter-withered leaves and stems, and all of a sudden having one of those head-slap moments that we SHOULD HAVE BEEN WATERING THEM!!!
So what? Big deal, you might be thinking. Plant some more. But the thing about clematis is that they hardly grow the first year you plant them and not much more the second year. It's not until the third year, they say, that they take off. (There's some saying gardeners have for it, but I can't remember what it is.) So, it's not just the expense and idea of planting three more clematis that had me down, it's losing a whole year of growth. We want that trellis covered, and we want it covered NOW! (stamp foot!) I was bummed at my neglect and carelessness.
But...
...hang on...
...look what I found today...
They're alive!
I found new leaves on each of the three Clematis vines. And I'm stoked!
I had planned to post about planting radish seeds today, but it has finally been raining here the past few days, and the soil is too wet to plant.
Hope you're having a wonderful Saint Patrick's Day today! I am, and the best Irish green I've seen all day is the green growing on my Clematis vines!
