Holiday crafting frenzy!

This time of the year I am just a little bit crazier than normal. I have been in "sewing mode" for months. Yesterday someone asked me if I was sewing. Why, yes, I am. Every morning about 3:30 you will find me with a cup of coffee either standing in front of my cutting station, at the ironing board or sitting at one of the two sewing machines that I have set up at all times. I sew until about 6am and then get ready for my real job. I don't sew at night very often usually because I am bleary eyed not long after I return home in the evening. I crochet scarves at night. Right now I have lots of inventory in preparation for the Hazelnut deux (my small business) holiday boutique this weekend.

This is the first time I have joined forces with a lovely group of women who also craft and created locally. Too often I have found myself at "craft fairs" with vendors for large companies. I wanted to be part of a group that only featured real craftspeople and artists and I think we offer a great blend of creativity. If you live nearby, please stop in on Sunday afternoon!

On Monday, November 25th, I will be listing a significant number of items in my Etsy shop. Please check it out next week! If you sign up for my newletter (click HERE to take you to the blog site for Hazelnut deux) I am offering a 15% discount code in the Etsy shop on anything purchased after November 24th.

Now - back to the sewing machine!

Crafty Sunday

I have had a big candle in my living room for several years. It is a plain, off white, fat pillar candle. It is boring and kinda ugly.  Now, you will have to use your imagination for a second because I neglected to take a picture of my boring candle.  So let's pretend that it looks like this

(except that this one is brand new, white and smaller!)

I used this napkin

since none of my "fall" napkins had an all over print.

Using this tutorial, a single ply of the napkin, a large piece of waxed paper and my blow dryer I ended up with this

It would have looked better in my fall "mini vignette" if I had the right napkin but now I can say that I have gotten a jump on holiday decorating!

Pretty cute for 15 minutes worth of crafting!

Ugly Lampshade Make Over!

I have a lamp that I truly love but the shade was looking pretty ratty.

The black is crackled looking and there are big scratches. I could not find a replacement lampshade that I liked so I knew I would have to attempt to make something.  I have a lot of canvas drop cloth fabric so I started tearing long strips to wrap around the shade.

Every time I got to the end of a strip I hot glued it to the inside of the lamp and attached another. The fraying strings were a pain and the I burned myself repeatedly with the hot glue but I love the end result!

I used a product called "Fray Check" to stop the strips from further fraying.

Now I am actually toying with the idea of using a graphic from Graphics Fairy to "French" it up a bit. There may be more to this project than I originally thought!

Linking to Home{work} Wednesday on The Everyday Home

I learned something new today!

Yes, this old dog learned a new trick! When I opened Chrome, a bunch of extra tabs kept appearing.  They were all weird search tabs. I had no idea where they came from (and, frankly, I still don't!) What I do know now is how to get rid of them!

If you have the same issue, right click on the three line icon on the top of the page (all the way to the right). Click on "Tools" and the "Extensions".  On the left side of the Extensions page is another little menu. Choose "Settings". Now, see the one that reads "On Startup"? I bet the bottom choice is selected which is NOT what you want. Choose instead "Open the new tab page". That's it. Go all the way out of Chrome and come back in. Ta da! Those extra tabs are no longer there - just a single New Tab that is not connected to any weird search engine.

I thought about adding screenshots so you could see what I am writing about but that exposed more of my personal info than I was comfortable sharing so I didn't. How I learned to fix irritating problem was by watching this You Tube video.

Bloglovin? Not so much...

Is anyone else having issues with Bloglovin?  I am having difficulty getting on to check the blogs I read as well as getting random deliveries of blogs that I haven't seen in weeks.  I have not seen anyone else complaining about it on any of the blogs that I read so I am asking you!  If you use Bloglovin as your reader, please leave a comment (or send me an email) and tell me what you are experiencing.  If it is just my computer (which is about 6 years old and an antique in the technology world) I would like to know and then I will ditch this old horse. If it is because I use Chrome, I can always switch to another search engine.

Thanks!!

Busy weekend

I have one too many irons in the fire this weekend!  I have been working in the basement, cleaning out and rearranging everything in my hutch and china closet, sewing and helping my sister a bit at her studio.  Oh, yeah - also painting.

Painting this very large spice cabinet.

Shown with all the accumulated dirt and crud as picked up at the Goodwill.

I have learned something really, really important.  It takes FOREVER to paint all the little shelves, dividers, edges, what have you. I should have spray painted the interior.  Next time I do something like this, I will definitely spray the interior and hand paint the outside.  I think I will finish it by using a wipe on poly in the interior which will allow for much easier clean up.  The exterior will be finished with regular and dark wax. Oh, the front panel is going to be a blackboard.

Back to basement...

Thrifting find

I don't know how old it is.  I only know that it is American ironstone, has the Red Cliff logo and is completely intact down to the perfect ladle.  It is about 13" high and the underplate is 13" wide from handle to handle.

There is some crazing on the underplate but other than that, it looks amazing.  I have seen these listed as high as $299.

I bought mine for $12 at a local thrift store.  It is the same one where I find most of the English ironstone I have been collecting for several years.  When I saw it on the shelf, I was stunned for just a second.  I quickly recovered, wrapped my arms around it and took it to the counter.

Giddy, I tell you.  Just giddy!!

Linking to these fabulous parties:  Open House Party and Home{work}Wednesday