Join Salem Creative Mamas

Seeking some creative souls who love to explore new crafts and techniques and who are willing to share their ideas. Some of the things I can teach include screen printing, collage, beading, altered books, soldered pendants, graphic design, and painting. If you like to laugh, have a kind spirit and are driven by the need to create, please contact me. No soliciting please.

I'm feeling the need to connect with other creative types. I added an advertisment on craigslist and hopefully I'll get some really fun, silly spirits to join the group. Drop me a line if this is something you'd be interested in.

Single White Female types need not apply.

A House Full of Music

Okay, the title of this blog is a bit misleading. It's actually a house full of musical confusion with various notes getting pounded out by Little Man, but there is hope for us.

We scored a great deal on a piano from craigslist. It came with free delivery and tuning so hubby and I were ecstatic. Hubby was teaching Little Missy on his keyboard for a month now and we had our hopes set for a real piano in our house. Visions of family gathered around the piano singing Christmas carols danced in my mind. I've never lived in a home with a piano and really would have liked to take lessons as a kid. After practicing a bit, I can tell it will take lots of hardwork to learn to play anything I'd be willing to perform in front of company. But it's never too late to learn right?

Trash to Treasure

Trash

Here's a new project that was so simple. We got a new piano and needed to recover the bench. On it was some pretty nasty brown and white vinyl. I got out my screwdriver, and took the seat off the hinges. Then I took out the nails that held the vinyl on. I had some toile (my most coveted fabric) that I picked up from an estate sale and I simply stapled it onto the seat on the back side a little bit at a time, making sure to stretch it tight. I think it turned out really well.

Treasure

Bush Park Photos

Little man and I visited the park to get some photos for the upcoming newsletter for SCAN (our neighborhood association). I can't wait till the trees put on leaves and all the flowers are in bloom.

Little Swimmers

Little Missy is taking lessons at the Y this week. Poor girl was in tears yesterday after a series of times gulping down and breathing in the unwanted water. It's so darn hard to teach your kiddos to release their fear of water. So after a soothing "Not So Hot" from Dutch Brothers, we went off to the store to buy some swim goggles. And of course the kiddos HAD to try them out in the tub.

From Trash to Treasure

Trash

Treasure

I have problems throwing things away. I'm a bit of a hoarder and all you crafty people out there can probably understand why. I do end up using the things that I have (if I can find them). I heard the six-month rule before. It goes something along the lines of "if you haven't used it in the last six months you probably won't ever use it, so throw it away." Well I disprove this thinking all of the time. This box, taken from a child's stamp set, is a good example of something that I saved from the landfill. I've had it for about a year now and came across it when I was cleaning out a closet. I didn't know what I would use it for but decided to turn it into a shadow box for the upcoming "feather her nest" baby shower a friend and I are throwing. It looks great hanging out on my book shelf and it gives me hope to think spring is just around the corner. Come on spring! Anytime now!!!

Stuffed Birds

Spool Sewing has an adorable bird pattern available for free download. Check it out! I made some cute birds of my own to dress up my front porch (or should I say perch? Ha, that joke is for you Mom!). Anyway, I had some left over branches that keep breaking off from the wacky tree next door. I painted them white and simply stuck them into the soil of my planters.

The "R" sign I made from an old cabinet door awhile ago. It needed a bit something so I made a birds nest by twisting some of the ivy that we have growing on our rock wall. Well, it worked really well and I added chocolate eggs since I can't seem to find cute little robins eggs anywhere. Better on my porch than in my stomach I guess. :)

Greetings from my Little Leprechaun

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Screenprinting

After a series of failed attempts to develop a good image for screen printing, I finally figured it out. Ta-Dah!

Toaster Deconstruction

The kids had a blast taking apart the toaster. Love my sweet little elves!

Periodic Table of Typefaces

This was taken from my friend, Dave Reed's blog. Thanks Dave! This is so cool!

Footloose Action

Hubby had not seen the movie Footloose yet so last night we stayed up despite daylight savings and watched it. It's really fun to watch movies from the 80's. I was only six when the movie came out yet, I can still remember most of the lyrics from the songs. Sing along with me... Loose, footloose, Kick off your Sunday shoes, Please, Louise, Pull me offa my knees.


What I didn't remember was the hideous way the ending dance scene was shot in. Brightly colored lights adorned the corners of the frames along with light strands and lots of confetti. Thought it was funny so I made a Photoshop action (free download on deviantART.com) to share with you just in case you also want to turn your photos into some 80 era gems.
I'm using a picture of Erick and Kevin, two people who I truly admire on the dance floor. I sure hope they don't mind the 80's flair :)

Rainbow Cake Idea

After looking around for some birthday ideas for little man, I came across this fun cake idea. Check out Omnomicon's really cool Rainbow Cake tutorial. I thought it was so darn creative and I just love the colors. I guess you could really do any color combination like pink and purples for a girly party or red white and blue for Independance Day. How fun!

Random Thoughts

I have to admit something. I have an aversion to wilderness sweatshirts. It's not the edgy graphic shirts that I have a problem with. It's the very realistic shirts that depict animals with great detail. I often see such sweatshirts being sported by hunters and fisherman. Can someone please explain to me why?