The Birdhouse: September 2008

I have a flaw. Many of you may have your idea of what that one flaw may be, but let me spare you the speculation. The flaw that I am talking about is.....I am uncrafty. As much as I want to be...as much as I dream about being...as much as people make me think I could be... I am UN crafty.

I have been addicted to blogs for awhile now. I waste alot of time on them. First I started with family blogs and then it grew to craft/home blogs. I thought to myself many times, "That looks easy. I could do that". Turns out I was wrong. REALLY wrong. I now know that if I want something, I need to purchase it from a store and not try to recreate it.

This is what I have been up to lately. I show this not for "ooh's and ahh's". I also do not show this for "boo's and hisses". So watch your comments!!

All good craft bloggers go thrifting. They buy junk. They show you what they bought. They spray paint it, add little details and work their magic and show off the finished masterpiece. Sounds easy? I can do that, right??

So, I head off to Goodwill and buy some junk. Here I am showing it to you.

I spray painted the big oval platter, the cheeseplate base and the clock all black. Can't mess that up can ya?

Before:

After:

I ended up putting stuff on the platter because it turned out ugly. The cheese plate which was gonna be one AWESOME cloche, looks like a black cheeseplate.

NEXT!!

I was gonna paint this awesome urn black, but luckily I waited 'til after I ruined the other junk. I decided against painting it. I made a topiary ball and stuck it on top.

Before:

After:

I actually liked the way this turned out. But #1 I really have nowhere to put it (it certainly doesn't look good against this green wall) and #2 it gave me the false idea that I could make topiaries (you'll see what I mean in a minute).

NEXT!!

I didn't even have the good sense to know what this thing was. I just saw it, thought it looked neat and figured I could spray paint it. I ended up not painting it since it was a cool bronze color.

It suddenly dawned on me...IT'S A WREATH-HOLDER!!!! DUH!!!

Before:

After:

NEXT!!

I got this awesome cabinet from my friend Jill. I wanted to paint it black. Tim said no. I have no idea why!?!?!?! Anywho. craft-bloggers use scrapbook paper to snaz things up a bit. So I thought, "why not?".

Before:

After:

It's not as bad as it looks, although I think I'm gonna replace the plaid paper with the toile paper. Good thing it's 2 for $1.

Here it is with some stuff I stuck in there. At the bottom you can see the clock that I painted and added a stripe of polka dotted ribbon.

Also. Here's a "B" plaque that I made. Some craft blogger gave a tutorial on it and challanged her readers to make one. This is my plaque. It looks good from a distance but please don't look at it up close.

Speaking of "B" 's. Here is another home made project. I used left over toile scrapbooking paper from the cabinet fiasco and put it in these frames as backing. I cut out one of the practice "B"s that Tim used when we redecorated the bathroom a couple of months ago and paired it with a family picture.

It didn't turn out too hideous but I certainly couldn't sell it at PotteryBarn.

NEXT!!

I saved the best (or should I say "worst") for last. The Topiaries. It sounds like a horror movie title. It lives up to it's name, I promise. I have a love affair with topiaries. I have a problem purchasing them because they are way too expensive for me to justify buying, especially the really nice one's. I see craft bloggers with fake topiaries all over their houses. Topiaries that they made themselves. I can do that, right???

WRONG!!!

I have to tell you, they looked so good in my mind's eye. No, they looked AWESOME in my minds eye. Somehow they got lost in translation from my mind's eye to my uncrafty hands.

They are still on top of the cabinet because I just couldn't bear to throw them out. You can't just throw a love child out on the street ya know. I'm not heartless...just crafty-less.

Enjoy the laugh. I think I am going to stick with family blogs and forget about craft blogs. They make me feel bad about myself and I have too many other things to feel sorry for myself about! haha

Has it really been almost a month since I've posted? Well, in my defense, it has been quite a crazy month. The sad thing is....there really isn't anything post worthy. Lilah's b'day came and went with a fizzle. My birthday came and went with a fizzle. We did have that emergency trip to Canada but it wasn't a "vacation" and we didn't even really take any pictures. Lilah is ALL OVER the place now and I really don't have any free time to do anything other than clean the house, do laundry and cook when I'm not chasing her or trying to entertain her. Hockey started back 3 weeks ago and Tim is not only coaching McG's team again but he's now the commissioner (whatever that means) over the 10 and under league. Sprinkle all of that with our work schedules, scouts and our church calllings and you have one messy, busy life.

I hear Lilah waking up from her nap (I'm waaay too old for this) so I'm gonna have to just post a couple of pictures today and maybe try to start fresh tomorrow.