Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Pinterest Projects aka You Win Some, You Lose Some



Ah, Pinterest... my carpal-tunneled wrists hate you, but I love you so SO much. Pinterest is a great resource for one who is looking for some inspiration overload.  
I pinned this Doily Lamp and knew exactly where I wanted it in my home.  I set out on my mission to find the perfect doilies for this project, and I found a lot... a lot of expensive doilies nestled in vintage dresser drawers found in the nooks of wonderous Antique shops.
I wasn't wanting to spend a lot on this project, so I decided to mull it over in my mind while I went and looked at some fabric, because looking at fabric solves most all my problems in life.
I was at a little shop near my home, with the doilies set aside in the back of my mind not on the fabric forefront, when all of a sudden... I FOUND THE PERFECT DOILIES!
They were in a plastic bag on the scrap table calling out to me,
"Nicole, we are the chosen ones; take us, use us, make us yours."
So, I snatched them up and paid the $12 price tag, looking over my shoulder wondering if anyone else even knew of the treasures that the scrap table held. Since I was the only one in the store, I assumed they didn't and skipped out the door with delight.
Fast forward one week later (yeah, I don't know how I waited a week to complete this!), my super-cute-pregnant-with-her-first-baby sis-in-law is over (while our husbands and a few other hooligans were out pokering it up in the garage...), and it's the perfect time to do a project.
I thought I could make this project a bit easier and just starch the doilies... uh, no. The starch did not work at all. And so, at 11 o'clock at night, after we had already had numerous fits of laughter, we decided to follow the directions and use paper mache´. So easy, so quick. 
(Two cups of flour, two cups of water, one tablespoon of salt... mix together, paper mache´around a blown up balloon.)
My sis then asked if I wanted her to use my blow dryer to help the drying process, which of course I was all for. A few minutes into it, the balloon that the doilies were paper mache´d onto BURST... in my sister's face... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. 
Oh my goodness, that line of "HAHA's" doesn't even begin to describe the hysterical laughter that took place. It was so funny.
We got ourselves together and quickly blew up another balloon and got paper macheíng and thought it best to just let it hang dry overnight. It wasn't quite dry in the morning so I set it outside for a few hours and it dried up perfectly. I sprayed it with a coat of paint (it was really pretty unpainted, but if you looked close you could see the residue from the paper mache´, and now it matches some of the other treasures in the room) and hung it.
Oooooh, and it is beautiful! I really love how it turned out.
(I also only did a semi-circle around the balloon rather than the full circle so that it could hang more easily from the ceiling.)
So, this project is a WIN.

This project, however was not.



I pinned this Homemade Air Freshener and decided to change some things up. I have an abundance of herbs, so I decided to use my Rosemary and Lemon Verbena rather than purchase these oils, and steep the herbs and then use that water in the recipe. I did purchase some Sweet Orange oil and used it with both herbs. I feel like if I tweek this some more, it will work eventually, but this round it did not.  It's a gelatin mix and for some reason, these just didn't gel completely.  I have a feeling it has something to do with when I  added the oil. They do still smell good and look pretty... so I guess it's not a total loss, but definitely needs some work!




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