Wild Thang!

I know, I know, I should be writing about a patched up horse blanket tonight but that tale shall be posted tomorrow. I have a few finishing touches to put on it after running out of thread and so forth and so on. But never fear because I still have something fabulous to share with you!

Earlier today, dear daughter and I stopped at the store to pick up a few minor party necessities before the Super Bowl started and I stumbled upon the most glorious little animal print dahlia bushes I've ever seen. Of course, this could be due to the fact that I don't ever personally recall seeing any prior to today, but that's beside the point. I bought one bush of zebra print and one bush of giraffe print - so adorable - and a handful of other supplies, then scurried on home to leap into a frenzy of cutting and hot gluing.

Once we got home, I grabbed my little hot glue gun, some black fabric, a few sheets of cardstock and a pair of scissors so I could get started right away. I hot glued my fabric to the cardstock and cut out some circles, about 1-1/2" in diameter, to use as a base for the flowers.

For the headbands, I glued the cardstock side of the circles to the elastic first with the flower on top.

 

The barrettes were glued to the fabric side of the circle after it was secured to the flower.

 Seriously, could these little wild thangs be any cuter???

 Zebra Print Barrette

 Giraffe Print Headband

Zebra Print Headband

It's Valen-times!

Last night I was feeling all Valentiney, so I decided to put my own spin on a festive little door hanger I'd seen at Rhonna Designs a while back and fell seriously in like with. It just so happens that I have an overabundance of old sheet music in my possession to work with, which made this a perfect project.

I used my paper cutter to cut 1" wide strips of sheet music in two different lengths. I also used it to cut the 2" wide pink ribbon I had in my stash into 1" wide strips and let me tell you, it worked like a charm! After gathering up all of my paper and ribbon strips, I grabbed some coffee filters and sat down to get to work. The first step to putting anything together was cutting a length of jute twine and knotting it on both ends. At one end, I needle felted a falling heart out of red wool roving. The other end I hot-glued to the center of a round piece of cardstock. I also punched three holes in the card stock circle, weaved another length of jute twine through it and knotted it to fashion myself a hanger. With the hard work done here, I started gluing all of my strips and filters to the cardstock, working from the outer edge toward the center. This is what I came up with for the first of two wreaths:

The second wreath did not have a falling heart, but had a 2" pink ribbon in place of the jute twine hanger and far more sheet music strips, which all made it appear much larger and fuller.

Hopefully these cuties get you in the mood to create something memorable for your sweetheart this Valentine's Day. Maybe I'll stumble upon a few more ideas before the holiday creeps up on us.

Stuffin' It

I did it! I did it! Good golly, I did it!!!

Between the original, ugly-but-comfy-enough-to-be-my-chair-cushion, mule head pillow and the brand spankin' new one I made this morning, I would say I've improved by leaps and bounds working with appliques.The first major difference between this and the first attempt was my use of Thermoweb 101654 Heatn Bond Ultra Hold Iron-On Adhesive-17 in. x 5 Yar (Google Affiliate Ad). This stuff is amazing!!!

I traced my pattern onto the Heatn Bond, cut it out, then ironed it onto the wrong side of my fabric...which I had, of course, ironed all the wrinkles out of already...then cut the mule head pattern out of the fabric before peeling off the Heatn Bond backing paper.

Next I very, very, very, very, very carefully ironed my applique onto the green fleece from our mule cooler project, so that my girl's pillow will match her mule's snuggly blankey. (Feel free to insert an "Awwww, how precious" here.) I stitched around the edges of my applique for extra holding power, since I have a feeling this pillow will be traveling quite a bit for sports and music and camping trips in the near future and hopefully for years to come.

After all of that, I zig-zagged my front and back together on three sides with the good sides facing each other, flipped them right side out and stuffed the pillow full. And finally, this is what we have.

 

Hee Haw!!! I think we have a winner! Dear daughter is going to love it. Happy weekend, everyone.

Bending Steel

Within the big pile 'o' treats I picked up at Goodwill the other day was a small shelf with a less than currently fashionable, rather large pink flower smack in the middle of it. To refresh your memory, take a gander below:

 

Well, as of this afternoon, said obnoxious flower no longer exists. See...

Dear hubby did the honors of sanding off the floral pattern while I pounded flat a couple of my new-to-me sterling silver spoons and bent their decorative handles to create hooks. Once his sanding job was complete, I burned in the design of my choosing. For this shelf, I selected a dainty horse-drawn carriage driven by a formally dressed lady. I think the final result is strangely sophisticated and rather eye-pleasing.

Once again, I'm waiting for a few consecutive warm and dry days so I can get outside to layer on a polycrylic sealant and protect the wood on these projects.

Buckled Down

Back in October, our mule had surgery to remove a skin tumor from his shoulder. To keep muck and insects and other general ickiness away from his sutures during recovery and stall rest, I bought him a bright red sleazy blanket so he'd feel like Superman and heal quickly. Being the rambunctious boy that he is, and being confined to a stall (which he does not take kindly to), I had a suspicion that the poor blanket wouldn't last long. It had a hole in it the first night. There was a rip by the third night when I washed it for the first time. By the end of the second week, he'd managed to rip off both straps so it couldn't be buckled under his belly anymore the way it was intended. We managed to rig it up to work until he no longer needed it, but it sure didn't look like the same Superman cape I put on him when he came home from the hospital.

I had washed it and tucked it away and not really given it another thought since Z's been turned back out on pasture, until dear daughter came up with the idea to replace the plastic rings that were originally on the blanket with little metal D rings we found while we were craft shopping last week. I doubled over some 2" trim, stitched it up and sewed it to the side of the sleazy blanket. Voila!

With all of the rips and holes also repaired, the Superman cape is ready for use once again - but hopefully never for the same reason as it was originally purchased.

Goodwill Hunting

I was in the market for something quite specific for a project and it was one of those things that you have to sort of be in the right place at the right time to find. So this morning I went Goodwill hunting - one of my favorite sports of all time - and at first I thought the trip might be a bust. Then I spotted the one thing that got the ball rolling until finally I found exactly what I was looking for. Here's what I came home with to start a whole series of new projects:

The only item I purchased that won't itself be altered is the grapevine wreath. The rest will be dismantled, sanded, pounded, remantled (remantled? What is that???), embellished and so on and so forth until they're each something new and wonderful.

Of course it may take some of these additional parts to actually get 'em to where they're going, but that is exactly what helps breathe new life into the old.

Speaking of...remember my first adventure into pyrography? Well here is the (nearly) finished project, with knobs and double hooks installed for hanging halters and bridles. It needs another coat of poly and a few holes drilled for easy installation, then it's ready to go out the door. I think it is gorgeous, functional and will make a great addition to any tack room!

 

Just Horsin' Around

Last night I went on a project completion planning spree to help get a few things moved from the "work in progress" stage to the "ready to sell" stage. I ended up making a fairly significant dent, too, which also makes more work space for me!

 4 oz. Treasure Jars (6 John Deere and 6 Horse Head)

Lariat Wreath with Burlap, Leather Ties,
Cleaned & Sealed Horseshoe
and Crocheted Flowers

Today I worked with more horseshoes to create these three fabulous little wall hangers from the stash of shoes I'd soaked in Coca-Cola previously, then cleaned and sealed with acrylic craft sealant.

 Turquoise and Black Leather

 Gold, Bronze and Wood

 Pink, Black and Black Leather

I loved the way they turned out so much that I had dear hubby pick up another 2-liter of Coca-Cola today to soak my remaining 15 rusty horseshoes overnight to clean tomorrow.

I am looking forward to incorporating them into some other nifty projects!