The Bright Side

When I was younger, I didn't always have the best attitude.  I know my mom is laughing right now reading that, thinking it's only the biggest understatement of the century.  Hush, mom.  You're interrupting my story...
In addition to having a bad attitude, I was always a bit of a smart alec.  I know, shock and disbelief have overcome you all.
My mom decided one day that she had had enough of my negativity, and decided to employ a new system in our home.  The bright side.  For every negative thing I said, I had to come up with at least one way that the situation was actually good.  You know... if I stepped in dog poo, I could say "at least they weren't my favorite shoes", or other such things. 
This kinda came back to bite her in the butt one evening.  You see, I had become accustomed to finding the bright side in the darkest of situations, something she was not quite ready for. 
One day, my mom came home from work to find her bedroom in disarray.  My brothers liked to hang out in there, because that is where the Nintendo was.  They had trashed her bed, leaving one of her pillows on the floor, amongst dog hair and probably toast crumbs. 
Mom was furious!  She had just completed something like a 12 hour work day, and had been looking forward to the refuge of her bedroom from the time she left it that morning.  I walked in, to listen as she vented her frustration, and to help her fix the disaster area.  When it seemed that she was losing steam, I asked her, in all my adolescent wisdom, what the bright side to the situation was. 
Maybe not the best idea. 
She suddenly found more steam.  "Alright, Samantha (that's how you knew I was in trouble...the REAL name!) I come home from a hard day at work, and find my room trashed, with my pillow on the floor, amongst who knows what!  What on Earth could the bright side in this situation be?!"
Oh, how she underestimated me!
"Well...at least BOTH of your pillows weren't on the floor!"
Mom collapsed into a fit of laughter, and probably called me a brat, or a smart alec.  Either way, she was right. 
So, why do I share this blast from the past with you?
Because I feel my bad attitude returning.  I have a lot on my plate right now, and it's stressing me out that I can't be supermom, super church teacher, super entrepreneur, super homemaker, and super blogger.  I just want to be able to do it all!  Yesterday, my perfectionism and desire to do everything RIGHT THEN, paralyzed me.  I was so overwhelmed, I couldn't do any of it.  By the time Roon got home, I was a wreck. 
The bright side?
He calmed me down.  Instead of suggesting that we remove some of the things from our to do list, he suggested we take steps to complete the tasks one by one.  A not so quick trip to Home Depot later, we had formulated a plan or 10.
The bad news is that in order to complete everything, my blogging my be sporadic for the next few weeks. 
The bright side?
I can use the blog to keep myself accountable.  I can list the things that need to get done, and as I cross them off, I can show ya'll what I did!  Kinda like a much larger version of my "Unfinished Project Closet" posts. 
Lucky for you, a lot of my projects involve fun re-dos and creative expression. 
Hopefully, I'll have a list up on my sidebar by the end of the day for you to all mock enjoy.
Ya'll still want to be friends with the whiney version of me, right?

The Big Reveal!

Remember 2 weeks ago, when I announced this month's "Unfinished Project Closet" goal? Well, as promised, I'm linking up with Xazmin to reveal what I did with Mod Podge to improve my opinion of my mantle. Before I show you what I did, I just wanted to say that sometimes, it is a real pain in the rear to have a creative mind. I see a project in my head, that theoretically should be super easy, and should look flawlessly beautiful. Now, my project turned out, in my opinion beautiful...but it is most certainly NOT flawless. Seriously, guys, DO NOT enlanrge the picture and zoom in too closely, or you will see all the bubbles, and imperfections, but from certain angles, it looks just how I wanted it to look. Also, please pay no attention to the fat girl in the picture. That girl has since lost 15 pounds, and is much less, shall we say, robust. Without further ado, here is what I did.

First, I took a family picture, and had my husband (a photo shop whiz) blow it up, but break it down to twelve 8x10 photos. We turned them black and white, and printed them out on our printer. (Sorry, I'm totally a novice to the whole "tutorial in pictures" kind of thing, or I so would have taken pictures of every single step.)

Then, I trimmed down the pictures, from 8x10's to 7.5 x 9.5, by taking a quarter of an inch off of each side.

Then, I gathered my materials.

I took two poster board size pieces of foam board, and cut them down to 12-7.5" x 9.5" pieces. I cut 3 pieces of 12x12 scrapbook paper down to be big enough to cover the edges of the foam board. (I did this to try to make the picture look like it was actually done on canvas, as opposed to cheap foam board.) I applied the scrapbook paper to the edges first...

I applied the longer pieces to the long sides first, by putting Mod Podge on the paper, and then placing the foam board onto it. I folded the ends up, and then folded it up like a present. After both long sides were done, I put the shorter pieces on the shorter sides, that were not already covered. When I was done, it looked a little something like this:

Notice, that I did not make any effort to make it perfectly straight. It doesn't have to be since the front is going to be covered in a picture.

I did not take pictures of the next step, because this is where I got frustrated, and almost gave up on the idea completely. I put a LOT of Mod Podge on the front, smoothed a picture onto it, then sealed the crap out of it by slathering the whole thing in mod podge. Problem was, I ended up with a TON of bubbles.

I repeated this process 12 times, until my entire "picture" was done. Then, I had Roon hang it, and we threw on the vinyl. When all was said and done, it looked like this:

Right now I'm trying to convince myself that the bubbles make it look more "textured" and that they give the piece character. My perfectionism is telling me that it is not nearly as cool as what I had pictured in my head. Is anything really as cool as we picture in our heads? Overall, I like it. I especially like that it cost less than $10 to make, so I don't feel like I have to keep it the same way all the time, if I don't want to. What do ya'll think?

UPC: February Edition.

I am so excited about this month's Unfinished Project Closet project! I can't go into too much detail, because I am actually going to link up with Xazmin at the end of the month for her Mod Podge Mania, but I will tell you that it is a project I have been talking about doing since shortly after (or maybe a year after) moving into our house. We have lived here for 3 1/2 years, and I HATE my mantle. I LOVED what I did with it over Christmas, but I despise the way that it looks throughout the rest of the year. Now, obviously this project has not been sitting around in my closet, because it's extremely large, but it has been stored in the confines of my brain long enough that I think it's beginning to gather dust. So, be sure to check back with me on February 28th, when I link up, and reveal what I did (with Mod Podge) to make my mantle everthing I want it to be.

This, is what it currently looks like. Yes, those are Mod Podged blocks that my sister in law made for me, and I LOVE those, but I think I may have a better spot fot those, or that they may look better on the mantle once my project is done. Wish me luck! Now it's time to go get sticky!

Oh! And just in case you were curious...here is what I did with it at Christmas time:

Mission: Completion!

So, it's nearing the end of the month, and I am pleased to report the following. My "Unfinished Project Closet" project for January is D.O.N.E.!!! This is due in large part to, okay let's be honest...completely because of, my wonderful husband, Roon. He is the Photoshop master, and while I do know my way around the program to some extent, he puts my abilities to shame. Below, I have included photographic evidence for all you skeptics out there who think I'm full of s...alami. Granted, I guess I can't call this project absolutely completed until they are in envelopes, addressed, and stamped, and happily sailing towards their destinations, but I'm calling it a win, because dangit, they're AWESOME! If I do say so myself...

YAY ME!!! And Roon.

Unfinished...or awaiting inspiration?

I don't know about anyone else out there in the blogosphere, but I always NEVER set projects aside that are not finished. I think the very idea that there was a half finished embroidery project from 8 years ago would keep me awake at night. But, for those sorry slackers that do have "unfinished" projects in their closets, I decided to begin a monthly motivator which I like to refer to as "the unfinished project closet". Now, like I said, I do not have "unfinished" projects, but I may have one or two projects that are..."awaiting inspiration". Yes, I get that I have deluded myself into thinking that it was not laziness, but lack of creative energy that put the project on hold, in a less than finished state, but alas, it makes me feel better, so that's what I'm calling it.
Usually, I will post a "before" picture at the beginning of the month, and then an "after" picture at the end of the month to serve as proof that I did, in fact, get my lazy rear in gear. However, this month has no "Before" picture, because it has to do with a digital project. This month, I commit to get my family calendar DONE. I know what you're thinking...gee, committing to get a calendar in January seems a little late doesn't it? Well, no. In fact, I'm pretty sure that nobody in my extended family even misses having a calendar in January. They don't do anything during that month anyway, right? Alright, alright, well in my defense, I have only known that I would be in charge of this year's calendar for 2+ years. I mean, work with me people! I have also been really super lazy busy lately.
Eventually, I may turn this into a contest, where people can submit their unfinished project goal, and they'll win some sort of prize if they succeed, but for now, since only about 3 people read my blog, and one is my husband, it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense.
So, there you have it...my first commitment to get something DONE! I'll let you know how it goes. Until then, I challenge you to pull out that crocheted "potholder" and turn it into the scarf you originally intended it to be!