A Make-Over for my Clock

This clock is another item in my house that is functional but I was really getting tired of looking at it. I am not sure if it was ever my style, I think it was a gift. Instead of doing away with it and spending money on a new one I decided to give this guy a make-over.

Here is what I did:

1. I took pictures with my iPhone through the entire dismantling process, I wanted to make sure I was going to be able to put it back together properly!
2. Sanded the wooden part of the clock to prep it for painting. I originally was painting the outside yellow and then with a mishap with the clock that involved the wet paint portion to land face-down on my lawn, I decided I wanted it white anyway.
3. Using scrapbook paper, I traced the old clock face and cut out my new background.
4. In Photoshop Elements, I picked a font I liked and then printed out the numbers after flipping them horizontally. I wanted the numbers to be white and it was easiest to print the numbers in black and then cut them out. By flipping them your numbers won't be backwards
5. After the paint  and glue (from the numbers) was dry, I reassembled.

A few tips:

1. Make sure you haven't bent the hands, especially the second hand. That little guy is very fragile and if it is bent will either hit the glass or minute hand. Trust me, you don't want to undo your hard work (3-4 times) to get this one right.
2. Make sure that the minute and hour hands line up properly for each hour. This is easy to fix if they don't. Position the number hand exactly on the 12 and while (gently) holding it in place, move the hour hand to the proper position if it were to be exactly 1 o'clock. It would be a good idea to check this with all of your numbers.

From This to That - Fixing Frayed Jeans

This is a little story about a pair of jeans that were starting to wear out. Not TOO badly, but enough that I felt they shouldn't be worn to work anymore (mostly to job sites in steel-toed boots, but still). That is until I turned them

From This:

To That:

I used my stash of embroidery floss and wrapped the bottoms of each pant leg. I doubled-up the floss while sewing to give a sturdy, full coverage.

It took 2 evenings (a pant leg per The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon). I left the nubby part where the seam is blank as I was sewing by hand and didn't want to break my needle, there was no fraying on that part anyway. You can see the "blank" part in the above photos.

 Next time, I will use less colours but nonetheless, I am happy with how they turned out.

Hurray for breathing new life into old jeans (that fit)!

Do you have any creative uses for embroidery floss?

This to That - A New Craft Desk

An unused and unloved part of our basement went from This:

To That:

My art and craft supplies finally have a home. We got rid of our old fish tank that hasn't had fish in it in forever and with a wee bit of money ($1 at Target) I used wrapping paper to cover up the not so lovely faux wood paneling. 

I crocheted the "Creating Harmony" banner using this pattern for my Facebook page. You can see it here.

Now I won't feel pressured to make something in one fell swoop as I don't have to remove it from the dining room table so we can eat!

Sunday Inspiration No. 2

I've been under the weather all of this week and have spent the majority of my time working in my "home office" (this consists of me sitting in bed with my laptop on my knees and cooking shows playing in the background).

In between e-mails and calls, I took a few quizzes. Accordingly I discovered that I have a vocabulary of 24,800 words, talk like I am from Florida and should be living in Barcelona. Interesting...

Take the New York Times Dialect Quiz.

How many words do you know? Test your vocabulary.

What city should you live in? Find out here.

Oh and I discovered how much I love and miss knitting! I made the cutest bear cowl for a friend's daughter this weekend. Now it is time to go through my stash of yarn and see what else I can make.

Some lovely wool went from This:

 To That:

From This to That: Cowls, Owls, Journals & Enthusiasm

I have been on a creating spree, turning materials from one thing into another this weekend. It has been fun, it hasn't taken away from my family time AND I still got some laundry on the clothesline. I call that a score, touchdown, nothing but net WIN.

My yarn went From This:

To That:

It is a big, florescent, super chunky cowl. It will definitely keep my neck warm in the colder months and I do believe I will be safer as no car is going to miss those colours on a gray Vancouver day.

I used my arms as knitting needles, super-fun. If you are looking for a quick project, you can check out Simply Maggie's tutorial complete with video. I made 2 of these for girlfriends before I made mine and used regular worsted weight yarn. They turned out very nice and I used the recommended stitch count of 12. They were very loose and airy.

 For mine, I used 12 stitches and suffocated myself when I was checking the length.  I ripped out the stitches to start again just casting on 6 stitches. I only wish I had made it a bit longer but I would have needed a second skein of each colour.

And then my clay went From This:

To That:

Playing with clay makes me feel good. It helps that my kids encourage me by saying I am awesome and can make anything (thanks boys!). I used Sculpey III clay, it stays soft even when I forget to cover it until you bake it. Be warned, the baking instructions are not on the package. You can find it on the website or use this rule: bake 15 minutes for every 1/4" of thickness at 175 degrees. F. For these little critters, I baked them for 30 minutes.

The clay is very hot and stays very hot for a good hour after you take it out of the oven. It may not feel like it is hard enough for you when you first take it out but trust me, it gets harder as it cools down.

My wallpaper scraps went From This:

To That:

A pretty little journal. I had my sewing machine out to fix my oldest son's backpack for back-to-school tomorrow and tackled this mini-project I have been thinking about for awhile.

It really took less than 10 minutes. I folded 10 sheets of letter paper in half, cut out the wallpaper a smidge bigger all around than the paper and sewed them all together along the fold.

I think I have a new book to brainstorm blog post ideas!

And finally, some blank paper and an exercise went From This:

To That:

One page full of the things I love to do that make me hum with happiness; inspire me; recharge my battery.

Michelle Ward is generously offering this sample chapter of her book, The Declaration of You, when you sign up for her newsletter. She is the When I Grow Up Coach and I want to have as much fun as she does, doing what I love when I grow up!

Please visit her and become inspired.

What did you make this weekend?