Can't Wait!!

I'm so excited to share what this cute fence...

Source: positivelysplendid.com via Stevie on Pinterest

Has in common with these two pictures...

Oh - yeah - that's me using a power sander!!  Just an every day thing you know!!

I am using the final result on Wednesday for a party in the teacher's lounge at my kids' school.

Stay tuned!!

Granbury, TX Subway Art

I wanted to share a really fun project that I finished...actually last weekend.  Whoops!  It's taken me a bit to get it posted!  I haven't even been able to find time to download the pictures until just now!  Yikes!  Anyway, back in the post where I showed you the fun present I made my mom for her birthday, I mentioned that I had a fun idea for my mother-in-law's birthday present.  Well, her birthday was actually in March when we were in Branson for spring break.  She lives in a small town called Granbury which is about an hour and a half west of us.  So we didn't get to see her and give her the present until last weekend. 

Granbury is a cute little town - it has an adorable town square that surrounds the county courthouse.  It has tons of cute gift, antique, clothing, food and specialty shops.  There is a lake and golf course and all kinds of fun things to do.  It's just a very charming and quiet little town that attracts many different types of visitors.  My in-laws built a house in the country with a lot of land.  For a while they had horses and there is always a dog or two and varying numbers of cats.  You can only imagine how much my kids love to go and visit there.  Lots of room for them to run around and explore.  We love to go out there - especially around holiday time like Christmas when everything is lit up with beautiful lights. 

For a while now I've loved all of the subway art that you see everywhere and wanted to try my hand at it.  I got the idea to do a Granbury subway art wall hanging for my mother in-law's birthday.  It took the help of my husband and mostly my father in-law to come up with all of the Granbury words.  There are places that they go to often to eat or shop, names of all the horses they've had throughout the years (I didn't have room for all the dogs and cats names too), and other memorable things that pertain to Granbury.  My mother in-law had actually given me a wall hanging that she had tried to sell in her booth at a shop in the town square.  It had a couple of slight imperfections and everyone had passed on it so she told me to use it for whatever I wanted.  I painted it and then used my Silhouette Cameo software and cutting machine to make the vinyl lettering.

I ordered the vinyl from Expressions Vinyl.  I've looked at their shop so many times - their stuff is so beautiful.  They have tons of sizes and types and colors.  So I was excited to finally have something that I needed to order so I could try them out.  Within a couple of hours of placing my order, I had an email saying it had shipped.  I couldn't believe how fast they were.  I was shocked a couple of days later when I pulled up to my house and their was a tube waiting for me in the mailbox - it was my vinyl!  So fast!  And the quality of the vinyl was superb!  I couldn't have been more happy and suggest you try them as well!  I've since ordered their dry erase vinyl and their t-shirt vinyl with the same fast shipping service.  I haven't tried them out yet but expect I'll be just as pleased!

Subway art is not easy.  It didn't come out as perfectly as I would have liked.  The wording at the bottom was supposed to go all the way across to make it balanced but because of some glitches along the way, that was the most I could get out of the vinyl I had left without going and getting more so it had to do.  Other little things here and there where I messed up bother me - but no one else notices so I don't point it out!! 

All in all, it turned out really cute and I'm happy with it.  Most importantly, I think my mother in-law really liked it and that's what counts with a gift, right?

One Of Those Weeks

This has been SUCH a busy week.  I haven't been able to get anything done in the way of blogging or crafting - boo.  I've been running errands to get Easter clothes and shoes, getting my hair done, stuff around the house...oh and some work in between!  And then there was Tuesday...TORNADO DAY.  Luckily, the area I live in wasn't affected besides having all the schools on lock down, scaring a lot of people and getting my completely soaking wet by the time I finally made it home from picking up kids.  We got lucky - there are a lot of people without homes or parts of their homes. 

My kids are all off school tomorrow so I've already told them that I have a project that I HAVE to finish tomorrow and that they're going to HAVE to play outside all day while I work on it in the garage!  They're fine with that!  Hopefully I'll have that posted soon!!