Paper Mache Step 4

I painted them with acrylic paint. The good thing about paper mache is that your painting does not have to be perfect. The texture makes it hard to be very precise. The next step will be to spray on a Polycrylic sealer. The final step will be to put on an antiquing glaze. The glaze disguises the flaws in the painting and gives it a vintage look. Then I'll add some ribbons with the glue gun. I know this seems like it is complex -with a lot of steps, but it is really simple. It takes time because each step must dry. Last year I did it with 52 5th graders - we did one step each Friday as a behavior incentive. They turned out cute! Each one was different - we did Bulldogs (the high school mascot) with red and black hats on. The kids decorated their Christmas tree in a dog theme and collected food for a dog rescue group as a service project!

Paper Mache Step 3

Here we are hanging out in the backyard. Today I sprayed them with Kilz primer. Now once again they have to dry! Tonight I will start to paint them.

Paper Mache - Step 2

Here are some of my ornaments drying out in the front yard. Notice the brown grass -due to lack of rain. I dipped Viva paper towels in wallpaper paste and covered each one in 3-4 layers of paper towel. Son#2 thought I was making snow cones when he saw them! After they dried I added more detail with mushed up paper towel soaked in the paste. It takes a while for them to dry-even when the temperature is in the 90's !

Paper Mache Projects

Step one: Use old light bulbs and tin foil to form the shapes. Can you see the vision yet? (hint- This is Halloween)

(hint: These are 4th of July!) Use your imagination! More to come.......

Big Pink

I consider grocery shopping to be one of my "jobs" in the household and I take it seriously! I make a game out of saving money with coupons and sales. Since it can be time consuming I have worked out a plan that works for me, saves time and lessens the stress of misplacing coupons. I would like to introduce you to "Big Pink" -my coupon system. It has many good qualities- a zipper to keep coupons from slipping out of place, many pockets, a cheerful color, and room to organize. Yes, my family does make fun of it......but, they like the snacks that I get for little $$$$.

It has many pages of photo organizers that make the coupons easy to find, labeled and arranged by the aisles in the grocery store.

Pockets for each store I use to keep ads , store specific coupons and lists I plan to buy that week.

Finally, there are more pockets for rebate information.

As I have become more organized I really spend less time working things out. Here are my steps each week:

1. Sunday -buy at least 2 newspapers, cut and organize coupons, plan purchases for CVS, Walgreens, Target, Kroger. Other stores I plan whenever I see the info.

2. Check coupon blogs twice a day, morning and before bed. Add deals to store lists and pull needed coupons.

3. Shop as many stores as I can on one trip. Combine shopping with any errands that I can to minimize gas usage.

4. I carry "Big Pink" in the car, but I only take it in for big grocery trips. I take out the pocket for the store, list and the coupons I have pulled for smaller trips.

5. Celebrate saving money when I get home!

Another benefit of "BigPink" is that I have eliminated the piles and piles of coupons I used to leave sitting around the house! To prove to myself that this is worth it I have kept good records for the month of June to compare money spent and money saved with coupons. I am planning to try to work out a new grocery budget after I see how well I did!

Taking the Plunge??

It's been really HOT in Alabama. Too hot to sit out on the front porch. I sure wish we had a pool! It seems like we have to start a new project before we finish the last one....and the new project is........A POOL IN THE BACKYARD! It seems like we have a million hoops to jump through to make it happen. So much red tape ....and rules....and permission to request... and type of fence allowed in the historic district....you get the idea. But, we have started the ball rolling. Luckily DH really wants this and he is willing to do the paper chasing!

Back on the parlor project - I have finished the valances and we are pleased. The fabric is deep red/burgundy silk like with a smocked texture.
This is not a good picture of the color, but I had to use a flash for the smocking to show. I have made long, pleated panels with this fabric for a customer and fell in love with it. It's not easy to sew on because the wrinkles are hard to cut and seam straight. Good thing the texture hides the mistakes!

Still another little project got started this week with these supplies. Can you guess? I'll show more in a few days. I haven't done much that is crafty lately so I got out the paper mache and I'm working on a Halloween project( got to give myself plenty of time) and a patriotic July 4th project (might not make that one in time! Believe it or not in 2 weeks I will be shifting into Christmas Mode. We start working on the Santas for the Victorian Porch Tour soon!

Finally -when I don't get to go junk shopping- I go couponing! Best deal last week -7 boxes of Mac and Cheese and 4 jars of peanuts for $1.36 and they gave me back $5 in register receipts to use on my next shopping trip! So when we are too poor to buy food I will be floating in the pool eating a bowl of Mac and Cheese with peanuts for dessert! And yes -the cat is on the kitchen table- she wanted to see what I was so excited about!

Wordless Wednesday

Father's Day Weekend

We had a quiet weekend around the house. No new projects! We grilled out and hung around the pond and the patio. The boys were in and out. Daddy had a call or two from the girl in Alaska. DH got to sleep late, a couple of gifts and banana pudding. We are waiting for the next shipment of tile to finish the fireplace, so we didn't work much in the parlor. Last week I finished the sheers so we hung them. This week I'll go get the fabric for the valances and start them.
They really look so clean compared to the old rags I took down! The pond is looking better. The water is clear and the plants are filling in. The fish are really growing and are so tame. They come when they see me or maybe when they see the food can! Youngest boy caught some tadpoles and a frog and put them in the pond.....next thing we knew there were hundreds of tadpoles. They are harder to get pictures of !

Tadpole on leaf!

The fish eat out of my hand! Sometimes they nibble my fingers, too! I hope you all had a restful weekend!

Couponing Trips and A Mistake

I've been "couponing" today- a quick trip to CVS and Kroger. First the results of the Kroger trip: Total before coupons and gift card = @$35.00 and after =$11.55! I've been working with youngest son this summer to teach him the value of food $$$$$. He has his own snack shelf that he is free to share with friends. That way they don't eat up all of our goodies! The catch is his snacks must be coupon items! (Healthy snacks are not included, I'll pay for them!) So to build up his snacks he has been helping me with coupons. We got a good sale on Dr. Pepper using coupons and also won a $10 Kroger card online from Dr. Pepper. Today he went with me to use the card for his snacks! He selected the giant Goldfish and Sunchips. He also used a coupon to save on the Sunchips. He also had fun figuring the price of items after the coupon. I had to laugh when he figured out that many of these items were-FREE!! Now the mistake... I had so much fun laughing with him that I didn't notice that the cashier missed one of my coupons! It was for free cereal-$3.99!!! So my total should have been$7.56!! I know she had it because the register "beeped" so she could write in the price-but I didn't pay attention. It was not on the receipt when I got home! I should have checked before I left the store!!

On to CVS- DH has a buddy stationed in Afghanistan. He is getting together a care package and needed candy!! CVS has a buy $10 get $5 ECB deal. So I got $30 candy, $3.19- Brut deodorant(-$.55 MFC) and magazine $.99. I used $5 off $25, $15.00 ECB . Ended up paying @$14 out of pocket and got back $18 ECB and another $5 off $25. The magazine is "Reinventing Beauty" put out by CVS and has many coupons in it! Fun!

Wordless Wednesday

Show and Tell Sunday -Trash to Treasure

This week we are looking at "Trash to Treasure" -a subject near and dear to my heart. When I moved into the neighborhood I met and took a class taught by my neighbor, a local artist. It taught me some of her techniques for turning trash to treasure. She uses paper mache combined with clay and her special painting techniques. But more than that she teaches her students to look at the shape of an object , not the condition, and she a new way to use it. I loved that! Some of the first projects I finished were these 2 candle holders. I usually use them decorated for Christmas, but I dusted them off and gave them some summer flowers.

These are made from flower pots, wooden salad bowls, paper towels, clay, wall paper paste and paint!

This one also has an old metal candle holder, some artificial grapes and some cording. I had such fun in this class. We even took a field trip to some thrift shops to gather our trash. Then we experimented with stacking things up and balancing them so they weren't top heavy! All the angels and roses are clay. We learned how to make molds to reproduce the shapes. The roses were molded from buttons and the angels from a terra cotta angel! The possibilities are endless!

When I found this picture frame for $1 it was missing some of the detail. I made molds of the pieces that were still on it and replaced the missing ones. Then repainted using some of the aging techniques I learned.
The next treasure was in my nursery and then spent 40 years in my parent's basement storing tools. My talented husband turned it into a vanity by repainting it and running plumbing between the drawers.
Also in the bathroom is an old wicker chair that was on our front porch when we moved in. At first I was going to put it on the curb, but I saw one in a magazine that had been spruced up with a little work. Where the wicker was broken I put doilies with ModPodge. A little spray paint and some new pillows and it will last until another chair wins my heart!
Out on the porch now is another cast off chair from the barn of a friend's aunt!
Please don't sit on it though!

When my artist/neighbor moved some of her leftovers came to live at my house waiting for me to give them a new life! Old windows.....

And a great old sewing machine table....... any ideas?
Be sure to check out the other creative ideas on Sugar*Sugar! And thanks again to Cheri and Analise for hosting this each week!

Pieces of Olde

While planting some daisies last weekend I dug up a few pieces of olde. Although it was a small hole I found 2 coins, three pieces of broken china and a joint from an old pipe. The coins were not far down, one was from 2000- right before we bought the house. The pipe was next-but still modern. About 8 inches down I found this - I began to research it and found that it dates from the turn of the century or even older. Anthony Shaw and Sons produced Opaque Stone China in England. I'm still researching. Our house has been through many owners and renters over the past 100 years, so we really didn't expect to find much left from the early days. Every time we find anything it is exciting!

The first thing we came across was this tiny bottle. When we moved in the house was pretty rough. We had a big basement flood the first month. While DH was digging some drainage under a kitchen window he dug it up. It is probably from the 1920's. It looks like this 1928 ad I found on ebay for Hind's Honey and Almond Cream.It became the inspiration for my bathroom with a seaside theme and a practical joke played on me! My Principal put old glass bottles around the front yard one night because I was so excited to find this one. It was a little spooky and I never suspected him until he confessed!

Another interesting find came in the closet of the guest room. It's an old good conduct medal from the Army. Funny that it was found in the room our "National Guard" son slept in until the redo! From what we have been told that room was usually rented out as part of an apartment. I wish I knew who left it behind.

The recent parlor project has yielded some finds in the fireplace. First, stuffed up the fireplace was a wad of dirty, fragile 1944 Atlanta and Montgomery papers. They were so sooty that I smoothed them out and covered them in clear contact paper so that I could read them. This is a patriotic Coke ad.The next paper was behind the mantle mirror. It was not as dirty and wrinkled but very fragile. The date was January 17, 1904. We had been told that our house was built in 1907, but maybe it was earlier. This is also an Atlanta paper.
Sealed inside the fireplace was a piece of the original tile. That was what we used to find some reproduction tile.
Some of the trim on the fireplace was so fragile and brittle that it could not be saved. We got as close as we could.

We found several things in the ceiling of our bedroom - which is below the attic floor. I packed up some of them in the parlor boxes - a child's wooden block and a script for a Thanksgiving play- so no pictures of them. Here is an old razor blade box.
And a Violet water bottle
Finally there were 2 letters of sympathy after deaths in the family. I think they were from the same woman -no signature but the handwriting seems the same. Both dated 1901. The paper is falling apart and is very hard to read. The museum curator told me the paper would continue to "eat" away - best thing to do is take a picture and copy over what I can.

We look forward to finding more treasures, maybe even that hidden gold and jewelry...........