Forget Etsy....

I've gone old school.

Ebay, baby.

That's right blogosphere, I'm a Super Seller. Well, not technically, but I am trying to get rid of some things in our garage. Ebay is so much easier to use than Etsy. Yeah, yeah....it's a little more expensive. BUT, people are buying my stuff!! Much more than I can say with my history on Etsy.

Right about now, you may be thinking to yourself 'But, Jelly, you don't have much on Etsy to buy', and you're right. That's because I quit putting stuff on there only to watch it sit for months. I've had much better luck selling my work in a live market.

Anywho...you'll forgive my absence for a couple of days if I don't make it back right away as I'm busy snapping photos of miscellaneous knick-knacks and old shoes.

Want these? Click here.

Time flies

...even when you're not having fun.

Man....how did 2 days just fly by? Why is it that when you're a kid time won't go by fast enough and after....oh...say, 30ish....hours become 5 minute intervals? geesh.

Due to the time warp I experienced over the weekend, I wasn't able to get out my Psycho Blog-Love post for the week. Perhaps, I should just change the date to Sundays. Better yet, I'll make it a weekend feature - ha!

Something that maybe you should know about me......I love beautiful things. Especially interior design. Forget the bling jewelry and the Jimmy Choos. I'm all about decorating.

With that said, this week's blogs are all about design & decor eye candy.

No.1: Black Eiffel: Most of you already know that I have a soft spot for anything French. Now combine that with loads of beautiful design photos and voila Numero uno!

Photo courtesy of Black Eiffel

No. 2: Ada and Darcy: Lots of photos of all kinds of home design and fashion. And then, more design. Love it!

Photo courtesy of Ada and Darcy

High ho the dairy-o

...a crafting we will go

Yes, blogosphere, I'm back in the craft lab.

Today I have completed 3, three new necklaces...ah, ah, ah.

I'm taking them down to my favorite little consignment/craft supply store Paste. If you're local, come on down and buy them!

If you're not local, but want one you can email me and I'll make one for you!
(25.00 each)

Embossed wedding invitations

...These are the bomb!

Can I still say 'the bomb'?

Well, in any case, I think my wedding invitations look pretty good. I printed off labels, and then embossed over them with gold filigree onto the envelope.

A cool custom look for very little money.
And, I really like saving money.

Eye candy for the historic architecture enthusiast

Home is where the heart is......
I think I've mentioned before that I have an obsession with historic homes and buildings. It's so much of an addiction for me that I live in a 100+ year old home and together with Mr. Peanutbutter own 4 other centurion buildings. I can spend hours driving around the city, through both the 'good' and 'bad' neighborhoods, drooling over various historic properties - rehabbed or crumbling.

House in St. Louis. Photo courtesy of Realtor.comHouse in St. Louis. Photo courtesy of Realtor.com

I'm a huge advocate for restoring historic homes and neighborhoods. St. Louis has one of the largest stock of brick turn of the century homes in the nation. Sadly, many of these homes have been neglected or bastardized through shoddy renovation. Here in our own cozy historic neighborhood of Belleville, I see the same things.

House in Belleville. Photo courtesy of Realtor.comHouse in Belleville. Photo courtesy of Realtor.com

All of this banter brings me to This Old House. I was wondering around the web last night, and found this article about inexpensive historic neighborhoods around the nation. Of course, I really went there to see if St. Louis or even Belleville made the cut. No dice.

House in Belleville. Photo courtesy of Realtor.com

However, the houses are amazing.Photo courtesy of This Old House

DIY Lavender Spheres

Bringing your garden inside........

Can you believe it's DIY time again?

Photo courtesy of Beyond a Garden.

I have a beautiful bounty of lavender in my yard this year and have been thinking of all of the ways that I can use it. I found this great DIY project making lavender spheres. Beyond a Garden has great instructions on her blog with lots of step-by-step photos.

Photo courtesy of Beyond a Garden

She has great ideas for displaying the orbs in baskets and glass vases, but I think I'm going to make a topiary. I'll keep the sphere on the dowel, and then place it in a small aged terra cotta pot using floral foam to keep the topiary upright. Then I'll dress the dowel by criss-crossing ribbon from the bottom of the dowel to the base of the ball, tying it in a nice bow. And finally, I'll dress up the pot with some spanish moss to cover up all of the foam. Yay.

I'll post photos this week!

White dog, Black spots

Dearest Blogosphere,

I wish I could give you a single tid-bit of creative inspiration today. But, I'm afraid I'm a little sad because my beloved 12 year old pup Flannery is not well. She hasn't been well for a while, and the vet is worried that she has cancer. So, you'll forgive me for wanting to spend time burying my nose in her fur that somehow always smells like that wonderful puppy smell, and cuddling up to her now skinny little body - while we have time.

Jelly & Flan

Psycho Blog-love, Vol.No.3

Hello blogosphere. I'm sorry that I was away, but I had to get wedding projects done and had no time to blog.

But, now I'm back and I bring you two new blogs to browse.

No.1 Aglio, Olio & Peperonchino: OMG. I love this blog. Not only fantastic recipes replete with mouth watering photos, but also amazing writing (yes, blogosphere, I did shed a few tears reading some of her posts). Anyone who can make me laugh, cry and want to eat at the same time deserves the No. 1 spot.

Photo courtesy of Aglio, Olio & Peperonchino

No.2 Fragments Treasures Memory: I gotta tell you, I love this gal because I think she loves finding blogs as much as I do! Do check out her 150+ list of great blogs.

Photo courtesy of Fragments Treasures Memory

My printer is a fickle lover

.....and other wedding preparation dilemmas.

I'm preparing to go to my home town today to pick up my dress and have my first fitting. While I'm there, my family will help me (at knife point if needed) cut, paste, fold, etc. all of the wedding invitations. However, the @#$! printer is causing me set backs. Not to mention, I'm running late and still need to shower. (I don't think the lovely ladies at the dress shop will appreciate my stubbly legs, etc.) Did I mention it's a 2 1/2 hour drive?

So, my friends, I leave you in a frazzle......

I will try to post while away, however.

Sewing Pattern Paper Pomander

Virtual Craft Lab, Episode No.2

Yes children, it's that time again! I can't believe it's been a week already since the first installation of DIY Monday.

Today's DIY project is how to make paper pomanders using sewing pattern tissue paper. I got this great idea from Vintage Blog Wedding. If you go to her site, she has great step by step instructions.For my pomander, I decided to use the tissue paper used in sewing patterns. I love the color of the paper, and the vintage look the patterns on the paper create. Plus, they're super inexpensive! I went to a local thrift store and the lady there sold me a garbage bag full of patterns for a dollar. Patterns don't sell well, and the shop people are usually willing to part with them for little to nothing in order to clear out the space.

They're super easy to make, just a tad time consuming. I used 4" styrofoam balls and black gross-grain ribbon for the loop. I love that all of the pattern paper had subtle differences in color, so when it was all put together there was a lot more depth than with using all one color.

These will be hung from the chairs in the aisle at the ceremony, and I'm also going to make some garland for the gazebo. More photos to come.......

Psycho blog-love, Post No. 2

A little late, and I'm sorry. I hate to say this (and pray that my boss doesn't visit my blog), but I usually have time to look through blogs on Saturday nights at work because it usually isn't so busy. Not so last night! If my work life was a blog, last night would be called 'Tales of a Ghetto Banshee'. I don't think I need to elaborate, and trust me.....you don't want photos.

Now, sadly, it's Sunday and I'm a day behind on giving you my favorite blogs of the week. Since I've been so consumed with wedding DIY projects, I thought I would just introduce you to 2 of my wedding blog favorites. I've found much inspiration & ideas here. Even if you're not getting married, these blogs are great resources for any kind of party decor, gift ideas, or just cool shopping finds!

No. 1 Vintage Glam Blog. I'm a vintage kind of girl, in a French-antique-verve jazz sort of way, and this blog is right up my alley. I follow this blog daily, and many (if not all) of my DIY ideas have stemmed from things I've seen on this site. She gets the Numero Uno for the week!

Photo courtesy of Vintage Glam Weddings

No. 2 Style Me Pretty. Ok, this is a total standby for all gals looking for all things wedding. There is so much eye candy on this blog, that I don't even know where to begin to tell you to start looking. I'm partial to their inspiration boards - which is like eye candy explosion!

Photo courtesy of Style Me Pretty

Craft Lab off-site

I can't tell you how much it means to me to have such wonderful friends!

Last night, I took a bunch of tissue paper to work with me with the hopes of being able to start working on yet another wedding project. The project has turned out to be a little time consuming, but my good friend Janet pitched right in! I'm making tissue paper pomanders (using tissue paper from old sewing patterns) for aisle decor at the ceremony, and it requires a lot of cutting and accordion folding of tissue paper. So, I would cut and Janet would fold. As a team, we rivaled any 3rd world sweat shop.Janet's amazing folding job.Individual tissue flowers that will make up the pomanders

I'll be bringing you more information on this project, with step by step instructions in this week's upcoming DIY!!

Going strong

Things seem to be moving smoothly with the wedding invitations. AND printing out the invitation part was much easier than the inserts for the accordian. Yay!
Just waiting on the r.s.v.p. envelopes and the outer envelopes to arrive, plus the circular shaped stickers to seal the pocketfold. I figure I've saved at least $200.00 doing these myself! Granted, it is time consuming and frustrating at times - but I enjoy doing stuff like this.

Cost breakdown so far for my DIY pocketfold wedding invitations:

• Pocketfolds 70 @ .90 each = $63
• Card inserts for wedding invitation 80 cards @ $4.99 for 20 = $19.96
• 3 reams ivory card stock (used to create inserts & rsvp) @ 3.99 for 50 = $11.97
• Decorative paper to make accordion x 2 @9.99 each = $19.98
• Circular stickers for inner and outer seals (100 sheets of 24 circles each) = $21.90
• A7 envelopes @ $11.90 for 50 (2 packs) = $23.80
• 4 bar envelopes @ $4.80 for 50 (2 packs) = $9.60
• Postage: (guesstimate) $50.00

Subtotal: $220.21 (roughly $3.15 per invitation, including postage)

Not bad for custom invitations!!!!

If you want to know where I got any of these products, let me know. I found some great deals online.

Inkscape, art thou friend or foe

Ugh. What a day.

I've been working on our wedding invitations for a little while with this new (free) software program called Inkscape. I read such great reviews online for this software, so I thought I would give it a try since I really can't afford Photoshop or Illustrator. Well....you get what you pay for.

After several frustrating attempts to print off the invitations, I decided to take the whole thing to a local printer. Things only got worse when the poor girl there wasn't familiar with Inkscape, and she couldn't get it to print either. Errrrrr........bulk invitations from Target were sounding better and better.

But, if I'm anything it's stubborn. So, I sat myself down at the computer and figured the damned thing out (sort of). It's not what I had invisioned intially, but I do like it and it's finally coming together.

I'm using pocketfold invitations, and decided to go with an accordian style insert. I finished one insert today. Only 65 more to go! Still, I have to make the invitation card. That could be a potential meltdown

Virtual Craft Lab, Episode No. 1

Attention thrifty crafters and DIYers!

I've decided to make Mondays DIY day here at the craft lab. Each week I'll post a relatively easy project made with mostly recycled materials.
This week's project is making votive candles using left-over candles and baby food jars.

I'm trying to save as much moolah as I can for our upcoming wedding, which means making a lot of the decorations for the ceremony and reception. My step-mom just happened to give me a bunch of half-burned candles that she no longer needed and we just happened to need candles for the centerpieces at the reception. Unfortunately, the venue will not let us use pillar candles - only votives. So, being the crafty gal that I am, I melted down the wax and poured it into 6oz baby food jars. I love the look of the baby food jar, but since the shabby-chic look isn't what I'm going for at our wedding I decided to cover the jars with vellum paper. I printed a design onto the vellum that matches our wedding invitations, and voila.......

Materials you will need:

• 6oz baby food jars (or whatever size jar you want)
• Candle wick tabs
• Candle wick (I used cotton core #1)
• Candle boil bags (I bought these at a local craft store. They are so awesome. Very little mess and you can reuse them.)
• Rubber gloves (wear when pouring wax so that you don't burn yourself)
• Popcicle sticks
• Old cooking pot
• left over candles, wax.
• scissors or paper cutter
• double sided tape (I tried a glue stick and it wouldn't hold to the vellum paper)
• decorative paper (I used vellum, but I thought this would look really cool with handmade paper, too!)
  

Cost breakdown

• Candles/wax: Free
• Baby food jars: Free (found on freecycle)
• Vellum paper: $10 for pack of 50 sheets
• Candle wicks: $1.89 for 18 feet
• Candle bags: $2.49 for 5 bags
• Candle wick tabs: $1.99 for 20

Step 1:

Cut candle wick to length of jar, but add another inch or so. You will need the extra length to wrap around the Popsicle stick. Insert one end of the wick into the tab and crimp by pushing down on a flat surface (I used the countertop).




Step 2:

Place wick/tab ensemble into empty baby food jar. Secure other end around center of popsicle stick. Adjust string as needed so that the length of the wick is long enough to reach the bottom of the jar and stay more or less straight. Lay the popsicle stick across the top of the jar to keep the wick in place.




Step 3:

Place your left over candles/wax into the boil bag and close loosely with twisty tie. Place bag into pot of boiling water (I filled the pot about 1/2 way full with water). Boil until wax melts. Put on your safety gloves and pull out bag of melted wax. Turn off stove. Gently pour wax into jar until 1/4 - 1/2 inch from top. After the wax hardens you may need to add more wax because it shrinks down in the center a bit.




Step 4:

Print off a design of your choice onto vellum paper. I had some damask style paper that I had bought at a craft store, and just photo-copied it to the vellum.
Measure top to bottom of jar, and cut paper to width. Wrap around jar/candle and secure with double-sided tape.








Step 5:

Enjoy your handy work!

They call it HTML love

Busy day working in the craft lab and helping Mr. Peanutbutter with his website for his business and his business' neighborhood. Mr. Peanutbutter is not only a talented artist, but also the proud President of the McKinley Heights Neighborhood Association. Tonight we spent some quality time at the dining room table, each with laptop in hand, and worked on website content. It's good to be a geek.

Fatal Attraction

Many of you may not know (most likely because you really don't know me), but I am obscessed with blogs. I love them. I can (and do) spend hours scouring the net reading blogs, going from one link to another. The list here of blogs that I like is only a mere fraction of sites that I've found.

So, to celebrate my crazed addiction to blogs, I've decided to make Saturdays Psycho Blog-love day. Each Saturday I will post my latest 2 favorite blog finds of the week and share them with you.

Since there's no time like the present, and today just happens to be Saturday.....

No.1: Tongue in Cheek. Daily life of a creative, antique/flea-market loving American woman who is married to a French man, living in France. I don't know how I found this blog, but I can't seem to get enough. I don't know if it's because secretly I always wanted to fall in love with a frenchman who would wisk me away to live in France, or because she's such a great writer. Either way, she takes the number one spot today.

Photo courtesy of Tongue in Cheek

No.2: Blah, Blah, Blahg. I just found this tonight. I was doing some research on Photoshop brushes and happened upon it. She has so much information and free downloads of brushes (which I'm still not too sure about) that my brain is smoking......smoking like when the toaster is about to blow and has that strange burning plastic smell.
Upload the images below at Blah, blah, blahg and let the smoking begin.....
Photo courtesy of Blah, blah, blahg

Inspiring minds

Since I don't really have any new projects to post today, I thought I would post some photos of some of my favorite polymer clay artists.

I love Denise Graham's use of clay as a 3 dimensional art form, in a traditional 2 dimensional environment. I would love to expand on this in some way.

Summer's Fruit by Denise Graham. Photo courtesy of Polymer Clay Daily.

I can't say enough wonderful things about Laura Balombini's work. I love her ingenuity in using polymer clay with wire and other recycled items. She is a huge inspiration to me.
Bed Spring Man by Laura Balombini. Photo courtesy of L.Balombini

I discovered Laurie Mika when I very first started working with polymer clay. I love her use of mosaic and recycled items. I have learned many things from reading her books and observing her style.
Sacred Heart by Laurie Mika. Photo courtesy of Mika Arts

Be sure to visit Polymer Clay Daily to see tons of other artists and beautiful work done with polymer clay.

bye bye birdie

Well, I've been a busy girl in the craft lab again. Thanks to the folks down at Paste, I've sold a few items and that has inspired me to do a little work!If you're local, please stop by and see the place & my work!