Recycling Fabric

This is my first project posted here.

Sometime last year, my mom found a post about a tea wallet. I like the idea, but finding a pattern to make one was hard to come by. However, I did find a tutorial. But being that I my sewing skills are pretty much limited to making pillows and pin cushions, and I knew I couldn't put this together by just a tutorial and not a pattern. So, I talked to one of my fellow MK beauty consultants who is good at sewing to take a look at the tutorial. She said she thought she could do it. I gave her the fabric, which I got way too much for what was required. I just wasn't sure how much I would need. When I got the tea wallet back, I got the extra fabric back as well. I thought I'll just make a throw pillow out of it. Well, my mom ended finding a foot stool. I can't remember if it was at a yard sale or at the Goodwill.I decided to overhaul it with the some of the fabric.














The stool doubles has storage. The cushion is the lid and opens up to let you put things in it.The before is below.



I at first I wanted to use the white fabric to add contrast to the wood that I would be spray painting black. But the black fabric had enough white to stand in as contrast. To line the underside of the lid, to hide the wood I used a decorative file that I found at Michael's. The after is below.

I still had some black fabric left. The white will be used on a bulletin board that I'm working on as well. My mom is the process of making a stencil out of the same file folder pattern so that I can have a pink design against the black of the wood. I will actually post about that when that is finished. If I have enough of the white left, I may used it and the black to make a pillow. I'm thinking about having the black on one side and the white on the other.







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Now playing: Delerium - Angelicus
via FoxyTunes

Winters Past, Springs Future

Long time no write....

Spring is in full swing. Pollen is in the air, all over the car and everything else. I'm feeling inspired to write, not only here on my blog, but also on a story I've been working on. I don't actually plan on publishing it. If I did, I would do it through Lulu.com where you can self publish for free. But I most likely won't. Something I've come to realize here lately is that my story writing is therapeutic. It helps me deal with everyday stress and it has helped me to get through some of my toughest times. I pretty much use my experiences and make my characters have those experiences in some sort of way. But anyway, this was not what I wanted to post about.

This winter has been an eventful one. We had a snow day in February. It was called "The Great Snow Fall of 2010." We had three inches of snow here. It still snowing about 5 o'clock Friday, February 12 and continued on until the early morning. Now, for a Northerner, snow is not a eventful, it's everyday winter life. So, humor this Southerner. We don't get snow like this on a regular bases. The last time I experienced a southern snow fall was when we live in Charleston, South Carolina in 1990. And yes, both times it did stick! This snow fall was my nephew's first real snow fall. He experienced a small amount of snow that didn't stick in North Georgia back in late 2008 early 2009. He didn't pay much attention to it at the time. But he was excited about it this time. The snow began to melt in the daylight and by the afternoon it was all gone. I was actually kind of depressed after it was gone. The world was back to normal. God gave a lot people a gift that day, and it may a lot people happy. Especially the children. It was such a nice treat.

Now spring has sprung. It seems as though there were somethings that bloomed over time, while there were other things that bloomed over night. It's like magic....no more like a miracle. A beautiful miracle. The grey of winter springs forth into vibrant life. Death loses its grip and life begins again. Which brings me to Easter.

My Easter was downplayed this year due to health problems. But the meaning didn't leave me. Despite Easter being originally a pagan celebration, I don't think that it's a coincidence that Easter--as we know it--is celebrated in the Spring when life is given back to the world. To me, the blooming of plants, flowers, and trees are a natural testimony to the resurrection of Jesus. Winter is cold, grey, unfeeling, and death like. Spring is life, beauty, color, and warmth. Death loses, life is given back to the body.

I saw the most beautiful, other worldly sunset late last month. There were deep purples, pinks, and blues set against thin clouds that seemed to stretch from one end of the horizon to the other end. I wish I had my camera at that moment. Just seeing the highway lights against that sky was so bizarre. There is so much beauty in God's creation.



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Now playing: Avril Lavigne - Alice
via FoxyTunes