Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Easter Eggs Dyed with Nail Polish

Scouting around on Pinterest, I found an easy way to color hard boiled eggs for Easter decorations.

Steps for a DIY project that literally takes only a minute!
  • hard boil some eggs
  • add water to within an inch from the brim in a throw away cup
  • add glops of old nail polish in all the colors you have accumulated (yes, go ahead and splurge and use your new colors, too)
  • the colors do not mix, kinda like oil and water won't mix, don't worry
  • put an egg in the water, roll it around and voila! the shells take on the nail polish
  • use a plastic spoon to remove your egg from the water
  • put your colored eggs on a paper towel to dry
  • discard your throw away cup



A fun and easy project!!


Sunday, March 29, 2015

More: Owl, Bowl, Pause in Lent

Olly is back, but too frightened for me to get a better picture of him. This was as good as it happens on zoom lens. He is present only in the early morning, before sunrise; our neighbor says he is likely inside the box sleeping during the day.


Just the moment I got a bit nearer and steadied the camera on the fence railing, as I peered into the camera for a snap, he was gone.

More fabric bowls finished yesterday in prettier fabrics:

:



Today is Palm Sunday and I join in with Floss in A Pause in Lent, where Henri Nouwen's comments can be seen here on Path to Writing.

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Fabric Bowls and Laundry Line

As usual, when Elizabeth posted her pretty fabrics bowls here on Washing-Line Tales, I had to copy her and make a fabric bowl also.  Monkey see=monkey do.

I had a bit of trouble envisioning how to start off the center part, but Link #6 below from Crafty Stylish gives a good picture of the beginning of the vortex of covering the laundry line.

Using up odd bits of fabric from the closet and discarding the rest, it was a good way to not only have fun seaming up a quick bowl, but it helped in de-cluttering pieces of fabric previously used in Liturgical Art projects.


These links will give you all you need to know about how to make a fabric bowl if it does not come to you intuitively. Links will also lead you to some very pretty bowls made by other bloggers.

1 here (Mrs. Tittlemouse)
2 here (Radiant Home Studio)
3 here (Pretty Prudent)
4 here  (This Year's Dozen) explains continuous strips and a button decoration idea
5 here  (Cynthiaf) her dog sports one of her bowls on his head, sweet!
6 here for Crafty Stylish
7 here for Craftsy coils at the end
here  Wikihow shows the zig-zag stitch in detail


Besides reading and learning from the links above, my further suggestions include the following:



  • Cutting the strips of fabric about 1.25 inches wide on the bias makes twisting the fabric around the laundry line much easier and cleaner looking



  • Use a cording foot; my trust old Pfaff machine came with one in its box of attachments



  • use coordinating fabrics (I did not, so the resulting bowl looks like it was made out of Depression era materials)



  • Take your time and enjoy the process!  It took me about two hours total to make a bowl out of half a package of $5 cotton laundry line purchased from True Value Hardware



  • Find a decorative piece of jewelry or crochet a flower to cover the ending tale of the bowl


  • Now go out and do as I say, not as I do!