Pretty Little Things

Um, yeah. So this is not deja vu or anything, but yet another post on pretty little things. I think I have been experiencing a resurgency in my creative juices because a) my baby is getting older & not so needy-as-a-newborn and b) necessity indicates that we be "creative" with our finances. That second one is important because making/finding/admiring pretty little things gives me a sense of satisfaction & feeling-goodness in the same way that retail therapy does {but of course you have no clue about retail therapy, right}? Plus, learning to see beauty, even in the smallest thing, is just plain enjoyable.

First up....Not quite a pretty little thing, but more of a nifty thing. I finally figured out how to use a feed reader, which is totally revolutionizing my computer time. A glance at one page tells me who's posted something new for me to read. Totally sweet! Along with some of my blogging friends, I am keeping track of Today's Creative Blog and How About Orange {Money Saving Mom, Simple Mom & Sew, Mama, Sew are givens}! If you don't use a feed reader, you should. Seriously.

Here's a pretty little thing I made recently:


Tatiana collected the rock on a birthday adventure at Lake Michigan. The only supplies you need are a BIG rock that has a large semi-flat surface & rub-ons {a scrapbooking product}. I was going to do the words "Pure Joy" or "Faith", but somehow this verse came to me. If you look it up, you'll see why {I know, I know, I have a corny sense of humor}. Best part = FREE!

Did you know that every month I download a free creatively designed desktop from the Shabby Princess blog? You need some sort of photo-editing program to add your pics, but it only takes a couple of minutes for a pretty little desktop that lasts all month. Here's the one I made for this month:


The nice thing about it is that, besides being totally cute & free, there is always a space for the desktop icons on the left-hand side, so it's not like you have to move them around every month.

Have you discovered Wordle yet? You just enter in the addy of your blog & pick your design/colors & then it will make this creative little wordle picture for you. Here is mine:



If you click on it, you can see it much bigger. It takes all the words from whatever URL you enter & makes a fun wordie image. You can play around with the layout, fonts, colors, etc. Looks like I should rename this blog: Just One Detergent Party.

Enjoying any pretty little things lately? If you decide to wordle, please leave me a comment so I can come check it out!

Pretty Little Things

Because it might as well be pretty.... ...

This is a reclaimed salsa jar. I love these jars as they are pretty heavy for their size, plus they have amount markings embossed in the glass. I have a bottle of silver spray paint in the basement, leftovers of a long ago costume project, that came in handy for spraying the lid. A couple of baby food jar lids got makeovers as well.

{P. S. If you want to "test" the dishwasher detergent, but don't have the ingredients, just let me know & perhaps I can send you a sample!}

----------------------------------

A birthday gift for a friend {sure hope you don't read this before tonight!} that I designed myself. I picked out all the beads at the Big Bead Show I went to in June.


It bears a lot of significance for her right now & I hope she loves it! I also am having one made for myself with a stone at the bottom that says "create", so we will have semi-matching necklaces. Can't wait til it's done!

----------------------------------------

These little pretties are destined for some birthday goodie bags for our first-ever kids' party tomorrow.


Here is a tutorial for the yo-yo's, to which I just added a button & hot glued onto the metal hair clips {sold as quilting clips in the fabric department, who knew?} I kind of wish the clips where much smaller, so that the yo-yos would completely cover the clip, but I'm trying to keep it frugal by using what I have.

Aren't they cute? Super-simple project, made with things on hand, oh, and a bit of love too.