May 18, 2009

Back to blogland

It’s been more than a week since I last posted, but I’ve had a hard time finding my blog mojo lately. I’ve had so many things to do this past week, and with finals knocking on my door it’s been a little too difficult to concentrate.

However, I worked on several projects this past week and have some other ones in my mind, so I decided it was high time I came back to blogland to share!

Sadly, I forgot to take “before” pictures of the box I got to hold all my craft materials, but here is is “after” the fact:

Crackled box

The box is made of wood and came ‘as-is’, meaning that it was what I call ‘raw’ – just the woodsy color, and that’s it. I decided to experiment, plus I wanted something different, so I got tubes of white and cream acrylic paint, some crackle and went to work. Originally I was going to paint the whole box in cream and only the face white, and that’s what we did (Timmy helped), but then I changed my mind. One coat of paint, then one coat of step 1 of the crackle medium, then a coat of contrasting paint and coat of step 2 of the crackle medium, and here’s the result:

Crackled box

Crackled box

I had no idea what it would look like, but it turned out alright! Now all I need to do is distress it and put a light coat of lacquer.

In the mean time, I also worked on some hand-made mother-of-pearl earrings. I even wore them once, and I have to say I am very happy with them. Since then I’ve had a ton of jewelry ideas!

mother-of-pearl hand-made earrings

On the plus side, my plants are finally getting full sun and have started to develop really well. My petunias are still tiny, but have a number of leaves, and I worry they won’t bloom any time soon, considering I see full-grown and blooming petunias at the flower stands all over town. I am actually planning on going to the farmer’s market some time this week to buy a few more planters and a few petunias and forget-me-not’s, because mine are not enough to do what I want. Something like that, maybe:

EU16LEN0286-FB~Balcony-Garden-in-Historic-Town-Center-Verona-Italy-Posters

Speaking of which, I haven’t told you the most important news! I am planning on enrolling to another university next semester to get a bachelor in Landscaping! That will give me two bachelor degrees, and Landscaping combined with Business Administration will give me the opportunity to open my own company after I graduate. How nice would that be?! My friend Dessy wants to join me, so we’ll both be enrolling. That would give me a chance to work with my favorite plants. I am so excited, even just talking about it. I will make sure to keep you updated on our progress.

My Etsy shop is also in the works, but I can’t give a concrete date yet. But I will keep you posted.

I hope you all had a great week – I know I did!

Sig

[Image by AllPosters.com]

7 comments:

BonBon Rose Girls Kristin said...

Your garden is fabulous and so are your career goals. Congrats!

Anonymous said...

good luck with your exams :-)

Rose XXX

T. W. Anderson said...

It's summertime :) I highly doubt our lives are going to get any less busy, lol! Especially with her considering taking additional classes at another Uni, and my work load getting increasingly busy as the year progresses. So much to do, so little time.

Still haven't gotten new blinds (bamboo or wood, we haven't decided), finished cleaning/reorganizing the kitchen, or all the other million things we want done around the house.

Heart in the country said...

Wow you are going to be busy. A landscaping degree sound brilliant, really creative I hope you succeed in your goals.

I received my gift today, by the way, it's lovely, thank you. I opened it in the office much to the excitement of my work mates who thought I was very cosmopolitan getting parcels from europe. Thanks again Evy.

Kx

T. W. Anderson said...

Yah, the current joke is that she's going to forget about poor work-at-home hubby, because she's already busy enough with a part time job and full-time classes at the University of Portsmouth, and now her and her friend are going to be adding additional classes at the the other University for landscaping and engineering.

It's worth it, though. There are hardly any landscaping companies in the area at present, and as the country continues to develop, it's easily a 6 figure-a-year industry, if not more. Her friend's mother works for a company who just recently saw a SMALL hotel project go for around 40k Euro, so it's quite lucrative if you can establish yourself with the right clientele.

Design It Chic said...

I love how your craft box turned out! It's so cute and chic. One question tough, what is your etsy shop's profile? What are you planning to sell actually! I just came on your blog from SITS and I love love love it!
Happy Wednesday!

The Blonde Duck said...

Sounds like you have a wonderful plan! Popped in from SITS!