Random Things I've Made

I like to think of myself as "artistic" in an "I can barely draw a stick figure" kind of way. I always want to make things to decorate my home, but I can't draw, paint, sculpt, or, um.. whittle. So here are two things I made (three and four years ago, respectively) to hang on my walls that didn't require any obvious artistic talent.

Awesome Decorative Earring Storage
A few years ago, my friend Teri and I were at an antique store, and I saw this weird, kind of fantastic hippy-ish picture frame with no glass or back. I wanted to buy it, but I had no idea what I'd do with it, so I resisted the urge to spend $8 on something that would probably just end up sitting on a shelf. A week or so later, Teri saw an idea for making earring storage from a picture frame and chicken wire, so I hurried back to the store and bought the frame. Teri already had a cool frame that she wanted to use, so we each made one.

We bought some chicken wire (actually, Teri bought it and I just stole some. From her, not from the store. ), cut it into the right shape using wire cutters, and then stapled it the the backs of the frames using a staple gun. Unless you're really coordinated (which I am not), the stapling will probably require two people: one to hold the chicken wire in place and one to staple.

Our staples didn't look great at all - they were crooked and only partially pushed into the frame, but since they're on the back, it doesn't matter.

Then I stapled a ribbon to the top of the frame to hang it, and voila! Decorative earring storage!

Framed Button "Art"
I really like buttons. Don't ask why. I just do.

When we moved to Ohio four years ago, we rented a bigger house than the one we'd been renting in Pennsylvania, so we had some empty wall space. We had moved away from family and friends and didn't yet know anyone, Dan was in residency, I hadn't found a job, and Lucas was still just a twinkle in his daddy's eye (ew. That phrase just struck me as vaguely creepy. Disregard.) In other words, I had a lot of time on my hands. For making things. Out of buttons.

Out of my 347,492 buttons (give or take a few hundred thousand), I picked out some in shades of green and blue. Then I sewed them onto a piece of blue felt using a needle and some white thread that I think I scrounged out of an "emergency" sewing kit because I don't sew. I didn't plan out the pattern, I just randomly added buttons until I liked the way it looked. I already had a frame that I wasn't using because I had accidentally broken the glass at some point (I'm clumsy), so I pulled the felt tight around the frame backing and then pushed it into the frame so that it held it in place.

Ta da! "Art."