Creating my way to Success

Paintings by my girls - Day 73, Use What You've Got

Yesterday my girls wanted to paint. They both have large canvases for their bedroom walls that they paint over and change every few months. They moved into their own bedrooms and decorated them at the end of last year and painted their canvas backgrounds then the colour of their respective feature walls.

It's taken us this long to get round to actually painting the pictures! Better late than never!

Here they are:

My younger daughter's picture:

And my older daughter's picture:

I love them both! Now we just need an extra hook in each room to hang them up!

Do your kids have any of their own artwork in their bedrooms?

Jill

Plastic Lid Lamp Upcycle (a tutorial) - Day 72, Use What You've Got

The school holidays started yesterday and we started as we mean to go on - with a craft that involves,

Using What We've Got!

I've had this old lamp in the cupboard for a while. the light itself works, just the shade disintegrated and had to be thrown out.

My daughter has also been collecting plastic lids from the milk and juice bottles for a while now - saving them for some kind of crafty endeavour.

First we had to find a way to hold the upper shade ring up to create a frame for the shade. I had some old pieces of wood from a broken tray and we got out my hot glue gun to stick it all together.

Once we had the frame, we used some fishing wire, and the plastic lids to create the lampshade.

We used an awl to punch holes on 2 sides of each lid.

Then tied the fishing wire to the bottom of the frame, before threading it through one hole at a time to secure each lid in place all the way up to the top of the frame, where we wrapped the wire around the top, down to the bottom and up ready to start the next column of coloured lids.

We worked our way around the frame - one of us on either side, until we met.

Then after tying the loose ends of fishing wire off, we got the glue gun out again to hold the lids together and all facing the right way.

Once the glue had dried we could trim the wire and pull off the stringy glue bits.

Then test it out inside..

My daughter is very happy with her new lamp. Especially since she was so involved in making it.

And we made it just with things we had on hand!

What do you think?

Have you ever upcycled a lamp?

Or made something with plastic lids? We still have plenty of lids left over and are looking for the next craft!

Jelly mountain - Day 70 Use What You've Got

Take a look at this cool jelly mold we have.

It's been sitting in our cupboard for several years after it was handed down from my husband's side of the family a long time ago.

Well - since it's time to

Use What You've Got

I thought we'd try it out.

The girls helped me choose the coloured layer combination.

We sprayed the inside of the mold lightly with cooking oil to prevent sticking (I found that tip on a few websites).

Then started making the jelly.

I read that you should pour each layer before the previous one has set completely to make sure they stick together. But we also didn't want to pour the next layer on too soon so that it would mix with the first!

Tricky business.

We started with the lime green jelly. Then when we judged the timing right, we added the pink raspberry.When we poured the second layer, there was a bit of a glooping sound and we thought we saw a blob of the green jelly surface briefly!

Aarrggh! Oh well, nothing we could do but wait and see.

Back into the fridge for another couple of hours before layer 3 could be added!

Here's what it looked like ..

I had to set my alarm to get up at 1am to pour the final layer!

Looking good now - nothing to do but wait till it was time to turn it out!

The big moment came - and with a quick dip of the mold in hot water. it came out a treat!!

I was impressed it held together in one piece, but the colours didn't look too clear!

However, I think it may have been the darkness of the evening, because look how the flash photos turned out..

Using this mold provided lots of entertainment while making and serving it up!

Plus, it tasted good!

Do you have something in your kitchen that you've never used, or haven't used in a long time??

Maybe it's time to

Use What You've Got!!

Jill

Willpower! - Day 67, Use What You've Got

In this 100 day challenge I've set myself to 'Use What I've Got" I've decided that I need to start using my willpower more.

This year I've really been pushing myself to keep exercising lots and have felt fitter and healthier than ever. I'm running faster and stronger than ever before and earlier this year I dropped a few kilos too which was a nice by product of all my hard work.

A winter cold

However - over the past couple of months I was sick, then had a lingering irritating cough and blocked sinuses which meant I cut back on my exercise lots - and ate a lot more comfort food. The weight has crept back and my fitness levels have dropped.

All better now!

Yesterday I went for a run and for the first time in weeks I didn't cough once during it. I pushed hard and was exhausted at the end but it felt good.

I have a half marathon that I'm training for coming up in just over 7 weeks time, so I've decided it's time to get back into some full on training and being a bit more careful with what I eat.

My weakness

I may have a strong will when it comes to pushing myself to exercise - run and workout. But when it comes to food, I'm not so strong.

Working from home - I can grab a snack so easily whenever I want - and frequently do throughout the day!

I also love to bake - and we almost always have home-baked cakes and cookies in the house. I'm also guilty of licking the bowls out after I've mixed the cakes and taste-tasting the cookies etc when they come out of the oven.

So - here's where my willpower comes in.

I need to stop all the unnecessary snacking - especially when I bake.

Yesterday and today I baked cakes and managed to rinse the bowls and put them in the dishwasher without even a tiny taste of the cake or cookie mixture first.

I'm trying very hard to snack on better things, like some fresh pineapple.

And drinking plenty of water - often spiced up with some lemon ice-cubes.

A healthy weight

I'm not overweight but I'm right at the top end of the scale of what is healthy for my height. I've never been overly concerned about my weight - preferring to concentrate on feeling fit and healthy. Exercising regularly and trying to eat well.

However I am a little over what I usually weigh and can feel my clothes are a bit tight!

I'm also aware that losing a few kilos would make running a bit easier for my body - and faster too, so that's an added incentive to work that willpower when it comes to food from now on!

So there - I've put it out there.

I weigh 69kg now, but should be much closer to 60kg than 70kg!

I need to learn to cut smaller pieces of cake!!

What's your weakness?

Do you have a willpower? Do you use it much?

Jill

How to make a Fabric Headband - Day 66, Use What You've Got

Here's another of the tutorials I made for my girls to learn to sew. This one is for making a Fabric Headband or Hairband, whichever you like to call it!

They have a fabric yo-yo added to them for a little decoration. The fabric yo-yo tutorial is here.

Again it's designed to be followed by kids so they can try to sew something all by themselves without an adult needing to help (so long as you're happy with them using your machine unassisted!).

You can download the free PDF tutorial here.

Jill

Serviced Sewing Machines - Day 65 Use What You've Got

Last week since we had family visitors staying in our spare room, which is also my sewing room, I thought I'd take the opportunity to have my sewing machines serviced.

I've had my sewing machine for around 10 years, and my overlocker (serger) for around 5 years. I've never had either serviced, which is probably not good since I'm pretty rough with my machines - sewing all kinds of materials with them - pool salt bags, car windscreen shades, lots of thick denim...

Anyway, they came back with only 1 note of my sewing machine plate being replaced - everything else was just a basic service.

I liked that they left small fabric scraps in the machines to show they'd tested the stitches out!

Our visitors left a couple of days ago and since then I've been catching up on housework and a couple of other things. This morning was my first chance to test my machines out.

I also used my newly sharpened scissors - sooo nice to cut with them now!

I just made a small drawstring bag (using my own tutorial)

I had an initial panic when my 'reverse stitch' button didn't work the first time I pressed it! So I grabbed some scrap fabric and just did lots of lines of straight stitching - going forwards and backwards lots. It worked just fine - so just a minor hiccup, that I'll keep an eye out for happening again!

All seems good. I wondered if it would 'feel' any different sewing with my machine straight after a full service but it didn't!

As far as my overlocker (serger) goes, before the service it just wasn't working, The needles kept coming unthreaded, the stitching wasn't right... so I was looking forward to trying this one out!

Thankfully - this machine did feel different! So smooth, perfect stitching and no needles unthreaded!

So my machines are now back where they should be - serviced, tested and I've put new needles in too!

All set for some new sewing projects!

My services have a 3 month warranty on them, so I'm going to make sure and make full use of both machines in those 3 months just in case there are any issues with them!

Have you ever had your sewing machines serviced? I was told by the shop that I should have them serviced every year! Oops!!

Jill