There is Music on my Wall.....

Back in May Tami from http://thisandthatfromtami.blogspot.com posted a tutorial on a music wreath that she made.  I fell in extreme like!  I decided I just had to make one of those.  It has taken me until now to do so!  Her tutorial can be found here:  http://thisandthatfromtami.blogspot.com/2012/05/page-wreath-tutorial.html
I decided that I wanted one that was much larger to fit above my piano.  Instead of using hymn book-sized sheets of music, I used ones that were almost 9 x 12.  For the back layer I tore them in half lengthwise, then rolled them.  Try as I might, I COULD NOT get my ends to look like Tami's, so I just went with what they turned out like.  I think it looks just fine.  For the shorter layer, I used one quarter size of my 9 x 12 page.  My mirror is a 9-inch mirror.  I liked her black scallop behind the mirror so made one of my own with MTC and cut it out on my Black Cat Lynx.  The total width of my wreath is a whopping 29 inches!  Now I just have to figure out how to hang it.  I need some way to do it that will have enough strength to hold it.  I can't exactly use nails to put hangers on the back!  :)

Isn't it amazing how you can follow directions to the letter that someone else has posted and have a completely different result?  I still like Tami's resulting ends from rolling better than mine, but I do love how mine turned out.  Thank you so much Tami for the tutorial and the inspiration!  And thank you to all of you for stopping by to have a peek!  Have a wonderful weekend!

Edited:  I FINALLY got this hung up above my piano!  I love it!  My husband loves it!  My son loves it!  We ALL love it!  I am just so tickled with how it looks!

Amazing Artist!

My son says I am not allowed to say how "proud" I am of him or of things.  So I just want to say how very pleased I am with him and his wonderful artistic talent!

He really likes the new kind of music the kids listen to today.  You know, the kind that I can't even understand the words?  There is a story behind the above picture and it really is quite interesting.  I don't know if he would like me sharing it or not, but suffice it to say that this is an extremely creative way to portray the story.  He sees an idea in his mind and just starts drawing.  He finished this in no time at all, and I believe it is done in pencil.

This one actually shows him at work!  (He is the one in the white hat!)  He said he was bored at work and was having a very slow day, so drew this.  I don't know who the little boy is.  This probably took him only a very short time to complete.  I have saved so many of his art projects and love to look at them from time to time.  Oh, to be so talented!  He certainly didn't inherit this from me.  His dad, brothers, grandmother, uncle, etc. are all very artistic.  It's fun to see all of the creativity.

Thank you for stopping by to have a peek and for letting me brag about my son!  I hope you all have a terrific weekend!

"Un" Happy Birthday Card!

I am SO unhappy about this card!  I spent about two hours getting it just the way I wanted it!  I embossed the "white" cardstock (which is now yellow), chalked the embossing and tried to get the shading just the way I wanted it, got the "Happy Birthday" just perfect, used more chalk (just a hint of yellow) around the edges, and punched the side.  It was just the way I wanted it....I thought.  Then I got the stupid idea to use some gold glimmer mist on it to make it shiny!  What a mistake!  My husband bought me this glimmer mist for my birthday and I was excited to use it.  I sprayed a couple of sprays into the air before I actually put it on the card just in case there were any "globs" in the sprayer.  Didn't do any good!  My card is a mess now!  There are gold globs all over the card.  Plus, with just a couple of sprays, the "white" face of the card is now yellow.  It doesn't show up in the photo the way I see it.  Don't get me wrong, I love yellow.  It is my favorite color.  I just didn't want the front of my card to be THAT yellow!  I am just sick about it.  I was going to give this to a friend, but not anymore!  My dear husband bought be two other bottles besides this gold one.  I am thinking I am going to just return them all.  I think I will be depressed for a couple of minutes and then get over it and get on with another attempt at making a card!  I hope all of you are having a better day than I am!  Thanks for stopping by and listening to me whine.  I don't do it often. :)

Hubby's Been In the Kitchen!

My husband likes to cook.  Isn't that wonderful?!  Actually, he likes to bake more than cook.  We like rhubarb a lot in our house.  With this in mind, he was going to make a rhubarb cake.  I am not really fond of cake.  Actually, I don't like cake.  However, I REALLY LIKE crisps, cobblers, crumbles, etc.  Lots of fruit, crunchy top.  You get the picture.  I told him to make a rhubarb crisp instead.  He says OK.  So while I searched for the recipe, I came across a rhubarb blueberry pie.  So my mind starts to go crazy with the possibility...Honey?  Want to make a rhubarb blueberry crisp?  He thought it was a wonderful idea!  Now his mind starts racing and he came up with this recipe.  It is delicious!  However, it is a very thin crisp.  I would have used much more fruit because I like very fruity crisps.  But nonetheless, he has invented a masterpiece!  Here is the recipe:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Filling
1/4 cup granulated sugar                                              1/4 cup quick-cooking tapioca
1/4 cup light brown sugar                                                3 cups diced rhubarb
1/4 teaspoon salt (I would reduce this to 1/8)                     3 cups blueberries

2.  Combine sugars, salt and tapioca in a large bowl.  Mix well.  Add rhubarb and blueberries and mix until fruit is well coated.  Pour fruit mixture in a 9 x 13 pan.  (This is where I might have used an 8 x 8 pan to make the crisp a bit thicker.)

Topping
3/4 cup flour
4 Nature Valley Crunchy Oats 'n Honey bars (they come 2 to a packet)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons butter, chilled and cut into small pieces

3.  Using a rolling pin, crush the bars until the pieces are about the size of Grapenuts cereal.  Combine the flour, crushed bars, brown sugar and salt in a bowl.  Add butter and using a pastry blender or two knives, cut in until mixture is like coarse meal.  Distribute evenly on top of the fruit mixture.  Bake about 30 minutes in 9 x 13 (or 35-40 minutes for the 8 x 8 pan) or until top is browned and fruit is bubbly.

That's it!  It is a delicious mixture of two scrumptious fruits with a wonderful crispy top!  Enjoy and thanks so much for stopping by today!