Spiritual & Creative Edification

Today I made this:

googly eye frame

and this:

kid's art folder (BonnieBlue's real name photoshopped out; it looks cuter without that blob)

I spent probably 4 hours crafting today while listening to General Conference (General Conference is a twice-a-year broadcast over an entire weekend during which the leaders of our church--both men and women--give talks on gospel topics). General Conference is one of the most spiritually edifying experiences I have the privilege of witnessing, and today I got to add the creative edification of making not one, but 2, projects that have been on my list! Woot!

I would have worked on my Little Forest Quilt-Along project, but I can't really hear over the sewing machine. By the way, does anyone know of a quiet sewing machine because my sewing room is right next to BonnieBlue's bedroom so I can't sew after she goes to bed. Not cool.

Sew anyway, the googly-eyed frame was inspired by this most excellent frame made by the blogger at A Diamond in the Stuff.

My source of inspiration, from http://adiamondinthestuff.blogspot.com/.

A couple of things. First, I do not have the patience and/or the attention to detail that this woman has! Second, I don't have the time or talent, either. Also, though I LOVE this, I was wondering how a similar project would work with the 'less-is-more' philosophy in practice. So I tried and came up with the cute frame you see in the beginning of the post.

Here's how I made the googly-eye frame. I don't have pictures because it's not complicated. The best part? Cost me $3.50. The frame was on sale at Target for $1.48. It was already black. Target also had a packet of googly eyes of different colors (green, orange, purple), as well as white, and 3 different sizes for $1.99. Lots of googly eyes came in the package; I didn't use them all. I already had the teeny-tiny ones, and I already had the glue. I carefully arranged and glued on the googly eyes. BonnieBlue helped a little, but she was way sloppy with the glue and it showed, so I lured her away with a coloring page and markers. Ta-da! (sorry about the flash; I totally blow at taking pics)

I am planning on putting a picture of BonnieBlue in her last-year's halloween costume and then change it out every year, placing the new one in before I put it away for the season. Wouldn't that be pro-active?

Next post will be a detailed tute for a kid's art folder. BonnieBlue started pre-k this year and is bringing home scads of papers, including pictures she draws. I can't/won't keep it all, but I do want to keep some because they're just so stinkin' cute. So I happened upon a great idea and made it better! Stay tuned!