craft day: how to

Because someone out there was curious to find out how I put together the collage on shown in the previous post, I decided to show you the details behind the image. You should know that I started with a completely different idea for the outcome but as always I didn't plan ahead and had to adjust the design to cover my tracks.

I started out with a good-on-one-side plywood square and a very large bottle of Elmer's. All four of the fabrics I used were gifts from the beautiful use swap and can be found at Purl Soho.

I started with this fabric (in green) as a background. I used the stitching on the fabric as a guide to cut it into strips of varying widths and then glued them down randomly. This is where my original design went awry as the fabric was not wide enough to cover plywood square.









Now knowing that I needed to hide the edges where the background ended I decided to cut out the circles in this fabric for a layered 'border' at the edges.









I used this one to simulate branches growing out from the edges and cut out the foreground image adjusting it as necessary.












Lastly I used this one as the focal point of the collage cutting out the bunches of flowers as well a few single flowers.












And that was it!

she's crafty...

Sunday was craft day in the Freeland household. Dave took apart AND put back together a washing machine and I made this....with some help from the beautiful use swap and a lot of Elmers.

throwing in the towel

I first would like to point out this has nothing to do with March Madness and although my brother is out celebrating a win after the first round, I hardly believe the contest is over.

But as a Smith it is a rarity that we will own up to defeat. There is always an excuse, albeit lame depending on which Smith you talk to you but an excuse no less. The most often used is the ever reliable "I let you win." or perhaps the "I didn't want to leave you feeling bad".

And this is no different a situation. It is crazy to think the messy house defeated us and tomorrow morning someone armed with a mop and a little 409 will take over.

But honestly!

I let it win.

Travelling in flickr

Around 2 years ago, I helped Michael Maltzan Architecture wrap up the design and documentation of a small pavilion in Jinhua China. Later that year I had the excellent coincidence of being invited to a wedding in China which afforded me the opportunity to visit the project under construction. I realized at that time, I would probably never see it completed and would have to rely on the local architect's photos to see how it 'turned out'. That was before I knew Flickr.....

This photo of the pavilion was taken by flickr user Z & G. You may see the rest of Z & G's visit here.

Driver's education the Smith way

Lesson #1: You are NEVER too young to learn how to drive.

Lesson #2: You learned to drive on a vehicle with a gear stick taller than you.

Lesson #3: You got your first ticket under the age of 16. My own brother once got a ticket at the age of 10? Dad you will have to verify that.

Lesson #4: You can drive with your knees and actually prefer too.

Renovation update

before and after
Originally uploaded by m free.

Our bedroom before and after... minus a closet door and plus two cats.

Dorm Room Ballers

These guys are amazing!

I'm 3!

Three years ago today, I started at my current job and it is now the longest job I have ever held.
I guess you could call that maturity.

getting my pink on

Last year about this time, I bought a Aporocactus flagelliformis. Yes I said f l a g e l l i f o r m i s, also commonly known as a rat's tail cactus or in our family know as Lenny. Lenny came with a nice note card and picture that showed pink flowers sprouting from almost every square inch of him. BRIGHT PINK FLOWERS. The $15 could not have flown out of my wallet faster. Since then I have been eagerly awaiting Lenny to show his 'true colors'.

Behold the flower of Lenny.

Lost and found

This morning when I left the house for work I was greeted at the door by a lost dog...to be specific an itty-bitty-cutie-patutie-chahuaha. He pranced right up to me said Hello and promptly licked my shoes.

I liked him immediately.

So I called up Dave to tell him in addition to two cats, we would now also have a dog..and his name would be Rocky. The conversation went like this:

Me: "Dave! There is a cute little dog on our porch."
Dave (mildly interested): "Yea, I saw him when I left too."
Me: "He is soooooooooooooooooooooooooo cute!"
Dave (mildly excited): "Yea, He's pretty cute."
Me: "Let's keep him!!"
Dave (not at all excited): ".........ummm"
Me: "fine"

After which I put him in the car to take him to the pound. Only to drive 1/2 a block see a flyer for him and return him to his owner.

I tried to get a photo but he was a quick little guy and this is the best I got. Note shoe for scale.