Some Seasonal This & That

Posted on November 13, 2018 by Cheryl @ Artzzle

In our home this year, I’m keeping seasonal stuff simple. From foods to decorating, it’s quick and easy all, especially through November.

With this in mind, I scanned through my photo stash and in doing so, discovered the “sweet and simple” idea is not a new one around my house.

Of course a bit of sparkle here and there isn’t difficult to achieve.

A little color and shine can go a long way.

Or sometimes just a nice floral arrangement has a lot to say.

And if a big arrangement isn’t your thing . . .

try a basket, a couple plants or garden picks, a scarf and some sparkly items.

Before closing, I wanted to again share this simple and fun poem and kid’s project.

Thanksgiving preparations are at hand.
Menus being made, days being planned.
Arranging rooms for extra seating.
Cleaning, cooking, talking, eating.
The youngest crowd might be ignored.
They get restless, they get bored.
Keep all kids busy with fun projects they’ll like.
Have the older kids help the little tikes.

Cheryl Brindle

THESE EASY PROJECTS & Printables are FOUND HERE

and OVER HERE

I really enjoy and appreciate your thoughts and comments on my posts, so let me know what you think. And remember, it’s okay to share as long as you give credit where credit is due … to me 🙂

Have a wonderful holiday and make lot’s of special memories 🙂

Later – Cheryl

Purple . . . for Autumn??

Posted on October 24, 2018 by Cheryl @ Artzzle

Each week things improve and recently a bit of ambition struck. I decided to paint my dining room area. It’s an open space between the living and family rooms. There are two smaller walls and one large, and so far the large, accent wall and one small area are done.

Hubs was a wonderful assistant and made things easier. Odd as it may sound, the most difficult part of the project was deciding what color to choose. In fourteen years, these walls have gone from the builder beige, to a deep taupe, a warm burgundy, a deep blue/green and most recent, a deep, warm brown, seen below.

Lighting gives photos glare, but you can see the brown. The print is something my husband and I picked out for that wall when we first moved in to this home. He is very patient with all of my changing and rearranging, but the one and only time I moved the print to a different room . . . well let’s just say, he nicely ~~requested~~ made it clear he wanted it to stay where it had been. And I’ve been fine with that.

Adjusting to all the recent changes in our lives, I just needed a new look, something brighter to get me through the coming winter. New colors were narrowed down to a mustard gold, or a blue tone from the water at the right of the print. I’m not much of a blue gal, but all the gold samples seemed too harsh and we jokingly referred to them as looking like baby poop 😀 . And I DID want a big change.

We brought home several samples and are very pleased with the results of our choice. I don’t think I could have gotten any closer to the purplish blue of the print’s water. It also works very well with the lamps in the adjoining family room. Bringing in blues, glass items and adding plants, it was easy to pull the two spaces together.

And of course, when you change one thing, there are always others that pop up. The table cover and the chair seat covers were very (normal) Fall colors, with oranges, beiges and deep burgandy. At the moment, we’re using mismatched chairs and covers.

While healing, I’ve also been slowly chipping away at reorganizing my studio/office, and rounded up all my fabric samples. While it isn’t perfect, I did have a large sample of a modern paisley print in many shades of blues, a light off-white and a touch of two shades of green. It looks bright and fresh, so I covered my chair seats.

Oh, nice. I just noticed a touch of dark brown here and there, so that helps unite the woods in the furniture and the print frame. This time I used the same fabric on both styles of chairs.

To finish things, there is just enough fabric left to make a table runner. Until I get to that, I’m using a square scarf that plays well with everything.

Regarding the work in the office, well it’s at the “it has to get worse before it gets better” stage! I DO have all the shelves and cabinets in the closet done. Now it’s a matter of seeing what I can donate, sell or throw.

I had one wall in the office repainted, before I went into hospital. There’s one big and one small wall left to fill, sand and paint. I’m REALLY trying to cut back on furniture pieces and all my craft stuff in there.

Luckily for me, I have two neighbors who are 3rd grade teachers and I think they may like quite a few of my supplies.

A quick health update. I have two more surgeries coming up, and hopefully both can be done by end of year. I want to think of it as 2018 – the year of the knife, but hoping that 2019 is the year of a new life!

Finally, before closing, I am noticing that several people are sharing my posts on facebook, 22 the last post. That is all fine AS LONG AS YOU ARE CREDITING ME FOR MY POSTS AND PHOTOS. I ask that you please leave a comment on my posts that you share. That will mention your site as well, and give us BOTH exposure, and me, the credit due me. Thank you for your understanding.

As I’ve noticeably skipped Halloween topics this year. just go to the search window and put in Halloween, Fall, Autumn and like terms to see my many previous posts.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope to post again before Thanksgiving, but if not, enjoy your holidays. Stay safe and stay positive.

– Cheryl _

Friday the 13th! Quick, a Craft!

Posted on October 13, 2017 by Cheryl @ Artzzle

Who could waste a perfect title like that? Great time to share a quick craft with you too. It’s easy, low cost and fun to do!

All you need is

My FREE HALLOWEEN PRINTOUTS HERE (pictured above) that
Paper and/or paper lunch bags
Scissors & Glue
String (any kind – yarn, thread, fishing line)
One cup hook or large head screw
A small branch from a shrub or tree

Could this be any easier? Below are two “Done” ones

HANDOUT Bags for HALLOWEEN

See the “TO DO’s” HERE and HERE.

Find LOTS Fall projects by going up to the search bar & typing in the following words (one at a time) .

Fall and/or Autumn
EZ-PZ
Mums

That’s it for this freaky Friday 😀

Whatever you do, don’t stress out … just start!

Later – Cheryl

Loving This Look

Posted on April 25, 2017 by Cheryl @ Artzzle

Our winter has been a light one, meaning little snow. In Minnesota, it’s what is sometimes called a “brown winter”. It does look a bit more friendly, but temperatures still restrict you to inside projects.

This is the exact time of year that we get antsy to do something. The cleaning and purging could use a little more work, but at this point … boring. Coming up with a project or two is easy enough. The problem, as usual, is limited funds.

Long-time followers will remember nearly 4 years ago, we restyled and refinished the cabinetry in our bathroom. It has been is holding up quite well and we still enjoy the look.

Bathroom cabinet redo with Rustoleum Kit

The bath color is a muted, dusty gold, although this picture doesn’t capture it well. Most of the other tones in our open living areas are similar and neutral, and I do want to stay with those. But we’ve been wanting a bit more color and the bathroom walls seemed a good place to add some. This means paint of course. In this case, the colors in my stash weren’t what I had in mind. There was a good paint sale in the area, but it was still above what we could spend. And then …

At Wal-Mart, on a sale table, I discovered a gallon of their “grab n’ go” paint in the aqua color. At $11.00, it was a good price, but I had big reservations. It was a semi-gloss finish which I felt might be too shiny.

I was considering a turquoise color that would match the current accents in the room.

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This color seemed too bright, so I decided against but I kept thinking about it all week. The next trip in, it still sat on the sale table … but now it was at $5.00 on markdown.

Now, most of you know I am a big proponent of mixing my own paint colors. I bought the aqua gallon, and a quart of light gray in the same brand and finish. At home I removed approximately 1/3 of the aqua (saving it, of course), and added most of the gray. The result was much tamer so I did a sample wall.

Bathroom Wall

Still much too bright for us. I wanted a much “dustier” shade, and so did a bit more experimenting. For my darkening color I used a warm, deep cinnamon brown in a finish just one step below semi-gloss. Each test got a wall splotch, until I hit on what I was going for. I settled for the very top color in the picture below.

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We’re very pleased with our results

Aqua Bathroom

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We have a few more small projects for this room. We plan to frame the mirror, and replace the wooden backsplash with glass tile. AND … I’m changing up some of the accessories, starting with this gorgeous shower curtain that is an early Mother’s Day present from my daughter (thanks, Breezer)!

91FLpewC-6L._SL1500_

I’m lovin’ the coral, purple and all the aqua and greens in this. Can’t wait to buy towels LOL.

I’ll keep you posted.

Meantime, I would LOVE to hear what you think about our latest project. Remember, when you leave a comment for me, check the box to receive answer comments. My site systems don’t allow an automatic answer sent back to you.

Thanks for stopping over.

Later – Cheryl

Ready for VALENTINE Projects?

Posted on January 21, 2017 by Cheryl @ Artzzle

Hi, all. Can you believe it’s almost time for a holiday again? By now, I’m actually glad for another little spruce up opportunity, though. Christmas is gone and with all of Winter’s white, windy weather, things need some sparkle again. But, because it isn’t so friendly outside, now is a good time for one of my EZ-PZ projects.

This one is super easy, using things you’ll already have around the house. AND you don’t need any fancy tools!

SUPPLIES

PAINT SAMPLE CARDS and TISSUE BOXES are two of my favorite recycled/reuse craft items. They have beautiful colors and designs and are a great weight for cut-outs.

This project I also used WRAPPING PAPER CUTOUTS & A RED FELT PLACEMAT from among my post-season stash. The mat had a whopping $0.24 price tag. Though I did use a few punches here, I also did many things the old fashioned way … folding and cutting out larger heart shapes to use.

The wonderful set of punches featured in some of these projects – are not mine. They were on loan from my daughter. I mention this so people won’t be discouraged. Most of my work is done with ordinary, everyday items like scissors, exacto knife and salvaged papers. Same goes for glue. You don’t have to have a hot glue gun or a glue wheel for everything. Less expensive double-sided tapes, tacky glue or elmer’s are available everywhere, and get the job done just fine.

(Not pictured is a small tension-rod for your window. If you don’t have one, they are found in curtain departments and are very inexpensive.)

SIMPLE STEPS:

Cut five pieces of string. I used twine here. A number of things work; yarn, curling ribbon or fish line. You it light weight enough to have a bit of movement as it hangs down. I cut my longest piece at 25”. Two more pieces were cut at 20” and finally, two pieces at 17”.

TIP: You’ll want to measure your window and see how long you want your pieces. REMEMBER that longer is better, so you have enough to tie to your rod, and more is always good because too much is better than not enough.

Here I laid out my string. Tops are held down with fun-tac putty and I’ve added my jingle bells at the bottom to help straighten out the twine. Trying a few dry design placements with my cutouts, when satisfied, I began to glue items to the twine.

NOTE: The paper shapes are all doubled. You NEED TWO IDENTICAL PIECES for each display on your string. When applying, you will lay one cutout FACE DOWN, then place your string over it, and glue the matching cutout over the top. As well as helping the pieces adhere to the string, this gives you a pretty view from either side.

Valentine’s Day is winter of course, so your window will be closed. But you’ll still get movement and in my example, I’ll have lots of movement since this window is above a heat register. In summer, you’ll get breeze from the open window.

Now all I have to do is tie my strings to the curtain rod.

In my Christmas Window Project SEEN HERE I used coordinating wrapping paper to make a sleeve for the rod. For today’s project, I simply tacked some matching ribbon to the front of the rod so I could hang it higher in the window.

See you soon for more fun.

As always, try not to stress about it, just start your project.

Later – Cheryl

This original article “VALENTINE Projects” appeared first on Artzzle.com. No included content or photography can be used elsewhere without specific permission from said originators.

Yes … Tomorrow is Halloween

Posted on October 30, 2016 by Cheryl @ Artzzle

Here are some last minute, EZ=PZ’s for tomorrow!

Just Click the Pics and Find the Fun

PROJECTS

Have a fun and safe Halloween.

Look for much more frequent posts in the weeks to come.

Later – Cheryl

Quick Non-Food “Stuff” for Thanksgiving

Posted on November 23, 2015 by Cheryl @ Artzzle

Thanksgiving preparations are at hand.
Menus being made, days being planned.
Arranging rooms for extra seating.
Cleaning, cooking, talking, eating.
The youngest crowd might be ignored.
They get restless, they get bored.
Keep all kids busy with fun projects they’ll like.
Have the older kids help the little tikes.

§ § § § §

Finger puppets and velcro turkeys can be found in my 2013 Thanksgiving post. Everything you need is over there, including the full color printables and easy supply list.

§ § § § §

Below, the adorable turkeys are only one of the cute ideas you’ll find from Jamielyn Nye’s post over at Baby Center.

10 Thanksgiving crafts for kids Jamielyn Nye

§ § § § §

You’ll have lots of paper projects to pick from over at Enchanted Learning.

I especially liked their construction paper turkey decoration
which lists what a child is thankful for.

§§§§§

If you’re in need of last minute decorating fixes,
click the pic’s below
for some easy ideas!

The project above is both pretty and pretty easy to do. The version below is prettied up even more by just adding some sparkly wrapping paper.

And that’s all for today.
You’ll remember from last time …
that at our house. we’re celebrating the
Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays together this year in mid-December.
Different dates but sentiments are the same.
Have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING !

Stay safe until next time.
Later – Cheryl

Kitchens, Cousins and Cabinets

Posted on July 31, 2015 by Cheryl @ Artzzle

July has meant kitchens, cousins, cabinets and me . . . completely pooped! It was a VERY busy month for me and Hubs. Regular readers know that my cousins come up each July to visit, as they did this year too! As usual, we had a blast 🙂

And you’ll also probably remember we’ve been attacking our kitchen cabinet project in steps, and still had the lowers to finish.

Remember how my timing is often a little off? I didn’t get motivated about the cabinets till the week before our visitors’ scheduled stay.

Hubs did his part, trimming everything out, and on one of our cooler days, I tackled the painting and sealing.

You know our dishwasher died this past winter, and I may also have mentioned that its’ gaping absence has Hubs designing a wonderful pull-out drawer for pan storage – my back just loves that guy 🙂 ! But it’s a “future” plan. In the meantime, lazy me just left it naked and exposed to the world. The ladies know we’re always in the middle of a project or two, and once they arrived, we had plenty to keep us busy, so nobody cared.

Showing off some of their thrift finds, before departing.

After they headed home, we took a couple of days off, appreciating the AC. It gave us lots of time to talk . . . about what else . . . projects.

In afterthought, I regretted the big black hole left open for our company. I remembered some of the clever “disguise” ideas my blogger buddy Kim has done with fabric. I had remnants left from our recent family room drapes makeover (haven’t posted it for you yet). Since that area is directly behind the kitchen, those would work. So, supplies yes, but still a problem. C’mon, you all know how I just love to sew . . . NOT! Covering the opening meant using two pieces. Oh boy!

Speaking of boys, all these boy-toys around here tend to come in handy. Hubs has all sorts, including an upholstery stapler, and an air one at that. So it was brought to the kitchen.

Keep calm . . . it wasn’t ME operating anything electric. C’mon, an air compressor and an automatic stapling gun . . . seriously?? No no! You know me! I pleaded and begged Hubs away from his shop, for this quick and easy project. I put a comfy, big ol’ pillow in there for his back. Then as I gathered material, he stapled two little curtains in place, from behind the cabinet front. No sewing. The bottom was already nicely hemmed and the raw edges were just folded in and stapled. Voila’ – done. It’ll work until the practical pan drawer is done, don’t ya think?

Remember my grumping about our broken rider mower last time? Well . . . it’s still out of commission but sometimes good things rise from bad. Hubs was out “push mowing” today with our noisy old hand mower, when a second roaring machine piped in. I looked out to see our neighbor teen, Tyler, zipping along on their rider, finishing things off in no time. He didn’t want pay and left without telling us.

So, Hubs and I leashed Gracie and went for a walk back to his house, delivering a card and a little monetary compensation. And we got to know our newest neighbors even better. Nice. Great guy, that Tyler. I should’ve taken a picture. Maybe our granddaughters would visit more often if they knew what a cute neighbor we have. Hhmm.

So, kitchen is done, cousins are safely back home, and yard looks good, for now anyway. . But don’t worry, there’s so much more to report . . . next time because me, I’m pooped out! Think there is a cat puppy nap in the near future.

Hey, Gracie, ya started without me!

Meanwhile, I’m working at staying positive to stay productive. See if it works for you!

Later – Cheryl

Can You EVER have enough Storage Space?

Posted on June 24, 2015 by Cheryl @ Artzzle

One of the things WE love about our home is our main living area with it’s vaulted ceilings and odd shaped walls. Something we didn’t like about this house was the limited storage as we have no basement.

One of the things I love in our home, is my talented husband! I can just tell him about an idea I have and draw a little sketch. He does a little measuring, draws a real plan . . . and makes it for me.

Now, everyone knows how I love to collect pottery, glass and BIG décor items and all kinds of other stuff; lots of pieces that are difficult to store, especially in a small home like ours. I got really tired of shoving everything in bins under the beds. In the first place, we only have two beds (and one is a twin), and secondly, there are things under there already.

I did design & Hubs built, a special size storage area attached to the bottom of the twin bed frame. It’s just a simple attached drawer with a little hook to close it.

Unlatch the hook, the door drops down and items are slid in. This holds my large paper, matting and artwork. The bed cover hides it, so we just left it raw.

Another easy little idea provided extra coat storage. In the laundry room, a simple strip of molding was attached to the wall and hooks were added. The laundry room is a pass through to the garage and back door entrance, so is a perfect spot for hanging casual jackets, sweaters and the occasional dog leash.

TIP: Be sure to anchor the molding strip to a stud or two on your wall. That will accommodate the weight of your hanging items, so the molding doesn’t pull away from the wall over time. Our Projects List includes eventual cabinets for the laundry room as well. For a temporary fix I added shelves, featured HERE.

We’ve made sure most of our occasional tables and furniture pieces have drawers and shelves, so that helps oodles.
TIP: DOUBLE DUTY furniture pieces provide extra storage for any size space. A dresser could be used as a TV stand, with the drawers storage for equipment. End tables with shelves and/or drawers can be used in many rooms. Coffee tables with a shelf or open legs can house baskets for extra storage.

Your next question “Do we have enough storage space now?”

My question . . . “Does anyone EVER have enough storage space?”

This is our entry way. At the top of the shot you can see some of our angled, fun colored walls. I say “way” because it is simply a space between the front door and a closet; both which are an actual part of the living room. There’s no separate foyer.

We’re accustomed to this feature. Our previous rambler was also designed with a little closet directly by the front room door. That is the only commonality in the two homes. Today’s market standards categorize this home as small at 1550 sq. ft., but our other rambler was only a 960 sq. ft. plan. Now THAT was small, but that house had a basement. Don’t worry though, it was fine. And YES, we did a lot of changing, rearranging and customizing in that. Had to with 5 kids between us.

We really enjoy this entry closet because of it’s angles and the fun walls around it, on the outside. But, recently I was cleaning the closet, and getting frustrated with that jagged corner space inside, where all the less-important, rarely used junk stuff gets shoved. When the hanging rod is full, you can’t even get back in there.

Plus, we store leftover paints in there, so they don’t freeze in the winter. I hate seeing those every time I opened the door.

Soooooo, I went to find Hubs. I talked, he measured, he drew and then . . . began building. From this . . .

To this. Here a second upper full length shelf was also added.

And finally, this.

Nice, right? Was I satisfied?

Well, no. You could now see even more “stuff” when the doors were open.

Solution: We had a fabric shower curtain in the donation bin. So I had him adapt for a rod.

And voila’, see no more evil!

Was that enough . . . uhhm . . . almost.

For that higher area, I took a simple tension rod and put up the valance to the old shower curtain. Now . . . done!

So Cheryl now has even more storage AND it’s pretty, well sort of. At least stuff is stored and hidden!

TIP: Don’t overlook small corners and odd spaces in your home that could be utilized for storage. IMAGINE and EXPERIMENT with spaces, pieces and places. Have fun!

Lots more going on around here, even other storage projects, so, we’ll talk again soon!

Until then, stay positive to stay productive 🙂

Later – Cheryl

Thirty Two Days

Posted on June 20, 2015 by Cheryl @ Artzzle

July means the arrival of fun around here. Two cousins from out-of-state, visit and stay for a few days. There’s lots of laughing and talking, and eating – lots of eating! But the best part is … shopping! We’re all bargain hunters which means thrift stores, garage sales, Marshall’s, Homegoods, etc. It’s always a blast.

Their visit also means that around this time in June, my panic attacks start. We only see each other once a year, and I want the house to be all “ooh ahh” and special. Hubs and I have been working on a few things to get ready. We’ve both gone through our stashes of materials.

These four bright pots have been on my shelf for over a year.

At a Crafts Direct’s whopper sale, they went from $4.99 to $2.00 and finally another 75% off that. Seriously … how could I pass up a deal like that. And look at all that color!

You know how I like to work with odd numbers, so a taller piece I already had, was added. After explaining my idea to Hubs, he drew up a plan and with scrap wood from his workshop, he made this

I chose a color from some left-over paint . . .

and did two coats, directly on the raw wood.

Since the pots have no drain plate, we bought plastic trays at WalMart ($0.35 ea) and some $3.33 plants.

There were many varieties of plants and tray sizes to choose from.

For Spring I went blue and green in the living room, so I chose the bluish green paint for the tray. It works nicely with the bright pots, don’t you think?

Below was the previous look

The purple plate and bowls were $3 @ garage sale.
The purple sphere was $2.50 @ local Discovery Thrift.
The bunnies were $1.00 at local ReUse Store.
The miscellaneous white pieces are from my collections.
Flowers were free from a garage sale.

After the windows are washed, the living room will be guest ready.

A different furniture arrangement and change out of accessories have given it a totally new look.

Great, right?

But what about thoset thirty two days? It’s all that’s left!

In thirty two days, I need things to be clean, comfortable, colorful and … different. Those 3 C’s aren’t a problem, but that “different” is what drives the panic. It’s not like this upcoming event is anything new. Unfortunately, my unpreparedness isn’t new, either. And I can’t blame it on the timing issues mentioned HERE. I just keep thinking I have all this time and then suddenly … I don’t.

So I had better sign off for this time … and GET BUSY!

Hubs is already working on a shelf for my salt & pepper collection. My cousin always teases me about having oodles of shakers but never putting any out to use OR show. Ha! She’ll be surprised this time.

Meantime, I’ll try to take my own advice . . . to stress less and start more!

Later – Cheryl

ARTZZLE

Helping with the Pieces in Life's Puzzle of Art and Design

Category Archives: Projects

Some Seasonal This & That

Purple . . . for Autumn??

Friday the 13th! Quick, a Craft!

Loving This Look

Ready for VALENTINE Projects?

Yes … Tomorrow is Halloween

Quick Non-Food “Stuff” for Thanksgiving

10 Thanksgiving crafts for kids Jamielyn Nye

Kitchens, Cousins and Cabinets

Can You EVER have enough Storage Space?

Thirty Two Days

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