Upcycling?

True Redneck Tube Top!!!! This was taken in front of the Gardendale, Alabama, Wal-Mart, where the young lady was shopping at the Flea market. This is hysterical! Look at it closely...

Now I ask you.....
Who stands and looks at a pair of men's briefs and says hummmm...I can make me a nice summer top from these!! On the other hand....$6 for a three pack is a good price!! But what if they weren't bought new? That's redneck recycling at its best.
Don't throw out yer feller's drawers when the skidmarks don't wash out no more.
Just cut the crotch out and wear'em. How very Green! Al Gore would be proud.

A nice drive

Last Sunday hubby and I made a short road trip to Caddo Mills. It was past time for the old red truck to have some "under the hood"care. He has a friend that is a shady tree mechanic that we took the truck to.

I took the opportunity for a photo shoot. If you were driving behind me you would have never known that was what I was doing...

Shooting pictures of cows...

great homes out in the countryside (my dream!!)...

the great lake of Lavon...


and the crops of the country side.

And almost made toast of this little hummingbird as we were arriving the great city of Josephine! (not really on the bird toast...just a close up of my rearview mirror ornament)

Just past the city park in Josephine...

we left the old red truck and headed back home.

Nothing better than a drive into the country...LOVE IT!!

A shower for the Birds

PART TWO...the rest of the Cake Ball story

Here they are amongst the rest of the bridal shower ingredients.

The other items I was responsible for at this shower were these cute little decorations of birds.

I discovered the idea for these over at Family Fun.
They did theirs with different colors of paper, since the wedding colors were black and white that is what I went with. The legs were made by bending paperclips into different shapes for legs. My favorite were the solid black birds. The paper had a texture similar to leather.

I glued on some rhinestone eyes and we punched holes in the tops of some to string...

...and hang on this little tree.

I was also responsible for the brides corsage. I whipped up a "flower"made from some of the same paper the birds were made from and also some black and white fabric. Some netting a big black pom pom and a couple of black birds and like magic....a funky corsage!

Cake balls!

If you don't know what Cake Balls are you can find out more about them at this great blog called Bakerella. It's a clever concept...bake a cake, crumble it up, add a container of frosting, roll into balls, dip in chocolate and then any type of edible sprinkle you like.Easy enough? Right? These Cake Balls were for a bridal shower I was helping with and I was making Cake Balls to resemble the bride and groom. The brides turned out great...using a white cake and white frosting, dipped in white almond bark then sprinkled with white iridescent sugar sprinkles. Quite bridal if I may say so myself.

And then came the grooms....oh dear. They just didn't dip and come out correctly.

They came out HORRID!!! After several attempts and it being after midnight, I went to bed with thought of whipping up some cupcakes first thing the next morning...

I was so disappointed! I tossed and turned all night and gave thought to just how to decorate the cupcakes to look like little brides and grooms.

But sometime during this fitful night I came up with the idea of using a paint brush to apply the chocolate turning these little dudes into....

LITTLE ELVIS' or WEREWOLVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then the bow ties and buttons were added and they gradually began to transform into handsome little grooms.

Pairing them up with the brides...

and placing them on a nice serving dish...

brought the whole marital Cake Ball package together.

Stay tune for more ideas that were used at this shower...

Like mother like daughter

Following the footsteps of my daughter (actually I did this first, but didn't complete it until recently) I pulled this chair out of someone's trash and refurbished it. Husband cut a new seat and I touched up the paint with a hit of black spray paint.

Added a healthy dose of batting for padding.

Pulled a scrap of fabric I have had for a while. Switched to a more powerful staple gun (per husband's advice) and went wild with the staples.

This is a simple, simple project and very low cost. You just have to be sure to secure the fabric tightly and you've got it made.

Here's the seat completed. Then commission (although I could have done this) husband to find a long screw to attach the seat to the chair frame.

A new chair for next to nothing!