Tribute Ornaments

This year has been pretty rough for me and my extended family. Two deaths in the family will do that to you.

I was inspired to make these when my husband's grandfather passed over a year ago, but I was unable to gather the flowers. I still regret this. The idea back then was to pour wax around the preserved flowers and have a candle for each of the family members.

When my best friend's mother-in-law passed in May, I knew that I had to do something to help them through this tough time. Christmas was her favorite holiday. In fact, she had news articles about her and her Christmas extravaganza. This Christmas was going to be a difficult one, not having Mom there.

Grand-dad passing was not a complete surprise, as he was 88, but it doesn't make the pain any less. The loss of a parent, brother, grandparent, well... it just hurts. Regardless if they're sick for years up until they pass or if it was out of the blue, it's still a hole that can't ever be filled.


This how-to is a tribute to both of these completely and utterly spectacular people. They will be missed for as long as we all have breath in our lungs.





To make the ornaments you will need:
Flowers: the flowers came from the sprays from the kids
Silica:

Clear balls:

Modge Podge:

Paint brushes, glitter, ribbon, Epson salt, ink pad, monogram stickers

Tribute Ornaments

Two weeks prior to assembly, gather the flowers and use the silica product according to manufacturer's directions. Once the flowers have dried, sift the petals from the silica. 

 

I start off with wiping down the globes with alcohol to remove oils and dirt. Then I stuff the globes with all the items that I want to include for the tribute. For example, gold threads for the ties that bind, pink ribbon for breast cancer research, the ribbons from the casket piece or the flower spray, the Bible verse from the eulogy, etc. I also poured some of the silica into one batch of globes and Epsom salt into the other. This will help make sure that the contents stay dry.

For the Bible verse, I printed it onto parchment paper, tore the verses into strips, and stained the edges with an ink pad to age it.



This is the most personal craft I have ever worked on. I cannot say that I have ever found any craft that has blessed me in such a way.

Seeing Spots

This is my bestie's classroom. When she asked me to sew the curtains, I have to say the trepidation was high because now something I made was now going to be seen by LOTS of people. I had made rag quilts before, but those don't require any real technical skill. I don't mean any insult by that. I truly admire those that make the extravagant ones with the ability to be envied. I used to watch my mom piece quilts and get so frustrated when the points didn't match up and I know now why she sounded like Yosemite Sam while holding pins in her teeth.

The trip to pick out the curtains took more strategy and logistics than a precision strike in the Middle East. My best friend is my opposite in a lot of ways; she is very structured. She is very organized. She is very matchy/matchy. I am artistic, freestyle, not one to follow convention very closely. I envy her in many ways. That's why we're best friends. There weren't enough chevron colors to go across the cabinets. They were either different sizes, different fabric, different base color, just wrong. We could only come up with three viable bolts to use and they were all too feminine. We needed four. So I came up with the idea of coordinating the base colors and mixing in a new pattern. If we didn't keep it to the same sizes, it would be overwhelming. You would be surprised that Hobby Lobby is limited with the types of polka dot prints they carry. The orange and green polkas fit in perfectly, in my humble opinion.

The dimensions for the cabinet tops were 21x60 for each of the three sections. Since she wanted a gather on the curtains, I cut each of the curtains to 67.5" (60"*3=180 180*.5=90 90+180=270 270/4=67.5)

In regards to construction, it was beyond easy! I sewed a 1/4" hem on both sides. The panel has to hang 21", but it has to have a pocket for the rod and a hem. I folded 2.5" down with a 1/2 seam allowance, repeating at the bottom, but 2" and 1/2 seam allowance (24.5" cut). I used contrasting thread for each hem and for the bottom, I used a decorative scallop stitch.

I have to say, this was probably the easiest project ever!

Also in this photo are the letters I painted for her.  The letters come from Hobby Lobby, and the circles are hand painted. Then I painted the edges blue and purple. These were my favorite.

 Here are the ones in the photo:

These are ones she sold to another teacher:

Free Sewing Patterns

I am all about free. I love About.com. This website has gone through all the trouble of sorting these projects by difficulty even! A lot of Pinterest links back to this site, and this is no exception.

I am a beginner-intermediate sewer and I don't have a lot of room nor money to store all the stuff that it takes to be a serious sewer. But I have time and fabric occasionally and even better, I have a specific project in mind. When I do, I don't want to flip through packets of patterns like we did when I was little and Mom took us to TG&Y, although I did love looking through the catalogs. Oh and spinning on the stools! I can hear her talking through her teeth at us to behave, "MeliGiRhoDa...whichever you are! Would you stoppit?!" Being the youngest of four girls had its disadvantages at times, and when you're getting scolded was one of them. It turned into roll-call. I digress.

My bestie asked me to sew her some curtains for her classroom. The conversation when like this:
K- Can you make curtains for my classroom or do you want me to ask __________ again? Wanted to ask you first.
Me- I can. Buy the fabric.
K- About to. But it's chevron...lmbo


I give her a hard time about her chevron addiction. It has passed obsession a few months ago. She has DT's without those zig zags. It might be because the perfect lines set well with her OCD. I digressed again.


Meanwhile, back at the ranch. My bestie needed curtains so I went a-lookin' for a free pattern. I stumbled upon this site and then clicked and clicked some more and voila! This link! Free Sewing Patterns sorted by difficulty for your browsing pleasure. I suggest bookmarking it.

Snippets

Recently, my daughter had a tonsillectomy. Therefore, I had to have copious amounts of Jello on hand, and with my fridge, there was no room for several bowls of Jello. I had a Newton moment and started dragging out my fruit jars. These bad boys can hang out in the door and take up no room at all and my girl can get her Jello fix all day long.

Jello in Mason jars.

It's slightly a misnomer. I didn't mix the Jello in the jar. I didn't take photo's of working on it. Yeah, I know. But I promise I can talk you through how to do it without photos.

You will need:
A bowl with a pour spout (Pampered Chef has a fabulous one! Can't live without mine.)
Metal 1 cup measuring cup (seems redundant to me)
Spoon
Pitcher of Iced water (as many cups of water as you have packets of Jello)
Pot of boiling water (as many cups of water, hey this sounds familiar.)
Mason jars
Jello

Okay, this is the only part that is specific. The small boxes of Jello will fill the pint jars and the large boxes the quart jars.

I lined up the clean jars on the counter and then opened my boxes of Jello. I dipped out one cup (the large package calls for 2 c of water for each temperature) of hot water and poured it into my bowl, and then dissolved the Jello into the hot water. Make sure you don't slack on this step or you will get some tough Jello. Then pour in one cup of cold water and stir for a minute or so. When it is completely combined, pour this into the jar. If you're changing flavors, rinse the bowl between flavors and repeat until you've made as many boxes as you need. Allow them to cool completely before putting a lid on them. You aren't wanting to seal them, after all. :0)

Here's some Jello recipes just for fun!

Something New I Learned

Okay, I have to admit, I haven't been on here in a loooong time. Four months to be precise. Holidays, church, family, and work have all been in between me and this blog. I have been posting on the My Faith, Not Religion blog pretty regularly, but I digress.

I, like just about everyone else, have been obsessed with how to make my house smell better. I've done the home-made potpourri boils, warmed by fairy lights, you name it, but I have found the stuff that makes the whole house smell wonderful without worry and without mess is Scentsy.

I know. Something else I have to buy and go to a party and high sales pressure and every other excuse I have used. But I knuckled-in and went to a party. I got a beautiful table top warmer that I now had to find smells for it. That's actually the fun part of the party! Some of those packets are obnoxious and darn right stink!

 

This one is Faith Premium Warmer. I love it for all the obvious reasons. If something doesn't have at least a dual function, it has no room in my home! This is beautiful and the smell permeates throughout without being overbearing.

I bought this one for my husband:

I have a plug-in that works the same way as the table-top versions. I didn't take a pic of it, but here's a shot of one similar from their web site. The one I have has been discontinued. 

I am going to be getting this one really soon:

The smells are as diverse as those wanting the scents. I currently have:

I also have one that smells like coffee, eucalyptus, and one with cucumber. I have added the eucalyptus to the lemon one and it was awesome. It was pretty good in the cucumber one, too.  These were available for a limited time, but have been replaced by some new ones I have to try!

And if you want to change the scent in the well, wait until it's hardened and you can pry the wax right out. I put it into a ziplock bag and it is there to use when I want to change back. 

Visit the Scentsy website yourself and see the wonderful variety. I am not a consultant and am not promoting anyone, but you can get onto this site and they can put you in touch with a consultant in your area.

I will be getting in touch with mine so I can get some of the stuff I saw on the website while researching this blog.