Mermaids of the Lake Blog

Fun list-planner idea

By Mermaid Shelley

I am list maker. Yep, lists here and there, everywhere. It feels good at the end of the work day or the end of a shopping trip to look at a list with everything checked off. Often I have multiple lists going at once. So, when Stacy Julian of Big Picture Scrapbooking shared her Fun Holiday List-Planner Book with Mermaids I was all over it!

Here is my every-day life (aka non-holiday) version of this fun idea:

I dug through my pile of papers, cards and miscellaneous scraps of things to be re-purposed. If found several earthy items that seemed to go together.

I made several heavy stock pages of different sized and colors. I made sure they were sturdy enough to clip things to, such as post cards, fliers and such. I included a couple of envelopes, too. In these I keep business cards, receipts and little things that might get lost.

I attached two of those handy post-it note pads I love so much. And, to remind me of what is most important in my life, I included a couple of pictures of my kids (Aren't they beautiful?!).

I used heavy ribbon to bring it all together. I will probably switch the ribbon out for binder rings. But, I love the look of the ribbon, so I'll tie the ribbon to the rings.

This little creation has been so fun! I carry it to work and shopping. When I get home, I keep it out and ready to add things to and to keep on my many lists. It's a fun way to keep organized! Check out Stacy's article for details on how to make your own list-planner book: Fun Holiday List-Planner Book.

Our Mermaids of the Lake holiday issue is here! We have been working hard, adding lots of helpful holiday content. Please visit our homepage and consider signing up for our free newsletter! We send it out to update you on new stories, helpful tips, fabulous recipes, and more!

 
 
 

Just peachy!

By Mermaid Jennifer

We all have seasons of productivity. For many of us, summer is not our most productive time unless you count the number of times you lay your beach towel in the sand. For me, fall is a highly productive time. Sometimes fall is a bit overwhelming with new schedules and invitations to more events.

But once the weather starts to cool off, and you hit your stride in fall, you might find that it is the most productive of seasons.

For many of the last weeks of summer, I was embarrassed at my laziness! Sure, I ramped up my reading, and relaxing (not a bad way to spend August); but I also developed some sedentary habits. 

This month, I aim to enjoy the lazy things that I love, like sitting in my favorite wing chair and reading a book. But with harvest season, it is also a time to prepare for winter.

Preparing a freezing food is a productive way to prepare for cold nights and dark mornings. It is always a wonderful feeling to open up a jar of home canned applesauce on a frosty winter morning.

We have several fruit trees in our yard. This weekend, with about 80 fresh peaches on our backyard tree, my husband determined that we ought to do something with them. So out of necessity more than desire, I put together about 8 quarts of peach preserves freezer jam. (We had enough peaches this year to also can quarts and quarts of slice peaches; which will have to wait until next weekend.)

It was a several hour process blanching, peeling, and chopping the peaches. Once the freezer jam was done, I realized that there were still about 7 cups of chopped peaches on the cutting board. With a sigh, realizing that I'd need to go grocery shopping to pick up pie crust and other pie fixings, I grabbed my purse and off to the store I went.

Another two hours later, the pie was made, the peaches were made into jam, and the kitchen finally cleaned up. Not bad for a Sunday afternoon. I look forward to enjoying the pie at Sunday dinner tonight, and the chunky jam spread on toast on a cold winter day.

Although today was a little tiring, producing food for my family and getting things done was just peachy! I look forward to making applesauce in coming weeks. If you like canning, learn more about it with Mermaid Shelley's article, "Make it: Home canned."

To make this pie, click here for the recipe on Mermaids of the Lake e-zine.

Pretty Matchboxes tutorial

By Mermaid Debbie

I love to light a candle before I create, and it is nice to have the matches out on my desk-top, looking pretty!

Really simple... cover regular old match boxes with your favorite decorative papers. It's a great way to use up scraps.

This makes a beautiful gift when added to a lovely scented candle. Whip up a bunch for yourself and some for your Christmas gifts!

You will need: matchboxes, scissors, glue stick or photo sticker squares, pretty decorative paper

Step one: trace matchbox, twice (one for each side)

Step two: cut out and apply glue or photo sticker squares and afix to your matchbox

 

Ta da!!!

The large-sized matchboxes look great too!

Happy Creating!

Note: the amazing candle burning on my desk is a Cucumber Wasabi scented soy candle by Dandles Candles. I wish you could smell this. I highly recommend these beautiful candles to fill your home with luscious, creativity-inspiring scents!

Project Friday!

By Mermaid Debbie

Don't you just love it when you really accomplish a lot? I do! I love to get household projects done that have been looming over me, and I also love to start and finish creative projects, as well. The last two weeks have been very productive for me and I plan to keep on going so that I can spend lots of time floating and splashing in the water this summer!

Here are a few of my best projects from the last two weeks:

Laundry room re-do.

I painted, cleaned and reorganized it. I have a tiny laundry room and it was full, messy and had ugly, dirty white walls. I had to remove everything, but the washer and dryer. I moved them out from the wall and crammed myself into a position I didn't know I could do to paint behind and around them.

I had already moved some things out when I took this picture, so it looks better than it actually did!

Before

 

View from my kitchen. The contents of the laundry room filled my kitchen counters and this hallway. Messy, messy!

 

The washer/dryer before

 

Washer/dryer after

 

Mid-way - it took a coat of primer and the final yellow to cover

 

Ta Da!!!

 

I moved this vintage wardrobe in to hold my all of my table cloths, including my collection of vintage ones. It is a tiny space, but nice and tidy and organized now

I also hung a couple of vintage prints on the wall

 

 

Margarita Glasses

My sons's girlfriend ordered this set of margarita glasses from me to give to her mom for her birthday. Now I will have to make myself a set!

 

 

Our Farm Chicks Blogger Badge

I finally finished one of our three badges to wear to The Farm Chicks show this year. If you plan to go and want to learn more about making your own badge... visit Kim, at Camp Whimsy for more information

 

Getting ready for The Farm Chicks show

We are lucky enough to live in the same area as the beautiful, talented, sweet and kind... Teri and Serena, The Farm Chicks! We love to be a part of the thousands of excited women perusing aisle after aisle of the fabulous vendors who have booths at their show.

This year we will be wearing our blog badges; an idea ispired by Kim at Camp Whimsy, Laurie, at Magpie Ethel, and me... Mermaid Debbie. We were visiting about the show and hoping to be able to meet each other. We decided that making something that we all wear to represent our blog or website would be fun, and make us recognizable to each other.

If you plan to attend The Farm Chicks annual sale this year and would like to participate, please visit Kim at Camp Whimsy and register your badge.

We have posted an invitation to The Farm Chicks on our website/magazine for more information on the show.

The Mermaids hope to see you there!

Project Friday and Pink Saturday

By Mermaid Debbie

Welcome to our Project Friday and Pink Saturday post for the week. We have been very busy Mermaids; preparing for our upcoming Big Girl Birthday! Yes, Mermaids of the Lake will turn one on May 1st!!! We are planning lots of fun things for our Birthday Issue of Mermaids of the Lake, our online women's magazine/website, including a big giveaway! Check back for details.

This week's Project Friday and Pink Saturday is a photo of a project that took me two months to complete. I worked on it almost daily for an hour or so, trying to fit it in to an already crowded schedule. I love recycling and repurposing!!! I figure this is a recycled-repurposed-altered art piece! 

 

My inspiration? I was about to throw out this XOXO purse because it's solid white exterior was soiled and the handles were showing signs of wear. The rest of the purse was in perfect condition and I thought, "Why not make it bright and cheerful and new?"

I applied a couple of coats of Gesso, a white primer. I was careful to cover every inch, including the little straps and around each rivet and buckle. Once that was done, my handbag/canvas was ready for the fun!

I used an  Extra-fine point black Sharpie to draw my design, and filled in the color with a combination of acryllic paint and sometimes my glass paint for more punch! The glass paints are vibrant and sheer. I was excited to see that they could be applied to something other than glass or porcelain. When all of the color was applied (2 months later) I carefully painted 3 coats of clear gloss varnish over every square inch. Finally, I cut off the worn out handles and replaced them with some bamboo handles from Michael's. I attached them using orange ribbon.

Back

Don't forget the bottom

 

And the pockets - see the pink?

 

Please check out the other Project Friday participants at Sugarplum Cottage. Rosemarie is our gracious host.

Also, head over and visit Beverly, at How Sweet the Sound for the list of the other Pink Saturday participants.

Project Friday and Pink Saturday

Hi Friends. Today we are combining Project Friday and Pink Saturday.

Please visit Rosemarie, at Sugarplum Cottage for the list of Project Friday's participants. It is really fun. You may even want to join in and get inspired to get creative!

On Saturday, please visit Beverly, at How Sweet the Sound for the long,  fun list of pink participants.

This project is another Birthday gift for a dear friend, Sheri. Stephanie, Susan, and Sheri are three very special friends to me. Now I have made each of them a Believe necklace. I grew up with these gals and we have years and years of memories. They lost their dear, beautiful, fun and much loved mom, Dolores to Breast Cancer. They have formed a large group of friends and family and we all will participate in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure event this weekend. We will all gather the night before the race for a grand Party in Pink! The name of the team is Believe. We "Believe" there will be a cure. We "Believe" in love and friendship transcending time and space. We "Believe" that Dolores will be there with us, cheering us on and joining in on the fun.

I took these supplies

 

And made this!

 

And this

 

And this

 

Please check back soon for an easy tutorial on making the necklace. Have a wonderful day everyone. Be inspired!

A Sewing Tradition - Shelley's Memories

The other day, while digging for something in my garage, I came upon my suitcase full of patterns. It brought back all sorts of memories.

At one time I had so many patterns I had to store them in a file cabinet. Over the years, I gave a bunch away or donated them to charitable organizations. I did keep some of my favorites: old patterns of my mom's, my first attempts at dresses and pant suits from my school days, office attire, and a few precious things I made for my own daughter. The memories of grandma and mom sewing, the stories they shared about my great grandmother's talent, and of my own creations stirred me to write a story for Mermaids, A Sewing Tradition. I hope you enjoy my trip down memory lane.

Mermaid Debbie's wonderful morning

Today is a good day. It is Saturday. Saturday has so much potential! This Saturday has been especially great so far.

I wake up early during the week, usually long before the rest of my family is up and moving. After several months of getting up between 3:00 and 4:00 am to work in my art studio, I finding that I am a bit tired. Last night I announced to my family that I was so excited because I planned to sleep in... until my body said it was ready to wake up. Well, it was ready at 6:30 this morning. And, I guess that compared to 3:00, 6:30 is sleeping in!

I popped out of bed (maybe "popped" is a wee exaggeration, as my back and legs were stiff), thrilled at the thought of Saturday. I do love mornings, especially Saturday ones; a fresh start, a new day, a new beginning. My kitty, Janie and dog, Willie, popped up with me and raced me down the steps. My routine is to feed Janie(it makes her deliriously happy), make a big pot of coffee, put a load of laundry in, let Willie out to potty, let Willie back in, give him a treat, food, water. When all of that is done the coffee is ready to pour into my favorite extra big cup with a generous pour of cream. The scent of coffee is a great reason to pop out of bed in the morning. Then it is off to my art studio to create.

Create... what a beautiful word. Inspire... I love that one too! Dream, Wish, Pray, Abundance, Success, Art... I love all of these words.

I always begin my creating with a prayer to God, thanking him and asking him to send angels to inspire me. I light a pretty-scented candle and begin. Today I worked on a gift that I have been making for Mermaid Shelley. It was going to be part of her Christmas gift, but picky that I am, I just keep adding more to it. I haven't told her about it, so I can't say what it is, or show a photo, but I will when I am done with it.

After spending an hour or so on Shelley's gift, I moved on to an altered art project that I have been working on for months. It is an altered book that is a scrap book of some of my memories. Fun. Some day I will do a tutorial on Altered Art Scrap Books.

 
Next I worked on free-handing a template of a craft tutorial that I found on a blog. ( I will take photos and tell you where to find it when it is completed) I am planning on creating several of these for my fellow Mermaids for their Valentine's Day gifts. My daughter and I will do this project later today. She loves spending time with me in my "Art Room."

Now, making art in the early morning hours, with my coffee, kitty and puppy is what I do every morning. But, making art in the early morning hours, with my coffee, kitty and puppy as long as I want to, in my red-flannel jammies... that is a dream Saturday.

 
Janie joined me and spent some time in the open drawer of my craft paper. She loves drawers. One day I came home and heard this faint meow, which was troubling, as she usually bounds loudly down the steps and plops on her back at my feet for a belly rub when I come in the door. I called and called and she faintly answered. Eventually I found her in the kitchen towel drawer. I make sure that I shut all drawers now, as she is not a small kitty and it was not fun getting her out.

My family woke up happy too because it is Saturday. My husband and daughter made pancakes on the griddle pan that we bought my husband for Christmas. (he loved it, and that is saying something because he is hard to buy for) I am allergic to egg whites. ( I know... strange, but I am and it sucks) I usually don't get to eat things like pancakes, cookies, cakes, and more. Well, my husband and daughter offered to meticulously clean the whites off of the egg and make pancakes that I could eat. Oh, happy pancake, egg-white-free, creative Saturday! I ate mine with peanut butter, pure maple syrup and a glass of ice cold milk! Yum!