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I've Got a Fever...

I don't need more Cowbell though. I need S-P-R-I-N-G!!! Just in case you are getting as antsy as I am, here are a few photos I took out in my mom's garden a few summers ago to help tide you over. 

I HAVE A DREAM

I have a dream that one day our nation will rise up – Oh Wait – wrong train of thought. Let’s try that again.

I have a dream that involves an old weathered barn, a handful of chickens, honey bees, a deep pocket of trees and songbirds and a pint-sized lake fed by a quaint stream. I can’t yet plot this dream on a map so for now it continues to live in a Brain File I have labeled DREAMS. I can’t really remember when this Dream started but I can guarantee it’s not going anywhere soon. Every day I just keep adding to it – furniture, neighbors, fireplaces, what the Seasons will be like.

I have organized this Dream so well in my Brain File that sometimes it feels so REAL. I can hear the birds chirping and flitting through the azure blue sky, the gently flapping board that is loose on the side of the barn (it has a mind of its own, no matter what we do it just comes loose again!)…I can smell the wonderfully robust coffee, that I have just roasted the day before, dripping into its pot, paired with the cinnamon scones that have just come out of the oven. I can feel the sun on my face as I sit cozied up in a locally hand-crafted Adirondack chair while I stare out at the acre’s worth of garden which sits next to my little chicken coop with my four chickens (who run freely during the day, of course) – all of which produce different colored eggs – green, pink, brown and white! The cutest, quaintest little town sits just 5 miles from our home (which will have a name, you know, like after the family that owned the land for 250 years before we bought it). Here in this town, I will have a simple little shop selling an assortment of things and down on the end of the main street, my husband will have his brewery that he dreams of. His Brain File of wishes is labeled BEER rather than DREAMS… His brewery will be the town hub where everyone comes to meet and be neighborly.

I could go on and on as I do in my head daily – if you look at me and I am spacing off, 9 times out of 10 I am in my Brain File accessing this place. It may never come to fruition but what do you have if not dreams to look forward to?

WHAT DOES YOUR DREAM FILE LOOK LIKE?

Cork Board Beautification

Cork boards are boring looking so I decided to spruce one up for office/craft/design/fun room. And while I was at it, I figured why not a white board as well? I started with the white board (sometimes known as a dry erase board too) first. The one that I bought is neat in that it has a cork strip around the border so I decided to cover it in ribbon.

White Board - before

I had to make sure that my ribbon was wide enough so that I could glue it to the wood on either side of the cork strip in order for the cork strip to be functional.

I warmed up my hot glue gun and cut the pieces of ribbon for each side of the board. After a bit of trial-and-error, I found that the best way to apply the glue and ribbon was to start in the middle of the board and apply the hot glue in small sections and immediately place the ribbon over it. * The reason I found starting in the middle rather than on the end was that I had more control of keeping the ribbon in a straight line * Remember that hot glue is HOT and dries FAST! 

About 30 minutes later and VOILA!

Now on to the cork board! This was a bit more labor intensive but not too bad. 

Cork Board - before

Cork boards aren't the most stylish thing around so I decided to cover one with fabric and ribbon. First you need to measure your board to make sure that you buy enough fabric. Mine was big enough that I needed a whole yard so I happily skipped on over to Fancy Tiger Crafts to pick out something fantastic. And what I found was way more than fantastic - I found Amazingly-Fantastically-AWESOME. As soon as I saw it, it just sang out to me - Far Far Away 3 by Heather Ross. So much much whimsy, so much class.  I hugged the bolt and did a little jig all the way to the cutting counter (this may or may not be an exaggerated story...)

Next I rummaged through my husband's tool box for the staple gun and last but not least, pulled out my trusty tacky glue and I was off to the races! I laid it out on the floor so that I could make sure I had enough overlap on the back to staple, glue and just give it overall sturdiness and durability. I pulled in my first corner and stapled my fabric onto the back of the board. 

Yellow nail polish not required but certainly a lot of fun

I stapled down the rest of the side of the board and then glued the excess fabric down. I did this because once you start using your board and sticking pins into the fabric, it's going to give it a lot of wear and loosen the fabric. By gluing it down, it helps to make the fabric that much more taut and supported.

Repeat the staple-and-glue process for the opposite side of the board - I did the two longest edges first. Then at the two shortest sides, I did a half-fold sort of thing (so that I wouldn't have weird fabric corners on my finished project) and stapled my corners and glued the excess fabric down.

Here's what the back of the board looked like when I was done:

Now flip it over and cut your ribbon pieces - 1 for each side. Remember to cut the ribbon long enough to have excess to glue to the back. 

Apply glue the whole length of the ribbon and holding the ribbon taut, hover over where you want to place the ribbon and place it on the fabric all at once. You should have a nice perfect line of ribbon. Now smooth your ribbon down to ensure that the fabric, glue and ribbon are all stuck together in crafty harmony. 

And VOILA! A Beautiful New Cork Board!

PS - the Fireplace Project was postponed...I haven't yet found the tile that I am looking for

Winter Beauty

There is just something that I absolutely love about icicles and we have had some amazing ones here in Denver the past few weeks. Here are some that I snagged a picture of a few days ago.

ReBeelution's New Home!

Welcome to my new home! This hosting site will allow me to do a lot more cool things and hopefully connect with more people more easily  - over all, it's just more awesome! I have a few fun things cooking over this long weekend so check back soon!

* I will keep rebeelution.tumblr.com open but I transferred most of my posts over

Frozen Inspiration

Nothing gets me more inspired and the creative juices flowing than cold and snowy weather. I don’t know if it’s Cabin Fever and being stuck inside staring at the same things. Or maybe it’s the thought of the first day of Spring rolling around and me throwing open the windows and doors to the Daffodils and Robins to reveal a Fresh and Sparkling House full of Upgrades. (It’s probably the latter – I like to daydream in movie-like sequences…)

A Sunday morning trip to IKEA with a great girlfriend also does wonders for Inspiration. There is nothing like wandering a huge cement warehouse full of Swedish goods and that eureka moment of: “Oh YES! This is exactly what I have been looking for!!!!” Even if ‘this’ is a 39 cent spatula or a 4-pack of frames.

My creative juices come from many different places and I keep what I call a ‘House Look Book’ of some of these little inspirations. I cut pictures from magazines or catalogues and put in little notes of websites or colors or whatever else is worthy of taking the time to actually write down. My 2 particular favorites are the Pottery Barn catalogues for their light fixtures (I have 3 that I have vowed to replace by year end) and Better Homes and Gardens for everything really but especially fireplaces and garden ideas.

Speaking of fireplaces, I don’t like mine. I am so grateful to have one, don’t get me wrong but it is just ugly. Poor thing has gold grates - it’s electric so it has a front panel-grate thing on it - and tile around it that looks like it belongs on the bathroom floor. But what else can you expect from a house built in the mid-90s? (Bathrooms with…gasp…carpet! and a fireplace with tile that should have been placed in the bathroom and lots of shiny gold Liberace-esque fixtures…that’s what you can expect).

I keep staring at my calendar longingly because I have a 4-day weekend coming up over President’s Day and guess what I will be doing? Attacking my Fireplace Project and making it GORGEOUS! I have been itching to rip off the bathroom tile for so long now that I daydream about it at work. This weekend I am going to pick out my supplies and then countdown until next weekend. I can’t wait until it’s done and I can just sit back, build a fire (I mean flip the switch...) and enjoy my handiwork! I will document my process so stay tuned – it should be fun.

What makes you itch during the Winter? Do you have any projects that you just can’t wait to get done?