Canvas Art Class Project

About a month or so ago, I signed up for a class through a local Arts & Crafts Center. The class was on how to make Vintage Canvas Art. This past Monday the class finally happened.

This post is rather picture heavy. :-)

This is our instructor with all of the papers we got to choose from.

The hardest part was picking just seven. I found 12. Yeah....
So, I narrowed it down. The papers on the left were going to be: the top 3 were going to be embellishments; the bottom one was to be the middle. We had to find the 7; place them; and then fold them down around the canvas using Popsicle sticks (or as I called them Tongue Depressors)

As you can probably tell, it changed. Out went the clocks and in came the one on the bottom right. Why? My theme was vintage travel. Clocks fit okay, but not as well as the replacement one. Also, the "baggage" one got top right instead. This is the placement of all of them (minus the middle one) after they were folded down.

Once we had it placed how we wanted it, then came the gluing. We glued (using Modge Podge) from the bottom one going up in layers. The "map" was first; then the top left one. The middle right had to be placed, then I used a pencil mark to mark on the canvas where it was to stop.

All glued minus the top one.

I missed a picture. Sorry.

The middle one ("stamps" from around the world) glued on next.

While the whole thing dried (I glued down the corners which left glue on other bits as well), we chose embellishments. Those embellishments are the balloon (top left); camera (middle left); "Cherish the Moments" (under the camera); and the olden bicycle (bottom right). We used more Mod Podge to glue them down.

Then came the antiquing. Since the instructor didn't have any Antique Mod Podge, I used Distress Ink in Walnut Stain to brown the white bits to "age" the art.

Better, no? If you can't tell the difference, compare the picture above the bike on this picture and the one above the ink. Also, if you look closely, I added something "extra" to the Telegram. Can you guess what?

After the ink dried a bit, we sealed it with a sealer. This time it was Satin finish Mod Podge. I chose that one since I didn't want it shiny...it is vintage after all right?

This is the canvas just a few minutes ago....after 1 1/2 days of drying. I love it! I just gotta find a spot to put it.

Now that the class is over and I've learned how to do this, I have a feeling I'll be doing more of these. They're the perfect "scrapbook page"-type art to show off special occasions or unforgettable events.

Linked Up

My Brush with 112--Part I

While my injury story started on a Saturday morning, the reason why I was where I was happened about a month prior.

Every year, a Bible conference is held at Interlaken in Switzerland. It's not cheap, but from everyone who has went has said that it is worth it. It's a yearly event that occurs not long after July 4th. Hubby was on a 6-month business trip and our pastor's wife convinced me to go. I found a great deal on a room and a friend, that was already going, wanted to tag along with me and pay half the gas. Yeah! Reservation made, room booked, bags packed, a house/dog sitter booked, dog food bags made up, and lists made. Everything was going perfect except for one little detail:
Going from the north-eastern part of Italy where we live to Interlaken meant one of two ways....1) Go through the mountain via a 5 (or 10..don't remember now) mile tunnel OR 2) go over the mountain where you could glance out your passenger window and see straight drops. Oh goody! Sounds like something that would make me either hurl or pass out. Since I hated both ideas, but the thought of plunging to my death (slowly) off a steep mountain was worse, I chose through the looooooong tunnel. Dear Adele (above said pastor's wife) asked to ride along when we got to that point. Yea, a God-fearing lady who has been to the conference for at least the past 9 years chooses the tunnel over the over-pass if she has the option...."Although the tunnel's not ideal." Ummmm....WHAT?!?!

The closer to the day, the more nervous I got. I was so nervous (butterflies and all) the night before that I barely slept...not a good thing given that I was about to embark on a 9 to 10-hour drive....part of the way through a looooong tunnel. Oh! And Interlaken is snug in a mountain valley, so more mountain driving. {See why I was a tad nervous?}

I woke up the morning of July 9th, 2011 with a tummy-full of butterflies and a pit of dread in my gut. I prayed starting almost from the moment I opened my eyes. I got up at 4:30am. I took a shower and finished the last bit of prep. I had packed a suitcase for staying in a dorm-type room....I had enough clothes and toiletries for the week along with dish washing stuff and a few things to keep me entertained during downtimes. I had packed the Jeep the night before and had parked it downstairs in the attached garage (originally built as a ground-floor house with its' own entrance, but work stopped when the son changed his mind....the vehicles are normally parked underneath the bedroom/half-bath/office) so that it was safe as well as enclosed for the last few items. I shut the dogs behind the hallway door that led to the bedrooms and grabbed the first of 2 loads I had left to take. In my arms were: my handbag (that had my phone and a bottle of water for the drive), pillow (I take it with me when I travel as a sense of home), and a bag of recycling that needed to go (as a last prep for the dog/housesitters).

This first pic is looking down the stairs from our "livable floor."

 This pic shows the height of the stairs. Taken from the ground floor looking towards the back. Around the corner is where we can park our vehicles out of the elements.

Now that you know what I was carrying, visualize that......

Arms full.

Italian steps (higher than American ones).

A bottom step that has an extra inch-ish because it doesn't quite touch the concrete floor.

Oh! And slippy sandals. The type that when you take a wrong step, your feet tend to slide in them.

This is not the offending shoe. That one was tossed by a dear friend of mine. Hopefully with Oomph! lol


Now that you know the background, the stage is set for what happened next.

Resolutions for 2012 and 2013

At the end of Summary for December 2012, I mentioned New Year's and how the house got a bit emptier. For the New Years Eve post, I talked about what we did and a few Italian traditions. I still didn't talk about the rest.....emptiness.

Resolutions. They are great....in theory. A lot of times in practice, not so much.


Most of the times those "resolutions" end by the time the Super Bowl kicks off. To change that habit in myself, I altered the name to "Goals" for 2012. I'll post just how I wrote them back on January 1, 2012. They were:

1. Toss at least 1 item per day of excess.

2. De-Clutter!!! & Purge!

3. Have a cleaner, emptier (of junk), & more organized house.

4. Be a healthier & skinnier me.

So......how did I do? Let's see....
1. This got....er,.....altered. About half way through January, I found a post somewhere on Facebook that mentioned they did (in 2010 or 2011)....hard to remember how they explained it, but suffice it to say that I did the same with 2012. My new goal was to get rid of SIX items each day January through June and then FIVE items each day July through December. The total result (the hard to explain part above) was 2, 012 items gotten rid of in the year of 2012. Cool, huh? And............
I succeeded!!! Now, not all of the items are...er, hand-held. Some of those items were electronic. Electronic clutter is still clutter. I was keeping "CDs" on iTunes that I NEVER listened to. Why? Gone! Those must-keep-these-efiles-to-read-sometime-in-the-future? Gone! However, the majority of the items were physical. Toss, donate, sell, shred.....gone. Because I did it over the course of a year, it's hard to tell "yes, it's emptier". But looking at some earlier house pics.....totally can tell. Some though are easy to notice, like the furniture we sold.

2. Obviously did rather well on this one. Is the house completely de-cluttered? Not a chance. At first, finding things to get rid of was really easy....that easy type of clutter always is. You know? The ripped/stained/holey clothes that you should have tossed ages ago. The read-it-one-day stuff you know you're never going to get around to....5 years after you kept it. As time went on, it got a little harder. Fortunately it was something I wanted to do as opposed to something I was forced to do. The more sentimental stuff does get harder....especially for us women. Women tend to be more sentimental/emotional/etc. about items that men are. Not all, just for the most part. Hubby? Rarely sentimental. Me? I can find sentiment in things from paper to fabric from metal to digital. Fortunately I had some "prep work" behind me. A switch had been flipped (literally I think) after reading a book then a blog. Something about it just....clicked. The author is Brooks Palmer. His approach was like the flip of a switch. Want the book? Found here to buy. The blog found here to read.

3. Cleaner? Well, depends on the day. It is emptier thanks to De-Cluttering Fest 2012.

4. Half and half. Skinnier? No. Healthier? Yes. In July, I was bitten by....who-knows-what-kind-of-bug and had an allergic reaction. Me and a guy are the two people on the whole base that had been seen. TWO. Period. Oy! Allergic reactions to three medicines later, I was better, but still trying to figure out why the reaction wasn't gone. Fast forward to August. My base doc had sent me for test upon test upon test to rule out all of the "biggies." One of the things he had me do was get a bone scan. In an upcoming post, I'll tell why the worry, but long story short: nasty break in left leg; surgery to install 2 plates and 16 screws; 1 1/2 years later. Did the infection enter into the bone and/or metal? Only the bone scan would tell. Have you ever had one? No? Well, they inject a radioactive dye into your arm (yeah, radioactive....as in.....glowy bits) to travel throughout your body to take pics (for lack of a better word) to see the inside of the bones.

After going through that, I got to thinking about chemicals. OK.....I had already been thinking it since I had been reading on blog after blog about going greener. And a friend mentioned getting back to the basics (including natural stuff...not a nudist stuff). Soooo the foundation was laid when I had this day-spent-at-the-Pordenone-Hospital. Over the next few months, I changed a LOT about the products I use. The items swapped out:

Dish Soap (no machine dishwasher....only me)
Shampoo (realized my hair does better without conditioner...go figure)
Face Astringent (have you read some of those labels?! Perfume?!?!?! No wonder we break out. Geesh!)
Shower Gel
Clothes Soap
Dryer Stuff (use woolen dryer balls....cheaper and healthier)
Toothpaste
Deodorant
Napkins and Paper Towels (both now linen....haven't bought paper versions in about a year!!!)
Cleaning Supplies
Canned Dog Food (for Belle....Natural or for Seniors {she is 13 after all})

Along with the above, I've also swapped out linen or glass or wood or metal for a lot of plastic items around the house.
Am I where I want to be? No. I have gotten rid of a lot of chemicals and my body is still trying to adjust to the lack of. I started breaking out on my forehead. First time since....teens? A friend whose into natural remedies for ailments said it's my body's way of helping me. One way to get rid of toxins is through the skin (largest organ after all) and that removal can cause an overabundance of oil. There for a while I could cover a tissue twice (or more?) a day in oil from my forehead. It's slowed down recently. Good thing.

For 2013, my goals are:
1. Get rid of 1 item (or group) per day
2. Be healthier and skinnier
3. Finish Bachelor's Degree

What about you? How did you do? What are your goals for this year?


Disclaimer: Nothing I've mentioned have I been paid to promote...I just approve of the products on my own.

What's Not to Like?

I know this post should have be the end of the year post, but I'm putting that off until later.

I read a post from one of the blogs on my list and thought it sounded like an interesting topic. She was talking about foods that others love, but she just can't stand for one reason or another. Sooooo here's my turn at it. :-)

Five foods that I just cannot eat.

1. Cooked Carrots and/or Onions.


Can't do it. For me, it's mainly a texture thing. Carrots should crunch. Onions, well, I can eat them cooked on a pizza or on a burger/wrap. When onions are in a sauce, can't do it. When it's chew, chew, crunch my stomach turns. *shudder

2. Cute Animals


I can't eat a piece of meat knowing that this cute, innocent little animal is behind it. Cows? Ugly. Baby cows (calfs)? Adorable. Sheep? Cute. Deer? Cute and I think of Bambi. Chicken? Ugly and mean.

3. Seafood


A lot of folks, including hubby, would look at the above picture and drool. Me? Not so much. First off, it doesn't help that I'm allergic to the smell as well as the taste of fish...and pretty much the rest too. Fortunately for seafood-loving-hubby I have a strong stomach. He can order/eat his seafood and I eat my chicken or salad. I accidently got a tuna and mayo sandwich (it wasn't labeled and I don't understand a lot of Italian). About half-way through my stomach reminded me of why I don't eat seafood. Period. I kept it down, but just barely. I felt ill for a good hour after. Oh well. such is life.

4. Iced Coffee


On this one, I did try. I love coffee. Italian espresso is my favorite. Some is strong enough to give a nice little jolt to a caffeine-addict like me. So, when a friend handed me her iced coffee to try, I thought Why not? I had to force my throat to swallow. Nope. Coffee has to be hot apparently. When things are outside their norm, apparently my taste buds reject them. Oh well, guess I'll have to drink it the Italian way: Hot and straight.

5. Mushrooms


This one is a mix of three reasons. One, there's no real taste to them....they take on the flavor of whatever you're mixing them with. Two, the texture thing...yeah, no. And the biggie: I know how they're grown. Just like hotdogs and bologna, I can't do it. Knowledge is power, but can also remind you how that item came to be. I won't go into it, but.....No. All I think of when I see a 'shroom isn't the trip the 60s teens took but how they're grown. Hotdogs and flattened hotdogs (or bologna).....same thing. Once I know how it's grown or made, the willingness to eat it goes plunging out the window.

What about you? What are your "EWWWW" foods?

New Year's Eve

At the end of the last post I mentioned this post. When I started typing it, I realized that it was going to be a long one if I crammed both together, so it'll be two posts instead of 1. Since New Year's Eve comes before the 1st of January, that's up first. :-)

If you've followed along, you've gathered somewhere along the way that we currently live in Italy. Italians are rather obsessed fond of fireworks. As is seriously fond of. They tend to go off for random reasons along with holiday ones. If a favored football (that's soccer to Americans) team won a sought after game, fireworks are shot off. Sometimes hubby and I wonder if they even know. ;-)  The typical times are from New Year's Eve pretty much through the night before Epiphany. Epiphany is the 6th of January. The night before is La Befana. I'll get to that when I get caught up with these posts.

Anywho......
Setting off lots of fireworks is a beloved tradition. Last year....er, for the end of 2011, fireworks were set off constantly over the course of 30 minutes....from the stroke of Midnight on. Yeah, they love 'em. This past year, they.......

Wait.....I'm getting ahead of myself. Back up a few hours.

On Sunday (the 30th of December), after church a bunch of us went out for lunch. After it was over, a few of us stayed a bit longer and chatted. Ms. Adele (our lovely pastor's wife...a second mama/my Italian mom) has her birthday on December 31st. One thing she loves is seafood. Well, long story shorter hubby and I made plans to meet up with them around 11 on the 31st to go on a day trip. We did. It was: Pastor Sam, Adele, their grown son, their grandson, hubby, and I. We met and followed them (they knew how to get there, we didn't) to Caorle and then onto Jesolo....both in Italy. Caorle is on the water....the Adriatic and is highly favored by Pastor and Adele for their seafood.

I guess if you want good, fresh seafood, it's better if you go to the sea as opposed to it coming to you. Their son, their grandson, & I ordered other stuff (they got pizza, I got a steak-type dish and salad). The rest got plates of seafood. After a yummy lunch, we walked around the town

and then along the beach for a bit.

It was beautiful and not as cold as I thought it would be given that it was on the water. They too have a leaning tower, but obviously not as famous as another one.

We didn't stay too much longer because we wanted to go to Jesolo.

They have a sand nativity scene set up that was only running for a few more days. We all wanted to go, so off we went.

 

These aren't all the pics or all of the sand sculptures. It was housed in a HUGE tent. There is a group of artists that take mounds of sand and transform it into works of art.

We stopped by a restaurant on the way home to get take away. We chose to take it home and spend the evening alone together. While waiting for our food, we looked up Italian traditions. Interesting. Some are food related, others are....superstitious at best.

One of those is fireworks. Now, back to the beginning where I left off. As stated earlier, at the end of 2011 fireworks were set off constantly over the course of 30 minutes....from the stroke of Midnight on. Yeah, they love 'em. This past year, they didn't let them off continuously as before. But, by the time we heard the last firework go off, it had been well over an hour. Yep, a bit past 1 AM. The best part is that where our house is, we can stand on our outside landing and see fireworks on three sides...the house is blocking the fourth side. The best picture would have been to our left. You can see the church steeple and they were shooting off fireworks that hit just to the left of it. Apparently about a week earlier (maybe for a test run), they were shooting off fireworks and hubby stated they were hitting just over and around the steeple. Either way...a beautiful sight. Ringing in the New Year with my little family of me, hubby, and our dog Belle was perfect for us.