Queen Mother Blog

I stumbled upon this really great tutorial for how to recycle old magazines into homemade gift bows. This was perfect for me, because I had signed up for a free subscription to Elle Decor without realizing just how awful the magazine really is. I am not in the billionaire-NYC-decorator market, I guess. I even tried canceling the free subscription, because the heavy mag just lands right in the recycle pile, but no one really wants to take responsibility for the free subscription.

But this is a really cool use for recycling those pretty ads into something I can actually use for the holidays. So the ones in my picture look a little challenged, but I'm getting better. It's late! The big black one on the bottom was a Rolex ad, lol.


I just love wrapping gifts, so I have a feeling I'm going to be making a bunch of these for Christmas. Oh and they only cost about a penny for the paper fastener! A penny definitely works for me. Check out Works for Me Wednesday at Rocks in My Dryer!

I can't say hooray enough! For quite a long time, I have been working on the above cross stitch. When my sister found out she was having a boy, I knew the name Noah was a top contender for the baby. I wanted to make something for him, and since I like cross-stitch, I researched options. Most patterns were too cartoony, pastel or just not my style. When I found this pattern ("Promises Kept" by Dimensions) I knew that it was perfect. What I didn't take into consideration was that it was way beyond my skill level at the time. I tried my best to have it done by the shower, and then by the time he was born, and then...FLASH FORWARD, he is now three!!! THREE!!

And yes, this is somewhat embarrassing! But last week while I was doing the "Making your home a haven" challenge, I knew that I wanted to work on this project until it was completed. I broke down the remaining pieces into little "doable" chunks, like 'complete eyes on outer left animals', etc. (The eyes, or the french knots, are what was out of my skill level. Stitching is stitching, but I can't do those knots for the life of me. I ended up substituting knots with small stitches for the eyes).

So now, it is done!!! I pressed it and found a framer nearby who will have it ready for me to present to the family on Thanksgiving. (Note to family, don't tell Jess! She doesn't read my blog anyway, lol)

So if my blogging fell by the wayside for a few days, now you know why!

And for my friend Yukline, here is a close-up of the berries on the tree that I was working on when we went to Las Vegas...2 years ago! ;)