Silver Spoons and Tins Chimes

I've had some tart and jello antique tins floating around my craft cabinet(s) for a while now and I only just decided what to do with them. My antique silver plated utensils are wearing away and I wanted to do something special with them as well. So, I envisioned these chimes!!

 Even Buddy and Chloe are a fan. 

It wasn't too much work. 

With the smallest drill bit I had, I made holes in each of the spoons handles (close to the ends) and around the bigger tin that they would go on. I also put two holes in the middle of the big tin. 

 I used earring hooks through each of the holes (around the edges and in the middle, then twisted the extra metal around itself to secure it.

 To attach the spoons to the secured earring hooks, I used o-rings like this:

Then I put a hole in the vintage jello tin, put the top of the earring hook through the hole and twisted the base so that I could attach a vintage fake pearl necklace from the jello tin to the tart tin (attaching it with the o-rings). 

At the top of the jello tin, I just took a bit of wire, went through the earring hole, and twisted it into a loop so that I could place the chimes anywhere I would like!!!

As an afterthought, I found a bit of curliqued metal from an old pair of earrings and added that to the middle of the tart tin, to give it a little extra va-voom. 

I shared this post at the following funky linky parties:

A Marvelous Mess Link Party!!!!!

Hey, thanks for joining up to the Paaaaar-tay this weekend!!!

Don't forget, as I mentioned last week.....
Missing People's International Missing Children's Day is May 25th and they really need us all to participate in their BIG TWEET. Let's use social media and help them out!!!!


Here is my fave from last week:


The Strawberry Cheesecake Streusel Muffins from Turtles and Tails.
Those look so delicious. And, what a great photo!!!

Now, on the party!!!!

Metal Stamping Spoons

Don't forget to link up to my current party and also see if you can help FIND MADELEINE!!!!!!

I've finally gotten a chance to try some metal stamping and I can tell you.... I love it. I totally chose the wrong size on the stamp set: 1/16" (1.5mm) is a little small to make much of a show on silverware. So, I've got to step it up next time. I guess that means I have to do some shopping.........aw, too bad. ;-) 

Here's how I did it:

My set of silver plated utensils have reached the end of their use. 

At the table, that is. 

They've got plenty of *other* uses I can put them to!!!!!
These are the tools you'll need:
Stamp Set
Pliers
Steel Wool (or Sandpaper)
Hammer
Permanent Marker
Silverware
Rag

You should probably have an awl, some heavy and iron to pound your utensils flat on.....I didn't have that. I used a junky, heavy duty, all-purpose table. 

Wrap your utensil in the rag and start flattening it out:

Then, get a general idea of where you want your letters to go (I just free-handed it), hold the stamp tightly to the spot, and pound it (I found about 5 good, strong taps did the trick). 

Then, cover the stamped area with black permanent marker:

And, scratch away the marker with the steel wool, leaving some within the stamped letters, giving it some nice depth. 

If you want to make your fork curly, you can use the pliers to slowly curl the fork (once it has been flattened)  tines into shape. Your gonna need some muscles for this part. :-) 

I think it turns out pretty cool. 

You can see how teeny those letters are, though, can't you? I totally need to buy a new set. 

I shared this post at the following fun linky parties:

Petals to Picots

Funky Junk Interiors

Blogging For Madeline and A Marvelous Mess!!!!! #blogging4madeleine

I am joining up with a British Campaign to help find Madeleine McCann, who was taken from her parents apartment in Praia Da Luz, Portugal, when she was three years old. This year is her 10th birthday and the picture above is an approximation of what she could look like. For more information about Madeleine, you can go to Madeline's website here: http://www.findmadeleine.com/

If you have any information about her please be sure to immediately contact your local police station and the Madeline investigation hotline: 44 845 838 4699 or email investigation@findmadeleine.com 

If you would like to blog for Madeline as well, all you need to do it include the hashtag #blogging4madeleine when you share it on twitter or other social media. Also, be sure to take part in the Missing People's International Missing Children Day on May 25th and take part in their Big Tweet. We bloggers can really make a difference in helping spread the word and get those ears to the ground.....let's use our blogs to help!!!!!

I like to mention in this post that if you're from Maine and you're interested in trying a new brew..... AND supporting a local organic farm, then go to Frontier in Brunswick this Wednesday the 15th at 7pm and get a taste of Ox Bow Brewing Company's new beer called Loretta, made with spelt from the Webb Family Farm in Pittston. There will be some awesome music playing as well: Dark Hollow Bottling Company!!! Tickets are $10 and totally worth it. By the by, that is a picture above taken by me of spelt, before it has been milled. 

My favorite from last weeks party was (hands down) this one:

Moss Necklace from HGK. I'm pretty partial to that necklace, it's just beautiful. 

Now, on to the party:

Real Estate Sites

I have certainly done my fair share of searching Real Estate websites. Ten years ago I would have been searching for apartments and then as time passed I started looking for houses. How a company displays itself professionally online can say a lot about how updated they are as a business and what they can offer you for options.

In thinking about this post, I did a quick search for "Maine Real Estate" on google, to see if I would come up with any local Agents sites that had gotten a lot of traffic. The closest one I could find was Legacy Properties, which is Sotheby's International properties..... and definitely not local. So, Maine agents are a little slow on the whole website-for-your-business end of things. 

When doing a search for Calgary Real Estate, I had a ton of options come up. Loads of Realtors with loads of websites for me to explore. The reason for writing this article is to do a review of one of the sites in particular, the Cliff Stevenson Group. I found his site near the top of the 3rd page in on google. Not too bad, considering the competition!!! I did a lot of pawing around on his site and truly found myself pretty impressed. Maybe I'm just some silly naive Mainer who doesn't have lots of Realtors filling up my local google search, but I though Cliff's page was quite well done. 

I liked how integrated the site is into modern technology and social media. On the upper right corner is all the info you need to contact the groups, including all the social media buttons you could ask for. They even have a blog. Below that is a quick search gadget for those of us who don't want to take the time to meander around the site.  The tabs above the gadget map out the whole site as simply as can be.....and if I imagine myself as someone who is not technically savvy, I can picture how easy it would be to figure out how to navigate around the site.

One critique I could give would be more photo's!! I wanna see the places you've sold or are selling, even if it is a small picture. Sure, some Realtors can make a picture fairly misleading..... but I'd rather have something and trust that you guys are being honest with it, than nothing at all.

All in all, I think those Calgary real estate agents are in for a fun surprise with the Cliff Stevenson Group!!

A Marvelous Mess Party and Some Middle Earth Friends

I've really been working hard on the Middle Earth section of my Etsy shop. Wizards and Dwarves and Hobbit Holes. I'm loving it. If you or anyone you know is interested in Tolkien lore, this is a perfect gift *wink, wink*

Here are my fave's from last weeks party:

Armoire Renovation from Biljana Shabby. Totally gorgeous.

DIY Chalkboard Paint from Crystelle Boutique.

and the post I'm going to feature on my sidebar for a week is.....

Cement Garden Balls from Creative Passage. Boy do I wanna try that project. What a good idea!!!!!

Thanks to you all for linking up!!!

Here's the party!!!!!

Copper.Net: Email and Internet Services

Copper.net is an Internet provider that is privately owned and held in the US. They offer some great prices for internet service (Dial Up and otherwise) that made me say, "Hmmmm.....I think that's better that my provider!!!" So, I did some research, and yeah, their prices are definitely better. Here's some of their deals:

My broadband is $29.95. Okay. Might be time to shop around. There are a lot of options for Internet Service and these guys have already proven to top my providers price. 

Here are some things that I like about this company :

1. They DO NOT sell your information (unlike Netzero, Netscape, MSN) and take your online security very seriously.

2. They do not outsource their jobs. They are based in the states and the people who work for them are from the states. 

3. Their High Speed Accelerator can be up to 19x faster when downloading a page. Check it out:

So, whether you're looking for dial-up internet, Broadband, etc. I think you aught to try these guys prices out. They certainly made me re-think my position!

~Disclaimer: This post was sponsored by Copper.Net. All opinions in it are my own and written in my own words. 

Staining Made Simple and Sweepstakes!!!!!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Flood® Wood Care for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Flood® Wood Care has a great new gadget on their website to help you with any staining project!!!

It's called Staining Made Simple and it truly does simplify any project. I'll show you by using the idea of a cedar fence like this one: 

Portland Cedar

And, it's brand new. Pretty nice right? 

HG

Wrenco 

It just needs some color. 

So, the Staining made Simple gadget asks me.....

 Obviously, I pick the fence. From there, you need to give them the specifics: what type of wood, what condition, etc. 

It even has a "does it absorb water" test. Once it knows what kind of condition the project is in, it gives you the choice of a lovely color palette:

Of course, you can choose more than one and it even helps you calculate how much square footage you have, how much material you will need. The final result is a page of information, including how to videos and a complete list of exactly what you need (which you can have emailed to you) so you can print it and bring it to the store. 

I love this gadget. What a great idea to make a project that could be such a pain in the fa-toosh so simple. I know whenever I go to a hardware store I am always overwhelmed by all the information I need to have at my disposal to pick the right product. Then, of course, is the frustration of actually finding someone in that section of the store to help you out. This program asks all the questions (and probably more) than what someone working at a store would.....and then you can print out a list of what you need to buy and go to the store with a feeling of purpose. 

Awesome. 

You know what else is awesome??

The Flood Better Backyard Sweepstakes!!!!!

All you need to do is like Flood on Facebook and share it with your friends. Then you'll be entered for a chance to win a $1,500 dollar gift card or one of 12 $10 giftcards given away daily. This sweepstakes ends the May 17th, so get your butt over there and like them on Facebook. 

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Legal Residents of the 50 United States and (D.C.) 18 years and older. To enter, and for official rules, including odds, and prize descriptions visit www.facebook.com/flood. Void in Puerto Rico and where restricted and prohibited. This sweepstakes is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook. You understand you are providing information to Sponsor and not to Facebook.

 

 

Bee Frame Craft and a Marvelous Mess Party!!!!!

So, I got these old bee frames from a hive that was in my neighbors barn and had been sitting in there for years. I saw that they were just going to throw them away and immediately asked f I could save them for some unknown art project. I'm still not sure if *this* is what I wanted to do with them. But, it's one option. 

All I did was take the frame:

Hot glue some fancy (fairly see through) paper to the back of it and print out some text onto regular paper. Then I placed the regular paper under the fancy one and traced the quote through with the color I wanted. I probably could have just printed right on the backing.....but these kind of thoughts seem to always occur to me after-the-fact. I glued some vintage bee and flower images from the Graphics Fairy around the quotes. 

Then I screwed in four little eyelets to the bottom of one frame and the top of the other and used some nice wire to attach the two. 

I've got one frame left that is calling my name and I DON'T think it was to be made up like the other two. Something else is is order. Hmmmmm.......

For now, I'm a fan of these. 

What did you make this week???

Happy Earth Day!!!!!

If you're in search of my Marvelous Mess party, it's in the post below......but don't leave yet!!!!

Happy Earth Day!!

Wanna do something to help the Earth?

Today is the last day to submit a comment to the State Department about the Keystone pipline. 

They have almost made it to a million comments!!!!! Please add yours today:

NO MORE TAR SANDS