Saturday, December 24, 2011

CHRISTmas

Last night our church had the first of three Christmas Eve services. It was a packed house! As usual, the music was amazing and moving, and the message was real, practical teaching. As I reflected on the Christmas story, I was reminded that God brought a baby into this world via a virgin mother. The baby was our Savior. Imagine, an infant that was destined to save us from sin. It's pretty amazing when you think about it. God is capable of anything. He can bring us a Savior. Surely, none of the trials and tribulations I face are beyond Him.


Merry Christmas, everyone.

Friday, December 23, 2011

Me, artistic?

I feel like some back story is necessary for this post. To help illustrate the point, no pun intended, that I, Rose Hartschuh, am not artistic, I have included pictures of some past attempts at "art." More frightening than the rabbit below is the fact that I was able to pull these projects out of a tote in my basement to snap some photos of them a few minutes ago.


  Paper mache rabbit? Circa fifth grade. It was supposed to be a hand puppet I think. Mrs. Dean, elementary art teacher, retired shortly after this. Coincidence? You be the judge.

In eighth grade, we had to select a cartoon, cut it into square, and continue the picture. While the drawing might make the cut, obviously my coloring skills leave little to be desired.

These are just two projects on a long list of mediocracy. I will admit, however, that when it comes to drawing and sketching, I don't do half bad. Three years at Ohio State gave me many opportunities to sketch my professors during lectures. I have a great sketch of Scary Larry (my welding instructor), but I wasn't able to find it. Anywho, art is not necessary my strong suit.

Nonetheless, I was looking for a personalized and meaningful Christmas gift for my sister-in-law. Upon purchasing plain wine glasses, I decided to add some flair to them. I read some online tutorials and was finally ready to take a shot at painting them. The supplies were few: glasses, oven, acrylic enamel (special acrylic paint made for glasswork), and brushes. 

I went with a simple dot pattern, mostly because I didn't think I could screw it up too bad. I selected four colors that went fairly well together, and alternated the color patterns. Here's the result:


We opened presents last week, and the recipient didn't throw them on the floor to shatter them, so I must have done ok. Perhaps one day I'll paint a picture.

Or make a paper mache rabbit.

Monday, December 19, 2011

"O" is for "Organization"

Here are three quick tips for organizing your home. I'll do my best to give credit where credit is due.


Problem: Plastic Grocery Sacks Reproducing and Cluttering Your Kitchen Cabinets
Solution: Fold 'Em Up
Credit: Ms. Wensink over at www.craftyenough.wordpress.com




These plastic bags are folded "paper football" style and stored in a quart mason jar. I can fit about 13 bags in one jar, and really, why do I need to keep more than that on hand?

Problem: Bobby Pins That Just Won't Stay Put
Solution: Magnetize and Organize
 


For $1.97, I bought a package of magnetic stripping at Wal-mart. On the inside of one of my bathroom drawers, I put the strip (already has adhesive on it.) Voila! The bobby pins and barrettes stick to it like a charm.

Problem: Hair Ties Galore
Solution: The Glass is Half-Full
Credit: My Own Personal Genius

I took a glass we weren't using from the kitchen cabinet, and stacked my hair ties up the outside. I racked headbands around it and filled the inside with clips and miscellaneous thingy majigs. Where I did have a cheap plastic basket that I've had since college, I know have something that looks a little nicer and is much easier to maneuver, since I don't have to dig and dig, when all I want is a ponytail holder!

Happy organizing! Please share your own tricks of the trade.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Mementos

Almost three years ago, as I was enjoying blessed bridal showers and wedding gifts, I decided to save a scrap of each wrapping paper. I'm not really sure what I was thinking, but I thought it would be a nice memento some day. However, they soon got shoved in a box, never to be seen again. Until now. 


Last weekend, I realized I had several wedding mementos that needed a good home. I was ready to store them away, but I wanted them to be some place special. Things like unity candles and the guest book and the like were collecting dust, but they're still really special to me. So, I remembered those scraps of wrapping paper and created a memento box:






I used a paper punch to punch a circle of each scrap of paper. Then, I glued the scraps with a glue stick onto a paper mache box. Finally, I put Modge Podge over the scraps to hold them in place. I spray painted the lid to the box silver, mostly because I didn't want to mess with all of the corners. The result was this box that now holds precious memories from a wonderful day. And, every time I look at it, I can remember all of the family and friends who gave generously and celebrated with us. Life is good. 

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Feelin' Crafty

Today, I hung up my latest craft project. 




Before you get too excited, you should know that it's the key hanger, not the painted slate. I have some crafting ability, but come on, that's a pretty amazing Block O... definitely outside of my talent level.


Nonetheless, I'm still pretty excited about the key hanger. It was super-easy to make! I started with an unpainted 1x4 (this one happens to be 18in long.) I marked out where I wanted my hooks to go. This board has four hooks. 


Then, I applied tile pieces mosaic style. I started with 8x10" tile sheets from Hobby Lobby (roughly $7 a sheet) and snipped them into small pieces. Two notes on this: 


1. Put newspaper down before you start snipping. The tile pieces tend to make thousands of shards. 
2. I like to have everything in order and in clear patterns. I started with that in mind, but I threw it out the window. I had to keep telling myself that mosaics are supposed to be asymmetrical. As soon as I got the swing of it, I did fine for my first project like this.


As I cut pieces, I laid them on my board. I got everything laid out how I wanted it, leaving my hook marks uncovered, and then I used craft glue to glue the tile down. I let the pieces dry over night, and then I mortared around them. The mortar was part of a kit I got ages ago, so I don't know how much it cost, but you could easily use plaster of paris to fill in the cracks, which is very affordable. 


After the mortar dried, I scraped it off the tile pieces, leaving just the cracks filled. I put two picture hangers on the back, and voila! 



Happy crafting!

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Simple excitement

I realized the other day that while I read other people's blogs fairly regularly, I seldom take the time to write in my own. Immediately, I came to a conclusion: I don't write as much as I should, because my life doesn't seem nearly as exciting as those around me, which of course, is entirely my fault. Then, my brain continued wandering, as it often does, and I decided that by golly, I'm pretty content with my life. I need to embrace the simple excitement that fills it. In honor of that conclusion, here are 3 things that made me smile or think this past week.
  1. In the FFA parliamentary procedure contest, students are given motions to use to complete various abilities. Tuesday, during practice, one of the motions I gave my students was "to purchase five bred gilts for the FFA lab." Those of us in agriculture, understand that bred gilts are young, pregnant female hogs. While discussing this motion, however, one of the girls missed the memo and declared that they we should in fact purchase new bred gilts, because our old ones are broken. Apparently, she thought they were tools. I laughed a while over that one. 
  2. I turned 26 a week ago. When I think of everything that has taken place already over the span of my life, I get pretty excited to think about the future. 26 years, God willing, is just a drop in the bucket.
  3. I caught up with my good friend Amanda this week. I love when you can not see anyone for a while (almost a year) and pick up right were you left off. I'm blessed with amazing friends.
Over the coming weeks, I'm going to look for the small joys and embrace the excitement that surrounds me.