Chickadee Manor

Quick & easy earring storage!

Last night I came up with a super speedy, super simple earring storage solution - no sewing, no gluing, no fancy tool needed.  I'd been overthinking this project for weeks and originally had a much more elaborate idea planned out.  I was downstairs looking through my fabric stash when I came across a small piece of upholstery weight fabric that had a weave that resembled aida cloth - perfect for poking earrings through.  I grabbed a thrifted wooden embroidery hoop, popped the fabric into it, cut off the excess, and gathered my earrings and started putting them away/on display.  I'm hoping I will get more use out of my earrings now that they are all in one place and out where I can see them.  I had most of them tucked away in little containers in assorted drawers to keep them from getting lost or from being discovered by the kiddos.  There are still a few pairs that are MIA and I need to find a good solution for storing my hoop earrings, but this is a vast improvement from what it was!

Surprise!

This morning Abby and Riley woke up and informed me that they were working on a surprise for me in the hall.  A little while later they appeared in the living room with this - 

Riley and Abby made me a Christmas tree!  They used a metal mesh wastebasket, a baton, blankets, and ornaments.

The girls decided they wanted to make it a bit more festive so added teddy bears, a stocking, and a present.

Judah is quite happy with their creation!

"Hi!"

The tree now has lights!

More bears and more smiles!  More ornaments and candy canes are being toted to the tree as I write this post...

Learning how to use my camera

My big camera and I seem to have had a bit of a falling out of late.  I'm not sure what happened but things are not going as well as they once did!  I have a new-to-me lens for it but have not taken the time to figure out which settings work best with it.  The result has been a lot of blurry photos!  The lens is a larger one and so it makes it more difficult to get a clear photo in low light as it is also a heavy lens and and harder to keep still without the use of a tripod (which I do not own!).  I much prefer taking photos without the use of my flash so I may need to invest in a tripod in the near future.  Before I do that, I could do what one does when all else fails - READ THE DIRECTIONS.  Yup!  Confession: I have never read my camera's manual, despite having the camera for 3 years.  I have not read the info that has come with my lenses.  I have a book on how to better use my DSLR - not read either.  You can see why improvement might be readily achieved.  This learning by osmosis bit does not seem to work in this case!

Meet my new friend:

I will be spending some time getting know my camera properly by actually reviewing the manual and by following the tips in this book.  Here's to better photos in 2015!

P.S. My camera is technically an old camera but I am rather attached to it.  It was used when I bought it and I hope it has many more shutter clicks left on it!  It's  Nikon D80.  My only wish?  That it had video capabilities.  

Acrylic and Pastel Workshop

Last weekend I attended an introductory art workshop.  We worked in acrylic paints and soft pastels.  We learned several different techniques and came home with about half a dozen pieces.  My acrylic pieces are done but the pastels were definitely more of a challenge for me and I can't say that I have any of those to the stage where I feel they are finished.  Here's a photo of my abstract acrylic projects from this weekend.  Please visit the Facebook page of Min McGuire who taught the workshop.  She is fabulous and so versatile.  Her abstract paintings are gorgeous and her hyper-realism paintings are stunning.  I am thrilled to have one of Min's paintings in our home. (This is the one!)