#CraftySaturday

I spent my Saturday afternoon completing a few projects I've had on my mind for a while. I re-covered the seat of my desk chair by changing the fabric from an overly floral pattern to a new minimal cream on cream geometric pattern. I successfully attempted to make the tassels out of tissue paper that have achieved fame on Pinterest as of late (details on those at the bottom of this post). And, the project I'm most proud of, I strung up some handmade stars to fill the empty wall space over my bed (and added the tassels for now).

The stars themselves actually have a pretty interesting story. A family friend had made a couple of these stars as a gift for my mother. Mom thought they were very cute but did not look too closely at them. She had mentioned them to me before but I had not seen them until recently. When I took a look I noticed that Mrs. Wanda (the family friend) had carefully chosen maps of locations my parents had previously lived to make the stars from. How thoughtful!! The one pictured here is Washington D.C. where my parents lived for a stint and, by chance, one of my favorite US cities!

I immediately thought of the maps I have been collecting from my travels and wondered if they too could be used to make these cute 3D stars. Mrs. Wanda so kindly turned my travel treasures into displayable art! Maps from Turkey, Russia, the Czech Republic and the USA now adorn my wall. I used two cup hooks, craft wire and some of the wire used on the back of large picture frames or mirrors to finish the project. A few simple snips and wire twists and the project was complete. Now, as I sleep beneath the stars I am reminded of some of my favorite adventures! Plus, they look pretty stinking cute and make a great conversation piece.

Interested in making tassels for whatever project you have on your plate? I used the instructions found on on this blog, "Visual Vocabulary". I modified the project by being much less precise and extremely lazy. They do not take nearly as much time as suggested if you are not being particularly detailed - it is arts and crafts, have fun with it!

 

Climb Every Mountain...

"Climb every Mountain
 Ford every stream,
 Follow every rainbow
 'Till you find your dream"

Or so sings the reverend mother/Boss-lady nun from 'The Sound of Music" (My all-time favorite movie!). What a great theme for a movie and for life - exhaust every resource until you achieve your dream(s)! Point taken - I'm working on it!

This film has been on my mind quite a bit lately as I prepare to venture to the Alps. I will be a mere 2 hours away from Salzburg when I arrive in my new/temporary hometown of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. "The Sound of Music" was filmed in Salzburg and is based on a true story that happened there. I once did a research paper on the fact/fiction of the movie - let me know if you want to talk details on the subject because I'm seriously a Sound of Music Nerd (Don't judge me... you have your quirks too!)!  If you're the betting type, go ahead and put some big money down on seeing me on a hillside belting "The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music" sometime in the VERY near future. It's pretty high on my "Easily Achievable European To Do List"!

This to-do list is a work in progress. I do hope to "Climb Every Mountain" while I'm there. Ok, maybe not every mountain but you know, I want to do lots of cool stuff! Here is the short list of things I would like to do:

• See Salzburg - do all things Von Trapp!
• Visit the Alte Pinakothek in Munich
• Travel to Paris or Milan or Berlin (or all 3) for Fashion Week
• Royal Wedding in April - be there, steal the groom before he says "I do", become princess, invite blog followers to tea party at my new palace!
• Visit Rome at Christmas or Easter
• Octoberfest (duh!)
• BMWfest
• Visit Wittenberg - Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church doors here and thus began the Protestant Reformation... kind of a big deal...
• Visit Berlin - Berlin Wall, Holocaust Memorial, Checkpoint Charlie, Reichstag and some of this random and interesting stuff ...
• Go metal detecting in a battle area
• Baden-Baden - casino, architecture, mineral baths (test own levels of comfort with public nudity go in a swimsuit)
• Visit the Black Forrest & buy a CooCoo Clock
• Have passport stamped in Liechtenstein (Do you think they have any works by Lichtenstein in Liechtenstein? I would need to see that too...)

Like I said, this list is my easily doable list. I have much loftier goals but I won't list them for fear of not accomplishing them and having the entire digital world knowing my short comings! If you have suggestions for either my easy list or my "probably not going to happen but wouldn't it be awesome if..." list, please leave some sugestions!