Put the Past Behind You

Today, a very special lady shared a message with me that I've been hearing for quite some time and only listening to halfheartedly. To actually hear it verbalized was a bit of a wake up call. Here's the message she shared. "It's time to put the past behind you and get ready for the future. You are beautiful, bright and shiny and it's time you start moving forward and trust that your kids are ready to see you in a new light." This is almost verbatim the words that have played in my head for several weeks. So, now I'm listening. She was speaking very specifically as has my mental message and I know exactly what I need to do. I am letting go. I have been washed clean and made new and I am done with carrying around my past. I have made all of the apologies I could and I have forgiven all who I need to forgive. My life is new... TODAY. Watch out world. Here I come. :) I'm ready!

Happy Monday!

The Adventures of Lola and Joey

This morning started with a frantic 14 year old daughter of mine waking me to say that Lola and Joey got out of their cage. Lola and Joey are sugar gliders. They've been part of our family for a little over a year. They are cute and sweet and miss Reese loves them to pieces. Last night, it was my turn to feed them and when I put the fresh food in their cage I left the doors open intending to come back and talk to them and give them pets before going to bed. Apparently I put my squirrel brain in at that point and this is what happened. I turned around and walked back into the kitchen with some dirty dishes and the warm water on my hands activated my bladder so I headed for the bathroom. Looking in the mirror as I washed my hands a few minutes later, I decided that I needed to trim my hair a little. Thankfully, my squirrel brain was a little less ADHD at this point because I did manage to finish this task and now have bangs and a nicely trimmed frame of hair around my face. Yes, I sometimes cut my own hair. That done, I promptly left the bathroom, made sure all the lights were turned off upstairs, locked the front door and went to bed.

Jump to 5:50am and this text message awakens me "Joey and Lola got out." I'm awake! Glasses on, zip up the stairs trying not to wake up dear son trying to figure out how on earth they could get out of their secure cage! I reach the top of the stairs and notice Joey is IN the cage running in his wheel. Yay, one down, one to go. Lola is not so easy. She is running singing "Born Free" and making my daughter's anxiety level peak. Reese is quite certain that Lola and Joey will die from some fatal accident if they are allowed out of their cage unsupervised. But, after a few minutes of calmly trying to talk them both down, Lola decides her fun is over and gets back in the cage all on her own. She then promptly dives into one of her pouches with a "I'm going back to BED!" huff and the chase is over. Cage closed. :)

Today I recovered my bar stool seats - Tutorial

 Before - Tired brown faux leather seat covers that were starting to show their wear.

 After - Cute ocean themed seat covers. LOVE!

 First cut your piece of fabric about 2-3 inches bigger than what you are covering.

 Lay your project and fabric face down.

 I started with the straight edge of my project and lightly pulled the fabric around and tacked it in place lining it up nicely across the whole edge.

 Second view of the first edge.

 First edge finished.

 Next pull the fabric over the opposite edge. Pull tight and staple in place.

 Pulling tight at each staple, add a few more across the top.

 Now, move to one of the sides and gently pull the fabric over and tack the center with a few staples.

 Next, work the opposite side and pull the fabric tight as you set a few staples directly across from the last ones.

 Then, I headed to the corner and found the spot directly between the edge staples and the top staples. Pull tight and staple this.

 Anyone who has taken a sewing class from me knows what it means to "work the middles". Working my way around the top corner, I keep placing a staple directly between the last staple and the one before it (working the middles). I hope that makes sense. I should have taken pictures of that! Sorry! :)

 I then moved to the other curve and repeated the process.

 Next, I worked the bottom corners pulling the fabric around to make it as smooth as possible and stapling.

 Again, pulling the fabric around and stapling. - Always pull snuggly!

  With all the staples in, the corner is relatively smooth.

 Finally, all the stapling is done. This is what it should look like

 Now, trim the excess fabric off to tidy it up.

 Here's your finished back.

 And this is what it looks like all done. Ready to be re-placed on the chair.

The tools I used. A screwdriver to remove the seat from the chair. A staple gun and LOTS of staples. A good, sharp pair of fabric scissors.

This may not be the professional way to do it, but it worked well and it only took a few minutes to do each stool since I just covered over the existing material. Good luck!

Welcome to my new blog!

Welcome to Diane's Creativity Spot, a blog about being creative. There will be tutorials, craft ideas, samples, and basic reflections on various subjects. :) 

Thank you for stopping by! I hope you find something useful here and enjoy your visit.

Let me start by introducing myself and my little family. My name is Diane and my kids are Nick and Reese. They returned to school recently as high school freshmen and I'm freaking out a little. One, I can't believe how fast the years have gone and two, I can't believe how close I am to having an empty nest and being all alone. 

We love all things crafty and creative. Reese and I spend a lot of time in our craft room, out in our garden, in our kitchen and at our sewing machine. We dabble in just about anything that takes our fancy. Most recently we have done some wood working, jewelry making, paper crafting and canning. Oh, and today I made some homemade bread for the first time, recovered two bar stools that I will use at my craft table which I created from two book shelves and a refinished table top.

Reese is so amazingly talented and a dedicated student as well as beautiful and generous and kind. Her talent puts mine to shame. She is truly an amazing young lady and I swell with pride for her daily. 

Nick doesn't appreciate the crafty moments as much but he does enjoy the results, especially the homemade cookies, jams and breads. Nick has many challenges. He was born 9 weeks premature and has cerebral palsy, spastic quadriplegia, hydrocephalus and epilepsy. He uses a wheel chair to get around but other than that, he is a typical 15 year old boy. A little too typical some days. :) He's truly amazing. I'm so proud of him. 

I am a single mom just getting by and trying to enjoy the last few years of my kids' childhood.

Thanks again for stopping by! 

<3 Diane