JEWELRY

As some of you may know, I LOVE big earrings and jewelry. The flashy-er and bigger, the better! I have quite a collection of big earrings. Love them! For nearly 4 years now, I've been asking Tren to make me something to hang them on so they aren't all piled up in my little square jewelry box. I finally came up with a design that would work for me and keep all my things sorted and in their own little area. I told Tren about my idea and he said it was going to be ugly (because of what I was going to use). He wanted to go out in the foothills and find some deer horns (?I know) and use that to hang roughly 75 pairs of earrings, 10+/- necklaces, and who knows how many bracelets! I was sticking to my plan because I knew it would be perfect for what I needed. ((If he happens to still make his "rack" I'll most certainly blog about it!))

So!

Things to get:

Peg board (I bought a 4' x 2' sheet of peg board that already had a nice white coat of primer on it)

8' long wood (to make a frame out of)

3 wooden dowels (small enough to fit in the holes on the peg board)

Spray Paint

I went home and spray painted my peg board. I took a picture of it, but I think I deleted it already. Then I cut my dowels into 2-inch pieces. This took forever! Then I sanded each end of each 2-inch piece. Perfect fit, though and I can move them from hole to hole, depending on what I want to hang and how big it is.

Lets be honest, I was scared to use the saw, so I had Tren cut out my frame pieces and then he nailed them to the peg board. Then I spray painted the frame and pegs. This took a few times to get all the pegs sprayed, and some of them still aren't completely covered.

Now, Tren was making a shelf for his cousin's baby shower and he got a router from Grandpa Brenner and was testing it out on a 2 x 4. I thought this was the coolest thing, because it gave the wood a fancier edge. So. I had him do it on the side of my frame. He started and did one long side and I nearly burst in to tears! I thought I was going to cry because it ruined my beautiful creation. I was so mad at myself for needing to fancy it up. So, Tren the problem solver, calmed me down and put a little edge/shelf thing to cover up the big ugly chunk that was missing. I figured I could drill some holes in the shelf and put some pegs in and use it for rings. So, we got that on, I spray painted it and then when it was dry last night, I sanded the edges down. We had measured a spot in our closet behind the door where this beauty would fit. But that was when I was only going to use 3' x 2' of it. Then for some reason I thought all 4' would fit. When we went to hang it we realized we had a problem. So, my only option was to have it going up and down versus left to right.

I had Belle help me organize my earrings and Tren hung it up. I have tons of earrings, folks. And most of them have some great memory behind them :) . And as I would hang each on its little peg, I would chuckle or sigh or want to throw them away. Some of them that were broken, I did. I also made a little baggy for Karin. Belle wanted to try all of them on. (One of these nights we'll def do that.) All of my earrings and necklaces and bracelets fit, with room to spare if needed. I love my new jewelry art. It is just what I needed. Its like a little store when I go to pick out what I'll wear for the day.

Since the paint I used had a shiney finish, my camera flash was reflecting off of it badly.
Without a flash you couldn't really see anything. These are the best pictures I got. Some are from my cell phone and some from the camera.

Tren even admitted it turned out pretty nice. I love it tons!

Helping out

Last night while Tren and I were getting dinner ready, I asked Belle to fold the clothes that were in the dryer. She kept coming to the kitchen and laughing about how small my underwear (thongs) would fold up. After about 20 mins and no word from Belle, I had completely forgotten I sent her in to fold clothes. We went searching for her and here is what was found:





She had folded my and Tren's clothes, just tossed her's on the floor, and started taking the ones in the washer and putting them in the dryer. She couldn't reach "one last sock" so she proceeded to get into the washer.

Tren and I were so wrapped up in making dinner we didn't notice her moving that chair around. Someday, I'll have a slightly larger laundry room so I can put a stool in there and some lower shelves so she can really get after doing the laundry for me! She was quite proud of her folding and she did do a great job. It's so nice to have even more help!

McCall Winter Carnival

This Sunday, we went up to McCall to enjoy some snow-filled sights! We didn't leave the house until about 1:30pm so we had a late start. Tren had shown Belle what we would be seeing, by going to the Winter Carnival website and showing her some pics of the snow sculptures. She was excited. We got in the car and Belle had brought along Daisy. She had secured her in her coat to keep her warm and I wanted to take a picutre, but Belle was in too good of a mood to let me do that.

On the way up, Belle was "blowing" her nose. Usually, this means she is picking and using the tissue to pick. Then she fell asleep.

We woke her up as we pulled into McCall and she was still in this lovely mood. We stopped at a sculpture of some bears and figured since she is a "bare" she would relate and want to get out and see them. Nope. So, Tren and I got out and she eventually followed. I posed in front of a castle and Tren posed with the bear. Belle not so much fun still...but she posed with a few things.

We went in for some free hot cocoa and to look at the craft fair. Then on the way out with her hot cocoa in hand Belle says "Well, I think I'm settled down now... let's go check out those bears!"

We continued on the main strip of McCall and stopped here and there to pose and examine the sculptures. It was snowing and had been snowing so most of them were covered in snow and it made it hard to see them. All the detailing was pretty much filled with snow, but they were still awesome. Belle wanted her picture taken with every one of them.

A log house at the lake....

Some Tee-Pees. (I am not sure how that is really spelled! ha!!)

An eagle...

Then we came across this couch...

...We all took the book and sat on the couch. It was funny.

We found 2 cowboys soaking in a hot tub, drinking some brews... Belle had to use their outhouse...

There were many more sculptures, but I can't put them all on here.

It was a good trip and we made it home in record time (8:30pm), considering it had been snowing all day. Everyone was heading down the mountain when we were heading up.

I have wanted to go to the Winter Carnival for a long time and was happy we finally had a weekend when we had Belle and we could all go together. I was also very happy Belle's mood went from bad to good because that would have been a long trip.