Playing Magazine

One thing I've really enjoyed about blogging is taking pictures of all of my stuff.  I never really had an excuse to before, so my poor kids had a flash going off in their face all the time.  Now, I just love arranging things, finding the right light, zooming in, and getting the money shot.  I feel like I'm shooting for a magazine.  It's so much fun and since I'm still sick in bed, I thought I would share some of my very favorite photos that I've taken for my blog.  Enjoy!

antique darts found in my grandparent's attic

Doesn't this gum drop look like it's on its tippy toes?

some spools of ribbon

coral found in my grandparent's attic and a monogrammed silver spoon handle

a chippy shutter that I painted "Open Seas" for a client

Bakelite knives in an ironstone bowl

a twig wreath I found at a yardsale

a Restoration Hardware silver candlestick bought for $1.00 at a yard sale all dressed up for Christmas

my box of yardsale pumpkins

monogrammed linen, ironstone, and Bakelite (three of my favorite things)

and a tassel hanging from my buffet lamp

I just love how the chair and accessories went with my chalkboard desk

my great-grandmother's china with my mother's silver

a book wreath over my grandfather's highchair

my vintage red toy phone (I don't believe the White House has the number for this one.)

an antique scale and my mossy bowl topiaries

a $2.00 starfish from Wal-Mart nestled in some sweet gum balls

my sheet music table and a wire bird cloche from Hobby Lobby

I hope you enjoyed my gallery.  For those of you who are interested, I use a Nikon D50 camera with a Speedlight flash, and 35-70 and 70-300 lenses. 

I just had to share that my half canopy was featured over at Just a Girl!   

  I'm also the featured blog in the side bar over at StoneGable.  Talk about some gorgeous photography...  Thanks Yvonne!

Tips From a Blog Expert

I'd like to introduce you to one of my new blog friends, Jenny Butler of Simply Delightful Designs.  She is the monther of three who stumbled into the blog design field.  Her services are so desireable, she has a waiting list!  I love the look of her designs and the fact that she offers free advice, tips, and backgrounds for your blog. 

Since I am not a blog expert, I asked her to share some advice to grow your blog and make it more reader friendly.  What I got from her was funny and honest advice about what to do and what not to do. 

So, without further delay, here's Jenny!

"I don't want my blog to grow"

"No thanks, I don't want you to come back and visit"

"No, I'd rather not earn money from my blog"

"Please don't subscribe to anything I'm offering"

If your blog could talk - is this what it would be saying? Well, it just might be, and you might not even now it! I might not know alot about home decor and interior design, and I certainly can't cutesy up furniture the way Miss Mustard Seed can - but I can cutesy up the web, and the time has come to put on our big girl pants and get down to business when it comes to our blogs. No matter whether you blog about home decor, sewing, swimming, or your precious families - I have never met a blogger who has said any of those things up there. And unless your blog is private, or you blog solely to share with close friends and family, then your readers are (or should be) important to you. Many of us are moms, and it's time that we start thinking about our blogs as our children. We need to feed them, nurture them, develop them, and yes.... give them a quick swift kick in the bootie when they need it.

Sometimes I've got to make my kids do things that they don't want to do... eating vegies, cleaning their rooms. As a designer, it's my job to tell you... CLEAN UP YOUR BLOG!!!! So here are a few tips and ideas to start of the new year with a nice, clean, sparkling freshly organized blog that will attract millions and zillions of readers who will hang around and drool over your content and come back for more. (ok ok, I know I'm a drama queen) But really, you might want to get out your broom and dustpan, get ready to clean!!!

The Fancy Fritter, designed by Jenny

Clean up yer act!!

Loud flashy sites with too many buttons flashing and blinking and advertisements splattered all over everywhere are a big turnoff for me. I like to look at sites that are well organized, and sites that I don't feel are trying to earn money off of me when I visit. I don't want to feel pressured to click an ad or join this or that - I'm just here to read your blog, not to shop at amazon or find you through a gazillion momblog flashy buttony thingies. If I like your CONTENT, I will want a way to easily access more content and an easy way to find it again when I want to come back. That means it might be helpful to have your subscribe or twitter info highly visible. And yea, that's cool that your best friend's aunt's cousin who read your blog sent you a blog award and you want to display all of your bloggy awards like a proud girl scout would display her patches, but really... we're all grownups here, I can tell for myself if your blog is the cutest mom blog on planet pluto or not. I don't need you to tell me that Sally thought it was. Take it down, clean up the clutter.

Joseph is the only one allowed to wear flashy Multi-colored rainbow looking clothes:

Joseph and Vegas Showgirls. And unless you lived in Bible time or you ARE a Vegas Showgirl, then tone it down, k? The same goes for loud flashy clashing colors. No one wants to read at their computers with sunglasses on. If I can't read the text, I'm not going to hang around and try and figure it out. If the background color hurts my eyes, bye bye birdie. The same goes for white text on a black background.... Oh for the love of pickles, please don't. I love my eyesight, I don't want to loose it looking at your site,

Do-able Design, designed by Jenny

And you Are?

We've all had those situations where we need to introduce friend A to friend B and we can't remember friend A's name, so we just stand there awkwardly waiting and hopeing that the two friends will just introduce themselves, and help you out so that you can remember friend A's name. Well, we don't want to do that to our readers. Make sure they know who you are, and what your site called - not the address in the address bar (I'll get to this pet peever in just a bit), but your TITLE. And for pete's sake, please put a home link somewhere on your site that links to your homepage. If you don't have your title visible and read-able, you can betchurbottomdollar that I'm not gonna remember it. I have a hard time remembering to pick up the milk on the way home, so do me a favor and let me know who you are.

Are you sure you are who you say you are??

And speaking of titles. Can we just all agree to agree... can you please call your site what it says in the address bar. Not that this is such a horribly horrible thing if you don't, but I don't know how many times I have visited sites like - "Sew Cute Buttons" (that's totally an example, so if you run a site called sew cute buttons, then I'm totally not talking about you for real) then your address should be something like www.sewcutebuttons.com or sew-cute-buttons.com or something. Not www.pinkismyfavoritecolor.com - especially if you don't have a feed link or a twitter link visible - the chance that I'm gonna remember your actuall site address is slim, so if by heaven's sake I do remember what you had in your cute header title, and I went back to google sew cute buttons and found nothing cause your address is really www.pinkismyfavoritecolor.com then you and I are out of luck on ever meeting again.

The Mommy Diaries, designed by Jenny

Hello Friend!

And speaking of meeting. How are your users going to contact you?? And don't go on pretending like no one is ever going to want to try and contact you. If you don't want your readers to think that you are a hermit, and who does, then have your contact information handy and visible. Oprah could be trying to talk to you and you'd never know cause she can't find your email address. I'm not asking you to advertise your social security number or to appear naked and speak in front of the president or anything. If you don't want to deal with spam, then open a separate email account for your blog - there are so many out there that are free, and you never have to share your REAL email address with us visitor type folks, but for heavens sake, put it somewhere - and not in a contact form or linked up in a word that says 'contact me' but actually type out your email address and *gulp* yes put it up. deal with the spam, delete it, block it, whatever. I don't have a default email like outlook or anything set up, so if I don't see your email address anywhere handy, then you can forget about going on Oprah with me when she calls me. jenny@simplydelightfuldesigns.com there - see I did it. It's not that hard. I promise.

Become a stalker.

We all have our favorite sites - sites that have upwards of 5 or 6 thousand followers. You have probably noticed that these sites do regular series and will even post warnings about when they are doing linkies. Stalk them, comment regularly, when you can be one of the first to comment on any big event that they have, you will receive some visitors. But play nice, and anyone who leaves you a comment, take the time to check them out and leave them a comment. Just a simple thanks for visiting my site is great. Try and emulate them, but DO NOT COPY THEM. bad bad bloggers copy other bloggers. There is a huge difference between inspiration and stealing content. Don't be a pirate. If you want to share what another blogger has done, simply post it and give the other person the proper credit. It is just not worth trying to pass yourself off as someone that you are not.

Favors with Love, designed by Jenny

How social are you?

I have to admit, that in real life... not very. If you don't belong to sites like facebook or twitter, then stop what you are doing and go on over there now and create some accounts. Then come back when you are done and we can talk. If you want your blog to grow - then let's get real and include our closest friends and family on facebook. Post updates on your facebook and twitter. Join other social networking sites like stumbleupon, diggit, technorati, theblogfrog.com. Most often, when I click to follow someone on twitter, they follow me in return. It's polite, it's what you do. If someone starts following you - it would be nice if you would follow them - but don't feel obligated either, especially if they are producing content that you may or may not agree with. Either way - get yourself out there. One of my favorite plugins is called CommentLuv - and it lists the Commenters last post and even lets them post their twitter username. Great way to create a community who will be willing to come back and comment, cause they know that in a small way by doing so that they are getting something out of it.

Gimme Gimme Gimme!

Let's face it - we all like winning stuff. Heck, who doesn't?? A great way to generate some traffic is to host a giveaway. Whether it's a giftcard to starbucks, or a handmade trinket - everybody wants something for nuthin, and we're ready and willing to do almost anything to get it - including join your site, subscribe, or jump through that burning hoop of fire for a cup of coffee. ok, well, maybe that's just me, but freebies are great... have a regular giveaway. There are lots of sites out there that will advertise your giveaway for free - tipjunkie is one of the best. You can register and advertise your giveaway for free to thousands of users.

Simply Delightful Designs hosts Technical Tuesdays, where you can find a plethora of blogging advice, tips, and tutorials, to help your blog grow and to help you understand the more technical side of blogging.

Thanks so much, Jenny, for sharing a dose of truth about our blogs with us today.

A Better Looking Tomorrow...

Well, I was in bed by 7:30 tonight, socked out with a nasty cold.  For those of you who read my blog regularly, you know I am a busy girl and I like using every minute of my day.  When I'm in bed during my prime work time, you know I don't feel well.  So, I thought I would share some results of my new toy, my mat cutter.  I've wanted one for years and I finally asked for the Logan Intermediate 450 for Christmas this year.  I have a box full of old family photos that I've wanted to frame, but it would cost a fortune to have them all custom framed.  Since they are old, they are unusual sizes, so store bought mats and frames generally wouldn't work. 

So, with my new mat cutter, I can find old frames when I'm out and about and cut my own mats.  Over the last few days, I framed a couple of my favorite family pictures in some antique frames I found in my grandparent's attic. 

This is my absolute favorite family photo of my great-grandmother sitting on her mother's lap next to her brother.  (My mom has the beautiful rocking chair in her living room.)  I put it in a large frame to show its importance to me.  I also like the antique frame and picture put together in a modern way with the large mat. 

This is a picture of my grandmother as a little girl.  So sweet.  I can't wait to get more of them framed.  It's very rewarding. 

I also had a custom order for a hand painted German Grain Sack.  I finished it yesterday and my client was very happy with the results.  These will be going in my Etsy store, but until then, let me know if you're interested in purchasing one.

I just took a Nyquil, so here's to a better looking tomorrow.

Gold Leaf Tutorial

I was asked by Amy at The Lemon Cottage if I would do a tutorial on gold leafing. 

So, Amy, this one's for you! 

I purchased an entire armload of large, dated frames at an auction for a quarter.  I was not quite sure what I was going to do with them at the time, but the auctioneer looked at me and almost pleaded me to take them off his hands.  These two frames were in that lot.

They are clearly 1960's-70's style frames and not at all my taste. They had an interesting texture that seemed like a great candidate for gold leafing. I'm showing you how to leaf a frame, but you can leaf almost anything. 

First of all, make sure your surface is clean.  Also, what's underneath the leafing may peak through, so make sure it's a color that you don't mind seeing.  Red is a popular color to put under gold, but I decided to leave these frames white.  Brush a metal leaf adhesive onto your surface.  And allow it to dry for 30-60 minutes or until it's clear and tacky.

You need a soft mop brush to apply your gold leaf.

This brand of (imitation) gold leaf is available at most craft stores for about $9.00 for 25 sheets.  You can also purchase silver and copper leaf.  One package is enough to cover at least 2 large frames.

 There are all sorts of methods out there for getting your gold leaf out of the book and onto your surface.  You can use the static cling on your brush to pull the sheet off and lots of other things.  I just slip it off onto my hand and gently transfer it.  I feel like I have more control over it. 

The frame I am working on is about 3 inches wide, but if I was working on a narrower frame, I would cut the gold leaf sheets in half while they were still in the book.  That would greatly reduce any waste.  Once the gold leaf is on your surface, take your brush and light smooth the sheet down. 

Now, don't start to panic.  You're going to have all kinds of little wrinkles and if you're working on a textured surface, you'll have a lot of cracks in the leaf.  This is normal and you're not doing anything wrong.  If you're working on a flat surface, this won't be as much of a problem.

Leafing always looks like a mess when you first put it on.  I like to pull off larger "scraps" and stick them onto bare spots.  So, once the surface is fully covered, gently rub your brush over the leaf, removing all of the pieces that are not glued down.  At this point, your work area will look like Tinker Bell exploded all over the place.  Leafing is very messy, so have a vacuum at the ready. 

This is how it looks after all of the excess is brushed away.

See how there are some spots where the leaf didn't stick.  I'm not worried about these, since I'm going to antique this frame.  If you want your surface to be perfect, brush more adhesive on the bare spots and repeat the process.

Since the backside of this frame would only be seen from an extreme angle, I painted it with gold acrylic paint. 

Once the gold leaf and paint were fully dry, I brushed on some Minwax dark walnut stain and wiped it off with a soft cloth.  This calms down the "brassiness" of the gold leaf and makes it look softer and older. 

I cut my own mat using my new mat cutter and framed a $2.00 thrift store antique bird/botanical print.  I then had a $3.98 sheet of glass cut at my local glass shop.  So, this entire project cost less than $10.00. 

Remember that the Furniture Feature Friday link party runs through Saturday at midnight, so you can still join in.  Happy leafing!

I'm linking up to Frugalicious Friday over at Finding Fabulous, Thrifty Decor Chick's Before & After Party, Met Monday, Make It For Monday, and Make Your Monday.  Whew!  Glad I don't have to buy a hostess gift for everyone.