Singin' songs about the Southland.

There is a second craft I should tell you about. Again, Pinterest, you just offer the most divine inspiration for projecting about the house.

I spied this 'lil beauty...

...and was sold. I think it's supposed to be, like, "the husband is from Louisiana and the wifey hails from Arizona! So CUTE!" or something. Not mine.  Naturally, my version of the project would hence be a shoutout to the Heart of Dixie and my new home of Hotlantaaaaaaaa.

You need:
+ a pair of scissors
+ white cardstock
+ a computer and printer
+ a pencil
+  red cardstock OR heart stickers. But don't wimp out and go the sticker route. Paper is prettier.

1. Print out two state maps and cut 'em out.

2. Place BACKWARDS on your cardstock to trace. Did you hear that? Backwards. No one likes a stray pencil mark. Stray pencil marks are for amateurs. Now cut those guys out.

3. In keeping with the exciting theme of my new room "grey and linen and white and wood," I opted to paint the matting and cardstock two shades of grey.

Alabama was the sacrificial lamb and during the disaster got splattered. So I had to cut out a new one. 

At this point, a Brownie (Ellis, the untamed little wild puppy beast) came running in and tromped her unproportional paws directly in the paint. Boykin Spaniels were bred with Chesapeake Bay Retriever blood, so their paws are big 'ole swimmin' paws. Which look awfully cute in paint and trotting around the kitchen--NOT.

At last, Ellis was captured and cleaned, and I finished my masterpiece. No Brownies were harmed in the creation of this art. Yay for the new room!

Blog post title: "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynard Skynard. Dear goodness, I hope that wasn't news to you though. You'd never win "Name That Song" with Rush Stallings.

All you need is love (and spray adhesive).

Photo courtesy of Dwelling Gracefully

Last week, I asked mother dear why half the acryllic paint downstairs had dried up. "Ashlyn, I don't have the little craft elves at home any more." Ah, the plight of an empty nester: no little children to create masterpieces and get white paint on the kitchen table the morning of the Sunday School party mama was to host at night. Not that I did that last Thursday or anything. (What? My paint collection was nice and liquidy.)

Thus it is established that we Stallings girls get crafty on the reg.

So when sister Kristen showed me the above image from some chick's blog, I lunged at the chance to help her. She finally moves off the Kappa Dee dorm floor and into an Auburn apartment which translates to, like to any 20ish-year-old female, A NEW OPPORTUNITY TO DECORATE! Whoo-hoo! K-dawg and her hip hootie-hoo roommates are gonna be so cute with this hangin' up.

Whatcha need:
+ scrapbook paper

+ card stock (the same size as your scrapbook paper)

+ spray adhesive

+ la pencil

+ la ruler

+ les scissors

+ twine

Ah, the tongue-sticking-out-of-the-mouth-because-I'm-concentrating face. Adorable fam trait.

I mean, you can probably do the math and figure it out, but I'll spell it out just in case you're having a rough day. Kristen spray adhesived the pretty-yet-flimsy scrapbook paper to card stock so it was nice and bulky. We did this in the kitchen AT NIGHT so the slumbering father bear wouldn't get mad. It's just too darn cold to craft outside. Then, I sketched out the letters on paper--we did it just like Nashville blogger homegirl's picture, but I bet any cool font style looks good. K cut them out until her hand just about lost mobility, then punched holes at the tops to basically sew the twine through.

Result? Not so bad!

Great message. Great truth.

I'm sure we'll have to Sticky Tack them to the wall a bit in case the girls having raging parties and it gets really windy. Because there's usually wind at parties...

Blog title: If I have to tell you who sings that line, I question if your parents loved you.

Top It Off

Craft time with Mama = always a high success rating.

Mama does it all: everything she cooks turns to gold, her French hand-sewing is lauded, her Sunday School class students adore her, and the backyard brims with herbs and roses in the summertime. I'm talking, we had creme brulee for dessert tonight. (Um, yeah. Don't worry, I still can't figure out the secret to making Cream of Wheat in the microwave.)

"Hey Ash, wanna come help with this project?" Yup, Mama. Be there in 0.5.

These wine cork toppers are what some of the Stallings/Elliott couples are getting for Christmas. Just a little craft Mom saw in Lowe's magazine, she claims. I'd imagine this could be a great hostess gift as well.

1. Gather corks and lamp finials from a craft store (you know, those things that go on top of the lampshade).
2. Secure to the top of each cork with a dab of Liquid Nails.
3. Allow adhesive to try for a w-h-i-l-e.
4. Throw with some cocktail napkins and bow, voila.