Tablescape Thursday

Spring Is Here!

Flowers and birds and the sweet smell of apple pie.  I love this time of year, it's so cheerful and bright.  After a short episode of summer weather, we are finally getting some rain.  But speaking of flowers and birds, I had the most awesome welcome home the other day from a swarm of birds flying above me.  They formed the shape of a giant heart and held it for a good two seconds for me to see.  I thought that was the most amazing thing and, of course, wished I had my camera with me.

I have my table for Spring ready for a delicious meal.  We were too busy to celebrate the first day of Spring last Sunday so we postponed our celebration a few days.  I don't know what the menu will be just yet but my family is definitely making suggestions.  Everything from carne asada to meatloaf to fish.  We are having apple pie for dessert, just like every first day of Spring.....mmmm! I can already smell the cinammon.
   

These are my favorite plates, well, then again, I say that about all my dishes.  This is the bread plate and dipping dish

This is the salad plate, I just love the little bugs

I'm using the silverware I received, courtesy of CSN Stores gift certificate.

I hung these beads from the light fixture, I got them at a little shop downtown, the beads are strung on wire

I'm sharing this at Susan's Between Naps On The Porch linky party.  If you love to look at tablescapes, go check out her linky.  You'll find almost anything you can think of. 
One of my most favorite tablescape blogs to visit, besides the lovely Ms. Susan, is Bill of Affordable Accoutrements, go visit him and you'll see why, just click on his link.

Donations for Austin

My bloggie friend, Amie of Kitty Cats and Airplanes, is asking all blogger for our help for a little boy who is fighting for his life.  She has asked that we spread the word on his family's behalf.

Meet Austin

Last summer Austin contracted a deadly stain of E. Coli that caused his kidneys to shut down. Though he escaped with his life, his kidneys took a huge hit.
As you can imagine, the cost of a transplant is high, even with insurance.  They are hoping to raise $50,000 (of the $500,000) for the transplant and anti-rejection medicine.  There are several fundraisers being worked by family and friends.
Crystal of Crystal's Craft Spot  and a personal friend of the family is setting up up an online donation/giveaway. There will be several prize packages to be won and a $2 donation to the family will buy you an entry for any of the prize packages. You can enter as many times as you would like. You can go to the donation website by clicking here. I know that times are tough and not everyone can donate.  If it's not in your budget right now, consider spreading the word about Austin. Blog,tweet , facebook, spread the word in any way you can.
Thank you and God bless little Austin

Seeded Paper Tutorial

Last week I met with a group of ladies to trade our hand made cards.  Our theme was Easter/Spring and our technique was watercolor.  For this trade, I decided to tackle the seeded paper technique.  I envisioned making fifteen cards made out of seeded paper, even though I've never made it before.  It was a very ambitious goal that took me three tries until I finally got it right.  In fact, it took me about three hours to finally get it right!.  I finished it at around seven in the evening on Tuesday night.  Talk about motivation, determination and stamina.  I wish I could include that experience in my resume, haha. 

My son came outside to see what it was that I was doing.  Once he learned what I was up to he said, "mom, I don't know about politics but I don't think I could find another lady in this City, that has your day job, making seeded paper at seven o'clock at night," the boy sure is funny.

Well, hopefully with my tutorial you won't have to spend hours making seeded paper yourself, if you decide you want to try it.
Here's what you'll need:
paper, water, window screen, three towels, blender, small seeds, drinking glass and maybe a glass of wine too, why not.
  
You will need some shredded paper or cut into pieces and leave in water for a few minutes to soak.  I used a few brown grocery bags:

To make the pulp, place the paper in blender in small amounts at a time and blend with plenty of water:

If you use white scrap paper, you can add color by using this product I found a Michael's Arts and Crafts Store.  You would just add the sheet of paper with the color you want to the blender:

I decided to keep mine brown as it looked earthy.
Once you have finished, it will look like this:

Add your seeds in at this time to the pulp and mix in with your hands.

(If you haven't drank the wine yet, this might be the best time to do so)

Now to the hard part.  Transferring the pulp to your window screen.  I placed three folded towels under my window screen to catch the water underneath.

Take the pulp and gently spread it across your window screen with your hands, try to spread it thinly without handling too much, use plenty of water when you spread it on your screen.  I guess the most important tip I have for this process is to use a LOT of water when transferring the pulp and use little pulp so that your paper will dry thinly, not too thick. 

Next, take a drinking glass and roll it on top of your pulp and press down gently as you roll.  This will squeeze some of the water out and flatten the paper a little.  

Let it dry over night for about twenty four hours.  Cut your paper to the sizes you need:

And here's my finished card:

I made fifteen of these cute cards to give away to the ladies and I received fifteen different ones in return.  Not all of them are in the picture, I had already sent a few to friends and loved ones. 

Happy Spring Everyone!