The Alabama Wife: 2012

Friday, December 7, 2012

DIY Family Established Sign for Door

I've seen a lot of wreaths on Pinterest and I've been attracted to many of them. I wanted one with a more personal touch and my parents had this "family established" sign on their door, indicating their anniversary - so I used this as inspiration. So, with no real idea of what I wanted to do in mind, I made a trip to Hobby Lobby.

I've always loved those open-backed frames at Hobby Lobby. I think their actual purpose is to frame a canvas painting or print, but I decided to base my project around one of these. My choice was a narrow barnwood frame.

I ended up leaving with the frame, a foam board, some burlap fabric, some chipboard letters and numbers, a small bundle of artificial flowers (the same design that I used as aisle markers at my wedding), grapevine wire, and a wreath hanger.

Materials Used
Open backed frame (I used barnwood)
Foam Board
Burlap fabric
Chipboard letters and numbers
1 bundle of artificial flowers
Staple gun & staples
Hot glue gun & hot glue sticks
Ruler
Grapevine wire or twine or string or whatever method you prefer for hanging
Wreath hanger (mine is a copper magnetic hanger)

Directions
1. Cut the foam board to fit the open back frame. My frame was 18x11 so these would be your dimensions. Cut it a little bit smaller as you are going to wrap the foam board with fabric.
2. Wrap the burlap fabric around the foam board. I used 2 layers of fabric so you couldn't see as much white in the background. Secure the fabric to the foam board using your staple gun. Do this around the edges, as the frame will hide the staples.
3. Find the letters and numbers that you want to use. I chose "The Clanton Family Est. Oct. 2, 2010" for mine. I would recommend using a ruler to line up the letters so they do not look crooked (like mine). Once you have the letter and numbers you want, glue the letters using your hot glue gun.
4. Fit the foam board into the frame. On mine, the foam board was large enough that it fit snug inside the frame without need to glue or staple.
5. Hot glue the flowers onto the frame in whatever pattern you find pleasing.
6. Staple the grapevine wire to the frame.
7. Hang and enjoy!

I made the grapevine wire long enough so I can hang a wreath above it at Christmastime :)

And of course, Thor helped :)

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Warrior Dash

Anyone here like to run? Neither do I. I hate running. I tend to only run when I'm being chased. However, I'm trying to get in some kind of shape & my hubby happens to enjoy running. We run the occasional 5k, several that we are starting to do every year. The local races, "Turkey Trot" (morning of Thanksgiving) and "Rudolph Run" (about 2 weeks before Christmas) are favorites. We also like Warrior Dash. We heard about it back in 2010, but by the time we knew about it, the tickets were sold out. Not to mention it was only a few weeks before my wedding and I really didn't want to break anything. So we started running it in 2011 and we ran it again this year. It's a 5k full of obstacles. A lot of runners take the race very seriously so I just get out of the way and slowly jog along.

In 2011, we ran it in Winchester, TN:

The van had on a homemade warrior helmet

My friends Christina & Jackie, post-race They refurbish the nasty shoes and donate them

In 2012, we ran the race in Warrior, AL (and it was much more challenging):

Aaaaaand my pants fell down while I was crossing the finish line.

Next year we plan to run it in Mountain City, GA.

Turn an old Scrabble Board into a frame!

Yay for another Photojojo project! This one came straight from their book that I mentioned earlier in my blog. It's pretty straightforward: carefully cut some holes in the board with a knife, tape the photos to the back of the board, and glue some tiles onto it! I also glued one of the letter trays onto the bottom of the board with our family name! I made this one before we got Thor so I will need to place his name either with Peanut or Aldo with a picture of the chosen together.

Dustin's Cam Lamp

So, my wonderful husband created a lamp out of a camshaft and an enormous air filter. He's considering building them and selling them. I love mine and he is considering building me a floor lamp from a driveshaft. What do you guys think? This one is about 32 inches tall. And, of course, depending on which car it comes out of, they can be made smaller or larger.