Friday, February 19, 2010

Stitches West Countdown, cont'd yet again

It's hard to explain how utterly and completely exhausting preparing for something like this is, but I know that most, if not all, of you have gone through the same sort of thing, so you know what I mean.

I'm wiped!  You know it's bad when even the kitties are wiped (poor babes).  I thought Molly was sick this morning - she crawled into a pile of warm laundry and wouldn't move for all of the squirrels and the birds in the world ... or the backyard.  Once she was done napping, she proceeded to tear the house apart, so I knew all was well.

I've been working on buttons during the day and patterns during the evening.  My hands started chapping, then bleeding, from all the handscrubbing I had to do switching between working with polymer clay, then acrylic paint, now glaze, etc.  I kept wishing I had a super gentle handscrub with loads of oils ... so I made my own (see above)!

Totally DIY, totally easy, totally cheap, totally effective!  I just filled my little glass bowl with sugar, poured in extra virgin olive oil (organic!) until it started to stick together a bit when I mixed it (vs. fall apart).  I couldn't find my essential oils, so I emptied a small bottle of fragrance oil in, mixed it up, and added a wee bit more olive oil.  EASY.  My hands are thanking me as I type.


And, because I know a few of you might throttle me, in a loving way, if I don't share at least one photo ...

BUTTONS.

This is a batch drying out after having a super size cup of diet pepsi and ice dumped on it.  Argh.  Luckily, I'd already cured the paint and had done a lot of sanding and buffing, so they're fine.  Glaze tomorrow!  I have another batch, glazed, drying.  More photos tomorrow!!!

3 comments:

Summer said...

Oooh, buttons! :)

I'm really enjoying the updates on your process Brenda. Your blog shows real life...I love that!

Unknown said...

how cool are they! i didn't realize you were making buttons!! have a great weekend. xo susan

Brenda said...

Thank you, ladies! :) And thank you for the wonderful feedback Summer!