It's finished!

I finished my quilt Sunday. I put the sewing machine away and cleaned up the dining room. Praise be! I was so ready to do that.

And then I finished finished it on Monday. Meaning I soaked (to get all the markings off) and washed my quilt and stitched up the little corners so they are held together completely secure.

But it was a journey to get there. I think I alluded to the binding being a booger bear in my last post. After that post, I finally just decided I hated the binding and wasn't happy with the look of it. It was not pretty and I knew I could do better.




So rip rip rip..pick pick pick.



Yes, I ripped out the binding that was about 2/3 complete. That means I ripped out thread almost all the way around my quilt TWICE. Cuz I'm fun like that. Actually it was more relaxing than sewing. I watched a movie and propped my feet up on the coffee table.

I had watched a video of an alternate method to put in binding and had just tucked that away and kind of forgotten about it. Basically instead of equal parts of binding on the front and back and trying to always catch the binding on the back when you're top stitching it on the front (see my pic above when I could not keep things in line..among other probs!), you intentionally offset it so on the back it just looks like a line of quilting that nobody will ever pay any attention to. But I had to test it out first on a scrap quilt 'sandwich'. I liked it!



So in one day I was able to just get the whole new binding put in. It was start and stop and I took some breaks, but I could do it in a day rather than working and working (and crying) and not getting anywhere with a decent result with the 'traditional method' which just is not in my wheel house.



See..offset. More color on the front (yellow) and a thinner line of red on the back (white) and that extra little line of 'quilting' right beyond it. That method is brilliant. So. much. EASIER.



And here it is all laundered and crinkly. All the heart eyes!

And just so ya know, tiny red threads are the new cat hair around here. I've swept and mopped and dusted and I still find tiny red threads from ripping out the binding. It makes me smile because instead of looking at the defeat of ripping it out, I know there was victory of actually putting in a very nice looking binding and being happy with it. Yes!

imperfections

I"m still working on my quilt. I'm about a little over half way finished with the machine quilting. I have done all the seams going across the quilt, and now I am doing all the ones going up and down. A seam on each side of the 'ditch", where pieces come together.



I have kept working for another week from the beginning of this writing and now I am half way done sewing on the binding. I have sewn it on, but then I have to fold it around to the front of the quilt and sew it down all the way around, finishing the edge and encasing all the raw edges.

Y'all.

It's been a thing.

All along the way,  all I could think about was the next project. What do I want to make next? Maybe the cat block or one called the two step. I couldn't decide.

This week I've really been pushing to get this project across the finish line. I am excited but also beginning to be burned out a little bit. This is the largest sewing project I have ever taken on (hmm except for maybe all the lined curtains in my house lo a many years ago when I felt young and fresh and crawling around on the floor measuring and pinning was no big woop).

Well friends...I think I am old. I'm ready to get my dining room back and not have decor shoved aside so I can pile sewing boxes and piles of do-dads everywhere. I'm over it.

And another thing is that the struggle is real putting on a binding. It kicked my tail when I made the class projects but I wondered if it was because the angles were wonky and there weren't any true actual 90* corners. But I am on the struggle bus again with this piece that has regular corners and it is really annoying. Three of the corners are perfect or close to perfect and the fourth one had to be messed with and picked out and resewn a smidge just to make it okay.

so. bummed.

But ya know what, it really is ok. I'm not entering it into any quilt fairs. I'm just cuddling up with it on the couch. And after it gets washed, it will be super crinkly and yummy anyway.

I hate that one corner that doesn't measure up to what I wanted it to be..which is far below what a pro would call perfect. My perfect. But I will smile and know I did my best for my first real piece and love it forever and like it for always.



My grandmother pieced this sailboat quilt,  probably when she was younger than I am now.  It was just a pieced top at the time of her passing and my aunt quilted it for me and gave it to me as a wedding gift. Do you want to know what I noticed recently? An imperfection! I have had this quilt since 1991 and noticed that one boat has upside down sails a few weeks ago.

And so my little quilt with a less than perfect mitered corner (and quite a few other little hiccups) will be just fine.

from scrappy to happy #anactualquilt

I decided shortly after I finished both of my table runners that I really did want to make a quilt.

Like really.

I have been watching youtube videos etc and had made a few decisions. I wanted something pretty 'scrappy'. I wanted to be able to make a block and if I messed it up, no big deal. Because it would just 'go' and not be all matchy matchy. I felt like that gave me permission to mess up and not be utterly stressed out about it.

Because y'all...quilt fabric is pricy! I am so used to the fabric at Hobby Lobby and it always being on sale etc and this is whole new experience.

Side note...quilt fabric is pretty much the Cadillac of cotton sewing fabric..more fibers per inch etc which makes for a much better end product. Now you know...because I sure didn't.

I watched a video by Jenny Doan...who I am obsessed with, by the way..she is just such a cute lady and she makes it look like you really can do it. Well I saw a video on 'tiny houses' and I was hooked. I grabbed some scraps and tried to make one.




Success! I loved it. But I didn't have a ton of scraps laying around so I invested in some. I bought some cute fat quarters and a few grab bags of scraps at some local quilt shops. And commenced to making a few more houses.

And then it hit me...I have to make way over 100 of these for a throw sized quilt.

*insert the bug eyed emoji here*

And I know myself well enough that it was going to turn into a negative experience and I didn't want that. Because I really did/do want a quilt that I made myself..that I can snuggle up on the couch with.

So! Change of plans.

I remembered a pattern I had pinned months ago..'in case' I ever made a quilt. It's a SIMPLE four patch with a larger square next to it and that is repeated for the entire quilt. An easy beginner pattern, which the tiny houses were not. I went back to my favorite of the three shops and asked for help and showed them my fabric pieces. And then looked around and found the cutest fabric that coordinated pretty well with it, for the big squares.



I got started making squares.





(that is how the back of a perfect four patch looks..with a tiny four patch in the middle that distributes the bulk very well)



And before long, my top was finished. Verrrry scrappy. It's not a pretty quilt, by all the fancy standards, but its beautiful to me because I made it. :)

I really was wishing I could have sent my top up a flag pole or something...LOOKIE AT WHAT I DID ALL BY MYSELF. I'm such a dork but I was so happy I made it 'that far', because honestly I wasn't sure if I could do it.

But I did. :)

I went back to the cute little shop and found backing fabric that is in the same line as my yellow squares..and its got little squares all over it which to me seemed perfect for my humble little scrappy only a 'mother' could love, quilt.




Isn't it cuuuute? And the red peaking out on the right side, is the binding. It matches my red small squares perfectly.

I got my back ready, and then pin basted it and started quilting on my almost 30 year old BASIC Kenmore sewing machine (with a walking foot). I am straight line quilting on both sides of my seams etc so it will be a square double line grid all over. Again..simple.



I sent that photo to a friend and she said it looked like my quilt was trying to eat my sewing machine. Pretty accurate. It was overwhelming at first and I just wasn't sure it would even be possible for me to quilt on my 'regular' sewing machine. But I found a you tube video showing how to do it and it really hasn't been that bad. Tedious but not hard. I am working from the center out and have quilted half of it, going across. I have the other half and then both halves going up and down.

It's a marathon, not a sprint.



(blue lines drawn on seams so I can keep track of where to sew)

I think it's going to turn out cute and I am falling more and more in love with my little ugly duckling quilt.

touching my toe into the waters #quilting

I have always been amazed by quilts. I have a baby quilt that was made for me by my grandmother. I used it and even carried it on car trips etc until it started to fray and now it lives on my quilt rack. I have a few that were my mother's and I was given a quilt my grandmother pieced and my aunt quilted as a wedding present.

I love quilts. The patterns.  Stars, stripes, bear claws,  squares, triangles..and a bunch of other shapes I don't know the names of. The colors. Every color in the rainbow.  The fabrics. Everything from quilting fabric to well, feed sacks and old clothes, way back when. Quilting has come a long way. 

But quilts are intimidating. I always looked at other's creations with all the heart eyes..and a little bit of jealousy if I am just being honest.

I recently noticed that a local sewing machine and quilt shop has beginner quilting classes...what are the odds? LOL So I decided to sign up. I had to wait a couple of weeks from when I signed up to actually go to my class and I was so antsy and excited.

My first class was last Tuesday and my second class was day before yesterday. Next Tuesday is the last class. (we will come on another day to bind our quilt after we complete the quilting on our own).
The teacher is the sweetest and so is her helper. There are six of us in the class and four of us are left handed. I am used to being the minority, so that has been kind of funny.

The project we are all doing is a table runner. A very doable first project with lots of opportunity to learn different blocks and some beginner technique.

My first cuts and pieces. This was created on our first night.




This is the background fabric...it has bluebonnets on it. Those are the state flower of Texas and they have my heart big time.


And this is my almost completed top. I could not believe we made so much progress in two evenings.


I am so proud of it. I hope I don't get stuck and unable to finish. So far it has gone together so well and the teacher is so encouraging that it makes me feel like I really can do it. :)

I knew that week to week I would forget what we learned so I grabbed some fabric at Hobby Lobby to make another one so I could reinforce it all in my mind. I am just as excited about that one as the official class one. And if it actually turns out, it will be a gift so that is fun.

Such pretty colors!



Squares done but I can't remember how to square them up. So I will carry them to class next week and let her show me again. And then I can sew on the sashing. And do whatever else we learn next week.




I don't see me becoming a super fancy quilter but I am excited to perhaps create a few simple projects that are useful and pretty. So fun. Even an old dog like me can maybe learn a new trick. :)

I made...

So I wrote a post the other day and then never got around to finishing it. Here goes anyway so I can get it out of my drafts folder. : )

I hope your Christmas and New Years were safe and happy.  Ours was quiet and nice. And as always, I'm glad it's over. I guess I'm sort of a grinch but I am always happy to pack it all up and be done with holidays for a while. : )

I am happy to say that I have not been having problems breathing. I would say 'at all' but every now and then I will notice it for like A breathe. But it really has felt nice to just feel ok in that regard and not have to put so much mental effort into correctness in that area.

When I started feeling better, I started thinking about all the things I hadn't felt like doing when I couldn't get a breathe. One of them was cross stitch. I started a project a couple of winters ago and got bogged down on this one part and just stopped working on it. So I picked that up and got past the tricky part and finished it.

I did learn making this project that I have major anxiety over french knots. I dotted both the "i"s but did not do any of the decorative knots...I kept obsessing over them looking exactly alike, which they do not, so I knew doing the 20-30 other ones was a lost cause.

INSERT PHOTO HERE..yeah it never happened. : /

I also started putting more effort into my meals again. I have lots of cookbooks but you know as well as I do that it always comes back to the simple stuff. I have lots of recipes for 'raw' foods and salads. And there are some foods I'm trying to learn how to eat raw. One of them is cauliflower. So I played around with several recipes and came up with my own. I had to come up with a name so I went out on a limb and decided to call it Cauliflower Salad. I know, right.

Nothing here is exact...chop up a head of cauliflower..if it's a large one I use about 2/3. Chop into small pieces. I used to try to make it tiny but now I just go for small. Call me lazy. Then chop up a couple hand fulls of parsley, half some tiny tomatoes, add black olives, some onions and or green onions, some lemon juice, garlic powder,  olive oil and salt and pepper. Just chop everything up in the amount and size that is your liking and add the flavorings etc and you're done. It is so yummy and bright. And super healthy. And there isn't a recipe. Just put a bunch of stuff together. And you could swap out other veggies altogether if you want.

INSERT PHOTO HERE...yeah this never happened either. : /

Anyway...I hope you and yours are enjoying the first days weeks of 2015. : )

Project Life App

I have been a scrap booker since my kids were little.

I've gone from trying to 'do' every. single. picture when they were little...because hello...every single pic was so cute when they were little, to just trying to do vacations.

And even that can be overwhelming. 300-500 pics for a one week vacation. Yes, I pick through and find the best ones, but sometimes ya just want to show different ones for different reasons. And even picking just the best stuff, y'all that's still A LOT of photos.

And a lot of time. And a lot of effort. (And a lot of mess.)

And guess what...all of that stuff is in short supply around here.

So the other day I saw that Project Life has an app for Apple now.  So I downloaded it.

And y'all..I don't EVEN know where to start with this.

It's easy.  It's fun. It's cheap. (app is $2.99) And best of all, IT'S FAST.

As in, since I got it just a couple of days ago, I've made five (!!!) really cute pages. That's five more pages than I've managed to complete in lo a many years, my friend. I haven't been this excited about anything scrap book related in YEARS.

I have wanted to 'go digital' for a long time because of the less mess and less paper, but they are always so complicated. But guess what...this is an app! It's easy! It fits in the palm of my hand. I can do it anywhere.  Did I tell you it's easy? I started playing with it and right away I had it figured out and was creating something really cool and fun. I also love that the app comes with four very different 'kits' with very different color palettes of 'papers'. As in...I can create for a while with just what came in the app. But other kits are available and they are cheap too....99 cents and $1.99 is not bad. And after that, they are mine to use over and over..unlike a special sticker or piece of paper that once I've stuck it down, it's used forever.

Once pages are done, they can be saved to my camera roll, posted on all manner of social media or just about anything else you would want to do with them. They can also be uploaded to places like Persnickety Prints for printing. Y'all...they print an 8 X 8 square page for 99 cents. (you can also print a 12 inch square for slightly more, btw) I can't print photos and buy papers and do it all for a buck!

This isn't a sponsored post, by the way. I just think this is so cool.

OK...I'll shut up now so we can look and some fun scrap book pages, k?

Cute, right? : )

paint clothes

The water issue yesterday was short lived. My walls are patched and look perfect. And this morning I went to THE Home Depot with my old paint buckets with the label on them to get more paint.

The guy that’s worked in paint FOREVER wasn’t there so I ended up with a young girl..bless her heart…and she thought Evermore was the color, not part of the Glidden name..as in Glidden Evermore..so she had to remix my paint. Oy. But she got it to be the right color and I came home and started priming and painting.

Glidden can’t recoat for four hours, but Behr is only two. So right now, Behr is my favorite paint ever. : ) Hoping to get all the coats done and furniture back in place by the end of today. *fingers crossed*

It will be nice to have that done. But then I want to do some deep cleaning and dusting. That’s always fun. ; )

semi-scrapbooking {quicker and easier way to get the job done}

The events of the past year have renewed my resolve to do some things. But maybe in a modified way. I have been a scrapbooker (Is that even a word? The squiggly line below it says it’s not a word, but I’m going with it!) since my girl was a baby. I went to a Creative Memories party and went on from there. But just like everybody else, I can’t keep up with how many pictures I need to scrapbook in the time I would like to spend on it.

Sometimes lately I just don’t have the mental energy to spend on it. But I would still like to record activities for posterity. (mainly at this point I just do vacations…right now I have three to scrap book..TN, FL and CO) And it can feel overwhelming with just those to tackle.

But this is where it gets interesting. I meet with a group of girls once a week. We share a meal and then do some sort of crafting. Most of the time it’s scrapbooking. One of the girls did a super big vacation and there were just too many photos to expect to do a layout for every. single. one. So she decided to do something sort of different. She bought the full page layout sleeves (12 by 12) and also bought the sleeves that hold six 4 by 6 photos per page. And this is where things started to stray from the cookie cutter every-page-is-a-full-spread scrapbooking that we all know (and love).  She did some full layouts on the big pages. And she also put her 4 by 6 photos in some sleeves and left some sleeves for journaling or ticket stubs or embellishments or whatever. What she ended up with was just as cute as a regular scrapbook, but it took a fraction of the time to complete, and she was able to include more photos and more stories. Sheer genius, if you ask me.

So I am learning to work this technique, semi-scrapbooking as I like to call it, into my scrapbooking routine. I think it will be a big help as I try to get more pictures in books while keeping my sanity and my patience somewhat intact. ; )

A full page ‘spread’ to introduce our time at Garden of the Gods…(definitely not my best work here, but you get the idea)

And then individual pics with a journaling slot left open…

I think you get the idea. Much easier and quicker. Not near as much cropping needed. But of course, you can still crop to highlight a certain photo and mount it on paper to make it stand out etc. The possibilities are endless. : ) Happy scrapping!

*I know we didn’t invent this..I’ve seen it in magazines, but for years I hunted for the special pages etc featured to pull this look off to no avail. Thankfully now these things are showing up more in stores and making it easier for us girls to git’r done. Hobby Lobby is my happy place! : )

I’m linking this post to Works for Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family.

another necklace

I made this a while back. It’s another way to make a cute necklace. I used waxed linen thread. It’s different because there aren’t very many beads on it. I tied a knot at the very end of my project (big pink bead at the bottom of the picture) and then strung on a very small, bead, then the pink bead, then another very small bead. And then finished that off with another knot. And then a little over in inch later, I did another series of knot, bead, bead, bead, knot..all the way around. I double knotted both end pieces since I cut off the threads short and painted them with clear nail polish to help them stay tied.

I’ll bet you’re wondering how to wear it since there aren’t any clasps, aren’t you? Well, you just tie it. Like this…

And let it hang around your neck. I have a friend that makes these and she taught me. Isn’t it clever?

cute little gifts

Do you ever need a cute little gift at Christmas (or anytime) that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg?

Me too!

I saw the cutest idea the other day in Scrapbooks Etc magazine and decided to copy it. And here’s what I did.

I bought some vanilla cookie flavored scented candles at Walmart a nice store. They came bigger, but this small size was the cheapest cute and easy to work with for my project.

I cut strips of scrapbook paper approximately one and a half inches ‘tall’ by ‘whatever around’. One piece of 12 by 12 scrapbook paper was more than enough for what I was making. 

I also used a small punch to make small circles. I used an inkpad to distress the edges just a little bit. You can’t really see it, but it looks better than a plain circle would have.

Then I added stickers.

And put them all together.

And wrapped them.

There you go…five gifts for $5…plus the stuff I already had laying around in my scrapbook bin.

By just changing out the scents/papers, this project would make a fun yet inexpensive gift anytime.

more bling, Walmart and a busy week

So I’m supposed to be working on the grocery list so I can get in and out of Wallyworld early tomorrow and be done with it.

But I’m here.

Sometimes I just don’t want to think about what we’re going to eat. And on a week that celebrates the turkey it’s kind of hard for me to decide what I should make.

Cuz I cook with chicken and turkey every day.

But I don’t make cranberry salad and pumpkin pie every day. Looking forward to those.

There is just so much on my heart today. I just feel so full. But it’s a holiday week and I know you girls just aren’t going to be around as much. And I know it’s the stuff that can take it out of me..not grief stuff..God stuff. Perhaps I’ll write and wait to post. Perhaps I’ll just go for it. Or perhaps it won’t happen.

This week will be busy, even though we aren’t doing school. Well, we aren’t doing the academics. We’re doing PE. That gets us one more week closer to being done with it. On this schedule, we will be done with PE when we break for Christmas. We’re loving that.

I made a birthday present to send to someone I love. Look familiar?

I made mine and wore it out shopping yesterday and got so many compliments on it that I knew I needed to make one as a gift (so I ran out late yesterday, bought the stuff and made it so I can drop it in the mail tomorrow morning). I look at it and can’t believe I’m wearing something so cool.

And I made it.

Well, I guess I’d better get back to the grocery list. It’s not going to make itself. What are you up to this week?

homemade bling

This little elf has been busy.

The four on the left are Christmas presents and the two on the right are mine.

I love the one with the big cross and all the pearls.

I also love the purple one with the glass piece on the end.

Ya know..that might be the back..but it’s a really pretty purple flower.

It’s been fun doing something a little different.

But I need to get going on scapbook calendars so they’ll be ready for Christmas.

Have you started Christmas shopping/crafting yet?

new hobby

I’ve done a lot of scrapbooking. These days, I mostly do vacations and calendars for myself and my MIL. Well, I think scrapbooking our Disney trip did. me. in!

I’m a little burned out.

But I was at my scrapbooking girlfriend group a couple of weeks ago, and two of the girls were making jewelry! I’d seen the rows of beads in Hobby Lobby, but never stopped to try to figure out how you do that sort of thing.

I watched the girls and got more curious. So I checked out a great book from the library that showed all the nuts and bolts and basic how-to’s and I was off and running. 

I’m not super fancy with it and probably won’t ever be, but it’s still fun learning something new.

I love the color turquoise, but don’t really have a lot of things to go with it.  I might end up taking this one apart and starting all over. That’s been a theme with me while learning about this..take it apart and make it better or correct a mistake etc. But I’m learning.

And I made this one for the girl.

I love it because she’s always wanted a choker type necklace but because she’s so thin, they never fit her right. But I could make this one as long..or short..as we wanted and it fits her perfectly!

I made a bracelet to match the first one and I’ve also done some stuff with knotted thread. Very different look, but I’m not happy with that yet. I’ll show you this unique look when I complete something I like. : )

a new discovery **updated**

Updated:

This is the link to the program I bought. It costs $39 at Target and $10 online. Hmmm, which one will she choose? I'm also researching printing sites to see if I can get a good deal on something worth having. I enjoy holding and looking at my books too! I'll keep you informed, but for now, here is the link.

Original post:

Spring break is over.

We didn’t do as much ‘fun’ as I had planned for us, but it was a restful week.

I bought a little program (a cheap download of something more expensive if you buy it in a box) that does digital scrapbooking.

Oh my word.

I had a digi-scrapping kind of program that worked on my old computer. I never liked it. It was hard to use. And may I add, the papers and embellishments etc were, for the most part, ug-leee. So I didn’t do much with it. Well, my header is made from it, so there is a little bit of ‘the cute’ but it’s hard to find.

This new one is very easy. It doesn’t have a zillion options, but it has enough. I made almost a dozen cute pages in an afternoon! That’s a lot compared to ‘real’ scrapbooking.

So now I’m trying to figure out what to do with this newfound ‘hobby’ and decide if it’s worth it to use it more often and have the pages printed. Still researching that.

And making my Walmart list. After all, it IS grocery day Monday.

WFMW-posters and sticky stuff

My last post was about the totally cute poster we had made for Miss Boo.

Remember?!

I just love it. It makes me smile every time I walk past her room. It’s just so stinkin’ cute. And because one person several of you asked, (and a few of you are probably curious) I thought I’d share how this whole thing came to be.

We went to Ikea several months ago and in the pet section, they had these cute pics of cats and dogs really close up. They were cute, but all I could think of was my cat is cuter than those cats. But those large pics gave me an idea.

So I took a pic of the cat.

And had it doctored up to suit Boo’s taste.

I had noticed an ad months ago on weareTHATfamily for a place called Online Poster Printing. I had checked them out a few months back so I knew right where to send my pic of the cat to be made into a poster.

And she could not have been more pleased and surprised!

And we were thrilled with the speed of delivery and the quality. Very impressive!

So we hung it on the wall. I didn’t want to use tape because it’s kinda tacky and this was a nice poster. I’ve used these…

in the past and love the way they work so we used them again. The poster won’t slip and we can take it off the wall to move it without messing up anything. Love it.

Online Poster Printing and Command Poster Strips work for me. To see other Works for Me Wednesday posts, hop on over to weareTHATfamily.

*Note: Nobody gave me these products and nobody is twisting my arm to say anything nice about them either. I bought them myself and I like ‘em, so I decided to tell you about them! : )

Oh yeah..something else...there's another post under this one. I was a busy girl today.

gettin’ scrappy

When November and December start rolling around, I start gathering my thoughts… and my photos… because I know it’s time to get scrappy! Scrapbook calendars, that is!

Last year my theme was Disney, of course, since we went over Thanksgiving. I had loads of cute photos.

This year’s theme… weeeeell… we did go to  DC and I did take a lot of photos. But they don’t necessarily fall under the category of ‘cute’.  So I have several photos from the DC trip… and one from Austin… and a few from our recent trip to visit family in Missouri. 

I’ve started gathering supplies.

But I need a few more things. Then I’ll be ready to set up shop and get scrappy!  And calendary!

I also bought these when I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday.

Because somebody can’t stay away from the tree and seems to enjoy eating little bits of it.  She ended up sick and she’s on pills twice a day for an upset tummy.  Volunteers… anyone…anyone?  The vet told me to put balloons under the tree. Supposedly cats don’t like the movement and they’ll stay away. 

I guess I need to get on it!

distressed stool, a DIY

Since I’ve gotten, shall we say, a little more advanced in years, the idea of plopping my little butt tail end down while I blow dry my hair and put on make up is becoming more and more attractive.

Enter the plain ole little stool I bought recently when we make a trip over to Ikea.   There it is sitting under the test glass door for the other project I did recently.

I couldn’t decide how I wanted to paint it but then decided I’d kinda like to paint and distress it.  So I did.

I’m not original, but I know how to copy things I’ve seen tutorials of. So that’s what I did. I used the products the girls at Shanty 2 Chic recommend and checked several of their projects to kind of figure it all out. 

I painted it with Rust-oleum American Accents spray paint in a cream-ish color.  Then I sanded the edges a tad.  Then I used Ralph Lauren faux technique glaze in tobacco (in hindsight, I think I bought one shade too dark for me).  It seemed a bit heavy even after wiping the glaze back off, so I ragged some more of it off with a damp cloth and it came out perfect. 

When I was happy with the way the glaze looked, I decided to seal it with polycrylic.

This is old stuff I used for a project a few years ago. I didn’t know if it was any good or not, but I gave it a shot.  When I used it a few years ago, it seemed effortless to use.  So easy.  But maybe the stuff was a little old, because it was making bubbles when I used a cheap paintbrush. So!  I sanded some of that down, and put a couple more coats on using a lint free cloth and it did fine.

Turned out really cute, don’t you think?!

Just the right amount of color and distress.

Love it.  This was a nice practice piece to see if I liked the colors and technique. I have a bigger piece that may or may not get redone at some point.