a mini bit of projects progress

Okay, so I haven't been keeping track lately. Well, that's not really true--I have been keeping track on my actual lists, I just haven't been keeping track on any sort of draft post or anything. Just haven't felt like it. But I decided to mention getting to put a couple more checks on one of my 50x50 goals.

#29-Upcycle 50 things.

Someone gave me this print a while back. And while it seems like the sort of think I might like, I just didn't. But instead of shipping it off to the thrift store, I decided that I'd hang onto it because one day I could turn it into a blank canvas to play on. (Of course, I save things to turn them into other things all the time---it's the follow-through I have trouble with. :P ) But with the gang away, and with my brain just sick to death of the rise of Christianity and the fall of the Byzantine Empire and religion in science fiction and vocabulary lists, I decided it was the perfect time to do a little playing.

So I took the less-than-loved print...

...gave it a nice coat of gesso...played with some modeling paste and water color pencils and metal bits and paper bits and rub-ons...and ended up with this:

Oh, I don't pretend that I have any artistic talent or anything like that. But the point is I took something that was destined for the charity shop and had fun playing with it instead. And while it may not be anything special, I have to say I'm a lot more likely to hang it in our house than I was the "before" version. :)












And as for upcycle #2, well, while I was rooting through my pile of "treasures-to-be-revamped" for that print, I noticed how many outgrown, stained, or otherwise no longer desirable t-shirts I had amassed. All with the intent of turning them into t-shirt yarn one day. And when I noticed them, I decided that maybe today should be that day...because just a few days before I'd seen this cool tutorial for making bracelets out of t-shirt yarn. So here's my very first ever ball of t-shirt yarn:

Which I used to make this bracelet for Annie (and still have lots of this yarn leftover, of course):

So, nothing overly exciting, but nonetheless, it's two more checks off that list of 2,500 things. :P And best of all, I had fun doing them.