Impatiens in Bloom

My houseplant impatiens that I grew from seed bloomed. Isn't this lovely?




They're such a peaceful dusty pink color they just melt you to see them!

Pin Cushion Wall Clock

You've probably seen those retro style clocks with the little balls all the way around the outside. I've always thought they looked like a pin cushion and thought one would look neat in our sewing room. I sure didn't like the price tag though. I saw one that's only 13" across here for $61. It looks like this:

Well, as much as I like them, I sure wasn't ready to fork over $60+ for a novelty item, so after seeing a Sunburst Mirror created by Stephanie Lynn from Under the Table and Dreaming, I thought, 'If she can do it, so can I!' So I picked up supplies from Wal*Mart 2 days later. My clock is going to be much larger than the $60 one too. I got these regular old super balls for 4 for $1:

I started by boring a hole in them. I'm sure there's more technical ways of doing this, but I just used the screw that came off the back of the clock. It was holding it in the display box:

I screwed it clear in and then pulled it out:

Then I made the hole bigger with the dowels I'll be using. I can't remember exactly how much the dowels were, but they came in a 16 pack for about $2.
Next I dismantled the clock so I could decorate the face of it:

It came out very easily. This is the point that I discovered that the face is actually glass, not plastic. That pleased me for a $3 clock!

This is how it looked. I tested it to make sure it worked before I put any more effort into it. That's why the second hand isn't up on the 12 where it belongs:

I decided to put it back together to mark where I wanted to drill the holes:

Then I laid the dowels out and painted them using Krylon silver paint:

Midnight of course had to come check on me. I'm surprised Canicus wasn't along as well:

Next I drilled the holes:

Then I decorated the face of the clock. I thought I was going to do some actual stitching on it, but it was glued on so I just drew on it and added buttons, pins, and a needle. Cute, huh?

Then I added the "pins". I made these by gluing the balls onto the sticks after poking them in the holes I'd made. The white stuff you see here is wadded napkins glued in to hold the pins in place:

So far, so good:

I added the battery:

I did get a reassuring "tick, tick, tick, tick," but I must admit I was hesitant to turn it over. A million thought went through my head. What if it doesn't work? What if the glue dripped through and ruined the mechanism? What if it falls apart? What if...? We certainly need a drum roll here!

Tada!

Isn't in darling? It's nearly 3 feet across. Here's another shot of the face of the clock:

You can see that the hands of the clock have a kind of glazed look. That's from the super glue fumes. This made me grateful again that the face is glass or it would have gone cloudy too. How "in-place" does this look hanging here in our sewing room?

All the supplies cost me around $10. There are a few things that bother me about this clock. The bottom pin is a little crooked and I can see the wood coming through on a few of the pins. I don't think I'm going to be able to do anything about the bottom pin, but I might mask it out and fix the paint on the pins. Chances are, I won't ever do anything about it. :) In the mean time, I hope you all like it!

How to Make a Diaper Cake

This doesn't really have much to do with home improvement or gardening, but I made a diaper cake for someone last night. Since I haven't posted any articles the last few days, I'm going to bombard you with lots for this project. First I cut pieces of ribbon into strips long enough to tie around the rolled diapers:

Then I rolled the diapers up:

Then I tied the ribbon around them:

Next I tied 6 of them around 1 to make a circle. This will be the center of the cake for both tiers. I made 2 of these:

Next I stacked 12 around one circle for the bottom tier:

Then I put diapers around the bottom in a swirl:

I tied it all cute with ribbon and tied a bow:

Isn't that cute? Next I used baby spoons inserted in the center of the top tier to attach them to the bottom tier:

That just makes so it doesn't move around:

Now I cut some more pieces of ribbon. These are longer because I'm going to tie them into bows on the outside of 6 of them:

I tied the bows on the smooth facing side like this:

I did 6 like that and 6 the same as the others:

Then I stacked them on every other one with bows and regular. This is kind of a balancing act to get them all to stay on while you tie the ribbon around:

After I put 2 rows of ribbon to hold that tier together, I added some baby spoons to look like candles:

It's almost cute enough just like that, but it gets ever cuter! I added some flower hair clips to the top tier:

...some baby socks to the bottom tier:

...some cute little zip lock bags filled with mini M&Ms:

...a few pacifiers and a set of baby toy keys:

...and filled the sock with Skittles and Mini M&Ms:

Doesn't this look most tasty?

Here are just a few more shots:

I'm going to finish it off with a tin foil covered tray. Baby is due next week and I hope she likes her new cake! :D It reminds me of what my parents' sign looks like right now. We planted morning glories by it and this is what happened:

If that doesn't describe this cake to a T, I don't know what does. ;)