I spend a bit of time at our local craft stores. It all started out innocently when I decided to make some silk flower arrangements. Then I noticed that they often sell angels, which I collect, so the angels drew me back in time after time, I guess you could say.

I then discovered that they have great storage solutions; colorful boxes, photo boxes and baskets, to name a few. I even found what looks like an old, antique traveling trunk and, for a few bucks, (on sale) it hides a plethora of wires, cables and connectors that work to charge computer and cameras that I own. Cool;getting organized is a good thing.

I also noticed that they have lots of wonderful “crafty gifts” for children. The craft stores became a great place to find creative gifts. The kids love art sets and fun little junior stitchery projects. The other day, my daughter-in-law and I were killing some time, (you got it, in the craft store,) while our little one was at gymnastics. I needed to pick up some new silk flowers, so after gathering up the flowers I needed, we wandered through the aisles seeing what looked interesting.

I found a couple of glue guns that I needed to make bows for the girls’ hair, and then, we saw a cool little gadget that warms and sets crystals and rhinestones onto clothing. The crystals come pre-glued, and this little deally-magigger heats up the glue and voila! Even in the wash, the stones do not come off of the fabric. So, we both decided we had to have one. After all, the girls love sparkling things, tee shirts and such, and why not glam up some stuff while the crazy sales are happening? I bought a few packages because I figured I’d buy them in bulk, on line.

Yesterday I decided to give the glue gun and the rhinestone setter a bit of a trial. So, I gathered up all of the crap, excuse me, craft ecoutrements, and spread them out on the kitchen island countertop. I also brought in some clothes that I had bought for the girls at Kohl’s sale two days earlier. There was a pair of cute cordoroy pants that my granddaughter would love, dark maroon with a brown ribbon tie at the waist. I had loved the pants, not loved the color of the ribbon.

So, I pulled out my ribbon box, (oops, I forgot to tell you how much ribbon I’ve bought at the craft store!) and found a perfectly lovely roll of pink satin ribbon that would look oh so much better with the slacks than drab old brown! With my trustee glue-gun in hand, which I had never used until this moment, I turned up the ends of the ribbon to form a perfect hem. Once measured against the ugly brown ribbon, I glued the other end as well, to ensure no fraying would occur; fraying is bad, really bad! So, then I put MY pink, ribbon belt through the belt hoops with the ugly brown ribbon belt. Wow! Even the ugly drab brown looked good against the pink! “I am,” I assured myself, “the next big fashion designer, “Ms. Thang,” thank you very much.

My attention went then to a really cute little tee that was badly in need of sparkle. I put the little crystal into the tip of the heater-upper, and wow, did it get hot! (This is probably a good time to warn you not to ever touch the working end of a glue gun OR the hot crystal thingy setter because you will hurt yourself.)

I did what the directions said; wait 12 seconds, then put the crystal where you want it on the fabric and press it into place…did I mention the crystal is freakin’ hot by now? Well, I quickly learned to press it into place with something other than my naked fingertip! Also, when you drop the little, hot, sticky bugger, DON’T pick it up with your fingertip. I still have the burn where the lovely little crystal adhered to my skin….ouch! And to make matters worse, it wouldn’t come UN-glued! So unless you like permanent sparkle attached to your body, don’t do this.

After doing this a whole bunch of times, applying the crystals, not burning myself, the little size 5 tee looked quite impressive, indeed. Sparkling up the whole kitchen. Now I turned to a little valentine jumper with coordinating tee shirt. It was very, very cute, but needed a bit of sparkle at the center of each felt flower scattered about the front of the jumper. Ten minutes and three more burns later, the jumper looked so much more fashionable.

The craft store is the place to buy ribbon; lots and lots of ribbon! When they have a sale, you can go ribbon crazy. It seems that I did! I set out to buy ribbon to make bows for my granddaughters’ hair. It’s fairly simple to make a pretty bow and glue it to a hair clip for the girls. They LOVE their ribbons.

I did buy a lot of ribbon, however. This morning I returned home with fresh flowers to arrange throughout the house. I am so wild about bulb flowers, tulips and irises, in particular, so when they arrive for the season at the grocery store, I can’t resist buying some.

Tulips are best arranged in a tall, thin vase as their stems are weak and the bloom is heavy. For some reason, my tallest vase was missing. There is a way around this dilemma; use a rubber band or ribbon high up on the stems, then put them in a vase, (or in my case, a rarely-used martini pitcher,) and lean them against the edge as if you were too busy to give it much of a thought.

I think the tulip-daisy arrangement looked quite good on my kitchen center island. Life is too short not to enjoy fresh flowers! In this case, I used yellow gingham wired ribbon to tie the stems high enough up to prevent too much “drooping” of the tulips, and curled the ends of the bow around my finger, ringlet style, for a little extra, pretty touch. When the bouquet has outlived it’s beauty, I will roll up the ribbon for another use, another time.

The tiny, decorative vase beside the tall arrangement in the photo, serves to show off the pretty flowers with stems broken or too short for the tall arrangements.  sorry, no bows!  If the vase is decorated, enough is enough! 

I now have a pile of projects awaiting me; all elements purchased from the craft store, and tons of “heat and set” crystals purchased on line.  I’ve employed most of the silk flowers in various arrangements so they, at least, aren’t staring at me from the floor of my home office!

 I do, however, have a photo album waiting for wedding photos to be organized and put into proper order within the book.  The crystals call to me every time I open the organizer box in which they reside.  And my ribbon box waits for me to complete the bows for the girls’ hair.  But I do look forward to a few, quiet minutes so that I can get on these projects!

 The other day while at the craft store, my daughter-in-law said to me, “Do you think you’ll get into scrap-booking; look at all of this cool stuff!”  I thought about it for a second or two.  There is, for sure, a plethora of scrap-booking accoutrements that include special papers, glues, rhinestones, books, cutting instruments, mounting mats and methods, boxes to hold and organize it all, and other brads, sparkles, ribbons and things about which I have no clue as to what is their purpose!

 I looked at her and said, “Let’s go; quickly!”  Oh, and by the way, if I am tempted again to take up scrap booking, somebody, please SLAP me!  

Come back on Monday to see the finished products!  I will post the pictures here after I complete the work on these two tops and sweater!  I do hope to make the photos "sparkle!"