Heidi’s Wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday!!

LOS OSOS, CA – Sunday morning – I knew if I planned a quiet holiday weekend, it would probably not happen — and it didn’t — but that’s ok!!  It was a wonderful holiday weekend!!

Gary & Gina

This year, I told all of my family I was cooking Thanksgiving dinner no matter what.  I didn’t care who came, I was going to cook for Thanksgiving.  Last year we went to visit our granddaughter Savannah at boarding school. I so missed the holiday smells and the leftovers when we returned home. This year as our family continues to grow with extended families of their own… I knew some of our kids wouldn’t be able to visit.

Our daughter Gina and her hubby Gary came visiting first. My daughter Starr and her daughter Savannah came and joined us for dinner which was sooooo good.

After Thanksgiving yummies Gina and I headed for the studio…Gina loves to mosaic. My family frequently receives my mosaic art for gifts. She says she never tires of mosaics. (Good to know ’cause I was thinking everyone would tire of them!)  So we

Mosaics on Brick

mosaic’d away all day Friday.

Gina and Gary decided to plant a rosebush for each of their kids.  They wanted to make mosaic garden art to place by each plant — isn’t that a cool idea!  So here are the mosaic brick garden art pieces we created.  Gina picked words and alphabet letters to match each mosaic. We had so much fun!!!

Then just as Gina and Gary left for home with their treasures, our son Woody and his family stopped by. We went over to the beach and gathered stones (check out the heart shapes I found – love them!). I was able to get a photo of Woody, Suzi and the girls while the boys (Mason, Josh and Vince) climbed the rocks.

The ocean was amazing today.  So I thought I would share it.

The weekend isn’t quite over but it has been amazing…..yes I am grateful for my family.

Audriana, Suzi, Woody, Kaila

Sending Lots of Love, Heidi

Creating Away… at the East coast… Inspired at Home Studio

Heidi in Inspired at Home East Coast Studio

GRASONVILLE, MD – Saturday night – Oh my gosh, I’ve already been here over a week in Maryland, visiting the east coast Inspired at Home studio!!!!

We’ve been busy with all of our projects and creating away.  Lots to do and so little time! I’ve already taught a class on making Fairy Houses, Tiffany and I worked on videos for Faster Plaster this week (now I can’t even remember which days that was), we’ve had hair done, makeup, and photos done, we went to Annapolis shopping and to lunch last Monday. Whew!

Candace and I have been taking  ‘inventory’  to see what needs to be done or made for the studio.  We often get side tracked on our creative projects…..”oh look, what do you think if I put this together on a box”  or “that is so cool lets try it this way”.  What’s lovely is we can stop anytime and have a fabulous cup of tea from Candace’s special Herban Living Tea blends yummy!!!

Candace's Herban Living at the Inspired at Home East Coast Studio

Today was real cute! (Sorry I missed the photo op for this one.) A mother brought her two year old and the playpen (she called it a stack ‘n play and she did call and ask before she arrived) into the studio. She  sat and beaded while the little one played in the playpen.  It was a great concept but the little one didn’t like it too long. I think it was cool that she wasn’t going to let anything stop her from being creative — at least for a few minutes! (She eventually purchased all of her supplies and took them home with her.)  She came back for the studio evening hours and created by herself…Mommy time!!!

Tiffany working on Faster Plaster at the Inspired at Home East Coast Studio

More video taping on the calendar to finish up 3 more short videos on Faster Plaster. I’m really loving the Faster Plaster….. you did see the eBook.. right? I will be here ten more days . So if you are in the area please stop by and visit. Or better yet come be creative with us. We’ll even make you a cup of yummy tea! >> Love, Heidi

Aleene and Heidi’s Cambria Adventure

LOS OSOS, CA – Sunday afternoon – For the past couple of days, my mother Aleene has been visiting me before I leave this next week for a visit in Maryland with my sisters Candace and Tiffany.

Mom and I love to go to all of our favorite hang outs when she visits.  We have a kind of ritual we follow when mom visits. First we both love The Tea Cozy in Cambria, California (on the Central Coast). It’s a lovely British tea house that has wonderful tea sandwiches, always an incredible soup and they have their own blends of amazing teas.  Barry ‘ the Tea Master’ and his wife LeeAnne ‘the chef’ are absolutely amazing!!!  I’m sorry we missed getting a photo of having tea, we were so ready to indulge we just missed the photo op. But we did manage to photo the shop.

Second we always like to go to all the gardens and nurseries in the area. Our first stop after our tea time was Cambria Pines Nursery, a wonderful space with all kinds of different gardens and delights! Second stop is The Garden Shed – a cute and whimsical garden area with lots of garden gadgets and decor for the garden. Right next door is the quaint Birds of a Feather shoppe. They have amazing little collections of vintage collectibles and do-dads. (Mom and I laughed when we saw a sprig of velvet leaves for sale for $10.00 when she used to sell them in her store for 39 cents). I bought a few vintage ribbons shaped liked leaves that I thought I would use on my newest Spirit Balls (featured in a new eBook that is launching this next week). I just had to show you how they packaged my purchase. (I only bought a couple of yards of each). It’s always so special when a shop makes the extra effort to embellish your purchase. I just love that!!!

Next stop Heart’s Ease (formerly owned by author Sharon Lovejoy.)  It’s a delightful herb garden and store that Candace and I discovered over 20 years ago.  The little cottage has herbal soaps, lotions, potpourri and a wonderful herb garden with garden statues sitting amongst the wonderful blooming hollyhocks and other gorgeous flowers. Mom enjoyed the hollyhock photo op!

Mom and I finished the day by parking our car by the ocean and watching the waves crash onto the rocks and had a glimpse of a dolphin, sea otters and sea lions frolicking in the waves.

We came back home to home-cooked spaghetti with yummy meatballs made by my hubby Harold.

Yes, it was a great visit!!! Thanks for visiting Mom! Next time, we will have to do our other favorite – Nepenthe Restaurant in Big Sur. Love Ya!  >>Heidi

Packaging Tape… not just for Taping!

LOS OSOS, CA – Saturday afternoon – Eileen Eisele of Tape Swell was a recent guest on our Inspired At Home radio show. If you haven’t checked out this product – go now! WOW!!!  These are the coolest printed tapes ever! “Printed tapes? ” you ask. This is one of those fabulous ideas that you say to yourself  ” I should have thought of that!!!”  Eileen has a line of  packaging type tapes that have really “swell” designs printed on them. So instead of sending out a package with just plain old clear tape, you use  one of  TapeSwell’s designer tapes and viola! instant inspired package. I LOVE it!!!

Of course I didn’t want to stop at putting tape just on my outgoing packages…. I wanted to design with it!  I took some inexpensive paper mache boxes and made them into designer boxes by using the black printed design.   I suggest making lots up… cause you never know when you might need a small gift box. And what could be easier that just putting tape onto a box. So super swell and simple!!!

Oh no, I didn’t stop there!!! You know me, I just have to create more!!  Jewelry was my next design challenge with this amazing product.  The EcoHeidi in me thought it would be great to create with a recycle item. I love plastic drinking straws. These are great because they are a bit thicker than most plastic straws. (I’m pretty sure I got these at Subway.) I painted the plastic drinking straws black  (Krylon’s Fusion Paint for Plastic works great!) Let them dry. Cut the painted straws into different lengths. I then put pieces of  the plastic tape (I used the tape that looks like lace) over the prepared drinking straws.  I then threaded glass beads and the straw beads onto a strand of silk cording. I tied a knot in between each cluster.  At the end I crimped a metal cording bead, then attached a closure.  Fabulous look!!

I just can’t rave enough about TapeSwell!!! And thanks, Eileen, for your creative product! I Love It!! Just being creative!! EcoHeidi- That’s me!!

What to do with Dryer Sheets

LOS OSOS, CA – Monday morning – Dryer sheet sachets have to be one of my top ten favorite designs! I actually made these sachets years ago for the Aleene’s Creative Living television show.  (And yes, these were tucked away in storage in  ‘the Shed’). I have made many since these originals, as they make a great gift for just pennies, and you get great comments.

I love the delicate look these have.  By using the dryer sheets and the white paint they kind of have a lacey look.  AND they are recycling (or is this upcycling?) something that normally gets thrown away. (That is if you can find them in dryer – usually stuck to the sheets and towels!)  So, start saving your used dryer sheets or if you want to make some right away… grab some right from the box. Either way you’ll make a great creative project. Creatively yours…. Heidi

DRYER SHEET SACHETS
by Heidi Borchers for http://www.inspiredathome.com

Materials

Dryer Sheets (You can use new or ‘used’ dryer sheets. If they are wrinkled, iron flat with low to medium heat on iron. Test first as some dryer sheets tend to melt from hear of the iron. If this happens, iron dryer sheet in between two thicknesses of paper towels.)
Acrylic paint  – white
Sewing machine (If you don’t sew, you can glue with Aleene’s® Fast Grab Tacky Glue®)
Craft foam – any color
Foamboard
Aleene’s® FunCraft™ Foam Glue
Tulip 3D Dimensional Paint – Liquid Pearl
Brush – ½” wide flat
Lavender flowers, potpourri or aromatic herbs
Waxed paper (to protect work surface)
Iron
Scissors (and craft knife for foam board)
Paper towels
Wet wipes

Instructions:

Transfer patterns (see below) to craft foam and cut out. Cut foamboard slightly larger than designs. Glue craft foam design to foamboard using Aleene’s® FunCraft™ Foam Glue. Let glue dry.

To stamp designs, place prepared dryer sheet onto waxed paper on a flat surface.  Plan placement of your design so you can make use of the entire dryer sheet, making sure you have enough space around design to stitch on the sewing machine. Carefully and quickly, brush an even coat of acrylic paint onto foam design. Immediately while paint is still wet, press onto dryer sheet and lift. Wipe paint from stamp with wet wipe or damp paper towel.  Let paint dry. On the heart design, I placed dots of Tulip paint along edge of hearts. Let dimensional paint dry.

SEW TOGETHER
When paint is dry, place a piece of dryer sheet (same size as painted one) to back of painted one and stitch three sides. Fill with potpourri, lavender or your choice of herbs. Stitch remaining side closed. Clip off any threads.  If necessary, trim edges with scissors or pinking shears.

-OR- GLUE TOGETHER

If gluing edges together, place a thin line of the Aleene’s® Fast Grab Tacky Glue® onto three sides of a plain sheet of the dryer sheet. Place painted side up in the glue. Let glue dry. Fill with potpourri or lavender. Carefully glue remaining side closed. Let glue dry. Trim edges as above.

Heidi’s Designer Tip:  I always test the stamp design first. Just apply the paint as instructed and then stamp onto clean piece of paper or waxed paper. This will help to give you an idea of just how much paint to use and how much pressure to put on the stamp. Then to ahead and stamp the dryer sheet!

More Design Treasures

LOS OSOS, CA – Monday morning – Last week, I promised I would share some more design treasures I recently found from inside my storage building  ‘The Shed’. Not long ago we would say ‘The Shed’ with an eerriee frightening voice… “it’s in the SHED!!!! Errrr! Help me! Don’t make me go in there” … a black hole where lots of our stuff is being stored.

Even some of my long-lost designs from the Aleene’s Creative Living Television show were in this space…… until a recent intervention of organizing. It was a huge undertaking ….. but so worth it!!

You’re probably wondering what a photo of a glove has to do with anything! Well, here are a couple of cute designs I made for TV (air date unknown but it was a long time ago!) using work gloves or garden type gloves.

I actually remember designing these ‘play’ gloves with the family in mind.  My thought process at the time was “wouldn’t it be cool to make a glove with a family…Mom.. Dad… Kids… Pets.” (Of course if you have a bigger family you will need to use more gloves!)

Why not start a Family Craft Night where everyone can join in, craft together and just have fun? If Dad has a mustache and glasses, go for it….. the cat is striped… use the marking pen.

I didn’t make any patterns for these…they are just to spark your family’s imagination! Don’t forget to use what you have around the house…. just scraps of fabric, floss, felt…glued into place with my favorite – Aleene’s Super Thick Tacky Glue … a little paint for the faces and a fine line marking pen for the detail. It’s fun for all ages. Even the teens will enjoy creating their own look.

Keep in mind you don’t even need to stick with making just family gloves. Get creative! How about making your own family story book. The important thing is getting the kids away from the computer, the tv….and in to bonding in a fun creative way… Enjoy creating with your family! Love, Heidi

P.S.  Don’t forget to share your project photos with us from crafting with the family. We’ll post them right here on our blog!

Amazing What Treasures You Will Find When You Clean Up!!!

LOS OSOS, CA – Wednesday morning – So I recently cleaned out ‘The Shed’ and I promised you I would share what actual treasures I found besides the list of ‘stuff’ that had accumulated in our storage area.

So, here’s the first one! Over two years ago we bought an acre of land, and have been enjoying the space.  Lots of wonderful fruit trees and our garden. Last year I tried my non-green thumb at growing gourds. My sister Tiffany and I took a class many years ago on decorating gourds and we were hooked. So into the garden went gourd seeds. After I harvested the ‘handful’ of gourds from my garden, I hung them to dry out in ‘The Shed’….then kind of forgot them….until we just recently re-organized the space.

So the top photo is the bounty (yep that’s all of it – one year’s worth) and this is the original art piece I made in my first gourd decorating class.

I am going to keep my bounty close by to remind me I need to create something from them too!!! Although they are kind of cool just like they are… the natural look…. Nah!!    I am going to decorate them… someday.

Creative Juices are a Flowing –

Love, Heidi

(Yes there are a lot more treasures found to write about but I need to get done with projects that are currently taking up space on my studio table.)

‘The Shed’ or Clutter with a capital ‘C’

LOS OSOS, CA – Tuesday morning – This past week I’ve had two of my grandsons visiting….. Joshua, 16 and Mason, 11. Joshua is always such a great help and we are always grateful when he comes to help us. (It’s the extra pair of strong arms to help carry and move stuff!!) Mason, with his amazing energy, helps in small moments then explores our property. In other words it’s hard to keep him focused very long. This week we decided to tackle ‘The Shed’ ! It’s one of those places that seems to collect everything we think we want to keep… after all, we will use that ‘everything’ sometime…won’t we?

Well ‘The Shed’ was becoming the ‘black hole’ of stuff including the Aleene’s archives (at least 15 large plastic grey totes), my Christmas stuff (six large plastic totes…but they are red and green so I know which ones they are), other holiday decor (including two big outdoor wood decoration pieces…one  is a rabbit the other is Mr & Mrs Santa and reindeer plus some cutout wood Christmas trees), my kiln (it’s pretty big), lots of bisque (from my store that closed 3 years ago), extra paints (both spray and house), my band saw, my scroll saw), my drill press, my husband’s table saw, the generator (we are all set if the power goes off), and about 300 pounds of sanded grout (20to 30 colors– a 10# bag of each)….. Yes I probably missed a few things!!

Since I’ve recently collected the Hazel Pearson archives (I haven’t really counted box by box but I’m thinking over 50 boxes), I was thinking it could go into ‘The Shed’…. if I just arranged it right…..Right?  Well that meant emptying everything….. building usable shelving and then putting everything back in its special space.  Five days later… yes we have an organized area where I can find everything…. you can actually walk into ‘The Shed’ . Whoo Hoo!!!

I did find lots of treasures but we’ll talk about that next time. So, for now I’m just a little bit more organized. Lovin’ it! >>Heidi

Now what I didn’t tell you…. is that was only one part of ‘The Shed’.  There is a whole other section with my husband’s ‘everythings’ from his electrical business!!!  That’s a whole different story!!!

Creative Window Treatment

LOS OSOS, CA – Monday morning – I know I’ve said it before but…… I just LOVE my new studio.

Everyday it just gets better.  But better doesn’t even begin to describe it…Fabulous!!!  Yep that’s it!!!

The studio is taking on its own personality. Actually, I guess that would be my personality!  The energy is fun, inspiring, creative, and definitely colorful.  As my creative guests walk through the door, they are often surprised…the creative energy just bursts from all corners of this fun space.

My newest addition is my creative window treatments. I have amazing natural light in the studio, mostly from my three skylights. But I also have three south facing windows that look into a dog/dirt/orchard (* see definition below) view.  So my creative “idea factory” mind…started to process…what to do?   Many of the retail craft stores often have wonderful small bolts of ribbons on sale…so I started to collect lots of fun colors, shapes and sizes of ribbons.

Boring, plain window before!

This week I started my project. First I put a spring tension rod into the window space.  Then I started to tie or tape various strands of my yardage collection onto the rod.  Next, I found some glass prisms (lots of childhood memories of those) and some wonderful glass blown ornaments (no Tiff, I haven’t used the ones from mom’s collection…….yet 🙂

So, I’m thinkin’ it’s probably a work in progress…’cause I just keep adding to it… who knows…if I need a special 1/8″ wide regal purple ribbon, I just might have to ‘borrow’ it from its display. I will definitely keep you posted on this magical addition to my creative studio space.

Sending lots of creative love your way! >>Heidi

*Definition of dog/dirt/orchard:  a fruit orchard that our dogs run through and make a mess…dig holes…run  (and sometimes pick their own fruit ) errrrrr!!!!

Oh btw: Check out all the empty cardboard ribbon bolts… I think I’ll challenge myself to recycle these! Stay tuned for Challenge Heidi! (I actually already have a great idea for them.)

Teaching Kids to be Creative

LOS OSOS, CA – Wednesday afternoon – It’s our job to help teach our kids and grandkids the steps to express their creativity!!! I know, I know… we’ve been talking about it for weeks on the Inspired at Home radio show (and for years on the Aleene’s Creative Living television show)  about how important it is to “teach” children to express their creativity.

We often don’t really need to ‘teach’ but to let kids just be who they are and I always find that their creativity just soars. I have found that by simply showing the kids the basics like how to use scissors, how to glue and other simple techniques they just blossom into creative artists.

My grandson Jackson 10, lives close by so he’s often hanging out at our house. Some days he will watch a few TV shows. Sometimes it’s shooting hoops and other times he’ll venture into the studio to be creative.  This past week was the first time he just came into the studio…. looked around and he knew exactly what he wanted to create.

He found a ceramic donkey that was actually from my Mom’s collectible collection (sorry Mom but it went to a great creative cause!). He knew exactly what he wanted …..  put the donkey into a mosaic with grass, a river, a tree, and the sky and ‘”bytw grandma do you have something the donkey can sit on?”

He went about his creative task, gathered up the supplies and went to work gluing tiles into place. At first as he was working on his project he was wanting to use five (or more) different colors of grout.  I didn’t say he couldn’t use that many but simply explained for best results he would have to wait a day for each grout color to set before adding the next. Not wanting to spend that many days on this project (he’s got lots more planned), he finally settled on one color.  He worked on his creation, tile nipping the tiles and then gluing each tile into place, then grouted it. He was SO proud of what he created!!! And for two days no computer and no TV.  Yippeee!!!

Ahhh… the sweet creative life…sharing and teaching kids creativity!! I just love it!!!>>Love Ya! Heidi

PS. Would love to hear any great ‘teaching kids’ to be creative stories!!! Just leave a comment or email me at heidi@inspiredathome.com