Crafty Sunday, or How I Became Covered in Glitter and Glue

07 Sunday Mar 2010

Posted by Amy Byrne-Henderson in Craft, Family, Gifts, Pets

Tags

Amy, Annabelle, Craft, Crafty Chica, DIY, Family, Gift, Logan, Love, Pet, Shrine

Today was craftily productive for me. I can tell not only by my finished projects, but also because I’m covered in glitter from head to toe, and my hands have bits of glue all over them.

The first project was inspired by mine and Todd’s initials. We jokingly call ourselves “T-n-A.” I bought the styrofoam letters at Michael’s months ago (they were $1 each). Two weeks ago we went to IKEA and found small shadow boxes for only $2.99 each. I covered all three letters in blue paint, then slathered them in glue. I added Crafty Chica Bollywood Blue glitter to Todd’s “T”, tiny stars to the “N”, and Crafty Chica Glamour Queen Green glitter to my “A.” I then added some stars to the T and the A, too. Todd found some cool black glittered paper at Michael’s, which I cut to fit the shadow box. I mounted each letter off of the glitter paper by hot gluing tiny spools to the backs of the letters and placing them in the middle of each square of paper.

My next project today was a Remembrance Shrine to Annabelle. You may remember that we had to put our family pet, Annabelle, down on January 18, 2010. She was 15 1/2 years old, and had given my family all those years of love and loyalty. I wanted to create a visual reminder of how special she was and still is in our hearts. I created this shrine as a surprise for my parents and Logan for when they get back from their cruise this Friday.

Remembrance Shrine to Annabelle

The last thing I created today was a Good Luck Shrine. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it…if I’ll keep it for myself or give it to someone. We can all use a little good luck!

Good Luck Shrine

2010 Is a Year of Change

18 Monday Jan 2010

Posted by Amy Byrne-Henderson in Family, Pets

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Amy, Annabelle, Argyle, embroidery, Family, librarian, Pet, Todd, UWMad, Zombie

We’re only 18 days into this new year, and it’s already proven to be one of massive change. Your Craft Assassins haven’t made a post for a while, but our lives have been turned topsy-turvy, and we’ve been thrown a big curve ball.

Amy’s former employer had been talking about layoffs since May 2009, and the axe finally fell last week. Amy thought she was safe from the impending layoffs, but it turned out that her lack of seniority (six years of service) wasn’t enough to save her in the end, and she was laid off. Things had gotten pretty tense, and she was in a near constant state of panic on a daily basis. It’s been quite a curve ball thrown our way, one that we were blind sided by, but we’re going to make it through. We are trying very hard to believe that everything happens for a reason, and we will rise from this in a better place than we were before. Amy used this past week to navigate through the unemployment process, and to wallow in a little bit of self pity, but she’s coming back strong. She only has this semester left at the University of Wisconsin-Madison before finishing her Master’s in Library and Information Studies (MLIS) degree. At that point, she’ll have the degree (with an awesome GPA) and experience (six years managing various areas of a mid-sized urban library) to make her marketable to any number of libraries around the country.

Through everything, Todd has remained a rock of support, love, and understanding. He’s helped Amy to realize that there’s nothing wrong with her for being laid off. He’s also kept himself busy by embroidering some of his shirts to jazz them up. As you know, he’s a HUGE fan of the argyle. He jazzed up a striped shirt he got from Kohl’s with his argyle pattern. While embroidering the shirt, he even stepped outside of his color comfort level by buying a green shirt (Amy’s favorite color, his is blue) and using orange and purple as the argyle pattern colors. He also has started on a fun Western-style shirt he got from Burlington Coat Factory by adding “Zombietini” patterns to each space above the pockets. He has another idea for some lettering across the back, and we’ll report more on that when it’s finished.

Argyle

Zombietini

Today was a very sad day for the Craft Assassins as Amy’s family’s dog Annabelle was put to sleep. She was a 15 1/2 year old Shetland Sheepdog (Sheltie), who provided her family with 15 1/2 years of love, devotion, and companionship. She was given to Amy’s son Logan on his 5th birthday back in 1994 because, as Amy’s mom Linda reasoned, “Every boy needs a dog.” The past year, and last several months had been particularly hard on Annabelle and the family. She lost a significant amount of weight because she didn’t want to eat anymore, and her hearing and sight were pretty much gone. Logan and Amy’s parents just couldn’t prolong Annabelle’s suffering anymore. We hope she’s in a better place, running around, being the cutie she is.