Bohemian-Moroccan Bedroom update

I just redid our bedroom and adore how it turned out.  I was able to incorporate 2 quilts I bought at an estate sale last year.  I've loved crazy quilts since I was 11 and now I get to see one everyday!!!

Secret Santa

I took part in Carmen's Secret Santa swap again this year and was delighted to receive a package from England.  Irene did a wonderful job stalking me.  In fact, she was so good at stalking that card she sent benefited breast cancer, a cause very near and dear to me.

I was almost a bad girl and opened this prior to Christmas, but when I opened the mailing box, the presents inside were wrapped beautifully and I stopped and kept them for a Christmas morning surprise.  When I did open them on Christmas morning, I enjoyed the sparkling snowflakes and confetti that were wrapped inside each of them.  What a fun surprise!  I received a beautiful altered journal titled "My Life" with lots of open spaces for me to add pictures and notes.  I love all the attention to detail she put into this book.  It is stunning!  I also got a beautiful, sparkly bracelet, a pretty notepad, and a very soft, cuddly pink bunny who is actually a heating pad.  I'm sure he will help out and make any ache feel better!  Thank you very much Irene. You added a beautiful aspect to my Christmas!

I had a beautiful Christmas all around and I hope all of you did too.
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A Christmas Story Leg Lamp Halloween Costume Tutorial

One of my favorite Christmas movies is "A Christmas Story".  I watch it at least once every year and it still makes me laugh everytime.  (Dont you just love movies that are like that!)  I was brainstorming for cute costume ideas and the thought of the lamp crossed my mind.  The more I thought about it, the more I figured out how I could construct a costume for the lamp.  I almost didn't do this costume because I was short on time.  I did a search and there is a commercial Leg Lamp costume available, but I just didn't like the way it looked.  I finally decided  to give the costume a couple of hours work and see if I could get it done in that time frame.

 I started with some cheapo wire hangers.  You know the type you get your stuff back from the dry cleaners on.  I unwrapped the top section so I had one long wire.  I pulled on it some and used some pliers to help me straighten them out (not perfectly straight, but that's ok).  I then figured out about how long I wanted the lampshade to be from top to bottom and cut 4 lengths of wire to just a bit longer than that measurement.  I used 2 more stretched out hangers (connected them together by simple wire wraps) to form 2 rings.  A smaller one for the top part of the shade.  I did a rough shape bend on the 4 straight lengths of wire so that the shade would have the proper shape when put together.  The next part was the trickiest as I was home alone and only have two hands.  A friend willing to do some holding would have made this step much easier!  I used some simple wire wraps to attach the 4 straight lengths of wire to the 2 rings.  I did these as tight as possible, but the whole frame was very wonky (unstable if you're not familiar with my high tech terms).  I then wrapped stained glass foil tape around all the unions of wire and soldered the crap out of them to make a little stronger union.  No, you cant solder the hangers themself, but the tape/solder creation I did (which anyone schooled in soldering would cringe at) held it long enough for the next step.

I grabbed a roll of electrical tape and wrapped the crap (another highly technical term) out of  the top and bottom rings, and especially all the unions.  This made the frame pretty stable and I was happy with it.

 I tied 2 strips of a thin black ribbon close to the wires to make shoulder straps to hold the costume in place.  I forgot to take a picture of this, but its very important!!  At this point, I pulled out the cheapo fabric I had picked up from Hobby Lobby.  I bought 2 yards of this stuff and really should have gone with another 1/2 yard as I had to pull and manipulate it slightly to get it to size.  I started at the bottom (the larger ring) since I had to make sure the fabric wouldn't have a gap down there.  I glue gunned the fabric together, and then did a glued the fabric around the bottom (larger ring).  I also glued the fabric partially up those bended wired of the frame so the fabric would follow the shape of the frame instead of making a straight slant down to the bottom.  I flipped the frame over and glued the top in place.  I glued the fabric to the rest of the bent wires to increase the shape accuracy.  I then started making pleats and gathers in the fabric so the shape would look correct.  I went through a lot of glue doing this.  As a side note.  I was watching "Magic Mike" while using the glue gun.  I would not recommend that combination.  Its just a bit to distracting.  I have never burned my fingers that much when glueing!!!!

After the fabric laid down the way I wanted it to I pulled out the fringe trim I had also purchased at Hobby Lobby.  (Again, I had bought 2 yards, and actually had to go back and by 6 more inches to finish this, so if you're going to do this project, start with 2 1/2 yards of each and save some frustrations.  I glued the fringe onto the bottom (Larger ring area)

 Its done.  (Took about 3 hours total)  I added some fishnet thigh-his, and black heels to make the outfit complete.  I also wrapped a string of battery powered Christmas lights around my belly so I lit up like a lamp.  To make my costume even more fun, I dressed my husband up as Ralphy from the movie.  Poor guy shot his eye out, you know?!  I had a lot of fun making this costume and we got a lot of compliments and laughs from everyone.  I hope you enjoyed seeing how it all came together

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My decorated bras

"Dont be to scared to check your BOObies"

I finally got to make a few entries for a decorated bra fundraiser to mark breast cancer awareness month.  I've been wanting to participate in one of these for years, but the dates and my time available to do one have never meshed.  I love that my first entries into something like this are for the fundraiser at my friends Bill and Michelle's Farm Market and Winery.  Michelle is a survivor and truly knows how to embrace and celebrate each day.  Their business is Maize Valley Farm Market & Winery.  Its a friendly place filled with good food and wonderful wine.  I've gotten 2 bras done for the event and have mailed them off.  I am working on a 3rd, but I'm not sure it will get done in time to ship it off to them.  

"Keep your eyes on your breasts.  Check 'em monthly!"

8 of 10 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime.  Because of advances in treatment, and screening technologies, women (and men) who discover their cancer early now have a 99% 5 year survival rate.  Please do your monthly screenings and get your mammograms.

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Giveaway!!! Come visit my new website and blog!

I've got a giveaway going on my new blog and website.  Hop on over there to enter!

http://www.brandygerber.com/

New Website

Hi everyone, I'm happy to announce the launch of my Fine Art website.  I hope you'll hop over and investigate. It's still being worked on, but the start is up and I'm excited.  I'll continue to blog here in my sporadic manner, but all of my fine art will be on the other site.  Hopefully I'll be able to add a blog there too.

Brandy Gerber's Fine Art

A Seal Hello

Here's another of my recent paintings.  Most of these are acrylics on 16" x 20" gallery wrapped canvas.
I must admit this one is not my favorite, but its gotten a lot of really nice feedback.  This one challenged me quite a bit.

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