Rustique Art Blog

We have a little niche in our den that doesn’t really serve a purpose. There used to be a wet bar there and we tore it out years ago, leaving a little area next to the fireplace that could be a nice little reading corner if I ever find a cozy chair and ottoman to nest there.

It had my cedar chest there for awhile, then a desk, now a chair that no one sits in. But it’s a pretty cool chair with a really awesome chippy shutter behind it.   It’s great for taking photos of my finished afghans, for my Ravelry project files.   Like this afghan below.  It has a sweet little story to go with it, I’ll share that soon.

I had plans to fill the walls of this area with family photos…but somehow that plan took a detour.  I did get one picture up and then never got back to getting that project completed.

All that to say, that  I was playing around with some ideas the other day and made a fun little photo collage out of my rustic tag clips and some twine.

I even toyed with the idea of making several and listing them in my Etsy shop, but I haven’t quite perfected this design, so I’m going to push it on the back burner for awhile, but that’s not going to stop me from showing ya’ll how it turned out.

I spent more time on my computer trying to locate photos of my kids and their families, than I did on this little design.  But I finally found some great pics and printed them out on computer paper in black and white.  I wanted a frayed edge rather than straight, so I tore the extra paper from around the photos, then arranged them on the photo clips.

I got all five chick-a-dees up and one happen to have my mug in the photo with Jake because I couldn’t find one of him alone.  You’ll never guess who felt left out….it wasn’t Rudy.  Yep, my hubby commented on not being part of the wall of fame.  Mr. Drama!

I told him he would have pulled attention away from the other photos so I opted to leave his out….no I didn’t.  It was intended for showcasing our five kiddos and their kiddos.

Now that it’s been hanging their for a few months, it’s sort of growing on me.  Still not sure I want to make a bunch and sell them, but I’m happy to have this one hanging in this small space in my home.

I am filling my shop with the single photo clips, getting ready for the Christmas shoppers.  They are great for hanging photos, special cards or even vintage sheet music, on your Christmas tree.  Also great for using as gift tags that people can keep and hang on their tree.  They come in sets of 24 or 12 and my customers receive a small sample package of 3 clips when they spend $20 or more in my Etsy shop, from now until December 24th.  (custom orders included)

Speaking of Christmas trees…when do you put yours up?  Before Thanksgiving or after?

peace. love. rust.

 

 

The day began like most weekend days, coffee with my guy in the backyard by the pool.

We sat in silence for awhile, sipping our coffee and watching Rudy chase squirrels, then I asked hubby what he would like to do that day. We considered a day at the flea market…fresh air, exercise and trolling for rusty treasures sounded fun.

Then I asked how much he thought we would spend if we did go flea hopping… about $100 including gas and food he said. I pondered on that a bit, then offered up another suggestion.

What if we dedicated the next 12 hours to reclaiming the laundry room. It was a disaster and avoiding it was making me crazy.

I proposed we empty this dumping ground, leaving only the washer and dryer, and reclaim our laundry room. Staying within the $100 we might have spent going to the flea market, our goal within the 12 hours was to clean out the room, clean behind and underneath the washer and dryer, paint the walls and add floor boards that were never added when we made the laundry room/pantry larger some 11 years ago, and trim out the door going out to the garage. If we had any day or energy left, move a cabinet into the space for storage.

After two more cups of coffee and a nourishing breakfast, we got busy.

From 8am to 8pm we worked our tails off.

Putting all pride aside, this is what our 9′ x 9′ laundry room looked like.  The photos are placed in order as I turned to my left and made a full circle of the room.

I know it’s bad…really bad.  But considering this little room was used as a laundry room, pantry and my work area for making my crosses, this was bound to happen over time.

Man that was painful to share with you.  Even though it’s nice and clean now, it is still hard to look at these photos, but I had to come clean.  I had to let you see what it had come to, so that you could be as shocked as I was with the photos I took the next morning.

After one trip to the paint store to get one more gallon of paint (we had a partial gallon left over from painting the kitchen), a trip to Home Depot for trip boards and a quick lunch we were left with this…

and we had $14 left over.  Now can I tell you how sore I was after our 12 hours of cleaning, painting and moving things around?  Like so sore I had trouble sleeping.  But it was worth it because now we have a clean, uncluttered, blank slate to work with.

Below is a idea board I threw together for this area.

As you can see we have a way to go before we get this room done, but at least it is now functional and easy to move around in.  And I’m not so stressed when I walk in the back door.

I’ve already painted the cabinet with ASCP in Graphite, the same color as my kitchen cabs and we are shopping for a counter top.  We finished the floor boards in this area and I’ve put a table in the corner and set up my sewing machine.  I now have a sewing area!  I’m so happy about that.

Rudy has a place to eat, drink his water and store his food, without getting in everyone’s way.  And there is now a place for my ironing board! Yay!!!

I removed the roman shade to paint this window well and decided not to put it back, I love the light coming into the room and it’s a great place for this stained glass window to live for awhile.

 

I’ll be sharing more updates in the next few weeks.  I’m ready to get that ceiling done and the cabinet up on the wall.

peace. love. rust.

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My favorite season is finally here.  Hello Fall…I love you.

I love your crisp mornings, the call of the blackbirds, warm afternoons, cool evenings, the slant of long shadows of the sunsets.  Mums, pumpkins and pansies in the garden.  And of course weekend football games with a basket of yarn by my side ready to be crocheted or knitted into something warm and cozy.

There is also the urge to nest.  I always want to nest and fluff my home with the change of seasons, but more so in the fall and spring.  This year was no different, but I fought the urge to splurge on more things to decorate.  Instead I hit the closets and pulled items from other areas to create a very scaled down and simplified fall decor.

I love this little chicken. I picked her up at Hobby Lobby about a year ago.  At half price she was really irresistible.  She’s so sweet and looks great front and center of my dining table fall centerpiece.

I went with a more the more subdued colors this year since I’ve never been a huge fan of orange, I love that I have the choice of white pumpkins, the greenish gray pumpkins are awesome too.   But again, I didn’t want to spend money on things that were temporary, although I did treat myself to a couple bags of mini pumpkins to sit around the house.

I dug my burlap runner out and dragged the old galvanized bin out from under a dresser.  Had to take outside to dust it.  I found a family of dust bunnies living in it.  The secret is out…you now know I don’t keep a perfect house.   Confession is so good for the soul.

I stole some greenery from another room and from storage, gathered three grapevine hearts that I seriously considered hanging on the wall, but decided to nest them inside the galvanized bin with the greenery and some dried hydrangeas.  Plopped a couple of pumpkins down and called it done.

The table is flanked with a couple of rust plates because I only have two, and then I added my grandmother’s amethyst glass candle holders as an afterthought because I think purple is a perfect fall color.

That’s pretty much it except for a couple of pumpkins on my mantle which I haven’t touched for months, only to dust it once….oops, another confession.

In the entry I did change out the pears in my vintage sewing drawer for some mini pumpkins…nested pumpkins are pretty, but I really think all white would look better.

I hope you are loving the fall as much as I do.

Happy Fall Ya’ll

Hello cooler temps, pumpkins galore and football!  Pinch me, I must be dreaming, because when all those events begin to happen, that means we are in my favorite season of all…Autumn!

This also means, I get to wear my jeans and sweaters, make big pots of chili with a side of chips and queso and open my windows.  It also means going for long walks will actually be fun again.

It also means it’s time to get my Etsy shop stocked for the holidays, which leads to organizing my work space because it becomes a dumping ground in the summer months.  Custom orders begin to fill my inbox and since I like to make things really fun, we also have some renovating going on.

Why not do everything at once?  Makes life a real challenge and it also makes keeping a clean house next to impossible.  But ya know what I’ve learned?  A messy house is not so bad.  I’m either mellowing in my old age or I’ve just learned to be comfortable in the mess.   Probably a little of both.

Life at Rustique Art became a bit overwhelming about a year ago and had to take a step back.  Just a little back story, last year we had a daughter move out on her own, a son graduate high school and head out for college.  By this time last year, we were officially empty nesters.   We loved every single minute of it too.  You would assume that I would’ve jumped into my business with both feet, but this momma was tired.

Ever have those days where you just want to sit and stare at the walls, and listen to the silence?  That was me and still is.  But I’m slowly coming back to earth.  I can’t really say what it was, maybe I was a little blue, but I think I just needed a break.  So I pulled away from RustiqueArt…creating, marketing, blogging and even junking!

But a few weekends ago, I sat down at my work table and began to create again after a year off.  It was just as if I’d never left.  Hours flew by and I realized I was still in my pj’s and probably hadn’t eaten.  But oh what a time I had. My first beaded cross of the season was done.  Just a small one, but it felt great to play with all the wire and beads again.

A few days later I received the sweetest email from a client requesting a custom design for a gift.  She had done her homework too, armed with a photo of another cross I had made a few years ago.  She knew I could not recreate that exact design but she wanted to know if I could get close.

I accepted the request and began to pull beads for her cross, it didn’t take long to realize I had to go shopping.  So off I go and three hours later I return with beads for the cross I was working on and more.   Can I just confess that self control around beads is not an easy thing for me.  But I was so good…I set a budget and stuck to it.

You have to see what I found…they are the cutest little owl beads, and I knew immediately what I wanted to make with them.

I added a bead chip at the bottom to make it look like he’s sitting on a branch, then added a little copper bead cap  and strung it on some leather.  He’s so cute!  and perfect to wear with jeans and a cozy sweater.

I put both in my Etsy shop last week, the cross sold pretty quick, which just made me want to make more, and the little Rustic Owl necklace will be a limited item for the fall.

The custom order was completed and shipped last week and I received an email from my client this afternoon;

Good Afternoon Cindi,

I just received my sister’s cross and I love it and am sure she will as well.  I especially love the beads with the roses on them and the little cross at the bottom.  Just little touches that make it so very special!

Thanks again so very much.  I can’t wait to see mine.  ~M 

Here is the cross she received…

I’ll keep her name a secret since it is a gift.  And did you see that last line?  I get to make a cross for her too.  I love it, two orders in one day.

So I guess you could say that this fall season is off to a great start.  I’m knee deep in beads, wire and of course yarn.  I’m working on an afghan for Riley now.  She picked out some awesome colors and I found a great pattern, can’t wait to share it with you.

***

Fall is usually when some really great Bible studies are offered. A friend of mine wanted to know if I would join her in a women’s Bible study.  It’s over the book of Joshua, we are going into our third week and so far I’m keeping up with my reading and studies.  But I could use prayers for keeping on track.  Sometimes I get into a study and get lazy.  I really want to stay on task and finish strong this time.  Joshua is such a wonderful story and full of God’s promises coming to fruition.

***

And lastly the room redo…our laundry room is getting a makeover.  But I have to say, just cleaning it out made a HUGE difference.  Want to see how bad it was?  I’ll give you a sneak peek.

Oh my golly!  and this is the less cluttered area.  Our laundry room is a wonderful 9’x 9′ room, but for some reason I found it necessary to cram as much junk in that space as I could possibly fit.  When hubby and I were moving things out so we could paint, he kept asking me how I got so much stuff in there.  It’s just a gift, I replied =)

It’s really nice now, all painted and empty, can’t wait to show it off…..but I’ll save that for the next post.

peace. love. rust.

 

Jake and Jack have been friends since kindergarten, since they were 5 years old!

Now they are both 19 and in college.

Both of their birthdays are in June and 9 days apart.

What a pair!

My son Jake is up in Fayetteville, Arkansas. This is his second year there.  Jake is also a cheerleader, he is a Razorback through and through.  Go HOGS!!! WPS!

Jack is now attending Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches, TX on a basketball scholarship.  He’s now a Lumberjack.

Arkansas and SFA don’t compete against each other in football, but they do in basketball, so when that time comes, Jake will get to see Jack play for the Lumberjacks, and Jack can watch Jake toss girls into the air.

Jack’s family is from Illinois originally, they are Bears fans.  My husband, Jake’s daddy is from Wisconsin, so of course we are Packer fans.  We live in the same neighborhood and we love Jack and his family, despite the fact they follow the Bears.  It has been a fun rivalry for years.

When Jack graduated from high school this last June, I wanted to make him something special for his birthday and graduation.  I thought an afghan in his new school colors would be fun.  I ran the idea by Jake and he thought Jack would like that.  So I set out to find and simple crochet pattern since I’d never made anything as big as an afghan before.  Up until this point I had only crocheted dish clothes, or squares as Jake would say.

I found a tutorial on YouTube, which by the way is how I learned to crochet, via YouTube.  The tutorial was for the C2C afghan, or Corner 2 Corner, meaning that it would be square not rectangular.  You literally begin with one tiny square in the corner and work out from there.

There were times where I thought I had bitten off more than I could chew.  But I persisted…and crocheted in my sleep almost.

Two things I learned with this crochet project; it will be awhile before I do another C2C full sized afghan and purple is a hard color for me to photograph.
Sorry for the dark photos, if I were to lighten any more, the white and gray are washed out.

This blanket had to be big because it has to cuddle with a 6’2″ SFA Lumberjack Basketball player.  When I laid it out on Jake’s bed to get the full effect of the stripping, I was amazed that it completely covered the entire top of his full bed.

Mission accomplished.

It turned out so much nicer than I had imagined it would.

When I took Jack’s blanket down to him I was a little worried that he would feel uncomfortable, you know how it is?  Somebody gives you something and if by a small chance you don’t like it or it’s just not your cup of tea, you graciously smile and say thank you.

But there was only genuine appreciation for his handmade gift.  Either he really, really loves it, or he will win an Oscar.

All kidding aside, he did love it.  So did I and I am so glad I persevered, because there were times where this little project went untouched for days.

From the time I started this afghan, I started and finished a baby blanket for our nephew, another full sized afghan as a thank you gift for the family who let Jake stay with them a week in July,  and several other little projects.

All in all it took me 3 months to complete this afghan but now it’s done and hopefully making Jack feel cozy in his new dorm down at Stephen F. Austin.

While proof reading this post I begin to tear up, which turned into to full out cry.  They are all grown up now.  After all the soccer games, track, football, sleep overs, gaming until the wee hours of the night and silly things these two could dream up, I can’t help feel a little sentimental.

Now college, next careers, girl friends, marriage and babies some day.  Man my crochet hooks and knitting needles are gonna be smok’n!

peace. love. rust.

With the fall season being right around the corner, I’ve already started experimenting with a variety of veggies and lean meats for some tasty new soups and stews for the cooler weather.

Oh but who am I kidding? I love soup anytime of the year, especially when I get last minute notice of guests for dinner and I quickly need enough food to feed more mouths.

Soups, Chilies and Stews are perfect for large gatherings because you can easily add hearty breads and salads as sides.

This Yellow Squash and Chicken Stew turned out wonderful.  With five to feed one evening and nothing planned or prepared for dinner, I needed something quick, filling and enough to feed a lot of people.  Confession: I buy veggies and forget they are in the fridge then often find them past their prime and have to toss them.  Man I hate to do that!   I had bought yellow squash and needed to get them cooked or they were doomed for the compost bin.  Knowing I had a abundance of canned chicken, a recipe began to take shape in my little head.

Scratch cooking is my all time favorite thing to do.  You know….gather ingredients then prepare something delish.  This is how the yummy recipe below came to be.  Follow my recipe loosely.  In other words, use things you have around the house if possible.  I only add the brand name of certain ingredients because that is what I had on hand.

Yellow Squash and Chicken Stew

2 quarts chicken broth

5 medium sized yellow squash (cubed)

1/2 large white onion (chopped)

4 –  (12.5oz) cans Kirkland’s Premium Chunk Chicken Breasts (do not drain)

2 – (4oz) cans diced green chilies

1 – (10oz) can Rotel Original

Cumin

Oregano

3 – cloves fresh Garlic (minced or chopped)

Seasoning salt (optional)

chopped green onion for garnish

optional additions:

 zucchini

black beans (rinsed)

sliced mushrooms

fresh Cilantro

green or red bell peppers

fresh jalapenos

In a large (5-6 qt) dutch oven prepare your chicken broth ( 2 quarts water with 6 tablespoons of “Better Than Bouillon Chicken Base”), you can buy this at Costco, or use any other chicken broth or stock to equal 2 quarts.

Bring chicken broth to simmer, add cubed yellow squash, chopped onion, garlic and spices. Sorry,  I don’t measure my spices, just season to taste or to your preference.

Simmer until squash is tender.  Add cans of chicken breast, including the water in the cans (use fork to separate chicken in the can before adding to stew), add green chilies and Rotel.

 While stew simmers for about 20 minutes, prepare a fresh green salad and warm up a nice crusty bread.

Ladle into bowls and garnish with chopped green onions.

This recipe filled a 5 qt dutch oven to the top and it fed five people with a few of us going back for seconds and I still had a lot left over for lunch the next 2 days.

Hubby and Riley’s beau gave a thumbs up!

I don’t know about your house, but in ours that means “make it again soon”

Hope you and your family enjoy this delicious recipe!

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 oh my!  this is embarrassing…. in order to give you some back story on this fun little project, i had to locate the photo taken of the salvaged sewing treadle my husband found and brought home.  i finally find the photo posted on IG, and oh my, oh my….it has a time stamp.  46 weeks?  almost a whole year has gone by.

guess the cat’s out of the bag now.  i am a procrastinator.

truth be told, it has been a year because i pulled the photo below a few weeks ago to put this post together, but….let’s just say there’s been curves in my life road recently.  now we are at 53 weeks gone by.  but by golly I’m finally ready to get this story told.

i posted this photo on IG one year ago last week, caption read; “Some girls get flowers and candy, but my guy brings me really cool junk!  Oh and he drops it off and just let’s me find it…those are the best kind of surprises.” 

and really…who knows how long these two items sat at the end of my driveway before i actually saw them.  needless to say i was thrilled with my new pretties.  except for the Peptol pink paint, i was very excited to now own a sewing treadle.

at least is was peeling paint, so after a date with a high powered water bath it was ready for a coat of flat black paint.

 

 i had no problems figuring out what this salvaged gem would become or where it would live in my house, but getting to that point was a long process.  well not the “where” part.  it came to rest in our kitchen, actually just off the kitchen, right at the end off the kitchen cabs.  nestled in the corner, under the phone.

i’ve always wanted a small desk in this space, but i didn’t want just any ole desk, it had to be smallish, unique and of course it had to be a little rustic.

here it sat…for weeks

then months

now almost a year later,

we have a desk!

ta.da!

 

one of the reasons it took so long to get to this point was due to finding the perfect piece for the top.  hubby and i knew what we wanted but sometimes you have to be patient.  our patience paid off big time when mr. wonderful happened to see a dilapidated structure with a nice junk pile next to it.  he stopped his truck, donned his work boots to trek through the tall weeds, all the while expecting to meet a snake, but hoping to find some great junk.

no snakes, but boy oh boy did he ever find something great!

we’re not sure what it was originally but we are very pleased with what it is now.   we had to cut it down a bit, which meant removing the trim underneath.  knowing that we wanted to preserve the little notch that was in the trim, hubby gently removed the boards underneath, cut the reclaimed wood piece to the desired length, then cut down the trim  and put it all back together.  then he bolted onto the sewing treadle.

i added one of my old metal water spigots, securing it with bolt and now we had us a sweet little rustic desk.

we are thrilled with the way this little desk turned out.  and i’m blessed to have such a wonderful guy who loves to find amazing junk and help me turn it into a rustic functional designs for our home.

for more ideas for vintage sewing treadles; check out my board on Pinterest

peace.love.rust.

 

Summertime in Texas means a lot of iced tea and salads.
Jim and I typically have a salad for dinner three times a week.

As you can imagine, having the same salad over and over again would get boring. So sometimes we experiment with different flavors and ingredients creating some wonderful dishes.

One night I was craving a good old fashion hamburger. You know with mustard, tomatoes, purple onions and dill pickles? That is my all time fave. But it was way to hot for a heavy meal, so we decided to modify.

We took away the bun and added more lettuce, chopped up tomatoes, dill pickles and purple onions, sauteed some lean ground beef, grabbed our favorite salad bowls and begin to assemble our Hamburger Salads.

For me the dressing was easy, I love mustard on my hamburgers, so I drizzled some yellow mustard all over mine. But there are many alternatives for dressing to make your hamburger salad taste just like your favorite hamburger, sans the bun.

If you prefer the sweet taste of Miracle Whip or even a mayo burger, then by all means use those as your dressing, however if you are counting calories you might want to watch your serving size.  Another great dressing would be sweet mustard or even thousand island dressing.

Who knows, if you added some sesame seeds, you might end up with a Big Boy Salad 🙂

Here are the ingredients for the salad shown above:

1 lb – Laura’s lean ground beef

romaine lettuce

1 red tomato, chopped

purple onion, chopped

chopped dill pickles or relish

Brown up the ground beef, seasoning with salt and pepper or your favorite seasonings.  Wash, dry and tear romaine lettuce, chopped other ingredients.  Assemble salads in individual bowls.   We set up a salad bar and let people assemble their salads as they wish.

If you love cheddar burgers add some shredded cheese, or how about blue cheese crumbles? Yum!

Top with dressings and dig in!

I have a new nephew! He is so sweet and I wish.wish.wish that I could hold him. But he’s in Florida and I’m in Texas. For now I just have to enjoy the photos sent from my brother in law and just imagine how sweet he smells.

I get all mushy just thinking about him.

His name is Cameron Quinn and this is my brother and sister in law’s first baby. I wanted our baby gift to be very special. Handmade is always special. I also wanted it to be something Cameron might use for his children someday. I thought a crocheted baby blanket would be perfect.

I had started shopping months ago and found a couple of cute stuffed cuddle toys, a monkey and a puppy.  I must have stood there for 15 minutes trying to decide which one to buy.  I love monkeys…so my first instinct was to buy him.  But I still wavered, so I went to find hubs and ask him.  He confirmed my choice of the monkey, back to the shelf went the puppy.

Then I sent a text to my brother in law and asked the colors of the nursery.  Oh my gosh!  the nursery colors were the same as the puppy I put back.  So I went back to the store, returned the monkey and I bought the cute little gray and blue snuggle buddy puppy.

The puppy turned out to be the perfect inspiration for the blanket colors.  I new the nursery colors were light blue with gray and white and this puppy helped my find just the right shades.  I took him to Hobby Lobby and we picked out the yarn together.

Then I needed to find a pattern I could crochet from.  Being a self taught newbie to crochet, I knew it needed to be something easy, but I found the perfect pattern on LionBrand.com.

It was labeled as “easy level2” so I felt confident I could handle it.  I have to say, the most difficult part of crochet for me is reading patterns.  I’m a visual person, so I learn by watching, not so well be reading instructions.  But I muddled through.  Pulled out stitches and restarted more times than I can count but last night I wove in the final stitch!

WooHoo!  that feels so good.

Okay, so we have a cute little snuggle toy and a handmade blanket.  But I wanted to get one more thing to finish up my gift for sweet little Cameron.

a book!

And what better book than “I’ll Love You Forever” book by Robert Munsch and Shelia McGraw?  One of my all time favorites.

Now our gift is complete and ready to send.

Something to cuddle, something to comfort and something to soothe him.

I’m filled with joy knowing that Cameron have a part of my heart as he grows.

My hope is that I will be able to snuggle up and read to him him someday soon.

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