Zelaya Art: My New Blog

I am proud to announce my new blog dedicated to my knitting business, Zelaya Art! Please check it out and follow along.  I REALLY appreciate the support! 

FINALLY Some Etsy Listings!!!

I am so proud and excited to announce that I have finally listed three of about eight of my hand-knit baby/toddler blankets and throws on Etsy! Here is my shop: Zelaya Art  I like to say baby/toddler blankets because the blankets are pretty large and thick... perfect for a baby to grow up with and use as an older toddler.  All of my blankets are GREAT gift ideas for things like baby showers, birthdays, wedding showers, etc. Please give my shop a look!

I was worried about capturing the blankets properly in my pictures, but I seem to have done a pretty good job, I think. Any feedback would be much appreciated! 

Toe Tats

Well now that I see my toes on this post, I realize that probably no one really wants to see them. However, among all my tatoos, I think these are my favorites. Tiny, but cute and meaningful. They look good with black flip flops, you know, the ones I wear every day (I'm not a dressy kind of gal).

The tatoos represent the zodiac symbols of my four kids: Capricorn, Sagittarius, Leo, and Taurus.

A Splash of Color

This colorful project for my backyard was inspired by Pinterest. It is a combination of a couple different ideas that I saw. I saved tin cans from soup, canned beans and tomatoes and such and painted them bright colors with cheap gloss acrylic paint. Then I punched holes in the bottom of the cans for drainage and a hole on the top of each can to allow for a hook so I could hang them on my fence. I formed S hooks using some wire that we happened to have lying around and filled the cans with potting soil and different types of flowers. I planted zinnia seeds in some of the planters. Then I simply hung the cans on my fence with the S hooks. I love the splash of color and uniqueness this brings to our back yard!

Navy Dad

I just had to post this amazing picture of my cousin having a tea party with his daughter.  They are stationed in Japan right now. I think this picture really speaks about the sacrifice service men and women make for us. Taking time out to have a sweet tea party with his daughter - priceless!

Baby Spice

Don't ask me about the title... it just came out.

So I've got a baby and HATE throwing anything away, so I was wondering what to do with these baby food jars. Enter Pinterest, yes folks, the amazing space I can get lost in for days. The result is that now all my spices are in baby food jars, attached to magnets, attached to my fridge, which in turn resulted in more space in my tiny kitchen.  I have a family of six, I'll take any space I can get!

Coffee Stirrer Art

A few weeks ago, when browsing through all the awesome and creative ideas on Pinterest, I came across a pin that showed how to make cool art pieces with coffee stirrers. Some crafts you put on your internal to-do list, and others you simply HAVE to create at that exact moment.  This particular one was the latter of the two. So, I went to Walmart and got my supplies. I altered the directions and supplies a bit to meet my needs.  For instance, I bought two 11x13 wooden frames, cheap ones. I also bought some skinny craft sticks (not rounded edges) that look like coffee stirrers and some cheap paint in the colors I envisioned for my art pieces.

This art project is very simple, but a bit time-consuming.  First, I painted the frames black, let them dry, and used one of those green scrubby dish things (what are they called?) to distress them.

I simply painted the sticks and glued them in different lengths directly onto the glass of the frames. I used wire cutters to easily cut the sticks. I also tended to make a few of the sticks a bit "messy" because I wanted a distressed look.  I dabbed or smeared other colors onto a few of the sticks.  You could have a cleaner look by not doing this.

You may wish to paint the glass black or another color before gluing the sticks on since tiny spots of the glass may show a bit when you are finished.  We have noticed that when light shines on the art, it tends to reflect off of the glass in some spots.  It looks like a mirror is behind the sticks.  I don't mind it since it doesn't happen often, but perhaps if I retraced my steps I would paint the glass black so it wouldn't show at all.

The picture above is of the very first one I completed.  I quickly realized I wanted more than one and that I wanted the next one to be very similar, but a tad different in some way.  I decided to use all of the same colors for the sticks except for the green. I chose a different accent color for the second piece - blue. The picture at the top of this post shows both of them, but I'm not done yet.  I am working on another, this time with a reddish accent color. We'll see how three of them look together above our fireplace, but I'm thinking I may end up with four of them.

**Note: The pictures here are not nearly large enough and you really can't see the detail.  Sorry, getting used to Blogger and having some issues!**

Updated 11/17 - just hung the reddish one