Procrastination

{living}&{making}

So.... I should be getting some housework done right now... that was the plan anyway, while my husband is working today.... More specifically I should be straightening up and cleaning the living room since it kinda looks like a bomb went off in there, and I'm getting ready to do some minor redecorating that will include moving a couple pieces of furniture. (a chair that I am sort of in the process of re-doing the upholstery on - and also changing the way it's upholstered, but that needs to go in the basement for a little while until I'm ready to work on it again, and moving in a new chest/desk) Now it's true that I can't really move the furniture until the hubster can help me (well I could... I used to move stuff all the time before I was married... but I'm not going to), but there's some stuff that needs to be cleaned off of the chair (since it's been un-sittable for a while it's kind of become a place to toss stuff that really shouldn't be there (jackets, scarves, random stuff, etc.) and I need to clean out behind it because it was in a corner and I know there's probably a bunch of stuff that's gotten behind it and stayed there that shouldn't be.... but.... I really don't feel like getting to work on that right now (I'm telling myself I don't feel too well, but I don't feel that poorly... I'm really just procrastinating... FYI I am the queen of procrastination... I try not to be.... but it usually wins... lol).
   So... to put off getting started on the housework a little longer (hehe) I thought I'd share one of my projects I worked on this fall that I had intended to blog about and never did..........

{Stamped Flatware}
I saw the idea for this on Facebook actually, it was something Hobby Lobby had posted on their page, and I loved the idea.  You can buy the metal stamps at Hobby Lobby (I'm sure other craft stores have them too, but why would you go anywhere else if you can get them there? lol). And it's really pretty simple to do. (or course I say that but if you take a look at the close-up picture you'll see I did still manage to make a couple mistakes on this batch I did....

I thought I had taken a couple pictures of the process, but apparently either I didn't or I managed to lose them somehow, but it's simple enough to get the idea without the pictures.  Basically you just place the end of a letter stamp on the end of your flatware and hit it with a hammer to stamp the letter, repeat until you've got your whole word on there and then finish it with some metal patina by putting a couple drops of the patina over the word (it's kinda like a thickish ink) and wipe it off right away with a paper towel (it stays in the grooves of the letters - just be aware that it will also stay in any grooves of the flatware design that it goes over as well). Here's the original tutorial from Hobby Lobby's facebook page that I saw.  One other thing I would add is that I believe the original tutorial says to use thrift store silverware and that probably makes it much easier if the utensils are actually silver since it would be much softer, but the ones I used were just regular Stainless steel flatware I picked up for I think $.25 a piece at Goodwill, and it works just be prepared to really hit hard and maybe a couple times for each stamp on the stainless since it's a much harder metal.  I've only done the four sets so far but I am hoping to get some more pieces and do more over the winter months... it's definitely a good winter project.  I alternated "eat", "enjoy", and "yum" on mine but you could also maybe alternate just the word eat or enjoy in different languages, or stamp them with your last name, or perhaps something like "thankful", those are just a few of the other ideas I had come up with before settling on "eat", "enjoy", and "yum". (and I'm still considering doing a couple with our last name on them... but I'm also considering having a "B" (our last initial) engraved on all my actual silver flatware (which also happens to be mix and match antique and vintage pieces) so I might not do any of the stainless with our name).  My intent was to have these new pieces gradually (as I make them) replace our "everyday" flatware, but I actually have used them for a couple "Holiday" dinners that I didn't want to break out the actual sliver for (especially since it needs to be polished lol)....

 

 "Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner" {Our annual Thanksgiving dinner party we have with our friends in the week leading up to real Thanksgiving}

 

And Christmas Eve Dinner {we do Christmas eve dinner at our house after church with my parents and sister and then do Christmas Day at my parents house}

    Of course as you may have noticed I had to throw in a few pieces from some other flatware sets I have (or random pieces that no longer belong to a set), because I didn't yet have enough to set all the places with the stamped flatware, but since it's a mix and match kind of look anyway that works if you don't have enough stamped pieces. :)

But now I suppose I better get going on the stuff I actually need to get done today... especially since I just looked around and realized I haven't even taken the Christmas stuff down and put it away yet.... oops.... sigh.... here I go..............