A Magnetic Snow Day

The snow started falling in Maine early this morning. For my fellow teachers and me, that meant a snow day...a perfect chance to spend an afternoon in my craft room.

I recently discovered a wonderful blog, Mamie Jane's, that inspired me to try to create something new out of things I already had. First, a little about Mamie Jane's. It is named for the blog author's great-grandmother, Mamie, a beautiful woman who is pictured on the blog's home page. Since I have such wonderful memories of days spent with my own grandmother, I decided I wanted to explore this blog more.

Jane takes all sorts of mismatched "junk" that she has collected and combines it to make amazing furnishings and accessories for her home. Some of the pieces she starts with are things that most people would throw away and yet, once she puts them together, they look as if they belong in the Pottery Barn catalogue! I love the plate displays made from old drawers and the craft storage unit she showed how to make in her January 9th post. She even used rusty old trowels (found for 50 cents each) to make clever photo holders. I hope you'll check out her blog...the link is on my sidebar.

Jane's creativity inspired me to scour my craft supplies for a project I could do with what I had on hand. My project was not nearly as unique as Jane's but I had a lot of fun doing it. I decided to use vintage buttons, old belt buckles, vintage letter tiles, and bits of this and that to make decorative magnets. (maybe it was that photo of the trowel that gave me the idea!)

Now, of course, I'll obsess on "magnet-making" for the next week or so and will soon be scouring my desk for more photos and appointment cards to hang up. By the end of January, our house will probably be at the center of its own magnetic field; unsuspecting visitors wearing heavy jewelry may find themselves unable to move away from large metal objects like the refrigerator. (Of course, my friends and I don't move far from the frige when we're together anyway!) Here is how my little magnets came out:

This blog entry is featured on the "Blog Party" at Savvy Southern Style this week...hope you'll pay a visit to Kim's blog!

p.s. These photos are the first I've taken for the blog with my new camera...it took me 180 trial shots to get them but I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of it...lots more practice needed!