Possibly/maybe/perhaps Final New Blog Look!?

So...I think I have done it. I think I have created a new layout that I like and a header that I LOVE. The one thing I may mess with now is the text font. But other than that, I may actually be happy. What you are looking at right now my friends is what may very well be the NEW look of My Name is Not King.

I am using just the blogger SIMPLE template, with a barn wood background image blogger provided as an option. I was really liking the wood part, but obviously the plain text and beige background was makin' for a real boring header.

As it has been snowing here nonstop and I have nothing better to do, I decided to do a little messing around with header designs.

I went a googlin' for designs that would match my wood background and I was able to find this header from the Background Fairy site.

  

It was cool to begin with, and it had the vintage feel I like. Plus it had a crow (*which we can just pretend is a raven to make me happy.) But it wasn't QUITE what I wanted. The colors were a little off and obviously the whole blog title need to be worked in there.

  

I am no pro, and I no longer have photoshop, so I stooped to the picnik level, but I am actually quite pleased with how I things came out. Photoshop is much more elaborate and has many more options, but picnik is quick in simple (but unfortunately will no longer exist when April comes around.).

The final product is what you are looking at right now:

A darker, more stained, embellished, and with text version of the original. And I am actually really pleased and I don't *THINK* I will be changing it again. But still, I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter. And check out the previous post to see the other designs I was playing with. 

And also, up for grabs I have this NEW and IMPROVED blog button! I use a tutorial over at the blog (Live. Love. Craft.) of my new bloglandria buddy Alyssa, as I had forgotten how I had done it the first time (ohh HTML, you're so silly...). Feel free to take it off of here, or over on my sidebar, underneath my "who I am pictures". I will be working on one for my photoblog- Sometimes I Shoot Things- next!

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TWENTY TEN RECAPPED

And yes, I am still alive! No! I haven't died! I'm here! I'm here!

So sorry I haven't posted in a long while. The holidays were busy with friends, family and fun and as soon as Christmas pasted my internet crashed. FOR A WHOLE WEEK! But finally I am back to post again. I am not even sure I can recap all of my year, or even the last 2 weeks. So I think I will just pull some of my favorite pictures/moments from 2010 and post those...

New (converted attic) bedroom!

19th birthday with flaming pineapple

my youth group's (Merge Ahead) worship team leading worship at the Rhode Island Awakening Conference

My sassy, fabulous Ethiopian sister coming home

My hair losing its "virginity"

Seriously good thrifting

 Projects. Creativity. Making stuff.

 Cheering on my team (England) in the world cup

/ watching them lose and the personal agony that followed.

 An amazing mission trip to San Jose, Costa Rica

Finishing off said trip with rain forest zip-lining.

Seriously silly 22nd birthday parties for cool girls

Family vacation to Westerly, Rhode Island

Rebellion.

Bettering myself at photography (more posts on that coming soon!!!!)

Shooting guns.

 Trying to better myself at cooking
(I'm am working my way to up being a crazily well-rounded, multi-skilled individual)

Making this.

 Scrabble-ing at an epic level

Recieving these
(ohhhh yes friends, those ARE red, skull, size boys XL footie pajamas.)

these people. my people.

A lot happened in 2010. Looking back even to my recap of 2009 I am amazed at how far I've come. And I am looking forward to how much further I'll go in 2011. Happy New Year, everyone!

DYI Tissue Paper Puffs/Flowers

The other day I went through my closet and pulled a bunch a stuff out. Within that collection of "stuff" I found some gift bags left over from my birthday (...in February...), with nothing inside of them but crumpled(very colorful) tissue paper.

Rather than throwing it out, I made some puffs. Or flowers. Or pufferflowers, as I like to call them. The require no care, don't make anyone sneeze, and cannot be spilled by a cat. Worry free and colorful!

 Here's how.

All you will need is some tissue paper (mine was used already, but if you wanted crisper looking ones, use new sheets). The ability to fold. Scissors. And a stapler. (And maybe some wire or pipecleaners)

*For each flower I used around 8 layers of tissue paper.

1- cut the tissue paper into even squares or rectangles (doesn't matter, just make sure all your layers are the same size. I did vary size from flower to flower, using some full sheets or cutting one sheet into 4 or 8 or whatever, just to get some variety)

2- stack them up and accordion fold them, from one side to the other.

3- take your accordion folded sheets (which should now be a very layers long rectangle) and put a staple through the middle point (just to fold them in place). **if you want stems, you should take a pipecleaner and bend it around the center.

4-optional! I cut the end into either a rounded edge or a point, just to make the petals look less squared. I liked the points the best.

5- Now, do the layer by layer FLUFF. Carefully. Just pull up each piece and ...play with it until it looks fluffed out enough to be a puff. Do both sides in the same way.




This is all really trial and error. Just play around with them until you like the way they look. You can't really do it wrong.

First put mine on a strand of yarn and hung them like garland on the railing over my stairs...but then my sister walked in and asked by I was decorating with faloufas (those scrubby things you put body wash on in the shower...). That wasn't cool, so then plan b came along. I gave them stems, put them in a vase (or actually, a glass water bottle I brought back from a Costa Rican hotel. It is filled with coffee beans, and not water), and placed them on the little corner bookshelf (one of mannnyyyy) outside of my closet.

 They fit nicely next to my framed multimedia collage ( "I am {everyday} living life at it's best" out of magazine clipping and fabric) and my decoupaged light-switch (British stamps) plate.

See! How colorful and nice! Not really a wintery fall look but...whatever. I like color. And making stuff, especially out of other random stuff. Hope you are inspired. There is a lot that can be done with a mess of tissue paper and a little imagination!

Featured by Mod-Podge Rocks!

 Yesterday evening Amy, of modpodgerocks.blogspot.com, was kind enough to feature my $1 Dresser Remake decoupage project on her Facebook site dedicated to Mod-Podge and the awesome things that can be done with it! 

 

Look!

   

" Mod Podge Rocks! A $1 dresser remake? Seriously? Wow!

My Name is Not King...: My little Darlin'- $1 dresser remake project!

mynameisnotking.blogspot.com

You already finished?! It looks so good!!And I fully endorse the girliness of having an entire chest of drawers dedicated to accessories. Keep up the good work."

*look Sarah Louise, your comment went up too!

 Big thanks to Amy for putting me on her site and thanks to anyone who clicked her link (all 262 of you!), became a follower, and/or left me nice comments on the post!