Concrete Garden Mushrooms Part 1

So now that the weather has warmed up (and the months of high winds has started), I decided to do some outdoor projects.  I'm starting with some cute garden mushrooms made out of concrete.  In this first part I am making the concrete form of the mushroom.  I made them on Saturday.  I checked on them today (Sunday) and they are drying nicely.  So by Friday I should be able to take them out of the molds and start decorating them.  You'll just have to wait a week to see that. 

Anyway, I'm making two at a time because it takes so long for them to dry properly.  I used about half of an 80 pound bag of concrete to make two mushrooms so I should have enough to make two more or maybe make a stepping stone later.  The ones I am making are quite large.  I'd say the stems of the mushrooms are about the size of a quart jar and the caps are a little larger than half a basketball. 

Of course you can make them smaller.  Just make sure that your stems are in proportion with your cap and that it can properly support the cap without breaking.  I plan to make them in different sizes later on but I haven't found any bowls in smaller sizes that I like the shape of and that are cheap enough.  I was kinda thinking about making a "mushroom family" with different sizes representing the mommy and daddy and kiddos or, in our case, fur babies.

So enjoy the video and come back next week for the decorating part.  :-D

Button Monogram Letters

I loved this project.  I made one for us, my parents, and my in-laws.  They turned out so cute.  I bought vintage white buttons on Etsy and used some navy blue damask (is that what it's called-I don't know) print fabric from my stash and then bought a white frame from Target.  I love the vintage buttons because some of them have started to turn yellow with age and I thought they just looked really cool.  I ordered from 3 different sellers because I didn't know how much I was going to need.  So I got a really lot of buttons for less than $20 and that's with the shipping included.  I have a whole bunch left over too.  Christmas presents?  I think so.  It was so much fun and way easy - took forever though.  Just put on a movie and start sewing.  It was an excuse to clear out the DVR.  :-)