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Inspire Me: An Impromptu Linky Party

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Yesterday was one of those days that every project I touched turned into mush. I couldn’t sand, I couldn’t glue, I couldn’t paint. Nothing turned out. Don’t you just hate days like that?

I woke up this morning feeling uninspired. Perhaps it’s because of yesterdays failures. Maybe it’s because it’s so COLD outside right now (y’all, it’s 30 degrees. I’m sure you Northerners are laughing at me, but this is torture for a Texas girl!). Maybe it’s because my mother is staying with me this week after what was supposed to be a quick weekend trip turned into her needing an emergency appendectomy last Saturday morning, and I’d rather visit with her than do projects (She’s fine, by the way, but what a scare! We made her stay here for the week instead of flying back to Tennessee with my dad as a precaution). Whatever it is, I just don’t have my creative juices flowing.
The only thing that’s flowing right now is the Dunkin’ Donuts coffee.
So, I need your help. I need YOU to inspire ME. I don’t have a fancy graphic (or any graphic) or lots of advance notice to give (or any notice, really), but I decided to have an impromptu linky party where you can share with me your most inspired post. It can be your favorite project, a funny story, a moving message. It can be some of your favorite photos from magazines or just pictures of your dog. It can be from deep within your archives. Whatever you choose, just inspire me.
All you have to do is link your post below. Be sure you link the permalink of your actual blog post (click on the title of the post and use the address that comes up in your browser. For example, it’ll be something like www.MyBlogRocks.com/2009/08/Inspire instead of just www.MyBlogRocks.com). Then, be sure to click around to everyone else’s posts to get some inspiration yourself. If you want to edit your post and tell your readers than you are linking up to Living With Lindsay, it would make my day. If not, that’s fine, too. I’ll leave the linky up through the weekend so everyone will have time to participate.
If you don’t have a blog, just leave an inspiring comment for all of us!
Let’s see if we can thaw my creative juices and get them flowing again. I’m counting on you! Do you feel the pressure? 🙂

How To Create A Wired Bow

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About six months ago, I needed to create a few big wired bows for my sister’s wedding. I was terrified, and my stomach was tied in knots about it…so to speak. I may be crafty, but I had never been a good bow maker.

Luckily, my friend Zoe is a great bow maker. I enlisted her help in my bow-making scheme, and she showed me an incredibly easy way to put together a big, loopy bow. Our little projects turned out great.
Why, yes. He may be the cutest ring bearer (with a Gator for two obsessed UF grads) that you have ever seen.
Anyway, bows like that are pretty expensive to buy in the stores, and they never have a nice, custom look about them. But you know what? They are extremely easy to make! All you need is some wired ribbon, a 6-inch length of craft wire, and a pair of scissors.
I sat down in my really messy craft room to put together a video tutorial for those of you who would like to learn how I tie bows, like the one that’s on my living room wreath. This technique is really one of those things that is just much easier to learn through seeing a short video versus looking at pictures and text.

Was that easy or what? Gosh, I love nothing more than making something so simple and getting such great results.
I’m considering making bows for the gifts under our Christmas tree this year, but then I remember that they will just get torn off and tossed aside the mad rush to open gifts. What would you attach these bows to?