Stained glass Isla style...

Remember that stained glass Christmas project I did last year when I was off for two weeks? Well, after all that time, I finally had it framed this week. I had it done at Hobby Lobby. They had only one frame available for stained glass, so here it is. It's just a light natural wood. I'm thinking of either staining it like a dark mahogany or maybe painting it black. Any thoughts on this??

And remember what's it's modeled after?

Anyway, they didn't do the greatest job, but then they admitted that they very rarely do stained glass work. NOW they tell me. Well, I wouldn't have them frame another project like this again, but for now it's okay. At least it didn't cost me much. Here is where it's hanging in my little dining area. It's really the only option I have in the apartment. I just have it hanging from the window locks because I didn't want to punch any holes anywhere. It'll do for now as a reminder of one of my favorite places to visit.

No home projects for me this Christmas! By the end of the two weeks last year, I was going stir crazy!! Hopefully, I'll get some pictures of my Mexico trip this year to offer some ideas for new stained glass projects.

Stained glass Isla...

With all the time off I had this Christmas, I totally immersed myself in a stained glass project. Since stained glass is all about color and Isla is all about color, I wanted to see if I could recreate one of my Isla photos into that format. This took many days and I pretty much shut myself off from everything else in the process.

This is one of my favorite little houses on Isla because of its clean contrast of the blue against the white...not to mention the cute little curtains hanging in the window. This photo was taken in May of 2008. Another reason it is among my favorites is because...

...I caught this little cutie in the window back in May of 2007. I loved her haunting little face as she looked right at me as I took her picture.

So this was my endeavor at capturing this in stained glass. I'm new at this and definitely not an expert. It was a learning experience and there are things I would do differently but it was fun. (Despite all the cuts on my fingers working with the glass.) The interesting thing about stained glass is that it looks different at every angle and with how much light is coming through from the window. At any rate, it is another pleasant reminder of Isla and will hang in my window once I get it framed.

On another note, I would welcome any constructive criticism as far as how I could have improved or changed things. One thing I've learned is how time-intensive this craft is. This work had 106 pieces. After cutting all the pieces, you have to grind them. Then you have to wrap foil around the edges and make sure they all fit together. Soldering is actually the quickest part of the procedure. Now I can completely understand why stained glass is so expensive.

Weekend Warrior

Welcome to HGTV! Well...at least Deb's version of it for this weekend.

I have this problematic issue in my house...namely, the kitchen window that once looked out onto the back yard. An addition was put on the back of the house, off the kitchen, so now the kitchen looks out onto the added room instead of the back yard. So, what do you do with that??

Here's the view from the other side.

My son used the added room for a bedroom for awhile, so, during that time, I created this "portable" ceramic tile backsplash to give him privacy and to create a more aesthetic look.

Now that the room is vacant, I wanted to open it up, so I became a woman on a mission this weekend to create a different look. I came up with this idea to put a stained glass window in to give it kind of a dated but more attractive look. I took some stained glass lessons when I lived in South Dakota about five years ago, but haven't done anything since. So I did some on-line research and some shopping and started my project.

Here are the beginnings...

And after all the glass had been cut.

I went with a simple project on my first endeavor...no curves. I kind of like the traditional stained glass look, anyway.

So, here's how it turned out. I wanted to frame it out so that you don't see any of the real window frames...like it's the way it was meant to be. The picture doesn't do it justice...it actually turned out really well...especially when the light comes through and you can really see the colors.

I must have gone to Lowe's about 10 times this weekend. I'd go for something...get home...and, Damn!...needed to go back for something else. Thank God it's only about three blocks from my house. The whole project turned out to be a lot more complicated than I thought it was going to be, but I think it was worth it. It's still a window into another room, but it looks better than it used to.

I passed by this rug about 5 times during my trips to Lowe's. At $14.99, I almost bought it several times. On my last trip, it was marked down to $7.50. Oh, yeah...there's a sale. New window...new rug.

Now I need to think about doing a stained glass of this: