100 Lego Perfume Bottles

27 Thursday Mar 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, crafts, miniature, photography, sparkling

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crafts, Lego, Lego Perfume Bottles, Legos, miniature perfume bottles, perfume bottle collection, perfume bottles, photography

if Lego made perfume…

Actually, there are over 100.
The Legos were dumped out on the table and the grandkids and I chatted away during many cold winter nights.
While the little ones made houses and trucks and planes, I started making perfume bottles.

Lego Perfume Bottles made of the smallest Lego pieces.

I made more and more.

It became an obsession.

The rules were simple: No pieces could be forced, all the bottles had to be built like normal Lego building and they all had to stick together properly. There is just one bottle out of all of them that isn’t stuck together and the pieces fall apart if you turn it upside down. Can you guess which one?

So much color and sparkle from such a tiny source!

Perfume Nation.

At one point, we counted 124 different Lego perfume bottles.
Then some got disassembled to make different designs.

And then we started naming them.

So I made a poster of 100 of the Lego perfume bottles to be named.

This is a very large image. Click to access the original size in order to see all the detail.

Some of these Lego perfumes don’t have names. Please leave name suggestions in the comments and I’ll add them to the Lego Perfume Bottles poster.

Feel free to copy, save or print the poster. If you post on your website, please link back to allsparkledup.com. Thank you!

Edited to add: I was asked what lighting I used for the photography. The photos were taken in the late afternoon, west sun through half-curtain window. The top of the arch window had plenty of sun streaming through which bounced off my white kitchen cabinets behind me like a giant white board, exactly as I hoped when we redid the kitchen. Camera- Canon 5D2, Lens Canon EF 24-70, hand-held.

On my worktable – artificial flowers

21 Friday Mar 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, crafts, family, flowers, home, home decor, Inspirational, On my Worktable, Uncategorized

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artificial flowers, crafts, family, flower arranging, flowers, home decor, On my worktable, spring arrangements

Today my worktable was full of flowers for the spring arrangements. The bins have been in the living room for over a week but I finally had time today. It’s always a pleasure to arrange the flowers, even though they are the same ones I’ve used for years. At the end of a season, I pull all the flowers out of the vases and sort them by color in bins, then they go to the attic. It’s good to start fresh each year so I mix and match the flowers to suit the season and mood.

The arrangement for the foyer. I’ll probably add a little more at the base. It looks a bit too tight but I’m crazy over the color.

The bare brances were in the corner through winter, strung with lights and crystal snowflakes just to add brightness to the room.

The same bare branches now share the space with artificial dogwood and greens. The lights were taken off the branches and placed in the vase for ambience.

I love the new arrangements! They make me happy. =)

Not in the photos: son’s twin size mattress on the floor in the living room because we have to tear out the downstairs bathroom and completely redo it due to a major leak.
Not in the photos: the flat screen tv right in front of the large dogwood arrangement in the corner.
Not in the photos: tears shed because another one of our children moved out last week and we’re all missing him and wishing him well and cheering for him in his new job in another state.

Two of my sons. Noah on the left moved south last weekend. We miss him! Very glad for the job opportunity though.

We all have a choice on what to focus on. I choose to focus on what’s good and bright and beautiful and sparkling in life. You can have brightness if you choose. Sometimes it takes a lot of work, like clearing a garden of weeds. You have to yank out bad thoughts and deliberately hack at unwanted vines. But it’s possible and totally worth it.
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. Ph 4:8

The arrangement for the living room table. The velvet-petal roses are showing their age but they are still beautiful.

The Queen’s Restaurant

04 Tuesday Mar 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, books, grandkids, sparkling, Uncategorized

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books, children, grandkids, kids, playing restaurant, pop up book, queen, story, the Prince, The Princess

The table was set with an exquisite pedestal chandelier. Delightful piano music wafted through the door. The King, the Prince and the Princess looked over the royal menus.

At the Queen’s Restaurant, the table glowed from the light of the beautiful chandelier and candle on the table.

“What would you like to order?” asked the Queen.

“What would you like to eat?” asked the Queen.

“I want a fruit tray,” said the Prince.
The King watched as the Queen ducked under the table to pick up a menu.

“I will have steak, a sweet potato and peas,” said the King. “I would like Sesame Chicken, please,” said the Princess.

There was a commotion over by the door as the guests finished reading the menus.

“WHAT?” the prince and princess yelled, “There is a horse looking in the door!”

A horse peeks his head through the dining room door!

“Oh dear, oh dear!” said the queen as she rushed to the door and tried to get the horse out of the room. The Dragon was a bit distracted but he continued playing piano music to calm the diners.

The Dragon tries to keep playing the piano, despite the antics of the Horse.

“I must hurry to cook the food!” said the Queen as she entered the kitchen. “At least the cake is done. It looks great!”

The beautiful decorated cake in the Queen’s Restaurant kitchen was ready for serving.

The queen went up to the garden where she picked herbs and fresh oranges from the tree.

The kitchen bustled with activity as the meals were made.

Many meals were made ready for guests.

Soon the King was eating his delicious steak and sweet potato and peas. The Princess thought her sesame chicken was delicious and the Prince enjoyed his fruit, especially the watermelon and strawberries. He also got some extra food because he was still hungry.

“Would you like dessert?” the Queen asked. “Yes please!” they all said.

“I have to use the restroom,” said the King. The Prince and Princess ate all their food until there were just crumbs on their plates.

The Queen set the table with a plate of delicious chocolates, cupcakes and hot chocolate. The King had coffee.

Meanwhile, the Horse and Dragon went upstairs to the tea room because they were hungry too.

They looked over the menus and gave their orders to the Queen.

“This carrot is delicious,” said the Horse. “This is very tasty chicken,” said the Dragon. “Next time, I will order four whole chickens and skip the peas.”

Downstairs the guests finished their desserts. “Please refresh yourself in the garden,” said the Queen.

Soon everyone was in the garden getting fresh air.

Everyone had lots of energy because they ate so much dessert and didn’t want to just stand around.

The Prince was fascinated with the fountain, especially since it had fish in it.

“No, No!” said the Princess. “You must not get in the fountain!”

The Prince wanted to catch the fish. The Princess ran to talk to the horse.

The Princess fell over but then she got up and started running after the Prince and they decided to play a game of chase in the castle, going up and down the stairs. That upset the Queen because it was her restaurant so she locked herself in the secret room under the stairs so she would be safe while everyone was running around.

And there the story ended because the lively game of chase throughout the castle required all hands so no more pictures could be taken.

[I bought the book, Princess Palace by Jacqueline East, years before my granddaughter was born. It is one of her most loved books.]

My QR code fabric was a success!

25 Tuesday Feb 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in crafts, fabric, On my Worktable, sewing, Uncategorized

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Tags

crafts, fabric, On my worktable, QR code, QR code fabric, sewing, Spoonflower

QR Code Fabric. The white QR Tale design was printed on silky faille on the left. The gray QR Tale design on the right was printed on Kona cotton.

Yay! Pardon all the exclamation points but how cool is that! Woot!
My QR Code fabric on Spoonflower printed beautifully.
I’m surprised QR code fabric isn’t available by the bolt yet. I’ve searched all the major fabric companies and haven’t found anything. The options for code in fabric are endless and super duper fun.
I had this fabric printed via Spoonflower. I call it “An Unfinished QR Tale” because each block of text contains just a hint of the story. There are over 30 separate phrases in QR code in this fabric. The code squares printed up beautifully in silky faille and cotton. I thought perhaps the fabric grain would interfere with the QR reader but there was no trouble at all reading the code. I don’t have a smart phone so used a QR code app on my tablet.

with nary a moment to spare

Yay!
I had designed another QR code fabric for a ModCloth contest but didn’t win. Here is my entry for the ModCloth contest, a sweet little design featuring code and wings. This design has different text from QR Tale, mostly light and airy phrases.

As soon as the QR Code on Wings proofs, I’ll be able to offer it on Spoonflower.
The first two QR tale fabrics printed perfectly so they can be purchased on Spoonflower now. I plan on making more.
~ Recipes in QR code for making an apron
~ QR Check design for a picnic table cloth
~ Poetry, perhaps haiku or limericks
Imagine wearing a shirt or dress and hearing “May I please read your dress?” haha
Imagine a restaurant with QR code napkins or placemats… Reading the code would make waiting for the meal much more enjoyable…
Ah yes, so many ideas.

Also, I really want to do color. These designs are all black and white or gray scale. The picnic table cloth will be a lot of fun to create and even more fun for picnic guests to use. :)

Bowl Roses

19 Wednesday Feb 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in flowers, home decor

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bowl roses, cut flowers, flowers, gardening, roses

That is what the roses become when they wilt too much for a bouquet.
This rose is too far gone to revive.

The rose is wilting.

All the roses in this photo are from the same bouquet. The wilted roses in the vase on the right are the original length.
The roses on the left had the stems trimmed once and fresh water. The roses in the bowl were cut off the stems right under the calyx just as they started to bend over but before they wilted. Overnight in the bowl of water, they perked up. Amazing how all these roses were from the same bouquet.

All the roses are from the same bouquet but they received different treatment.

This photo was taken several years ago.

The roses are cut just under the calyx and placed in water in a bowl. The bottom of the short stem touches the bottom of the bowl and the roses are resting in the water.

Here are my Valentine roses from this year. They were grocery store roses and weren’t fresh to begin with. But yesterday they started to droop so I cut them short and placed them in water. Today several have revived and I removed the brown outer petals from the roses that never opened.

The brown petals were plucked from the roses and they were placed in a bowl full of water. They still look lovely days later.

Bowl Roses. They still look nice days later.

These roses are exquisite, shaded in delicate shell and baby pink. I was surprised he remembered my favorite colors! So sweet. The Bowl Roses look beautiful on the work table.

Just one match

18 Tuesday Feb 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, family, Inspirational

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camping, fire, inspirational, matches, Rocky Mountain, Rocky Mountain National Park

I rarely get the pleasure of a campfire, only once every two or three years. So they are very memorable when they occur.

This was our first night camping at Rocky Mountain National Park.

When we went to make supper that first night, we discovered we forgot the fuel for the stove.
When we decided to make a fire to heat our canned beans and hotdogs, we discovered we’d forgotten our flashlights and matches too.

No stove.

No flashlights.

No matches at all.

So we rummaged around the campsite in the waning light and found a single match on the ground by the firepit, scuffed up and covered with dirt.

We made our little stack of tinder and paper, dusted off the match and prayed for the best… and then struck that one dirty match.

The fire lit!

With just a single match, even a crumpled old match found in the dirt, you can light a fire.

This is the fire.

Our beautiful campfire lit with just one old match, warming our dinner in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Our beautiful campfire lit with just one old match, warming our beans and hotdogs in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Sometimes what you need most comes from an unlikely source.
Don’t give up.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

14 Friday Feb 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in American Girl Dolls, baking, dolls, food, Uncategorized, Valentine's Day

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American Girl dolls, baking, cookies, dolls, Valentine's Day

American Girl dolls, Kit, Nellie and Josefina, bake Valentine cookies together.

Last year we made shortbread hearts. You can see that post with the recipe here.

We finished off the Valentine’s Day cookies…

Today I’m baking cherry raspberry tarts. It was Valentine’s Day 1974 and I arrived home from school to a wonderful surprise. My mom had made heart-shaped tarts filled with a pink fluffy cherry filling of cherry jello and cool whip. Ever since then, my must-have Valentine’s dessert is tarts… but I’ve never made them. I was always too busy or didn’t have the ingredients. I’ve made cherry tarts just a handful of times all these years but never on Valentine’s Day. Today will be the day!

Happy Valentine’s Day to you all! May your day be full of sweetness that lingers in the most pleasant way.

Snow

13 Thursday Feb 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in nature

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nature, photo, photography, snow, winter

February snow.

Food for the birds

12 Wednesday Feb 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in nature, photography

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bird photography, birds, nature, photography, snow

The little bird liked the peanut butter-smeared, birdseed-sprinkled pine cone we wired to the old branch.

The bird pecks at the seed-encrusted, peanut buttered pine cone.

It’s a beautiful snowy day.

Finally a little snow

29 Wednesday Jan 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in nature

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nature, photography, snow, Winter snow

It started last night and ended last night.

Winter snow always makes the sky an unusual color as the city lights light up the underside of the clouds.

We rarely see snow falling during the day. It was nice waking up to see the snow had not melted!

And yes, this is our Christmas tree. It was in such fine shape that we put it on the corner of the deck to enjoy a little longer. The cats like laying under it too.

I will enjoy this photo after the snow melts and the view out my window turns sullen and gray again. Beautiful snow!