Happy Independence Day to all in the US!

I pray it’s not terribly hot and we don’t get the same storms that have been moving through the DC area in the past few days. Friday we got a gnarly storm called a “Derecho” late Friday evening. I had never even heard of one before that and I like to think myself semi-weather-savvy. The power went out before the storm even hit and 100 mph winds ripped through the area, breaking large trees in half and even up-rooting them! The area was absolute chaos and some are still without power (projected to return on Thursday). That is just ridiculous. I’m glad that the power returned late Saturday: the heat is just outrageous and I worried about the poor kitties I’m watching this week!

I did go home to bask in the A/C and power for a little bit on Saturday post-apocolypse. To keep me occupied, I decided my nails needed a little up-keep… so I went with the pink ombre look. I did a top coat of matte nail polish (LOVE LOVE LOVE that stuff!). What do you think?!

Our office still did not have power Monday, thus I got to stay home and rest-up! I didn’t sleep much last night due to more storms (UGH!). Luckily they were all talk and no action, just some thunder and lightening!

But the time off (before vaca) has given me a chance to catch up on my crafting! Especially because the fourth is on it’s way tomorrow!

I decided to continue my patriotic crafting and make a t-shirt for Wednesday! Check it out!

I bought a plain cotton t-shirt from JoAnns (or Walmart, wherever!) and cut a scoop-neck in the top. I hate being choked by t-shirts and thought it was a lot more summery this way. From there, I put masking tape down and taped off a part for the stars of the flag. I cut out masking tape stars and used a star-punch for the smaller ones and stuck them at random on the shirt (we’re going for creative here, not complete accuracy). After making sure it was down, I squirted some puffy paint on a paint tray and using a sponge brush, dabbed the paint until it covered the taped in portion.

In process of letting the paint dry, I brought it back to the house I was house-sitting for and let dry in the car. Before leaving my house, I sprinkled with some glitter and used a sealant spray to keep the glitter from falling off as easily.  By the evening, the paint was completely dry! I peeled off the stars (which reminded me of peeling burnt skin after a bad sunburn… oddly satisfying to me) and made sure that it looked decent before continuing with the stripes of the shirt!

I taped off the stripes to keep me in line when writing. I used a fabric paint pent to write  “graffiti-like” the National Anthem. I wanted to do something different than just regular stripes. I thought this was pretty interesting, no? Looking back, I probably should have really wrote in pencil beforehand to make sure that it fit… I had to eye-ball it towards the ends of phrases… oops!

I like that it looks worn and faded. That is probably my favorite portion of it. I attempted to get some pictures of the whole thing, but Hopper decided she was going to get in on the action and that I was doing a full on photoshoot. I had to break it to her that, no, it was only of the shirt. … She shunned me for the remainder of the evening.

“Oh camera?! I’m ready for my close-up Miss Heather!”

The shirt! I feel like I should iron it to set the paint a little better, but I left the iron at home. Oh well. (You can see Hopper still trying to get in on the action on the bottom left) I was tempted to put some jewels on it, but I feel like it would just make it more gaudy. All in all, I’m pretty pleased and glad I chose to pay $5 total on my own shirt rather than get something everyone else has and is not unique.

NOTE: I’ve put in this design at Threadless, so who knows! You might be able to purchase this shirt in the future! 🙂 (It’s obviously more clean, I used photoshop to do it!) Thanks for Susan for the idea!

Once I find out about voting, I will put up the link for you guys and gals to check it out!

Again, have a Happy Fourth to those celebrating our day of Independence! Luckily, we have not had an alien invasion so it remains tailored as a US holiday… for now 😉 Hey, as long as Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum are saving the world and I can be Mrs. Bill Pullman, I’d be happy… I should probably relay that I’d like not to die in a helicopter crash a la the movie…

Ok, now this is just getting out of hand.

TOODLE-LOO, GOD BLESS THE USA and all that jazz!