What Matthew Wouldn't Do: 3

Over the summer, I decided to tear up some books and use the pages to decorate.

However, the center (or lack thereof) has always bothered my OCD.  Here's a close-up (beware: if you are as OCD as I am, this may bother you).

Feel free to avert your eyes or scroll down quickly.  I decided today that something needed to be done about this.  Courtesy of the legally addictive street drug Pinterest, I came up with the idea to do a button monogram.

What Matthew Wouldn't Do:


Use a torn up book in a craft project.


Tear up a book. 


Do a craft project.

I looked and looked for a font that I could fall in love with.  One that had a spectacular letter C.  A "C" that I would want to look at every day.  I wound up going to Word, finding a font, enlarging it,  and tracing it.

What Matthew Wouldn't Do:


Do a craft project. 


Spend any amount of time looking for a font, especially not for just one letter.

After tracing it, I went over it with a black sharpie, and like the champ I am, didn't stay on the lines.

What Matthew Wouldn't Do:


Trace a letter. 


Share a mistake with lots of people.


Make a mistake.

I decided to use burlap as my background, so I cut out a rectangle and fringed the edges by pulling a few "threads" out.  I set the burlap on top of my poorly traced C so I could see the lines through the fabric.  After I began to lay the buttons down, I realized I didn't really need the traced letter after all.  Way to abandon the plan and freestyle.  The rest of this post is brought to you by the letters H and G and by the number two, as in Hot Glue Gun. 

What Matthew Wouldn't Do:

Make a craft.  

Come up with a plan and execute it badly.

Use a hot glue gun.

Use buttons for anything other than keeping his shirt closed.

After my button glue was set, I flipped the burlap over and put a thin line of glue around the edges to keeping it from fraying more than what I wanted.

Then I used little dots of glue to attach it to my wreath.

What Matthew Wouldn't Do:


Use a hot glue gun.


Make a craft.


Think a piece of burlap with buttons is blog worthy.

I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.  I don't have to look at that lop-sided center anymore, and I'm not likely to forget my last initial now.  Besides, no Southern house is complete without something monogramed within it's walls.

What Matthew Wouldn't Do:


Decorate his house.  


Make a craft.


Use a hot glue gun. 


Oh, and I got a new lamp for the top of the piano, because with the time change and lack of over-head lighting on that side of the room it's too dark at 4:30 for my piano student to see her music.

I think it's pretty hot.

What Matthew Wouldn't Do:


Think a lamp is hot.


Buy a lamp.


Go forth all you non-Matthews of the world and create with buttons, hot glue, and burlap.   And feel free to call your new lamp hot.

What Matthew Wouldn't Do

I have a younger brother.  This is not a secret.  His name is Matthew.  This is also not a secret.  Something else that is also not a secret is the fact that Matthew has a rather inflated view of himself high IQ.  He is quite intelligent.  As am I.  However, I frequently find myself in the middle of an activity that I haven't fully thought through.  This is where Matthew comes in.  Matthew doesn't just think things through to completion before embarking upon a process.  He writes it down.  He draws it out on graph paper.  To scale.  Seriously.  So at 11:30 last night, when I found myself with three mildly glued-together fingers, I thought to myself, "This is something Matthew wouldn't do."  

What else Matthew wouldn't do:

Begin a craft project at 10:30 at night without the proper materials.

Begin a craft project.

Glue three of his fingers together with a hot glue gun.

Use a hot glue gun.

What Matthew would do:

Go to the store and buy a wreath.  

But, I ask, where is the fun in that?  

We have three exterior doors.  One in the front, one on the side, and one in the back.  Due to the nature of our carport, we (personally) only use the back door.  When we have company, they are parked near the side door, so we let them in there (it also prevents them from seeing our typically-dirty mudroom and the weeds in the front flower bed).  When I put up my autumn decorations a few weeks ago, I placed my wreath on the side door, where I assumed most people (including my neighbor) would see it.  A couple of days ago, I realized that our front door is visible from the street, especially now that I have removed the wild prairie that was growing in front of the house.  And by "wild prairie", clearly I mean the front flower bed.  So last night as I was perusing Pinterest (What Matthew Wouldn't Do), I saw some really really cute autumn-themed wreaths.  One of which was made with a very large embroidery hoop.  I just so happen to two exterior halves of very large embroidery hoops (I used the interior parts for a project years ago).  So I thought to myself, "What can I do with what I already have?" This fits with my get-rid-of-the-clutter theme.  I sat and thought about what I could use, remembered some fabric scraps, and decided to just go for it (WMW{n't}D).  I grabbed my hot glue gun and got to work. 

 After cutting my fabric into strips, I started wrapping it loosely around the hoop, attempting to glue as I went.  This became problematic, as the first material I wanted to use began to melt.  That's right.  My fabric was melting.  Did I let this deter me?  No (WMW{n't}D).  I kept going.  And going.  And going (rather like a small, pink, familiar-to-us-all bunny).  By this time I had spent so much time on this "quick project" I couldn't just quit.  I grabbed a wool fabric, which I knew would not melt, and carried on.  

This actually seemed to help.  After attaching all of that, I used a small amount of velveteen to finish it off.  Beautiful.  Except that it looked bare, and that bothered me (WMW{n't}D).  Knowing that this would be incredibly slightly visible to all who pass by my home, I knew this must be remedied.  Tucking in some fake leaves seemed to solve the problem, and since it was 11:30 and I had burned fingers and hot glue strings everywhere, I opted to call it an evening.  

(WMW{n't}D):  Leave a project halfway completed and call it done.  And yet, that's exactly what I did. And you know what?  Pressed in between the front door and glass security door, my What Matthew Wouldn't Do wreath looks pretty good, if I do say so myself (which is something Matthew would do).