Butterfly Mobile, Feng Shui for My Office and Feeling Energized

Lots on my mind today! So let’s get right to it…

I woke up on this first day of June feeling energized and excited! Perhaps it’s because of my new butterfly mobile?

Or perhaps it’s because it’s the first day of June? There are just three more days of school which has me excited in both the good sense (as in woohoo!) and in the bad sense (as in how on earth did we get here already and how solid is our summer plan?)

Or maybe I’m feeling super energized because Organizing 101 starts tomorrow and for the first time ever, I am participating both as the instructor and as a student. I have big plans for reorganizing some areas in my home this summer, and I’ll share my projects with Organizing 101 students via the online forum and photo gallery. So maybe that is the cause for my sudden burst of extra energy and excitement. I’m not sure, really. But, let’s get back to the butterfly mobile and the Feng Shui for my office.

So, the weekend before last, my friend Elise and her husband and kids came over for Topopo Salad. (If you’re from Michigan and have been to El Azteco, in East Lansing you, too, may be a fan of this fine college-town delicacy.) We enjoyed a huge Topopo Salad and margaritas, and then, Elise gave me some Feng Shui advice for my office. (How lucky am I to have a friend that is a Feng Shui guru? I know; I’m lucky indeed.)

So, based on Elise’s Feng Shui wisdom, and the inspiration of this weekend creative project from Ali (a project that has been percolating in my brain for over a year!), I decided to make a butterfly mobile for my office. I had the chance to put this plan into action this past weekend, and I do believe it is part of my extra energy today!

Now, I really did turn this into a weekend long project…working on it in little bits throughout the weekend. Friday afternoon I trekked on over to Michael’s and picked up fifteen wooden butterflies, a little bottle of paint, and a wooden embroidery hoop. That evening, I sat on my front porch, enjoyed a refreshing drink, chatted with Jay and painted my butterflies green. (I love crafting outdoors this time of year! Talk about mixing two of my favorite things into one! Ahhh…love that.)

Then, on Saturday morning, and again in the late afternoon, I returned to the front porch for one of my all-time favorite pastimes: decoupaging. I decoupaged the front of each butterfly with some of my favorite patterned paper from my scrapbook stash. As you may have predicted, there were a few papers from Basic Grey in the mix (but I didn’t use Romani this time!) I also used the very last bit of this paper from Sweetwater.

The other three butterflies I left plain green and used rub-ons to add some inspiring words—two past words of the year, in fact.

Things were going good! On Sunday, I made a trip to Wal-Mart to buy some green rickrack and some clear monofilament string. Then, I came home, hot glued the butterflies to the rickrack, glued the rickrack to the embroidery hoop, and finished up my butterfly mobile. Jay (in addition to helping me with the math to properly position the rickrack) installed a hook in the ceiling in my office to hang my butterfly mobile.

I’m really happy with how it turned out—except for one minor problem. The mobile naturally wants to hang with its back to me. No matter how I turn the hook that it hangs from, those little butterflies keep turning their backs on me. Crazy, isn’t it?

I like the front much better. And I have a feeling it is better from a Feng Shui perspective to have my mobile facing forward as much as possible. (Am I right, Elise?)

So, I’m moving on to Plan B. My new plan is to make the mobile have two fronts. I’ll paint and / or cover fifteen more butterflies and glue them to the backs of my current butterflies. But, this is where things get tricky…and where I’m hoping you can help me. Remember how I mentioned that I used the very last bit of my favorite Sweetwater paper for this project? I’m desperate to find a scrap of this paper so I can finish up this project and be able to see the fronts of my little butterflies in all their glory, all the time.

Here it is again…does it look like something you have in your stash?

I just hope beyond hope someone has a full sheet or even a scrap of this patterned paper. If you do, and if you’re willing to part with it for me, here’s what I’m going to do. (Thanks to Jay for this idea! )

You will have your choice of a free seat in Organizing 101 or a free copy of the happy scrapper. Oh what the heck, let’s make it both! I really want this paper! I only need a 6” x 6” section of this paper to create my little butterflies! That’s quite some loot for a 6” x 6” section of this paper. Perhaps I’ve gone nuts.

In any case, the first person to post in the comments and say “I have a 6” x 6” piece of that Sweetwater paper and I’d be happy to mail it to you!” will get Organizing 101 and a copy of “the happy scrapper”…on me. (Plus, more gratitude from me than you can possibly imagine.)

I have my fingers crossed that one of you has this paper and wants to share. If not…I may have to come up with plan C…but I really like the sounds of Plan B.

OK…thanks for enduring this really long post. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

**Updated! Cindy has the paper and is happy to share! Thank you, Cindy!**