For the Love of Purple

Today is my very last Purple Project of the year. I’ve had a blast doing each of the 52 weekly projects and I hope you’ve had a great time viewing them.  My prayer is that you learn some things to do and some NOT to do.  Remember that I made the mistakes so you don’t have to!!  ;D

Well today’s Purple Project is one I’ve been putting off because it’s BIG!  Not hard to do; just BIG!  You see, I had this wonderful white comforter my parents gave me a while back that I wanted to add a little purple color to.  It’s very thick and heavy and the only place I figured I could lay it out in order to do it, was on my bed.  So…

Supplies:

Purple Glitter Puff Paint

Bottle with a thin tip (if the paint didn’t come with one already as mine didn’t)

Bedspread, comforter or blanket you wish to purple-ize

Directions:

Spread the comforter out on the floor or bed.  Start at one end and move your way down.  Draw hearts (or any other symbol or decoration you like).  I drew hearts on each section where the stitching intersected, but you could do a swirl pattern or just a few in a corner, whatever pattern you’d like.

What do you think?  Please leave a comment with your thoughts and ideas and…Have a GRAPE Day!

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Last week was For the Love of Purple.com’s one year anniversary so I decided to take a little jaunt down Violet Lane.  Here’s what I found.  Remember this from September 30th, 2009?

The Story of Plumeria, The Princess of Purple

Oh I had such fun writing this that I decided to make it an audio and so as not to be outdone by anything I’d previously recorded, I thought I’d add sound effects.  This is my first attempt and I did it all by myself so there are some pregnant purple pauses whilst I was trying to coordinate all the sound effects and keep my place in the story!  LOL

A few friends told me the pauses weren’t too bad so I’m posting it here for your purple listening pleasure.

I’ll be re recording it and putting it up on the home page as a permanent link to introduce folks to For the Love of Purple.com.  For right now, I would love a little feedback!  Feel free to say you LOVE IT! LOL

Here goes!  The Story of Plumeria, The Princess of Purple!

I wasn’t very satisfied with the way the recording came out.  It took me several tries to get it this good because I was a one purple man show.  I had to cue the sounds and read the script as well as work the recording.  I think I might make a video of it instead. What do you think?  I’d love your thoughts.  Please share and have a GRAPE day!

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“Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes;
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes;
Silver-white winters that melt into springs;
These are a few of my favorite things.”

Remember this song Julie Andrews sang in The Sound of Music?  If I were to rewrite that song, I’d change a few choice words that pale in comparison to purple, wouldn’t you?  What are your favorite purple things?  Here are mine:

This is my very favorite Miche Bag shell.   I love it because it’s dark plumb color and has two pockets on either side.  I have several other Miche Bags and a few of them are purple, but this is my favorite one!

My purple cell phone is one of my very favorite purple things. It just makes me happy to be able to answer my purple phone.  I had a Razor before.  It said it was pink, but it looked lavender.  This one is a true purple!

The bushes in my backyard make me happy every time I look out over the breakfast, lunch or dinner table and see them smiling purple smiles at me.  You know, the flowers close up at night and reopen in the daylight.

List your favorite purple things here or post a picture of them on your own blog or Photobucket or somewhere else and post the link here so we can all go look at … a few of your favorite PURPLE things!  And have a GRAPE Day!

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I came across an internet article on how to make a picture frame from an old CD case.  I really didn’t like the finished product which used tin foil for a background and hung the CD case up with wire.  I thought it was a great idea, though and so did lots of folks ‘cuz I found several articles on the subject.  Instead of doing one that someone else made up, I thought I’d get purple-iciously creative.  Here’s what I came up with

What You’ll Need:

Five CD cases

Purple wrapping paper or gift bag or paper

Pictures

Double sticky tape or wider clear tape

Scissors or paper slicer

Prepare CD cases:

For a regular CD case, you’ll need to take out the black insert that holds the Cd leaving both sides clear.

For a thin CD case just leave it alone (You can even buy them in purple!)

—

CD Picture Frame Pencil Holder:

Open CD cases and take out any black inserts or color inserts.

Take two matching CD cases (open) and tape (not scotch tape but stronger and thicker clear tape) each side together to form a square.  Take 3rd CD case apart and break tabs so it is a square.  Tape to the other CD cases as the bottom of the square.

Cut out two square purple pieces of wrapping paper or gift bag.  Tape your picture to the top of it using double sticky tape or wrap your tape around in a circle to form double sticky tape.  You can cut out your pictures in random shapes as I have here or leave them square.  I used one of the color inserts as a guide for sizing purposes.

Insert the purple backed pictures into the CD’s so you can see them through the clear plastic.  Insert your pens, pencils and markers directly into the CD case or put your favorite purple pencil holder inside.

CD Picture Frame Magnets

Cut out two more pictures and purple backings (background).

Tape the pictures on top of the purple backgrounds and insert them into the CD cases.

Place both CD cases face down and using clear, strong tape, tape purple gift bag handles (or any other strong purple handle material) to the back of the CDs.

Put one CD case directly on top of the other CD case face down and tape the bottom handle to the top CD case.

Take two magnets (you can use two refrigerator magnets or ones you buy in the craft store) and use double sticky tape to tape them to the back in the middle of each CD case.

Now you’re ready to hang them up on the refrigerator!

There are many other kinds of CD case picture frames.  Why not get creative and share here!  Have a GRAPE Day!

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As you know, this past Tuesday was the 1 year anniversary of this blog site.  I wanted to celebrate by having a fun contest and you all did such a great job of contributing!  I asked you each to post the purple things you had in your house that started with the letters A-M on Monday and N-A on Wednesday.  I promised a purple prize (my first in the series of JoJoisms) for the winner.

I really didn’t expect anyone to have X and Z represented, but there were two entries who not only had an item for X and Z but every other letter in the alphabet as well.  So without further purple delay, I’d like to announce that BOTH of them are our Purple Anniversary Contest Winners!

Karilyn Putt and Judi Williams: email me ( jojo @ artofeloquence.com) to claim your prize!

And thank you all for playing along and sharing your most purple prized possessions with us here at For the Love of Purple.com!  Won’t you all join me in congratulating Karilyn and Judi on a purple job well done!

And have a GRAPE Day!

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Today is part two of For the Love of Purple.com’s one-year anniversary contest!  If you have not done part 1, go back and post your answers there as well!

In honor of For the Love of Purple.com being one year old yesterday, I decided to have some purple fun and hand out a purple prize!  Contestants need to post as many purple items as you can find in your house that start with the various letters of the alphabet.  Monday was part 1, A-M.  Today is part 2, N-Z.

You can only list one purple item per letter.  The one with the most purple things listed will be our winner.  If we have a tie, I’ll put the names in a hat and have my son choose the winner.  Our Purple Winner will receive a copy of my latest purple eBook, the first in my new series of illustrated JoJoisms.

So…name all the purple items in your house that begin with the letters N-Z and have a GRAPE day!

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It’s contest time!  And do I have a purple prize for YOU!

Tomorrow is For the Love of Purple’s one year anniversary!  One year ago tomorrow, I posted my very first purple post, Are You PLUMbody? and my purple life has never been the same since.  Very shortly thereafter, I came up with the idea to challenge myself to create a purple project each and every week for an entire year.  My First Purple Project was this simple RIT dye dress.

Since this special occasion falls on a date in between when I normally post here on For the Love of Purple.com, I thought we’d have a two part celebration complete with a purple prize!   Over the next few days, I’m going to challenge each of you to find as many purple things as you can in your house that begin with the letters of the alphabet.

I’m going to split the alphabet in half.  A-M is today and N-Z will be on Wednesday.  You may only list one item per letter. The one who has the most purple things listed will be our winner.

The winner will receive a copy of my latest purple eBook.  It’s the first in a series of eBooks entitled, JoJoisms.  This first one is an illustrated eBook listing all my sayings on the topic of communication.  These are all humor-filled truths about life as they relate to how we communicate with each other.

The illustrations are fun and, of course, the eBook cover HAD to be purple!

So…list, in alphabetical order, all the purple things you have in your house that start with the letters A-M!  And have a GRAPE Day!

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I have a special treat for you this week on The Purple Project!  It’s a recipe and you’re going to think it’s truly purple-icious!!

A friend of mine said she made a good chicken dish using grape jelly.  I thought it sounded gross, but she said it was really good.  So I looked online for a recipe and found several. Some used dried mustard, some used ketchup. Some used lots of different spices and some used just these ingredients.  I didn’t have most of these ingredients so I was still searching when I discovered that one of the recipes using just mustard and ketchup said it tasted almost like a grape BBQ sauce.  So I decided to try it using BBQ sauce!   So here’s my Grape Jelly Chicken Recipe.

Ingredients:

1 cup grape jelly

1/4 cup BBQ sauce

squirt of Dijon mustard

1 pound chicken tender strips

Directions:

While defrosting the chicken tender strips in the microwave, stir in the grape jelly into a large mixing bowl.  Measure out the BBQ sauce and squirt a top coating of Dijon mustard on top, just enough to cover the BBQ sauce. Coat chicken tender strips with sauce and place on glass baking dish with enough room so that they do not overlap.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 min or until done.  Put chicken strips and sauce into a smaller Corning Wear or other dish so the sauce keeps the chicken tenders from drying out.

I served this with Rice A Roni, baked potato casserole

and blueberry muffin mix I made into a bread.

The sauce was sweet, but didn’t really taste just like grape jelly.  You can taste a hint of the BBQ sauce and a bit of the mustard spices.  I poured the grape jelly sauce over my rice and potatoes.

Official Family Reaction:

I thought it was delicious!   My 11 year old son said, “Only 45 percent of me likes it.  54 percent of me doesn’t like it and 1 percent says YUCK” so he didn’t eat the chicken.  My 20 y/o dd said it was odd to have a sweet sauce on chicken because she doesn’t like sweet chicken, but it was good.  My husband said he liked it and would like to have it again, especially if I added some kind of hot spicey ingredient to it.  What do you suggest?

Make it at home and tell me what YOU think. And have a GRAPE Day!

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I went out to the store the other day to find some shoes for my dd who is leaving for Russia next week (exchange student).  It was quite a purple trip!  On the way in, we parked near this car:

We stopped off at a book store and found this book:

And in the shoe store, we saw this interesting shoe:

I love the inside color, but the shoe isn’t something I’d want to wear.  They had all kinds of weird shoes in there including this one that was not purple.  I don’t know about you, but my foot doesn’t do that!  LOL

Maybe if it came in purple?

Did you see anything unusually purple this week?  Post it here and have a GRAPE Day!

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Several of you have been looking through The Purple Project posts and finding some good craft ideas in there to remake your wardrobe.  In just a month or so I’ll be done with my year long purple project and begin work on Purple-izing for Pennies.  I’d love to know which projects are your favorites and why so I can include more of the ones you’d like to see.

Maybe it was a bleach craft:

Or maybe a recipe:

Or maybe it was an easy purple addition:

Just click on this Purple Projects link and it’ll take you through all of the past purple projects I’ve done so far.  Leave a comment here about which ones you liked and why.  Also please share any purple projects you have done. You can either tell us about them in a comment or leave a link to your blog where you talk about them.

Have a GRAPE Day!

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