Spring is in the Air + Another Wreath

Spring has finally arrived hear in the Carolinas.

Spring is my favorite time of the years. These days though it often brings a mixed bag of emotions since it also represents the time when my father died.

That being said the renewing of life with birds chirping and flowers blooming always brings a smile to my face.

There's always something about the gentile nature of Bradford Pair trees in bloom. I don't have one myself (one of these days) but whenever I'm in my front yard , I get to see my neighbors.

And even though yellow is not a color I typically decorate with but during the spring months, I seem to have to have it and it all starts with the Forsythias in bloom. Forsythias are some of the first flowers of the season and you see them every where in these parts. There's small one's like my own (pictured below) and there are ones that are about 3 times or more this size.

Of course all this blooming also makes me realize there is yard work that needs to be done like sprucing up the mulch in the planter area.

Spring also triggers that creativity and crafting gene, too, which means time to make another wreath. This one was inspired by a wreath I say in the January / February 2014 issue of HGTV Magazine. This was a super easy and I had it put together in less than 2 hours. It was actually probably less than an hour but since I didn't check the time when I started making it, I erred on the high side with saying 2 hours.

This was my first time of making felt flowers. I was always intimated to try to make these or similar flowers but they were easy peasy, which means I'm sure they will be showing up in other projects in the future.

A Little Fall Decorating

Because I've had so much going on this year, I'm not going to have an opportunity to get the house all dolled up for Halloween. In fact I'm not even sure there will be much seasonal decoration.

That being said, I did manage to create a little fall candle garden for my coffee table. I seem to have fallen in love with birch this year especially birch candles. This all seemed to happen when I fell in love with this Pottery Barn inspiration picture.

Here's the problem though, I can't afford Pottery Barn prices and so begin my search for affordable Birch Candles when I came across actual birch candles from World Market.

I actually like the World Market Candles better than the Pottery Barn ones because they use actual birch bark and are not just painted to simulate birch.

So here is my rendition of the Pottery Barn look.

In addition to the candles, I also picked up the large hurricane from World Market. The tray is from IKEA and the gold acorns came from Pier 1. I did purchase one thing from Pottery Barn and that would be the pine cone vase filler. I already had the two smaller hurricanes that contain the tapers and they came from Dollar Tree.

Here's a view of the candle garden with burlap underneath the tray. To me, it just screams fall.

Halloween at My House

Hey Everyone,

I'm still around. Thanks to the inspiration I've gotten through a few of my fellow bloggers' projects, I've been crafting and decorating a bit this month for a little holiday that's taking place this week, like today. Yikes, where did the month go.

I've not really decorated for Halloween in over 10 years  as I had decided to decorate for fall and not just Halloween.

Just like last year around this time, the decorating and crafting bug bit and in a big way. Even though I spent quite a bit at Michael's, a lot of my projects were from Dollar Tree or from things I already had around the house.

Next year, when hopefully I be back to blogging on a regular basis, I can share more of my decor.

Since today's the big day for ghost and goblins I'll just try to show as much as I can without overwhelming you.

Bird Topiaries - I got this idea from the Michael's website.

Another Michael's project is my crow candelabra. 

The zebra pumpkin I created last year using zebra print Duck Tape. I got that ingenious idea from ????. The silver pumpkins are just Dollar Tree pumpkins that I spray painted. The white with black polka dot pumpkins came from Kirkland's. I went back during the 50% off sale and picked up some black ones with white polka dots.

Here's an up close of my napkins, $1.99 bandannas from Hobby Lobby, and my spider napkin rings. I got the bandannas during a 40% off sale, so they were actually $1.19. The napkin rings were created using some black Poster Board I had on hand, a stapler, glue, and some glitter spiders that I picked up from Pier 1. I think the spiders were about $2.97 for a back of 12.

This is what I put together for the little baker's rack that's at the end of the piano.

Closeups

The skull has to be one of my favorite items this year. The best part is it was totally free. I got the graphic from The Graphics Fairy. The frame I already had on hand.

The mercury glass pumpkin was another Kirkland's score. It was 50% off, so if I remember correctly the sale price was about $8.00. The beaded candle I already had (purchased from QVC a few years back) and the black platter and tombstone marker came from Dollar Tree. I added a bit a glitter glue to the platter to spruce it up and spray painted the marker black.





Last but not least, is my Man in the Moon wreath.

This was one of those unplanned projects that I think turned out great. I already had the black feather wreath on hand. It was purchased a few years back from Z Gallerie. I took the 2nd black Dollar Tree platter (it was a set of two) and using some glitter Mod Podge applied the Man in the Moon (another graphic from The Graphics Fairy) face to the platter. Then just place the platter inside the wreath. Why was this unplanned? Because I really wanted to use the Man in the Moon on the ledge in my kitchen but didn't have anything to hold him up. I had already hung the wreath. As I was walking by the wreath, I wonder if the platter would fit there and that's how I ended up with the Man in the Moon wreath.

BTW the desert menu came from Dollar Tree, my little pumpkin skulls came from AC Moore (on sale, I forget how much I paid for them but it was <$5.00, and "I want my Mummy" Mummy came from Pier 1. The little green bottle I already had on hand. I'm thinking I got it from Old Time Pottery years ago but could be wrong.

Hope you've enjoyed this mini trip of some of my Halloween decor. And you know what I realized during all this crafting and decorating for Halloween, that I actually miss decorating for this Holiday and have decided that I'm going to start back doing my Halloween decorations.

Praying all the ghost and goblins have fun tonight and stay safe.

New Fall Wreath

I have really fallen in love with the Rag Wreaths. If you remember, I did a post Fourth of July Wreath Rag Wreath that I'm really loving and am looking forward to displaying next year.

But I wanted a rag wreath that I could display now, so I got started spinning my wheels and decided to do a Sunflower Rag Wreath. My mother even submitted some creative ideas to the formation of this wreath.

Without further ado, here's my new fall wreath

This will go on my front door this coming week as I pull out my fall decor and begin to decorate my little place for the holidays.

So, how did I make the wreath?

Supplies I used to make the wreath were a wire wreath frame

3-5 yards of broadcloth, pinto beans, glue, cardboard, spray paint (ORB because it's what I had on hand), and floral wire.

I cut / ripped the cloth into strips about 1 1/2" x 7" (that doesn't have to be exact). Tie the strips of cloth onto the wreath frame. (I did all 4 rows but you can probably get by only doing 3 of the rows, which means less cloth).

For the middle, I cut a piece of cardboard the size of the wreath, then drew a circle, using the wreath as a guide for the middle. Applied a ton of glue inside the drawn circle, threw the pinto beans on there and kind of pressed them down into the glue. After the glue was dry (took a couple of days) I sprayed the beans with the paint (you don't have to paint them but I thought they would look better painted). Attached the cardboard to the wreath using floral wire. I also used some of the floral wire to make a loop to hang it by.

The idea of using the pinto beans for the middle / seeds came from my formerly crafty mother.

That's it folks. Sorry I don't have any in process pics, maybe next time.

After the 4th, Fourth of July Wreath

I don't know about you but for as long as I can remember, seems like I'm always doing crafts for a holiday, right after the holiday has passed.

I really wanted to display a wreath on my door for the 4th of July. I came across this wreath, featured on Crafts n' Coffee.

It's made from Twizzlers. It's cute and funky, and just what I was looking for for the front door. But the project ended up being an epic failure for me. I used various types of glue to try to adhere the Twizzlers to the Styrofoam wreath. They would adhere for a short while then fall off. I finally gave up on the project.

I still wanted a wreath but it was only 2 days away from the 4th when I decided to make a rag wreath. I purchased all the needed supplies but just didn't have the time to get it completed. So after the fourth, I've been working on it as time allows and finally completed my post 4th of July wreath this past week.

So even though it's after the 4th, I thought I would show my new wreath. Must say that I'm right proud of myself. This is my first time doing a rag wreath but dare I say that it will not be my last rag wreath.