Squirrel!

Look who came to visit us today.

At first this little guy was sitting on our fence enjoying his snack.

I had a perfect view through the patio door. 

But by the time I ran upstairs to get my camera, changed to

the zoom lens, and ran back down, he was gone. 

So I ran back upstairs to take pictures of him in the neighbour’s

backyard from our bedroom window (hence the blurriness).

Cute, hunh?

He just ran around all over the place dragging his treat with him. 

I think it’s fascinating how his fur is grey and brown,

blending in with the dirt and weeds perfectly.

Think he was born that way or he’s just an old squirrel?

(By the way, this isn’t a commentary on my neighbour’s back yard;

they just cut down a huge tree that was blocking all of the sunlight

and keeping grass from growing).

But then he climbed back up on our fence! 

So I ran downstairs again.  I was afraid to get too close

so I just took the pictures through the window from across the room.  

I think he might have been waiting for me. 

Look at the little show-off. 

Have you ever seen a squirrel lie like that?

And he looks a little evil in this one.  

Check out that smirk.

That's a squirrel who's plotting something.

Suddenly he had an itch that had to be scratched.  Right. Now.

Now a little to the left. Ahhhh, that's it.

Some more posing.

And then he was off to new adventures in other backyards.

Fall Decor - Mason Jar Foliage Candles

I've never really decorated for fall before. Yes, I usually do the whole Halloween thing (and quite well thankyouverymuch), but never just for fall.

I saw some mason jar leaf candles here and I knew not only that I could do it, but that I had everything I needed already. Free craft! I gathered all of my materials to see what I had to work with. Artificial leaves. Check. Flameless tealights. Check. An abundance of jars. Checkity-check.

First I tried applying the leaves to the inside of the glass with mod podge, thinking it would dry clear. Not so much.

Fail. Big Fail.

But luckily they came off easily and the glue washed right out. For the second try I used my glue gun. I’m not going to tell you how many glue burns I suffered by shoving a hot-glue-covered leaf into a narrow-mouthed jar. Let’s just say it was more than one.

This time the result looked more like a candle and less like “your spaghetti sauce is growing mold, you might want to throw that out”.

I dug out my beloved twine and some old potpourri (from a long ago Thanksgiving centerpiece) and fancied up the rims. It was a little annoying getting the tealights in and out, but easier (and safer) than using real candles.

Ready to go. But then I thought, what about smaller candles? There is a candle that I absolutely adore – cinnamon pecan swirl by Candle-Lite. 

Oh my gosh, it smells so good. There is only one store in my town that carries them so I stock up when I can. I have a shelf in the linen closet full of them. But in my defense the closet smells really good. Like crawl-inside-and-take-a-nap good.

I always keep the jars after the candle is done. You never know when they might come in handy. (Like right now!) And they were the perfect height for this project.

Just a few leaves, some twine and "fluff", and I had a lamp that was far easier to get the candle into and out of. I'm kind of crushing on the proportions of the little guy.

I could stare at them all night.

What do you think? Suitably fall-ish? Something you’d want to try yourself? How would you tweak it?

Tiny pictures

I bought some small frames at Goodwill for 25 cents each. 

These little sweethearts with dried peppers and seeds in them.

Cute, right?

I bought them primarily because the frames

are the same colour as our kitchen cabinets,

though I'm not sure it comes across in these pictures

- they're a dark green - 

and I figured I could find a way to display them. 

Maybe sand them down or stain them. 

Or just leave them the way they are. 

Several months have gone by. 

Tick tock, tick tock.

And I’m not as enamoured of them anymore.

Too cutesy or something.

Today I came up with the idea to try something else.

I decided I would find some pictures to put behind the glass

and use them like regular frames.  

I went through the thousands of pictures of the dogs

 and selected four of my favourites. 

Seriously difficult.

 

How to pick just four? 

My girls are so beautiful that every picture is a winner. J

I finally decided on four, but I printed them out a little too large. 

I couldn’t figure out how to get them any smaller

without some major editing so I just went with it.

 

I dabbed a bit of hot glue on each corner

and glued them right on to the frames. 

I really like how they turned out. 

I like it even better than if they were behind the glass. 

It looks like they're glued onto solid blocks of wood. 

And the twine used to hang them gives it a rustic-y feel. 

I’ll show you later in the week where I chose to hang them. 

I actually finished a couple of other projects

and I’m liking how the craft room is shaping up.


I'm linking to these awesome link parties!