Fine-feathered Friend

It's almost fall! And you know what that means? It's wreath-building time! There is something about leaves changing colour and pumpkins everywhere that makes me want to build wreaths. I don't get that urge any other time of the year. To paraphrase Courtenay at The Creek Line House, "Fall is textury."

I had been asked to make wreaths for some family members, but I missed out on getting them finished for summer. I don't even have one on my own door. Just some lovely scratches from the wreath that hung all last winter. When will that get touched up? I dunno. Probably around the same time I finish painting the trim in the front foyer.

While we were in Pennsylvania I stocked up on grapevine wreaths at Joann's (using my trusty coupons!) I even bought one at a yard sale. Is that crazy to go to a yard sale when you're on vacation in another country? Then this week I headed out to the dollar store to find the decorations. Since the soon-to-be-wreath-owning family members are all closely related and will see each other all the time, I had to make each one unique. I even managed to come up with ideas to make them personalized.

I started the first one with an 18" grapevine wreath, wooden numbers (also from Joann's) that I sprayed with Krylon "ivy leaf", and flowers and feathers from that ol' dollar store. I'm guessing that they're pheasant feathers. Anyone know for sure?

The building of this one was really straight-forward and easy to do. I tucked the feathers into the vines, facing upwards and downwards, and then added the red flowers into the centre. I salvaged some tiny green leaves from another wreath and slid them in behind the flowers to balance the green numbers on the other side.

Once I had an arrangement I liked I hot glued each feather to either the wreath or the feather below it. I only used a tiny dot of glue - just enough to keep them from falling or blowing out. Those Canadian winds can be menacing! 

The numbers were arranged along the opposite side of the circle. I had to slightly overlap them because they're so large, but glueing them to each other rather than only to the wreath gives them more stability anyway.

I used some wide brown satin ribbon (the same as I used on this gift) as a hanger and declared it complete!

Wasn't that simple? Of course now she can never move. Unless she only looks at houses numbered 1483. Can you imagine telling your real estate agent that? "No, I'm sorry, it's just not the right number."

I'm drawn to both the simplicity of the design and the different textures. 

Flowers, feathers, wood, grapevine. Oh, and satin. 

I hope you'll come back to see the other two!

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I'm linking up here this week!

Weathered Wicker Dresser

Hey everyone!

I hope you had a terrific labour day weekend! Ours was filled with home projects, as usual, but we did sneak in a trip to Gravenhurst to go hiking on the Old Stone Road Trail, and a night at the drive-in for a triple-bill. Do they still have drive-ins where you live? Ours is only about 10 minutes away so it's really convenient. Plus there's an awesome pizza place nearby so we aren't slaves to the concession stands.

Two of the bigger projects we worked on aren't ready to show off but I'll give you a sneak peek:

Instead of getting into the details of that, here's a little craft room update I can share.

I have a wicker dresser/chest that I use to store my paints, glue, brushes, scraps of material, & other crafty items that don't seem to have a home. It's pretty standard, you can pick one up in any big box store for around $150-$250 but they go on sale all the time. Mine came from Canadian Tire and I'm pretty sure I got it for around $100. The frame is wood, while the drawers are wicker. And the handles are leather, which I think is a nice touch.

www.canadiantire.ca

I keep a small container of wall paint around for touch ups and what-not. Sometimes I'll water down a bit of it when I want to give something a white-washed look or when I do my "grey stain" treatment. One day the idea came to me to lighten up the wicker areas on the chest with the watered-down paint.

I just grabbed an old washcloth and started wiping the paint on. I only painted the wicker so that the wooden areas would stand out more. I didn't do the backs or the insides of the drawers since they won't be seen anyway. And it only took about 10 minutes from start to finish.

Now it has a beachy look and I am a happy girl. 

If I can't go to the beach, then I'm bringing the beach to me!

Maybe I should have scattered some starfish and shells around?

That dog painting still hasn't found a home. Tom wants to hang it over Sasha's food bowl so she can look at it while she's eating.

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I'm linking up here this week!

Thrifting

Welcome to Thrifty Thursday Friday! Yeah, I'm a little behind this week. But I can explain! I had a dentist appointment after work yesterday, then I came home to paint the upstairs hallway and thought I'd broken something because the lights wouldn't turn on. I checked the breakers and nothing was flipped. Turns out I was just being dumb - but I needed Tom to come home and tell me that. The lights are on a 3-way switch and the other switch was sitting at the halfway mark. Super easy fix. So it was after 11pm when I finished painting and pulling down tape. But it looks good! It even makes the boring beige carpet look good. What a team player.

Had enough of my excuses? On to my finds this week.

I'm loving this framed mirror. Seven dollars. It's at least two feet square. I walked by it once but I didn't have a cart so I pretended I didn't even see it and just gave it the side eye. Do you do that? There was another lady close by who did have a cart and I didn't want her to know I was interested in it. I'm pretty sure it paid off because when I got my cart and came back she was still there. I know that was disappointment in her eyes as I loaded it up.

I haven't yet decided what I'm going to do with it, whether to paint it or just leave it. I don't even know where I'm going to put it. With my other mirrors hanging out in the spare room? Shhhhhh.

There was a whole shelf of these mdf picture frames. Probably 20 or 30 frames. I took 9 of them. I'm going to arrange them 3 x 3 on a wall in the basement tv room, once it's painted. I think they'll have black and white vacation photos in them. The frames will probably end up white as I'm going for a beachy look for the whole room.

How sweet is this planter, bowl, pedestal, whatchamacallit? I think it was something like two dollars. 

It's a substantial size and really has presence. I'm going to fill it with either a drapey plant, or fruit. Not drapey fruit though, just regular fruit. :-)


Three of Tom's relatives liked the wreath I made for his mom for Mother's Day so much that they asked me to make wreaths for them as well. My first commission! I've been collecting materials over the last month or so and I think I have everything I need. I'm going to use this picture frame and wreath together for one, but I'm not telling you anything else - it's a secret.

I also snagged some paperbacks and another frame for our living room gallery wall. The gallery that might have pictures in it some day. It's on the list, really!

Have you been thrifting lately? Any good finds? I kind of want to go to the Re-store tomorrow but I don't know if I'm pushing my luck with Tom. With the combination of things we bought while in Pennsylvania and my recent thrift store outings, the place is starting to look like a warehouse.