Clay Pot Wreath

Remember my clay pot wreath from last year?

Sill LOVE it, but. . . 

THIS happened to some of the pots and they needed to be replaced: 

I thought I’d show you how the pots are attached.   The method is the same, whether you’re making a brand new wreath or adding one pot :)

Start with a grapevine wreath, wire and needle nose pliers.  Collect your pots… you can purchase new, but I love the character of thrift and garage sale pots.

Cut about a 10-12 inch piece of wire using your pliers.  Slip it under a few vines, leaving an equal amount of wire on each side: 

Decide which direction you want to the pot to face.  In this case, if you use the wire on the left as the top, the pot will face to the right.  But I wanted it to face the camera, so I used the portion on the right as the top wire. 

Thread your top wire through the bottom of the pot:

Twist the ends together like a twist tie.  Then use the needle nose pliers to roll the ends into a little coil: 

 

All better…  

 

The weight of the pots makes this wreath VERY heavy.  Take care to hang it securely and enjoy!

 

Let me know if you make a clay pot wreath. . . I’d love to see it!!

Bunny ears

I think they’ll soon be coming out of MY ears! 

My bunny ear napkin rings are surprisingly popular this year. . . I can barely crochet them fast enough :)

Just listed 2 more sets and they’re ready to cutify their new Easter home.

I won!

Look at the beautiful angel journal I won! 

Isn’t she gorgeous?!  An original folk art lovely that the artist hand painted onto a hardback notebook. . .

And she has a delightful Etsy shop for you to visit. . .

Wonders of Whimsy

     Thanks, Jenny!  I really LOVE her!!

Love Never Fails Valentine Box

I found this vintage wooden recipe box at the thrift store awhile ago.  And it languished about before until I could decide what to do with it ;) 

I had planned to use it to display some seasonal  decor and finally decided on a Valentine theme.   I left the lid open and put everything in the area where recipe cards would have gone. 

The hearts are sewn from cotton fabric.  After turning right side out and stuffing with poly fill, I hand stitched a smaller heart to the front and then embellished with bits of lace, old buttons, rusty safety pins and rolled felt roses. 

The love bird is my favorite!  I drew him like a hundred times before I got the pattern right.  He’s holding a chocolate brown crochet heart in his beak that has a vintage key pinned to it. 

The tag is tea stained and stamped with “Love Never Fails” from 1Corinthians 13:8.  I put another crochet heart on it and then pinned it to one of the bigger hearts. 

Tucked them all into the box along with some greenery and berries, then tied a strip of red fabric around the box. . .  Now I can’t wait to start decorating for Valentine’s Day!

A month of snowmen

Seems like time is slipping by as quickly as it did in December.  Before January slips completely away and I decorate for Valentine’s Day, I wanted to be sure to share my Winter Decorating with you.

Our wintry weather is only beginning in January and I like to devote the month to snow and snowmen. 

I left the Christmas garland over my red hutch.  I like the twinkle of the white lights at night. Then added some snowflakes, snowmen and icicles: 

The rag snowman garland hangs from the peg shelf.  

Red homespun stars and a snowman sit in a paper mache light box in this little nook.  Again - love happy white lights in the winter evenings :) 

All the glassware in this centerpiece is from either a thrift store or the Dollar Tree and glued together with E6000.  
 

I made the snowballs by smearing joint compound onto styrofoam balls.  When they dry, paint them white and sprinkle with glitter while the paint is still damp. 

And finally – just in case you don’t know what snowflakes are made of :)  

How do you decorate for winter?

Linking:

Rag Snowman Garland

  
A friend of mine decorates her house with a different monthly theme.  Yes, MONTHLY!

And not just a few little knick knacks. 

She all out decorates. 

Every month. 

All.Year. 

While I don’t have the time/energy/storage space to have a monthly theme, I do big puffy heart dedicating January to sNoW and sNoWmEn.  Knowing I have lots of fun snowmen in the wings takes some of the sting out of packing up the Christmas decor for next year. 

Here's a sneak peak of a rag and wood garland I just finished.  The mittens are cut from wood and hand painted  with a plaid and snowman design.  They’re strung on jute twine -- loving the rag strips!!

Just hanging out, waiting for January :)

Recycled Wreath

Brace yourself. 
This is not an easy picture to view:

 
Poor, sad little thing has seen better days.  So after removing the berries and pine cones, I rolled up some fabric flowers and used one of my painted spindle angels to spiff it up a bit:

What do you think?

Autumn Greetings

This is my favorite fall wreath.  No reason.  It just makes me happy…

I can’t wait to put it up every autumn :)

The pieces are all thin wood.  I cut them out with my scroll saw and hand painted them before gluing to a grapevine wreath.

Acorns, pumpkins and corn:

 More pumpkins, leaves and a sunflower:

And an autumn angel
who is…

GiViNg YoU a HaRVeSt WeLCoMe:

CAST your cares
on the LORD and he will SUSTAIN
YOU; he will NEVER let the RIGHTEOUS fall. Psalm 55:22

(Couldn’t resist sharing this favorite “fall” verse :)

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Fall’s call

Summer is short here. 

So short, people here say we only have 2 seasons: 

1) Winter and 2) It Feels Like Winter

Or, more appropriately,

1) Winter and 2) Road Construction

As such, we really don’t have much “fall” to speak of.

It just gets a little colder than it already has been.  All the pretty green flowers, gardens and trees succumb to frost.

And every morsel of weather that is non winter related is cherished and DELIGHTFUL. 

The extreme cold cooler temperatures and the mountains many feet of snow will be here soon enough.  Perhaps even tomorrow.  REALLY. I’MNOTKIDDING. 

Oh, and don’t forget the incessant gale force entity known simply as THEWIND. 

To sum up- the weather here is LOVELY.   Please come visit any time. 

qfqfqfqfqfqfqfqfq

A primitive light box is fun and cheerful in any season.  Here’s how I make mine: 

Start with an old sewing drawer. 

If you don’t happen to have a sewing drawer, use whatever you have on hand…. an old tin, sifter, colander or you can even paint a paper mache box to match your theme.  It’ll look great no matter what you use!

Cut a piece of Styrofoam or florist foam to fit inside.  To fill the sewing drawer, I used fabric pumpkins, fall berries, pine greenery and a fall star. 

This tutorial explains how to make the pumpkins…

I used a twig from a lilac bush for the stem and used my primitive grunging recipe to coffee stain and scent them.  They smell SO good!

The star is made from muslin with a pretty scrap of fall fabric whip stitched on top.  It’s also stained and scented. 

I insert small sticks or dowel pieces into the stuffed pumpkins and stars… then stick them into the florist foam.  The berries and greenery have their own stems. 

Tuck in a strand of twinkle lights.  
 
And finish with a strip of fabric tied in a bow. 

I use mine with a timer – to come on at dusk and turn off at bedtime.  I love to change the theme and have a twinkly primitive box all year.f

FaLL BLeSSiNgS!
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