Winter Under Glass

A light, fluffy snow fell gently all day. No winter wind here. No ice under. Just the sweetest, softest snow we've had in ages.

The late Thanksgiving threw me off my game this year and my holiday decorating is about a week behind my normal schedule. I put most of it up last weekend, hubby decorated the tree and I am now putting on the finishing touches.

One of the items I brought back from Arizona when we started cleaning out our parents' house was a beautiful folk art Santa by Pam Schifferl. I have a couple of her ornaments that I simply adore!

I planned to put the Santa under a cloche I had, but it wasn't tall enough. So, I headed to my neighborhood Home Goods store, which has an extensive offering of clear glass vases, hurricanes, apothecary jars and cloches. Eureka! They had one that was tall enough.

But, alas, I got it home and, not taking into account that it wasn't straight-sided, but rather bell shaped, the curvy section wouldn't fit over the width of the figurine. After an exhaustive and futile search for the right-sized cloche, I gave up and decided to make my own from a large egg-shaped vase.

The cute glittered bird substitutes for the cloche knob. He's surrounded by an ice wreath I already had among my holiday trimmings.

My mom's woodland Santa clearly is from the same clan as my ornaments.

Woodland Santa perches on a vintage milk glass cake stand atop a vintage bevelled mirror and is surrounded by vintage family mercury glass ornaments.

Welcome, Woodland Santa.

Make it a great day!

Linking to:

Nifty Thrifty Sunday

Motivate Me Monday
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday
You're Gonna Love It Tuesday

My Newest Hang Up; National Photo Month, Day 16

Recently, my makeshift jewelry hanger collapsed and all my necklaces ended up in a heap on the floor. What a mess!

I laid the mish-mash of chains on the daybed in what we fondly call our "Patriotic Room" and planned to create a new hanger.

At an artisan boutique the following weekend, I came across this eco-friendly hanger made from a birch branch and equipped with rustic nail heads. Perfection!

Now I needed a unique to display the hanger, so I set out to find something at the local craft store. I found a nice burlap square with a black metal hook. Right piece. Wrong finish. Nothing I couldn't fix, though.

I also bought a couple of inexpensive rusty keys that coordinate well with the rusty nail heads on the wood and the wire hanger. And, I decided to use the artwork I recently created for my peat pot project so the hanger would coordinate with the peat pot.

As much as I like the natural look of burlap, I decided to paint it antique white. I like the way it blends with the birch of the jewelry hanger.

The black hook definitely didn't work. I mixed a couple of different brown paints with gel medium and dabbed on a fairly heavy coat. When it dried, it looked pretty close to the rusty, crusty finish on the keys I had purchased.

Finally, using Mod Podge, I added the scrolled crowned bird image I created using three wonderful images from The Graphics Fairy. You can find the individual images I used here, here and here. I printed my creation on medium-weight card stock, tore it into a shape I liked and lightly applied stamping ink to the surface and edges to create an aged look.

The natural jewelry hanger works well with the rustic burlap hook. And, it's great to get my heap of necklaces off the daybed.

Make it a great day!

Linking to:

Thursday Favorite Things
Home and Garden Thursday
Transformation Thursday
Be Inspired
Feature Friday
Brag Monday

May Baskets and a Photo a Day

As a young child, May Day and the tradition of delivering and receiving May baskets held such delight for me. I loved the thrill of quietly placing a homemade basket filled with candy and violets from our garden on friends' porches, ringing the doorbell and running for dear life.

To this day, whenever I work with construction paper, pipe cleaners and paper doilies, I'm reminded of May Days past.

Since my children have long since left the nest, the basket tradition is a thing of the past for me. In fact, I'd venture to guess that the tradition has all but disappeared in many American neighborhoods.

Last year, I commemorated May Day by paint washing and embellishing the berry baskets above. Recently, I again got the itch to create a couple of pretties in the spirit of May baskets to fill a couple of gaps in my spring vignettes.

They started as peat pots I picked up at an estate sale. I painted them--one an icy blue, the other a mixture of a couple of earthy colors that resulted in a pale terra cotta that I then dry brushed in a creamy white.

I found a lovely French label graphic at The Graphics Fairy to add to the blue pot. I combined three of Karen's images--a sweet little bird, a beautiful crown and an elegant frame--to create the image in its crowning glory that now graces the terra cotta pot.

To give a slight aged look to the bird basket, I  distressed the image lightly using stamping ink. I Mod Podged the images onto the pots. As a finishing touch, I added wisps of vintage seam tape in complementary colors.

The pots by themselves looked a bit naked so, out of some raw materials I had laying around, I stitched up some little pouches to scrunch up inside the pots. Both pouches are made from wide  ribbon--one sparkly tulle, the other vintage net.  I simply folded the ribbon over on itself and stitched up each side to create the pouch.

No more stealth deliveries to friends on May Day, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy creating a grown-up version of the May basket.

NATIONAL PHOTO MONTH

May is National Photo Month. Today is Day 1 of my attempt at posting a photo a day.

Today's photo is a version of the French blue peat pot on a wonderful background texture called "Stay," created by Kim Klassen. Kim's creations are exquisite and worth a visit to her site.

Hope you'll come back each day and join the photo fun.

Make it a great day!

Linking to:

Brag Monday
If It's Not Baroque Tuesday Link
Watcha Work-Up Wednesday
Whatever You Want Wednesday
What's It Wednesday
Primp Your Stuff Wednesday
Wildly Original Link Party
Time Travel Thursday
Cottage Style Party
Frugal Friday
Frugalicious Friday
Spotlight Saturday

Ahhhh, Simplify

After we returned all the tubs of Christmas stuff to the attic, I left the mantel bare for short time. Every year, I am amazed at all the holiday decor we've amassed. What's even more amazing is that I actually use most of it.

After the holidays, it takes me a while to recover from the over eating, over socializing, over thinking, over worrying and over decorating.

Now that I have had time to catch my breath, I've simplified the mantel in our family room. It started with this:

This homemade box was a garage sale find from last summer. The wood is rough and splintery. Late last fall, I was working on a couple of other painting projects and decided to put some paint on it--doing something between a dry brush and full coat.

I liked the way it looked after simply slapping on the paint, so I left it that way.

It sat in the garage without a handle until this past week when I brought it in and added burlap ribbon and filled it with pine cones--some that I had salvaged from my live Christmas wreaths when they were past their prime, and some I painted myself.

I added some other wintery looking items to the mantel. The linen-covered French books are unusual and have a special story that I can share in another post. 

The little bird is a terra cotta votive holder I found at a garage sale--for 25 cents. It had potential, but I didn't like the terra cotta look, so I gave it a light brushing of white paint.

The beautiful painting over the fireplace was created by my husband's great uncle and given to my husband's parents as a wedding gift in 1947. When we brought it back this summer after moving his parents out of their house, it was in nasty condition--dull from years of dust, warped from the moisture in his parents' basement and flawed with a couple of tiny spots of chipped paint.

Here it is in its glory after we had it restored. It's a perfect backdrop for the winter mantel.

The stars I crocheted for Christmas still work with the winter scheme and add just the right amount of twinkle to the vignette.

Make it a great day!

Linking to:

Nifty Thrifty Sunday
Sunny Simple Sunday
Motivate Me Monday
Cowgirl Up!
Mod Mix Monday
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday
Tweak It Tuesday
All-Star Block Party
Time Travel Thursday

National Feathered Friends Day

Source: The Graphics Fairy

A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song. 

--Chinese proverb

Today is National Bird Day. 

My mother was an avid, amateur birdwatcher. I grew up watching birds with her. We counted chickadees in the shrubs, admired cardinals in the cedars, laughed at the chatty blue jays as they chased the goldfinch from the feeder. We scolded the barn swallows when they dive-bombed our heads and chased the crows out of the vegetable garden.

One would think that as much bird watching as I have done, I would have countless photos of all those birds. Sadly, though, I have never been good at taking bird photographs. Not my strong suit, I guess. Here's one of my favorites, though--the wild turkeys in our back yard.

Our bookshelves, however, are rich with bird books, vintage and new.

And birds brighten our home's landscape inside and out.

I've done a little birding on vacation, too. On a summer jaunt down Route 66 in Tucumcari, N.M., I spotted a beauty of an old bird: the historic, kitschy Blue Swallow Motel.

Mom counted cardinals and hummingbirds among her favorites. I'm partial to our state bird, the Western Meadowlark.

Do you have a favorite bird? In observance of National Bird Day, I invite you to post your favorite bird image on my Facebook page. 

Make it a great day!

Linking to:

Get Schooled Saturday
Sunday Linky Party at Petite Hermine
Sunny Simple Sunday
Creative Bloggers Party and Hop

A Simple Splash of Red

When I visit the wonderful blogs on my reading list, I find the all-shades-of-white, light-neutral and shabby chic vignettes and decor are what most often catch my eye and draw me in first. They're so luscious,  soft and romantic.

Funny that the soft whites impact me that way because I love color. Our home, while dressed in knotty pine throughout, bears color on all the (non-knotty-pined) walls and the original vintage tile floor on the lower level.  Some of that color is big and bold. Additionally, most of our accents and decor are colorful, and I don't mean colorful as in a single color family. I guess it's my passion for all things vintage that heavily influences a color palette with a wide variety of hues. 

This Christmas season, for the first time ever, I "neutralized" much of the holiday decor in the living room. Not quite able to let go of all color, I added small splashes of red amongst the winter whites, silver, gold and mercury glass. Like my great-grandmother's tiny antique bottle brush Santa.

And an antique German liquor bottle in the shape of a Santa.

A couple of well-placed pretty red items alongside the feather trees adds interest. In my humble opinion.

And, the tall, ceramic pencil Santa my mother hand-painted for me adds subdued, but stately, color against a collection of vintage mirrors.

A simple vintage ornament with a red band creates some pop next to the large mercury glass bowl on the Stickley postal table.

Relax! It's not a bonfire in my living room. But, I wanted to share a night shot of the mercury glass bowl on the postal table. I filled it with twinkle lights and this is what it looks like with the lights on. Sort of. You'll just have to take my word for it that it's softer light than that in person.

For a final splash of red, I included this stunning male cardinal I photographed this morning in the cedar tree along the ravine at the back of our yard. This was our first significant snow of the season. Fitting as a prelude to winter, don't you think?

Although I used a long lens to capture him, this brilliant guy was quite a distance away. So, I hope you'll pardon the photo quality.

I'm dedicating this post to my mother, who was born in December and passed in December six years ago. She was an avid, amateur birdwatcher, who counted the cardinal among her favorites.

Make it a great day!

Linking to:
Rednesday
Time Travel Thursday
Primp Your Stuff
Nifty Thrifty Sunday