Bringing Spring Inside

Well, the day I placed my new spring wreath on my front door, the temperature dropped 30 degrees, there was crazy wind, and oh so cold, but the calendar tells me it’s spring.

Today a short and simple post sharing a $1 thrift store find and a $2.49 hyacinth.

I was attracted to this odd shaped container right away, not only the shape, but the fact it was white.

Scrubbed the container and gave it a fresh coat of paint.

White, of course!

One of my local stores had a display of spring bulbs outside as you entered the store, some were already starting to bloom.

I chose a pink hyacinth for my new pot.

Oh how lovely my little spring project turned out.

Adding a bit of moss to the top finished it up.

For $3.49 I have a sweet spring and Easter piece for my home.

It brings spring inside with a lovely fragrance.

Simple as I said, in fact, there were two of these odd pots but I only brought one home, I’m now thinking I need the other one!

Hope it’s still there!

A Special Valentine’s Day Frame

I love Valentine’s Day.

I love that this is a special day set aside to tell those in your life just how much you love them.

I love that it is a day for couples to show their love in sweet, loving, and romantic ways, but most of all I love this special day to let my family and friends know how special they are to me.

I love to make cards and send simple gifts, or call, or text, just to say “I love you”.

I love to decorate just a bit for this day, and today I want to share how I turned a dollar store wood frame into something special.

I love how easy and fun it was to update a simple wood frame with just paint, glue, and some flat wood buttons glued around the heart opening.

The flat wood buttons were $1 a pack at Hobby Lobby, I used two packs.

Using a sponge brush I painted the entire frame, front and back, with white paint.

When dry, I started gluing the buttons around the heart opening using E6000 glue.

When the buttons were completely dry and secure, I painted them and gave the entire frame one more coat of paint.

I love the finished frame, especially when I added a photo of me and my sweet husband taken on our wedding day 54 years ago.

It is certainly a special frame for Valentine’s Day.

I love you all for stopping by today, please remember to say “I love you” to all those close to you tomorrow.

Hugs.

That Cozy Winter Feeling

Finally.

I have finally finished putting away all my Christmas decorations after going through every item, deciding whether to keep or donate.

Usually I just pack up everything, but this year I really needed to take my time, and since this is the first of February I would say I did just that.

It is amazing how much we accumulate year after year.

Each item has it’s own story, so hard to let go.

As I packed up my totes to donate, I wondered who might buy my items at the thrift store, and love them as I did over the years.

My home seemed so empty as I packed everything Christmas away, the Santas, the stockings, all the ornaments, most everything red.

We still have many days of winter ahead so I did leave lots of things out that say “winter”.

A dough bowl full of snowy pine cones on the kitchen table.

My evergreen wreath filled with berries and pine cones in the living room.

The bit of greenery in my entry will stay a while longer.

Simple frosted cranberries in a glass vase.

Snowflake pillows certainly say “winter” and will stay.

Winter calls for warm throws and sweater pillows.

Winter artwork like this canvas print of a little boy pulling a sled in the snow.

I absolutely love this print, it reminds me of my son as a child with his sweet kitty, Nikki. So precious.

Winter scent candles give warmth to a room, my favorites are winterberry and spruce, and the smell of pine trees.

As I looked around my home after some rearranging, I could see a cozy transition to winter.

Not only could I see it, but I could feel the cozy.

A welcoming feeling when you come in from the cold.

That wonderful feeling that tells us we are home.

Love and blessings to all.

My Momma Started Something

Hello friends, Happy New Year!

I have been busy putting away, and trying to organize my Christmas decorations, but I took a well needed break to finish upcycling some thrift store items.

When I was a child, my Momma gave me a shoe box.

I loved my simple box, filling it with my favorite things, pencils, crayons, scissors, and papers.

So funny, these are still some of my favorite things.

With that simple gift, my Momma started a crazy thing I have for boxes, all kinds, with or without lids, no matter.

Wood boxes are one of the first things I look for at the thrift store.

I found these 3 wood nesting boxes and an old recipe box on one of my visits.

The nesting boxes were already white, but after cleaning I still gave them a couple coats of white paint to freshen them up.

The recipe box needed a bit more work.

I cleaned and sanded it to remove the lettering, and then painted it as well.

To make them special I added white and gold knobs to each one.

I added the same knob to the nesting boxes, but selected a larger one for the recipe box.

Now that I have them fresh and new, what to do with them.

I used the recipe box to hold and display all the Christmas cards I received this year.

I remember my Momma would always display all her cards around a doorway during Christmas.

There are so many other ideas for my boxes.

On my desk.

I surrounded a candle with some snowy berries, evergreens, and pine cones, in one of the boxes, for a winter piece in my living room.

I am getting ready to update my linen closet and I have an idea they will work well to hold so many things and give the area some much needed order.

They would be perfect on a dresser as a catchall, or to hold towels or pump soaps in the bathroom.

Just so, so many ways to use them.

Hope you all liked my first post of this new year.

Thank you Momma for starting this crazy fun thing I have for boxes.

New Year’s blessings to all.

One More Last Minute Christmas Gift Idea

If you have a few hours during these last days before Christmas, and need a last minute gift, then you may like the idea I am sharing with you today..

I stopped by the $ store last week and found these little boxes, trays, or frames, whatever they are, and picked up several for an easy craft project.

I simply painted them using my chalk paint, but you could use any craft paint.

As they were drying I found some really cute Christmas images on Pinterest, printed them out on my home printer, and cut them to fit the frames.

Using Mod Podge I applied a thin coat with a sponge brush to the inside of the frames, and added the images.

To finish up I bushed on another thin coat to seal the images, and some sparkling snow.

Having some extra little gifts on hand at this time of the year is so helpful for last minute guests stopping by, or to give friends when meeting for lunch, or last minute gatherings.

It is fun to pick out just the right image that you know someone would love, like the cat image for a friend of mine who loves cats.

How cute they are to place on a shelf, or tuck in a small space for just a bit of Christmas decor.

One of my favorite things to do with small gifts is to place them in a cellophane bag and tie with a big red bow.

It would be hard to find a sweeter gift, and to say to someone “I made this for you”.

Merry Christmas!

A Memorable Last Minute Christmas Gift

Busy, busy days.

Christmas is just 4 days away.

Do you need a last minute gift for someone really special?

Today I want to share one that I believe, most folks would love to receive.

Now special is this old photo on me and my sister on Christmas morning some 65 years ago.

These wonderful mini frame ornaments are so reasonably priced, 3 for $10 at Michaels, plus extra off coupons are always available.

They are beautiful, especially when a favorite photo is placed in each one.

The quality is amazing for the money.

I gathered all the frames I had purchased last year, and a few new ones, to make several gifts for friends, and of course, for myself.

My tree is filled with ornaments that are special to me, I love to add photos when possible, especially old ones.

This one was taken on our 50th wedding anniversary.

This little snowflake is a photo of my son when he was a toddler.

Oh my gosh, that face, that precious face.

This photo of Rudolph and a Christmas elf is my sister and her husband.

So cute!
Our wedding day kiss, 54 years ago, love this frame, it has a vintage look.

These can be tied on wrapped gifts, or how beautiful to add one to each place setting for Christmas dinner.

I enjoyed sitting at my kitchen table putting these together, so easy to do in no time at all, a truly last minute gift.

Hope your gifts are wrapped, your home decorated, ready to celebrate this Holy Season.

Wishing all peace and love.

Cute Halloween Treats Using Peat Pots

It is so hard for me to believe that it is just a few days before Halloween.

Where did my October go!

This pack of really cute Halloween napkins gave me the idea for today’s post.

I usually decoupage on pumpkins in the fall, and love to decoupage on peat pots at Easter, but this year I decided to paint and decorate peat pots for Halloween.

For this project you will need peat pots, black craft paint, a sponge brush, Mod Podge, scissors, and some Halloween napkins.

My first step was to paint the pots black, I did paint the inside as well. They are easy to paint using a sponge brush.

While the pots were drying, I cut out the skeleton pieces from the napkins.

Because of the size of my pots I was not able to use the entire skeleton, only the upper portion of them.

When cutting the images I left a bit of the black around the edges.

I brushed Mod Podge on the pots and added the skeleton pieces, taking care to gently pat them down.

When the pieces were completely dry I did add a thin coat of Mod Podge to each pot to seal.

They turned out soooo cute!

I filled the cups with colorful shredded paper.

The paper adds more color and can be found at Hobby Lobby.

To finish up, I filled cellophane bags with treats, tied with an orange ribbon, and placed one in each cup.

How cute these would be as favors for the kids, or on a table, at parties, or as a treat for coworkers on their desks, what a surprise when they come in to work.

I love working with peat pots, they have a vintage look to them. The look you all know I love.

You could add wire to the cups for a handle, I did not on mine.

Peat pots come in large and small sizes and can be found at garden centers or ordered online.

We are enjoying what may be the last of our warm fall days. Our trees have changed and are so beautiful.

Pray you all are also enjoying these days.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you liked this, not so scary, Halloween treat project.

Brown Paper Leaf Garland

With the season changing I have been pulling out and dusting off all my decorations for fall and Halloween.

I wanted to add something new to my collection of white jack-o-lanterns this year, so I tried a project I have seen on many Pinterest posts, brown paper leaf garlands.

You just need brown paper from bags, wrapping paper, or cardstock, a hot glue gun, scissors, and wire, I used grapevine covered wire I found at Michaels.

I started by making two size oak leaf templates, which I traced on the brown paper.

The next step was fun for me because of my love as a child of cutting paper and paperdolls.

My box of paperdolls brought me so much joy.

Did you have paperdolls?

A wonderful childhood memory for me.

I cut several leaves out at a time, while watching TV, until I had a pile of about 30 or so.

My next step was to glue each leaf stem to the wire with my hot glue gun until I had the length I wanted.

I placed the garland on my family room mantel, and added my white jack-o-lanterns.

How cute!

Not my usual fall colors, but I love the neutral look

I glued a few leaves to some branches from my yard to fill in around the jack-o-lanterns.

If you didn’t want to make a garland, branches with paper leaves glued to them, could be used in many places around your home.

Of course, the little girl in me loved this project, hope you all did too!

Happy Friday!

Love and blessings to all.

DIY Colorful Chunky Pumpkins

It’s that beautiful, colorful, time of the year, the change of seasons.

Fall is here!

Cool weather came this past week, and the leaves are beginning to fall in my area.

Today I would like to share a very simple DIY fall project using Dollar Tree pumpkins, and chunky yarn from Hobby Lobby.

I purchased the yarn at 40% off, less than $5.00 each.

Look at the wonderful colors, the colors of fall mums.

I started by cutting a hole in the top and bottom of the pumpkin using a knife, removing the stem.

Please take care when cutting.

Start by wrapping the yarn in and out, around the entire pumpkin.

When I started, I secured the beginning of the yarn with a little hot glue inside the pumpkin.

You will need to guess how much yarn you will need to cover the pumpkin, and cut it from the bundle of yarn.

Once the entire pumpkin was covered, I cut some stems from a stick in my yard, and also added some twiggy curls and a leaf.

I love them!

They are like pots of fall mums around my home.

There is enough yarn in each chunky bundle to make at least three pumpkins.

Spread some fall colors around your home, and try this simple project.

There is no way you can mess this up, seriously, it is that easy to do.

Hope you all are beginning to enjoy this beautiful season of the year, it is truly a gift from God.

Happy colorful fall!

A Really Simple Sunflower Project

If I were asked to make a list of my favorite things, sunflowers would surely be there.

I have always thought sunflowers were fall flowers, but no, they actually bloom in summer and on into fall.

When shopping at my local Meijer’s store, I noticed these tea towels.

Loved them, but thought they should be more than a decorative towel hanging in my kitchen.

So, I cut them in half and made placemats.

No, not such a crazy idea, look at them!

Could not be any easier to do, I just cut them in half, turned and ironed the edges under, and stitched across the towel.

I took care to make both sides the same.

As I have mentioned before, I do not sew a bunch, but on this day my sewing machine loved me and they turned out perfect.

They are plenty large enough for a simple place setting.

A pretty table would be on my favorite things list too, just fun to bring color to the everyday.

You all know that I am retired and spend most of my days at home with my husband.

Simple things like using these placemats when we are sitting at the kitchen table having breakfast, help to make our everyday routines special.

I find that when we sit at the table together, instead of just having cereal in front of the TV, we take more time to talk.

Yesterday I was at that same Meijer’s store, spotted some really wonderful fall tea towels, lots of pumpkins and beautiful colorful leaves, hmm…

I will keep you all posted.

Happy Monday!