old dog, new tricks...

...what is that old saying?  You can't teach an old dog new tricks.  Well this old dog is tricked to her limit and despising every moment of tryig to learn Widows 10, where my archived photos are hiding and the new blogger dashboard.  What the hell blogger?

I've been trying to get into the Christmas spirit, slowly but surely.  another old saying.  Finally got hubby to get down the Christmas decorations and now boxes and crates litter the dining room.  It will probably take me two weeks to go through them and then end up putting out only a few things.  Seems every year we decorate less and less, must be how it is when your children are grown and leave home and think they can have lives of their own and make their own decisions....run on sentence a little?

every year I plant paperwhite bulbs in early December and by Christmas day they are usually a foot tall and blooming.  So yesterday I got out all the necessary items and got ready to plant, a little late this year.

a few pretty bowls that I use as planters and some pretty rocks my son collected on his trips, also a few marbles to throw in the mix.  I set the bulbs in a small amount of soil and then fill with the rocks etc. and water.

as I was cleaning out last years planter I found this rubber marble.  I guess I really do have the whole world in my hand.  Not.

I cut some pretty ribbon I found at the store over the weekend and adorned my various bunnies since I never put them away after Easter.  Looks festive, maybe I'll just tie ribbon around everything and call it a day.

I even got a little poinsettia.  I love the variegated leaves on this one.  Almost pulled off the yellow one thinking it was dead and then realized it was multi-colored.  We haven't been to the Poinsettia festival yet but will probably go this weekend.  It's always such a beautiful sight, held at a local nursery with little things to nibble on while browsing antique Christmas décor, accompanied by lovely carols on a grand piano, smells of cinnamon and fresh balsam.  Love it.

Be well dear friends, be safe out there, enjoy the season of joy and light.

finally...dining in the dining room...

...back in the dark ages before blogging I would get all my decorating ideas by either looking through magazines, looking through model homes, driving through the neighborhood and peeping into other houses or visiting the library.     There were very few decorating shows on the tele and very limited funds.  Thrift stores were atrocious and hand-me-downs hard to come by.  When we wanted a new look we would move the furniture around, change up the pillows and maybe re-arrange the pictures on the wall.  Now days that is called "shopping the house," and it's a great way to make a big/small change and keep the change in your pocket.

My dining room re-do has been a very long drawn out project but has finally come together in a manageable way.  It's a very small room, just enough space for four to dine in a comfortable setting.  My dream would be to turn this room into a library with a couple of cushy chairs and all our books but it is our only eating space in this house so we will make this work.  At last the dining room Du jour;

this was a $0 update,  the panels were new but were never used (which I now see that I didn't take a photo of) the paint was left over from a hallway redo and all the accessories were around the house.   I'm pretty happy with it but I'm also concerned that it is too much.  What do you think?  Several family members, when asked their opinion, stated that it looks like we live in a flea market.   yeah.

thanks for stopping by, be well, take courage dear hearts.

spinning plates...

phew, what a week.  It feels like I can barely keep my balance much less trying to keep all my plates spinning at the same time.  I have never really seen anyone do that with the exception of television, have you?  Must be some sort of circus act and I would probably be in the circus if I were able to spin them.   Am I making any sense? 

I had a dental procedure on Monday and holy heck I never expected to be this uncomfortable four days later.  I'm looking like I got in a fight and came out on the losing end!  Two black eyes, and one side of my face in numb, he must have hit a nerve.  Add some chipmunk cheeks and I look absolutely adorable.  So back to the plates;  I have a dining room project that I had hoped to finish up this week but had to put on hold.   I have wanted to have a small gallery/plate display wall for quite some time and even experimented with one last summer.  We have a very small dining room, 8 x 8 at most and only one wall to work with.  Each of the other walls have windows or doors to other rooms.  Along this one wall I have my mother's china cabinet and while it is too big for the room I will not move it or change it up in any way at all.  That leaves a very small area for my display wall.   Let's just say that I have way more display material than wall.  

When we were on our vacation odyssey last Fall I found some interesting plates in a thrift somewhere in Montana.  I had wanted to add them to the display but I'm just not sure about it.  take a look:

they all have a "signature" on them but there are no markings on the back.  I haven't tried to find them online.  What do you think?  Would they be o.k. on a dining room wall or better in another room, girls bedroom?   I'm counting on y'all to save me from myself here!

Hope you are keeping safe and warm.  Wishing you all a sunny day!

she's got legs...

...we were recently gifted with a beautiful table once owned by my hubby's grandmother.   After a flood in her home in Minnesota the table was taken to the table hospital and refinished.  Later on it traveled to Nebraska to live with his Aunt and Uncle.  You may remember the Uncle and how he gifted us with a 'pig.'  That pig is still in my dining room!  Recently his wife, my hubby's aunt moved to a smaller place and we found ourselves gifted with a few beautiful pieces of history that she once owned.  This table being one of them;

love the turned legs, the little shelf and the intricate moulding.  I have yet to make a home for it but am currently updating the dining room so I am sure it will go in there.  (excuse the wires, indeed!)  Once I finish painting the accent wall, hang the new drapes, and create a plate wall while mixing in a mirror and a pig then, I will show it off.  I am doing all this on $0 budget, having shopped the house for everything I needed.   Now won't that be exciting!  Soon we'll be dining in the dining room.  Happy Weekend y'all.

West Coast Martha strikes again...

remember last week when I showed you my thrifty find

here

here she is

all dolled up

and ready for her close-up!

no sanding, no priming, just a good cleaning with a damp rag.

2 coats of ASC paint in Versailles

light sanding

medium distressing

1 coat of clear paste wax

done.

I have a couple of more little projects to try using the

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

in a couple of different colours.

can't wait to get busy on them!

joining the party at the WOW

smile at a stranger today, even if it is you..in the mirror.

Thrifty thrifting...

...I have a confession to make.  I have not been to the thrift/antique/vintage shoppes all summer.  I know, I know, but I just seemed to lose the thrill of the hunt.  I think it had to do with purging all the craptasticness out of the back room and office.  Now with that job complete I am once again on the hunt.  So a few days ago I stopped into my nearest GW only to find that they have redecorated too, and one of the latest sections that was added to the store is a vintage section.  Everything vintage, which seems an oxymoron in a thrift store but hey, they put all the really old, cool stuff in one area.  I made a beeline over there...and much to my surprise was this little shelf calling my name.   It's rather vintagey and has an upper and lower shelf with spindle type legs,  a cute little pull-out drawer with a vintage crystal knob on it.

I scooped the little dear up as quickly as I could and then tried to act all nonchalant about it so no one would notice my excitement.   It's hard to tell from the photo but it is in pretty good shape and really only needs to be painted, then plopped onto the wall in my new, recently updated bedroom.  I could picture it all in my little head....

I had recently purchased a small pot of ASCPaint and was anxious to give it a try after seeing all the great reviews in blogland.  This is supposed to be the perfect paint.  No need to prepare your piece, no sanding or priming, just wipe with a clean cloth and apply the paint.  One coat will do the trick then you can apply a finishing wax and distress to your hearts content, or not, whatever you choose.  I picked out the colour Versailles.  It's a little gray-green-yellow if you ask me but here's a sample so you can decide...

Ooopsie!  Yes I did.  Dropped it all over the kitchen floor cause isn't that where everyone does their craft projects, on the kitchen counter?  I quickly tried to scoop it back into the little pot but it was all over the cupboards and my shoes.  I'm pretty sure I may have scooped up a bit of dog hair too so the finished project just may have some added texture to it after all.   Big reveal soon...

a plethora of bumbershoots...

...is what you have if you live in the wonderful Pacific Northwest.

that

and sunglasses.

the day may come when you have sooo many

umbrellas

that you don't know what to do with them.

sometimes they break or bend,

sometimes they turn

inside out

and sometimes you just lose them.

I came up with a new idea.

get out your old bumbershoot,

a few greens

and silk flowers,

maybe a birds nest

or two

a funky old 'hippie chick' scarf

and some pins or hot glue.

here you go:

 (don't know why the alignment is acting up but I totally blame blogger...moving on)

without opening up the umbrella loosen it up by untying the little tie.  wrap your funky scarf around the middle and cinch.  I used an umbrella that had two tiers and tied the scarf between the two.  this leaves several pockets in which to add your adornments.



adding some tulips and other little flowers and using a spot of hot glue to hold in place.

then I added some greenery,

and a little birds nest with eggs,

played around with it for awhile and took it's picture.  THEN, I hung it on my yellow front door.

 really, it was so simple and fast.  I used things I already had around the house, the scarf I've had forever, the flowers were from an old pot that I pulled apart so was the greenery.  The birds nest was from my yard and I glued in some eggs that I bought for another project.  Of course the bumbershoot was one of many that we have in the car, house, closet...well, you get it.  Throw it all together and hang it on the door.  

just a little something different for Spring.

take care friends,

choose happy,

get your craft on!

Those sneaky little elves...

...Oh, it started out innocently enough.

One morning I woke up and there were a few Christmas totes in the dining room.

A few days later there was a tote containing the Christmas tree.

All seemed well for a few days after that

but then;

it was as if Christmas had exploded

all over the dining room, with all kinds of toys and decorations filling

each and every empty space.

(why yes, that is hubbys arm)

Then it moved on into the kitchen and nothing was safe.

Not the counter tops

or the breakfast nook.  Not the desk or the chairs.

It .was.everywhere.

Then they left.

Not to be seen again.

It's been days and days and still my house looks like this.

I just may have to do something

about it myself

soon.

Are you ready?

Maybe I can craft...

when I made my music page paper wreath awhile back..here...I had cut the paper into 3 1/2" squares and also had cut some at 7".  I used the 3 1/2" for that project and with the leftover 7" I decided to make another wreath.  Only larger.  After I got started I realized that I didn't have enough of the music paper to make the entire wreath so I spaced them out and scratched my head and wondered...what to do?

You might recall that I have a fully loaded craft room.  Full of lots of projects I will only complete in my mind or if I life another fifty years that is!  Anyway my solution was to try scrapbook paper.  I really liked working with the weight of the paper compared to the sheet music but beware that the risk factor for paper cuts is increased by the thousands.  Round and round I went making paper cones and gluing them onto the wreath.  (I used a piece of lightweight cardboard again only slightly larger than the last one.)  And  voila!

To finish off the center of this one I took a piece of coordinating scrapbook paper and wrapped it around a canning jar lid (without the ring), then glued it onto the wreath.  Then I added a little hanger in the back made from twine and hung it on the mirror in my foyer.  I'm really pleased at how it turned out..sorry for the bad lighting in the photos, it was late in the day.  I am going to spray it with a light coat of clear shellac and then hang it on my YELLOW door!   What will I think of next?

The paper chronicles...

...so, I've been seeing a lot of fun paper crafts on the blogs lately and have tucked them away in my little head thinking "I can do that!"  Really, I didn't think I could.  Some of them appear to involve math skills and I am sorely lacking in those very types of things, so I did my usual.  I bought all the supplies I would need, set them on the craft table or somewhere thereabouts, and then promptly forgot about it. 

A few weeks ago I decided that this was becoming a foolish habit and something had to give.  So I chose to try making a wreath out of paper cones.  Sounds strange but it ended up being so easy that I'm embarrassed, well almost embarrassed, to admit it.  There are many tutorials out there on how to make these paper wreaths and I won't bore you with details. I'm pretty sure you know how to Google if you want details.

I found a book of sheet music a few months ago at the thrift and proceeded to tea stain them.  This was for another mislaid project but worked well here.  The pages were about 10 1/2 by 7 inches, so I cut several, many, 7" squares.  Then with the leftover piece I cut it in half which was 3 1/2 inches.  Basically you need a square sheet for this project and I don't think the actual size matters....as you will see!

Next I rolled the squares into cones and adhered them with clear tape, I think you could use tacky-glue but I didn't want to sit holding the edges together all night so I opted for tape.  You won't see it later.  In the above picture you can see I rolled all the papers but am only using the smaller 3 1/2 inch cones for this wreath.  After all the cone rolling, which is mindless fun, really, I cut out a piece of light weight cardboard.  I used a cereal box and cut a circle 5" in diameter.  I then found the 'middle' of the circle and marked it with a pencil.  This will be the center point in which all the cones come together.  Taking the small ends of the cones, one at a time, I glued the bottom half of the cone on the underside and attached it to the circular piece.  Around and around fanning the cones out until you have something like this.

When the cones were all attached and dried I then added a little Spanish moss to the middle to cover up the center spot.  I've seen other people use rosettes and other types of bling on theirs but I decided to go more natural.  Also, some of the examples had glittered edges, slightly torn edges, and/or curled edges to add to the aged look.  Then all you need to do is glue on some ribbon, string, or twine to the back and let it dry.  I also cut another sheet of music paper in a 5" round to cover the back side.

It isn't perfect but it was easy and fun and besides perfect is highly over-rated!  I have mine hanging in the kitchen and from a distance it reminds me of a giant Dahlia.  So what do you think?