Teal, Silver and White Wreath Redo

Here is the Christmas wreath for our front door. This is the third redo of this twig wreath and probably not the last.

I love the way it came out so close to the idea in my head. Don't you like it when a project works out like that?



Here's the wreath in it's first incarnation, painted gloss black and adorned with a glittery haunted house silhouette and lots of curly black streamers for Halloween. Dollar Store spider webs and spiders and a bevy of bats finished it up.

For its second life for November and Thanksgiving I reworked it with colorful fake autumn leaves and flowers, and mini pumpkins on skewers. I LOVED the contrast of the gloss black with the vibrant colors, especially on my blue door.

And here's the start of it's third look, several coats of gloss white spray paint, which I had on hand. It's been so cold here that it took several days to get this done. I knew I wanted to add blue ornaments but didn't want to spend a lot of money, so I kept my eyes open.....

..and found these vibrant blue balls in a bag of silver ornaments, plus a whole roll of teal blue foil twist ribbon at the local St. Vincent's store. Thirty cents for the ribbon and ninety nine cents for the bag of balls. Score!

I covered one silver ball with teal rosettes made from the foil twist, and wound strips of it around wire to make some nice curlicues for accents. I knew I'd never find anything like them in the stores and they are perfect for the look I wanted for this wreath.

Here it is, all done with lots of hot glue. I added a few silver snowflakes and a few blue berry twigs and hung it up outside. I LOVE the way it all came together! It looks great on our blue door.

Here's a few of the elements....blue and silver glass balls, silver snowflakes, a crackle painted blue ball and the rosette covered ball. I particularly like the blue curlicues, they came out great!

And another look...this just makes me smile. I always know when a project is finished when I end up with a big grin on my face!

I'll be posting about the rosette covered balls and the crackle painted balls soon. They are easy and clever ways to make something totally unique for your decor, and not just for Christmas.

I'm joining the parties on my sidebar, come on by and check them out. There are some great decor and gift ideas out there and yummy recipes too.

Snowflake Chandelier First Version

February 2014 update here.....
http://makethebestofthings.blogspot.com/2014/02/wintry-snowflake-chandelier-dollar.html

Our 90's era house came with this blingy brass and glass chandelier. Still serviceable but really dated. It will have to do until I find just the right, perfect, beautiful dining room chandelier.

So for October thru November I wrapped it in a double garland of colorful silk leaves, like so....

...and I really liked the way it looked, especially all lit up. Martha Stewart did something similar but with tea lights and real leaves. http://www.marthastewart.com/276216/pumpkin-chandeliers-autumn-wreath
Ok, hers is prettier, but mine won't catch on fire.

Then I found a bag of assorted snowflakes (including a snowflake garland) at Goodwill for 99 cents. Score!!

The big snowflakes hooked over the hanging glass and the mini snowflake garland was just the right length to drape nicely all the way around. Hmmmm, looks okay in the daylight. Then I turned on the light....

KAPOW!
Look at the beautiful, crystally, snowflakey chandelier!
I really really like it and so does The Welding Man. It looks like a big Christmas wedding cake hanging over the table! Or an alien mothership made out of icy crystals!

Ooh aah. With all the snowflake glitz and detail to fool the eye, it actually looks quite pretty.

And I still have snowflakes left. I'll try hanging more around the bottom...or leave it like this? I can hardly wait to see it after dark.

And now, in 2014, here's the current look for this pretty snowflake chandelier....

I guess this means my holiday decorating is kicked into gear. I'll be posting about my favorite gifts and ornaments to make in the next few weeks, including a special request for making simple but pretty yarn angels.

I'll be joining the parties on my sidebar, too. Come check them out for some excellent and creative ideas!

Make Do Kitchen Island

Here is the realtor's pic of our kitchen before we moved in. Yes, it is full of real wood golden oak goodness. That means they will be easy to paint at some future point, yes? Creamy vanilla white in my dreams!

You see we have a generous open space right in the middle of the work triangle. After several family gatherings I told the Welding Man I wanted an island for the Thanksgiving fest to give me more prep space and also improve traffic flow for a buffet line.

The discussion is ongoing for the permanent fixture. But for a tryout we came up with this solution....

The two ancient, solid walnut nightstands we have kept around for decades. Back to back they make a 21" x 35" worktop, almost the size as my hoped for island.

We had a snack and movie night last week and tried it out. It really is convenient and well placed and a good size.

I threw an old tablecloth over it to disguise it's origins. Sorta.

As part of the ongoing discussions/negotiations, the Welding Man wants to put a top on the nightstands and call it good. That might work. But I can also picture a farm table type island, with a shelf (or two) underneath and a more open look. Altho the nightstands have storage built in. But they need to be painted.

With Thanksgiving looming ahead, we're going to give this a workout and come up with a compromise we both like. After 40+ years of marriage, compromise is the name of the game, baby!

Have a great Thanksgiving celebration and take a moment to savor the blessings in your life. I sure hope your day includes lots of laughter and tasty food.

Bless you all.

3 Quick & Easy Decor Projects

I decided to put these three projects in one post, because I am rarin' to move on to my Christmas blogging. Can you say gifts and decor and great ideas?

Project 1-Here are the spooky Halloween branches from our front deck. By the end of a wild and windy week they were looking shabby and tired. But no problem!

Dollar Store clearance sale, two packs of fake leaves for a dollar. Score!
I took the cobwebs and bat garland off the branches and straightened them up in the urn with florist foam and duct tape. The urn, by the way, was a clearance item at Kmart for $1.66!! I added the leaves with hot glue and.......

...voila! Now it is a colorful vertical accent in the corner of the living room. I like it alot. And when I switch to Christmas decor, a blast of my heat gun will loosen those leaves so I can add snowflakes, etc. A bit of fabric draped at the base hides the foam and duct tape.

Project 2-This project uses a Dollar Store vine wreath and satiny fabric in fall colors. I made oversize rosette flowers, two and a half to three inches across.

I wanted them bigger so I could use less of them. I love the shiny sheen of the fabric against the two cream muslin rosettes.

Hot glue is my friend. Way way back in the sixties I would have wired all this stuff in place.Thrift store leaf bunches are the perfect touch, but not too many so the twiggy wreath can show through.

Project 3-Here's a quick way to dress up and display your pumpkins, real and fake. Taking more of those Dollar Store leaves, hot glue them around the rim of a candlestick, of glass, metal or wood.

Or, glue the fake leaves around the bottom of your pumpkin. This gives it a nice ruff of color.

Perch your pumpkins on the candlesticks for a colorful display. Here they are on my baker's rack, all switched over from my black and white Halloween. I added gold berry picks and propped it on the top shelf, along with a bunch of leaves in a spray painted bottle and my silver button blingy decor ball.

I'll be switching this all over to Christmas decor right after Thanksgiving. I'm wondering if I can pull off a black, white and silver Christmas theme on this rack. I guess we'll all find out!

I'll be linking up to the fun parties in my sidebar. Come check them out and join the fun!

So Thankful!

Last year at this time we lived in a beautiful place with a gorgeous view. And every winter looked like this....

It was a gorgeous place with snow every winter. And power outages whenever the snow topped two inches, and frozen water pipes, and a snowed in driveway and a long drive to the hospital for my surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. We lived there 25 years so we knew how to cope, but when I got sick, this became the biggest problem for us......

...we lived far away from our kids and grandkids and had to drive over a 3800' pass to go visit them. This was the highway just before Thanksgiving of last year. Even with studded tires, that frozen snow and ice was treacherous.

Can you see the long icicles on the rocks? That's as close as I wanted to get to them, and I was NOT getting out of the car!

Yeah, it was a long, hazardous drive but totally worth it. And we did it again at Christmas, usually in deeper snow. Or our family drove over to see us. For years.


Hello, ladies! The men are all in the other room.

Now we live in the same town as our kids and grandkids. My sisters still have a bit of a drive but no one has to cope with that snowy mountain anymore. By the Grace of God, we sold our old home and moved here very close to our family. We see them every week and plan some great holiday celebrations this year.

So thankful and counting our blessings. Yes, we are.

Book Page Leaf Garlands

Here is an easy project that turns out great, and you can probably do it with stuff you have on hand. I use old book pages for alot of things but this is one of my favorites. I add leaf cutouts from old books to Dollar Store garlands and really kick up their style factor.

Using a leaf pattern traced from a real life, a fake leaf or online, simply trace the shape onto a printed page of an old book. With good, sharp scissors you can cut through about six pages at a time. Here you see one size leaf we cut to add to the garland.

And here's a smaller size. Please excuse the painty, gluey crafting hands! Use a glue stick on one leaf, add a length of florist or craft wire, then put another leaf on top. You can make as many as you like, it's easy peasy and they look so cool. I believe Pottery Barn had some similar leaves a few years back for a very pretty price.

Just use the wire to twist the leaves into the garland. Here is one garland we made last year. I love the way the book page leaves "cool down" the vibrant colors of the garland. You can add as many as you wish and the wires let you "fluff" them any way you want for a fuller look.

Here they are with another more muted garland. This was for the long stair banister in my daughter's country style house. I love the way they look!

Here is a garland of oak leaves hung on a muslin curtain. Such a complement to the colorful leaves and the creamy colored muslin.

And here is one, paired with my primitive star garland, that I've looped around my entry way mirror. I really like the way the book page leaves look with all the vibrant hues!

And here's a shot of a garland used in a Thanksgiving tablescape. Add a few book paged balls and some glass ware and you have a stylish and colorful centerpiece.

Try it, you'll like it! If you make something using book page leaves, please let me know. Link back! Attach a pic! I'd love to see them.