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A Very Shabby Christmas

11/30/2014

What a perfect little Santa for my new shelf from Alexander-Mead!
I think it adds so much more shabbiness to my stairway landing vignette for Christmas.

I have a collection of Santa's that I have been fortunate enough to collect through the years. I change/move them around every Christmas, this year one of my collection is gracing my chippy pink chair. Along with the Santa I added white and green bottlebrush trees and a little sparkle on the Battenburg lace placemat. A pinecone flower arrangement hangs off the side of the chair.

I wanted to show you the true shabbiness of this vignette. The luggage lid has seen better days, but the beautiful pastel colors added with the roses, lace, a rusty star and the old barbed wire used to hang the picture are perfect together.

The little Santa in white who has a bird on his hand fits perfectly on the shelf.

The perfect Shabby Christmas.

Joined These Awesome Link Parties
nifty thrifty things
Distressed Donna Down Home
DIY Show Off
By Stephanie Lynn

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Garden Grots

11/25/2014

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After seeing my first Grot on Blue Fox Farm blog, I fell in love with these little creatures.

But what is a Grot? A Grot is a mystical, fairy-like creature. They live in the forest or a garden. When humans are around, they look like your average rock on the ground but in the evening, when no human is present, they pop their little heads/bodies out of the earth and dance in the garden or can even protect your garden. According to lore.

I seem to always have a little mix left over from making my concrete leaves. So I started making these little faces/grots.

Here is a close-up of some of the faces with a quick tutorial:
1. Make a ball of your mix.
2. Put the ball onto plastic wrap. (See above picture)
3. Work your ball into an oval or round face.
4. Using two fingers poke them into the mix for the eyes.
5. Notice all the lips are different, work the cement into any form of lip you would like.
6. Make a separate little ball for your nose, form it into a what looks like a nose and put onto your face.
7. Let dry for several days before moving them.

or in a container garden. What fun you will have when friends ask what they are!

Put them in your bird baths . . . . . . . .

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Bentwood Chairs

11/19/2014

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What a find (I think) of my Bentwood Armchairs! I found them over a year ago at The Front Porch Antiques Mall in Ottawa, KS. Many years ago, when we bought our farm table, I had in the back of my mind, I wanted chairs like this at each end of the dining room table.

The chairs were in fairly good shape, except the veneer had started to crack. I sanded the veneer as much as possible to make it smooth, then using a liquid sander de-glosser, I was ready to paint. I used three coats of Anne Sloan chalk paint. I decided not to distress the chairs, instead to let natural wear and tear distress over time.

Beautiful in white!
History: A bentwood chair is a chair made from wood that has been bent into shape using a steam process that was invented in the 1800s. This type of chair usually has a simple design and is made out of about six pieces of wood all held together by screws and nuts. Its wooden back is rounded. As one of the characteristics of a bentwood chair is comfort, it is often found in restaurants, hotels and bars. The chair remains popular today and is one of the most mass-produced pieces of furniture in the history of chair making.

I used graphics from The Graphics Fairy website and here is my tutorial on using freezer paper and an ink-jet printer.

Finished! The Bentwood Chairs finally setting at my dining table.

Joined These Awesome Link Parties

A Stroll Through Life

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Velour Pumpkins

11/14/2014

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Loving velvet pumpkins. So elegant and so shabby chic. I just finished mine after having the material now for several weeks. The suggestion by Patti of Old Things New, was to go to thrift stores and look for clothes made with velvet, I will do that before buying velvet again. Velvet isn't cheap! Also her blog tutorial, (here) I followed almost exactly. I have a few tips though . .
1. Use a good quality thread when basting, I used some old thread and it broke when I was gathering/pulling the thread up to gather the sides of the material.
2. Do not baste close to the edge of the material, baste a good 1/4" in or even more, that way if you run into any problems the material will not ravel into your stitches. Nothing ever is quite as easy as it sounds or looks the first time I make things.
3. There are many things to use for the stems, such as sticks, actual stems that have dried from real pumpkins or made with material. I actually had made pumpkin topiaries from faux pumpkins (see here) so I saved the faux stems and used them for these velvet pumpkins. Worked beautifully! I think I will probably buy some pumpkins on sale at Michaels or Hobby Lobby, if I can find them cheap enough and use the stems for velvet pumpkins next year.
4. I did stitch under the stem from side to side to make the stem fit better, this was after I had put glue on the stem. The glue will get on your needle after doing this so the needle will be ruined. Time to get new ones anyway.

This is the biggest pumpkin and I used a pan that measured 16" across. After drawing up the basting stitches the pumpkins will turn out smaller than you think! I made a small flower with leaves from netting and tucked into the pumpkin with a couple of stitches.

The smallest pumpkin I decorated with a few flower petals. I sewed a pearl in the middle of the petal and then sewed it onto the pumpkin.

This pumpkin has some moss glued around the stem.

Joined These Awesome Link Parties:
Redoux Interiors

I want to make more of these beautiful, velvet pumpkins for fall 2015!

The Golden Sycamore

Natasha in Oz

Lou Lou Girls

Chic on a Shoestring Budget

Shabby Art Boutique

Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson

Between Naps on the Porch

The DIY Showoff

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Fall Chalkboard Art

11/10/2014

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Chalkboard art on my kitchen counter for fall. I change it seasonally, I thought I had better get it on the blog with Christmas just around the corner.

A peek at my art table tools and mess! I used my Cricut Cutting Machine for my template. See the chalk pencil? The pencils will make the outlines much smoother. I then fill in with regular chalk. I seem to have too many projects going on at the same time.

Tomorrow the Artic Vortex is supposed to be upon us here in southwest Missouri. I'm not much of a winter person!

Joined These Awesome Link Parties
D.I.Y Dreamer
Thoughts From Alice
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The Style Sisters

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The Shamrock Plant

11/6/2014

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The Shamrock Plant or Oxalis regnellii is a great houseplant and here in southwest Missouri is a perennial if planted outside.

This plant is several years old and has resided in this planter for the entire time. The oxalis do require a dormancy period, of two or three times a year. The plant will get leggy and worn out looking. Then it is time to . . . . .

clip down too the rhizomes. I do take out the rhizomes and put new dirt in the pot and replant the rhizomes about once a year.

I then fertilize, water and in a few weeks the magic of the rhizomes happens again. Love the patina this planter has acquired over the years. The Shamrock Plant is happiest in lots of filtered sunlight.

Joined These Awesome Link Parties
Oh My Heartsie Girl

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Doily Table Runner

11/3/2014

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Oh how I wish I had appreciated my Mother's beautiful crocheted handwork when she was still with us! She had made a tablecloth, Christmas ornaments and doilies for me. What has become of them through the years?

This table runner actually belongs to my niece, Bobbi. Some of the doilies may be my Mother's or my sister's, both are gone now and how we wish we knew who made the doilies. I do not crochet, unfortunately I do not have patience for this kind of work!

Bobbi has hand stitched the doilies together in a beautiful pattern. I love the bigger ones on the end and in the middle.

This picture was taken during the summer, look at that green! Bobbi has made me a table runner with doilies and it is beautiful, but this one is gorgeous on my farm table.

Joined These Awesome Blogs
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Distressed Donna Down Home
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