Monogram Front Door Wreath

Well, hello! Did you all have a good Valentine's Day? Noah and I did. Though I didn't take the night off, we went to a nice local restaurant and had a very romantic dinner and the most delicious glass of wine by the fireplace talking about our goals that we are wanting to accomplish this year. For a married couple who have been together this long, being this compatible in our goals and dreams is romantic!

Anyway, I finished the front door wreath that I had been planning on for weeks now. I love it! It was terribly easy and so cheap! Read on, and I'll tell you how I did it...

A little while back, on one of my trips to Hobby Lobby, I picked up this chipboard letter while they were on sale. It was about $2.50 at 50% off. Since I don't live near enough to one to go anytime I want, I try to stock up on what I know I'll be using soon while there's a sale going on. I don't want to buy a bunch of stuff that will just collect on a shelf, so I'm glad I live far enough away to plan my trips. That way, I always buy on sale and only buy what I'll be using eventually in the near future. And, since there are always sales going on, I know I won't miss anything and can plan and get it next time.

 So...I had the paint, paintbrush, and little plastic cups with lids on hand-$0.

 I removed the sticker from the front of the letter. (There were two-one on front, one on back. I can never figure out WHY they always do this.) Then I just painted a THICK coat of pewter grey onto the letter. Don't forget the sides and a little on the back. You can paint the whole back if you want, but once it's attached, no one will see that part, so do what ever strikes your fancy.

Then have yourself a Hersey's Kiss (or two!) while it dries... 

Then, once it was good and dry I painted the whole thing with a THIN coat of the white. I wanted some of the grey to show through and to really show up after distressing. I used a real hair paintbrush because I wanted the paint strokes to show. However, no matter what I did, and no matter how much I washed and tried to pull out the loose strands, it still "shed" all over the initial. It did come off when sanding, but was super frustrating during the painting process. I'll probably stick to my good 'ol sponge brushes next time and just try to 'dry brush' extra paint (like the grey) for distressing.

While that was drying completely ( I even popped in the 300* oven for a couple minutes to 'cure' it and make sure it was REALLY dry...but watch it every second, it is made of paper!) I assembled my artificial flowers. Now here's the fun part. While shopping with my sister Saturday, I was at HL and was looking for just the right flowers. They have beautiful artificial flowers, and are always on sale, but that was still more than I wanted to pay, especially since I was going to take them apart. My sister told me to try the Dollarama we have right in town, she said there were great flowers there. So Sunday I ran uptown and found these beauties. All for a dollar a piece. $6!

I simply pulled the flower heads off the stems and they came right off, staying fully intact. Some I really had to cut the stems off because I wanted to glue them flat onto the letter, so I  reinforced those with hot glue, but that was it. The rest stayed intact and had enough stem to push down into the wreath. These were a great find!

I just layed them out where I wanted them, sticking them into the wreath and then picking them up one by one, adding the hot glue, and placing them right back where I wanted them. Easy peasy!

I had bought this grapevine wreath at Michael's a couple months ago, and used my 40% (or even 50%, I can't remember) coupon and it was around $5.

This is the initial for our last name after sanding and distressing. I used a scrapbooking sanding block because it's so easy to hold and has different grades of sandpaper on each side. It worked SO well.

Here are some close-ups of the details I got on the corners and edges after sanding. You can see the grey and the chipboard brown showing through nicely. I'm glad it turned out so well. It's really like an MDF type material and I have never used this before so I didn't know what to expect.

After all the flowers were glued on, I glued the "S" right onto the wreath. I had already layed everything out where I wanted it, so I could assemble everything easily and I would know where the flattest spot was on the wreath for the letter. Then I took a couple of the left over flowers, cut them close, and glued them onto the letter for visual interest to round out the design.

Here's the finished product. It makes me so happy when I pull into the driveway! It's vibrant and just a lovely thing for the door. I hadn't really wanted any pink at first, I wanted all white, but after looking at the dollar store and found these, they all went together so perfectly. Now I can't imagine not having a little pink! I is my favorite color, after all!

This is a Pinterest inspired project, of course, and you can see what inspired me here. You can find a lot of inspiration there for a million projects for your home on the cheap. I'd be delighted if you would follow my Pinterest boards. I have a follow button just in the upper right of my blog page. If you haven't already, it's worth a sign-up. But, I warn you, it's ADDICTING!!

Thanks you so much for reading today, I hope this project inspired you to try something beautiful for your home.

Have a great rest of the week,

Nanette

Precious little vintage items

Hey, Everybody!

Hope your weekend is going well! I'm working on a lot of things right now, but took a little break and went with my sister to this craft and antique mall that I actually used to have a booth in called the Alton Exchange (you can also check out the facebook page here ). I found a few little things that made me oh, so happy and just wanted to share them with you today.

I love, love this place...it is so well organized and there are a TON of booths to give you so many options to find something special. Plus, Terry is one of the greatest gals around; she works so hard to make the experience in her shop one that will keep you coming back time and time again.

As I wandered the rows and rows of unique and ever changing vintage, antique and handmade booths, I picked up a few things that just seemed to pop out at me last night.

Here's what I got...


A closer look will reveal a couple of little facts about us, I guess...

These little 'ashtrays' were just sitting on a shelf together. I got both for only $5! They were pristine and unused. I thought they were the cutest thing for a bookshelf or table. Had to have those...

 I also happened upon a rack with many different pieces of jewelry. These little handmade bead bracelets were only $2! So, of course, I had to have two! Sure, I could make them myself, but I really do love supporting local artisans whenever I can. I think it is super important to buy local and to support the creativity in each other whenever we can.

I am obsessed always on the lookout for old wooden boxes, cheese boxes, sewing machine and cash drawers, etc. My sister snatched up the sewing machine drawer that we saw at the same time (a little healthy competition is good, right!?) but I found this little guy on a shelf, and it was only about $5! A vintage Wisconsin cheese box--right up my ally. I've got some ideas stirring around for this...

I seem to unconsciously be drawn to the color turquoise (or teal). I hadn't realized this until I was putting all the pictures together...



I also picked up a 10 yard roll of burlap garland. Now, I know I just bought some of this in St. Charles that I used on my Christmas tree that you can read about in this post, but this is a little bigger, and it cost half as much...HALF!!!  At only $12 bucks...imagine all the possibilities!

The other thing I found was just about as random as you can get. Up on a shelf I noticed this Jewish/Hebrew item. It had definitely been used, and I was curious. Noah and I are always on the lookout for unique items to honor his Hebrew roots and this was too good to pass up. It's a napkin holder, of all things! When Noah met us at the Exchange after work (yep, ladies I've got a husband who loves to go antiquing as well as work on Hot Rods in a garage!) I showed it to him and he had to have it. He said "That will look great..." and we both finished simultaneously with "...up on a shelf in the kitchen."
It's great to be married to your best friend.  :)

Anyway, I hope my little findings inspire you to go picking through an antique mall in your neck of the woods. Imagine the treasures you could find, not to mention how happy you can make some local vendors, right?

By the way, I have a big P.S. As you may already know, I have another blog called confessions of a thinkaholic. I also regularly submit blog posts to a fantastic website called tiny buddha, and my newest (and third) post is up on the site. You can read it here, if you're interested. It's titled "Letting Go of Fears and Worries About Getting Things Done." I so appreciate it if you do, but no worries if it's not your thing! Both my blogs are completely judge-free zones; I just want you to enjoy yourself while you are here.

Just know that I appreciate you and am so happy you stopped by today!

Nanette

*Coming soon...Valentine's Day decor!

Indoor Christmas Decor

Well, it's taken me a little while, but I'm actually starting to pull it all together. I'm enjoying my weekend and slowing down a little. I wanted to share some more of the traditional decorations we use each year, as well as some new projects I've completed.

First up is this mini tree I purchased years ago to decorate with this mini Noah's Ark ornament set we collected over the years, as gifts from Noah's parents.

I also bought this little tree at the same place that I bought my Barnwood hutch also in this picture. It reminds me of the little feather trees. I found these little bottle cap ornaments that have vintage pictures of Santa and Snowmen and the words 'Believe' and 'Merry Christmas". These are very easy to make on your own, though. I did it last year for my Halloween tree with bottle caps I bought at Archivers, craft/floral wire, Crystal Effects (a scrapbooking item. It's a clear glue medium that dries hard), and Halloween scrapbooking paper. I just used the punch that matched the diameter of the bottle cap (they are pretty standard to match) and put a little Crystal Effects on the inside of the Cap, placed the paper in, covered it with a generous amount of the CE and let it dry over night. Noah used his Drimmel rotary tool to drill the holes (before I got them decorated) and when they were dry, I threaded the wire in, twisted it and made a hook. I made a ton of them! This year, though, I'm short on time, and at only $1 a piece, it was worth the shortcut.

I also got this little star topper for just a couple bucks there, too. It was too cute to pass up. It's perfect for what I needed, don't you think?

Here is the Santa Claus tea service I bought from a gift shop years ago. It's a good thing there are only three of us...there were only three cups left when I went back to buy it. It comes with a nice big cookie jar, too.

Here's the Barnwood hutch decked out. I may or may not be re-arranging things a bit...again...always experimenting!

Here are my Mom's Nutcrackers.

A subtle bit of greenery on my stack of white plates. Always a bargain hunter, I picked these up at Wal-mart for just $1 a piece. They are heavy ceramic made by Better Homes and Gardens. I just love the simplicity of that Ironstone white look. I used them on my Thanksgiving table this year and was so very pleased with how they looked.  I was recently in a Deals store and picked up perfectly matching white ceramic mugs for just a buck a piece, too! You don't have to spend a fortune to dress your home. Besides, if one gets broken in the wash, it won't break the bank. Plus, I bought plenty, so we won't run out too soon...

Here's another project I did. Last year at the large craft show my mother and I always went to for all the seasons, I bought this old sewing machine drawer. I love old wooden boxes, so this was a must. I was at Old Time Pottery (a favorite of mine. Have you ever been to one? You can find a lot at a steal of a deal!) and I bought these little glass apothecary jars for $.50 a piece. I did splurge on the flameless mini pillars, though. They were $2 a piece, but made with real wax and are scented vanilla. I put some Epsom salt in each of the little jars (a 32 oz or 2lb box of Epsom salts at Wal-mart was only $.88) and placed the 'candle' right on top. Just sort of twist it down in there, and it looks like it's sitting in snow. I took some of my twine and tied it around the top of the jar.

Next, I took some of the flower foam (the kind you soak with water for real arrangements) that I had leftover (keep everything!) and cut it to size. I placed it in the drawer, covered it with some sheet moss (I bough a ton of it on clearance last year at Michael's), and stuck in some of the branch clippings from our tree, some berry picks I already had, some pine cones, eucalypytus sprigs, and that's it. A woodsy-winter centerpiece!

The next thing I did was to fill this old ammunition box with winter greenery to place under my console table to hide the cords. I purchased this box at the same booth at the same craft show I bought the sewing machine drawer from. We didn't notice until we got home that it was made in Alton, Illinois. Pretty neat since we are from that area and traveled over an hour to go to this show!

You see how the power cords for the tree, lamp and snowman light are all unattractively hanging down exposed to the rest of the room? We usually don't have this many cords here, but because of the decorations, we do. We also usually keep the dogs basket of toys and babies under there, but I moved that under the chair, and used the vintage ammunition box filled with greenery instead.

                               Problem solved!

I used this red metal mailbox that I bought several years ago in the same gift shop that I got my tea service to hold some flocked greenery and one of my mercury glass ornaments I mentioned in my O' Tannenbaum post. Last year I had them all out, but just a few will do this year. I loved mixing the new ornaments with the vintage on our tree this year. I know mercury glass is, in essence, vintage, but I have some more modern ornaments in silver and that are mirrored and these tied it all in so nicely, so, on the tree they went!

This is a snowman lamp I made inspired by a pattern I bought from Tennessee Ridge Primitives. I found this little snowman hat at a craft store...it was perfect! I bought up a lot of these lamps at a shop in St. Charles, every time we visited. At only $3 they are an absolute steal! Everything else I had on hand, and handmade the whole thing. One of these days I swear to myself I will start selling on Etsy...all a matter of time...
I have such an eclectic array of what I like to do, it can get overwhelming if you don't organize well.

A friend of mine posted her great find of a large $10 owl like these on Facebook. She settled for the two smaller ones at $5 each. I had to have them, too. They were cuter than the one large one, and at $10 for two...I thought it was worth it ;)   The Advent 'calendar' in the background will be looked at in detail in the next post, along with quite a few more projects, so stay tuned!

This is an antique sleigh and Santa with his elves that belonged to my Grandmother. I remember sitting and looking at this all the time as a child. How special it is that I have it now. (The little pine cone in front of it is one of a matching pair Tyler and I made in Scouts. I put them out every year. It's been about 9 years and counting!)

Another little display, and my Christmas tree clock I bought years ago. It works and, if I would put the batteries in that part of it, plays a Christmas song every hour...
On top are the little Russion Nesting Doll inspired nesting Santa's I got from my Mom.

Here is a mason jar decked out with a vintage Santa image I bought at that same craft show. I paid a whopping $5 bucks!! I bought them for family members to go with their gifts. This is something that I would make, but at only $5...I love supporting a local artisan! It is one of my favorite things. With a little flameless tea light, it's just perfect.

 The Nesting Santa's

Here are two projects I made in 2008 when I had a booth at a large craft and antique mall in Alton. I sold them, but made them for myself, as well. The snowman is made from chenille, and the Santa, or Mr. Kringle, is from a pattern I bought and followed from Primitive Blessings by Twigs N Sprigs.  This Mr. Kringle is one of my all time favorite dolls I've made. I hand stitched his face and used real Alpaca wool for his hair and beard. That's a baby sock I primmed up to hold his winter fare!

Here's a little vintage snowman I was inspired to draw up from something I saw online. He's been around for quite awhile. I used one of my mini pumpkin stems painted orange for his nose. Like I said...keep everything! Pretty darn cute, huh?

I hope some of these projects inspired you to do some of your own. My next post is going to have quite a bit more, so check back! There are some really quick, cheap and easy ways to spruce your home up for the holidays, or make a gift or two for friends and family.

At the time I am working on this post, I've heard about the terrible tragedy in Newtown, Conn., as I'm sure many of you have. I am writing a post for my sister blog, Confessions of a Thinkaholic about my feelings about this. I'll put the link to that in my next post, if you are interested. I just ask that you keep all of those affected by this, including each other, in your thoughts and prayers. Now is the time to band together and pray for a better life for humanity. Hold your loved ones close, make fond memories, remember those less fortunate, and have an air of love about you...that is the cause and effect we need.

Thank you so much for reading, and the brightest of blessing to all of you.

Nanette