Hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas with family and friends and can enjoy a peaceful day of reflection and rest.



Christmas Wreath

I have fun copying all the flowers you all are making, so I thought I would make a wreath using some felt flowers with old buttons as the center.

I added the flowers to a straw wreath I wrapped in strips from an old bedsheet.

I think it turned out pretty well, and it was just the thing to hang on the wall in my bathroom.  It worked with the valence I had just made for the window.

Easy, quick, and a little bit classy.  :)

I am taking this blog to a party:



Holiday Mantel

And it begins.  But looking at these pictures, I don't think I am done yet.
Here is one side of our fireplace and the mantel in the kitchen.

Yep, that is better.



I flocked some branches, hung red ornaments, and stuck them in a corrogated tin planter.

I love these little bottles. I think they came from old nebulizer treatments.  I would love to buy some if I could find them somewhere.  I stuck on some typewriter keys to spell joy.

And added some things on the other side to balance it out.  The nutcrackerer is one of the very first presents my children gave me when they had money to buy their own presents so it is very special to me.

I like the mix of things put together.  I am thinking about adding greens and a strand of white lights to 'fluff' it a bit.  I will probably be adding a few other objectss as I go through my Christmas things.

This is the other side of the fireplace and the living room mantel.  I am still enamored with French Nordic style so attempted to recreate that style here.

I really enjoy the warm glow of the candles in the evening.  I've gathered some of my silver, ironstone, and bits of nature. 

I am joining Kevin and Layla at the Lettered Cottage for their Holiday Home Linky Party.  No doubt there will be lots of inspired decorating to enjoy.  I also linked up to Blue Cricket Design.

First snow and new camera

First snow of the year.

Trash or Treasure?

With the onset of colder temperatures and sunset before I get home for work, the urge to create has returned.  I often don't end up where I started and suprise myself with the projects that get completed.  Here is a recent creation from an old sweater, a jar of keys, a Starbucks cappuccino bottle, and a broken necklace.  Oh, and throw in some twigs from a lilac tree.

So, Trash or Treasure?

I am participating in the party at freckled laundry and at The Shabby Nest.

I like using branches, twigs, and nature in my decorating.  Here is my "inside tree".  Currently it is sporting coffee dyed and stamped tags.  It changes with the seasons and my mood.  :)   Check out all the other ways people use twigs and sticks at Funky Junk Interiors.

Rhubarb!! Must be spring finally!

Rhubarb!  Isn't it beautiful!

Ready to go into the oven!

And ready to eat!

Rhubarb Crisp

4 cups chopped rhubarb

3 tbsn orange juice or lemon juice mixed with 1 tbsn cornstarch

1 c granulated sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1 tbsn cut up butter

1/4 c melted butter

1/3 c brown sugar

2/3 c sifted flour

dash salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

2/3 c quick cooking rolled oats

Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease an 8 inch square baking dish.  Arrange cut up rhubarn and mix with juice/cornstarch mixture.  Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on top and dot with cut up butter.

Combine melted butter and brown sugar.  Sift together flour, salt, and baking soda; mix with oats.  Combine the flour oats mixture with the brown sugar and melted butter mixture until well blended.  With hands, spread the crumb mixture over rhubarb.  Bake 40 minutes.  Serve with whipped cream, cream, or ice cream.  Yumm!

Getting it right

I've tried a couple of things by the front door but none have made me smile like these things do.  This is an old rusty iron piece that the seller could not identify other than it was sitting by some tires in his old grainery.  I thought it was going to be a garden ornament but I like it a lot better here!

I also bought a length of old molding.  I love the chippy paint with blue paint peeking through the yellow.  It is cheery and warm and works well with my kitchen which has blue lamimate counter tops (that I desperately want to replace with granite or some solid surface) and blue vinyl print flooring (which needs to be replaced with wood).  I found some wire hooks in the garage and screwed them into the molding,

And now we have a spot to hang those things we use daily and were leaving on the stair railing.  The old window screen with decorative hooks just wasn't right--that gets to hang outside by the deck and patio.

I'm baaack

Hi again!  I dropped my camera, which interrupted my blogging, which got me out of the habit, then April came with unseasonally warm weather, and well... 

Here is the planning stage of one of my latest projects.  I decided I needed to use up things I had rather than buying new supplies for awhile.

I played around with making some fabric flowers.  These look like dogwood blossoms to me and remind me of my time in Tennessee.

I used an old page out of a French book as the background, layered cheese cloth over it and sewed around the page and the cheese cloth in a free hand manner.  Then layered a variety of created flowers on top of that.  I like the way these bits and scraps came together. 

Check out other great projects at :

Valentine's Day tags and such

This was an incredibly lazy weekend.  I prefer weekends wherein I have a sense of accomplishment and feel rested and refreshed by Monday morning.  Ah well, hopefully I won't regret what didn't get done this weekend as I move into a busy week.

The one thing I did do is play around with tags and stamps for Valentine's Day.  I will definitely be stamping on torn strips of muslim to make ribbon for other occasions also.  I love the way that turned out. 

Here are my bits and pieces from the weekend.

Linking up to some of the parties I enjoy. Go check them out and see what everyone else is doing!