Fall Decor

I love fall! I love the cooler days, warm cozy drinks, fires in the stove, colorful crisp leaves, caramels, baking and decorations! This year I was inspired by Pinterest to make some new additions to my boxes of autumn décor. Here are some of my favorites…

 

candy corn

I cut up a piece of vintage scrapbook paper, glittered it and made a bunting for the kitchen slider.

more fun with scrapbook papers and cards my sister made

Made this fun square bunting with black tie accents to hang over my stove for the fall season!

I didn’t make this lamp or the pumpkin but it is one of my favorites!

I love birds, owls and trees! So these Dollar Store silhouettes made perfect little accents in the living room!

 

A package of Dollar Tree leaves run through the sewing machine made the ideal bunting for the china hutch!

These luminaries look much prettier outside shining in the dark but don’t hold up too well in the soggy PNW. So they’ll just have to light up the entryway instead…

This felt bunting is so fun hanging on the divider in the entry! Apparently the kitten thought so too… I really miss having it there. : o(

I love the vintage owl & cat bunting made from cupcake toppers I printed on-line from HERE

But this scrappy wreath made from the extra pieces from my bunting is so sweet and so easy!

Then I took all the extra bits and pieces from my other fabric projects and modge-podged them onto old glass jars to make this fun little candle lamps for the woodstove. With the cold weather coming on soon, I think they are going to need to find a new home…

Gray Owl Skirt

I can’t believe how long it took me to finally make this skirt! I bought the materials clear back in the spring when I made my first skirt… My sister helped me while we were vacationing at the beach in September but we didn’t have time to do the hem. Then it took nearly 6 weeks to find the time between harvesting, schooling, cooking, cleaning, laundering, canning, baking and all that other stuff to find the 37 minutes it took me to put in the hem. When I look at that list it’s a wonder I ever found time but on the other hand it was only 37 minutes…

But, it’s done now and I can’t wait to wear it!

Next up is my Christmas skirt! I have to keep in mind that there are only about 6 weeks until December… AHHHH!!!!!

Crafty Organization

There are TONS of great ideas for organizing your home on Pinterest! But this past week or so I’ve learned that if you want to DO any of those great ideas, you can’t spend any time on Pinterest… It’s a real catch 22. ;o)

I did all of my Fall cleaning in the last 8 days! After the craziness of summer I need to get things back in order. This means purging, organizing and cleaning. It also meant implementing a few of the ideas I got off Pinterest… If only there was enough time to do them all!

This is my list of possible meals and snacks for the week. I was inspired by this idea at Make and Takes

I took the same idea of using picture frames as dry erase boards and used it for my prayer lists and for cooking checklists

This idea came from Not on the High Street but I decided to just make one out of felt instead of buying one.

I’ve needed some bookmarks to mark the songs I practice for church each week. So I made these button ones from Bella Dia. But then I got the idea to use them to hold my sheet music together. Unfortunately buttons were too heavy. But ribbon worked very nicely!

saving space with an idea from Infarrantly Creative

This spice drawer is my favorite! Thanks Frugal Décor Mom! It also freed up space in the pantry because I was able to get rid of my spinny spice rack thing from our wedding almost 20 years ago…

I also love having all my dry goods in glass jars so I can see what’s in them!

I got these dry erase wall clings on clearance at Wal Mart. I used a cute plaid binder clip for a pen holder and now I have an easy place to keep track of all the items I need to put on my grocery list!

My recipes were totally out of hand, so I dressed up 3 ugly binders I got for free with some scrapbook paper. Now I have 3 very cute and organized recipe binders. They are also very HUGE and had to find a new home in the kitchen!

I feel much better now that everything is so nice and organized! Now I just need to get back into a routine again…

Crafty Conundrum

Yesterday’s post was all about the adorable sweaters I got while at the outlet mall on vacation.  Not only were all of the sweaters on sale but I also got a free tote bag with the bargain.

Problem is, the bag really just isn’t my style. But I figure maybe I could do a bit of a makeover or craft project with it to remedy that problem? Next dilemma, I have no clue as to what to do with it. I’ve been thinking about robots or a space theme??? Will anything stick to it??? If I cut it up will it just fall apart???

So, here’s where I need your help. Any ideas of what I can do to make this more fun either for myself or to give as a gift? Just post a comment here or on Facebook and put in your two cents. Thanks!

Sewing In The Great Outdoors

I probably never would have thought of this on my own… While we were camping at my parents’ creek property, my sister’s and I had a sewing day at my aunt and uncle’s house right next door. Since she was watching the grandkids, she put us out on a big table on the deck. It was so peaceful and inspiring to sew while watching the river flow by and hear the wind in the trees!

Then I thought, “I have a deck. Why don’t I ever sew out on my deck?”

Saturday was one of the few hot sunny days we’ve had all summer but I really wanted and needed to do a bit of sewing. So I drug all my sewing stuff up to the deck and set myself up on the patio table. It was lovely, and much cooler than in the house! The breeze was lightly blew, the birds were singing in the trees… I should always sew outside in the summer!

My outdoor sewing set-up

The view from my Elna

 

The daunting pile of already-cut-out cozies to be sewn

The first of three cozies I finished!

I’m so looking forward to my next free sunny day to do some more sewing on the deck! Having all those pins and needles out of doors must have attracted this big guy to our yard, because he showed up later that evening… ;o)

Our first porcupine!

Paper Plate Baskets

I still had berries coming out my ears and picked two ginormous bowls of peas AGAIN today (I just picked two huge bowls on Friday) and was wondering what to do with them all… I should have been thinking of ways to preserve or prepare them but instead I thought of the cute craft I found on Pinterest (where else???)! And instead of getting to doing something with my bountiful produce right away, I instead set out to make a set of these darling baskets to display it in for a picture for my blog…

The original idea and directions are from sarahearts.com and you can click HERE to see them. The only thing I want to add is how to draw your grid on the plate.

First trim your edge.

Then line up the edge of your ruler to the edge of the inner circle and draw your line. Do that on all four sides and you have your box drawn right in the middle (or really darn close)!

Cut on every other line just to the square in the middle.

Fold in the sides, secure with paper clips and then wrap it with decorative tape to hold it all together.

They look so darling with fresh produce but would look equally sweet with homemade cookies or candies or any other thing you can imagine…