How many days 'til Christmas?

I just finished my first Christmas craft for next year.  Is that weird?

I started noticing these at sales a few years back and began picking them up.  For some reason the bases looked like a fancy victorian Christmas tree stand.  I had in mind I could figure out a way to make trees.  Last year I tried a couple kinds of ribbon but wasn't happy with how they turned out.

See...tree stand.

I saw an idea on pinterest.  Paper trees. Although I think theirs were on dowels.  I got busy and cut out squares of dictionary pages in 4 sizes.

And here we have the finished product.  Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

This Christmas Eve I am spending the whole day in the house.  My own little celebration.  Working in retail has a tendency to burn me out on the holiday rush.  Make a little fudge, watch a movie, finish my 12 days of Christmas reading, wrap a few presents, get crafty, drink hot chocolate, take pictures and blog, and maybe even clean the house a little just to make me feel better about neglecting it for the last month. Have whatever kind of day makes you happy!

Transformation

     You can find sewing cabinets just about anywhere.  I got this one at a thrift store in The Dalles.  There were 5 or 6 there that day.  This one was a little bigger and heavier than most so I got it.  I had something in mind to do with it.

     It has possibilities.  What do you see?

    These handles are a bit outdated.  Old but not vintage.  I thought I could find some others.

     I added casters (well, Gareld did).   You can see here I also painted it white.

     I didn't make it up to Simply Sandy's for new handles so a little black spray paint gave them a new look that matched the new "feet".

    I sanded the old finish off the top and the bare wood looks like a cutting board.  So now I have a handy little kitchen island.  It will be for sale at the open house.

Burlap Ornaments

These are how they turned out.  I can't wait to decorate my tree this Sunday.

My theme is Burlap, Blues and Bling.  I have lot's of blue.  I needed to mass produce some burlap ornaments cheap and easy.

First I tried heat and bond.  I wanted to glue the burlap to cardboard.  This didn't seem to work very well.  I wasn't getting a good hold over the whole piece so I went to plan B.

Good ol' spray adhesive.  I use this for many things and it was just the thing I needed here to pull off this idea.  Spray the burlap and the cardboard for a stronger hold.

For the next step I traced shapes on the cardboard side.  Then I cut them out and punched a hole for an ornament hook.

Stacks and stacks.  I hope it is enough to get the effect I'm looking for on my tree.

Now I just have to figure out what the bling is going to be.

If a tree falls in the woods....

I really love bottle brush trees.  The good old ones.  I try to find them whenever I can.
This season it seems I am obsessed with all kinds of trees.  Here are just a few to enjoy.

This fabric panel I got at Ikea is so realistic looking.  It's beautiful.

These little "tomato cages" make a nice simple tree.  I don't know what their real purpose in life was but as soon as I saw them I saw a tree.  There are 5 stacked up here but I will separate them and I made a star for each one.

I remember these little trees from my childhood and I have always liked them.  I also have Gurley candles for all the holidays.  They are easy to find at antique shows and shops.

A friend gave me a tree similiar to this a few years ago.  I made up quite a few for our bazaar.  The spool trunks go well with the button and lace decorations.

Book pages over craft store cones.  They looked a little plain until I figured out a star for the top.  I bought a star punch and that did the trick.

Last year these were in the christmas department at work.  They look more like the real thing than the cheap ones in the village section.  I bought all of ours and as I went to stores in Pendleton and Wood Village I got all they had too.  We never get in enough of the good things so if you see something you like, snatch it up.

And finally my funnel trees.  I first saw this idea two years ago so my hunt for funnels was on.  Last year I had two sitting on my counter during the holiday.  Mom and I have been collecting funnels so we can both have some of these unusual trees.

Shamelessly Stealing Ideas

I look for new ideas everywhere I go.  I saw these in one of my favorite booths.  I already love old, seasonal postcards.  I have quite a few christmas ones on hand.  As soon as I saw these at the show I started looking for the christmas pins.  I was able to get them for $1 each.  A pin and a postcard...what a good combination.

The hankies tied to a wire tree was an idea I saw at a thrift store in The Dalles.  I have lots of hankies and I put this tree together using red, white and green for our christmas bazaars.  It turned out really cute.  It would also be nice left up as decoration.

This idea was actually my sister's.  She was in the process of making over cheap pins using newsprint.  I never saw any of hers but in hearing the idea it sounded like a good one since these button pins can be found anywhere.  I put the newsprint on then got stumped as to where to go from there.  I finally decided on a holiday theme.   I never know where the next idea will come from so I am always looking.



Whew!

It's been a busy month.  A lot of time was devoted to pulling off our first show.

Shabulous was awesome.  It was so fun planning for it.  I really enjoyed getting my shabby shack ready.  We hadn't had a chance to create and display Halloween decorations so this was fun.  The show was a huge success and a great start for an annual event.  We hope to see it grow next year.  Now that I have had a week or so to recover it's time to get ready for the next big thing.  We have our usual fall show the saturday before Thanksgiving and then we are having a Christmas Open House here on December 8.  I have some new craft projects to work on.  I'll show you later.

Pinterest

Don't you just love Pinterest?  I hope you all have discovered it and are pinning away.  I work with the young women in our church and we made these last night.  I had several colors and styles for them to choose from.  Gareld cut a 2x6 into four inch blocks and we mod podged them on.  Top it off with a cute bow and they each had something new for their room.

We talked about the world's view of beauty and then I asked them to think of words that described what beauty means to them.  What makes someone beautiful?  They came up with words like self-confidence, kindness, honesty, integrity, strong, friendly, virtuous and inclusive.

I had the girls write the words on the back of the block along with this quote:

"Happy girls are the prettiest."  Audrey Hepburn

(also from pinterest)

Pumpkin Progress

Look at all the kinds of pumpkins we have growing.  They have four more weeks in order to be ready for the show.

We planted blue, white, cinderella, mini, and jack-o-lantern pumpkins.  It will be interesting to see what all comes up because we didn't keep track or plant in any sort of pattern.

I can't wait to use anything that's left after the show for my own fall decorating.

Both

A couple days ago, on facebook, I asked whether to turn a cute set of curtains into pillows or bags.  I liked the idea of shoulder bags  but I knew pillows would be easier.  I got out the sewing machine and started on pillows.  I had enough panels to make three pillows.  I had valances (that oddly were a different color than the panels) so I went ahead and added them to some plain bags I had.  I wanted a longer strap so I used the curtain rod pocket from the valances as the strap.  If these bags don't sell at either upcoming show Tonie and I will use them when we go to the antique show in Portland at EXPO.

Jacks

I brought home a 4x4 from the coast a couple trips ago. I found it on the beach.  It was about a four feet long.  It was already weathered and this shabby yellow color.  I had in mind a little craft I could make.

My handiman sawed the board for me.  We had this chunk of blue 4x4 also so I painted a face on it.  We

sawed the handle off an old rake and used it for the stems.

Add some burlap bows and they are ready for Shabulous.

Don't fence me in.

    I almost missed an opportunity.  I had gone to a yard sale in Cove yesterday and found a few clipboards and an old bedspread that was a nice color and print.  The old guy's shop was pretty amazing.  He restores old cars and had three in the shop and it was pretty decked out with automobile signs, and memorabilia.  I told him I was going to have Gareld drop by just to look at his shop.  When Gary got home he said "I thought you would have gotten those pickets".  I hadn't seen them.  There were about 10 on the ground outside the shop and a stack of cut barn boards.  I went back today to take a look because I don't know how I missed them.  There they were. Ten pickets laying on the ground with a sign that said, "350 pickets $5.00 you haul".  FIVE BUCKS!!  Gareld hadn't read the sign so he didn't know there were that many for that price.  I bought them, of course.  Lucky me.  Now what to make with them.  First thing I'm going to do is some christmas stars.  Any ideas?

Endless Summer Days...are Ending

August. Hot. Dry. Count down to school starting. And the fun events of fall. Mark your calendars for the Sister Shic Shabulous Sale October 6th on Kerns Loop in Cove. There will be hay rides, vintage trailers to tour, a pumplin patch, baked fall goods and vintage and artisan booths. It will be a fantabulous shabulous fall sale!

Also good about August is our Sister Shic August giveaway. To enter for your chance to win go to our facebook page and leave a comment about your favorite things in August. You can comment as many times as you wish and each comment will enter you for a chance to win this sweet home decor.

Tag me in.

Just trying to come up with cute things for Shabulous.

Boo to You

We've not had a sale before the Halloween holiday before so this is kind of exciting to see what I can come up with for our Shabulous show in October.  These blocks were a fun project last December with a christmas theme so why not try some other words to fit this holiday.

I love old postcards and for some reason Halloween cards are the most expensive at the antique shows.  Real vintage ones anyway.  These small reproductions are just as cute and much more affordable.


I found both these frames at Goodwill.  They were the perfect size to showcase the small pictures.  Notice in this one the reflection of my dish towel curtains.  They are really cute, just right for the building and the red stripe is a match for my huge red  cabinet at the end of the room.  I keep placing my display furniture in there and rearranging it to see what all can fit.  Gareld ran electricity to the shack and is going to add four outlets so I can't crowd it up too much yet or he will have to move everything to get his project done.

Like mother like daughter

My daughter Riley was watching HGTV with me this weekend and caught the junking bug. She wanted to go check out a salvage pile I go to every once in awhile, eventhough she's been there with me several times. She just wasn't interested before. She also wanted to build a headboard she had seen on pinterest. Yes! First we assembled our tools and supplies.

The table we worked on is one I built from reclaimed wood salvaged off the same pile she wanted to go to, as well as from some old fencing I got from my parents place in Union. We measured, cut and nailed.

Then she wanted to paint it! NO! You don't paint over the beautiful salvaged wood. What's the point of using slavaged wood? But she has an aqua thing going on right now, so I talked her into dry brush painting.



If you have to paint salvaged wood, I like this painted effect. Next we took it into her room and attached it to the wall.

Not too shabby! I know my oldest daughter wants a queen sized headboard made from reclaimed wood so this was good practice. And I got to pass on some skills to my youngest daughter. Shabulous!