~dropcloth, burlap and hydrangea fall wreath~

Well that wonderful warm weather I was bragging about came to an abrupt halt and so we are now well and truly in fall mode! Nesting mode. Make a new wreath mode.

I had been wanting to put together a new wreath for fall, something a little more neutral and natural. When I saw one over at Craftberry Bush I knew that was the direction I was headed.

But first I needed dried hydrangea blooms. Preferably greens and browns for fall, but my bush was pink. 

Or was it. 

Here’s the interesting thing, when I went out there the blooms had all turned green in the fall, I had never noticed that before. Maybe the warm dry weather helped. 

So I picked tons of blooms!

If you’ve never dried hydrangeas before it is dead easy, you just cut the blooms, plunk them in water and leave them to dry out. I have pitchers of hydrangeas all over the house, from my yard and a friend’s.

I’m still undecided on how I feel about dried flowers, I have tended to steer away from dried flower arrangements, but pitchers of green and brown hydrangeas feel very fresh and fallish in the home.

So, moving on to the wreath, I made it just using what I had on hand, and it honestly took less than an hour. 

I used strips of dropcloth and burlap, as well as hydrangea blooms and dried white roses. 

I tied 3 or 4 dropcloth strips for every burlap strip.

Here’s a close up of the fabric strips tied around the wreath.

The white roses mostly disintegrated when I tried to handle them! Less is more definitely applied here!

 I just hot-glued on a couple buds and petals as best I could.

Lucy over at Craftberry Bush gives a great tutorial on making this wreath, so hop on over there and take a peek.

If I were to make this again there are a couple things I would do differently.

 I would use a larger wreath form, mine was a little small for all that fabric and my big front door!

I also wouldn’t knot the fabric, just a single loop is enough {like the first tie you make on a shoelace}. That way it is less bulky.

Though my wreath could use a little tweaking at least it is up, and I am happy with a finished project for now

Happy Fall!

Tracey

I love the contrast of the neutral colours against the black, and the slightly messy look of the fabric ties.

~making fabric pumpkins~

Well, our unseasonably warm and dry fall continues up north, and as much as I am enjoying my beachy coastal decor, it’s time for some pumpkins don’t you think?

Or "punkins" as our Grade Ones insist on calling them

"pump" as in "jump"

~pumpkin~

yes, they say, punkin!

sigh, they are so cute!!

This year I have enjoyed making some fabric pumpkins, they are not very difficult to make and are a really fun project. 

What I love is that you can pretty much use the supplies you have on hand : fabric, stuffing, bits of lace and ribbon and a glue gun. 

{Hint: you also need a good, strong needle to stitch the bottom up.}

And there is something very fallish about going out looking for the perfect sticks to make pumpkin stalks!

I used a tan chenille for this pumpkin, prettied it up with lace and wrinkly seam binding ribbon, jute and a vintage earring. 

Isn’t this such pretty vintage lace! This pumpkin has a pearl earring glued on.

I love the rustic touch the twig stalk gives the pumpkin.

I also made some smaller pumpkins out of natural osnaburg. Really you can be as creative as you like decorating these pumpkins. This one I “segmented" with jute.

Added a few pretty pearls…

Give it a try! If you don't find a clear enough tutorial let me know and I'll post some directions. 

Right, I’m off to make pecan pie ready for our Thanksgiving dinner! 

Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian readers!

Tracey

linking up at these fun parties:
 We did it! Wednesday @ Sew Much Ado
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday @ Coastal Charm
Primp your Stuff Wednesday @ Primp 
The Inspiration Board @ Homework 
Whatever Goes Wednesday @ Someday Crafts 
the 36th Ave party 
Show and Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home 
Fabulously Creative Friday @ Jennifer Rizzo 
Feathered Nest Friday @ French Country Cottage 
Air your laundry Friday @ Freckled Laundry
SNS @ Funky Junk Interiors

~repurposed treasure~

Sometimes when I'm out treasure hunting I might find a treasure and know it will be good for something, just not sure yet what that might be....

Other times I see something and know immediately how I want to use it : this was one of those "other" times. I found this unusual tarnished silver vessel sitting on a shelf and well, I love unusual containers, they are great for flowers and staging vignettes and filling with all kinds of lovelies.

I especially like vintage silver with a simple monogram, this one has a large "K" on the front.

Nice shapely handles

I filled it with a big bunch of baby's breath and popped it on my mantel. It looks more springy than fall to be honest, but hey, the sun was shining up north so why not!!

How do you like to use unusual vessels?

linking up to Feathered Nest Friday
 Frugal Friday
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday

Tracey

~autumn in my home~

Growing up in Africa we had two seasons : summer and winter, with maybe a rainy season thrown in! So one of the things I really appreciate about living in North America are the colors and fragrances of fall, or autumn as I prefer to call it {it just sounds so much more descriptive, don't you think?}

Decorating with pumpkins was definitely a novel idea our first autumn in Canada! We might occasionally have eaten roasted pumpkin in Africa, but we certainly never got to display them in our homes!

Canadian Thanksgiving kinda snuck up fast this year {it was this past weekend} and so my autumn decorating is fairly minimal. I had my eye on white pumpkins this year, but they're not that easy to find around here...

This one is actually fake {shhhh}, but it's a great size, I got it to use in my booth at Fieldstone Market, now it has a home on my little chippy vintage chair in the front hallway.

I kept my mantel pretty simple, I love these white pumpkins with orange stripes, they're just the right size for a mantel, I'm thinking a mini garland strung on the mirror perhaps?

I did find a couple tiny whiteish pumpkins which I've tucked in here and there...

Outside on the porch I put up my {rather sad} fall wreath,

definitely due for a wreath makeover, the challenge is when it rains {often} this door gets very, very wet

a couple of gourds and a sugar pie pumpkin, which was promptly given some or other name by the kids. Why do they insist on naming their pumpkins, it makes it so much harder to actually carve them up!

One year I got minature pumpkins for all the cousins and we decorated them with googly eyes and hair and so on, it was a lot of fun. We definitely didn't carve them up, it's like they became part of the family!

Anyway, I digress, the porch : the boys asked when we were getting pumpkins for the stairs, like we always do etc.etc. So off we went and picked out more fat orange pumpkins.

I chose this guy, I like things that are a little different from the norm:-) Isn't he/she (nameless) a wonderful shape? I don't name my pumpkin.

The boys each picked out a big fat round pumpkin, my only criteria being they had to have a stalk and actually sit on the ground. It took a while, we inspected oh, maybe three hundred pumpkins before making our final choices!

We'd barely got them home when my youngest came rushing out the door clutching a sharpie and various knives all set to carve his pumpkin...

WHOA!!! slow down, let's just enjoy the pumpkins for a while (we're not into the halloween thing but they do like to carve their pumpkins)

I was given a bag of apples that weren't good to eat, so they made it to the front porch too. What is more "autumnish" than an enamelware bowl full of apples, especially when they have a leaf or two still attached.

So that's it for my autumn decorating so far, I like to think it's minimal but meaningful! Hope you're having fun with your decorating too! For a summer gal I find I'm quite enjoying the fall this year ~ all the gorgeous colors of the leaves and yummy fall goodies that get cooked up in my kitchen. But that's another post all by itself!

Happy autumn!

Tracey

anybody else got a weakness for ticking?

just can't resist ticking - it has that old fashioned grandma-ish appeal to it

you know, like in "Grandma's featherbed"

for this runner i used red ticking rather than the traditional blue

it just seemed right for the fall and Christmas season

i love the way the ends fray

Tracey

rosemary potatoes - who loves fall comfort food??

have you noticed how much we all start to think about food in the fall!!

my go-to fall comfort food is potato

pretty much in any shape or form...

so, i thought i'd share with you the rosemary potatoes i made for dinner last night

before

after

don't they look yummy

here's how, super simple:

wash potatoes and cut into quaters

drizzle with evoo (be generous), garlic seasoning and rosemary

i use this evoo

and this garlic seasoning

this is the dried rosemary, very fragrant

lay potatoes out on a lined baking sheet

bake at 375F till crispy and done

mmm-mmm!!!

do you have a favorite fall comfort food??

Tracey

feathering the nest - no really!

well i finally got a nest for one of my favorite little birdcages

just in time for the fall

doesn't it look cosy in there, all those soft feathers

all i need now is a birdy!

happy days,

Tracey