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Dried Roses & Moss Valentine’s Day Heart

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How do you fill the dark space between the shiny bright Christmas season and the glorious colors of Spring?

My house was feeling a little empty yesterday so I made a trip to Home Depot.  As I walked through their quiet nursery department the only flowers they had for sale were Winter Pansies and Flowering kale. That would do!

So I picked up a few pots and came home to arrange them in my vintage strawberry crate.

The cool colors of these plants are perfect for the Winter season.

That project done, my creative juices were still flowing so, not wanting to do any “real” work, I dug through a few boxes and put together this little Valentine’s Day heart.

This was made with dried roses that I often find at the grocery store for $12 for three dozen. Thank you Bi-Lo!

Sometimes I display my roses in vases but, more often than not, I hang them to dry for future use. 

I’m sure Mr. OTN wonders at this practice but he never says a word.

He is one good man 😉

My favorite roses to buy are brightly colored ones as they dry prettier than pastels, which can turn brownish in color.

I’ve also been known to collect and dry moss from my yard, especially when we lived in the rainy Pacific NW.

With supplies gathered, I glued both purchased and collected moss to a small wooden heart that I had on hand (you could easily cut one out of heavy cardboard).

The dried roses were then randomly glued in a heart shape atop the moss.

A very simple and super sweet,

Valentine’s Day Heart from me to YOU!

Blessings sweet friends,

I’ve been known to link up to the following great parties!!!

Sunday:

TheDIYShowoff, LifeOnLakeshoreDrive, SilverPenniesSundays, SundaysAtHome, RusticAndRefined, Spiritual Sundays, GiveMeGrace

Monday:

IShouldBeMoppingTheFloor, TheDedicatedHouse, Dwellings, ProjectInspired,  InspireMeMonday, BetweenNapsOnThePorch, CelebrateYourStoryMaking Your Home Sing Mondays, The Beauty in His Grip What Joy is Mine/Monday Musings, Darling Downs Diaries, The Art of Homemaking,SmallWonder, LifeGivingLinkup, MomentsOfHope, Glimpses, SittingAmongFriends

Tuesday:

TalkOfTheTown, HomeStoriesAtoZ, AStrollThruLife, CoastalCharm, CozyLittleHouse, CedarHillFarmhouse, KatheWithAnE,TuesdaysAtOurHome, TheWinthropChronicles,  Rich Faith Rising Unite Linky, Testimony Tuesday,Cheerleaders of Faith,Tell His Story, IntentionalTuesday

Wednesday:

SavvySouthernStyle, TheBlissfulBee, Posed Perfection, A Wise Woman Builds Her Home, Woman to Woman Word Filled Wednesdays, ChristianBloggerLinkup, Whole Hearted Home, Mom’s Morning Coffee, Women with Intention, Coffee for Your Heart, MessyMarriage, ThreeWordWednesday

Thursday:

ShareYourStyle, ImpartingGrace, EmbracingChange, HaveADailyCupOfMrsOlson, MyRepurposedLife, ADelightsomeLife, KatherinesCorner, PrettyPreppyParty,  The Deliberate Mom/Shine Blog Hop, I Choose Joy,  Live Free Thursday, Thought Provoking Thursday, PartyAtMyPlace, 100HappyDays, SincerelyPaulas, ThankfulThursdays

Friday:

FrenchCountryCottage, TheCharmOfHome, RootedInThyme,  TheDedicatedHouseAnythingBlueFriday, ShabbyliciousFriday, Sweet Inspiration,  Faith’nFriends, Missional Women Faith Filled Fridays, Dance With Jesus

Saturday:

FunkyJunkInteriors, OneMoreTimeEvents,  SaturdaySparks, TheInspirationGallery, Make My Saturday Sweet

Top Ten Posts for 2013 From Old Things New Blog

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So, these aren’t necessarily my “most visited” posts.  I’ve looked through and chosen the posts that received the most comments and also, in the tradition of Old Things New, the posts where I actually re-purposed or restored something old into something new. 

So here are my Top Ten Posts for 2013:

#10 Braided Cuff Tutorial

#9 Vintage Jewelry Bookmarks

#8 Three Tiered Succulents

5-Slipcover redo for little bench 017#7 A Dropcloth Slipcover for an Old Bench

#6 Guest Cottage Before and After

#5 A Frenchy Bed Makeover

#4 DIY Junky Chicken Wire Cloche

#3 Turquoise Bedside Table

#2 Rosette Wreath Tutorial

And finally, my most popular post of 2013 . . .

#1 Vintage Dresser and Mirror Update

If you’d like to see more pictures or tutorials of any of these posts you can click on the title for the link to the post.  It has been a busy and wonderful year of blogging in 2013 and I’m looking forward to new things ahead for 2014. 

    Blessings to you all in the year to come,

My Signature

I’ve been known to link up to the following great parties!!!
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Summer Porch Decor

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Welcome to my front porch in summer. The weather has been glorious, cool in the mornings and warm in the afternoons.  Perfect for “setting a spell”.  Walk on down the pathway to our front door     . . . under the apple tree, through the bird feeders, and past the bubbling fountain. 
This is the porch swing that Mr. OTN and a friend hung for me last summer.  I purchased the seat cushion from World Market and made pillows out of outdoor fabrics.

 I was planning on sewing cord covers for the chains until I saw what Laurie over at Heaven’s Walk did with her porch swing.  Her “whimsical gypsy swing” is gorgeous.  I think she did a lot more wrapping of the chains on hers, and she has wonderful flowy curtains on her porch and . . . well . . . you really should just go over there and take a look.  Don’t forget to come back though . . . her blog is addicting!
 This was so easy to do. I simply tore strips of leftover fabric and started tying them onto the chains.
 Aren’t they pretty when they blow in the breeze?
My Rosette Wreath is still hanging on the porch but I’ve added a wild grapevine wreath behind it for more layering.
 If you haven’t seen the tutorial for this wreath you can link up HERE.
 Next to my swing is a 3-tiered succulent planter made from a Goodwill find.  Directions for this are also on a previous post that you can find it right HERE.
I’ve added just a few coastal touches to my summer porch.  Fossils we’ve collected on past vacations,
A sign pointing the way down to the lake,
 some curly branches I found while beach combing,
a lantern and a driftwood wreath.

No tutorial needed for this wreath.  I simply made it by glue gunning pieces of gathered driftwood onto a purchased grapevine wreath.
 I won’t say it was hard to do but I did tear it apart a few times to get the driftwood to look like it had collected naturally into a pile rather than being perfectly placed.  Perfection is my enemy!
 Here is a look at the other end of our porch,

with one of our Beagles, Cozy, contemplating escape, and our porch guard dog, Beauregard.  He is often relegated to holding the collections I bring home until they dry out and the bugs crawl away.

 I’m so happy you came by for a visit and I really hope you’ll come back  soon.  There is always something new happening at our place!
Blessings to you,
I’ve been known to link up to the following great parties!!!

Sunday:

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Rosette Wreath Tutorial

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So, as promised in my last post, SpringDreamin’, I’m back with a tutorial for one of my Spring decorating projects. This is my DIY Rosette Wreath made from leftover fabrics, including drop cloth material, vintage lace, burlap, and solid and floral cotton. I could call this my Pottery Barn wreath since the cotton fabric is from a Pottery Barn duvet cover which my dogs had a gigantic playfest on, resulting in a long tear right down the center. Oh well, I’m dreaming of a bedroom update anyway.
Plenty of leftover fabric if anyone is interested!
For this tutorial I used a strip of drop cloth fabric. The size strip you cut will depend upon the size rosette you want to make. This one was approximately 1-1/2″x18″. It is better to cut it a bit longer because you can always trim off the excess. 
Start by folding your strip lengthwise and finger creasing it.
Notice the fray to the fabric? I tend to prefer the frayed look but if you don’t . . . well . . . I guess you’ll just have to hem it!
 
Next turn the corner of the fabric piece down. This will be the center of your flower. While holding your rosette with one hand, twist the fabric from front to back with the other hand.  Continue wrapping your length of fabric around the “bud”, twisting as you go.
You can see the twists in the fabric in the pictures below.
With each twist apply a drop of hot glue.
Keep going until your rosette is the size you want and VOILA!
 
Okay, so what happens if your rosette doesn’t look anything like a flower?  Don’t worry, my first attempt at rosette making was pretty sad.  Don’t give up! If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again! Really! The nice thing about drop cloth fabric is that it has a little stiffness to it and kind of holds it’s shape. I practiced the twists and turns without the glue gun until I got the hang of it. 
After your rosettes are complete you’ll glue them to a wreath form. I thought a big willow wreath form from the craft store would’ve been beautiful but for this wreath, but everything I used I had on hand. Reason #1: I was in my pajamas and didn’t want to get cleaned up to go to the craft store. Reason #2: I’m fond of saving $$$. 
 
I hot glued the rosettes to a piece of cardboard cut in the shape of a circle, then trimmed close to the rosettes so it wouldn’t show from the front. I added a long piece of burlap around the outside of the rosettes as a sort of frame. I hot glued a wire clothes hanger, bent into a circle, to the back to make the wreath sturdier. Then I added a second row of burlap  to hide the hanger. I don’t know why but I tend to like my projects to look good from the back as well as the front.
Here is the end result, hanging from an old window on my covered front porch.
Below are some close-ups of my rosettes. I used 2 or 3 different fabrics to make each flower.
The entire project took an evening making flowers (while watching Downton Abbey) and a couple of hours the next morning putting it all together.
So there you have it!
If you’d like to see some more rosette wreaths for some added inspiration you can link to my post: TwoWreathsPlainAndFancy.
In this post I share a glittery rosette wreath and one made from an old flannel shirt.
 
I’ll be back in a couple of days with another Spring decorating tutorial but until then . . .
 
     Blessings,

 

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Spring Dreamin’

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Oh, how I’ve been longing for Spring. It isn’t because we get a lot of winter storms or even many days of below freezing temperatures where we live. It is because of the weeks of dark, dreary weather, fog and continuous drizzle, that leave us yearning for a glimpse of the sun.
 I was driving through my neighborhood last week and saw, over the top of a neighbor’s fence, beautiful cherry blossoms just beginning to open their petals toward heaven. Since then we’ve had a few days of sunshine and warmer temperatures and the signs of Spring are popping up all over.
Time for some pops of color around my own home. I took down some of my dried lavender branches and put them in a bucket on my front porch. They almost look like they are fresh blooms. I also picked up a few baskets of primroses and tucked them in a metal container (from Goodwill) with some Spanish moss and some fresh moss harvested from my driveway (one benefit of living in a drizzly climate). As I’m posting this I just noticed the pine cones still in the planter from Christmas. Oops! Need to go take care of that.
Purple and yellow are so pretty together.
I added some moss balls and Easter eggs to one of my porch lanterns and a bright colored candle and dried hydrangeas to the other.
 I had some friends over last week for a little get together and we decoupaged some eggs with bright colored paper napkins.
I made this rosette wreath made with some leftover fabrics. Through the window, hanging at the end of my front porch, you can see the trees are still pretty bare.
 A close-up of the fabrics I used which include lace, burlap, drop cloth material, and floral and solid colored cotton.
 There it is! That touch of blue sky we’ve been waiting for!
 On to the inside, for more touches of Spring. I love cloches for displaying different vignettes. Here I laid down some moss, added two antique books, a nest with tiny speckled eggs and a little brass birdcage from Goodwill. My fancy ceramic bluebird is guarding her nest.
 I wrapped the display in this rusty wire with silver balls that I found on our Seattle shopping trip. I’m not sure what it is about it that makes me like it so much. It kind of looks like I’ve put these eggs in jail!
 Moving on to my dining room is a silver tray from Goodwill, painted with chalkboard paint and some Easter egg candles, also from Goodwill. They have a LOT of good stuff there!
 Here are some tall, skinny bunnies I’ve had for years,
 . . . and some short, fat, nesting bunnies.
 This cookie jar belonged to my mother. She so LOVED this little mama bunny with all the baby bunnies peeking out from beneath her skirts.
Can you see the little bunny tail poking out from inside the log?
So sweet.
If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile you’ve seen this garage sale frame turned chalkboard before. To the right is a wire cloche I found at Goodwill and filled with moss balls.
 More decoupaged eggs with two types of moss, placed in a basket.
 A faux boxwood wreath tied with a burlap ribbon,
 with another bunny peeking out from her hiding place.
 Here are some views of my Easter table,

 

  . . . and a table runner I updated with thrift store fabric and lace.
Rays of sunshine across my dining room table warm me up and make me happy, inside and out!
 Ahhh . . . I’m feeling better just by putting out some of the OLD THINGS I’ve decorated with for years to remind me of new THINGS to come.
Thank you for joining me on a Spring tour of my home. Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be following this post up with tutorials for making some of the handmade items you’ve seen here.  I do hope you’ll come  visit me again!
Blessings,

 

Places I Party!!!
Sunday:
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday:

 

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