Wreath revival

The Nester did it last week and I copied it this week.

Here's my sad little twig wreath at my front door. My daughter and I gathered pinecones from our front yard early in the Spring and attached them rather haphazardly and here you have it. Thanks to the Nester's fab letter wreath from last week I had some inspiration to put a little more into my front door wreath.

We are repainting the front door in a few months, once the Houston heat starts moving out. It's looking dingy so I wiped it down with a touch of furniture polish so my newly revamped wreath will have a cleaner place to hang.

I was too lazy to go to Michael's to buy a new letter so I decided to use a piece of cardboard. I do have this large 'R' but I like where it sits on our front entry mirror/hook wall hanging (pic below) so I used this R to trace onto the cardboard.

I spray painted my cardboard 'R' and some pinecones with my {almost empty} can of Heirloom White.

To hide and protect the cardboard 'R' I wrapped it in this lighter hemp twine with a touch of glue underneath to hold it in place.

Once the R was fully wrapped I sewed a thin piece of burlap around the R and the wreath.

Here she is, the finished product.

I like the simplistic and rustic look of the twig so I didn't add anything other than 4 pinecones and some greenery from our boxwood bushes. I used twine to attach the pinecones to the wreath.

It's Metamorphosis Monday over at BNOTP- be sure to check it out.

Check out It's So Very Cheri's Knock Out Knock Off party today.

Sew Much

What are you typically doing in the evening around 6pm? Having dinner with your family? Helping your little ones with their homework? Watching the nightly news?

This was me at 6pm last evening {and most evenings}.

Yes, that is a sewing machine on my dining room table. I've sewn everything by hand up until now but I'm borrowing my sister's sewing machine and I love it! I'm hooked on it. I'm trying to finish this bolster pillow tonight. This was a hideously outdated roll pillow from my mom's house. I cut the fabric off and went to work.

Tan linen fabric covers the pillow with a burlap stripe down the middle and white linen ruffle down the middle and on the edges. To create the ruffle I simply folded as I went, spacing about 3/4 of an inch apart and held as I sewed. I'm learning that sewing machines do NOT like pins {apparently they don't like fingers either, my thumb has a few battle wounds from this little project}.

Here are some of the pillows I've made in the past few months.

Remember this white linen slipcover I sewed by hand last month?

I made these ties with sister's sewing machine last week so now it's finally done!

There was this skirted bench I made:

And the drop cloth sink skirts:
This is where the mess magic typically happens.

Most of these little projects require some special supplies such as this:

This helps ease the pain for those many projects that go terribly wrong. :-)

Along with the wine, sewing must be in my blood. This is my grandmother's sewing table with all of her supplies still inside and untouched {I organized it tonight just for you}.

See the little music box on the right side? I listened to it last night but couldn't make out the song. Her tiny scissors:
That little yellow round tape measure says 'Ladies Man' on it....isn't it cute?!
All of her extra buttons:

What are you hooked on this week? Join in the 'Hooked on Friday' blog party over at Hooked on Houses.

Let there be light!

The lantern craze has hit big this year and almost every store out there is carrying some version of lanterns including lighting (indoor and outdoor) and candles.

This is the version from Pottery Barn:

I really like the hanging lantern light fixtures such as this gorgeous Victorian Hotel inspired lantern from Restoration Hardware:

These nautical wall lanterns from Cape Cod Lanterns are
adorable:

This little tea lite lantern from Ikea is only $4.99:

Ballard Designs even has a lantern-styled fire pit:

Wisteria's version is a pothole-ish candle lantern:

FCL Style combines the ideas and has a wall mounted candle lantern:

As I posted about here a few weeks ago Tiny Boxwoods in Houston has some amazing lanterns on their outside patio:

A photo by Petrina Tinslay of lanterns:

Lanterns are perfect inside your home but most of the lanterns I saw in Italy were in the streets:

The Calgary Zoo has their own version of hanging outdoor lanterns such as this one I snapped there last weekend:

Even some of my favorite bloggers love lanterns.

Joni from Cote de Texas hung one in her living room and above her landing (how bout that Mora clock?!), isn't it gorgeous?!:

Sarah from A Beach Cottage has this lantern on her porch:

Heather Bullard has this vintage lantern hanging in her garden:

I unfortunately do not have any lanterns in my home. Do you? Which style suits you best?

Hopscotch

La Marelle is the French word for hopscotch. Have you visited the La Marelle site? I was wondering what happened to the old lunch boxes that we used to carry to school, like this: My mom always packed my PB&J sandwich in wax sandwich bags....remember those?

Nowadays kids are carrying stuff like this:

Hi tech and 'go green'.

Then I stumbled upon this:
Well before you decide to move on to the next blog because you're sick of hearing about back to school check these out. These aren't just your ordinary lunch boxes, they are works of art. Some of these are suitcases and carrying cases but the smaller styles could definitely be used as a lunch box for your hip little girly girl.

Different artists create these products. I love the colors and the details.
La Marelle has the neatest website here and a blog here. The blog is in French so I can't read it but there are pictures of their store which sounds like it's opening in September.

A lot of work goes into their items and the blog details much of the process with amazing colors and photos. There are bags, post cards, plates and lot of other beautiful items on their site.