Container Gardening in Re-Purposed Rusty Cans

Hi Everyone.

Oh, the last glorious days of summer.

And then Hello to fall.

Officially 

DELICIOUS fall!

It has already seemed like fall here.

The weather has turned rather early due to

El Nino and we have been enjoying 

"more than usual" rain. 

It's time to bake some homemade bread!

Hopefully it will be a little while longer 

before we get a frost.

I know it may seem a little late to share about

flower containers. But I thought it might be a perfect 

time to mention these.

That way, if you like them, you will have all of fall, 

winter and early spring to let your

 cans rust outside :)

 I save all of my # 10 cans.

They can be used for so many things.

I had these in a pile outside. I'm not even sure

how long they'd been there but I knew

that I wanted to fill their rusty goodness with 

some bright, cheery flowers.

To me rust is PERFECT and

I really love that look in my garden 

and around my yard.

This is Brutus.

 I call him my garden cat.

He is always in the middle of all things

yard work or garden related.

And he is a brute. SO brave.

He's not very nice to the grandkids. 

We always have to warn them and now they have given

him the name of "Mean Kitty".

And brave he is.

The other night, he was sitting on my

lap and some coyotes started

howling out in the field somewhere.

He sat up, started growling and wanted outside!

He stayed out on the ledge of the porch

like a little "Guard Cat".

I was more than a little surprised

because he's kind of a baby.

Anyway, you could do so many fun things with these

cans. I just poked a few holes in the bottom and planted

the impatiens in them. They make a nice bright spot

under our currant bushes.

Thank you so much for stopping by.

I hope that your fall begins with

peace and beauty and continues all through those 

lovely days of falling leaves,

sweaters, and walks in the cool crisp air.

Tamara xoxo

Minky Pumpkin With Vintage Jewelry

There's always so much to be grateful for..

Thank you so much for stopping by and

I hope your day is filled with many blessings.

Today, I'm linking up to:

Simply Neutrals Tuesday

Share Your Cup Thursday

Tamara xo

Mini-Composition Book Dressed Shabby Chic

Hello Everyone..

I hope you are all well and

enjoying some delicious

late summer weather.

Our rains have passed for now and

everything is so green. 

 The flowers, trees and well, just everything

outside is so happy!

Sometime soon, I will share some

of my VERY rustic planters that I saved 

from the trash and let sit out in the rain

to get all rusty.

But today, I wanted to share with you

 a mini-composition book that I 

had so much fun dressing up

all Shabby Chic.

It's one of the 3/$1 packs that I 

picked up at the dollar store. 

They look just like the larger 

composition books that you've

all probably seen. They're really cute and fun

to work with and the perfect size for 

a smaller project. I made three of them. 

One was given as a gift and the 

other two I sold at the shop where I 

put some of my creations on consignment.

The first step was to cover them

with some lovely, creamy, textured

wall-paper that I picked up

at a thrift store.

After that I chose a theme. 

The flowers and other shapes were

cut with a Sissix die and 

some of my punches.

And then to embellish, I just had fun

loading it up using various sweet things.

The pictures are pretty

self-explanatory and so I won't go into

a lot of detail.

I will say that the little metal piece

that you see, is from the clearance 

section at one of the big

craft stores. And I just painted it with some

Country White, acrylic, craft paint.

(I'm sure my crafty, blogger friends

would come up 

with something beautiful!)

 I always look for interesting

things to use, just as I'm sure

many of you do.

 Do you find that kind of

treasure hunting so fun?

AND it's inexpensive, too! :)

I believe in 

PINK...

~Audrey Hepburn~

The completion is made up of little things.

~Joseph Joubert~

They make such nice gifts and small 

things to sell. I know many of you have 

shops that you sell your lovely 

offerings in.

**********************************

I'm still waiting to find out what is going on

in my body. I don't think it's anything

too serious. But very mysterious.

But just to be sure,

I would greatly appreciate your prayers.

It can be a little discouraging at times to 

just be wondering.

Thank you all so much.

I look forward to seeing what 

fall projects that you all have in store!

You're always so inspiring.

Creativity is intelligence having fun.

~Albert Einstein~

Creativity is:

 inventing,

experimenting,

growing,

taking risks,

breaking rules,

making mistakes,

and having fun!

~Mary Lou Cook~

I've been working on a few things myself. 

Even some Christmas projects!

However the spirit moves us, right?

You understand.

Thank you so much for stopping 

by for a visit. I love my blogger friends 

and feel more of a connection all the time. 

Thank you for your support and

friendship. I appreciate it so much!

Have a blessed day.

Tamara xo

My First Time Pickin' For Old Doors and Windows

I hope you all have had a good week.

Productive and peaceful. 

Mine has been good. 

I'm looking forward to

the weekend and hoping to gather

several times with our kids and grandkids.

It's been raining so much and we

have been enjoying it.

I've had these pictures for awhile now.

Waiting to share this little story about my

first "Pickin" experience.

It takes a lot of courage for me

to think of approaching

people to ask them about stuff

that's laying in their yard!

But at least I was in friendly territory!

It was in the little town of Antrim, Ohio 

where I grew up. I recently shared some photos about the area, when I was

visiting family and friends.

Now that we have a little get-away there and 

we always drive our 15 passenger van across

country, it provides opportunities

to pick up things for projects to make and sell

and for decor around the house.

While driving through this quaint little,

country town, I spotted a charming, 

old door laying out in a yard.

And, gathering my courage,

I knocked on the door and

asked some questions.

I found that I went to school

with the family that owned

the little house. When his sister

arrived, we talked schooldays for a 

few minutes and she offered to let me

see some other doors in her shed that 

she had tried to give away but

folks never came and picked them up..

At this point, I was very excited!

 Here are some of the doors.. 

They were old cupboard doors

from an original house in Antrim. 

She even knew the family's name. 

And by now, I am super-excited 

because, as many of you know,

 I love connecting with my past! 

Above are the pantry doors.

This door came with a bonus window!

I love those old glass door knobs.

 The other white, paneled door came

  from the same stop. 

Those lovely spindles and pedestal 

were bought at a Nursery down the road for

a very good price.

 And this old door came from 

the old country store called "Rusty's".

 I use to walk the two miles from my home

to this store to buy candy and chips.

It's about 8 feet tall and very heavy!

It now sits on the porch behind a 

little wicker love-seat. 

I just love all that chipping paint!

I asked her how much she would be 

willing to sell them for and she said that

I could have them!

I couldn't believe it. 

And so she and her brother

helped me load them in my van. 

I gave them a little something for their 

help and was on my way.

I was excited to have found some treasures and visited with old school mates!

The next stop was at a childhood

 neighbor of mine.

I had driven past where I knew 

she had lived with her father but 

didn't know if she was still there.

But I had seen some old windows 

leaned against the side of a shed when

I drove by just 

"takin' the backroads."

Well, since you see the windows,

you can guess what happened.

The story was that she now lived there

with her husband and children and

they were doing some re-modeling. 

They had tried to salvage the windows 

because the house had been 

built in the mid-1800s!

Wow

But they couldn't keep the cold,

Ohio, winter winds from creeping into that

two-story farm house and so they had

to be replaced.

They just wanted to get rid of them..

and it was the same story as with the doors.

People had stopped and asked but

no one ever came back to pick them up.

We had a nice long visit and they helped 

me load them up and my daughter and 

I took them back to Sugartree and

unloaded. I felt blessed.

 Here they are after being hosed down.

 Aren't the arched ones just gorgeous?!

Some of the frames are falling apart and I wondered about taking them but am glad I did.

And I'm currently working 

on a little fall project that is made from 

two of the small salvaged pieces.

I'm almost finished with it and 

will be sharing it this next week. 

I did share some of them with my younger

sister and I gave her the glass-paneled door.

It seems the love of old junk 

runs in the family!

It's so rewarding to find these old things and 

love them into something new.

It always makes me sad when old houses

and buildings are torn down and bull-

dozed into large piles and burned!

Wait.. 

the history and memories..

the craftmanship...

Isn't it satisfying to re-claim 

re-use.. re-make.. re-love?

or whatever one wants to call it..
And the treasure-hunting part is fun, too.
I'm looking forward to
doing some more of that!

I'd love to hear any stories that

you have about special pieces 

that you've found

or experiences that you've had.

Thank you for stopping by and visiting. 

Have a wonderful weekend.

Tamara xo