Monday, September 21, 2015

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



Tuesday, September 15, 2015

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:

Tamara xo

Friday, September 11, 2015

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


Friday, September 4, 2015

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