Shabby, Chicken Wire Hearts

Hello dear friends...

How is your week going so far?

I hope it's been peaceful.

 Full of love and inspiration.

I look forward to the start of each new day.

It seems that I awake in the morning so full

of ideas and hopes for the day!

(What's your favorite time of day?)

There are always so many fun things to play at!

And I love to work.

Apples have been on sale. 

We bought 20 pounds and I'm glad because

 they are so crispy and delicious!

 My intention for some of them

 was to make dried apples.

And so this morning, I grabbed our 

Ronco dehydrator

from our storage room and began slicing.

********

If you like to create, you probably have 

projects that you have in mind to work on.

I have been wanting to do something with my roll 

of chicken wire for a while now. 

I decided on hearts.

I didn't really have a plan or how to.

So I just laid a cardboard heart on top of the wire 

and started cutting around it.

 My gloves in the shape of a heart..

That just happened.  I see hearts all the time.

They just catch my eye.

Is that strange?

Since I didn't have a frame of any sort,

I had to take a pair of pliers and twist the cut ends together.

The hearts didn't turn out symmetrical

and have sort of a rough look to them.

I gessoed the hearts and then painted them with one coat of

Vintage White acrylic paint.

And then went to work on the design.

This is what I came up with.

I had some strips of sari silk that I used for the bow here.

The velvet yo-yo is from a thrifted shirt. The shabby flower is

made from a strip of old sheet and lightly colored with

a pink stamp pad. The white filigree flower is gessoed with

a pink cabachon added. 

I also used some soft, pink seam binding as a bit of filler

between the paper heart and shabby flower.

The heart and sentiment are from The Romance

paper pad by Prima~I love the rich colors.

I enjoy adding a piece of rusty hardware

or something from nature. I found a small stick and 

wrapped some floss around it. Mixing soft shabby

and rough grays and browns is something that I love to do.

In my home, I have weathered barn wood and lace curtains 

on the same wall. 

For this heart, I made a vintage, sheet music rosette.

I distressed the edges with Tim Holtz Frayed Burlap ink.

After gluing it to the wire, I then glued some of this moss

to the rosette. I added the angel which I had 

hi-lighted with gold Rub and Buff. That paint lasts

an amazingly long time. That tube is probably 20 years old!

I glittered a small oval acrylic piece and added these

words from the Tim Holtz Ideol-ogy Chit Chat Stickers.

In all of this soft loveliness, I used gold tulle, 

organza ribbon, satin ribbons, lace seam binding,

and a piece of gold, vintage trim that I found in

a box of antique, Christmas ornaments. 

It's a very heavy, woven trim. 

I thought it was gorgeous. I don't have many

authentic, vintage trims. I would love to find some.

Do you have a favorite source for these?

It looks as if this sweet little angel 

has her hands clasped in prayer. 

What a lovely thought.

Thank you so much for visiting my little place here!

Best wishes for your week.

Tamara Xo

Feeding the Birds.. A Winter's Delight

Hello..

I'm so glad you're here and I hope that you

enjoy your visit.

I'd like to share with you one of  my greatest delights.

Feeding the birds. 

I must confess that I enjoy their sweet company so much,

that a few years ago, I began feeding

(and watering) them all year long. 

They are my little friends.

Guess who's coming for breakfast..

dinner.. a mid-day snack

and a sip of refreshing, cool water.

Pine Siskins

Mountain Bluebirds

Pinon Jays

Purple Finches

Sparrows

Juncos

Robins

Grosbeaks

Cedar Waxwings

Flickers

Red-Bellied Woodpeckers

The Tufted Titmouse

and sometimes others...

We go through A LOT of birdseed!

Depending on the temps,

I sometimes feed them as many as 4 times a day.

At times, there are between 50-100 birds at one time.

The surrounding yard and sidewalk are thick with

sweet, hungry creatures. 

I enjoy hearing their chirping and chattering

and sometimes scolding each other.

They are such a joy and I get 

great pleasure out of knowing that I'm helping them

fulfill their basic needs of gathering food. 

And in this dry, harsh country, it's not easy

for them to find water.

A few weeks ago, during a very cold snap, I

ran out of seed!

I was not going to let my friends go hungry

and so I did a little online research

to come up with some alternatives to seed.

It was interesting and enjoyable to 

put together a healthy assortment of 

food for them.

  Here you see:

 peanut butter and jelly

chopped pecans and walnuts

chopped banana

cornmeal mixed with quick oats

And since the cornmeal and oats are so dry,

I drizzled a bit of coconut oil over the mix.

  Chopped banana is one their favorite foods!

Sometimes, I take a frozen one out of the freezer,

thaw it, split the peel open and just set it on the

sidewalk. They eat it up! I'm sure the natural sugar

is a treat and gives them a little extra energy to burn in 

that cold weather.

 The next round was popcorn...cat food and chopped

up sunflower seeds.

 ~On a winter's morn, joy flies in on the wings of birds~

I'm sure if you feed birds on a regular basis,

when you come out, your little friends are waiting for their

food. Some folks may use feeders, I tried that but I find them 

too small for all the bird friends and families to 

gather around. And it's so convenient to 

just walk out my back door, and scoop and toss. 

"Come feed the little birds, show them you care

And you'll be glad if you do.

Their young ones are hungry, their nests are so bare

All it takes is tuppence from you"

  Mary Poppins

 

It's a simple gift

to be still and watch these gentle, little

creatures find their way to my back doorstep.

And to have them stop and take a rest from their flight, wherever

they're going.  The water flies from the bird bath and

the pan as they dip and splash and spread their

little wings to shake off the water.

I just LOVE to watch them bathe. 

It's so sweet and serene and they look SO happy.

Then they hop out and make room for

the next one!

Well friends. 

I hope that life is being good to you

and that you're finding your own

delights on this winter's day.

I'd love to hear! Please, do tell.

Thank you so much for coming by and may the rest

of your week be filled with good things.

Tamara xo 

Festive, Valentine Candy Jars

Hello everyone..

I hope you're having a wonderful week.

 With Valentine's Day drawing near, I wanted to do something

fun and festive. 

Aren't the candy colors and wrappers

just so inspiring?

I am so captivated by all that color and the 

combinations are so fun!

You know how it is when you begin with an idea

and it just grows? That's what happened

here and I had SO much fun 

creating and decorating!  And I was able

to be adventurous and work with some of my

trims and colors that I don't usually use. 

I have tried to keep my color pallets to a 

certain style for most things... neutrals and pinks mostly. 

But I find my ideas sometimes want to go beyond

these lovely shades! 

And so here, I have gone kind of

 CrAzY with color!

And I loved doing it.

 I hope that you enjoy following along

in my adventure. 

Warning.. there are lots of photos.

Some are just for fun!

I used Mason jars but

I don't recommend using these

because the lids turn separately from the bands.

And so I had to make sure that my embellishments

weren't attached to the band AND the lid or

 they wouldn't turn smoothly.

Most of my "saved" jars had labels on them and I

wasn't willing to take the time to remove them at that moment.

Materials used:

jars

streamers

gesso

paint

hot glue

Uhu adhesive

E6000 adhesive

tulle 

buttons

trims

pom poms

thrifted glasses and candleholders

Stickles glitter, red

A lovely tangle of streamers! 

Most of the bands from the mason jar lids

got a coat of gesso before I painted them.

It works so well for priming. I wasn't sure

how my acrylic paints would adhere.

Gathering the streamer and gluing..

CUTIE! It's so fun looking through

the sayings to find just the right one!

Here's the history of the conversation heart

if you'd like to read it. It's interesting and nostalgic.

This lid is gessoed.
And because I didn't have the red paint that

matched, I just took a Real Red stamp pad from

Stampin' Up and rubbed it over the rim.

The center is piece of white card stock

that is spritzed with SmoochSpritz from

Stampin' Up. I'm sorry. The color isn't

labeled. And I think it's discontinued.

Crepe paper streamers! Paper of any kind is just

such fun. And those colors :)

Doesn't that look fun? 

This color pink says to me

"Let's Celebrate!"

And those little sparkles are so pretty.

This is Extreme Glitter paint by FolkArt

It's Jellybean Pink.

The band below is covered with two coats of this.

I didn't prime it and I love how the silver shows through.

Do you like it combined with the pink, frosty look?

 

I found this cute little glass at a thrift store for 50 cents.

I wasn't sure about inverting it and using it for a base.

But I decided to give it a go.

It does fit the jar well.

What do you think? 

Do you like it?

All of the bases were glued on using

the E6000 adhesive. It works

very well but the fumes are extremely toxic.

So, please, use with care. 

(I was reminded of something about my 

photography while looking at these pictures. I tend to angle 

my photos to the right. It's rather annoying! I'll have to 

be mindful of that in the future.)

All done! It was a bit time consuming 

but so very enjoyable.

Isn't this a lovely little crocheted table runner?

I found it at a thrift store a couple of weeks ago

for a small change.

What does Valentine's Day mean to you?

I used to think of it as a day to celebrate

romantic love. But many years ago, I began to see it

as another day to express love to my family and friends

as well. I also think of God's love for us.

For me.. for you.

Love can seem elusive at times.

It can seem to flitter about with the circumstances.

And it has so many faces and meanings.

But there's One's love that never changes.

Always pure

Always sincere 

and

Always present.

~His~

I hope you have a warm-hearted..feeling loved kind of day.

Thank you for being my friends!

And thank you so much for coming by.

Tamara xo

linking up at..

Shabbilicious Friday