Dollar store wreath

Last years dollar store plastic Christmas ornaments at half price or less, make for a nice outdoor wreath. So glitzy. Many of the ornaments come in packages of three or more. Staying with similar color themes like gold and silver or red and white or by themes like all Santas or angels keeps the wreath uniform.


Add a few dollar strings of beaded garland wrapped around the wreath form and several single big dollar ornaments for variety and depth. Try not to organize it, just let the creativity flow when hot gluing the pieces onto the form. It took me about an hour to glue these onto a 12" wreath form.

Enjoy!


Tee

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Halloween plaques

Remember these? I said I had a plan for them.

I reused them to make Halloween wall plaques.

I cleaned, soaked and sanded them to remove the quotes and pictures from the originals. Then painted them, applied a stencil, and glued on a wood filigree ornament from Michael's craft store. When all was dry I applied a coat of varnish.
The backsides are decoupaged with music sheets. I plan to make them reversible to a Christmas plaque. Stay tuned.
Tee
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Feeling like a crafty weekend again

Music sheet waterfall mobile. The top part is an old salt shaker top. I stamped out circles from old music sheets and just sewed a line over the circles then strung them on the shaker top.






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Location:New jersey

Comparison

Since these may be the final days of owning our second home, I figured I would put some comparison photos online to see the results of ourefforts over the last few years.

The kitchen, then:






The kitchen, now:


The bathroom, then:



The bathroom, now:





The bedroom, then:




The bedroom, now:





The backyard, then:




The backyard, now:





Tee

Location:Colmar Manor, Brentwood, MD

Chalkboard silver platter redux

My family likes to cook and eat at home. So, often, when I have family over, I draw up a menu on a large chalkboard that I've had for years. It's fun to act as if my home has become a private restaurant.


This is such and easy project and will add just a touch of extra class to your home "restaurant".
You'll need

Chalkboard paint. I prefer the kind in a bottle versus the spraypaint because I've found I have better control over wear it goes on the object. I used FolkArt chalkboard paint. The drawback is the brush stroke issue i mention below.
A platter. I used a silver plated one with no embellishment in the center. I'm sure ceramic or glass will work fine as well.
Paint brushes. Here's the tricky part. The type of brush will leave visible brush strokes on the paint surface when it dries. So find a nice flat brush with soft bristles.

Paint away. I poured a blotch of the paint on the surface of the platter and just spread it around trying to keep the brush strokes aligned. Let dry for about an hour. Apply a second coat and let dry for the next day.

Get some chalk and write as you desire.


Tee

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Location:New Jersey

Secret messages?

I feel like I'm secret agent typing a coded message during World War II.

Just got this vintage typewriter at a yard sale in rural New Jersey. Couldn't help myself but to try it out. (I kept aiming for the "enter button". Haha!).




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Crafty sailboat

Wow! These were a lot easier to make than I anticipated. Collect driftwood pieces to make the hull and mast and add any fabric you wish. I used drop cloth material from Home Depot. I followed the directions on this lovely blog called Creating Life



















Try it for yourself.

Tee

Location:New Jersey

Aspiring to have a garden like this...

Wanted to show a few pics from Ma's garden and how great it looks during the summer!










...and the time to enjoy it.

Tee

Location:Westfield, MA

Inspiration board

Ok, admittedly, this project wasn't easy, nor was it quick. But the results are pretty nice.

Here's the details:
Empty frame. Mine is about 18" by 24" and of course, not a standard picture size, making it a bit of a challenge with fitting the rest of the ingredients inside.
3/8" Foam board for the back.
Foam rectangles. The ones you find in the kids craft aisle.
5/16 inch thick roll of cork. There's different thicknesses so make sure you get the thickest one you can.
Burlap cut to the size of the frame.
Spray adhesive.
E6000 glue. This is probably my new favorite glue if I could have a favorite. E6000 is pretty forgiving to work with, yet incredibly sticky.



I began making a sandwich with the pieces starting with the foam board, then the foam squares, the cork and finally, the burlap, spraying adhesive on each layer to get the sandwich to stick together. You might find the edges of the cork lift so I used E6000 along the edges to make sure they stayed stuck down.


Now, trim the sandwich to fit the frame. If you're a stellar measurer you won't have to go back and trim the edges to stuff the sandwichinto the frame like I did. (How many times did I say, "sandwich".) Squeeze a bead of E6000 around the inner edge of the frame then place the sandwich in the frame. I slipped the jute string under the edge of the frame and dabbed a litle glue to hold.



For fun, I clipped vintage photos on the string. One is of my grandfather before he married my grandmother circa 1918. He was enjoying a little homemade cellar wine with a friend who apparently had just purchased the motorcycle that's depicted in the lower photo with a child sitting on it.

Hope you enjoyed my recent posts. This is my final project for the weekend. Well, maybe not. I've got one more I'm not quite finished with but it has to do with these old Hallmark plaques.



Tee

Location:New jersey

What to do with all those vintage afghans!

I actually had some time this weekend to work on some things I've had sitting around waiting to be worked on. This is one of them.

I purchased this red, white and blue afghan at Salvation Army in Cambridge, MD months ago. (It is currently closed because of a fire. Thank goodness noone was hurt.) They've always have tons of vintage afghans and, I kept saying, some day, I'm going to do something with one. They always reminded me of the 70's and that's why I got the idea of the poncho.


This one was easy because of the grannie square style. I removed one of the middle squares and zigzg stitched around the hole to keep the yarn from ravelling. Then I hadn't quite figured out how I was going to fix the neck hole. Thanks to my mother for the great suggestion to crochet around the hole, I added a few single crochet rounds, shrinking it a bit every row and changed up the color once. I was able to finish it in a couple of hours.

This thing just oozes 70's flamboyant patriot! Haha!

Tee

Location:New jersey

Wall collage

Sometimes just hanging some yard sale junk makes a blank wall look a little better.







Tee

Location:New Jersey

Refrigerator message deposit box.

You can pick these little tobacco tins at flea markets, yard sales and undoubtedly, thrift stores. Old Scrabble games are often readily available, too. I purchased super strong and tiny neodymium magnets online.

Glue the magnets onto the backs of the scrabble pieces. I roughed up the backs a little bit with some sandpaper and used E6000 glue to glue on the magnets. Since the tin is magnetic, I just stacked a few magets together and placed them on my refrigerator and stuck the tin to the magnets.

Add a few scrabble letter magnets inside the tin and you've got a tiny message board for the kitchen.








Tee

Location:New Jersey

New stuff at pier 57

There's a new place in town and check out these mini booths! They're repurposed shipping containers. And a mini-bus for shops and food.







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Location:Manhattan

Vintage bottle bouquets.

I came in to a ton of old bottles recently. (Some seem to have a few decades in the Chesapeake.). Of course, I had to use them in a cut flower display. The greens are from my enormous rosemary bush and from some weeds Mike has been cultivating which he now calls "Little Tees", after me. Hmmmmm.




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Home made bird bath.

So clever and inexpensive. Mike repurposed a junked metal bird bath into a repurposed one. The idea is also adapted from one my father made for us a few years ago.



Mike found this oldish metal bird bath and took the rusted bath part off. He made a dirt mound in the garden, chose a nice big rhubarb leaf and placed it upside down over the mound.






After mixing up some Quickcrete - a fast drying concrete - he carefully poured it over the leaf mound.



He slid on the birdbath's old mount into the concrete and let it dry. Wait at least an hour, or more, just to be certain it is completely cured.


He secured the final product onto the pedestal.
Ready for the birds!

Tee

Location:Cambridge, MD

Future project for child's room.

Not my child, btw.

I found these antique child's play clothes in the basement at a tag sale nearby and I absolutely love them. The fabric feels like old flour sacks and the redwork embroidery is very nice. I plan to clean them up a bit and frame them like you see vintage bathing suits lately.



Tee.

Location:New Jersey

New deck on Colmar Manor cottage

Phew! We worked through the scorching DC heat to build this 12' by 16' deck with antique repurposed iron rails. The stairs on the opposite side will be added later but for now it is a great addition to the sloping backyard that doesn't grow grass and gets very muddy when it's wet.



Tee

Location:Colmar Manor, MD

Best small towns in the U. S.

According to Livability.com, Cambridge is one of their top 10 small towns. I have to agree. If you want to just hang out and not deal with people but the kind who are friendly and inviting, Cambridge is it. It's a great place to hang out, relax, destress and refesh especially from everything that's going on in nearby District of Columbia. Come visit!
http://livability.com/
Tee

Location:Cambridge, MD

Junk store finds!

We went thrifting and junking along the Palisade Park road which runs through all the old neighborhoods on top of the cliff next to the Hudson. You'd never know these junkers were out there unless you drove around. They tend to be in old garages. But we got some nice deals! See below.








Reems of old music sheet music, two old military metal lock boxes and a metal wire stand which I think is a shoe rack. Total cost $22.

Tee

Location:Union City, NJ

Corrugated roof leftovers.

We've had these two pieces of roofing laying around the garage for a few years now. Taking up space, getting in the way, moved from corner to corner of the garage. We had taken them off the back roof area of the garage and replaced them with clear versions to lighten up the inside. Mike came up with this great idea. He fastened the two pieces together on one end with bolts and used U bolts to attach the other ends to two old fence poles. Then he hammered the fence poles into the ground to stabilize the roofing wedge on its side. It's hiding our compost pile behind it!

















Tee

Location:Cambridge, MD

Memorial Day cleanup with Veteran's in Mind

This beautiful rose bush hanging over the side of the front porch just makes sitting on the porch cozy and comfortable. This bush wasn't growing the first few years we had the house. Then, one summer I noticed it growing and cultivated it hoping it would do just what it's doing now.











Below are some spring pictures of our house near DC.











Tee

Location:Cambridge, MD

Vintage and new coat rack.

I purchased the green hooks at Anthropologie the other day not sure what I wanted to do with them. Then we found the chestnut window sill at Community Forklift in Edmonston, MD. The Forklift is a non-profit salvage and green home improvement center.
Mike attached the hooks to the sill. Looks great! See for yourself.







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