Welcome fall

Fall is here!  I'm so excited.  We are getting closer to cooler weather, which means I can almost bust out the boots and scarves.  And of course I loooove the holidays creeping around the corner.  I've been itching to get my fall decor out, so last weekend I packed up my summer decor and filled my house with pumpkins and gourds, cinnamon scented candles and fun little Halloween items.  But first, I needed to get some pumpkins.  Mom, Katie and I went to the Finely Avenue Farmers Market and they have soooo many pumpkins to choose from.  We spent a good hour and a half picking out pumpkins, and man, did we do some damage.

 

 

 Yep, that's our load in the car.  Kind of outrageous, but they're so pretty :)  And now for a little home tour for fall 2012...

 

 

 

love birds

One of my favorite keepsakes from our wedding day was our bride and groom bird cake toppers.  We (well actually, mostly my friend and bridesmaid Dana) made them and they turned out so cute.  I got all the materials from Hobby Lobby, and here's how they looked on our big day.

 I had plans to keep them and display them since the moment we made them, but I actually sorta lost them for a few months.  Somehow in all the craziness of packing all my wedding decor up that night after our wedding reception, my mom accidentally placed them in a random box of non-wedding items at her house.  So for months we couldn't find them, and I was convinced they must have gotten left behind at our wedding venue.  In the meantime, I made this wedding shadow box, but desperately wished my little love birds could be included.  Then one day this summer my mom found the box which I had labeled "Graves/Boggs wedding topper."  Yay!! They weren't lost after all.

Well, I quickly figured out they were actually bigger than I had pictured them before, and would not fit in my other wedding box.  So, today I decided to just make them their own box :)

Here's what I did.  I got another small shadow box (5"x7") from HobLob (and they were 50% off, whoop whoop!).  I cut off a small piece of burlap (from our stock of leftover wedding burlap) to make a backdrop for my box.  I just used some E6000 glue to stick it to the back board of the shadow box.

 Then I thought about getting some twig-like stuff from Hobby Lobby to make them a nest of some sort they could sit on, but then I remembered I had a lot of this peat moss leftover from my "mossy B" wedding project, so I decided that would do just fine.  I just tore off a little strip and glued it to the bottom inside of the frame.

The next several steps just involved a lot of trial and error gluing to make the birds stand upright, make the heart sign stick to the backdrop, and just make everything stay where it should.  I would have taken pics, but my fingers were caked with glue at this point.  Here's the final product though!  Oh, and I made the paper banner with our wedding date on it to add a little more significance to the piece.  I love it!

More flea-market finds

I was out running errands today, and well, I couldn't resist a little visit to Interiors and Antiques in Vestavia, AL.  As you saw from this post, I'm still on the hunt for a headboard.  But I also saw a lot of other things I was pining over, and then other things I just snapped pictures of to get some ideas.  I don't know what it is about white/rustic furniture, but I just LOVE it.  We don't even have room in our house for any of the things I saw today, but I contemplated selling what we currently have just to make room.  My name is Amy, and I have a problem.  Hey, at least I can admit it, right? ;)

I pretty much wanted everything in this whole booth.  All the white/dusky gray furniture just felt so light and airy, and it would totally brighten-up our house.

 How beautiful is this dresser?  There's no way it would fit in our little bedroom.

 I rounded the corner and saw this mantle headboard, with soft burlap upholstered batting.  It was beautiful.... but in the $500-ish range :/  And then there was a wooden and iron gate (supposedly from India) that I thought might could work as a headboard...buuut, it was also $500.  What is the deal?!

 Then I started just looking around getting crafty ideas from things I liked.  Like this shutter made into a coat rack.  And these pictures printed on book pages.  And these birds nests in shadow boxes....totally DIY-able. 

 

 Then I came across this china cabinet.  And guess what.  It's the exact same china cabinet in my Nana's dining room set, except this one's been painted gray!  And this is when I really started thinking I could just sell my black Ikea buffet and do this instead.  I was smitten.

So, that was my fun little trip for the day.  In other home decor news, I got my church painting hung tonight in the guest room, and I think it looks pretty darn good :)

a little hometown history

One of the things I love most about my hometown is even though Birmingham, AL is one of the largest cities in our state, it's not hard to find little gems within the city that make you feel like you've stepped into Mayberry.  I love that just outside the hustle and bustle of the city limits, you can get lost in some really neat historic sites, and it's these places that make me feel like I still have some roots in a small southern town.  One of these places is On a Shoestring Antiques. 
It sits on the mountain top right in the heart of Bluff Park.  The building itself was originally a home built by William Wyatt in the 1930s.  Decades later in the early 1980s, his widow sold the home to Rodney and Lee Thursby, who then turned it into the antique shop it is today.  I've been to this shop several times before, but today I got to talk to Mr. Thursby, and what a sweet old man he is!  He just hangs out in the shop each day hoping to sell a few treasures.  And although I didn't walk away with much, I did find a little vintage enamel bowl for my kitchen counter which will hold all our cherry tomatoes we pick next summer.

But there were plenty of other things I would have walked out with had I been willing to pay a pretty penny for them.  Like this 1940s wedding ring pattern quilt.  How beautiful is this!? I was in love. But not for $200.  Sad day.

Then I found 2 antique sewing tables that caught my eye.  Maybe if I bought one it would motivate me to finish cleaning out the guest room corner and set-up my sewing machine!  Although maybe sewing should be my winter project.  The garden and canning seems to take up enough time and energy these days.

 Ok, be honest, if you worked really hard and got through pharmacy school and graduated, would you not keep these little treasures?  Heck, pharmacy school is no walk in the park!  Class of 1974, you disappoint me.  On the other hand, any crafty people need a window? This is your one-stop shop.

And another cool feature about this antique shop is the old train boxcar parked right next to it. It is also open for shopping!

 One last thing.  The main reason for my adventure today was to look for a vintage secretary's desk and something we can use for a headboard.  My ideas for a headboard include something rustic, like an old mantle or wooden beam.  Something like these...

 

But I saw these fence posts in the side shed at the shop and thought they would make a good headboard too if we lined them up side by side.  BUT, my good friend Leah has something just like this with deck boards that her husband built for their headboard.  And if it was me, I don't know that I'd want someone else copying such a unique design element.  So the search continues.

 So that was my fun little adventure for the day.  I love poking around antique shops and flea markets.  There are so many neat things you can find.  I will certainly be making another trip someday soon :)

Rustic home decor project

I love these rustic wooden quote signs that so many places are selling now.  Some of the quotes are silly, some are inspirational, romantic, and even down right sarcastic!  There's been several I've seen and thought, "That'd be perfect for our house!"  However, every time I take a peek at the price tag I'm suddenly much less impressed.  And then in the back of my mind I always think, "I could just make that, right?"  Well, I decided to give it a shot!  And actually, I'm making it for my sister as her (very) belated birthday present!

First I needed to find a wooden sign to work with.  I contemplated using wood pallet slats or a sturdy canvas.  But the easiest thing to do was just go to Hobby Lobby and buy a wooden sign in the right size I wanted.  It didn't matter what the sign said or had on it, because my plan was to just spray paint right over it.  And unfortunately I didn't snap a pic of the HobLob sign I bought, but it was on of these "In this house..." signs.  And the one I got was red, tan and black.  So it was very similar to this one.

Then I went to the craft and paint section of Hobby Lobby and bought 2 inch and 3 inch stencils in Helvetica font, a sponge paintbrush, and black, tan, and white paints.  I wanted a true flat paint so that it looked more rustic when painted onto the wood, but the best I could find was satin finish.  I got home and laid out a drop cloth in the yard, and started spray painting the entire sign with the tan color.  Then when that dried, I sprayed over the entire sign with the black color.  That way when I sand down the edges, the tan color will hopefully be exposed from underneath the black.  The key is doing multiple thin layers.  So my first layer of black was a bit patchy, but after the 2nd coat is was nice and even.

While all that dried, I played around with the layout of the words I was going to paint onto the sign.  I found two quotes that I like a lot on Pinterest, one of which my sister Katie has pinned on one of her boards.  It says, "Home is wherever I am with you" and one I found says, "A house is not a home without a dog."  They are both appropriate for her home, but I decided to go with the one she has pinned (since obviously she likes it!).  So I taped some pieces of paper together in the size of the wood sign so I could stencil out some options.  Here's what I came up with... (sorry it's hard to see, I tried to increase the contrast).

 I wasn't a huge fan of the 1st option, but I still couldn't fit all the words in the space right on the 2nd option.  So, I actually painted a 3rd option, which you will see shortly.

When I got ready to paint, I lined up my stencils, taped off the areas around the letters I didn't want to get paint onto, and then painted my letter.  I used Americana acrylic paint in "White Wash."

However, my first attempt was a bit sloppy.  So, I re-spray painted the top half, and tried again (with a bit more precision).  And even with a delicate hand, some of the letters still came out a little sloppy.  Stenciling is apparently not my best talent.

 But I kept going, and after a few hours (yeah, this wasn't exactly the quickest project I've done), I had this....

And yes, I was snacking on some M&Ms towards the end!  At this point I was pleased, but it still needed some roughing up for character.  I decided to gently (at a distance) and sporadically spray both the tan and black paint across the whole thing so the white wasn't so contrasted against the black.  Then I also sanded all the edges.  After all that, this was the result...