DIY Autumn

I've been craft crazy this week, all in the spirit of Autumn! Here is my new wreath, all oranges and yellows, hanging proudly on the door:

And a leafy felt draping, inspired by A Beautiful Mess, which adds a little colour to our hallway:

My big project, though, was more of a restoration than a creation.

Last weekend, a 3 foot wooden witch came to live with us. She used to be Justin's Grandma's, then his Mom's, and now she's ours!

She arrived in a trash bag, in several pieces, looking like this:

Her head had come loose, revealing about fifty years of lumps of dried hot glue! Her straw was a bit ratty, her hair was wild and had glue stuck in it, too. But Bella and I believed she could be beautiful again!

First, we gave her a hair cut, and scraped as much of the glue off her neck, chin and arms as we could.

(Bella is sad because I wouldn't let her eat the straw or the lumps of glue)

Then, we gave her a nice new layer of glue, fixing her head back on and sticking her broomstick together.

The glue was still pretty obvious in the space between her head and body, though, and her arms had goops of straw-glue that I couldn't budge. So... I gave her a dapper little batik bow tie, and a rather fetching brown felt cape, with a little pink button!

Now, she looks very sweet in front of the fireplace! I'm going to call her Mildred.

Yay for family antiques! Yay for hot glue! Yay for felt in all its forms!

xo