{for the love of burlap -- with m'lynn}

Here we are again with the last in our series of guest posts. Today, we're welcoming M'Lynn of The Creative Cup, who also writes a beautiful and thoughtful blog here. She has put together a

burlap wreath, made all the more perfect by the red flowers! Inspired? Yes, me too...

Burlap is my go to medium for most all of my home decor projects. I'm head-over-heels in love with this fabric because it is so inexpensive, it has wonderful texture & colors, and it helps fill my home with a rustic-country flare that suites our decor and agriculture lifestyle. My latest burlap project just happened to have a little touch of red to fit with Astrid's love of the color. Inspired by the wonderful wreaths I found and pinned on my Pinterest board HERE, I made this scrappy burlap (with red) wreath to welcome guests into our home.


I used exactly one yard of burlap, a heavy duty wire wreath frame, and fabric scraps left over from previous projects. No sewing was required, just knotting, tying, pinning, gluing, and twisting.
 
May this burlap (with red) wreath be a pleasant way of welcoming our friends and family into our burlap-filled home.

Thanks, M'Lynn. A lovely choice of colours, and what a brilliant way to use burlap! Thanks, again, to all our guest bloggers -- I'm on my way to England tomorrow, where we'll have Internet access, and we'll have some photos of Denmark up to show you very soon!

{may's wreath}

Maybe it's all the hotdogs I've eaten lately, but mustard yellow is top of my colour chart at the moment. Barbeques, sunny afternoons, shorts and flip-flops.

Well, with a bit of ketchup red in there too, of course!

And knitters, don't worry about using up your precious yarns -- the wool is wrapped around the wreath in one long strand, so it is still useable afterwards. Just unwrap it, and replace with different yarn when needed!

(Inspired by this tutorial)

All We Are Wondering

Another weekend has almost passed

and all we are wondering

is whether Father's Day will be the day

that Justin becomes a father.

-----

P.S.

In Texas, there are trees

eight or nine feet tall

that look like enormous flowers.

Everywhere.

It's beautiful.

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