Summer Dining Room

Okay, who am I kidding? There is rarely any dining happening in this space. In fact, the table often looks 

Vintage Valentine's Day Printables

Hi guys!

Just popping in today to share a couple of vintage printable images you can use for Valentine cards, tags or other creative projects. 

This vintage sheet music is from my own collection, and I've used it for several projects over the last couple of years. 

I decoupaged it to the love letter box that is on my Vintage Door Valentine Mantel right now. {Also shown in my blog header}

This would be really cute to make Valentine cones with, decoupage a keepsake box or even as a fun element on your vintage romantic Valentine's Day table. This could be the starting point for a sweet anniversary project, as well. The possibilities are endless! 

This sweet vintage postcard is also from my collection. Although it mentions a "get well message" on the edge, that is easily covered with ribbon or paper {or snipped off}. Of course, it could be used as a get well card, too : ) 

This postcard was the starting point for the wedding invitations I created for my daughter's DIY budget wedding {more about that here}

Simply right-click the images to save to your computer, and print in any size you need. For the postcard, you could also edit it with PicMonkey to add your own printed text. 

Happy Valentine creating, friends!

Jeanette

Sharing over at:

The Scoop at Worthing Court
Inspire Me Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life
Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style
What's It Wednesday at Ivy and Elephants

O Christmas Tree

Yep, I did it. I didn't mean to do it.  Not this early anyway....


It's not even Thanksgiving, and I'm sharing my first Christmas post. I have a good reason, though. Really!

We've had the crafty 'bug' over here for the last few weeks. My kids and I have been making things for the house, making things for gifts and making things for the shop. 

Making things. Just for the fun of it!

 



The other night, the "making" turned into a little impromptu Christmas crafting. A little forest of vintage inspired Christmas trees!




Sheets of vintage music form whimsical trees. I simply rolled them into a cone shape, secured them with a touch of hot glue, and snipped a bit of a decorative edge around the bottom. 
Some are topped with sparkly stars punched from an old glittered gift bag.

This one has a tiny flag topper of brown paper, wrapped around a toothpick and topped with a pearl bead.

They were set atop some unique bases which just happened to be in my giant, disastrous pile well-organized supplies ;)

I used an iron piece from an old light fixture, a weathered flower pot (I didn't even clean it -oops!). 

This one is an old cabinet handle with a really long screw. I knew I was saving these for something! : )

Turned over onto a bamboo skewer and tucked into a vintage iron piece, an old tin cone takes on the look of a snowy pine tree.

One little bottle brush tree was glued to a base of old, chippy white wood.

The other was glued to a vintage mold.

The star topper is actually an antique screw-back earring. My grandmother picked up a ton of vintage costume jewelry for craft projects, and this pair came from her collection. 

I placed the little forest of vintage inspired Christmas trees on my rustic board mantel.

I made a little "O Christmas Tree" brown paper banner, printed from my computer, and hung it on the wooden backdrop behind the trees.

And took some pictures for you, my friends : )

For the first time ever, we are not spending Christmas at home in Colorado, so I'm not going to feel bad about doing some Christmas things a little early around here. 

I want to enjoy a little Christmas creating and decorating before we leave home, but the plan is to keep it low-key and simple. 

Remember how crazy I was getting ready to drive 3 kids to California this summer? Yep. We're doing that again. {smile}

How about you? Are you embracing Christmas already, or holding off until after Thanksgiving? I'd love to hear what you're up to!

Jeanette 

Linking up at these fun parties-

Make It Pretty Monday at The Dedicated House

Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

Inspiration Monday at twelveOeight 

The Scoop 

Knick of Time Tuesday

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm 

Tweak It Tuesday at Cozy Little House 

Inspire Me Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life 

Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style

Share Your Cup Thursday at Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson 

Treasure Hunt Thursday at From My Front Porch to Yours 

Be Inspired at Common Ground

Home Sweet Home at The Charm of Home

Fabulously Creative Friday at Jennifer Rizzo

Party Junk at Funky Junk Interiors 

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage 

What's It Wednesday at Ivy and Elephants   

Centerpiece Wednesday at The Style Sisters 

Creating a {messy} Life: Where This Blogger Creates

I'm not sure I'm ever going to master the skill of confining my creative space to, well, one space! 

 

  

I have alot of my creative hoard supplies in the garage. But the garage is freezing in the winter and hot in the summer, and on nice days when I'd love to put the door up, it's usually pretty windy here. Chasing vintage sheet music and book pages down the street (it has happened) makes me cranky. Just sayin'

Our home has a basement space that could be claimed if the cat didn't live in that area. Pippin the cat is not always so well behaved. And having my vintage sheet music and book pages ruined by a naughty cat also makes me cranky.  



So usually I end up working on projects in the middle of our main living space {sorry kids} until the mess gets too out of control, at which point I will likely whisk it all out to the unpleasant garage space again. Last winter I may or may not have been known to set up a work space in the upstairs master bathroom. But we don't need to talk about that now, do we? No, didn't think so : )




First it's a piece of wood. Then maybe some vintage book pages...some tags, some paint, some buttons, some stencils...

One by one the tools of the creative trade creep their way back into the main living area, and BAM! my dining room ends up looking like this-

 

 {Did I already say "sorry", kids? Sigh..}

So this is where I am today. Actually for the last couple of weeks, I have been operating from what is supposed to be the dining area. It's really more like a corner in the open space that includes the kitchen and the living room.

In January, the space looked like this. Lovely....peaceful....

In March, we were welcoming Spring and it looked like this.

Brace yourselves, people...

This is what our dining room looked like in April. Light. Fresh. Minimal decor. 

What. The. Heck. 

I'm getting a little weepy seeing these photos, so I'm just going to scroll past quickly : )  

Now, to be perfectly honest all these clutter-y looking papers, tools and trinkets are beautiful. To me. Really, it is me. If I didn't have a family to be accountable to, I'm afraid my whole house would probably look like this.



I guess it's just that I know this isn't what a family dining area is supposed to look like. Now that I write that, it strikes me that nothing in my family is ever the way it's supposed to be by "normal" standards. I guess God has an abnormal plan for us?

It's a good thing we have a large kitchen island to eat at.
 

Hey, this cute little smiley suitcase is getting a new life soon!






 

 

 What you will generally see in my creative space are items that inspire me, items I'm working on and, what I like to refer to as "The Possibility Pile". That's all the possible components of a project I like to have layed out before me as I'm creating. 

My daughter made this darling little fairy, and it's one of my favorite things! I'm hoping I can talk her into making some of these for the shop.

                            On today's menu: Rope under glass.

 Some old wire garden fencing becoming a candle chandelier. 

 Would you like an extra helping of cardboard and rust?

I made this large sign for a friend's wedding reception recently. If the newlyweds don't want to keep it, I may sell it. I'll try to get some photos posted of the other signs I did for the wedding soon. It was a really fun project!

 I'm really enjoying using my "new" chippy door as a photo backdrop! {Books with paper flowers available here}

 Vintage book photo holder project over here

 Decorative metal "crown" available here

 


 

 

  
 So this is where this blogger is creating. At least this week : ) I'm hoping to get some fun new items listed over at The Penny and the Pearl in the coming days. I've had sick kids and several sleepless nights over here, so I'm just a bit loopy!

 

Thanks so much for braving the tour of my makeshift studio space.  This wouldn't be nearly as much fun if you weren't here with me! 

Blessings-

Jeanette 

I'll be sharing this week over at: 

 

Funky Junk's Party Junk

The Scoop at The Farmhouse Porch 

Tweak it Tuesday at Cozy Little House 

Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style 

Be Inspired at Common Ground