Fairy Garden

I have always been fascinated by miniature items.  Absolutely fascinated!  Well, with the exception of baby corn.  That is just weird and totally freaks me out!  I know.  I'm crazy.  This is not news to anyone, is it? ;) Anyhow...

A few weeks before my daughter's birthday I was trying to think of what to get her, and I decided I was NOT going to buy her any toys because she just has too many!  Do you know what Squinkies are?

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Squinkies are very tiny, very colorful, very squishy, very weird little things.  And my daughter LOVES them.  And she has about a hundred of them and loads of "accessories".  You see, she is fascinated by little things, too!  She has minature tea sets, minature doll houses, minature figurines.  If it's tiny, she loves it!

I decided that for her birthday I would make her her very own fairy garden, basically just a minature garden with some small garden furniture for the fairies! Now, I am not even going to post any pics of fairy gardens that I have seen on the web, but just Google it if you want to see some, burt try not to judge mine too harshly, mmmkay?

First I had to decide what type of container to use.  I wanted it to be small so that it could stay in her room, so something like a whiskey barrel or large planter was out.  I ended up with a smallish wooden box that I picked up at HomeGoods.  I filled it with potting soil and was ready to start adding plants. (See the little furniture?!)

Here is a better pic of the gate and chair.  The chair was just a rusty tin color, but I gave it a light coat of some pink Krylon spray paint.  Of course I did.

Now, there are all kinds of minature plants that you can buy for a smaller garden or a terrarium.  I did not buy small plants.  I just used regular garden plants from Home Depot.  I am sure that this little garden will become quickly overgrown, but that is what I am hoping for!

After I added the plants, I added the furniture.  I purchased my items at the cutest little store in downtown Geneva, The Mossy Twig. I also added some river rocks to make a little path for the fairies and garden gnomes.  I'm crazy, remember? The river rocks came from Hobby Lobby.

And that's basically it!  I am considering adding some live moss to it, or I might just cheat and get some fake moss!  I'll keep you posted!

Here are just a few more fun shots to enjoy!

I just love this little gate! It really opens and closes!

Isn't that just the sweetest thing?!  Morgan LOVES it, and so do I!

It's going to be a beautiful weekend here.  I hope that wherever you are you are able to take time to Enjoy the Son. Be well, my friends!

Happy birthday, Morgan!

Today is my daughter's 4th birthday.  I cannot believe it.  Literally CANNOT believe it!

She woke up to a "fairy garden" in her room, and Grandma stopped by to drop off Perry the Platapus.  I have lots of fun pics to show you how I created the fairy garden, but, since it is my gal's birthday, I am just going to show you this one, and I will create a post later!  Enjoy the Son today!

Spring Mantle

I have had a few different vignettes on my mantle since Christmas, but I haven't taken time to share them with you.  I am thinking that next fall I will create a seasonal mantle post and highlight the ever changing displays that come and go in my living room.  For now, I want to share this vignette with you.

It is incredibly random, but I love it!

I picked up this bust at the flea market over the weekend.  If you have never been to the Kane County Flea, I highly recommend it!!!

I originally had a banner that said "Spring", but I ended up with "Bloom", and I like it!

I also picked up this little architectural piece at the flea.  It weighs about 15lbs. It's ridiculous, but I couldn't resist the chippy paint and fantastic rust!  Eeeeeeeee!!!! (That's me, squealing.)  So sweet!

Does anyone remember the family auction I went to last year? Remember how I waited and waited with all those farmers for this dear, little sewing drawer?  I still love her! ;)

I also have a number of old photographs from the auction.  I like to think that these two photos are of the same two boys.  I have no idea who they are, but I pretend that they are brothers and best of friends. Mmmmmmm....family can be lovely.

Okay.  These bird cages are REALLY random.  They started out a sort of green and gold color.  I lightly spray painted them with brown, but I like the character of the green and gold peeking through.  I had the cages sitting on the mantle, but they were empty and just looked...well...empty!  I have several different birds that would have worked in them, but that was too expected.  So, what did I end up with?  A wooden pineapple that I sprayed white for one cage, and a bunch of old, crumpled book pages for the other. I was going for "quirky", but did I miss quirky and head straight to "crazy"?  If so, I am totally fine with crazy.  ;)

When I needed something small for this vignette, I knew exactly what I was going to use. This little jar of buttons came from my great-grandmother's sewing box.  I still use her sewing box and almost everything in it--thimbles, tape, pin cushion, etc.--but this little jar of old buttons is too sweet to be disturbed.  I love that great-grandma separated out the neutral buttons and kept them safe in this little jar. I added some other jars of beads and corks that fit with my neutral theme.  **Side note: The three jars with beads and corks are just recycled jars.  Nothing special.  I think they were once a jelly jar, salsa jar, and a candle.  I like to keep small jars because you never know when inspiration will strike! When I was creating this display, I gathered several jars from my stash, and this is what I ended up with.

I really liked the way this old pail looked in the vignette, but it needed something.  I tried a few different things, and decided some pillows would add nice height and texture.  I tied a biece of burlap around a pillow form for one pillow.  Honestly, I was going to make a white pillow case for the form, but what would be the point of that?  If I hadn't told you it was a just a form with no case, would you have noticed?  Probably not!  Then I took some left over drop cloth fabric (from an abandoned project!) and quickly made a couple of pillows.  Literally, it took less than ten minutes to sew the cases, stuff them with batting, and stitch up the opening.  I embellished the small pillow with some twine and a book page "tag", and I rubbed a very small amount of distressing ink across the front of the pillow. For the larger pillow, I just added a scrap of a doily, a few rosettes, and some vintage "pearls".  Quick and lovely.  My kind of project!

 Just another shot of my sewing drawer!

And one more shot of the entire display.

Now I am off to work on a present for my sister--don't tell her, mmmmkay? What are you working on today? Wherever you are, whatever your project, I hope you enjoy the Son!

May the 4th be with you...

Bahahahahahahaha!  Happy Star Wars Day!  What?  You aren't celebrating?  Is it weird that I am? ;) Whether you're celebrating or not, I thought today would be an apporpriate time to reveal Quinn's room, which I have redone in the last two weeks.

Because I have not taken enough time to learn how to use my camera manually, the pics are a bit off.  Sorry.  I'll work on that! Here are some before shots of the room:

It will be three years this August since we have moved into this house.  In that time, I have picked up the two random, yet very solid wood!, dressers from craigslist.  I paid less than $100 total for them.  I always knew I was going to paint them, so I was really more concerned with their shape and size than their finish.  Anyhow, here are some after pics of the room:

Ugh.  This pic is way off.  Sorry :(

I love how the dressers turned out!!!  I have been eyeing some from Pottery Barn Kids, and they are about $700-$800 apiece!  I think I did alright...

I wanted some cheap inexpensive artwork or something to hang over the bed. I couldn't find anything that fit the bill, literally.  So, I took some old puzzles that Quinn had, Mod Podged them, attached a hanger (grosgrain ribbon, but "hanger" sounds more masculine!) and that was that!  The puzzle on the left looks very blurry because it is a hologram puzzle--not because of my photog skills.  Well, only partially because of my photog skills...

I picked up the bookcase at a garage sale last weekend.  Solid wood, $10.  Fantastic!  I cleaned her up and gave her a coat of paint, and she fits in perfectly.  *And I would like to add a little disclaimer about all of the wall clings: I would normally only put up a few of them, or just create a scene with some, but my son loves them.  LOVES THEM.  And Grandma keeps buying him more!  ;)  Anyhow, if you're checking out these pics and thinking, "Gosh, Holly.  I would have gone a little easier on the stickers..." I am with you!!!!  But, it IS my son's room, so I figured I'd let him keep the clings...

I didn't know what, exactly, to use to decorate the top of this dresser.  It needed something, but I didn't want anything too girly or babyish or clutter-y.  I ended up just taking some old frames and spray painting them different shades of blue.  Works for me.

And I REALLY love this peg board.  I put this up shortly after we moved into this house.  Quinn really likes collecting "treasures", and this gives him a space to display them without putting holes all over the wall--especially when you know there will be new "treasures" next week!

The paint I use--ALWAYS--is Benjamin Moore.  The walls are Pilgrim Gray #2132-50.  The dressers and bookcase are Deep Royal, #2061-10.  I primed everything with the Aqua Lock primer in tintable white, but I did not have it tinted. 

Enjoy the Son!  And may the Force be with you!

Kitchen cabinet to credenza

Last fall I read this article where Tom Silva from This Old House turned some stock cabinets into a sideboard.  I LOVED the concept, but I wasn't going to pay hundreds of dollars for the cabinets. Ever the bargain hunter, I started checking out local thrift stores, including the HFH ReStore which has TONS of cabinets.  The problem was, I couldn't find enough cabinets in the same size to make it work.  So I kept searching.

One day I was hanging out with my friend Amy, and she said they were going to start remodeling their kitchen soon, and I was like, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR CABINETS?!?!?!?! I mean, uh, wow! Fantastic!  Can I have some cabinets?!"  Of course Amy was happy to have me take some cabinets, so I did. I took a couple, but as my design changed, I ended up using just the largest cabinet and donating the other.

Pardon the crummy pic.  I forgot to get a before pic, so this is from my iPhone.  Bad blogger.

Anyhow, I decided I would use this cabinet as the center of the credenza, and add some open shelving to the sides.  A friend helped me with the design, and cut all of the pieces from scrap he already had on hand.  So, if your counting, I spent $0 dollars on this project.  Four hundred my foot, Tom Silva!

I primed and painted everything before assembly.

Once everything was painted, it was just a matter of attaching the shelves to the cabinet.

Have I mentioned the top of the cabinet?  No?  Same friend had several maple planks that were cut to size and joined together beautifully to create a top for the credenza.  I love it!

I stained the top and some trim pieces, and all that was left was installing them and the hardware. Honestly! Doesn't that top look like one smooth, solid piece?!

We used to have a beautiful armoire that housed everything, but the armoire was so large that it only fit in one spot, and it was not functional.  Well, not as functional as I wanted.  So, we got rid of the armoire (sniff, sniff)...

...and in it's place, we temporarily used this. (Full on sobbing! Wahhhhh!)

Ugh.  You can imagin my delight at my new piece.  Tada:

So much better!!!!  Eventually I would like to have some decorative items on the shelves, but for now, the shelves are heavy laden with Legos and Squinkies.  Sigh.

Here is a current view of the family room.  Still lots to do, but I am making progress.

 Not bad, right?  And, when you consider the cost, $0!!!!!, it's pretty much fantstic!  What do you think?

Enjoy the Son!