Holiday and Seasonal

Boo!

August 23, 2012 by Cynthia Leave a Comment

Vintage Mirror from GOOD LOOK, Inc. reminiscent of a tombstone.

Call me naive or hopeful, but I really long for the old kind of Halloween that was innocent and fun and full of simple, sweet frolic. During the holidays, paper crafting was common in the Victorian era. Taking my cues from them, I used lovely Victorian Halloween clip art that has a wonderful graphic quality and design that endures today, over 100 years later.

For my Halloween mantle, I challenged myself to use paper to make crafts and stay away from store bought, ready-made pieces. I tend to be more creative when there are greater limitations place on me. To that end, here are some of the projects from the mantle:

Paper lanterns
Paper flag banner
Accordion pleated Holiday medallions
Paper Flags
German Glass Glitter Star “scepter”
Black & White bean jack-o-lantern face in a vintage vase (vintage vase used previously in this post)
Antique pie crust mirror (from GOOD LOOK, Inc.)
End of season hydrangeas (with pretty raspberry and green variegated buds) in a lab beaker
Hurricane candle holders with black and white bean stripes, reminiscent of vintage ticking strips topped with vintage french ribbon

I hope that you find something that inspires you!

Until next time,

xoxo

Cindy

Halloween Mantle.

Remember to click twice to bigify!

: The collection of vintage and home made items for a fun design.

: Halloween Mantle

: Homemade Paper Lantern.

: An old and favorite vintage find fits right in with the holiday decorations.

: Adding color with ribbon around the edge of the mantle and some gauze for texture.

: Hurricane Globes filled with beans and topped with vintage striped ribbon.

: Mean Bean Jack-o-lantern Face.

: Old Fashioned Mercury Glass Pumpkin.

: Paper Flag.

: Papercraft Bunting.

: End of Season Hydrangeas.

: Hand Made Paper Medallion.

: Vintage Mirror from GOOD LOOK, Inc. reminiscent of a Tombstone.

Filed Under: Holiday and Seasonal, Projects, Uncategorized Tagged With: antique, cottage, country, craft, decorations, halloween, holiday, old fashioned, paper, victorian, vintage

Fall-i-de-scope.

July 30, 2012 by Cynthia 4 Comments

Hand made jute tassel against the vibrant orange velvet.

Oranges, greens, browns and purples. All the colors of fall emerge and act as a signal to a great time of year full of fun and frolic and the holidays. As part two of my three part series on seasonal tables, I have created a table that celebrates the wonderful, vibrant colors of the fall season.

I challenged myself to create a table that references the fall season through color and texture, rather than using established icons like pumpkins, leaves and gourds. There is a certain balance between the rustic and the refined in this table scape. The birch bark that sheaths the zinc pots to the toile that was used for the napkins and window seat pillow covers. The chippy white painted columns used as centerpiece bases to the DIY mercury glass candle holders. The beautiful vintage amethyst cut glass plates against the home made jute tassels. The elegant orange velvet bands as a counterpoint to the vintage grain sacks used as chair slipcovers. All in all, a sweet way to welcome family and friends.

Credit where it is due, thank you to Vince at Good Look, Inc for collaborating with me on this table design…you continue to be a great resource to find the items for all my zany ideas, along with your great ideas and suggestions!

Here is what you will see:

Old porch post cut down in sections for the centerpiece, holding candles and flower arrangements
Zinc pot covered with birch bark for the flower arrangements
Chair caning used for a table runner
Hand made jute tassels
Hand made coasters using chipboard with embossed pattern
DIY Mercury glass candle holders using a pattern transfer method (how-to Click Here)
Fall inspired pillow and cushion slipcovers
Updated vintage napkins
Vintage grain sacks used as a dining chair slip cover for a quick and simple update
Simple grocery store flowers and fruits for affordable centerpieces

Pictures below. I hope you find some inspiration!

Always,

Cindy

Remember to click twice to bigify!

: The Finished Table.

: Zinc pots covered with birch bark for flower arrangements.

: Birch Bark.

: Beautiful patterned linen slipcovers used for window seat cushions.

: Beautiful toile linen for napkins and pillows.

: Chair caning for table runner; a great textural element.

: Toile used as a pillow slipcover with wonderfule sage silver velvet ribbon.

: Place Setting.

: Chip board coasters die cut and embossed with same embossing pattern on glass candle holder.

: DIY mercury glass holder with transfer pattern.

: Vintage napkin update by adding linen toile to other side.

: Vintage wood column cut into sections as a base for centerpiece.

: Hand made jute tassel agains the vibrant orange velvet.

: Simple vintage grain sack as a chair slipcover.

: Kalidescope of vibrant fall colors.

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Filed Under: Holiday and Seasonal, Projects, Uncategorized Tagged With: bark, birch, cottage, country, decorating, fall, halloween, holiday, jute, table, tassel, vintage

Falling into Fall.

July 27, 2012 by Cynthia 3 Comments

A Goulish Arrangement in a vintage orange pitcher.

This blogging thing is still relatively new to me. The idea that retailers and bloggers alike are thinking about Fall while we, here in Texas are just at the beginning of our mean season is a bit of a challenge.

The earlier the better, I suppose. It gives our wonderful and loyal followers enough lead time to start thinking about Fall design. It just might get here in the blink of an eye.

Some ideas for Halloween decor…maybe you will find something that inspires you!

Always,

Cindy

Remember to click twice to bigify!

: Halloween Wreath.

: Black Candles. Black Roses. Black Urn. Boo.

: Creepy.

: A Goulish Arrangement in a vintage orange pitcher.

: German Glass Glitter Stars and Black Rick Rack.

: Mercury Glass Pumkin and Vintage Reproduction Paperie.

: Kraft Paper. Old Book Pages. Scalloped Paper Punch.

: Decorations with Home Made Paperie.

As a footnote, this article is being submitted for consideration for Whisperwood Cottage’s “All Things Fall” link party:

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Filed Under: Holiday and Seasonal, My Home, Projects Tagged With: cottage, country, decorations, fall, halloween, vintage

The Simple Summer Table

July 19, 2012 by Cynthia 2 Comments

Simple.

Summer is a time when I prefer a simpler routine so I strive to find ways to create beauty and comfort with very little effort.

This is the first in a three part series on seasonal tables for summer, fall and winter. And for those followers that have been asking, the dining room reveal will be my first blog article next week.

I used very simple ideas to create this easy, yet beautiful table setting. Here some of the ideas (sources to the right):

Simple white (neutral) table cloth
Contrasting neutral runner
Old architectural column riser as a centerpiece base (Good Look, Inc.)
Vintage jar as a vase with simple white field flowers (Good Look, Inc.)
107 year old pages from a music publication for place mats
Mixed vintage silverware
Mixed vintage silver napkin rings
Vintage Mini Cruets (Fringe)
Antique ironstone butter pats used for individual salt & pepper
Simple white votive candles
Vintage (newly made) milk bottle for decanting ice water (Glass Milk Bottles -new)
New cotton towels for napkins (IKEA, .79 cents)
Vintage aluminum salt shaker for a toothpick holder

I hope that you find some inspiration!

Always,

Cindy

Remember to click twice on each picture to bigify them!

: The Summer Table.

: Simple.

: Individual Setting.

: Vintage Aluminum Salt Shaker used to hold tooth picks.

: Vintage Mini Cruets and Ironstone Butter Pat for Salt & Pepper.

: Center Piece on an old Architectural Column Riser.

: Vintage Jar for Flowers.

Filed Under: Antique Finds, Holiday and Seasonal, Projects, Uncategorized Tagged With: antique, centerpiece, cottage, flowers, paper, pepper, salt, setting, silver, table, vintage, white

We Remember.

May 24, 2012 by Cynthia Leave a Comment

Flags 'n Flowers.

Lunch Sack Luminaries

I think that old houses are meant to be decorated for the holidays. These luminaries are a project that can change with the seasons.

Lunch Sack Vintage Patriotic Luminaries, with a little patience, are easier than you would think. I created these in MS Power Point. The key is to create a custom page size ( to mirror the size of a lunch sack) in the advance options button in the printing box. You will also want to adjust the type of paper setting (set it for thicker paper) and probably, depending on your printer, use the manual feed tray. The patience part comes from figuring out which way to load the lunch sack…each printer loads differently so experiment until you get it right.

A little trial and error for image placement and some vintage Victorian clip art and it is a great way to pay homage to the men and women who have fallen.

I hope you and your family have a wonderful and safe holiday weekend.

Always,

Cindy

We Remember.

Beautiful Vintage Victorian Images.

For the Fallen.

Patriotic Finials.

Filed Under: Holiday and Seasonal, Projects Tagged With: cottage, country, holidays, house, luminaries, lunch, old, patriotic, porch, sack

Pretty Porches

May 15, 2012 by Cynthia 2 Comments

Sit a spell, if you please.

I feel really lucky to live in such a great neighborhood. You sit on your front porch and people walk about and say hello, offer a compliment for your yard work or stop to pet your dog. Two years ago, after Christmas, one of my neighbors (whom I have never met) placed a photograph of my house taken during the holidays in my mailbox. We had a White Christmas that year and she thought that my house looked so lovely with the snow and holiday decorations that she took a picture and left it for me, in the event I was out of town that day and missed it. Now THAT’S what I am talking about. As I said, I feel really lucky to live in this lovely little Anytown, USA.