Christmas Ornament

I've been busy working on a few projects. One project I do every year is to create a special Christmas ornament for each son. I try to do something that happened during the previous year. This is one in the works.

Sometimes I embroider, Other times I use paper. For this Seattle ornie I'm doing a felt collage.

I have cut out all the little buildings in the skyline. I will hand sew them on the background and then decide how to turn it into an ornament.

I'll share more as I work on it. I'm also making a new corner desk for my craftroom. Hopefully  by next week I can show you my progress. I'm still having camera issues, but thought I'd check in.
Sending thoughts and prayers to the people of Paris.

Leslie

Camera Issues and Autumn

After much packing and cleaning we sent son off on Halloween night on a flight to Seattle. He took his black cat on board with him and shipped the car. Much easier with a kitty. We had her here for the week and Bowie and her got along just fine. We had a blockade in the hallway and they each had their own part of the house. The night before he left, we all watched Sleepless in Seattle. Son had never seen it and he really loved it. Sad and Happy!!

 I added a few Thanksgiving touches to my existing fall decor. I can only show you 2 pic's. My point and shoot was never great to begin with, but now most shots are out of focus. Hmmmm. I'll have to solve that issue soon. Added a vintage turkey salt shaker. This was the one that started my collection. I found her at Salvation Army. It took a few more years to find the Tom Turkey.For those of you who have been following a long time, you've seen my whole collection of turkey salt and peppers. I just pulled out a few this year. Trying to simplify.

 The penny rug is another that I designed and made out of felt. I love the acorn edges.

I'll try to get my camera fixed and post more soon. As I was walking Bowie this morning, I was thinking how lucky I am to be walking Bowie in this pretty fall weather. The weather is damp and cooler here, and we're supposed to get more rain. Hopefully not more flooding. Anyway, just feeling thankful today. Have a great week!
Leslie

Great Gift Idea

 I know you probably haven't thought about (dare I say) Christmas yet, but I know some of you have probably already have all your shopping done, This  idea  takes a little planning.

 My son gave this to us last Christmas. It was a planned staycation. You could do a short day or an elaborate weekend for someone you love.

He drew up the little book. He planned the whole day, including times we should be at each site. They had tickets and reservations for everything in advance.

It included food, brewery tour, shopping at an antique store, going up to Reunion Tower, dinner and hotel room at a cool retro hotel. We've lived in Dallas area for about 17 years and had never been up to the tower.

Instructions were to text pictures through out the day, so they could follow along with us.

Such a fun and creative gift that anyone could do.They also included pet sitting so we could spend the night. You could customize this to anyone.
If you aren't artistic another way you could present this gift would be a kiddie viewmaster slide show of the different stops. I did one of these for Hubby's birthday and he totally loved it. Here's the link for this-so fun to do. Let me know if you decide to this and how it turned out.

Here's some pic's from that day.

It was such a thoughtful and memorable gift. We loved it!
I promised a pic of the pig clock on the wall in the kitchen. It's above our back door.

It's been a crazy week here. Middle son is getting ready to move to Seattle this weekend. I'm so excited and sad at the same time. Is that possible?

Have a wonderful Halloween and week!

Leslie 

Kitchen Bits

Hi. I'm excited-we finally are getting some fall weather. Cool mornings and nights. Yeah! Today I thought I'd share some random kitchen pictures. I've been trying to go more neutral in my decor, so I can add in pops of color. I've also been trying to add some farmhouse touches to the kitchen. I found this cute Yeast box while antiquing. It works perfectly for my olive oil, salt and pepper by the stove.

 This is an old wood puzzle piece, that has magnets on the back. I added it to the fridge, for a pop of orange in the fall.

I love this caddy. It serves 2 purposes. One, the obvious-holding napkins and flatware. Two -it serves as a doggie blockade from the window seat, that's right next to the counter. One day, Bowie decided he could make that jump, and I found him checking out my counter. I can't have the little guy doing that. Anyway, it works. No more dog on counter.

 Last, I found this pig cutting board, that had already been chalk painted. I decided to do something with it.

 Drilled a hole, and added a battery clock kit. By the way, I painted the hands white, because all they had was brass.

 I may tweak the numbers a little, I will show it to you next time, when it's hung above the door.

 Lastly, I tore apart a cutter quilt, and made a few zipper bags out of the hand sewn squares. I love reusing old stuff, and making it into something new. I'll be adding these to my Etsy shop soon.

Lot's of randomness going on here. I'm enjoying the weather so much. Hope your week turns out to be a great one.

Leslie

Halloween Vignette

I added a little Halloween vignette on my entry way table.I used  things that I already had. I made some of the prim stuff a long time ago, but I think it fits well with Halloween decor.

 A little Pumpkin man is sitting on the old scale.

 Here's the whole thing.

 Pumpkin penny rug that was so fun to make.

 We've been working on a project. It actually started last spring. As summer high temps hit, we put it on hold. Last weekend, we uncovered it to see where we're at. Planning a flagstone extension and pathway to our existing patio. I'll share more as we make some progress.Get out the icepacks-some back breaking work to be done around here!

 We're still hitting 90 degrees here. I'm so over summer and ready for fall, soups and football weather! Hope you all have a great week.
Leslie

Evolution of a Table

This is the story of the evolution of one thrifted old sewing table. I took the antique sewing head out and have it displayed. First, I used it in my craftroom as-guess what? A sewing table.

 Next, it moved into the family room as an end table/all the tv junk table.

 Then I decided to paint it, and it moved to my bedroom.

 I tried to hide Bowie's crate under it, but the crate kept showing it's ugly old self.

Got a little creative, with some wood and lots of dowel rods and a little help from Hubby.

 So the crate has morphed into the reading table in my bedroom.

 There he is nestled in his cozy quilt and soft pillows.

 Added a cute knob and a little latch.

 There you have it. This is where His Majesty sleeps at night.

 "I like my new digs" says the interior design dog.

Wonder if the little table that could will change into something else? Not for awhile anyway. Lot's of new stuff in my Etsy shop. Will be adding more this week. Joining Tweak it Tuesday at Brenda's Cozy Little House.
Leslie

Fun Fall Tablescape and Leaf Banner

It's been awhile since I've done a tablescape. I thought I'd do one with adding orange and fall colors for a fun table.

 I found the brown jug at the thrift store, and filled it with grocery store flowers.

Check out Mr. and Mrs. Chipmunk salt and pepper shakers. Look at his little smile!

 All of the orange stuff and gold glasses and wine glasses were also thrifted.The little orange plates were Crate and Barrel via GoodWill.  The bakelite flatware was won at an auction.

 The brown woven placemats are from Walmart.I used a burlap table runner that I made a while ago. The brown edged dinner plates were my wedding china,

 I used woolfelt to make a new fall banner. My old one was eaten up by something in the garage.

 I cut 2 of each free handed leaf shape. Simple embroidery to the veins.I whip stitched the second leaf to the front.

 Sewed the leaves onto some vintage seam binding. Done!

 I didn't show this wall in the previous posts.In a future post,I'll be explaining how I got to this furniture arrangement in the family room. It took me forever to decide. You can see Bowie's doggie toys in the wooden bowl.

Lots going on around here and it's still around 90 degrees.Come on fall-where are you? Hope you'll are getting some lovely weather. Joining Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps on the Porch where you can see tons of pretty scapes. Go check it out.
Leslie