Coming Full Circle

It was just about one year ago that I started seeing posts and pins about burlap door hangers and, since I had had a few encounters of the not so good kind with ginormous tree frogs hiding in the metal basket that housed my holiday decor on my front door, I decided that maybe something new was in order...and so, I made my first burlap door hanger...and, an obsession was started!

I have now made one for every holiday. The last one I needed was for Valentine's Day and that is now a "fait accompli". In a way, I am a bit sad as I really enjoy making these but hopeful that a new craft might soon strike my fancy.

This was actually one of my easiest hangers. The shape is simple, painting was a no brainer and the gluing and stuffing was the easiest so far. I did think about all sorts of patterns using words, swirls, flowers, etc. but I just kept going back to the red, white and black basics. If the darn burlap wasn't so difficult to paint crisp lines on, I might honestly have tried. But, once you make a mistake on this stuff, it is extremely hard to correct and the nap takes your paint brush bristles places you don't want them to go before you even know it is happening!. You can attempt to paint over it but that just makes that area look darker and there is no going back-ask me how I know. Lol Here is the newest addition and a look back at the previous ones.

This one really doesn't need a tutorial but, since I took the pictures, I'll show you the very simple steps. This was my first gathering of supplies but then I did run out and buy more ribbon, paint and burlap.

Once again, I was reminded that there are differences in burlap. I definitely prefer the one carried at HL over JoAnns. That being said, I had enough left from previous projects to make 2 more hangers and that burlap was definitely a tighter weave than the one available right now. It's not a problem but the tighter weave not only doesn't soak up as much paint but it doesn't have the areas where you can literally see through the fabric. The coat of clear sealer that I always start with helps fill in the holes a little and then 2 coats of paint help but there are still some gaps. Definitely not a big deal but it does make the color of the bags you use for stuffing that much more important. The white Target bags are a total "no go" for this project.

I kind of gave myself a paint line and got started.

This is after 1 coat. The one coat used 1 1/2 small bottles of craft paint!!

This is after coat #2 and you can still see through in some spots but I figured that the white dots would distract your eye from any imperfections. I will say that it has been so long since I made my last door hanger that I forgot something really important. I couldn't understand why it was taking me SO long to get it painted. It wasn't until I had finished the first one that I remembered that I only use my angled brush along the edges and that I use the inexpensive bristled brush-that I cut very short-to "scrub" in the paint on the rest of the surface. It not only uses a bit less paint but goes much more quickly! Glad I remembered before I finished them all!

I just kind of used the width of the brush for this pattern and I was lucky that it sort of worked out perfectly. If you look closely, you will see some of the stripes are slightly different sizes to fit. On the remainders, I just put the "adjusted" stripes up in the left hand corner where I know the bow will cover them.

The dots are the easiest of all because they go on perfectly with a foam dauber.

And here we are. I am really not the world's best bow maker but being that I hot glue these bows on, I can usually get them just where and how I want. The glue helps me cover a multitude of errors!

I only have one completely finished but I'm hoping today will see the others all painted. This hanger takes 28 bags to stuff it well and even after begging bags from everyone I can, I am still about 50 short so I guess I will be "dumpster" diving at Publix tomorrow!

And, since I had to make a supply run, I started picking up some things for our Valentine weekend at Nana's. Plans are in the works! Stay tuned.

And yes, there is a bit of St. Pat's starting to creep in-when you see it, you have to buy it!

Spring, Spring...

Wait! What!? After the hottest summer, we are having the most incredibly beautiful winter. Our days are in the 70s while the nights fall to the 40s and 50s. It gets just cool enough for us to know it is winter but not so cold (yet) to necessitate heavy coats and gloves. It is making it even more difficult for me to stay in and get Christmas down and Valentines up because I would so rather be outside but I persevered and got it done!

Of course, as I was decorating the front porch, I realized that I still don't have a burlap door hanger made for this holiday. It is the last one I have to make and fully intended to have one done by now but, as so often happens, life got in the way. I am hoping I can tackle it this weekend. Never-the-less, why don't we start the tour and I can show you the hanger as it happens.

I did a few simple changes this year in my pursuit of simplifying but I haven't been shopping since Valentines hit the stores so we shall see what happens then!

Welcome to Valentine's Day 2019. And yes, the tulips are already in the stores!!

 Once again the left over, still blooming and thriving poinsettias are on the Valentine porch. That is never my first choice but, until I see some new pretty blooms in the garden centers, they will do. They are red after all.

The door as it stands right now-hope to see a burlap hanger here soon.

Wow, I just realized that I got through that whole post with hardly a word of explanation. I guess this room and its decor speaks for itself-lol I really didn't make many changes to the way it was last year.

And, I still haven't gotten to my door hanger. Wednesday afternoon my daughter and grand kids surprised me with a visit and then we met my SIL downtown for dinner. Ever since then, I have been on the go. My two "decorator" daughters are in Atlanta at the design show so I am doing some Nana duty. Picked the two youngest up after school on Thursday and of course, the obligatory frozen yogurt stop was in order before coming home with me.

On Friday, I checked my grand daughter out of school and we were off to Gainesville. We met the rest of the family at a park for a birthday party for my sister-in-law. Then, we had a really nice visit with them before meeting back up with everyone at daughter #2's house for the night. That turned into one big slumber party as my grand daughter also had two of her high school friends spending the night before heading back to Flagler the next morning. Presley was in her glory with all of that "girl" attention as she is used to living with two brothers!

We got home yesterday and spent the rest of the day playing games and watching movies. My SIL surprised us again by bringing us a yummy dinner from one of our favorite local restaurants. I could get used to this!

Today we are both taking it kind of slowly. We're both still in our PJs so I guess it might be time to get the show moving a bit. All that being said, I haven't begun to think about any Valentine crafts just yet but I think a HL and Michaels run might be in order soon to get some creative juices flowing. You'll be the first to know! Stay tuned.

Floating in Limbo

Decor wise, this is not my favorite time of year! The Christmas stuff is so all-encompassing and has been up so long that I am now really attached to it. It is not only beautiful and peaceful but it holds years and years of memories that I never tire of. Yet, at some point every year, I must break those ties. This year I am finding that particularly hard to do! I did take the tree down simply because it was definitely starting to show its "age". I will say that I was totally impressed with how few needles came off in the process. That tree has been up since right after Thanksgiving. Its was actually more dusty than more dead! Lol

Taking down the tree is usually my first, sad step and once that is done, I can move on to the rest. But, not this year. I keep finding one reason after another why I should let it remain just one more day!

I have told you before that I like to start my big projects first thing in the morning. If I don't, there's a pretty good chance that I won't...and so, all I needed was a morning eye doctor appointment and a visit from a friend to give me reason to put it off a few days. Today was going to be the day until I remembered that it is Friday. Friday is the day I give myself the day "off". It's definitely a throw back to working days when time off was a reward for a busy week. Now that I'm retired, that isn't quite the story any more but, old habits die hard-any excuse for "time off" and pampering is good with me!

And so, the task has been put off until at least tomorrow and I am walking around just taking in the sights with new eyes. I find myself with time to really appreciate the way the sun is hitting certain things or the glitter of lights is reflecting in mirrors around the room and dancing from place to place. Perhaps I am just wanting to soak in all of the memories as this holiday soon will once again give way to the next.

And, make no mistake about it, I will very soon be embracing Valentines Day-I just need that little shove to take me from one year into the next. I was kind of stopped in my tracks in the living room the other day. For some reason I love the way the afternoon sun is hitting this vignette.

And then, can you believe that just a day or two before Christmas I was tweaking the dough bowl arrangement? I was in Ballard Design in the International Mall in Tampa when I saw a dough bowl with a horse weather vane in it. Somehow it triggered the memory that I had not gotten my reindeer down and out this year. This guy was an anniversary gift from daughter #1 and her family many years ago and he has been a part of our decor every year since. He does get stored on the highest shelf in our garage and for some reason, I just missed him this year. I think he has now found his new forever home at Christmas. I was also somehow mesmerized by the shine off of the mercury glass candle holders.Crazy I know-but, in these days of limbo, it's the little things. Lol

But, I know no matter how hard I try to push it back, the new year is upon us and as soon as I move the first Christmas decoration, I will be more than happy to forge ahead.

Since I have already given myself permission to spend the day as I want, I did what I often do and hit Pinterest with a vengeance...for Valentine ideas. If I'm not moving forward with the decor quite yet, maybe I can settle on a card, craft and door hanger idea and get together a list of needed supplies. Here's what's popping out at me so far:

1.This might be something I could adapt for the kids to make as gifts for the family. I found this at nobiggie.net.

2. This is another variation-as you might be able to tell, shabby chic, farmhouse is still going strong in our homes. This one was just from facebook.com.

3.Since we always make Valentine cookies, I thought maybe the kids could make plates for the cookies using some kind of a play on this. I found this one at diyprojects.com.

4. Each of the kids could choice a design they like and make sets of these wooden tags to give. I can think of lots of ways they could be used in Valentine's decor. They were posted by an un-named user.

5. Then, I found some simple card ideas. This one is from inmycreativeopinion.blogspot.com.

 6. I really love the simplicity of this one from Laura Willson.

7. Or, maybe this one from folksy.com?

8. And then on to the last burlap door hanger I need to make to complete my year. The one I make will probably be a combination of details from many of these. I am definitely leaning to red, white and black but may end up sneaking in some pink-and, I'm not a big fan of writing letters on the bumpy burlap but I do love this one-we shall see?! This is from an Etsy store no longer available.

8. Ideas from burton+BURTON.

9. Or, maybe this one from Pinterest.com?

So you can now see that it doesn't really take a lot to get me going on a new holiday and all of the fun things that entails. If it only wasn't after noon, I might be off and running to get Christmas take-down started...even if it IS Friday. We'll see what tomorrow brings! Stay tuned.

P.S. You might have noticed that these images got me so excited, I DID do some take down on my site and now have the Valentine's headers up and running!