Fireplace mantle redo. Sparkle! Sparkle!

Welcome, welcome, and thank you for stopping by. I just love to have visitors especially you!
Have you ever woke up in the morning and looked around your home and something just didn’t feel right, like some things were out-of-place? I did this a few days ago. My first thought was “I really want a grand house that is beautiful and new and all of my decorating just seems to fall in place.” But that’s just not going to happen anytime soon. Time to reveal a secret.

I live in a darling basement apartment that I rent from my son and his wife, this is perfect for me right now. In the past I have had beautiful homes and it was easier to decorate them, but with this one I have to use a lot more ingenuity, and creativeness. Which is really good for the ole brain. LOL

I walked out of my bedroom that morning and was staring straight at my fireplace. “Yup! I feel a change coming.” I needed to tame the mantel down, it is not a huge one so I needed to simplify it some how. The first things that I did was strip the whole mantle of all it’s pretty’s.

Usually when I redo a vignette I steal from the other ones so it takes some time. I have a lovely white framed mirror that my parents gave me some time ago and this is above the mantle, I use it to direct the light towards the living area because it gets a little dark. I wanted something soft and sparkly with a subtle effect.

Here is what I came up with.

I used pieces that would reflect the light of the candles or the fire when it was lite such as this silver tray.

I love to collect books that have gold outside pages, this reflects the light as well.

Using the velvet pumpkins that I made added a soft beautiful look.

White on white is so lovely.

I collect vintage and antique ladies, this is my newest, Lady Liberty herself I love her bronze hues.

Soft and sparkly.

I feel so much better with this softer vignette for the Fall Season. See my post on Ready for Fall for the difference. The reflection from the mirror is so lovely, soft and sparkly.

I never know when I wake up whether the mood will hit or not. Just remember that no matter what the size of your home, or even if you don’t own the home you are living in right now, you can always make your home beautiful and inviting and you will be glad that you did.

Life is LOVERLY!

((HUGS))

Jo

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Making Vintage Teacup Pincushions

title=”Making Vintage Teacup Pincushions”>Good Day all of my sweet friends! Thank you for coming and seeing what Anne’s Attic is up to today.

It’s a cold wet day, just right from digging out a project to have fun with. I will show you how to make these darling Vintage Teacup Pincushions. They are so easy!

I am always on the look out for teacups when I am out hunting. You can also use cute little mugs, bowls, etc.

First of all gather everything that you will need: fabric, thread, needle, scissors, teacup, hot glue, batting for filler, embellishments.

Cup a circle out of your fabric twice the size as the saucer that you are using. Then make a gathering stitch all around the edges. Pull the gathering strings about half way and stuff. The stuffing should be firm so that you have plenty of density to put your pins in. Pull the thread tight, knot it. I stitch it closed.

Now go to your tea-cup and hot glue the cup and saucer together. I found that hot glue works very well.
Take your ball and put the glue all around the bottom of it. Insert the ball into the cup. There that was easy right!

Now for the fun part! Embellishing! I add a little lace, pretty pins, usually anything I have around the house.

They turned out so cute. You know I have many of these and I don’t even own one. I give them as gifts or sale them at the shop. They go fast.

I hope that you try these, they are very useful as well as beautiful!

I have a question to all you DIY’ers out there do you start a project and then start another . . . ?

Let’s talk about this next time. Just remember that life is LOVERLY when you are doing what you love!

((HUGS))

Jo

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Thank you Gigi!

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Have a Beautiful Sunday!

Happy Sunday.

A little bit of French Nordic

WELCOME to Anne’s Attic once again! I so love it when you stop by, if you are not yet FOLLOWING click the follow button on the right side of this posts, then click the Facebook, Pint-rest, and Home-talk buttons to make sure you receive all of the great posts.

I have really fallen in love with the French Nordic design. I have started to add a few more vintage pieces to my home. Adding the French Nordic look means losing just a little bit of the frills and a lot more vintage and antique finds to my design. So I have gone through my home and have put many old pieces on sale at The Urban Country Boutique. I will picture those in a later post, in case you are interested in buying them.

Here are some of the vignettes that I have come up with.

This is a darling angel that I got a few years ago. She never fit into my style until I painted her all white,even the real feathers. I love her new look now.

Here is a great vintage purse that I got on Etsy. I like it the best filled with flowers.

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This is a huge chest that I got at a garage sale many years ago. I tipped it on its side and filled it full of great vintage finds.

This is the top of the chest. This is a great old clock that is a candle holder as well.

This a a beautiful book on poetry that my Son just gave me. The date says in the book says 1883. I love the cover, it just made my display.

A rack of hangers is so fun to make vignettes with.

Last of all my Lady in Blue. She has a great legend behind her.

I hope you enjoyed my new French Nordic vignettes they were really fun to put together. Stay tune for more.

Life is so LOVERLY when you are doing what you love!

((HUGS))

Jo

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Where do you put your Jewelry?

Hello everyone! I’m so glad that you are here.

I have always been one that has to have everything in its place. When I was a teenager my friends thought that it was just wrong that my room was so clean and that I had a place for everything. But what do expect when both of your parents were the same way. I always lived in a Better Homes & Garden home. That’s just how it was and I assumed that everybody’s else was the same way. LOL I thank my parents for teaching me this great quality.

Do you have a place for your jewelry? I have always been one that has put my jewelry in a jewelry box, I would have to use the hunt and peck method to find what pieces I wanted to wear, this was bugging me. So I made up a system that works for me, and it is not all in one place either. Here it is:

I rummaged through my house to see what I could use to put my bracelets on, I was really surprised what I found. An antique lamp, hand, several different sizes and colors of vases and one see through box. I put them all on a lovely shelf that I have in my bedroom. I love having my bracelets out because now I can see them and I wear them more often. They are also very fun and colorful and add to the decor in my bedroom.

This is the other half of the self.

In this picture I have taken my pearl necklaces and put them the post of my dresser. So LOVERLY!

I took an old picture frame and padded it with batting and put a pretty piece of fabric over it and it is perfect for hanging necklaces, and earrings. I use straight pins to hold the necklaces on.

Then I got an even better idea for the frame and thought it would look great to frame some of my jewelry like a picture. Here I have my deer necklace and bracelet on it. It’s so pretty to look at.

I use a lot of old jewelry to embellish my crafts with.

This is my most beautiful jewelry hanger. Juliette just had to get into the picture to share her necklace. Love that girl! She’s my ninth grandchild.

Here is an earring holder that I made out of a vintage frame and wire.

I love hanging my necklaces on my dress forms,and busts.

It’s all very simple and fun. The thing that I enjoy the most is having it out so I can remember what pieces I have, kind of like on display in a store you know where it always looks so sparkly and pretty.

This is a little old piece that I love, it’s probably the least inexpensive piece that I own but it has special memories, and I have it since I was a girl. I have always been a collector and jewelry is one of my favorite to collect.

If you have a drawer or box of tangled up pretties somewhere take the time to go through it and you’ll surprise yourself with what you have. It will be like Christmas!

Have a beautiful over the hump day!

It’s all so LOVERLY!

Jo

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DIY Velvet, Mod Podge, and painted pumpkins!

Welcome dear readers! I am so glad that you have stopped by. I want to celebrate, after five months of blogging I have almost 100 followers! Yes, thanx to all of you out there you have made me feel like what I have to say and show may be worth my time.

The last several years covered pumpkins have been huge in the DIY world. So I had to give several of them a try. Two years ago I tried the Mod Podge pumpkins, then last year the painted pumpkins, and this year my favorite of all the velvet (or fabric) pumpkins. I have found with all of them that you can embellish them to the hilt or they can be rather plain. Not knowing what my new decor would be several years ago I decided to stick to plain because I can always embellish them later, and I wanted to know what my customers at the Urban Country Store would like. Here is what I came up with.

LOL When I see these awful painted pumpkins I wonder what were you thinking! Because in my mind’s eye they were going to be the Shabby Chicest pumpkins of the year. Well live and learn. The biggest problem that I had with painting these pumpkins was the bright color they were to start with, I should have put a base coat on them, then they would have been just fine, other than they really didn’t match any of my other Fall decor. So this year I decided to put them in a room that didn’t have all of the beautiful bright Fall colors in it like my bedroom snuggled in a lovely basket.

My next attempt was using Mod Podge. These were really fun to do. I only have one left to show you I gave most of them away. When I made these I used a thinner fabric and cut them about 1 1/2″ to 2″ wide. With the length you can cute them what ever is good for you, just make sure they are not to long to control wrapping the fabric around the pumpkin. I put fabric mod podge on the pumpkin and then laid it from stem to blossom end, then applied mod podge over the top of the fabric as you go.

Here are my velvet pumpkins, I must say I really had a great time making them. Everyone of them turned out unique. I experimented with other fabrics as well and they all turned out as beautiful as the velvet ones.

First of all the fabrics I used were all vintage, they came from nighties, a skirt, a bed skirt etc.(Hum, I wonder what denim would do!)
Cut a circle depending on how big you want your pumpkins. The ones in the picture were the size of a small dinner plate and so on.

To start: gather your circle of fabric. The gathers don’t have to be small, do this all the way around. Make sure that your thread is strong! I lost 3 pumpkins not using strong thread. I finally ended up using strong quilting thread.

Next put your beans in, any type of hard dried beans will work. I filled about 1/3 of the pumpkin full. Then stuff with stuffing. Don’t over stuff this will lead to your thread breaking. Have what ever you are going to use for a stem ready (I used pieces of an old grape-vine wreath and an old witches broom).
Pull your thread tight, then insert your stem with hot glue all over the bottom. Tighten up the thread around the stem. I hot glued the stem and fabric around the opening then applied some twine over the glue. Embellish however you wish. You have your pumpkin!

They have so many decorating uses. You can put them in a basket, use them for a center piece, give them as gifts. They are so fun to make and so beautiful. Remember that you don’t have to spend a lot of money on them. Check around your house to see what you can use. I think that you will be surprised what you have.

I hope that this post has given you some ideas for Fall pumpkins. The first thing to do is just to jump right in, inspiration comes as you go.

All is so LOVERLY!

Jo

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