An Owl and A Tree

When my niece turned one last summer, I made her a little owl in a tree.  This year, I decided to give it another try.  Here is the result:

I think it turned out pretty well.  And this time I remembered to measure how high the hole had to be for little eyes to poke out before cutting it!  You always learn the more and more you do a project.

 
Both the owl and tree are made completely of felt.  I love using felt for projects like this because it is super durable, easy to work with, and you do not have to turn under all those pesky little seams.  Plus, you can get felt that is made of recycled plastic bottles!




Do you find yourself constantly fixing problems along the way?

Brimfield Find: Chair Redo

One of the things on our Brimfield list this year was a new chair for the living room.  After recently buying a new couch, our old chair was looking especially out-of-place and downtrodden.  So...out with the old and in with the old but revamped!

We went with high hopes, a Morris Chair from the early 20th century that was in our price range.  Well, lucky us, we found one!  The wood could use some eventual refinishing, but the bones are good.  The first order of business, however, was new chair cushion. 

These are the old ones...notice that they were originally light blue, but have faded to a dirty lavender.  Oh yeah, and they were hard as a rock!

After some careful measuring and a lot of debating as far as fabric choice, we settled on this oatmeal that matches the new couch.  Now here is a look at my first attempt to make chair cushions start to finish (with new foam of course) and with cording no less.

They turned out pretty well.  It is always amazing to see how changing one thing can make a huge difference.  And now this chair has a new home in our living room.


Have you redone a piece of furniture to go with your home?

Brimfield Fun!!

This past week was the first Brimfield Antiques Show of 2011, and may I just say....I...Love...Brimfield!  Acres upon acres of antique sellers with great bargains around every corner and even more amazing inspiration.  For those of you who do not know, the Brimfield Antiques Show means six days of antique sellers gathering in Brimfield, Massachusetts, and subsiquently, thousands of showgoers coming from around the country.  Your mind could go cazy trying to absorb it all, and it is so much fun to try.

Here are a few pictures that I snapped during our adventures.  Our favorite time to go is Sunday, even though it is the last day and not all the fields are open, I find it is a great day to get a bargain.  I find this especially true if you are looking for something that needs a little TLC so you can put some personal elbow grease into making it something special.  Many times I run into sellers who would like to pack up as little as possible, and are willing to offer great prices so you take it home instead of them.

So, enjoy a bit of eye candy...

I loved all the window sashing...so many ideas!  And the leather lounge chair on the right was awesome.  Too bad it needed a little too much TLC, even for me.

I drool over the textile and fashion tents.  I did bring home an adorable 1950's straw hat.

Yes...some of these did come to my house.

Each time we go to Brimfield this ends up being one of my favorite tents.  This guy has every kind of hardware you can imagine and it is all just waiting for someone with great imagination.  If I could, I would try to take it all home to play with and be inspire by...just look at it...

Now comes the hard part....waiting until the July Brimfield show!

For even more discussion about Brimfield, head over to one of my favorite blogs, Design*Sponge.

Stay tuned for some upcoming projects surounding some of my Brimfield finds...


What inspires you?

Woodland Baby Favors

This past week my sister gave me a challenge...unique woodland-themed baby shower favors for less than $5 a piece.  Hmmmm....  I had a lot of fun brainstorming some ideas and these were the ones that made it to the try-it-out-and-see round.  Now, my sister just has to pick one!

First up, a felt squirrel pin in the colors of the shower....green, blue, and brown.

Along a similar line, I tried my hand at a needle felted acorn with an attached pin back.

Jessica carved this adorable rubber block stamp for us to use to decorate the next two ideas.

This mini brown bag would be perfect for giving out little bags of trail mix!

This is another option I thought of for distributing some take-home goodies.  A mini flower pot holding a fake topiary (made out of a pom-pom using some of that crazy style novelty yarn) and some woodland inspired treats.

So, now my sister must decide....we'll wait and see what she chooses!


Have you been in charge of baby or bridal shower favors?  What did you design?

Decorating Yourself for Spring

I love how inspiring spring is!  Everything starts blooming, the weather turns nice and the people and animals come out for some much needed sunshine.  Oh, and my favorite thing happens...the lilacs start to bloom :-)

With all the inspiration coming my way with spring finally in New England, combined with the fabulousness of the Royal Wedding (particularly all the hats and fascinators), I decided to get out some of my favorite hair decorations. 

I like this one because it is simple and it goes with everything since the feathers have black, brown, and white.

I love wearing this one with a ponytail so the headband gets hidden and all that's left to see is the wire and beaded flower. 

After all the inspiration from this week, I think I'll be making a few more fascinators before the spring is over!


Did the glamour of the Royal Wedding inspire you?