Simple Sundays

I stopped at the farm market and picked up some apples this week. Gala apples.

I'll be honest here. I normally don't buy Gala apples.

I normally buy Golden Delicious apples. I love Golden Delicious. I have dreams about Golden Delicious. Golden Delicious apples are like candy to me.

Did I make it clear that I LOVE Golden Delicious apples?

But you know what? The skin on the Golden Delicious just doesn't shout Fall to me. It's a little spotty and a weak blah yellow color.

So I bought apples that I don't love. That I don't have dreams about. Because they would look better in this bowl when I photographed them for my Fall porch vignette.

I feel like I've cheated on my favorite apples because they weren't pretty enough.

Linking with
Weekly Top Shot
Sunday Snapshot
Your Sunday Best
Simple Things Sunday

       

Fall Planter Box

Second in my series of two super simple crafts is a hanging planter box that I decorated for Fall.

This sits about two feet from my front door and normally I would hang a wreath on the door and throw some gourds in the planter and call it a day. But this year, I decided to decorate my planter a little more and do away with the traditional fall wreath altogether. You gotta change it up.

I grabbed the top to my bushel basket and a scrap of burlap. Bought some dried seed pods, mushrooms(?) and feather things at Hobby Lobby. And sprung for a greenish pumpkin shaped gourd at the farm market.

The bushel basket top went in the planter first.

I was going to buy some of that rectangular floral foam, but peed my pants when I saw how much it was. OK, it was just $3.99 a brick, but I would need two and that was a little too rich for my thrifting sole. So I decided to just use a pool noodle instead.

We're not using it anymore this year and rather than store it, why not put it to use. I just chopped off the length I needed.

I decided to not use the burlap after all and just hot glued some left-over-from-Spring bagged moss to the pool noodle instead. Sure, I could have left it neon blue, but glue guns are so fun. And the blue was so gaudy.

I placed the pumpkin where I wanted it

and then I just stuck the feathers, seed pods and mushroom-like things into the floral foam pool noodle until I had an arrangement I liked.

Super easy. I had everything on hand except for the seeds pods, mushrooms and feathers and they set me back about $10.00 all together (1/2 price at Hobby Lobby).

I think I may be done with super easy projects for a while. It was a quick phase.

I will be posting photos of my Fall front porch in the next few days. As soon as I whittle down the 140 photos I took of it. Don't get too excited, I went for a toned down look this Fall. I just couldn't tone down my photo taking.

Linking with Savvy Southern Style's Wow Us Wednesday

A Bushel And A Peck

I bought this wooden bushel basket the other day for my front porch. I had seen some much more expensive vintage ones on etsy that I loved ♥ ♥ ♥, but wasn't willing to pay the price for. The one thing the vintage ones had in common was a cool weathered label on them.

So why not make my own label?

If you Google "vintage fruit crate labels" you'll find a zillion image options you can pilfer. Normally I wouldn't condone stealing an image, but I did not want to buy an actual vintage label and then mess it all up. I figure it would be a shame if it has managed, against all odds, to last 49 years unharmed and then I come along and deface it. For front porch decor, nonetheless.

So I found a label I liked online and printed it out on my color printer. Then I crumpled the paper a little, threw it on the ground, stepped on it a few times and then strategically ripped some of the edges.

I used a spray adhesive that I bought at Hobby Lobby and glued it to the basket. BTW, I have found so many uses for this silly spray adhesive. It's like duct tape in a can for crafters.

I was going to try the old vinegar and steel wool trick that I have seen all over Pinterest to age the basket a little. But I wasn't sure about putting vinegar on something I was going to put outside.

Would Chip and Dale think I was making a little wood salad for them?

So anyhow, I chickened out at the last second and left it as is. Give it a month of sitting on the porch and it will age itself the old fashioned way.

Can you believe that it is the end of September and I am still working on my front porch decorations!!! Yikes, I need to just finish it up already before Christmas comes along.

Linking with Saturday Night Special at Funky Junk Interiors, Savvy Southern Style's Wow Us Wednesday and Stone Gable's Tutorials, Tips & Tidbits.

A Vintage Thrifty Office

I've wanted to show you my office for a while now, but that means getting out the vacuum cleaner and the dust rag and my office is about the last thing in the house that actually gets cleaned. But miracles do happen and I finally got enough time to toss out the 14 Coke Zero cans and get the room picked up enough to show you.

If you look at the original blueprints of the house, this area didn't exist. The original owners stole some area from the "attic" of the garage and converted it into a little loft type room which is accessed via a set of stairs in our master bedroom. It measures 7 ft wide by 15 ft long.

When you come up the steps and look to the left you see this countertop area. The countertop was here when we bought the house and I go back and forth whether I want to rip it out and make it into a reading nook with a big old fluffy lounge chair or just leaving it be. It is a nice place to sit and do a craft though.

Public Service Announcement - This is a really picture heavy post, so to keep it from taking an hour and half to load, I've put a page break in (you'll only see it if you are reading from my home page). Just click on where it says Continue Reading below to get to the rest of the photos.

Separated At Birth

I found this toolbox at an antique mall not far from here. I fell in love with it as soon as I laid eyes on it.

I love the dark farmish green color and general rustiness of it. It will be great to put in my office to organize more of my junk.

When I got it home I realized that it was the same color as my tool caddy that I bought last year at the Rural Society Antique And Garden Show in Mount Vernon, Ohio and featured in my Winter Front Porch post. That green must be a popular color for the farm crowd.

(I got very thirsty while taking photos for the Winter 2011-12 Porch)
It was like they were separated at birth.

And then one of them ate a whole lot of meat and potatoes and got a lot bigger than the other one and then they were one of those sets of twins that no one can believe are actually twins.

Yeah, like that.

My First Pumpkin

I bought my first pumpkin of the season yesterday.

It's all downhill from here. I have a slight addiction to pumpkins and once I get that first one, I keep wanting more and more. Pretty soon I'll look like Linus sitting in the pumpkin patch.

This one is only about 5 inches tall. I think you call it a pie pumpkin, although around here pumpkin pie comes out of a can.  Who am I kidding, it comes out of a box in the frozen foods section of the grocery store. I'm no Anthony Bourdain (Am I the only one who finds that man incredibly sexy in a sloppy, rough around the edges kind of way?).

Well, I think my son is officially over this cold/flu/crud that he's had, so we should be back to normal around here. If I could just find some wood to knock on, I'd be all set.

Bringing Back The Perky

I hope you don't mind a replay from last year around this time.

To be truthful, right now I feel like I'm drowning in the blogging world. I just can't seem to get myself organized, my house cleaned and my son to quit being sick. Then to get my mind off of all that stuff that I'm not doing well in real life, I sit down and check out some uber amazing and inspiring blogs so that I can feel inadequate in that arena too.

So anyhow, here's something pretty I did last year. You know, when I had my head about me and was all perky and shit.

Originally published on October 25, 2011

Last week I showed you the chippy metal toolbox that I bought at the farm sale HERE.

I spruced it up a little bit with some hydrangea. I have never left it on the bush this late in the season, but I am sort of liking its fall colors.

I found some ornamental kale on clearance for $1.00 each. Or is it cabbage? I'm not good with my vegetables.

The pumpkin that came with the toolbox came in handy. Maybe Sears should run that promo - Buy a toolbox, get a pumpkin. Why I never worked in marketing, I will never know. The marketing gurus know, I just don't know.

I am pretty sure my husband will think this is an embarrassingly girly way to use a toolbox. What do you think, should I chuck the flowers and just throw some wrenches and pliers in it?

Burlap Mod Podge Project

A few years ago we had a flood in our basement. We live in a high water table area, I guess you would call it, and if something happens to the sump pumps (plural, yes, we have two sump pumps - one as a backup), we are in deep doo-doo. Well, not doo-doo exactly, just ground water.

This print was one of the items that got flood damage. Even after it dried out the print was sort of water stained and a little crunchy looking. I was going to throw it out, but liked the frame, so I just stuck it back in the basement and promptly forgot about it until last week when I was doing my massive clean out.

Hello, Lady Liberty!

My cleaning frenzy self was going to just toss it altogether. Pam, you haven't done anything with it in five years, so just get rid of it already!

But my inner thrifter wanted to keep it. It's still good. Just take it out of the frame and try to use it for something . . . anything!

Inner thrifter won that battle.

I bought a cheap canvas at Hobby Lobby in the art supply section with my 40% off coupon.

I stapled burlap to the front and around the sides just to get some texture on the piece.

Then I ripped out the statue part of the print in an artistically messy fashion. This is no fine art restoration project here, we're going for a rustic look to go along with the damage on the print.

At first, I tried to just Mod Podge the print onto the burlap, but it wasn't sticking very well. So I painted part of the burlap with craft paint and then Mod Podged the print onto that. The paint was the key.

So now the girl is back where she belongs. Holding her torch aloft, welcoming people into my living room.



Linking with Saturday Night Special

The Last Of The Silver

A couple weeks ago, before I made the huge purging drop off trip to Goodwill, I was at the thrift store and found some silver pieces that were jumping up and down on the shelf and just begging to come home with me.

I really hadn't planned on buying any more silver, since I have quite a few pieces that I use in decorating already, but these were cheap and cheap is my middle name.

The tray is magnetic, so it is not real silver, but I am going to hang it on the wall in my office and use magnets to stick notes and things to it.

The chafing dish holder is now a replacement to the old chafing dish holder I had for my penny bowling ball. The original one wasn't entirely silver plate, so it got a little rusty from being outside.

BTW, that penny bowling ball post is by far the most viewed, Googled and pinned post I have ever done, which sort of makes me giggle. When I did that post I thought it was such a weird thing to make that no one would be interested. Who knew?

(Crappy cell phone photo)
Too bad the photos in the post aren't anything to write home about. I was fairly new to blogging back then and I think I took those photos with my cell phone. Sure, I could go back and re-shoot the entire thing, but I don't think that would be organic or authentic, plus I don't feel like making another one of those things right now.

This other larger tray is silver, but it was really really scratched up on the serving part, so I painted it with blackboard paint and it will accompany its cousin on the wall of my office.

One as a chalkboard, one as a magnet board. When these were purchased by the original owners years ago, they probably had no idea they would be hanging on the wall in some crazy lady's office.

Speaking of my office, today I spent a few hours dusting, cleaning and vacuuming it, so that at some point in my blogging life, I can actually take photos of it. It's like laundry rooms, if you're a blogger, it is de rigueur to take photos of your office space. It will be a cold day in heck before I show you my lint trap and half used bottle of Tide in the laundry room, so the office will have to do.



Linking with Treasure Hunt Thursday and Thrifty Things Friday.

Fall Cleaning aka The Cobwebs Are Closing In On Me

I'm in the middle of Fall cleaning. Spring cleaning's less glamorous cousin.

I have been badly neglecting my deep cleaning rituals for a while now. I think it was right about the time I discovered Pinterest. Oddly enough, there are many pins on there showing you how to clean your house more effectively. I have not pinned a single one of them.

Sure I dust and vacuum and if you walked in my front door you would think things were all hunky-dory here, but when it comes to cleaning, looks are deceiving. When I started noticing that my cobwebs had cobwebs on them, I decided I needed to put down the laptop and get back to a more normal cleaning routine.

So far this week I have

• cleaned out the garage, so all van doors can now open without fear of knocking something over
• cleaned out my closet and got rid of four garbage bags of clothes I haven't worn in 10+ years
• vacuumed under my living room furniture and am 79 cents richer for the effort
• weeded out my stash of thrift store purchases to things that I will actually use and am selling and/or donating the rest
• cleaned my oven (OK, it's self cleaning, but I still had to push the button)
• boxed up some old books and gave them a one way ticket to Goodwill
• and got rid of 90% of the cobwebs (the spiders have to have some place to live)

I just need to keep the momentum moving. And stay off Pinterest. And Google Plus. And Facebook. And . . .