A Collector's Cottage

Recently I went to visit my sister

who lives near Asheville, North Carolina.

I am always amazed at ALL of the

interesting objects she has in her home.

She loves to go to flea markets, swap meets,

thrift and consignment stores, and yard

sales to find things for her own home

and for her own booth at an antique store.

Every wall and surface has so much to look at.

Some items are even kind of quirky

but they all work together.

Her husband's great grandmother (pictured in white dress on red background)

was a "cover girl" for an early November issue of Vogue magazine

as seen above. 

Our mother water-painted these gardenias (or camellias ?) back in the 1950's.

This time of year

she has her Halloween "finds" out.

Sister wants me to disavow the stencil along the top of the beadboard walls for her.

It was there when she moved in and painting it out

 is just one of those things that gets pushed down the "to do" list.

This print is titled "Dancing Scarecrows".

Her farmhouse-style cottage sits on

several acres of rolling land

which is just beautiful in Autumn.

Her large cutting garden has just a few blooms left.

Here are some zinnas and daisies that she cut from her garden and put out on her back deck.

My sister reminds me of some of my blogging

buddies by finding furniture bargains and

repainting them to sell in her booth.  She also

 makes wreaths and amazing flower arrangements.

This is a pussy willow wreath from last spring.  Right now, she is making wreaths out of bittersweet.

She literally "threw together" this arrangement from things in her yard.

This is a stem of bittersweet.

The front porch of the cottage is

about eight feet wide and covered

so it is almost like another room in the house.

She finds beauty in many different types of objects...even this paper wasp nest.

When our husband's get together, they say we could start a new TV show called "Sister Hoarders". 

Pick a Peck of Pumpkins

This vignette is centered around a

framed embroidered piece that

I found in an antique store in

Marietta, Georgia a few years ago.

It is one of my favorite items to

put out at this time of year.

I don't know if it is an antique or not.

It was only $15...I was afraid to ask

too many questions for fear that the

clerk might wonder if the price

was correct.  

This year I decided to pick up on the

black frame the embroidery is in and

expand on that color with black candlesticks.

The kitchen table is black as well

as the kitchen cabinets.

Since it IS close to Halloween,

the other color I put in the display

is orange.

There is an orange stripe in my curtains

that picks up the pumpkins' colors

and Chinese lanterns and Fall leaves in the garland.

A few faux pumpkins have fairly

realisitic stems.

Most of the ones in this display

only had a little foam nub of a stem.

I pulled off the nubs and added

real pumpkin stems

(that I had found in the bottom of a big box of real pumpkins)

 to my little faux pumpkins.

I had also experimented with making a

more realistic stem out of clay...

...and then painted it.

I do think it makes the

faux pumpkins look a little more real...

well, at least folks take a second look to make sure.

If you would like to see other Autumn decorating at my house, here are some other posts

I have done recently:  Autumn Mantle, DIY Easy Autumn Wreath, Outdoor Autumn Decorations.

I am sharing this post over at

Table Top Tuesday @ A Stroll Thru Life

Wow Us Wednesday @ Savvy Southern Style

Open House Party @ No Minimalist Here

Potpurri Link Party @ 2805

Feathered Nest Friday @ French Country Cottage

Vintage Inspiration Friday @ Common Ground

Inspiration Friday @ At the Picket Fence

Live. Life. Large. Link Party @ Post Road Link Party

Fall Open House Party @ The Charm of Home

Flaunt It Friday @ Chic On A Shoestring

Weekend Bloggy Reading @ Serenity Now

Weekend Wrap Up Party@ Tater Tots and Jello

 

I'm Surprized!

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post

"Surprize!! Surprize! Surprize!"

to post over at the "Tripped Up Thursday"
party at A Nest For All Seasons.

  I needed others to help me figure out

what the metal item (that arrived when I ordered a

"Surprize Box") was actually intended for.

I was surprized at all the great comments

and suggestions of what the item could be used for.

Sherry and Lvroftiques suggested using the

item as a frame for a picture.

Great idea for a photo of my grand daughter, Lilly.

Debbie also thought of using it for pictures

 but to tie a piece of twine between

 the sides to attach pictures to.

These are also of Lilly but during her first year of life.

Amy and Loretta said that it looked like

an item to hang a wreath on.

I made the wreath out of over grown wild morning glory vines to fit the form.

The snakes were added for fun.  Here's how I made it: Snakes on a Wreath.

It makes me think of a mama snake and her babies.

Ricochet thought of weaving ribbon or

fabric through the openings and even adding

elements after that.

Ricochet reminded me of the window toppers that were plastic loops

that we would pull fabric through...anyone else remember those?

This is still with the ribbon through the openings and Fall leaves added on top.

Robin offered that the item could be used

as a topiary form in the garden for live plants

to grow up or a form to hold cut flowers at a party.

This is not exactly what Robin was suggesting but it gives you an idea

of what something like ivy would look like growing around the form.

Actually, this might be a good look at Christmas with evergreens in it.

Here is the same look with some flowers added.   Sorry, Robin, I didn't

have any real flowers at photo time...it would look a lot better with real.

Divine Theater said to paint springy clothes pins

in order to attach ephemera to the scrolls.

I tried to match the tiny clothes pins to the colors in the form.

I had to do a little research to see exactly what

"ephemera" is.  Michaels had these old-ish

looking images on sale one day...is that close?

Rachel wonders if it would be a good

place to hang earrings...

...and Jules wrote me that she actually got the

SAME surprize!  The company emailed her that

the item is intended for clipping pictures, etc. on.

Jules, however, likes to use it to display her jewlery!

So, bottom line, this metal item has a

surprizing amount of possible uses!

Thanks to everyone who offered a suggestion

or even encouragement of finding a way to use

the item that came in the "Surprize Box".

I am posting this as a follow-up to my original post over at

Tripped Up Thursday @ A Nest For All Seasons

Also, since this item could fall into many categories,  I'm sharing it at

Potpurri Friday @ 2805

and

What's In the Gunny Sack @ The Gunny Sack

Anything Goes Link Party @ Type "A" Decorating

Snakes On A Wreath

Remember the movie "Snakes On A Plane"?

I'm borrowing that thought for my blog post title.

I needed to make a small wreath to try out on my

 metal stand and I remembered a blog post from 

 Lori at "Nitty Gritty Pretty"  where she put

snakes on a grapevine wreath...

it looked cool and creepy...I wanted one.

I didn't have a small grapevine wreath so

I tried making one out of over-grown

wild moring glory vines in the back back yard.

Embarrassing to admit, but I had plenty of vines to work with. 

I was only making a small wreath, so it was quick and easy.

  Just get the basic size you need and keep adding vines to get

 more volume. Wrap some of the sturdier vines around sideways

 to keep the circular shape.  To add a little more stability,

I added a quick widely spaced wrap with some floral wire too.

Lori used glossy black spray paint...I only had flat

 black  on hand so that's what I used.

 Dollar Tree, Target and other stores carry plastic snakes...

...just spray paint them black too. 

After the paint dried, the snakes got hot glued onto the wreath.

The larger snake was not as flexible as the little snakes so he had to be twisty 

tied down while the hot glue dried on him.   

Lori's version looked better (the grapevines on her

wreath were larger and looked more like snake bodies

 all twisted together) but here's

is my quickie attempt at "Snakes On A Wreath".

When I was "googling" to try to re-find Lori's post, I saw several stories of

people who had actually found live snakes IN their wreaths on their front doors!

Cost-wise, the snakes were $2. 

 The paint is the $1/can from Wal-Mart.

My wreath was no-cost but grapevine wreaths 

from the craft stores are cheap.

If you would like to see other ways the metal wreath holder

 can be used, click here.  I started out not knowing 

WHAT to do with it and now I've realized it has LOTS of uses.