Myrtles, Milk Glass, and Martha

Martha Stewart's "Living" magazine is the only one I subscribe to that I never tear the pages out and I never throw it away.  To me, it has timeless and great ideas. 

 One idea that I saw that was "do-able" for me was this arrangement. 

Martha ( I know it's not really Martha herself coming up with these ideas and executing them but we'll just pretend) used lilacs in her arrangement.

 It is too hot down in the deep South to grow lilacs but we do have an abundance of crepe myrtles which have a similar shaped flower.

Here is my attempt to copy Martha's lilac arrangement.

Martha's holder looks like it is made with a milk glass vase and bowl.

I think she has a huge collection of milk glass but I have none.

Actually, I don't really know what "milk glass" is.

If it is glass and it is white, I assume it is milk glass but I thought I would look it up to educate myself a little on that subject.

Here's what I found out:

Milk Glass was first made in Venice in the 16th century.  The Venetians made the glass opaque or translucent in several different colors including white.  The white color is achieved through the addition of tin oxide or bone ash.  The name "milk glass" is a relatively recent name for the glass which is blown or pressed into a wide variety of shapes.

I can't blow or press glass and I don't have tin oxide or bone ash

so I went the cheap route and found a plastic vase and a glass bowl at the Dollar Tree that I thought would be compatable in size for this project.

I just love these little plastic vases in the floral section at Dollar Tree. 

They look so much like cut crystal.

Here's a look also at the glass bowl before it is painted.

To try to replicate the milk glass look, the bowl and vase got spray painted.

I used white appliance spray paint from Wal-Mart.  It was about $4/can...I thought it would probably hold up better to the water the vase and bowl would encounter.  Wal-Mart also has a white gloss spray paint for $1/can that would work also if you are on a tighter budget for this project.

After being spray painted

Martha's instructions said to use floral clay to secure the vase in the bowl. 

The floral clay came from Michael's in the floral section.  It is about $1.50 per pack.  To use floral clay you pinch off a small amount, make a roll and stick it under the edge of the vase before adding foam or water to the bowl.  I personally thought that the foam held the vase in place enough that you would not really need the floral clay.

You will need the floral foam made for fresh flowers. The floral foam comes in different shapes but the most common is this "brick" shape.

You can find floral foam at any major craft store. This usually comes in a pack of 3 or 4. Each brick comes out to about $1 each if you use a store coupon. "Oasis" is a specific brand name of this type foam but lots of people call all fresh floral foam by that name...kinda like "Kleenex" or "Band-Aid" or "Vaseline" are used.  Be sure you do not get the foam that says it is for silk or dried flowers

  One "brick" will be enough for 3 of these arrangements.   Cut the foam into 10 chunks.  Use 3 per arrangement and split the last one into 3 pieces to go into the vases.

The foam cuts very easily even with a regular dinner knife.

Soak the foam according to the package directions.

This is the foam just seconds after being dropped in the water.  Be sure your water container is deep enough to completely cover the foam after it sinks down into the water.  I like to leave it in the water at least 5 minutes to make sure it gets soaked to its center.

After the foam is soaked all the way through, put 3 of the larger chunks into each bowl.
Cut some of the flowers' stems to about 2".

Push the short stems into the foam in the bowl.
If needed, angle the flowers to get good coverage and to have them look nice around the edge of the bowl.

You may need to add small pieces of flowers around the larger flowers in the bowl to completely cover up the foam so that it does not show.  The foam in the vase helps to hold the longer stems upright. 

Leave longer stems on some of the flowers to put in the vase part of the arrangement.  It will help to have water in the vase and the bowl so the foam can continue to soak up water as needed.

Since this arrangement is not very big, I made three of them for more impact with the few crepe myrtle flowers still blooming in the yard.

Just for fun, I wanted to see if this vase/bowl set up would work with other types of flowers.  I had a few daisies I tried it with.

I thought it looked cute.  You would need to use greenery to cover up the foam in the bowl.

So, I'm doing the best I can with what I got but
here's Martha's original magazine photo:

And here is my copy cat version:

Martha has her wine and lilacs, I have my mint julep and crepe myrtles. 

I am linking this post up to
"Debbie Doos Blabbing and Blogging" Magazine Copy Cat Challenge
http://debbie-debbiedoos.blogspot.com/2011/09/magazine-copy-cat-challengelets-get-it.html

To Paint or Not to Paint

Do you ever struggle with that question

on furniture that you have had for a while?

I bought this chest about 15 years ago when I was more
 in an "English Country" mode of decorating my home.

The area would probably look better with a rug but it is almost like a

dining room/entry foyer and rug placement is awkward.

Now that we have downsized and I am leaning toward a lighter

 look, I just don't know that I love this chest like I used to.

It is useful for storage.  I keep my gift wrapping supplies in the drawers.

It is in the dining room along with other dark wood furniture.

 It feels like there is just too much dark wood

 furniture in that small space.

This buffet is also in that area.  I like the buffet placement so I don't want to move it.

It has some nice patina. I really don't know much about 

the piece or if it is even worth what I paid for it. 

The question is, is it too nice to paint?

Should I move it to another room and let it 
stay the color that it is?

This is my bedroom.  A decorator had me shift the placement of the furniture to 

achieve more balance.  I put the dark portrait on the far side of the bed to try

 to visually balance the window on the other side of the bed.

If I put the bookcase/chest I am considering painting where the table and portrait are

 now, it would come up about 8 inches taller than where the top of the portrait is now.

Should I take the books out of it and make it

 more dining room-ish with china instead?

I did put it in the want ads a couple of years ago but did not get one single call on it.
My kids don't want it.

In some spots I have non-interesting books that end up behind the wood frames

 so the "good" book spines show.

Most of the books I have in it are older ones that

I have found at Goodwill, yard sales, and thrift stores.

I kept this note with the chest but even the dealer I

bought it from didn't know it's age.

My favorite feature of the piece

is the wavy glass in the doors.

The glazing is old and cracking.

My least favorite feature is this do da on the side.

Does this cut out make it look Victorian-ish?

It has cute little casters on each leg.

How do those little casters hold up all that weight?

One of the knobs is missing but that could be replaced.

As I was getting ready to take this photo, I saw something behind the back caster that

needed to be moved for the shot.  It was one of the missing knobs! 

The brass around the key hole is not original.

So, I don't know what to do with this piece.

Should I paint it and leave it in the dining room, move it to the bedroom and not paint it, or sell it for whatever I can get for it

and tell myself I've gotten my 25 cents a day worth out of it and 

let someone else enjoy it now?

The bookcase/chest is where my plastic spoon wreath "lives".  

If you want to make a spoon wreath, 

here is a tutorial on how to do one.

Update on this post...I DID paint this piece eventually.

If you want to see how I painted it with Annie Sloan

Chalk Paint on it click here. 

A Tale of Three Mirrors

These three mirrors are over my bed.

I call them

"The Splurge",

"The Save",

and

"The Steal".

"The Splurge" is a Nate Berkus mirror that I bought online for about $80. You know how they say if you have one  GREAT piece (purse, shoes, jacket) in your  outfit that it elevates the whole outfit

(even if everything else is a bargain)? 

 That's what I like about this mirror with it's real bull's-eye mirror...it seems to bring to other two mirrors "up" in style.

I saw a much smaller mirror similar to this one for $125 recently so it made me feel better about it's value.

"The Save" I also liked when I saw it at Hobby Lobby. I liked it even more when it went on sale and I got it for $25.

Oopps! I don't have a close-up of it but it is the one with wider "bursts"

that have imitation antique mirrors on them. 

"The Steal" (top-most in pic) is one that I made for $13. Before I had a blog, I "goggled" for how to make one and the search turned up a blog authored by a young mother who made a sunburst mirror

with wooden skewers and a simple flat mirror. 

I wanted a little "beefier" mirror than she had used but basically, I used what I remembered from her tutorial to make mine.

I couldn't find the original blog post I saw the tutorial on originally.

The mirror I got was a black plastic one on sale for $12

 at Hobby Lobby.  It is 14" across.

The creators even gave it a bull's eye feel by beveling

the edge of the glass.  I painted it with a couple of shades

 of gold craft paint and painted the skewers ($1 a pack) also. 

I hung "The Save" and "The Steal" a little higher after seeing these photos.

Also, a new accent pillow is in the works.

I won't do a whole tutorial on how to make "The Steal"

'cause there are so many already out there. 

I tried to find the original blog tutorial I used

but couldn't turn it up.  Here is a similar one:

http://nattynook.net/2011/05/21/i-sunburst-mirrors/

Here is the back of my mirror.  You can probably figure

out how to do it just by looking at the picture.

The only reason that some of the skewers are longer than others on the back is that they 

started to run into each other as they got towards the center of the back of the mirror so I  

just cut the blunt end of the skewer off.  

I started by gluing the longest length of skewer I wanted at the North, South, East and West points on the mirror.

  Mine extended out 7" from the edge of the mirror. 

I did the same length of skewer at the North West,

North East, South East, and South West points.

The back of the mirror is a mess.  The length of the skewers back here doesn't matter to the pattern.

Only go by what it looks like from the front when you are measuring how far out to place the skewer.

Then I graduated down 1/2" for different skewers a few times.  You could figure out a pattern you like. I did do the same pattern in each quarter of the  mirror but in the end there are so many skewers,

 I don't know if it makes a big difference. 

Just in case you need to know in terms of how one of these 
semi-home made starburst mirrors might look on your wall, the final total measurement across on mine is 28" but you could make the bursts longer if you want to.

Crazy Over Chicken Wire

What is it with me and chicken wire items lately? If I see an item covered in chicken wire and it's affordable, it is coming home with me.

I blame being crazy over chicken wire on seeing it used

in so many cute ways on blog sites recently. 

I must not be the only one loving chicken wire right now...

I bought this utensil holder (I think) on a trip to Texas in the

spring.  When I got home, the "Southern Living" magazine in my mailbox had the exact holder on their cover.

I've been using this to hold little vases with flowers in the compartments
since I got it.

The kitchen we had before we downsized to our current home had rooster & chicken themed decorating.  This couple is about the only hold-overs we have from "the big house".

Chanticleer and Chickie

Chanticleer is enjoying being "the cock of the walk" again with this table top vignette centered around him.