The First Spring Decorations

This is how I've had my corner shelf decorated for winter. Not great, but not horrible. My grandparents gave me the shelf when I bought my house--it was made by my great-grandfather! These photos don't actually show what a pretty color it is, but I'm not really home enough in daylight hours to take good natural-light photos. At any rate, I love the shelf, but I've never really had good luck with finding things to go on it. I like the little angel candleholder, but she's very wintery. The little lantern on the top shelf was a Target Dollar Spot find I bought just to have something to fill the spot, and have never found anything better. At one point I had my Old Country Roses cream pitcher on the next-to-top shelf, but it's now in a safer home in the china cabinet (when it's not out holding flowers). I keep looking at things that might be interesting additions to the shelf, then deciding that they're too dark to really show up in a dark wood shelf in a somewhat shadowy corner!

Here is the start of a spring makeover for the corner shelf. I've resigned myself to not really being able to decorate for spring--my basic house colors of red and black don't really lend themselves to bits of pink, green, and lavender being thrown in! But I figure I can lighten things up a bit, and get rid of the blatantly winter bits.

I've replaced the wintery angel with some porcelain birds I got at Michael's. I really like them, but they're a bit short for the shelf. I'm thinking they either need to go on the top shelf, or I need to "floof-ify" them with some lace, flowers, grass, or something to give them some height.

The lantern has been replaced with a sheet music covered treble clef, also a Michael's find. I think it's really cool, but could also use a bit of something more. I'm thinking a base (something to give it some height, not a bass clef, haha), or maybe some flowers. Red roses would be a bit cliche, but red is my favorite color. Black would certainly match, but wouldn't exactly help with the whole "decorating for spring" idea. Hmm...ideas, anyone?

I still plan on switching out the candle holder--it seems a bit silly to have a candle holder in a place where I would absolutely not light a candle. I still like the rose bouquet at the bottom, although perhaps I should pull it forward. And the amaryllis pot is perfect spring decor, since those are spring bulbs. Ooh, perhaps I could find some silk red-and-white amaryllis flowers! That would be springlike while perfectly matching my decor!

A Few Notes About Candles

Before starting, let me say that my family has a long and glorious tradition of decorating with, but never burning, candles.  My grandmother has Christmas candles (the actual wax parts, not just candleholders) that are a good bit older than me.  My mother has been known to burn pillar candles, but usually only once they're old enough to have gotten a bit faded or chipped.  She would also buy tapers specifically for burning for nice suppers--different ones from the fancier ones she decorated with.

In my own history, I have enjoyed burning candles, but was forced to learn caution when doing so, and not for the reason you're thinking.  My parents' living room has light blue walls, and we were, for once, burning a pair of dark burgundy taper candles on top of the stereo speakers.  I think it was a Christmas party or some such gathering.  Well, after quite a few hours, all the guests departed, and I was given the coveted privilege of blowing out the candles.  That was when disaster struck.  Instead of cupping my hand around the candle and gently blowing across the top of it, I blew hard, almost straight down.  I instantly decorated the light-blue wall, as well as various other objects, with dark burgundy wax.  It took years for that wax to get completely cleaned off the wall!

For some reason, I was given a silver candle snuffer for Christmas that year.  (This isn't it, but rather one whose picture I borrowed from Amazon--mine seems to have temporarily disappeared.)  Suffice to say that I was discouraged from experimenting much with burning candles for a few years.  In college, however, I had several friends who burned candles of all sorts on a regular basis.  After I moved out on my own, I began burning candles more regularly, and this year, my winter coffee table vignette is my Floridian version of a fireplace, minus the ash and the popping noise (and I'd like to try out one of those wood-wick candles that's supposed to supply the sound). 

Back to the snuffer!  (I like that word.)  For anyone who has never used a candle snuffer, the idea may seem silly.  However, there are several reasons to use one (besides not decorating walls with wax).  They have become even more apparent to me with my current coffee table vignette of candles and "snow."  One important reason is to avoid the dizziness that comes with blowing out a dozen candles separately!  Another is that, somehow, the snuffer contains and eliminates most of the smoke we get when we blow the candles out.  Again, not much of a problem with a candle or two, but blowing out a bunch of candles results in the smoky smell lingering for quite some time.  Just hold the snuffer over the candle wick a moment while the flame uses up all its available oxygen, and move on to the next one.  No huffing and puffing, no smoke, and no wax splatters.

Something else about candles I have just recently learned--tea lights are very convenient because they are self-contained, so you don't have to worry about oiling the holder to allow you to dump a used-up votive candle out.  However, if you're only burning them for an hour at a time, you'll get a lot fewer hours of use out of them than they say.  Apparently they first melt the wax all around them, and if that wax isn't deep enough, they simply burn up the wick.  Votives do the same, but their wax starts off a lot deeper, so it takes more hours of burning for them to do the same thing.  All that to say that it pays to think how you're using a candle before just popping a tealight into it.  Some holders specifically work best with a votive or a tealight, but many will work with both.  Just something to think about!

Vignettes

I would normally call them "arrangements" or "decorations," but the decorating blogosphere has taught me that the correct word to use for decorative items arranged on a shelf or table is "vignette."  I'm not entirely certain how that word differs from "tableau," and who knows--that may be the word of choice a few years from now.  For the moment, however, it appears that the proper highfaluting word is "vignette." (That's a hard word to type, by the way.)


I began this grammatical ramble because I've made a few.  Vignettes, I mean.  One on my console table, one on my coffee table, and a few in my built-in bookcase that never holds books.  Before Christmas, the console table was bare (except for sis/roomie's keys and ipod when she comes in the door), the coffee table had a gourds-and-leaves display that was the subject of one of my first posts, and the bookcase held a series of vignettes that were completely cross-seasonal, but that I was completely bored with.  When I started taking down the Christmas decorations, I wanted to put something back into each of these places. 

We'll start with the console table.  Sorry about the reflection in the picture glass--I don't have any windows in the actual living room, so it can be rather dark in the evenings without the overhead lights on!  This is the simplest vignette--some red-and-clear candleholders I got for Christmas, with some short red pillar candles.  There is apparently no air circulation against this particular wall, because the flames stand perfectly still!  I even had a friend ask if they were real!








The flames of the candles on the coffee table, on the other hand, dance quite merrily.  (Apparently the use of the word "vignette" is giving me a taste for vintage verbiage tonight.)  I had just purchased the mercury glass pillar and taper holders on clearance at Target.  (Unfortunately, I didn't think to get a short, fat taper, so the taper holder is currently empty.  It's pretty, though!)  They add some height to the arrangement.  The base is some polyester-and-glitter fake snow from Michael's, also purchased on post-Christmas clearance.  The rest of the candles are just red and white pillars and votives I've had for a while.  One narrow pillar candle is actually standing in a votive cup--it was just the right size!  Some of the normal-sized pillars are on glass or silver plates--you can just see the corner of a silver snowflake-shaped one under the white pillar at the center of the photo.  Others, such as the tall red one that I'm fairly certain will neither overflow its "banks" nor melt to table level, are simply standing on their own.  (I might be more cautious about doing this if the main surface of the table were not easily-cleanable glass.) 

Finally, the bookcase.  Again, this photo was taken at night with artificial lighting, so I apologize for the coloring.  I'm also not certain this is how the arrangement will stay, but here's how things stand at the moment. 

I kept the inkwell taper holders, photo, and teacup on the top shelf, and just added some crystal taper holders.  These candles, of course, will not be getting burned!  On the next shelf, I kept the photos and added a music box (actually a Christmas decoration, but it doesn't scream "Christmas" unless you wind it up) and some of the extra snow.  The next row is pretty much the same as it was at Christmas, just with the obviously Christmasy music boxes packed away, and the bottom shelf is, I believe, the same as it was at Christmas--a red lantern, a red metal sign, and part of my violin-angel collection.  I think the whole thing looks nice and wintery, and will be just fine for Valentine's day next month, as well!

Christmas Prep

First off, I learned last night that candles and ceiling fans don't mix. The votive candle was fine, but the red candle burned out, and the white candle leaked wax all over the plate. Looks like the plate will be spending some time in the freezer...but I think I won't worry about it until time to take down the Christmas decorations.






I have a friend spending Christmas with us, so I made her a quick stocking from some scrap fabric I had. I traced around one of the stockings I already had, sewed the black part together, then added the cuff, then topstitched it to secure the inside, and turned the cuff over. Only then did I realize I had no way of hanging the stocking!









No worries, though--I used a bit of ribbon stuck on with a safety pin. Yes, this is probably the most rapidly-put-together stocking in the history of stockings, but it will do the job!










It's finished! I don't love the shape, but it pretty much matches the stockings I already had, so I guess that's okay.



But now that it has a hanging loop, I still have no stocking holder for it. That's why I love Command hooks. I laid one on the shelf and hooked the stocking to it. Nice invisible stocking hanger!



Just so you know, glass ornaments and tile floors don't mix. I was taking the price tags off the pair of pretty little bird ornaments I had gotten for the family ornament exchange when I dropped one. It bounced, then shattered. Sad. I was going to go and get a replacement, but I didn't really want to go shopping two days before Christmas. Then I remembered some partially-made ornaments I'd found in my projects-in-progress when I was organizing my craft room.

You take a styrofoam ball, yo-yos made from gold lame, and some pearl beads. The trusty hot glue gun is, of course, a given.

Stick the yo-yos to the ball, then put a pearl in the center of each one, as well as the intersections where 3 yo-yos come together.











Add a ribbon hanger, and you have a pretty, sparkly ornament!












Here's the Christmas tree corner the way it looks now--three stockings and lots of presents!

I didn't have labels, so I made some out of stamped cardstock.  Some are tag-shaped, and some are diamonds.  I hung some on with ribbon, and just taped others.  I'm really pleased with how they came out!  That said, I'll be sure to get some tags at the after-Christmas sales.  I don't always have time enough to make something creative for every single gift I'm giving!

Finally Decorating!

Yes, I know I'm really behind on things, but I have just in the last couple days gotten all my Christmas decorating done. The outside stuff was, for once, the first thing that actually happened. I put lights on my roof for the first time ever!


 


I also hung wreaths in all four front windows (the wreaths now have bows on them, but I forgot to take a picture after adding the bows) and put candles on the windowsills.














I put the manger scene on my console table in the living room. I think I should do something about those lamp cords, but I'm not sure what. Use zip ties to attach them to the table legs?

Here's the coffee table. It has an amaryllis wreath underneath, and on top is a red charger (plate), three candles, some miniature green ball ornaments, and a garland. I did the same thing last year, and learned that the candles should not be touching each other, especially the glass ones. I had gotten some candles misshapen from touching glass votive candles that got hot over the course of a few hours.









It took forever to put the arrangements together for these shelves, and even now I'm not 100% sure I like everything.











Here's the Christmas tree! It stands on top of a tall box behind an armchair, which makes my little 4-foot tree look a bit more substantial.










I used a few extra ornaments on the garland over the doorway. These ornaments are all silver and white, and are angels, stars, snowflakes, and a few balls.






Another brand-new decorating element--I hung plastic (not glass--that's just asking for disaster) ornaments on ribbons, then used thumbtacks to stick the ribbons to the archway leading from the foyer into the living room. I like the way it came out!

A Little Christmas

I've finally done my first bit of Christmas decorating! Well, I'm not sure if you could really call it decorating yet. It's a single candle and wreath in one of the four windows on the front of my house. As you can see, I didn't even get it really centered. That's okay, though, because the wreath is going to have to come inside to get a bow put on it once I borrow the bow maker from my mom this weekend. It's just that I'd gone as far as I could with all my other Christmas crafting, and wanted to see how this would look. I've never hung wreaths out a window before, but it was actually pretty simple.

Step 1: Fluff wreath. These wreaths were squished pretty flat, but it looks pretty good now that it's nice and fluffy.

Step 2: Cut ribbon. You need twice the distance between the top of your window and the inside of the top of your wreath, plus a foot or two for going around the wreath and inside the window.

Step 3: Remove screen from window. Also something I've never done before. When you live in Florida, the only month you can guarantee you won't want to open the windows is probably January, and if the screens aren't in the windows, you'll wind up with a house full of bugs. My screens have tabs at the bottom on the inside, and it came right out when I pulled on the tabs. I'll have to look carefully at the next one so I can figure out how to put them back in when I take the wreaths down!

Step 4: Open the window from the top, loop the ribbon around the wreath, and toss the wreath out the window. Close the window with the ends of the ribbon caught between the window and the window casing. It seems to close tightly enough to hold everything in place!

Looking at the picture, you can see the screen that I haven't yet put away, and you can tell that the wreath isn't centered yet. Both of those will probably happen Monday, since the weekend is pretty busy. That's also when I'll add a bow to the wreath, and hopefully duplicate this in all the other windows. I think the candle could stand to be taller, but I don't have four of anything for them to stand on. Besides which, once the bow is at the top of the wreath (I'm usually a bow-at-the-bottom person, but that would put the visual center way too low on the window), the "flame" of the candle will be just about at the middle of where you can see, which will probably be fine. After I do all that, I'll have another first on Tuesday--putting lights on the eaves of the house! My sister is helping with that, and she's actually done it before. Hopefully it works out!

A Memo Board...of Sorts

You have probably seen rag garland tutorials somewhere in the last couple years. I didn't find out they existed until last year, but I thought the whole idea was a bit too "country" for my decorating tastes. Recently, however, I decided to make a small one to hang in my laundry room. I was going to add some clothespins on ribbons to it and make it something of a fancy-looking, decorative clothesline--a place to hang the "unmentionables" to dry. I had read several tutorials for the rag garlands, and every one of them said to tear TONS of rag strips--"you'll need more than you think," they all boldly proclaimed. Well, when you think you need several tons, but your garland is under three feet long, you may wind up with an extra ton of rag strips! What to do with them? The obvious answer is to make a rag wreath for your bedroom, and to add clothespins to the wreath to make it a memo board!

I'm not going to write a tutorial on how to make a rag wreath--you can google "rag garland" and get about two bazillion hits. To turn the garland into a wreath, just bend a wire hanger into a circle and use it as the base you tie your rag strips around. At first I tried to keep all the strips lying flat, but then I decided that made the wreath look...flat. So I just fluffed and twisted and pulled until most of the strips were coming forward and the wreath looked properly three-dimensional.  (This photo is pre-fluffing.)

I was originally going to spray paint the clothespins white. While I was waiting to get a chance to do that, however, I saw some stamped clothespins. What a great idea--make the clothespins pretty!  I used pink and green ink pads and stamped with a variety of floral images. Some were wide stamps, so I held several clothespins together and stamped them at once. You could also try spray painting, then stamping, or even overstamping different colors and patterns onto a single clothespin.

Once my clothespins were pretty, I arranged them on the wreath (I decided I wanted half to face in and half to face out) and dumped out my stash of narrow pink ribbons. For those who like numbers, my wreath form (or wire hanger circle) is about a foot in diameter, and I used ten clothespins. If I were to make this again, I might increase it to an even dozen clothespins. The ribbons I wound up liking best were about 1/4 inch to 3/4 inch. Eighth-inch ribbon was just too skimpy (although it might be fine if you used two or three strands), and wider ribbons didn't blend as well.

I tied a piece of ribbon around the wreath (just like the rags), put a clothespin on top, and put the ribbon ends through the clothespin. In the picture below it's done very loosely, but of course I snugged it up tight to the clothespin spring. Once the clothespin was pinching the ribbon, I double-knotted the ribbon ends on top of the clothespin. I experimented with the ribbon length a bit, but I decided I wanted the ribbon tails just a bit shorter than my rag ends, so I cut my ribbons about the same length as the rag strips. (The extra knots took up a little length, resulting in ribbons just slightly shorter than rags.)

Next, I rescued the ribbons from my feline helper/inspector.

Once all the clothespins were tied on, I added one last loop of ribbon for hanging, then stuck it to the wall with a small Command hook. I love those, by the way. They prevent my commitment-fearing self from having to put holes in the wall until I'm sure I like the wall arrangement!

(The flowers in the paper cone were on clearance this summer at Pier 1 for less than it would have cost me to purchase the flowers alone!)

Closeup of the beribboned clothespins.  I'm liking my new "memo wreath"!

My Book Wreath Project

I've seen book page wreaths on lots of decorating and crafting blogs, and really wanted to make one of my own.  Don't worry, this isn't the five-thousandth tutorial on how to make a book page wreath.  If you want to see how I did it, go here--I mostly followed her tutorial, using a dollar store wreath form and a 50-cent, slightly-torn-up book from Goodwill.

I will give you a few pointers, however.  First, the wreath is going to be HUGE!  Remember--you're adding twice the length of your pages to the diameter of your wreath form.  If I'd thought about it, I probably would have cut my pages in half horizontally to make more "square" pages.  It would've still been PLENTY fluffy!  Second, you WILL stick your finger in the hot glue.  Use a low-temp glue gun unless you plan on taking up a second career as a cat burglar and need to burn your fingerprints off.  

This is also a very "deep" wreath front-to-back.  If you're using a foam wreath form, cut it in half--you'll get two identical, thin wreath forms and your wreath won't stick out quite as far from the wall.  Something I did that I didn't see mentioned on any of the tutorials was to flatten out the wreath some by pressing it, then hot-gluing some of the groups of pages together.  This helped it look more like a wreath and less like a half-sphere that someone forgot to finish.

I hung it from a ribbon in my foyer, added the floral arrangement I used last fall in the foyer, and was horrified.  The flowers by themselves looked okay last year, but combined with the wreath, it looks something like my curly hair on a bad day!  Way too much round poofiness!

I made a lower arrangement that fit farther back in the corner, and behold--the decorating version of a poofy hair disaster is averted!  (At least, I think so.  Any comments?)

No Mantle? No Problem!

This bookcase in the middle of my living room wall has never been used for books.  It's sort of the visual center of the room--the other three walls all have doorways, and this is the only purely decorative wall.  I love books, but didn't really think my book collection was all that visually stimulating (at least from the outside), so I've always had various arrangements of photos and knick-nacks. 

Somehow or other, I'd never really done much as far as decorating it seasonally is concerned.  This summer I'd had a couple paper lanterns in it (thus the couple of visually-unbalanced shelves--I put away the lanterns but hadn't rearranged things yet), but that was about as far as I'd gone.  Over the past couple weeks as I was blog-hopping, I'd gotten a bit jealous of all the people with the wonderful fall mantle arrangements.  I live in a rather hot area, and mantles aren't exactly de rigeur in houses around here!  Then I happened upon this post, which reminded me that just because one doesn't have a mantle, it doesn't mean one can't decorate as though one had a mantle. 

So, I took my nondescript bookcase arrangement and created four different small fall mantles!  For the top one, I got rid of the glass-and-metal candle holder and substituted in a raven garden ornament (clearance last year at Target) and two ink well candle holders (clearance at Anthropologie).  The second shelf got three Goodwill wood-look ceramic candle holders with clearanced Target candles and a grapevine pumpkin from Target's dollar spot. 

I moved my collection of violin-playing angels to the bottom shelf, where they mix nicely with some branches that fell out of my tree in our last big storm.  The next-to-bottom shelf has quite a mix of items!  In the middle is a drippy brown pillar candle which I nestled in a green glass compote amongst a bunch of acorns and small pine cones.  More acorns are underneath, mixed with some "cranberry" vase filler I also used elsewhere in the room.  On the right, my miniature violin sits on a pedestal made from moss-covered foam.  I love the way the pedestal makes it look "important" rather than just "toy-like."  On the left, I used some terracotta pot saucers to support a red glass cup and saucer and a Ukranian egg I got in Brazil.  (There are lots of people of European ancestry in southern Brazil.)  I'm thinking I may sponge-paint the saucers with shades of green, brown and gray to make them blend a bit better, but overall, I'm pleased!

Decorating for Fall

I found this pretty silver serving dish at Goodwill for two bucks! Prices marked on other stickers ranged from ten dollars down--apparently it had been on the shelves for a while. It's thoroughly black, and probably just silver plate (which doesn't take heavy-duty polishing very well). However, for two dollars, I thought I could probably find something to do with it.

I think it will make a very nice holder for my fall coffee table decoration! In the past couple years, I've just sort of laid everything out on the table, but this sort of dish will be a good way to hold it all together, I think. And the black patina probably works better with the fall colors than bright white silver would!

I have an assortment of randomness--the two glittered pumpkins and some of the leaves were sent home with me after a friend's fall wedding; the fruits, raffia, and some of the berries and leaves were in a box purchased on sale from Jo-Anns; and the other items are floral picks, also sale purchases from previous years.

I started by piling in the raffia, trying to fill up some of my space, and the floral picks, trying to arrange them in a way that was attractive to me but NOT to my cat, who has been known to chew on non-food items.

I kept just piling everything in, trying to separate most of the fruits from each other with leaves, and putting leaves around the edge to soften that up some.

Unfortunately, I want a table arrangement, not a floor arrangement, so I had to do some re-arranging once everything got into its place. I discovered that it's hard to visually anchor a footed bowl to a glass table, so I put a few of the leaves and berries underneath. That required taking out a few of the leaves from the edge, which allowed the pretty flower pattern on the silver to show.

I also changed which pumpkin was where, just because I like the dark brown one better than the gold one.

Finally, I took the red amaryllis wreath off the bottom of the table, where it had spent a good chunk of the winter and summer. I love amaryllis flowers, but that just made things to busy-looking. Yay for my first fall decorations going up!