Christmas 2016: Home Tour #1

On November 13, 2016November 14, 2016 By ArlynnIn Seasonal Decor10 Comments

I have officially finished decorating for Christmas in the back portion of our home which includes the family room, kitchen, kitchen eating area, powder room, and all shelves, table tops, nooks, and crannies. 🙂

I have created a video home tour for my YouTube channel and will give you a link for that below. But, first, here are some pictures of what I’ve completed so far. I still have the living and dining rooms to do, of course we need to put the Christmas tree’s’ up, and we’ll also be decorating the front of the house and I’ll do the front porch (red wagon decor, etc..) after Thanksgiving.

Here we go with those pictures. 🙂

Here is a link to my YouTube video of me giving and narrating a tour around this part of the house:

I started working on the living and dining rooms today which will be done up in softer tones, still cozy and welcoming though–I hope. 🙂 Here is a sneak peak at the dining room table, I created the lantern centerpiece today:

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

**In crafting there are no mistakes, just unique creations**

~Arlynn ❤

Christmas 2016: Quick Accent Centerpieces

On November 12, 2016November 13, 2016 By ArlynnIn Seasonal Decor2 Comments

I’m continuing on with my decorating frenzy over here…lol…I’m just about a blithering idiot now. 😉 Of course I’m just kidding, and y’all know how I love to create. I have now finished the back portion of our house–the family room, kitchen, kitchen eating area, and powder room and I will be posting a tour of said areas after I get finished with this little ditty. 🙂 So many folks ask me about my little accent arrangements and how I put them together, in the video below, I explain and show you how I put together my kitchen window arrangements:

A little basket creation that goes on a shelf:

One that goes on the kitchen hutch:

An arrangement centerpiece that I did around a lamp (like I do my lanterns) that sits in the corner of the kitchen:

And lastly, an arrangement that sits on the sink in the Powder Room:

These little arrangements don’t stand alone very well, but, when they are combined with all of the other decor surrounding them, I feel as if they bring the entire grouping/idea together and to fruition. These were all fun and easy to put together and as always, I completely enjoyed submersing myself in the project’s’. 🙂

Here is a link to my YouTube Tutorial:

Christmas 2016: Accent Centerpieces

As I mentioned above, I have now finished decorating the back portion of our home, so my next project is to write a blog that will include tons of pictures and I will pair it with a video that will give a tour of the spaces that I’ve completed. Still to decorate—The living and dining rooms incorporating a beautiful light green color, silvers, and whites–hopefully creating a soft and cozy atmosphere. 🙂

Here is a sneak peak of the back portion of our house all decked out for Christmas (minus the Christmas Tree that won’t go up until Thanksgiving evening). 🙂

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

**In crafting there are no mistakes, just unique creations**

~Arlynn ❤

Fall Lantern Centerpieces & More

On November 4, 2016 By ArlynnIn Lanterns, Seasonal DecorLeave a comment

Hi Everyone! Now that I’m back from my Canada & New England Cruise and have completed my Blog series of our awesome time aboard the Regal Princess and beyond, I’ve gotten back to my crafting. I’ve had many people comment on my Lantern Centerpieces, so I took some time out today to deconstruct and then reconstruct three of the centerpieces that I had created for this Fall’s decorations. I’ve made a video and will give you a link *below* to it on my new YouTube Channel “Arlynn’s Country Craft Corner“. 🙂 <~~That’s a link to my main YouTube Channel’s page…I’ll give you link for the specific video I created today below in this short post. 🙂

I will let my video show you everything that I did, but, here are the three centerpieces that I highlighted in the video and then at the end of the video I give a little house tour to show what other centerpieces I’ve created for my Fall decor. 🙂

All right, here is a link to my YouTube video, I hope y’all enjoy it and think about giving a lantern (or other) centerpiece a try. BTW, it is almost time for me to take all of my Fall stuff down, I’ll be starting to decorate for Christmas very soon–So I know I’ll be deconstructing these Fall centerpieces again and reconstructing them for Christmas…YaY!!

Fall Lantern Centerpieces & More

~Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

**In crafting there are no mistakes, just unique creations**

~Arlynn ❤

Harvest Sign 2016–With Guest Blogger My Cousin Stacey

On September 11, 2016September 11, 2016 By ArlynnIn Seasonal DecorLeave a comment

My sweet cousin Stacey has been kind enough to share another one of her amazing creations with all of us!!! Wait till ya’ll see *this*!! ❤

This is me (in the black blouse) with Stacey:

Okie dokie…Take it away Stacey!!

*****Hello Everyone!! It’s your favorite random relative of Arlynn’s, Stacey!! I’m here to show you how to do a Fall decor item that requires ZERO crafting or artistic ability! Woo! (It’s also great for getting out some aggression as you get to beat the snot out of a plank of wood!) So, lets begin the easiest craft project I’ve ever created!

I had a VERY large wall space that I wanted to cover. I needed a piece of art (or something) to cover a space approx 4’ long by 1’ tall. I scoured Home Goods, Hobby Lobby, Kirklands and everywhere in between looking for such a large piece with no luck. So that meant I was going to have to create something. I wanted something to compliment the decor I already had on the opposing wall. Pretty rustic and quite specific. (No, sadly, I did not create this

beauty) But, no worries, I was on a mission and once that happens, crafting magic is about to go down!

I started by creating my “ingredients” list. Plank of wood 1’x4’. (You can make yours any size you like!), chalk paint and wax, brushes, cloth, roller brush, sander/sand paper, tools to distress wood (chains, screwdrivers, hammer, etc) letters to attach, hooks for hanging and a glue gun to attach your letters.

First place I headed to was my other favorite craft store…HOME DEPOT!! Oh my goodness y’all! I love me some Home Depot! Those guys see me and turn the other way because they know I’m going to make them cut, sand, search or reach something for me! LOL! Suck it up buttercup, I’ve got decor to create! But, they got lucky this time because I found a super cheap plank of pine for $9!! It was exactly the size I wanted too! (1’ x 4’). So, I grabbed my plank and headed on over to Michaels to snatch up some chalk paint and search for the metal letters to attach.

Once at Michaels my search began. The chalk paint was no problem! I chose a yellowish tone called “Tuscan Gold” and a brown antique wax to go over top. Easy peasy, light and breezy! Onward towards the metallic letters! Oh man, I am gonna spell the heck out of some Fall words!! Pffft!! Not so much! My husband (God Bless him) and I spent a BAGILLION hours pulling out all the letters they had on the shelves and a good amount of time on the scrabble word creator app trying to spell Fall themed words! Goodness Gracious!! It looked like my “easy” craft idea was going to be a bust. But, I’m no craft quitter! So, I got to thinking, lets mix up our media. I took both the metallic letters and some painted wood letters and finally had enough to spell a word!! YESSS!! I had chosen the word HARVEST. I figured that was better than some of the other words we had the letters for like Hokey, Chokey, Jokey, Sock, Whore 😳, Oyster and Shylock. But, I don’t know your life. Maybe you would like to create a nice “Shylock” sign. In that case, you’re in luck! But for me, I had my heart set on Harvest. Thankfully, on the other side of the store, they had some red/gold painted wood letter and I screeched “I CAN SPELL HARVEST NOW!” I’m sure the lady that was beside me thought, “Lady you need to spell MEDS”. Oh well, not the first time someone thought that! SO HA! Once I had purchased all my ingredients we headed home and the fun began!

I took my plank outside with some chains, a hammer and some assorted screwdrivers. Basically, you want to use whatever tools you have to “distress” your plank of wood. Good time to get out those frustrations! I wanted a pretty distressed look so I just whacked the heck out of that plank of wood! Don’t forget to do your edges! This comes into play later when you put on your wax top coat. See all those divits and scratches? Thats what you want. Looking back, I wish I would have added more! Also, I used a little hand held sander to round the edges and remove the splintered pieces on the corners. You don’t want any sharp angles. We want to make this thing look old.

Next step, Paint that Plank!! I loved the Fall-ish yellow of the Tuscan Gold. It also complimented the red in my wooden letters. Now, be patient and let it dry. Who am I kidding, I only let it dry for about 30 min.

Once your beautiful plank is painted. DON’T FORGET YOUR EDGES!! It’s time to move on to the wax top coat. I chose a warm chocolatey brown. I figured this would look like years of dirt and wear. Guess what?! I was correct! Mmmmm, look at that! All aged planky goodness!

I brushed on a good amount of the brown wax and took extra care to get into all the nooks and crannies! Even on the edges! Then, I wiped off a little bit with a dampened cloth. Be careful you don’t remove too much or you won’t get the super aged look we were going for.

Finished product! A nice aged looking plank with just a little bit of effort.

Also, see why distressing the edges was important? Now all the sides are gorgeous too!

So this is pretty much the hardest part of this project! Your kidding me?!? NO, I am not! Only thing left is to attach your letters and the hanging hooks. Can you believe this project?! So easy and so professional looking! I love that (if you can find the letters) you can make one for anywhere! Maybe Sock wouldn’t be such a bad word to spell after all!! Would be great in a laundry room! Hahaha! Here is my final project! It’s glorious! It has the metal in it that I was looking for and it’s just the right size! Oh, I forgot to mention that I just attached my letters with hot glue.

And hung in the perfect spot:

Seriously, how easy is this?! Now get out your word finder app, head to Home Depot and Michaels and spell some words!Enjoy making your house a home by crafting your own glorious creations!! Until next time, smooches from Stacey 😘 *****

Arlynn here again—THANK you SO much Stacey!!!! You are awesome and you have inspired me to try to do one of these beauties, and I’m guessing that you’ve also inspired many more!! LOVE you bushels and pecks and (((hugs))) around the neck!! MWAH!! ❤

I hope y’all have enjoyed this wonderful blog post from Stacey—She is a very talented lady!! 🙂

**In crafting there are no mistakes just unique creations**

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

~Arlynn ❤

Happy Fall Y’all 2016 Series: Outdoor Decorations

On September 8, 2016September 8, 2016 By ArlynnIn Seasonal Decor2 Comments

I’m completely finished decorating for Fall y’all!! 😉 I’m a very happy lady to be done; now I can sit back and enjoy the decorations as I watch and feel the weather change. It is still so hot around here and we are almost to mid September, I’m hoping Fall will start to arrive sooner than later–I’m about done with 90+ degree days with 100+ humidity…it has been suffocatingly yucky around these parts.

OH well, I will not yammer on endlessly here in this little entry, instead I’ll just give you a little picture tour of what I did yesterday and I’ll add a video at the end where I show you how I decorated the Little Red Wagon and then give you a little tour around starting at the mailbox…:)

Here we go with the picture tour, let’s start with said mailbox. I love those little mailbox covers, I got this one here on Amazon:

I made that spray last here, here is a link to that blog post if you are interested in seeing the steps that I went through:

I made this Fall deco mesh wreath a few weeks ago–I hung it on the light post, here is a link to my blog post if you’ve like to try your hand at creating one for yourself — The post includes a video tutorial:

I switched out my decorative flags and gazing ball:

And then to finish up, I went to work on the front porch. I added a Fall wooden sign/plaque, switched out my front door wreath, and recreated my Little Red Wagon decor:

And I took a few pictures of everything after dark as well:

And now, here is that little video:

I will admit that I get a nice feeling of accomplishment after I’m finally finished re-decorating for a Season. And to add, I’m finally feeling like I’ve got enough accent pieces gathered and made that will keep me going for a few years to come; recreating the wheel for this house has been a chore <~~~ albeit a fun chore. I can’t see myself going through the next few years without creating *something* new for Fall though, it is in my nature to want to do a craft of some kind, but, for now, I’m satisfied.

**In crafting there are no mistakes just unique creations**

Happy Fall Y’all!!!! ❤

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

~Arlynn ❤

Happy Fall Y’all 2016 Series: Living & Dining Rooms-Video Included

On September 5, 2016 By ArlynnIn Seasonal Decor2 Comments

I have finished my Fall decorating for the inside of our house! YaY, I am definitely doing a “Happy Dance”. I will admit that it is quite a chore to switch Seasons, there used to be a time decades ago when I’d throw a few fall leaves and pumpkins around and call it done. As we’ve marched through the years and I’ve honed my decorating skills, it seems that my decorating has gotten more and more involved. I never used to have to store my “generic” decor in bins while my Fall and then Christmas decor took center stage…haha. OH well, as you all know, I love the creative process, so it’s all good…even though I’m pretty pooped. All that I have left is to do a bit of decorating outside and then I’ll be finished till it is time to decorate for Christmas.

I will give you a picture preview as to what I did in the living and dining rooms and then I’ll post a little video that I made of those rooms.

Here are the living room’s accents:

And here are the accents that I added to the Dining Room:

It did not take me long at all to complete the changeover; I just love the softness that these rooms evoke, it soothes a girl’s very soul. 🙂

Here is a little video tour:

Next up, I’ll do a little decorating outside–Front door wreath, little red wagon decor…etc…:)

*In decorating there are no mistakes, just unique creations!*

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

~Arlynn ❤

Easy St. Patrick’s Day Deco Mesh Wreath

On February 26, 2016February 26, 2016 By ArlynnIn Seasonal Decor, Wreaths2 Comments

All of a sudden, I’ve turned around and it is almost March! What? Wait a second, where did February get off to? No, seriously, March has snuck up on me; I have found that the older I get, the faster the time passes, honestly, time is flying by now-a-days. SO, that said, I try to make the very best of every day that I have on this earth, I feel so blessed that I can still move about and be creative.

I gathered all of the materials that I needed for this wreath at, where else, Hobby Lobby. 😉 All of the St. Patrick’s Day accents were on sale for 30% off and I already had purchased the work wreath form for 40% off last week.

16″ Work Wreath Form
1- 21″ x 10 yard Deco Mesh Roll (Green)
1- 21″ x 10 yard Deco Mesh Roll in White (I used what was left on a roll that I had used for another wreath)
3 Wooden Shamrocks
Sparkly Shamrocks
Wooden “Happy St. Patrick’s Day” Plaque
St. Patrick’s Day wired ribbon
Sparkly green wired ribbon

This wreath was quite easy to put together and it only took me about 45 minutes to complete. I started by attaching the green deco mesh to the work wreath, I simply looped the mesh from one twist tie to the next, around the outer ring and then I moved to the inner ring and did the same thing…

Then I attached the white deco mesh, this really filled the wreath out nicely. I honestly didn’t use any specific pattern when attaching this, I just looped and added it on top of the green mesh where I thought it looked nice…sometimes it was in a twist tie located on the outer ring and sometimes it was in a twist tie located on the inner ring. Very seldom do I just go at something with abandon like that, but, it really worked well with this particular wreath. 🙂

I then hot glued some pipe cleaners onto the back of the plaque so that I could attach it to the wreath form…

Then while that was drying, I made a bow out of the shamrock wired ribbon and attached it to the wreath…I left two very long tails on the bow.

After the plaque was dry, I attached it to the wreath. I took one long tail over the top and around to the plaque and the other tail around the bottom up to the plaque catching it in the outer ring’s twist ties as I went. I brought both ties together under the plaque and left two little tails hanging off the side of the plaque…

I also glued the three wooden shamrocks onto the wreath, two on the top center and one on the bottom center.

I cut the wired green sparkly ribbon into 8″ strips, I used the entire bolt.

I piled three strips on top of one another…

And then I cut an inverted “V” in both ends…

Then I attached each tuft of three into the outer ring’s twist ties…I didn’t put them in every single one, I only put them in the places where there needed to be a little somethin’ somethin’ more added; I flared them out to resemble a bit of a star shape.

I hot glued one sparkly shamrock to the center of each sparkly tuft…cute, cute. 🙂

I stood back and took a look and was satisfied with what I had created.

I took it outside and hung it on the light post in front of our house.

And while I was out there, I went ahead and switched out my decorative flags…

And I walked out to the mailbox and replaced the wooden heart with the wooden shamrock and I made a new green checked bow to match. If you’d like to see more about how my mailbox gets transformed each month, check out my post Seasonal Mailbox Decor…

I normally don’t redecorate the inside of our home for St. Patrick’s day, but these couple of little touches help the outside to look festive. 🙂

Until next time, y’all take care!

~Arlynn ❤

A Few Outdoor Changes for Valentine’s Day

On February 2, 2016February 5, 2016 By ArlynnIn Home Tour, Seasonal Decor, Transitioning Seasonal Decor6 Comments

February has arrived and as often happens when a new month arrives (especially one with a spiffy Holiday included) I get inspired to do just a few little decor tweaks outside. I typically do not redecorate the inside of my home for Valentine’s Day or St. Patty’s Day, but I do try to be a bit festive outside. As y’all know, I made two Valentine’s Day deco mesh wreaths, one in pink and white with just a touch of red and one in red and white… <~~~Those links will show you how I put both wreaths together quickly and easily. 🙂

First, I had to decide where I wanted to place that pink and white wreath because, let’s be truthful here, it really was completely different than the red one and would not look all that wonderful paired with my other red accent pieces that I have scattered about outside. So I chose to hang it on the wagon wheels that sit out in the front yard (they camouflage our well pipe)…

I feel that it sits far enough away from the house that it doesn’t compete too too much with the rest of the red decor…

The sidewalk’s light post is where I chose to place the red wreath, it pairs nicely with the cardinals on the flags and the red gazing ball…

Then I moved to the front porch…I didn’t put any Valentine’s Day accent pieces on there, but, I did change out the front door wreath for one that I had made last summer right before I started writing this Blog–therefore, I did not take pictures of the creative process when I made this wreath…my apologies. My idea with this wreath was to create something that I could hang up anytime of the year…in other words a more generically accented wreath.

Then I moved to the little red wagon that I have sitting on my porch…

Here is a link to My Little Red Wagon blog post showing you all of the different ways that I utilize this one “staple” accent piece…

I love how it looks in the evening hours too…

If you’d like to see how we came up with the accent lighting (up lights, wash lights, walkway lights, and the lights in the windows and the story behind those), check out my Special Outdoor Lighting post.

The morning after I took these pictures, the sun was shining beautifully and I was doing some organizing and came across this cute wooden heart…I went ahead and added it to my red wagon arrangement….

I also took a minute to take a picture of my sweet Brown Newf Samson. 🙂

Last but not least, I did make a bow and added some sparkly hearts to it and I tied it onto our mailbox…

See that wooden heart hanging under the mailbox? That is actually meant to be hung on a little decorative pole (I had it hanging on the front porch of our other home). I didn’t have a place that I wanted to hang the decorative pole here at this house, but, I’ve been using all of the “signs” that I collected throughout the years to augment my mailbox decor.

So, now, I’m all set for the month of February, I truly don’t do too much redecorating inside of the house through the winter months so adding just a little somethin’ somethin’ to our outdoor spaces keeps me tapping on those creative juices. 🙂

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

**In crafting there are no mistakes, just unique creations**

~Arlynn ❤

Deco Mesh Red & White Valentine’s Day Wreath

On February 1, 2016February 1, 2016 By ArlynnIn Seasonal Decor, Wreaths2 Comments

Happy February Y’all! I took a little time this past weekend to create another Valentine’s Day wreath. I know, I know, I had already made one wreath out of pink and white deco mesh, here it is and here is a link to show you how I brought that one to fruition…

But, I had already purchased all of the materials to make another Valentine’s wreath only in red and white deco mesh and accents. This one went together just as quickly and easily as the pink and white one did…Here are the supplies that I used:

16″ Work Wreath Form
1 Roll of Red 21″ x 10 yard Deco Mesh
Some leftover 21″ x 10 yard (red and white) Deco Mesh
1 Bolt of Wired Ribbon
Sparkly Hearts
Metal Plaque

Notice the “Christmas” labeling on this roll of deco mesh. I purchased this for 90% off!! Okay, so I’ve used it for a Valentine’s Day decoration…just as red as Christmas is in my book. 😉

I started this wreath by looping the solid red deco mesh into the work wreath’s pipe cleaners; I worked my way around the outer ring, then the inner ring…Then I added a row of the red and white deco mesh starting at the inner ring and working my way around the form alternating between the pipe cleaners on the inner and outer rings…

As I was starting to add the sparkly hearts, bow, and plaque I must have been mumbling under my breath that I couldn’t see what I was doing and I kept picking the wreath up and looking at it in an upright position–I always do that to try and figure out if everything will look okay when the wreath is hanging. The next thing I know, here comes the hubby with our camera’s tripod…lol…I then had a little wreath stand…I swear, he is a genius. NOT that I couldn’t have thought to do that…BUT, I have NEVER thought to do that! LOL 😉

Oh my goodness, I cannot tell you how much easier it is to put a wreath together with it standing upright like that. 🙂

Here is the finished wreath…

And here is where it is hanging…

Blog post coming up soon to show y’all where I ended up putting the pink and white Valentine’s wreath and to show you a few other things that I did to the front porch to transition that decor to a more generic country themed feel. 🙂 In other words, Valentine’s Day is not represented EVERYwhere in my decor…only outside with these two wreaths and just a couple of little things on my mailbox. 🙂

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

**In crafting there are no mistakes, just unique creations**

~Arlynn ❤

Deco Mesh Valentine’s Day Wreath (Pink & White)

On January 25, 2016February 2, 2016 By ArlynnIn Seasonal Decor, Wreaths8 Comments

This past weekend we had one massive snowstorm around this area and pretty much all I’ve done for the last several days is cook everyone’s favorite dish, watch the news that is reporting on how this area is completely shut down and how it will take days to dig us out, and battle my cabin fever. I’ve also played with my pups in the backyard, they are having a blast…I think I will write a post in the coming days so that I can show you what a good time they’ve had. 🙂 In the meantime, here are a couple of pictures…:)

And today, I took a few minutes out to combat my cabin fever and to create a very quick Valentine’s Day wreath. This wreath literally took me an hour (at most) to make. It was easy peezy to put together and anyone could do it. 🙂

Here are the supplies I used:

16″ Work Wreath
1 Roll of 21″ x 10 yard Deco Mesh
1 Bolt of Wired Ribbon
4 Heart ornaments
1 Wooden Plaque

The first thing that I did was to hot glue some pipe cleaners onto the back of the wooden plaque so that I could easily tie it onto the wreath form…

Then I looped the deco mesh into the work wreath’s pipe cleaners; I worked my way around the outer ring, then the inner ring, and then I put another row around the outer ring.

I made a big bow out of the ribbon…and tied it onto one side of the wreath, and then I tied the wooden plaque on the opposite side. I hot glued the heart ornaments on and called it a day. Honestly, easy as can be. 🙂

Here is the finished wreath:

I’m not totally sure where I will hang it quite yet…It will definitely be hung outside, possibly on my light post out front…

Or I might hang it on my wagon wheels…

Productivity is a good thing, and today, I felt like I was definitely productive. 🙂 Go me! 😉

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

**In crafting there are no mistakes, just unique creations**

~Arlynn ❤

⚜️ Arlynn's Country Craft Corner ⚜️

Category: Seasonal Decor

Christmas 2016: Home Tour #1

Christmas 2016: Quick Accent Centerpieces

Fall Lantern Centerpieces & More

Harvest Sign 2016–With Guest Blogger My Cousin Stacey

Happy Fall Y’all 2016 Series: Outdoor Decorations

Happy Fall Y’all 2016 Series: Living & Dining Rooms-Video Included

Easy St. Patrick’s Day Deco Mesh Wreath

A Few Outdoor Changes for Valentine’s Day

Deco Mesh Red & White Valentine’s Day Wreath

Deco Mesh Valentine’s Day Wreath (Pink & White)

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