Pick A Theme & Carry It From Room To Room

On March 23, 2016March 25, 2016 By ArlynnIn Country Decor Ideas4 Comments

I’ve spent a ton of time here in my Blog showing you how I transition from one Season/Holiday to the next via my decor. But, I have not shown you how I came up with my generic/every-day decor and how I made it work through-out our home. When we were building our new retirement home…

I spent the months that it was being built trying like heck to figure out how I was going to decorate. In my other home, I admittedly went a smidge overboard with my decor–in other words, I filled every single wall/corner/shelf that was blank and available. Don’t get me wrong, I think I did a good job, I just think I didn’t need to do quite as much…less is more and all of that you know?! 😉 SO, I knew that I loved “country” decor, but not the primitive everything looks really old kind of country–I do love that look too, but, I didn’t think it would be appropriate for this home. Okay, so I was getting frustrated trying to hone in on exactly where to start, after all, I was going to have to recreate the wheel so to speak–start from scratch–pull my hair out and…well you get my drift. One day, I finally sat myself down and listed the things that I love and things that I’d used throughout my many years of decorating that always turned out nicely. My list included:

Pip berries (garlands and picks),
Lanterns
Gerber daisies
Fleur-de-lis
Baskets
Willow Tree Figurines
Dickens Houses
Wooden Plates
Mini-lights

That was rather an eclectic little list I had going, but, as you’ll see, my “theme” became all of those things rolled into one cohesive design that has worked out beautifully in this home. I will highlight the back part of our home in this entry where I’ve used burgundy, khaki, & cream as my major color scheme. The staircase separates the family room/kitchen/eating area from the living and dining rooms that sit on the front of our home. I’ll do a separate post describing those rooms at another time; I use khakis and creams in there as well, but my main accent color in those rooms is a soft green.

Instead of explaining each and every decor element, I think I will just show you some pictures and give you links to my blog entries that will show you how I put certain things together.

Let’s start out with the kitchen, as you can see by the pictures below, I incorporated lanterns, baskets, wooden plates, and dickens houses among other things to create the Above The Kitchen Cabinet Decor…

I love to work with those kitchen windows; I’ve incorporated wooden plates, gerber daisies (wooden and silk), pip berry picks…Here is my The Ever Changing Kitchen Window Decor post:

Moving on into the family room area, our staircase is such a focal point, and my daughter actually gave me the idea to hang pip berry garland wrapped in white lights onto the railing. Talk about warming up a large space, adding that lit garland and then making bows to go at the swag points has become one of my favorite design elements in the house (we do switch it out for Christmas with pine garland); the entire idea started by me using burlap and swagging it onto the staircase). Here is a link describing all of the different ways in which I’ve switched up the Staircase Railing…My most recent design is pictured below…

I made all of those bows, and then I made a swag our of pip berry picks and gerber daisies to attach to the bullnose…

The fireplace is another focal point; I typically decorate the mantel and hearth. I have utilized, a pip berry garland, dickens houses, willow tree figurines, wooden plates, and a few other accent pieces to pull it all together.

I made the wreath that is hanging on the mirror above the mantel…If you’d like to try one for yourself, here is a link as to how I created it…

Creating Cozy Corners is another little design trick that I’ve honed over the years…I implemented my little trick on either side of the hearth as shown above, and also in the corners on either side of the credenza as shown below…

As seen in the picture above, I have found that adding Rod-Iron Scroll’y’ Pieces and Accent Lighting to my space helps to pull everything together nicely…

Lanterns are some of my most favorite things with which to work…I use them to create table centerpieces and have them scattered about throughout our home…

I found that flour-de-lis candle holder in Hobby Lobby and I used it much like I do my lanterns…

Here is the Powder room, I have tried to decorate it in much the same way as I did the kitchen and family room areas as it is close by. I just made this wreath right after Christmas, I tried to pull in all elements of my decor, i.e. gerber daisies, rod-iron (owls), pip berries (I used a pip berry garland)…OH goodness, why don’t I just give you a link, here is how I made that Burlap, Pip Berry, & Rod-Iron Wreath. 🙂

Lastly, one other way that I pull all of my decor together is my incorporating some of the same accent elements into my little flower arrangements, for this decor theme, I’ve used pip berries, gerber daisies, and that same burlap ribbon that I used to make the staircase bows.

I made these little arrangements for the kitchen window decor:

I made this basket arrangement to sit up on a shelf in the family room:

And one more, I made this arrangement to sit on a table in the family room:

My goal is to always create a warm, cozy, & welcoming space and I think I’ve accomplished that goal nicely–I sure stressed for a long time while trying to pull it all together in my head though. It wasn’t until I got moved into this home and started to work with the different spaces that it finally all came together into one cohesive design. I hope that I’ve helped to maybe give you an idea of how to incorporate your favorite things into your home decor and in turn how to make one cohesive design–You can do it, all you need to do is to start compiling a list of the things that you love. 🙂

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 ❤

Transitioning: Outdoor Touches

On January 7, 2016January 7, 2016 By ArlynnIn Transitioning Seasonal Decor4 Comments

I try to be a positive, upbeat person all of the time, I figure I have so much to be thankful for and I’m extremely grateful that I can put my feet on the floor each morning and traverse through my day with only a semblance of pain (in my knees…stupid things). Regardless, I would be fibbing if I said that I am a lover of the winter months because honestly, looking at the trees devoid of leaves is not my favorite site to behold. 😉 SO, I try to brighten my world a bit by adding some pops of my favorite color red into my outdoor decor, nothing too over the top just a little bit of somethin’ somethin’ here and there.

This was the house all decked out for Christmas:

We had wreaths on all of the window, and I decorated the front porch with little lit trees flanking the front door, lit garland around the door, and with my little red wagon filled with Christmassy accents. I also added that great “Let It Snow” Snowman:

I was completely thrilled with those decorations, and transitioning over to a more generic decor was going to create a less festive approach to the front door. Regardless, I soldiered on…The first thing I did was make several bows to go on the front door wreath along with the light post wreath, wagon wheels wreath, and mailbox. I didn’t want to go and buy new ribbon for this task, so I went to my honey hole (where I keep all things crafty) and found that I had enough of this white and burlap chevron ribbon:

I didn’t change out all of the wreaths out from my pine wreaths, instead, I just changed out the bows:

I did hang up that snowman trio — I change out that sign with each season, I’ve gathered quite the collection of these signs over the years. They are actually meant to hang on their own holder; I get them from Piper Classics, check out that link and you’ll see what I’m talking about. I choose to hang my signs on my mailbox though as here in our neighborhood it is the *in* thing to decorate up one’s mailbox…well, I’m all over that! lol 😉

I changed out the decorative flags in the front flower bed to ones with a wintery scene and with cardinals <~~A pop of that red color that I mentioned above….

Then I set to the task of tweaking the little red wagon decor, I certainly didn’t recreate the wheel here, instead I did more removing of the Christmas decor. I left the pine wreath and the lit pine garland (looks pretty in the evening), and I added back in my favorite doggie sign (pop of red), a bear (his bow is red), and a few other little items that add a bit of interest and they have touches of red as well–the little sign that is hanging on the crate and the red star ‘garland’ hanging on the front of the wagon. I really do love red and tend to gravitate toward it a lot. 🙂

I chose to leave the Snowman sign on the other side of the porch…

Gracie the Golden and Samson and Sophie the Newfoundlands approve. ❤

Here is the wagon in the evening hours:

And here are a few pictures of the house in the evening hours. My hubby worked really hard on all of the outdoor accent lighting, if you’d like to see what he did with up lights and wash lights, check out my blog entry entitled Special Outdoor Lighting.

So, now that everything is redecorated for the winter months, I think I might take a little break…uh huh, sure I will! 😉 Honestly though, I’m not positive what I’ll get into next, but, I’m sure it will have something to do with making something to add to this house that is gradually becoming a home filled with warmth, love, and cherished memories with each passing day.

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

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

~Arlynn ❤

Christmas 2015: Outdoor Decorations

On December 1, 2015December 8, 2015 By ArlynnIn Seasonal Decor7 Comments

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with family, friends, good food, and tons of love! We had a great time here, I ate way too much so I’m now back on my “regular diet” as opposed to my “see it eat it diet” that I was partaking in for too many days straight. 😉 I am forever working on my weight, maybe someday I’ll write a post about that part of my life. ANYway, I waited until Thanksgiving was over to decorate outside, I *think* I’m *finally* finished all of my decorating…wow, it took me 2 solid weeks to decorate the inside spaces and 2 days to decorate the outside — obviously, I do a lot less outdoors…haha. 😉

I love the look of lights in the windows, and as y’all know, I keep window lights on all year round. Also, my hubby installed wash lights, up lights, and walkway lights to illuminate the front of the house and the walkway. These lights go on and off every night controlled by a timer that turns them on at dusk and then off 6 hours later. If you’d like to see more about our outdoor special lighting, I’ve written this Special Outdoor Lighting blog. All of these lights worked in our favor when decorating for Christmas.

I will be highlighting the windows, front porch, front flowerbed, lamp post, wagon wheels, and a fence gate that leads to our backyard.

Okay, so here we go…

The hubby started the process by putting up wreaths on all 15 front windows, including the large palladium window above the little porch. We used 24″ pine wreaths, we purchased them at Michaels last year for 1/2 price. Here is a link. The wreath on the palladium window was quite a bit larger and I honestly can’t remember where we got that one. I did not make those bows! What? Nope, I purchased the bows last year at our local “And That” (Christmas Shop) store. They are pretty large and full though and that’s why I chose to go ahead and purchase them as opposed to making 15 bows…OH the hand cramps that would have ensued had I done that. 😉

As the hubby was working on the windows, I was working on the front porch decorations. Sometimes less is more you know? So we chose to only put a lit pine garland over the door and let it drape down the sides of the transom windows. We added a big lit pine wreath to the front door as well as little lit potted trees on either side of the door. I made bows to add to each corner of the garland, one for the wreath, and 2 to go on the little trees.

Now onto my little red wagon decor. For those of you who might not have seen my post about my little red wagon and all of the different looks that I’ve created to go inside of it, check out my Little Red Wagon Decor post. 🙂

I decided to move the wagon to the other side of the front porch because we have a spotlight mounted on the railing that illuminates the front door and the wagon had been blocking it, so I moved it out of the way. Here is the wagon stripped nekkid of all decor…I purchased it at our local Plow and Hearth outlet store last winter. I added that white crate that you see in the back and I have it sitting on top of my grandmother’s old milk can.

I had gone down into our basement and spent quite a while rifling through Christmas bins full of unused decorations. I knew I’d be able to find *something* to use in this wagon. I started with an old piece of pine garland. I wrapped a 35 Christmas light strand around it and placed it on top of the white crate and inside of the wagon; this garland would serve as a nice anchor for the rest of the grouping.

Next, I found an old pine wreath and wrapped lights around it as well and I made a bow out of the same plaid that I used for the over the door garland, front door wreath, and flanking potted trees.

I placed the wreath in the left hand corner and then started to build the rest of the grouping working from the top of the white crate down and from the wreath over. I added 2 solar powered lanterns (the white ones), a red lantern with a battery operated candle, a large burgundy candle stick with a battery operated candle, some poinsettias, a few sprigs of pine (placed inside of the white crate to add depth and interest). I found those sets of bells at Michaels for 1/2 price, so I hung them on the one side of the white crate and on the front center of the wagon–I used sprigs of the pine garland like twist ties and that worked beautifully to hold them in place. Lastly, I sat a pretty red and white snowman on a little red stool, and added a couple of wooden candy canes and called it done. 🙂 I got the big wooden snowman at Kirkland’s several years ago, I snugged him in beside the wagon. I stood back, took a look, and was satisfied with how it turned out. 🙂

Here it is all lit up at night:

And from a distance…

I found this large wooden snowman at The Christmas Mouse and I placed him on the other side of the porch beside the other potted tree…

Here he is at night, the spotlight shines on him too…

So, the hard part was done, now it was just a matter of changing out the decorative flags in the flower bed, switching out my gazing ball for a red one, adding a nice pine wreath to the light post & wagon wheels…

Yes, I made several of those plaid bows, and yes, my hands were so stinkin sore after doing so, but, I love that ribbon and I wanted something that would contrast nicely with the burgundy velvet window bows.

I finished up my outdoor decor by doing just a couple more little things. My dear friend Karen had given me 2 snowman wreaths years ago, at that time they had bright red ribbon bows and ribbon tied around the snowmen’s necks. I did a little repurposing to the wreaths…I decided to make new bows out of that plaid and use the same ribbon to tie around the snowmen’s necks…I hung them on either side of our “Newfie” gate (where silhouettes of our pups are located)… I also tied ribbon around the Newfs necks. 😉

It has been raining buckets here for the last few days, so I went on the search for something that I could spray on those fabric snowmen and on all of my bows that would be exposed to the weather. I found this at Home Depot…fingers crossed that it works!

To finish off my outdoor decor, I decorated up our mailbox…Here is that little design…

See that wooden candy canes sign 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 it here at this house, but, I’ve been using all of the “signs” that I collected throughout the years to augment my mailbox decor. I really need to do a post describing how I change out my mailbox decorations…I’ll get to that soon. 🙂 I get the signs from Piper Classics.

I can definitely say that I am completely (and finally) finished decorating for Christmas! I plan on writing one more Christmas themed entry showing y’all our large Christmas tree in our family room (honestly, nothing all that interesting crafting wise…but it sure is filled with all sorts of sentimental ornaments) and an all-over look-see around the house. I have really enjoyed doing my decorating this year and I’m glad that I started way before Christmas, I’d be a crazy lady now trying to get ‘er all done along with all of the shopping and wrapping.

I hope that this rain stops soon, I’m not complaining about the rain, I realize that we can always use the rain, but, I think I’d rather be seeing snow! 😉

Here is one last picture of our home all decked out for Christmas…

“Merry Christmas to ALL and to all a goodnight”. 😉

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

~Arlynn

Christmas Decorations 2015: Living & Dining Rooms (Silver & White with Touches of Teal and Light Green)

On November 18, 2015November 22, 2015 By ArlynnIn Seasonal Decor2 Comments

So, I was all finished decorating the back rooms of our home, i.e. family room, kitchen, kitchen’s eating area, powder room and all spaces that dwell within said rooms. As you have seen, I used the more traditional Christmas colors of burgundy and gold for that part of the house. In my past posts I have explained that my accent color for the front rooms of our home is a pretty green that is seen everywhere I look in most stores and I pair it with khakis and creams. So, my Christmas decorating goal was to utilize that same green and add silver, teal, and white therefore creating light, airy, and hopefully cozy rooms. Let me reiterate a bit about my decorating style, my all-over goal is to always provide a place where whomever enters feels as if they can sit down, put their feet up, pet a big dog, have a cup of coffee, tea, or hot cocoa, and be as comfortable here as they would feel in their own home. I always, no matter the time of year, use warm mostly earth tones throughout the house and I add pops of color with my decor. I mostly stick with burgundies, khakis, and creams (for my regular decor) in the back rooms of the house, and that pretty green color for the front rooms. All that said, I was worried that by adding the lighter colors of silver, white, and teal for Christmas that I might ‘cool’ those rooms down a bit. BUT, I was determined to try because I love the clean and bright look that those lighter colors can bring to a room. Also, those rooms are a smidge more formal to begin with just because of the cherry wood furniture; I have 3 pieces that were handed down to me from my grandmother and then my mom, we also have our own dining room furniture; all pieces are a dark cherry color. Before we moved in here, we purchased a new couch and 2 chairs for the living room selecting comfortable, lighter colored furniture that would help to stave off the formality that the cherry furniture inherently puts forth. We tried our best to mix the old with the new, I feel like we accomplished our mission.

All that said, I’ll now show you how I decorated these pretty rooms that sit on the front of our home separated by the foyer…

This is looking at the back of our our front door, living room to the left and dining room to the right, family room behind me…

First, the dining room:

Here are a couple of things that I created for the dining room, first, the dining room table’s lantern centerpiece. I will not bore you with another “how to make a lantern centerpiece” in this entry. If you would like to know how to do so, please check out my A Lantern Centerpiece For All Seasons link. 🙂

Here are all of the accent pieces that I used to create this centerpiece (using the very same tray and lantern as I highlighted in the link above):

I also made a bow and attached some of the same accent pieces that I was using in the arrangement to the back of the bow via the pipe cleaner with which I closed the bow and tied it onto the top piece of the lantern. Here is my Bow Tutorial (Video) if you’d like to see how to make a tiered bow…

Next, the sideboard.

First, my Aunt and Uncle gave us that pretty white and silver bowl on the left, I was sure that this was the place that I wanted to show off its prettiness…so that was the very first thing that I set up on the sideboard. I then added the candle sticks, Christmas trees, reindeer, and then set my sights on creating something special to go around that lamp…

The lamp was my grandmother’s and then my mom had it in her house for many years, and its resting place before coming to me was in my mom’s nursing home room.

It is a very, very special lamp so I wanted to do it justice. Unfortunately, I was concentrating so hard on making this arrangement that I neglected to take pictures of how I created it. It wasn’t hard though, all it really is are a couple of white flocked pine picks, a few white and silver pinecone ornaments, and a few sparkly white and silver poinsettias. OH, I did add a battery operated mini light set (with a timer)…

The dining room hutch’s decor is simply a green pine garland wrapped with white lights, 3 big silver bows, and a few silver Christmas trees, the lanterns and the rest of the decor remain on the top of the hutch year round…

Now for the living room:

The first thing, I created for this room was a smaller lantern centerpiece to go on top of another one of my pieces that used to be my grandmother’s, this little table:

As you can see, it has a glass top on it, but check this out, you can actually lift the glass top completely off. I keep whatever doily that I am using under the glass…

I started my centerpiece with a silver tray that used to be my mom’s (as you can see, there are many sentimental pieces in these rooms)…

I placed a lantern on the tray and surrounded it with a pip berry garland and then started to add the other accent pieces

I placed a battery operated candle inside the lantern and stepped back, I was happy with what I saw…

There is one more little grouping that I just made up today after I took a trip to our local Kirkland’s store. I purchased those stackable lit gift boxes, I just couldn’t resist them, they were the perfect color to pair with the rest of the decor that I had planned for that rod-iron and glass table (which I also got at Kirkland’s shortly after we moved into this house)…

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This old secretary is one of my favorite pieces that I inherited from my grandmother. My Aunt just told me a couple of stories that I had never heard about this piece of furniture. Apparently, my grandmother purchased this Secretary by selling her homemade candy (I remember as a child we’d help her pull butter mints, I’m not sure if that’s the candy to which she is referring, but what a neat story!). And apparently, the 13 panes of glass in each door represents the first 13 original States. What?! I love these stories!!! 🙂 ANYway, I love to give it a different look as the seasons change. I remember sitting at it as a child and opening up all of the drawers that contained all sorts of fun treasures and pretending like I was a secretary…sweet, sweet memories. ANYway, I choose to leave the big door open and put a bit of decor on the inside (maybe when I have grandchildren one day, I’ll have to fill up those little drawers with all sorts of goodies and help to make some sweet memories for those little tykes). The picture on the top is a picture of my beautiful mom on her and my dad’s wedding day. **Miss you mom!!** Anyway, here is how I decorated it up for Christmas this year:

I purchased our white Christmas tree last year at Walmart if you can believe that?! lol And it is a beauty! It does put off a pink hue though, so I kept the decorations on the tree to a minimum. I didn’t want to fight with the pink and I didn’t want to add tons of pink to the decor in the rest of the space. So I added a big iridescent bow topper, a lit tree topper above the bow…

Then I added silver beaded garland, and ornaments in silver, white, a few pink, and ornaments that were a very subtle green…

I put a white tree skirt on the floor and added a little lit church and tree and called it done. 🙂 It looks beautiful sitting in the bay window, I love to see the reflections of the tree in all of the windows.

And check it out from outside…wow!!

Here are some pictures of the rooms as a whole…I am quite pleased with how it all turned out. I have found myself walking in there and drinking in all of the memories that are conjured up while moving my eyes from one piece to the next. Sweet, sweet, precious memories that I hold very close to my heart. ❤

I hope y’all have enjoyed seeing all of my creations for this Christmas, the only things that I have left to do are the big Christmas tree that will go up on Thanksgiving Day in the family room (the family will help to decorate that) and the outside. I will be sure write a little blog about both things. Let me take a moment to thank those of you who have commented and those of you who come back and check to see what this silly crafter has been doing. I’ve really enjoyed sharing my creations and home with you all…

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

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

Christmas 2015: Burlap Snowman Wreath (Light Teal and Silver)

On November 16, 2015December 5, 2016 By ArlynnIn Seasonal Decor7 Comments

I was getting ready to start decorating the front rooms of our home for Christmas and I realized that weeks ago I had gathered everything that I needed to make this light and airy feeling snowman wreath for the inside of my front door; I needed to get it made and put up before I started on the other decor.

I found that metal snowman in Hobby Lobby several weeks ago and he was just the color that I use all year round and will be using again to accent my Christmas decor in those front rooms.

This is a very large wreath, I created it using a 24″ work wreath, and in its finished state it measures every bit of 30+ inches from one side to the other.

I used 3, 9′ burlap rolls that I found in Walmart, it is your normal burlap color with stamped white snowflakes added. I will say that it was quite stiff and not all that easy to manipulate and my hands were pretty crampy when I was finished muscling it around the outer and inner rings of the work wreath. I use a looping style when I make burlap wreaths; I move from one twist tie to the other making large loops (probably 8-10″ worth of burlap) in between.

As you can see here in this picture, the snowflakes are only stamped on one side of the burlap, so I had to be really careful not to get the burlap twisted upside-down during the attaching process, that was a bit of a challenge.

Thank goodness I had the presence of mind to purchase 3 skeins of the burlap because I used every single bit of it except for this much:

After the burlap was attached, I took a roll of 5″ burlap in that green color and started attaching it to all of the twist ties on the outer ring of the wreath form. I made loops just about as large as I had the burlap loops.

Next, I made a big bow out of wired coordinating ribbon and left myself two long tails, I attached the bow and then looped one of the tails up and over the top of the wreath catching it in a couple of the outer twist ties and then cutting an upside-down “v” at the end, and I looped the other tail down below the bow and looped and caught it in a couple of the outer twist ties and cutting the end into that upside-down “v”.

Next, I attached the metal snowman using the twist ties on the wreath and then I took the white wired ribbon and continued looping it around the snowman and on top of the green burlap ribbon.

Next, I added the flowers and snowflakes, I used the twist ties to attach the flowers and I hot glued the snowflakes in and among the flowers.

The last thing that I did was to hot glue a couple of pipe cleaners on to the top of the wooden “Merry Christmas” sign and then I used the twist ties to attach the sign onto the wreath form.

I absolutely LOVE this wreath, it might be one of the favorite ones that I’ve ever made. 🙂 And it looks really pretty hanging on the inside of my front door. 🙂 I am ready to decorate the rest of the space now that this beauty is in place.

Here are a few pictures of the finished product…

And the doggies posed prettily in front of it just this morning. 🙂

Onward I go with my decorating, I’m *almost* finished!

Next, I’ll be highlighting how I made this lantern centerpiece for my dining room table…

Stay tuned! 🙂

Wait!! Fast forward a few weeks and I’ve now added two battery operated timed light strands to this wreath…It looks so pretty at night–it comes on at dusk and goes off 6 hours later. Here are a couple of pictures:

Check out my “Merry & Bright With Battery Operated Lights” entry to see where else I’ve utilized battery operated lights in my Christmas decorations. 🙂

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

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

Christmas 2015: Lantern Centerpiece & More (Traditional Christmas Colors)

On November 14, 2015November 14, 2015 By ArlynnIn Seasonal Decor1 Comment

Continuing on with showing y’all how I am decorating our home for Christmas; I’ve been working for almost a solid week on the rooms that span the back of our home (family room, kitchen, kitchen eating area, and the staircase–all of which are completely open to one another). In this entry, I will be highlighting a couple of centerpieces that I made, one, a lantern centerpiece for the kitchen table, and two a centerpiece for the kitchen’s island. Also, I’ll be showing you how I decorated my kitchen window sills–I change the decor on the sills with every season.

So let’s start with the kitchen island arrangement. The first thing I do when I go to make anything like this is to gather all of the materials I *think* I might use.

I decided to made a candle ring to go around the candle first. I cut off some stems for the big bunch of red berries and used floral wire to hold it closed.

Then I started to add all of the accent pieces starting with a piece of pine garland, cutting apart the red berries bunch and sticking it in here and there and finishing off with burlap poinsettia flowers (they had a clip on the back, so I clipped them to the pine garland at each corner). It turned out to be a fun little piece one that can easily be picked up and moved out of the way when necessary.

Next, I’ll show you how I decorated the window sills; we have large windows that crank open and the sills are really wide, so I’ve had fun changing up the decor on them; here is a link to my Ever Changing Window Decor blog post so you can see what else I’ve done in the past.

I was really looking forward to creating a centerpiece for the kitchen table using a pretty lantern that I purchased last winter. This would be my first attempt at creating a Christmassy arrangement. In anticipation of how I wanted this centerpiece to look, I purchased a new Christmas tablecloth and built my design around that; burgundy and white would be my accent colors. Again, the first thing I did was to gather all of the accents that I thought I might use. I planned on reusing the big metal and mirrored tray that I’ve used to make every other centerpiece utilizing the lantern. Here is a link to my A Lantern Centerpiece For All Seasons blog post just in case you’d like to take a look at what else I’ve created in the past year. Anyway, back to this piece, here we go…

I purchased this candle at Lowe’s and it is so pretty!
I’ve chosen to have it turn on in the evenings and go off 5 hours later…It looks like a snow globe when it is turned on.

Now, this may seems silly, but there are times that I definitely improvise. I needed to elevate the candle just a smidge inside the lantern, but I didn’t have a candle holder big enough (in circumference) to fit the candle, so I used this little ramekin turned upside-down. 🙂 I knew that it’d be hidden by a pine candle ring, so it worked like a charm…The candle base snugged down over the ramekin nicely.

I used an old pine candle ring that I had in my stash to go around the candle inside of the lantern…

My only other accent pieces were these big bunches of red sparkly berries and pine, a Merry Christmas sign, sparkly poinsettias and white burlap wired ribbon…

This was honestly so easy to put together, I just placed a red berries bunch on three sides and placed the Merry Christmas sign on the front and cut apart another berries bunch and arranged it behind and over the sign. I used 4 of the sparkly poinsettias, one one each side…

I made a bow, here is a link to my How To Make A Bow Tutorial (Video) if you want to know how to make one of these bow. In addition, I made a little ‘handle’ for lack of a better word, and tied it and some red berries to the bow. I slid that handle over the top piece on the lantern and completed the project.

When my hubby got home from work that evening, he took a look at this centerpiece and said “Wow, that looks beautiful!!!”, I took that as a huge compliment considering he sees everything that I create on a daily basis…haha. 🙂

I’m almost finished decorating this part of the house, in my next post, I’ll highlight a couple other little centerpieces, a couple of cozy corners, and the powder room.

Sneak Peek:

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

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

Deco Mesh Christmas Wreath (Red & White Striped & Snowman)

On October 20, 2015October 25, 2015 By ArlynnIn Seasonal Decor1 Comment

Deco mesh has become one of my favorite things with which to make my outdoor wreaths. It holds its shape and handles rainy or snowy days beautifully. 🙂 I have been making wreaths for my front light post as the seasons pass since last winter, so I decided to go ahead and get my Christmas wreath made today. Honest to goodness, I wish I could find my “off switch” sometimes, I truly am like the energizer bunny and I am rarely idle. I shouldn’t complain huh? I should be very grateful that I can still put my feet on the floor in the morning and go through my day with an exorbitant amount of energy. 😉 🙂

So, here we go…I used a 16″ “work wreath” which only means that it is a metal form with chenille twist ties already attached. I actually was able to find one with red twist ties on sale at Hobby Lobby in the Christmas department.

I was able to do this entire wreath with one roll of deco mesh:

I started this wreath by unrolling a good bit of the deco mesh and start attaching it to the outer ring of the work wreath. I then started to make loops using about 10″ of mesh for each loop. I followed that pattern all the way around the outer ring and then transferred to the inner ring and did the same thing until I had filled all of the twist ties…

Now to add a few extra adornments to the wreath, I took some 5″ deco mesh ribbon in the same pattern that I used for the wreath and I cut 4- 12″ strips, and I did the same thing with some red and white striped wired ribbon.

Then I made a little pile consisting of one piece of the cut deco mesh, one piece of the red and white ribbon, and I added a white “snowflake” pick and bundled them all together and placed them into one of the twist ties on the wreath. I did that 3 more times strategically placing the 4 tufts around the wreath.

A bow was next, I made it out of the same 5″ deco mesh and red and white ribbon that I had used for the little tufts. Here is a link to my “How to make a bow tutorial” (video)…

I found a “Merry Christmas” worded sign with glittery white lettering, I was able to tie that into the twist ties; I did glue it in a couple of places as well…

Next, it was time to place a few snowmen and candy Christmas ornaments; I hot glued them into place and called it done.

When it is time to decorate for Christmas, this wreath will replace my Fall wreath on the light post…

Or possibly, it will replace the spray on the wagon wheels…

I’m extremely happy with how this wreath turned out and *bonus* it only took me 45 minutes to make from start to finish; I hope that this will inspire someone out there to try one for themselves. You can do it!

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

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

Burlap “Woodlands” Wreath for Winter

On October 19, 2015October 20, 2015 By ArlynnIn Wreaths2 Comments

Hi Y’all,

It is that time of the year when I start gearing up to make a few things to add to my Christmas decor and since we’ve only lived in this new house for a couple of years, I’m still gathering, creating, and building up choices with which to decorate for the Holidays. I headed to my happy place Hobby Lobby today to gather materials to make a wreath for the inside of my front door to be used with my Christmas decorations.

As I was searching–really wandering around aimlessly– I came across these platinum gold’ish’ flowers that looked kind of like poinsettias, the same color beads, and a pick with leaves and sparkly beads. Every single thing that I bought was 40% off today…

Then I found these really cute resin owls in the same color scheme:

I fell in love with all of that stuff so my entire plan for that wreath changed. Instead of me making an ‘in your face’ Christmas wreath (using that pretty country green that I use as an accent color in that part of the house), it turned into kind of a “Woodlands” wintery wreath which I think will pair beautifully with all of my Christmas decor. I can always incorporate some of the green color later if I want to do so, but for now, I’m completely pleased with how it turned out. 🙂

Here is how I made this wreath:

I used a 24″ wreath form with the pipe cleaners already attached:

You’ll need 2 skeins of Burlap ‘runner’ for this sized wreath form…

I hot glued pipe cleaners on the back of both owls so that I could ‘tie’ them onto the wreath–I knew that they’d be too heavy to glue into place…

The first thing I did was to attach the burlap, I unrolled most of the skein, gathered the end and started placing it into one of the pipe cleaners on the outside of the wreath form. I then made a large loop (probably at least 10″ long) and caught it into the next pipe cleaner on the outer ring of the wreath form. I continued making loops around the entire outer ring of the wreath form; I used an entire skein for this row…

I then opened the other skein and started working in the same manner around the inner ring…

I used most of the 2nd skein on the inner row; you can see in the picture below how much I had left over…

This size wreath form makes a huge wreath, it literally is almost as wide as my front door and it measures 30″ around…

I then made a bow out of this chevron burlap ribbon…Here is a link to my “How to make a bow tutorial” video…

And then I proceeded to catch the remaining chevron ribbon in pipe cleaners. I caught it in every other twist tie moving from the outer ring to the inner ring then back out to the outer ring’s pipe cleaners working my way around the entire wreath.

After I was finished adding in the chevron ribbon, I placed my bow where I wanted it on the wreath, then I tied the owls on, and started placing the flowers. There is no rhyme or reason or pattern to this part of the wreath making process, you just need to let your creative juices flow and place the flowers where you think they look pretty. I then hot-glued everything in place for security (sometimes I won’t do that, but those poinsettias were rather heavy and I didn’t want them to fall out)…

After I was finished tweaking it–took me a few minutes to get it exactly how I wanted it, I hung it up on my foyer door. I’m completely happy with how it turned out and I will probably leave it up there through Christmas and the Winter months.

It just goes to show you that even my best laid plans can turn into something completely different. I’m happy that I let myself step out of my original thought process regarding this wreath. Go me! 😉

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

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

How To Make A Bow Tutorial (Video)

On October 7, 2015October 8, 2015 By ArlynnIn Uncategorized9 Comments

Hi All,

I’ve made y’all a little “How To Make A Bow” tutorial…I hope this helps any of you who might like to attempt to make one. In this video, I make two bows, the first one is with a one-sided, (meaning it has a back and a front) burlap ribbon and I made the second one out of a double-sided wired country plaid ribbon. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to leave them in the comments section below. 🙂

~Arlynn ❤

⚜️ Arlynn's Country Craft Corner ⚜️

Tag: craft bow

Pick A Theme & Carry It From Room To Room

Easy St. Patrick’s Day Deco Mesh Wreath

Transitioning: Outdoor Touches

Christmas 2015: Outdoor Decorations

Christmas Decorations 2015: Living & Dining Rooms (Silver & White with Touches of Teal and Light Green)

Christmas 2015: Burlap Snowman Wreath (Light Teal and Silver)

Christmas 2015: Lantern Centerpiece & More (Traditional Christmas Colors)

Deco Mesh Christmas Wreath (Red & White Striped & Snowman)

Burlap “Woodlands” Wreath for Winter

How To Make A Bow Tutorial (Video)

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