Transitioning: Living & Dining Rooms

On January 5, 2016January 5, 2016 By ArlynnIn Transitioning Seasonal Decor2 Comments

Now that the decor in the back of the house including the staircase was completely transitioned over to my every-day decor, it was time to tackle the two rooms that sit on the front of our home, the living and dining rooms that are separated by a foyer. I was able to complete these rooms in one day.

The first thing that I did was to change out the dining room table’s tablecloth and the sideboard’s table runner. I was thrilled that I found a matching set last Spring (I found the tablecloth at Home Goods and the table runner at World Market). 🙂

I love the paisley pattern, it pulls in all colors that are in the room and highlights the green color that I use in most of my accents; they couldn’t be more perfect. 🙂

The first thing that I decorated was the sideboard, I started with that pretty lamp…

**A bit of a back story on the lamp, it was my Grandmother’s and she passed it down to my Mom who cherished it for many years. My Mom, bless her heart, passed away a few years ago and now the lamp belongs to me and I will cherish it for the rest of my time on this earth. It is a very special family heirloom**

That said, I placed the lamp on a mirrored tray and I built a flower arrangement around the lamp, much like I do with my lantern centerpieces.

As you can see, I also added a strand of timed battery operated mini warm white lights…Here is a better look at it in the evening hours:

I added some family pictures, a lovely bowl displayed on a plate holder that my aunt and uncle got us as a housewarming gift, and I threw together a little flower arrangement in a mason jar to match the arrangement around the lamp:

Then I moved on to a lantern centerpiece that I would place on the dining room table. I won’t go into great detail as to how I put it together here, but if you’d like to know more about the ins and outs of creating a lantern centerpiece, check out my A Dressier Lantern Centerpiece post.

That said, there is one thing that I want to tell you about before showing you pictures of the completed centerpiece. I found these LED bendy branch lights at Michaels and I just couldn’t pass them up. They glow a blueish green color and look beautiful lit up in the evening hours. 🙂

Here are the lights that I purchased (if you search for these, please be careful to make sure that the the branches bend, they do sell ones where the branches are stiff and those of course wouldn’t work in a flower arrangement):

I decided to use one of my Luminara battery operated candles in this lantern, it came with a remote control, but, actually I have set the timer on the candle itself, it comes on in the evening and stays on for 5 hours…

Here is the finished centerpiece:

And in the evening with those pretty bluish lights on:

Then I moved to the foyer, I simply replaced the Burlap Snowman Wreath with this one:

If you’d like to know how I put this wreath together, check out my blog post entitled Front Door Burlap Wreaths:

Here is my ever vigilant helper Samson the Newfoundland, this boy is never too far from my side, he is great company and I just adore this fella!!

And here are all three of our pups, the Newfoundlands Sophie and Samson and the Golden Gracie. ❤ ❤ ❤

I finished my decorating by moving to the living room and placing just a few accent pieces and pictures on my secretary and on a glass table grouping. I also redid the lantern centerpiece on our little coffee table:

Here is a look at the finished rooms:

And with that, I had completely transitioned all of my indoor decor from Christmas back to my every-day theme. I do love Christmas but, I will admit that I was quite happy to get everything back to normal. 🙂

I have one more post to do in this little block of entries and that is one describing what I did outside…and that wasn’t all that much honestly, but, it did include redoing my little red wagon decor…

There it is from a distance:

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

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

~Arlynn ❤

Seasonal Transitioning: Kitchen & Surrounding Area

On January 4, 2016January 4, 2016 By ArlynnIn Transitioning Seasonal DecorLeave a comment

The hard part of my transformation from Christmas to my every-day decor was finished. The Staircase Decor, Fireplace Decor, & Family Room (along with the surrounding corners and shelves) always takes the most time and effort. (I inserted posts that describe those specific spaces). In this post, I’ll be highlighting the kitchen, kitchen eating area and surrounding area including a couple of cozy corners. I will not bore you with the “how-to” details in this post. I will provide you links to my “how to” posts along the way and they will show you how I put together my cozy corners and lantern. 🙂

Here we go…I started by switching out my tablecloth on the kitchen table and then I created a lantern centerpiece…

Here is a link to my A Lantern Centerpiece For All Seasons post, in that post I describe how I take this same lantern and tray through the Seasons. 🙂

Next, I worked on my kitchen hutch:

And then a cozy corner that sits to the left of the hutch:

I have a lovely corner shelf, that is what I worked on next:

And then I moved into the powder room:

I added a few little things to this grouping that sits on top of the kitchen desk:

And then I moved on to the kitchen windows:

After I got those windows finished, this side of the house was done!!!

Yippee Skippee!! I did the “Happy Dance”!! It felt so good to get all of that accomplished. 🙂

Here is that link that I promised to provide y’all to my How To Create Cozy Corners and More post. There is a plethora of info included in that link. 🙂

I still had the living and dining rooms left to do, and I did a little tweaking to the outside of the house as well. Both of those posts will be coming up in the next couple of days…stay tuned. 🙂

Here is a sneak peek of the living and dining rooms:

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

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

~Arlynn

Christmas Decorations 2015: Merry & Bright With Battery Operated Lights

On November 22, 2015November 22, 2015 By ArlynnIn Seasonal Decor7 Comments

The one thing good about getting the Christmas decorations in place a little early is that between now and Christmas I can continue to add to, mess with, and tweak things…<rolling eyes>. 😉 Just kidding, once things are in place, I normally don’t mess with the creation too, too much. But, I have to say that I’ve discovered these wonderful little battery operated mini light strands at Walmart this year, so some tweaking I did yesterday. I’ve used battery operated strands in the past and they lasted for all of a day before they burned out and I got frustrated with them. Like everything else in the world, *they* <~~~those people who tweak these sorts of things~~~ must have improved the workability of these spiffy lights as they perform a ton better now-a-days and I’ve found that they add just a touch of ‘somethin’ somethin’ to a few of my wreaths and centerpieces. They add a subtle glow in the evening hours that just calms my very being. 🙂 I’m always all about accent lighting and how it warms a room right up. So here we go…

Here are the two types of lights that I found, they come in “Warm White”, “Multi-Colored”, and a array of solid colors, i.e. red, green, and blue. Also, there are different bulb counts, I used 18, 36, and on the larger bulbs, 20 count. They range in price from $4 to $6 (for the larger bulb variety)…

They come with a battery pack which is easily hidden in wreaths and centerpieces. They also have built in timers and once they are turned on they automatically turn off after 6 hours. (So I put them in place and waited for it to get dark outside before turning them on)

Also, the timer has 3 different options…”Timer Fading”, Timer Flashing”, or “Timer Steady On”–I set mine to “Timer Steady On” just because ‘fading’ or ‘flashing’ would drive me bonkers:

Here are some examples of how I’ve utilized these little lights…

This wreath hangs up on the mirror above the fireplace, I have a set of the “Ultra Slim” lights (36 count) on that wreath.

I used a set of 18 multi-colored lights for this little arrangement…

I used a set of 18 warm white lights for this arrangement…

I used two sets of 18 warm white for this arrangement…

One set of 18 warm white lights brightened up this little centerpiece nicely…

I used 2 sets of 18 multi-colored lights for this centerpiece that sits on the kitchen island…

I added one strand of 18 warm white lights to this little arrangement that sits in the powder room. It sure brightens up a room that has no natural light…love it!

I wanted to brighten up a couple of my wreaths as well, again, I just snugged the battery pack down into the wreaths and actually caught the wire into one of the twist ties on the work wreath. It worked like a charm.

And I used two sets of 20 warm white bulbs on this next wreath. This wreath is huge, over 30+ inches around…

So, there we go, I only tweaked a few things, but the warmth that a silly little battery operated light strand brings to a room is just amazing. 🙂

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

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

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)…

12246775_10207681669310199_2196726655940247164_n

12249670_10207681669550205_6863634880438833604_n

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: 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**

Christmas: Staircase Pine and Ornament Garland

On November 9, 2015 By ArlynnIn Seasonal Decor3 Comments

Tis the Season right?! Welllllllll, maybe not quite for most. 😉 But, for me, I am starting my Christmas decorating way earlier than I usually do, yes, I’d say November 8th is pretty early. There are several reasons for this change in my normally very strict and scheduled regimen which in the past has included such things as pulling all of the Fall decor down and starting on the Christmas decorating the very next day after Thanksgiving. Have I mentioned that I’m a very organized, anal retentive person who must stick to a schedule at all times? I drive myself and I’m sure those around me crazy with my structured ways. So, I’m trying to lighten up a bit and break away from that ridiculous regime that I have always set up from myself; as I age, that type of thing just stresses me out more than it helps me. I no longer am juggling kids and volunteering and crafting and any number of other things that I was involved in earlier in my life, now, it’s just the pups and me rattling around in this big house, so I’ve got the luxury of taking my time and spreading my decorating out over a couple of weeks as opposed to the mad dash to get Fall put away and Christmas set up the day after Thanksgiving. Let’s not forget that I pretty much redecorate the main level of our home for both ‘Seasons’ and if I waited till Thanksgiving Day to deconstruct Fall and reconstruct Christmas, well, I’d be working up until Christmas…add in there Christmas shopping and wrapping <~~~~my biggest “pet peeve”, well, I’d be a blithering idiot! lol 😉

So yesterday I started to deconstruct Fall, BUT, since my hubby was home and he had graciously agreed to help me do a few things in the Christmas decorating realm that I might not be able to handle myself while he’s at work, I also started my Christmas decorating. That’s right, I lightened up my schedule and then I straddled myself with a ton of work to get done in one day—Well, I’m a work in progress in and of myself obviously. lol 😉 The first thing that happened was that I went to the basement and delineated which “FALL” bins I needed to be carried upstairs <~~~hubby’s job, stairs are not my friend…bad knees. While the hubby was doing the grunt work, I was starting to grab all things Fall, i.e. scarecrows, leaves, sunflowers…well you get the picture. I sat myself down with gallon sized ziplock bags and a sharpie to be used to pack away (in an organized fashion of course) and label certain centerpiece accents and such. This monumental task took quite a while…I will admit that I did not enjoy this part of my day…;)

In the midst of me doing all of this, after he had finished carrying all of my “Fall” bins upstairs, my hubby had retrieved the Christmas staircase pine garland from the basement, yes, that place that holds all things Holiday and much, much more. 😉 (He had already removed the pip berry garland from the railing; I hadn’t seen that railing nekkid in a long, long time. Didn’t like it much!)

We purchased these strands of pre-lit pine garland from the Pottery in Williamsburg, VA last year and I believe they are 9′ in length. I *think* we used 3 lengths for the staircase…might have been 4, I honestly can’t rightly remember…blah to me huh?!

So the task of attaching the garland to the railing commenced…hubby’s job…and sometimes not all that easy of a task to complete considering that we are both crazy picky and the swag points have to be the same length…ugh…y’all get the picture. That said though, my hubby has a great eye and he hardly had to tweak one swag point after he was finished. YaY!!

Next, I had found this “Ornament Garland” at Walmart a couple of weeks ago:

I used a strand of it to make this wreath…(Here is the link if you’d like to know how I put this wreath together):

And I had the bright idea that I wanted to add it to the staircase garland because I was not interested in making my own ornament garland which I know would probably send me over the edge. lol SO, first thing we needed to do was to locate a bunch of boxes of these Ornament Garlands…took us trips to 2 different Walmarts. I cleaned both Walmarts out and I purchased 8 boxes at $20 a pop, yes, a bit pricey, but, the end result was well worth the cost, not to mention the ease with which they attached; worth their weight in gold in my humble opinion.

This stuff is so nice! And the bulbs are shatter-free bulbs which is a great bonus for us considering that we have clumsy people (me) and long swishy tails (the dogs) running around this house. Each strand is 6′ long and the bulbs are attached to a plastic ‘feeling’, very pliable cording type stuff…I used 7-1/2 strands on the staircase garland…

To attach the ornament garland, we simply made a trough in the pine garland, snugged the ornament garland down into the trough and used the pine sprigs like twist ties and simply tied it in. We did do a tiny bit of mixing of the ornaments into the pine garland, but honestly, it somehow came together beautifully! I was jumping for joy and doing the happy dance when I stood back and took a look at our work. Wow!! 🙂

Next, I attached all of those big Christmas bows –Here is a link to tell you about those Big, Beautiful Christmas Bows.

The next thing I did was to create a pine ‘spray’ to go on the bullnose at the bottom of the stairs. I took some pine ‘pics’ that I found at Hobby Lobby and tied them all together with a pipe cleaner, I stuck the tied end down into the bullnose and then I added a strand of 15 white lights, a few gold lacy flowered pics, a few gold berry bead pics, and I cut the 8th and last strand of ornament garland in half and used it to wrap in and around the spray. Then I attached the last big bow…

In years past, I’ve never been able to wrap my brain around or muster the strength to figure out how to make a pine ornament garland, but, I have to say that this pre-made ornament garland from Walmart made it so easy to bring this project to fruition. It looks amazing and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out! 🙂

Onward I go with my decorating…Stay tuned, I’m sure I’ll be posting blogs about my projects, cozy corners, table top decor, mantel and hearth decor…etc..etc…

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

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

OH wait, I had cut the last strand of Ornament Garland in half, I only needed half of it to go on the bullnose spray. I used the other half to create this little lantern decor–easy peezy little task. I took a tray, sat the lantern down on the tray, wrapped the rest of the ornament garland around the lantern and added just a few snowflake ornaments. 🙂

Master Bedroom & Bathroom

On October 15, 2015 By ArlynnIn Home Tour5 Comments

Hi All,

I would have to say that our bedroom is the least decorated of all of the rooms in the house, but, regardless, I’ll go ahead give you a little glimpse. When we built this house, we had this room extended by 4 feet which makes this quite a large room–25′ x 16′ (or thereabouts). We have a king-sized bed, two bedside tables, two dressers, a corner shelf, two chairs with a stand in between them, and my cedar chest and we still have tons of room. We have two walk-in closets and master bath as well.

The master bathroom is quite large as well, and I must admit that I do love it. We had a master bathroom in our other house, but it was tiny (not complaining, at least we had one). We have a separate soaker tub in there, I’ve never had one of those in my life. 🙂 Also, we did special order those plantation shudders for on the bay window; I will admit, they are wonderful and I’m so very glad that we bit the bullet (they were pricey) and purchased them.

We each have our own vanity…Of course, I had to make a little something to sit on mine. 😉

A couple of extras are that the tiles in the shower go all the way up to the ceiling and the shower door is a very heavy piece of glass (devil to clean too…haha).

We also have a toilet room…goodness gracious! 😉 Of course I had to do a little decorating in there…

Well, that does it for the interior of our home, except for the basement and I’m not going to show that to you…haha. Stay tuned for a couple more Home Tour entries describing our backyard patio and the front of the house lighting. 🙂

Sneak peek of the patio:

I must say one more time how blessed we feel to have this home; we waited and saved for a very long time to have it and we honestly will never build or move to another one. 🙂

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

~Arlynn

A Dressier Lantern Centerpiece

On September 21, 2015October 15, 2015 By ArlynnIn Lanterns2 Comments

Hi Everyone!

It is a rainy, rather dreary Monday afternoon here in Virginia so I thought I’d sit down and put together this little post about my dining room lantern centerpiece and also show you how I transform it to match the season or Holiday. I found the large lantern featured in this post in a local country store and for its measurements, please refer to my “A Lantern Centerpiece For All Seasons” blog post; where along with the lantern’s measurements, I also give a bit of a tutorial showing you how to put one of these centerpieces together.

I’ve been using a very pretty country sea foam green as my accent color in the dining and living rooms; I love the light and airy touch that it adds to a room. I have been pairing it with grays and taupes and have been very happy with how it has all come together. It has been a bit of a challenge for me to stay in my country comfort zone while using that accent color, but I do believe I’ve successfully kept my decor warm and have created some cozy groupings, arrangements, wreaths, and centerpieces to keep within the country theme.

Here is the first lantern centerpiece I created for the dining room table:

I purchased the same mirrored tray that I used for the kitchen lantern centerpiece to go under this lantern and it is used to build all of the arrangements featured in this post

Easter was the next Holiday, in years past, I haven’t typically decorated for Easter, but this lantern inspired me to create a new centerpiece.

I also made that wreath that is hanging on the wall…it didn’t stay there for long though as I moved it out onto the porch and added it into a grouping that I put together out there. There it is added to the front porch grouping…

Next, I needed something to go with our family reunion decor, so I switched out the tablecloth and a few other decor items that helped me incorporate my red and white gingham, gerber daisies, and mason jars reunion theme.

This centerpiece and the red and white accents only stayed in there for the day of the reunion.

After the reunion, I went ahead and changed the dining room decor back to its softer color tone, here is the centerpiece that I chose to make to complete the room’s transformation back to ‘normal’:

This arrangement stayed in place until it was time to decorate for Fall. I was very happy with how this one turned out, I just love to add that bow/pip berries topper. 🙂

Fall has arrived and here is the dining room with the Fall decor including the lantern centerpiece in place:

And here is the bow, pip berries, fall pick topper:

The Fall decor in this room is quite subtle, but I’m happy with how it looks. I feel that it still looks warm, inviting, and cozy despite not using all of the typical Fall colors.

I cannot tell you how much I am enjoying working with these lanterns and creating all of these different centerpieces. I do use lanterns in other capacities as well–a subject for another blog post. 😉 I do feel as if the softer green color lends itself to a ‘fancier’ centerpiece; I don’t want it to be too formal in the dining room, but I do want it to be a bit lighter and airier in design.

Well, it’s time for me to get myself in gear and to make my hubby and I some dinner, so, until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

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

A Lantern Centerpiece For All Seasons

On September 17, 2015December 9, 2015 By ArlynnIn Lanterns11 Comments

I cannot express to y’all just how much I love lanterns; they provide a wonderful basic piece with which to create so many pretty groupings. I use them to accent my decor inside and outside as well. I felt so fortunate when I stumbled upon the lantern that I will be highlighting in this post; actually I own two of the exact same lanterns and I purchased them in two different local craft stores, unfortunately, I cannot find these lanterns anywhere online or I’d leave y’all a link…my sincere apologies… <sigh>. I buy my share of lanterns in places like Hobby Lobby, Home Goods, and Michaels, all three stores usually have a wonderful selection and I can almost always find one on sale. I use them in several different ways; some for centerpieces, some for accents in groupings, and some for side or accent tabletop decor. For the purposes of this post, I am going to focus on this one type of lantern and show you how I use it to create my kitchen table centerpieces.

I will start with the very first lantern centerpiece that I created; last January. In addition to the lantern, I’ve used a metal mirrored tray, and a black candle holder as the anchors of every one of the centerpieces. Here is the lantern, (it is metal btw), I’ve measured it for you so that you can see that it is quite large, I love to have a big centerpiece on my kitchen table, I’ve also measured the tray for you:

The first thing that I did was to place the candle holder and a battery operated candle inside of the lantern, then I started to build the surrounding decor. I realize that gerber daisies are more of a Spring flower, but I love them so much and I found some made out of burlap, so I went ahead and used them along with a few burgundy and gold ones, and I added a resin cream colored daisy at each corner as well. I nestled all of the accent pieces in a bed of pip berries–I used a pip berries garland that matches my stair decor highlighted in my Staircase Railing Ideas blog post. OH, btw, I did cut a section of pip berries off of the garland and I wrapped it around the candle holder inside of the lantern before I started to create the surrounding decor. (I plan to give you a basic step by step “how-to” below):

That centerpiece stayed up through the winter months until it was time to switch out the centerpiece accents to match my Easter decorations. Here is what I came up with:

As you can see, I used the very same lantern, tray, and candle holder…and I actually did use the same pip berries garland as well. I changed out the battery operated candle and the flowers. I purchased the tablecloth, the plates, and napkins at our local Home Goods store. I made the little napkin rings as well, I chose a pretty ribbon and tied a bow around the napkin and then hot glued little flowers to the tips of the bow…easy peezy. 🙂

A close up of the Easter lantern:

After Easter, I simply removed the “Happy Easter” words, but I did leave the rest of it alone until it was time to switch things out for the family reunion/summer centerpiece:

I changed out all of the decor accent pieces for this centerpiece and I created and added a top bow/pip berries piece which I’ve found that I love now. I feel as if it pulls it all together. I used a red and white pip berries garland (trimming a section off to go inside the lantern and another small piece that I added to the bow topper), gerber daisies, a “Family” wooden word sign, and I threw in a couple of burlap birds for something a little different.

That centerpiece stayed in place until it was time to decorate for Fall. Now, I will walk you through how I created that Fall centerpiece…Here goes:

Here is the lantern, tray, and candle holder. I used a new pip berries garland for this arrangement and again, I trimmed off a section so that I could wrap it around the candle ring inside of the lantern and another small section to be used on the bow topper:

Next, I wrapped the rest of the pip berries garland around the lantern:

Then I created the bow topper and pip berries design:

I made the bow and simply attached the small section of pip berries into the pipe cleaner that I used to hold the bow together (behind the bow). Then I took a piece of the same ribbon and attached it to the back of the bow with the pip berries. I kind of held it up to the lantern and figured out how big of a “loop” I wanted and then hot glued it shut to that size. I then slid the entire bow topper onto the top piece of the lantern. You can see what I’m talking about here:

Then I arranged some glass pumpkins at each corner and filled in the spaces in front, back, and on either side with Fall floral picks and a few Fall colored sunflowers:

And here is the finished centerpiece:

I have really enjoyed creating a new centerpiece as each Season has passed while utilizing the same basic designs and design pieces. I will admit that I spent a good chunk of change on this particular lantern (and I use one just like it on my dining room table, but, it was so worth the cost. I’ll write another post showing you all of the different Seasonal centerpieces I’ve created for the dining room table). I was able to get the tray for 1/2 off at Hobby Lobby, and I’ve been able to get each Season’s accent pieces for a discounted price. It hardly costs me anything to change out the decor and of course from now on, it won’t cost me a penny because I will reuse the same accent pieces in the coming years. That said, I know myself and I’m sure I will be adding or changing some things out for new things, but, I’ll already have all of the basics that I need. 🙂

Fast forward 3 months and I have now completed a lantern centerpiece for Christmas utilizing the basic pieces that I’ve used for all of the other centerpieces. Here is a link to my new Blog post describing how I created the Christmas Lantern Centerpiece. Here is a picture of the finished product:

I hope upon hope that one of these ideas inspires y’all to try something like this for your home. They are not hard to create and all you need to do is to trust yourself to choose accents pieces that look pretty to you and hence would look amazing in your home. I’m always here if anyone has any questions, feel free to leave them in the comment section. 🙂

Let me take a moment to thank every one of you who has stopped by to take a peek at this blog, feel free to look around at my other posts; I have found that I am really enjoying sharing my creations with you and if one person is inspired to try their hand at creating something similar to what they’ve seen here…well, that would just touch my heart of hearts!!

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

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

Family Reunion Decor and Craft Projects

On September 5, 2015October 15, 2015 By ArlynnIn Special Occasions6 Comments

Hi Everyone!

I should tell you that I am a very family orientated lady and I am extremely blessed to have the extended family that I have. I am an only child, but I am very close to my aunts, uncles, and cousins, it is almost like the cousins are siblings more than we are cousins. We’ve been brought up with good morals and values and a very strong faith. So, last Christmas (2014) when my dad and I were sitting and chatting and he suggested that I host a family reunion I jumped at the chance. My extended family is scattered throughout 4 neighboring States and we are not able to get together very often; we hadn’t had a family reunion in many years. It was an understatement to say that I was excited that I was going to have my entire family in our new home. So, as I normally do, I went into planning mode. The first thing I did was do a search for some kind of “Save the Date” announcement, I settled on this magnet, and I was able to find it online here. Everyone loved them and I’d venture to guess they are still attached to some of the family members refrigerators as it is on mine here.

Next, it was time to pick a theme, meaning something for me to build my decor around. So I chose, red and white gingham, mason jars, and red and white gerber daisies. While I was preparing for the reunion, I worked very hard to incorporate my “themed” pieces into the decorations, crafts, and basic home decor. I pretty much redecorated my home for this reunion–yes, that might seem a bit over the top, but, I really was excited to have everyone here and I wanted things to be extra nice. 🙂

The next thing I did was get in touch with two of my cousins and asked for their assistance. My cousin Stacey volunteered to make up some games and provide prizes for the winners of said games. She also created “Certificates of Awesomeness”, t-shirts, and plaques specially designed for our family (by her) and gave them to the older generation and our generation (1st cousins). She gave a special trinket to Cori who had made and decorated a gorgeously beautiful and very tasty cake. She also graciously gave a couple of niceties to my two daughters and a very special something to me. Stacey put on a fantastic ‘show’, telling stories and and poking fun as she presented all of her creative homemade gifts. It was a blast, definitely one of the highlights of the day! Here are some of the things that Stacey created for her prizes and gifts–she is so very talented!!

And here is the gorgeous plaque that she gave to me…SO sweet!

Here is Stacey standing beside her prize table and being her animated self while giving out her very special gifts–THANK you Stacey, you did an awesome job! ❤

Here are some pictures of Cori and her cake and the dessert table…YES, we love our sweets! lol 😉 THANK you Cori! ❤

Here are the three of us together…Me in the pink pants, Cori in the middle, and Stacey in the green pants:

Each family that came to the reunion, (I do believe we had almost 40 people in all), brought food to share, good thing we have a pretty big kitchen because almost every inch of the island and the surrounding countertops were full of some of the most delicious food on the planet. I think everyone brought their ‘signature’ dish which made for some good eats that day!

It took me months and months to prepare and I loved every single second of every project that I took on. I thrive on the planning process and to plan something for my family…well, I was over the moon with excitement and motivation. Here are some of the things that I created and a couple of things that I had someone else create.

I made a deco mesh wreath to hang on the light post that sits beside our entrance sidewalk:

I purchased red and white gingham tablecloths and made lantern centerpieces for both the kitchen and dining room tables. I also purchased candle holders and red candles to flank the centerpieces. I also made a lantern centerpiece to be added to the fireplace hearth decor.

I redecorated pretty much the entire lower level of our house including the mantel and the fireplace hearth, a couple of cozy corners, the kitchen hutch, and some other pieces of furniture and shelves. I tried to incorporate the color red, red and white gingham, and added “family” touches (as in plaques talking about family) and our family’s own photos which I placed in red and white frames and some in sweet little clip picture holders. I tried to add special touches incorporating my “theme” here and there throughout the decor. I also had created a slide show and had it playing on the tv throughout the entire day–everyone loved that! 🙂

As the day drew closer, I decided that I would make all of the centerpieces for the outdoor tables. Each arrangement consisted of a quart size mason jar filled with fresh gerber daisies and baby’s breath. I placed the jar on a white ‘charger’ plate, added a red paper doily and surrounded the jar with a pip berry ring (that I made). In addition, I made pint size mason jar fresh flower arrangements to sit around and augment the indoor home door.

I thought and thought about what to do for party favors. I wanted it to be something that they could take with them and use for years and years and that every time they looked at it they would be reminded of the day. So while perusing around the Internet, I stumbled upon this website and they worked with me to create a “mint tin” that I filled with red and white peppermint candies. They were a huge hit at the reunion. **Score**!! 😉

One of the last things that I did was to hang this banner. It really completed the entire look. I did not make this banner, instead I ordered it from this Etsy shop here.

Finally, the day had arrived and it was time to hang balloons out front and out back, set up tables on the patio, and set out a little chalkboard sign on the front porch. We were ready to go!!

We had a marvelous time that day. The feeling that fills the air when we are all together is magical, honestly. We all sing and many play instruments, so we sang some of our favorite old hymns and our grandma’s favorite hymn that none of us can get through without sobbing “Thank You Lord for Your Blessings On Me”, ate ourselves into oblivion, laughed till we cried, and cried when we had to separate at the end of the day. It was a wonderful day, one that I hope will be held closely and lovingly in everyone’s memory. I’m hoping to host a family reunion every year for as long as everyone will be willing and is able to travel to us here in Virginia. ❤

**I love you family!!!**

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

⚜️ Arlynn's Country Craft Corner ⚜️

Tag: lantern centerpiece

Transitioning: Living & Dining Rooms

Seasonal Transitioning: Kitchen & Surrounding Area

Christmas Decorations 2015: Merry & Bright With Battery Operated Lights

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

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

Christmas: Staircase Pine and Ornament Garland

Master Bedroom & Bathroom

A Dressier Lantern Centerpiece

A Lantern Centerpiece For All Seasons

Family Reunion Decor and Craft Projects

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: