Lighten up!

I truly love this 15-pane window that I have hanging on my kitchen wall. I usually try to change it up a few times over the course of the year, but I’ve wanted to do something a little lighter and brighter for a while now.

So after Christmas, I just left my funky twiggy garland and some red beads hanging up for a while…

…until one day the mood STRUCK and I got out the paintbrush! I slapped two shades of white on, sanded lightly, and glazed it with some dark brown stain…

…added a little Valentine’s day sign: “Be Mine Forever”…

I love how it sounds like a command!

…and I think I like the new look! How about you?

Love Makes the World Go Round

I just barely got around to showing my post-Christmas buffet, but now it’s been changed up for Valentine’s Day!
The jumping-off point for me was when I found an out-of-date globe at the thrift store. I painted it with chalkboard spray paint, and wrote “Love makes the world go round” on it. I wish I was one of those people who had beautiful handwriting (especially on a chalkboard)—but alas, it is not one of my gifts!
I covered five balls with strips of maps cut out of an old atlas I found at a garage sale. They make interesting little globes, as long as you don’t expect them to be geographically accurate!

Using my Silhouette, I cut out a bunch of hearts from the same old atlas, and sewed them together to make a banner.


Other map hearts were sewn together in pairs, then folded to make a 3D “ornament” for my twigs leftover from the funky twiggy garland I made for Christmas.

My other globe got to join the display, with a few more map spheres.

I tried to go along with the ‘theme” by writing, “The best place to be is wherever YOU are” for my family. Quite frankly, I don’t think they ‘got’ it!

So I have to ask…do you ‘get’ the theme?

Maybe it only makes sense in MY head!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Linking up here:

Coastal Charm’s Nifty Thrifty Tuesday	It’s So Very Cheri
Common Ground	My Repurposed Life
Hookin’ Up with House of Hepworths	{Primp}
Elizabeth & Co.	2805
My Simple Home Life’s Simple Creations Friday	Miss Mustard Seed’s Furniture Feature Friday
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	DIY Show Off
Primitive & Proper	A Simply Klassic Home
Beyond the Picket Fence’s Under $100 Party

Funky Twiggy Garland

If you haven’t seen it yet, you need to check out Donna’s Christmas Garland Made from Twigs at Funky Junk Interiors:

Donna posted the tutorial for the garland on Wednesday, and I think I had one of my own made by Thursday night—that’s how much I love it! (I usually don’t work that fast.)

At Christmas time, our advent calendar hangs in front of the old window in our kitchen. I had some faux-snowy-piney garland hanging over it, but I wasn’t feelin’ the love…I like this twiggy garland so much better!

I bought a bundle of decorative branches at Hobby Lobby. With my 40% off coupon, they cost me about $8. I liked that half were dark and half light, so my garland isn’t exactly the same as Donna’s! I alternated colors the whole way—but I think it would have looked cool in larger ‘chunks’ of color as well (maybe three at at time?).

I tied my twigs together with red-and-white baker’s twine for a little subtle color. Then I dismantled a Christmas pick of faux berries and wired a berry about every 12 twigs.

As per Donna’s suggestions, I turned on a little Netflix and just tied twigs! (I think it only took about 1 1/2 episodes of Smallville—not too long!)

It's a fun, easy project. What do you think? Is it something you might like to try?

And what do you think…is it time for my window to be a lighter color, maybe?

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Linking up here:

Coastal Charm’s Nifty Thrifty Tuesday	Topsy Turvy Tuesdays
	Someday Crafts’ Whatever Goes Wednesday
Hookin’ Up with House of Hepworths	No Minimalist Here’s Open House Thursday
Friday Remodelaholic
My Simple Home Life’s Simple Creations Friday	Sisters of the Wild West
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	The DIY Show Off
	I Heart Naptime
Beyond the Picket Fence’s Under $100 Party	My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Perfectly Imperfect	{Primp}
	My Repurposed Life

Birds and a Banner

The window that hangs in my kitchen needed to change with the season, and this is what I came up with:

(If you want to see its most recent look, look here.)

I used my pinking shears to cut triangles out of burlap, drop cloth, and other neutral-printed fabrics in my stash, and strung them together on yarn.

What's perched on the frame?

Birdies! Of course.

Some look like they might be trying to take a dive...

Simple...but I like it.

Would you like some scrappy birds of your own? Then be sure to leave a comment on this post!