Don't forget about my free tutorials! Plus my little WIP...

If you visit my blog regularly, you know I have my little tutorial shop

Lessons from The Nest...

but you may not have noticed in my left side bar

I have a few free tutorials I've offered in the years past ~

They're easy and FUN!!

You can find my rag ball ornament tutorial HERE ~

And my mitten ornament tutorial HERE ~

OK. Seems I'm always trying to figure out

what Blogger is up to with our images....

I like clicking on images and saving them at their "real" size...

and sometimes it's much larger that what you see!

Here's what I've figured out now:

click on an image ~

you will be taken to a "slide show" type of window.

Then RIGHT click on the image and select "VIEW IMAGE" with a left click.

A new window will open.

You may even be able the left click the image again

and it will appear even larger!

THEN you can RIGHT click it and select SAVE IMAGE

and save it to your own computer.....

give it a try ~ I hope it works for you :)

I played with my bottle brush trees again!

I'm not quite finished with them...but I had to show you what

I've finished so far ~ this one is teeny tiny and will be

housed inside a vintage baby food jar!

The tree itself stands only about two inches tall ~

I don't even have the top screwed on all the way but you get

the idea of how it will look under glass. I still want to

add a few pieces of seam binding garland that has been split

and ringlet curled....

What do you think about these blue trees?

They are really beautiful in person!

My decorations?

Broken strands of vintage pearls...I just love them!

Thank you always for stopping by to see me!!

I hope you have a wonderful Tuesday dear friends,

hugs and love,

Dawn

A peek inside this old house ~

The farmhouse was really clean this past weekend!!!

For approximately five minutes!

That's what it seemed like anyway, but who cares :)

We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving together and

wedged ourselves in here like sardines.

During those five minutes of cleanliness,

I took a few photos to share with you ~

now remember a few things, OK?

I can't do all white, or cream because, well...

I have to have things the color of dirt.

It saves me from going crazy and

then I'm sane enough to work in the studio!

Plus, nothing matches. I mean NOTHING.

Also, I used to own an antiques store so I have

an excess of things that I think are beautiful!

Our sofa and chair that do match were given to us

by our son...a little too mod for me but

I needed new and it came at a great time!!

Brent hung my stained glass window over the kitchen sink last week too ~

After an entire year in the box, my beautiful Limoges china is back on the hutch ~

This thing is WAAAY too crowded...I need to edit!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and great weekend too ~

We had two Thanksgivings....

one Thursday with my husband's family

and one Saturday here at the house with my family!

I'm about turkey-ed out too!

So now we can jump into Christmas with both feet....

and I'm heading back into the studio

to finish up a few sparkly trees ~

Wishing you a beautiful Monday precious friends,

hugs and love,

Dawn

A thankful heart...

It's so easy to get lost in the cleaning, preparing of food and fluffing for

our family gatherings....women are just like that!

We just want everything to be perfect, don't we?

I'm talking to myself here you know!

Well, the time is here ~

the time to gather together to give thanks

for all that we've been blessed with.

Precious family....dear friends....a home to keep us warm ~

and a free country that so many have sacrificed to keep that way.

Thank you Lord above for all you've give us,

may we keep this thankful spirit each and every day of the year!

A peek at my little bit of fluffing.....it'll do for now :)

ps...if you want to see my pics bigger just click on the photo,
then right click on the "slide" looking photo and choose "view image"
left click it and it will get larger!
You may even be able to click it again to get even bigger :)

I am so very thankful for you precious friends ~

you lift me up and inspire more than you'll ever know!!!

Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving ~

many hugs and much love to you,

Dawn

A blank canvas ~

Hi sweet friends! I'm still working around the house,

changing a few things and cleaning even more.

Do you remember this old window from our old house?

I had it hanging over the fireplace filled with these
beautiful rose botanical prints.

Well, I've had it here at the farmhouse for over a year now

and hadn't found a home for it yet.

And truthfully, the rose prints needed to go ~

as much as I love them, change is good, right?

We'll see I guess!!!

It's hanging now on one of the dining room walls just waiting for a makeover.....

I'm going to think a little about it as I know there are tons of great ideas

to make this old window look beautiful!

Here's a great idea from Southern Charm Cottage.....

How about this one from the Nate Berkus website:

Clear photo corners were used...what?

have you heard of these?

Or how about this one using wonderful old photographs too:

Found HERE...

Maybe I should just hang a gorgeous wreath over it through Christmas

and decide what to do with it when the holidays are over like this:

Found HERE....

Here's another one ~

found HERE...

I just know I love the wall showing through the glass...

so whatever I use will not fill the entire pane.

Are things coming together for your and your Thanksgiving gathering??

I hope so....and just remember, don't panic...

what doesn't get done, doesn't matter!

Have a beautiful Wednesday precious friends,

hugs and love,

Dawn

Thinking on thankful things....

As I putter around our little farmhouse,

trying to stay on task with the projects I want to accomplish,

I love thinking about all I have to be thankful for....

It's been a hard year for everyone.

With the rough economy, folks losing their jobs,

or just trying to make ends meet,

it would be really easy to concentrate on so many negative things, right?

But instead, I want to think of all that I am thankful for!

My precious parents who raised and loved me
and still continue to do so....

I'm so thankful for my dear husband for the past thirty years

and wonderful father he's been to our five sons...
and of course for our five boys who I love so dearly
each in their own unique way.
Including my one and only sweet daughter-in-law who
is a such an beautiful addition to our family.
And then our little sweet Clara,
who truly is our blessing from Heaven!!!

I'm so very thank for so many dear friends,
especially the friends I've made here from my blog ~
you encourage me and inspire me always!!!!
To be able to create and have you love it
is the most wonderful thing EVER!

I'm thankful for so much more...
this is just the tip of the iceberg ~
And as hard as things may be,
we still have so, so much to be thank for!


Have a beautiful Tuesday sweet friends,
hugs and love,
Dawn

Working on a few projects!!

Happy Monday sweet friends!!

Things have been pretty busy around here, how about with you?

With it being Thanksgiving week and since Noah's out of school all week,

I'll be trying to get tons of projects finished around the house!

Even though we've been here over a year now there's still things to be done...

This past weekend was really productive but I have a few more things to do.

My family will come here to the farmhouse the Saturday after

Thanksgiving for our gathering.

I've been moving things around, cleaning things out and getting things done!

Not much is going on in the studio but I'm going to try to get back in there

to finish a few more bottle brush trees....

I even bought a few wonderful jars that will hold a cluster of trees!

I'll try to get everything finished but if I don't, it's OK...

I think it's mostly me who cares if they're done or not!!

My family just wants to be together,
eat delicious food and

enjoy being together....
and that's really all I want too!!!

Wishing you a wonderful, productive Monday dear friends,

hugs and love,

Dawn