Sweet friends, wonderful smells & lovely creations ~

Do you understand why I love to blog??
Your precious comments on my giveaway
have truly filled my heart...
I feel like the Grinch when his heart is just about to burst!!!
Thank you all so very much for your kind words,
your friendship and all you share on your blogs inspire me so ~

A wonderful winter image for you ~

And if I'm the Fairy Blogmother....
then Anne of Fiona and Twig MUST be a princess!

Look at the sweet bird ornament that she's gifted me....
Dear Anne, thank you so very much ~
you KNOW how much I love chubby birds!
I will cherish him always ~

Now the photo below is a little scary!!! This candle has seen better days. I've had this wonderful candle for a few years now, Cindy from The Plum Tree gave it to me and I've loved it so much!! It is the size of a normal Bundt cake and smells heavenly. As you can see, the four wicks finally burned straight down to the bottom of the cake but look how much wonderful candle wax is left!!

Well, you KNOW I'm not going to waste it
so I threw the big cake into a garbage bag and slammed it on the floor a few times to break it into smaller pieces. I removed the old wicks too.....

I had saved a large sized coffee can
(because who knows when you might need one!)
and placed it inside of a larger sauce pan with a few inches of water to create a make-shift double boiler.

I first punched a few holes and tried to curl one part of the rim of the can to make a crude spout, and it worked too!

I waited for the wax to melt and then poured it into canning jars I found at the grocery store. Please be careful when handling the coffee can, I used two pot holders and had my empty jar resting on the garbage bag that I used to beat the thing up.

Very, very carefully pour recycled wax into the jar,
then after filling jars, add the wicks to the center...
(found at Michael's, Hobby Lobby or Craftsetc.com)

Then, let harden before moving them.....and voila!!!!
Five new candles and none of that wonderful smell has gone to waste ~
I just love being thrifty!!

They are very fall looking but I'm fine with that :) I could always wrap a handmade label on them around outside using a pretty image printed on sheet music too.

I fell in LOVE with these sheet music paper stars on Karoline's blog Cherished Vintage!
You can visit her HERE and she shows you how to make them, how wonderful is that??!

Look at these wonderful salt shaker image holders that Nancy made for a recipe exchange party she was attending!!! She used my Christmas Treasures tutorial on these ~ Thank you so much for the photo Nancy, they're gorgeous!!! I hope everyone loves them ~

Claudia sent me a photo of her mitten ornaments and rag balls she made!!
They turned out so beautiful Claudia ~
and look wonderful displayed together on your silver tree!
Thank you so much for sharing your photo with me.

And Barb made the most beautiful pink and cream mittens for her shop!!!!
I love this color combination ~

Lyneen is having a Blogiversary giveaway!!
Just click HERE to visit I am Dreaming of Castles to enter!!!
Just look at the ephemera packet she's gathered....

Thank you again for the sweetest comments ever on my giveaway post ~
I love blogging and LOVE my friends here!

I hope you have a great Tuesday dear friends,
Hugs and love,
Dawn

The beginnings of a journal tutorial ~

I am so excited about the tutorial I'm working on now . . . you can see the beginnings of it in the photo below! It's a handmade, from scratch, nature journal ~ and the neat thing is, I'm learning too as I make it!

The nature journal that I finished a few weeks ago was created inside of the complete cover of a small music book. It was really wonderful to work with but the chances of finding another is slim to none. Soooo....I thought, why not construct one myself! And believe it or not, the method that I've used is not hard at all ~

I'm still shooting step-by-step photos of the embellishing process and hope to have it in my store, The Little Speckled Egg by tomorrow evening.

I just get the biggest thrill making things! What is that??!! The neat thing about these small journals (and I'm finding that I'm becoming more and more "green") is that they can be constructed out of simple things that are around your home.

Plus, they don't have to be "nature" journals, you could make one to take on a special vacation or trip. How about creating one to give to a sweet mom-to-be to jot down her thoughts while in the hospital having her baby and after she's met her sweet angel? It would be a treasured keepsake ~ Boy this is starting to sound like a serious sales pitch but I'm just excited about the possibilities!

A spare copy of the sheet music cover printed on thin muslin, hmmmm.....I've got to think of something neat to do with this ~ I love looking at it!! I've got it pinned to the back of the advent calendar so I can stare at it ~

On a totally different note, I've had this crazy idea and some of you may have already tried this. I've always loved this precious, chubby bluebird and I bought some molding compound at Michael's a few weeks ago. I would like to attempt to make a mold of this sweet baby and make some from plaster! Have any of you tried this? Should I use plaster of paris? Who knows, I may not be able to create a decent mold but I want to try!

Can't you see a chubby, cream colored, slightly antique-washed little bird??

Today it was absolutely GORGEOUS here in Georgia.....it's like you have to soak in each and every beautiful fall day before they all vanish ~

Wishing you a wonderful Wednesday sweet friends!

xxoo, Dawn