A precious overnight guest and a fairy house!

A few months ago I was at Hobby Lobby and ran across the most wonderful

driftwood birdhouse and it was on sale half off!

I looked at it and immediately knew it would be a great creative project for my

granddaughter Clara and I to transform into a fairy house!

So the right weekend presented itself and we planned for her to spend the night

at Mimi and Papa's and for us to have a creative time together.

Of course, I've gathered nature supplies over the years and had plenty of stash

to pull out for us to use to embellish the little house.

I had so many different types of moss, feathers, seed pods, acorn caps, sticks, straw, etc.

We pulled it ALL out!

And of course I had my favorite glue, Fabri-Tac (kind of like hot glue but cold and it dries so fast!)

Clara is now EIGHT years old and talked my head clean off during this project!

I loved it so much!!!!

She was adorable and told me, "Mimi, I think I may need to drink some milk...

my throat is hurting because I've talked so much!!"

HAHAHA!

Sweet, sweet girl. I pray we made a precious memory for her that evening.

We created the "shelves" from driftwood that were gifted to me from

my dear friend Dorthe in Denmark! How wonderful is that?

I told Clara how far away these little pieces had come that

we used on her little house.

It was Clara's idea to poke a speckled egg into the "chimney"!!! I love it!

The chimney is actually the cap from a large Burr Oak acorn!

Of course, the fairy house was hers to take home and remember our creative night together.

She was so proud of it!!!

A few close up photos of the finished fairy house!

We even had a little time for sketching too!

We had such a sweet time together!

These truly are the good ol' days for sure ~

We slept in our newly remodeled guest room too!

We said our prayers together, sang Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
and fell fast asleep.

As I rolled over the next morning this was my view.

What a precious angel!

These truly ARE the good ol' days.

I love you my sweet Clara!

I can't believe it's already August!

Time flies dear friends...

I'm looking forward to fall as always.

It's my very favorite!

I hope you are doing so, so good and

thank you always for stopping by

to see what I'm up to!

hugs and love,

Dawn

A finished guestroom and I LOVE IT!

Whelp....this little, itty bitty guest room was months and months in the making!

Yes, I had no deadline but ten months is kinda ridiculous!

Oh well....It's been used way before now but I just finally hung everything on the walls.

My finished framed herbarium pages!

I taped together packing paper pieces from Walmart to create a huge piece of paper.

Next I measured as best I could so they would be perfectly spaced apart.

You should have seen me on the floor, creeping around this huge thing!

I decided to mark around the frames a little bit to help me with the leveling

when I taped the pattern to the wall.

I also measured the distance from the top to the hanger on the back of the frame

to mark where the nail hole would need to be. I had to remove the stand on the backs

before hanging as they were way too long.

I used painter's tape on the top left corner then used a laser level on the right side

to determine where to hang it so my pattern would be level.

I promise, it's not perfect but good enough to make me happy!!!

Next, I hammered in a small nail on each mark on my pattern.

And this is the result sweet friends!!!!

These herbarium pages are real specimens and were created in 1898.

I'm just so happy they have a place of honor in our home!

More photos around the room after more items were hung!

I found the rug at Homegoods and it was pricey but the velvet bed skirt was a thrift find!

This little room is probably only 10' x 12' but I've managed to cram about a zillion things

in it!!! But I truly am pleased with the results. I hope you can get a few ideas from it!

Wishing you a beautiful week dear friends!

hugs and love,

Dawn

Sharing a little Christmas joy!

Can you believe that I JUST finished decorating this little dinky tree of ours???

Yes, I have.

(This is a little 4 ft. fake tree I found at w-mart for 25.00

that was adorned with red berries and pinecones and was pre-lit too!!!)

On December 21st I finally finished the little guy and just love it.

It's my nature-inspired tree and it's so perfect for us!!

I totally think it would have looked wonderful for me to have wrapped

our gifts in kraft paper and used jute twine to tie them up but I had purchased

this gorgeous snowflake paper at Hob Lob last year after Christmas
and,

well,
I just had to use it!!!

The little tree has been topped with a few cuttings
from the plumes of ornamental grasses,

the garland is simple raffia strips that have been wrapped around the tree.

I've added feathers I've collected, store bought bird's nests and

even some botanicals have been added too.

Burr oak acorns have been placed in the nests as well as

some seed pod stems that I had ~
It's simply perfect for our little farmhouse!!!

There are many things in our life that STEAL our joy....

and when that happens it affects so many aspects of our life.

This year will soon be coming to an end
and my goal for the new year is to
STOP, STOP, STOP

letting the everyday trials of this life

steal. my. joy.

It has affected my creativity, my blogging and of course my attitude.

But the funny thing??

It's all up to ME!!

It's all up to how much I will let it all overtake me
and my desire to create.

I just wanted to share a few private thoughts ~

All I ever really want to do is make something beautiful

so I can share it with you!!!!

Happy Monday precious friends ~

hugs and love,

Dawn

joy

joi/

noun

1.a feeling of great pleasure and happiness.

Guess who came a knocking on my door today???

Uh, yeah....my little muse!!!!

She took herself a bit of a vaca

but I have to say, it was good to see her face!!!

I made a little something new to share with you ~

TOTALLY Carol Hicks Bolton inspired as

I have always, always drooled over the books

she had wired to the wall in a magazine feature I saved.

Here you go ~

It felt so good to make something today.

And you know what feels even better?

LOVING how it turned out!

I'm linking this project to Jen's MY FAVORITE PROJECT party!!!

Just listed in my Etsy shop too :)

Wishing you a BEAUTIFUL Monday precious friends,

hugs and love,

Dawn

 

Inspired by Nature ~

It seems I can't help myself....

I always return to beautiful elements of nature

when it comes to creating artwork!

I finally finished this new piece too ~

Here are a few pics...it was quite hard to photograph

because of the reflection on the glass covering the assemblage...

Whew!!! This one wore me out!!!

But it is so good to see an idea

come to fruition....

I just added it to my Etsy store if you like to take a look there!

I hope you are doing so good...and thank you very much for

taking to time to stop by here, I always appreciate your visit

and cherish your comments!!!

Have a wonderful day precious friends,

hugs and love,

Dawn

Nature inspired ~

I always forget how much I love creating assemblage art!!

And if it involves birds and elements of nature...

I love it even more!

I just finished the pocket assemblage and am really pleased

with how it turned out ~

A layer of wonderful unique paper and

a print of the bird antique sheet music turned

out to be the perfect back drop for this nature gathering.

All the components are nestled inside THE BACK

of an 11" x 14" stretched canvas.

Even an old drawer pull embellishes the top!

Now I want to go make more luggage pockets and put them on everything!!

I just listed this nature assemblage in my Etsy store if you'd like to take a look ~

Thank you always, always for stopping by here to see what I'm up to!

I cherish your comments and you just don't realize

how much you truly inspire me....

Have a beautiful Wednesday dear friends,

hugs and love,

Dawn