Autumn is finally here and my heart is happy!

 

Fall has always, always is my very favorite time of the year.
I have so many precious memories from this sweet season.
Starting college, meeting precious life-long friends, dating my husband....
I always have loved the cooler weather too, Georgia summers can be brutal and so humid!

Right now it's raining cats and dogs outside and will probably make many

leaves fall that I still want to see turn.

It's okay though.

Rain is a precious gift and I'm thankful!

This has been a very rough year for all of us.

I've missed my family so terribly.

And then staying home...day after day...can mess with your head!

I've always been a homebody but at least I had a choice to go out.

We are simply trying to be wise in our household as we are all

physically compromised here.

I'm not sure what our holidays will hold at this point

but I do know this.

I love my precious family dearly.

Even if we have our celebrations separately,

we all love one another so much!

This too shall pass.

I'm having a small sale in my Etsy store if you're feeling creative!

It's mostly tutorials that you all know I sell plus

a few handmade items as well.

Click HERE to visit!

Here are a few of my artist pieces! You know how I loved dried elements!

I'm sorry for the sparseness of my posts.

Seems my heart just hasn't been in it.

With a studio full of supplies even.

Praying for better times for us all!!!!

Thank you all for continuing to visit my ol' blog.

Hugs and love!!!

Dawn

A touch of Spring!

I've had this amazing vintage jar for years.

It used to have a collection of antique door knobs

displayed inside.

You know, the crystal and white porcelain ones?

They're sold now but I've been wanting to create something

for the inside. It didn't come with a lid but I didn't care.

I enjoy embellishing bird's nests so I thought an assemblage

that included one would be beautiful tucked inside!

This particular nest is store bought.

And I love the look of this one.

I knew if I added few natural

elements in and around the nest

I could give it a realistic look.

And here is the finished assemblage!

I used a small circle of cardboard wired to the nest

and elevated the back a bit with moss inserted in between.

Next, I added skeleton leaves, dried botanicals, feathers (all glued discreetly)

to give it that realistic look. And lastly of course I had to add speckled eggs!

I glued the base that I cut from cardboard to the bottom of the jar so it will

stay put and of course not shift during shipping.

A small section of a vintage bird book was placed behind

and also a branch with seed pods serves as a back drop too.

The top has been covered with a piece of natural scrim, secured with a rubber band

then wrapped in jute to continue the natural theme.

I even managed to squeeze in a sweet gum tree pod too!

I really love the way this piece turned out!

And now this wonderful old jar has a new purpose

and a promise of Spring ~

I've also added it to my Etsy store if you'd like to take a peek!

Just a short post this time but

thank you always for stopping by

to see what I'm up to!

Hugs and love,

Dawn

A slice of life & returning to the studio!

Soooooo.....it's been kind of a long time since my last post here.

I don't know what to tell you except that life happened!

(Warning: TONS OF PHOTOS in this one!)

With Christmas, then sickness, then watching Clara and Murray

waiting on their new little sister to be born, then Tilly's birth and 

a huge soap order during all of that....

I'm finally coming up for air!

It really has been a busy couple of months around here.

And guess what???

February 11th was my ELEVENTH blog anniversary!

YES!

I've had this ol' blog now for eleven years ~

Even though blogging has changed over the past few years

I still enjoy having it and love sharing what's going on in my life!

December and January were filled with

multiple OB visits for our daughter-in-law Emily

so I watched these precious grandbabies, Clara and Murray, pretty regularly.

They are so techie now...both loving their tablets.

But we'd watch movies, bake cookies and even have a few craft days!

And then Tilly was born January 25th!!!

These sweet kids were SO EXCITED to head to the hospital

the next day to meet their baby sister!

Daddy Brent (our oldest son) admiring his precious little daughter Tilly!

It's truly been a wonderful time in all of our lives!

She's now almost 4 weeks old and growing like a little weed!

And speaking of growing...

our second born son, David

and his wife Heather's son and our grandson,

Owen is now one year old!!!

His birthday was Christmas eve and he's so precious ~

so happy and loving too!

And now I've finally made it back into the studio!

I've been cleaning and straightening up

which always helps get me motivated to create.

I decided to finish up a book project

that I'd started months and months ago.

This is my very first handmade book/journal!

I created the signatures, embellished the pages and

even sewed them each into my handmade book cover.

It's nature inspired (my favorite) and filled the pages

with pressed flowers, ephemera and images from nature.

Here's a peek inside!!!

It's now been added to my Etsy store as well ~

SO...there you go!!!!

I've got to make more of these!!!

Maybe with different themes even.

If you'd like, I've created my own YouTube channel and you can

view 3 very short videos of my flip through the journal!

~ HERE'S THE LINK TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL ~

And lastly...

Our grandbaby Tilly this past week!

She's just beautiful and growing so very fast.

Four grandbabies now,

CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?

Each one is precious in their own little way too.

Sorry for the gigantic photo filled post but it's been awhile.

And thank you always for stopping by to see

what's going on in my little corner of the world!

Hugs and love,

Dawn

Hello November!!!

It seems that this time of year ALWAYS gets my creative juices flowing!

The cooler temperatures and the changing of the seasons

makes my mind spin with all kinds of ideas.

Here are a few of the things that I've made lately.

It seems all of them are under glass for some reason!

Please be sure to check my Etsy store as a few things have

been listed in there and some of these items have already sold.

Does fall inspire you to create too???

Two altered apothecary jars with French labels

and other pretty embellishments!

This one is in my shop!!!

These have all sold but I just LOVED making these bird-inspired jars.

Nests, eggs and pieces of nature all captured under glass ~

And lastly, I've been making ornaments using 6" glass test tubes!

They are approximately 1" in diameter. I've added glitter snow,

a tiny bottle brush tree and other goodies to make a pretty Christmas ornament.

They can hang on a knob or on the Christmas tree!

And of course, loving natural elements, I had to try to make a few botanical test tubes.

They are my very favorites! I love drying flowers and other greenery

so I've made little gatherings for each test tube.

These have all been added to my Etsy store ~

It's so nice to be able to use the things that you've been gathering and collecting.

I have dried flowers everywhere, stems from pretty bushes,

feathers and other fragments of nature to use.

But it seems when you place them under glass

it gives them a special kind of importance!

Thank you always for stopping by to see what I'm doing and

I hope that I can inspire you to make something beautiful ~

hugs and love,

Dawn