BEAUTY IS A LIFESTYLE THING

"Every Love story is special, unique and beautiful, but ours is my favorite." ~Unknown Make Valentine's Day last all year long. Have a heart hanging nearby to remind you of the special love you have together, or just because it adds a certain softness to the room. Today's craft is not difficult. This project took me just under 10 minutes and about 5 minutes to gather my supplies.  I saw this pearl craft on another blogger's web site and I wanted to credit them and let them know they inspired me to create my own, but for the life of me cannot remember where I saw it. If someone has run across it somewhere let me know. This project can be varied in so many ways, like the types of beads for example. I always use what I have on hand if I can. The type of beads can completely change the look of this.  It also can be made any size that you may want. You don't have to hang this from a ribbon, you could use a chain, a leather, a piece of twine. It is up ...

It's a very cold January day and not one glimpse of the sun is to be had. The ground is covered in snow and now there's even freezing drizzle/rain to add into making this a long winter's day. There's only one thing you can do is to bring warmth in, by way of flowers. I have these two magnolia stems sitting right near me, One has three blooms on it and one has two. They feel bright and remind me of summer. Those warm days where the car windows are down and the Grateful Dead are playing Sugar Magnolia on the radio. And the only thing you can do is wave your arms out to feel the breeze while you're singing the song! A lovely flower centerpiece will liven, brighten and warm my room. So I gathered a  few things: the two magnolia stems Some dried green moss, that I use often, it truly makes me think of spring and summer with its very vibrant green and even brown sticks!  2 very large bell-shaped dimpled glass containers, graduated in size the large ...

The tree is up. Now that Thanksgiving is officially over, it's time for us to get ready for Christmas. I don't know about your house but we dress our house up, which includes the mantle, the Christmas trees, and the outside. The hardest part is dragging everything up from the nether regions of the basement dungeon. I hope everyone has a built-in teenager that will substitute for the moving men that are needed to make this all happen, and thank goodness I do! I'm going to do a little mini-series on decor and small crafts that are not only easy but inexpensive and make a huge impact. I am slowly taking my decorating to a lower level. My time is always limited and I will be culling my decorations this year and I will be donating some of the things that I no longer need. I'm trying to make my life easier and that of my husband's too. My 9-foot tree is currently up in the front, one set of lights are out. This weekend, my husband the official l...

Last minute Quickie decor change for my door.  I'm upcycling a really really old grapevine, that in its previous 100 other lives was so many other wreaths, this time was once a spring candle ring, I used it with two candles in the middle on a tablescape and it was really pretty. Spring wreath going Halloween Nothing in my house is EVER permanent, I try to find ways in which to recycle and be able to use even the smallest of things into something else. These flowers were stripped off and the wreath (14") is bare, (it once was brown but I spray painted it white for spring use) Bare wreath (I see that the vines are starting to become loose I will need the glue gun. Here are the supplies I'm using total cost  $5.25 (all items on sale) 1 simple bunch of black flowers, 2 bunches of black carnations with glitter on them, 2 fronds of purple glittered stems, one bow marked down to $2.00, a total find! and one skeleton bride. I simply began by cutting all of the bu...

Denim has come a long way, or has it? Maybe what's old is new again. Is it trendy? Isn't fashion always somewhat trendy? It was, even back in the 1970's you know those hippies were doing it then, creating fashion by deconstructing the denim they were wearing.  In the days when I grew up, money was harder to come by and the availability of jeans was so-so. Most everyone grew up with "Levi's" as the leader in jeans ware. They were limited to a few styles but had an ungodly amount of sizes. So needless to say most everyone gals and guys alike owned a pair of them. Then, enter a few designers that were in the more expensive department stores and voila! you had the whole low down on jeans. Back in the day you actually got holes in the knees of jeans from being outside, and the wear-through spots came from literally wearing them every day! And finally, we put patches on them and walked on the hems as inseam sizes were limited. (I think this article will most lik...

Home...It is simply defined in the dictionary as a noun that is a place where one lives presently, especially as a member of a family or household. The place where one lives is also a place where one experiences events, and seeks and finds comfort within its walls. Home truly is where your heart is. A family member of mine was experiencing some problems recently and was going through transitions that were emotional on every level. The final healing move for her was to find herself a new home. She went looking and saw this and that and still after months of looking had not found the one. She was just about to give up looking for a while when she walked into this last one and felt a sense of calm and peace. She knew nearly immediately that this would be the house for her! When I spoke with her she told me "I knew I was home"! It radiated off her face, her smile was her heart smiling, she felt relieved and happy. This made me extremely happy too. She had a gather...

A Crafty Welcome! Nothing says welcome to my home more than a sign saying it! Here’s a D. I. Y. welcome sign that I started after attending so many craft shows and upcycle fairs, and saying to myself, “Gosh, I really could make this!”  I have a severe case of procrastination at times, but on this occasion, I stuck to my guns and said I’d do this project. My original intent was to just white-wash some kind of found board and then stencil the word welcome on it and stick it out on my porch. But this project felt so flat and it seems that everyone had this sign. As I thought about the project my new desire for mixed media arts reared its head. I wanted a three-dimensional image. So I started to look around for things that would form the letters. I went to Home Depot with my husband one day. On an end-cap to one of the aisles was an open flooring carton. It contained grey wash slat boards for flooring and some were already missing. I took just one (I should’ve taken more) up...