Easter Prepping and Embroidery

Good Morning!

I hope all of you had a great weekend.  It's was wonderfully busy and enjoyable here at The Decorative Dreamers house.   I certainly do not have all things in order around here lately, seems my projects have been crazily scattered about lately.   I do have a few finished projects though that I'd like to share with you.  

Near the end of last week I finished up a pretty darn cute and very inexpensive wreath for the front door for Easter.  You may recall I have previously used my Egg wreath on the front door, (you can click here to see the link for it).  Well, it was getting a bit worn and I wanted something a little different.  I think I will relocate it somewhere else inside this year.  So, I began to think about how to come up with a new wreath for the front door on a budget.  

 Now don't get me wrong, I love big beautiful gorgeous wreaths for the front door especially.  In fact if I wasn't trying to be so thrifty I'd most likely have one.  There is nothing more welcoming to me then a stunning wreath on the door. 

 To be frank I just don't have the budget for it this year and I think I want to spend a little more for my summer wreath instead.  That means my Easter and Spring wreath had to take the cut, I'm still very happy with my results though and very happy that Target made it so easy.  I started with these precut felt bunnies and carrots from the one dollar section.  I bought two packages of each and ended up only using one package each.

I spray painted an old grape vine wreath that I had that was also starting to have seen it's better days.  Those old vine wreaths can get pretty dark.  I chose the same mint spray that I used on my washstand.  Then I dug through my faux flowers and found some ferns and a few white babys breath maybe?  This year because of all the winds we have been having I hot glued everything down really good.  I don't want scattered bunnies and carrots everywhere.  LOL!

 The pink Burlap ribbon was actually a dollar tree find back in December.  There was one pink and one turquoise spool in the ribbon bins among the Christmas ribbons and I immediately grabbed it right up.  What a find!  I guess it was left over from the previous season, IDK.  I added this jute ribbon that I saved from a gift I received at Christmas this year.  It looks a lot like the ribbon I used on some of my trees.  I thought it was so cute on the present and since it was so long I saved it.  Looks great here mixed with the pink burlap.

 The little felt carrots are actually little pockets.  I added the jute bows and stuffed each one with the small white flowers.  Wouldn't it be quite pretty with some really nice flowers inside?   Oh well, maybe I will score some after season deals for next year, I really do love it as it is though!

These little bunny silhouettes were just so adorable, I knew immediately how I wanted them to be when I saw them.  As you can see I chose not to use the blue bunnies that were in the pack and just stuck with the more neutral white and grey bunnies.  They also received little jute bows.  So cute!  I think I am addicted to little jute bows.  I love them everywhere! I also recycled the chalkboard gift tag from Christmas for my Happy Easter sign.  Very simple, but very cute!

I spent part of the weekend on my embroidery machine.  I decided to make a few gifts for the little people in my life after seeing so many online in one of my embroidery groups.   I just had to get on board the bunny bandwagon and embroider up a few little presents for my nieces and nephews children.  These small little bunnies were a bargain at Walmart and will make quite the cute little basket stuffers for them.  This was the first time I've ever embroidered a bunny.  I have to say, It wasn't as hard as I thought it might be and I am pretty proud of myself .  I think they turned out really well.  

While I was at Walmart getting the bunnies, I came across these very inexpensive floppy hats and decided to embroider a few bonnets as well.  Actually, I am very sure these will not end up as Easter bonnets but will be summer hats for my family.  I knew at the price they were at Walmart I had better get them right away.  They were only $3.87 each I think, or something weird like that.  I made one for myself and my sons girlfriend and my mother.  The small pink and purple hats are for my nieces daughters.  I found them at the dollar tree.  What a deal!

I got a little fun with the embroidery on my mothers hat.  I decided for her hat I was going to put MiMi on it instead of her initials.  She loves being called MiMi and would prefer it then her initials any day.  I typed MiMi into my software and was skimming though my fonts when I accidentally clicked on this one.  It is a true Monogram font (that is set up for 3 letters) and is called a scalloped circle with the chevron fill.  Since there were more then three letters the font started a new half circle and this is what popped up.  Well, I actually did some adjusting on the letters and shape by elongating them but you get the picture.  I saw a fish and knew this would be perfect for my mother since she lives on the lake.  I she will most likely use her hat at home since she doesn't travel much anymore.  I added a few bubbles and the eye and it was done.  

Now that's what I call fun and adorable.  She will love it!

In addition to the bunnys and bonnets I also embroidered a few other spring items for the house.  This little baby duck and floral basket is just so precious.  This design is embroidered on a printed flour sack towel from Target.  I am really enjoying embroidering on hand towels of all types.  They are very easy to do and so enjoyable.  This design did take quite a bit more time though due to all the different thread changes with the all the colors of the design.  Whew, it really was a lot of time but so worth it to me!

I also really enjoy making quick little embroidery projects too.  I love embroidering on burlap and finding different places and way to use it.  I liked the way this clothesline design looked like it was hanging and wanted to try and keep the same idea so I simply made it to be a banner to hang in my half bath.  I added the word Hello to the design to give it a bit more meaning.

I still have so many other projects I want to get to on the embroidery machine but I have to stop every now and then and get back to living.  It's so fun though!

Sunday, I put everything aside and spent some time with the Mr. and we went out on the boat.  I will try to share some of that pretty soon as well.  Thank you so much for checking in today, I hope you enjoyed your look into my world.

Wishing you all a great start to the week ahead,

Hugs and Waves!

Fall Decor in the Dining Room

Happy Friday everyone!  I hope your weekend is off to a great start.  Mine is all about work again but I have only one more week to go and then I'm off for a vacay.  I cannot wait!

I thought I'd brighten things up a bit by sharing a little more of my fall decorating in the dining room.  So far this year, most of my fall decor has been all about using what I already have.  Now don't read me wrong.  I did not say I haven't bought anything new this year just that I haven't shared much of that with you yet.  LOL!

Welcome to the dining room!

  The cute little sign is one I bought from work when they went on clearance.  I am thinking I may give this sign a little more aged patina if I ever get the time.  So far though, it looks just great to me as is.

Several ceramic pumpkins from last years trip to the dollar tree sit in a painted bread basket...

...next to one of my vases I had on the fireplace mantle.

  I switched those out for another great find.  I will share the fireplace mantle fall decor with you another day.  

My dining room cloche got the fall treatment too.

Do you see what I've caught under my cloche?  

Three adorable little pesky squirrels!

These two on the bottom we inherited from my FIL.  One is a wood carving from an older pastor of their church.  Don't you think they all look so mischievous?  I sure do!

I added the other vase from my fireplace mantle to the top of the dining room china cabinet.  The baskets stay on top of here year round.

I also added the boxwood wreath I made last year and just a small bit of beaded fall garland.  You can see and read the post about my wreath here.

I kind of feel like I would like just a little something else up here but not sure exactly what yet.  So for now, it's working for me.

So there you go!   Just a few more simple vignettes.

Thanks for stopping in.  And a big thank you to all of you who have inspired me to get busy on my own home and pop out the fall decor.  I am really enjoying it!

Have a great day and a wonderful weekend!

My Pool Noodle Project

Good Morning!  What a beautiful weekend it has been so far.  The weather has been just perfect with the sun shining brightly and the skies all clear. What a beautiful Father's Day today too!

 It's just the right kind of weather for spending time around the pool.  Since we put in a pool last year it has been such a joy!  So, I'm sure you can understand when I heard about a Pool Noodle Craft Party going on over at Debbiedoo's I had to find out a bit more.  I knew I was going to be all about this one!

The challenge was to create something using a pool noodle.  I am sure I won't be the only one who decided to make a wreath.  But...mines not just any old wreath, Oh no!!!  It's so much more!  So after spending only $3.00 at the DT I gathered up the rest of the supplies I already had on hand and went to work and here's my wreath!

What do you think?  Pretty cute and simple huh?

  Well, to be honest it wasn't quite that easy.  The first challenge I had was to find a way to make the noodle stay round.  The Mr. helped me out with that one.  He simply added a small rubber tube inside of both the holes on each end forcing them to connect together.  He's so smart like that!

  

Then, all I did next was add more of that white tulle ribbon that I already had along with some indoor/outdoor rope.  The noodle was item no.1 and the rope was item no.2  purchased from the DT. 

The sign was item no.3 purchased from the DT.  Unfortunately it didn't quite say what I wanted it to.  So, it had to undergo a little transformation.  Since it was the right size (and price), I thought it was worth effort.

I decided to keep the flip flops since they were already on the original sign and just worked around that.  I repainted the sign white because it was brown and added the words with a paint pen.

If you look closely you can see where the previous words originally were on the sign.  I did some light sanding but obviously not quite enough.   Oops! The original words ( Beach House) were glittery and textured.  I thought I got most of that off but not quite. 

Oh well!  To be honest I really didn't have a lot of time to invest in this but really wanted to get it done.  I was especially rushed this week because we are leaving for the beach ourselves today.  Whoo hoo!  Anyway, I think the sign looks just fine, don't you?  Sure you do, but there is just one little itty bitty problem.

You see, I can't in all good conciseness go out of town with a sign like this hanging on our pool.

Now a sign like this....I could live with!

That's right friends, flip the sign and were all set.

This side looks so much better without any previous wording showing through.  LOL!

So there you have it.

Pool Open!

Pool Closed!

I decided to hang it right there on the fence by the pool too!

The Mr. said, " Hey, we can use it as a life preserver too if we need too."  LOL!

Didn't I tell you it was so much more then just a wreath?

This was a fun project!  Thanks so much for the inspiration to create something fun with a pool noodle ladies.  I really enjoyed the challenge! 

I hope you enjoyed your visit here today too.  Please be sure and visit 

Debbiedoo's

 to see many more of those amazing noodle projects on the 20th.

I hope I am able to get this post to link up but am not sure I will have internet connections where we are going but I will try!

Have a great week everyone!

My New Everyday Mantle Decor

Yay! I finally finished up a little project I've been working on.  It's just an itty bitty thing, but it's one of those things that I've been wanting to complete since taking down all the Christmas decor from my mantle.

Here's how my mantle has looked for the past several weeks.  Leaves a lot to be desired, doesn't it?  I just haven't really felt like doing much holiday mantle decorating this year.   But I have been very interested in finding an everyday look for the mantle.  

The first thing I knew I wanted was to replace a wreath back on the mirror.  I like the way the one I had there during Christmas looked and so I decided to replace it.  I was very excited when I found this faux Moss wreath at Carolina Pottery.

I knew it would make the perfect starting point for the wreath I wanted to make.

I have wanted a Boxwood wreath for sometime but have not wanted to pay what they cost premade.  So last week when I found these branches on sale at Hobby Lobby for half off I was thrilled.

 I got out my hot glue gun and a few wire tacks and I was good to go.

It was a bit of a challenge as my hot glue was so hot it would melt the stems I was trying to glue down.

Finally after using more of my metal floral picks I was almost done.  Oh, and there's the cute little harlequin napkin holder I picked up on sale last week from my shopping trip to Hobby Lobby.  

 Then it was time to hang it on the mirror.

I am sure it could use alot more greenery but it's enough for me.   For now, I'd like to show you the rest of the mantle decor.

 Did you figure out what this item to the left is yet?

 Yep!  It's a mantle clock I found at Hobby Lobby too.  Isn't it cute?  I just loved how it had that shabby look and best of all was on the clearance isle.  They have the best markdown deals, don't they!

I still need to add a battery to the little clock, so for now it's perpetually 10:05.  LOL!

And the green ceramic pieces I showed you bits of were vases.

 I found two of them also on the clearance isle at Hobby Lobby.

Then I filled them with this simple grass greenery that was also on sale when I was there.

I almost didn't buy them because I realized when I got to the counter they were not actually the same size.  I was so bummed out but decided to try them anyway.

I am glad I did because I have been able to successfully use vintage books to balance out the height of each of them.

Are you ready to see a full reveal of the mantle?

Here it is!  I am pretty pleased with it so far.  I am sure the lanterns and plates will most likely disappear in the summer to lighten things up but I am loving them here for now.

 Please ignore the little white dots on the wall behind my floral arrangements.  I still need to repaint the walls from where I had the sconces hung and patched.  Ooops!

 It sure feels good to have a look I can live with for awhile on here again instead of a big empty space.

Thanks for visiting my living room today and for taking a peek at my new everyday fireplace mantle decor.  

I am joining BNOTP for Metamorphosis Monday today.

Sometimes change is good!

Have a great week everyone!