Hidden in Plain Sight

Well I have had this thorn in my side for to long now, What I'm talking about is ... well ... can you see it? Its hiding in plain sight. I couldn't get rid of it and I couldn't cover it up. So i hid it in plain sight , a sort of camouflage if you will.

See it now? Hopefully the ironwork is distracting enough that if you don't notice it right away.

Yes I'm talking about the eyesore of a thermostat.

I know you can still see it ... and that its not fooling anyone ... but for some reason , It just makes me happier this way. And that's what its all about ...right? 

So for now distraction is the key  (pun intended) :)

have a great weekend and thanks for stopping in.

Francine

The Nest

Call it an urban nest , call it decorating outside of the box , call it using what you have on hand or call it feathering fluffing the nest. What ever you call it ... I call it pretty darn cute, some lil bird family called it home ( HoMe TwEeT hOmE ) .

Some little bird out there is a mixed media artist , she decided to feather her nest with ...well ... fluff . Some dried flowers, some dried grass and a whole lotta fluff. any ones patio furniture cushions a little less full?

When i found this in the garden I just had to smile. I have heard of bringing a little of the outside in,  Mama bird was bringing some of the inside out (insides out of a pillow that is). Have any of you found an interesting/out of the box nest?

This was my first.

Twigs - n- Twine

So I was in the yard the other day, removing the dried stems from the poke berry plants that were left over from fall. I started breaking up the dried stems and had a bunch in my hand ready to toss away. When I looked in my hand ...I quickly thought how would these look wrapped up in twine. I thought the variation in color and texture was interesting and pretty. 

 My kids on the other hand, looked at me like I had  lost my mind.

(what  they don't know, is that happened along time ago)

I said to them, their twigs ... they were free.

They said , yeah we can see that. Looking at me as if an arm just sprouted out of my head.

For what its worth, I like the way they look and the natural texture they add to the decor.

And when I don't want them anymore ... I won't feel guilty about throwing them out ... because they didn't cost a dime:) 

Have any of you bought,found or made something, that made your family shake their heads at you? Feel free to share it :)

Come Party here ...

  

     

Medicine anyone?

I had to share with everyone Nathans newest finds. First let me say Nathan and I are different in the following way ... I am more a vintage lover/decorator,  Nathan is more of a vintage lover/Collector.
We could be standing right next to each other and we will both notice different things. My eyes might go to a stack of vintage textiles ....his to apothecary bottles, like below.

I'm not complaining ... we both love each others finds, our eyes just seem to land on opposite things. Things we might have missed if we were treasure hunting alone. I like to transform , rescue and recycle things ... he likes things that are perfect the way they are. I'm hoping that's not the way we feel about each other ... well hooray for me ... not so good for him. All kidding aside (he is the most ideal man in the world for me, I could not have dreamed up a man this perfect ) 

So these are a collection of his apothecary bottles. The large one he had for a bit .... the others he just found.

Don't you just love the little round medicine box.

I just hope I can keep up in decorating with and around his collecting ... he has really got the bug.

I hope in a few years I won't be changing our blog to HORDING what you Love.  :)

Thanks for reading, Francine

  

  

Any one remember ...

my first post?  Probably not. But any way, I promised back then to share a tip with you. I just never got around to it. I was going to share how I attached the photos to the old window , I bought at the flea market.
I just got around to hanging it , so I thought I would finally show you. First Ill show you what I did with it.

When I first bought the window , I didn't know how to attach the photos to the back of the glass (and I didn't want to put the photos on top of the glass. So I came up with this idea. Now there may be a different way of doing this and there may be something sold at the craft store for doing this , that I don't know about. So this is for those of you that don't want to run out to the store and have everything I used on hand or for those that don't know any other way.

List of what you need:

window

3/4" black electrical tape

card stock or stiff piece of paper

reprints of the photo or photos you want to use (so the original doesn't get damaged)

Scissors 

First step ... cut a 3/4 " square out of card stock(see figure 1)

then copy shape shown in figure 2. Cut out the shape (this will be your template) it should look like figure 3.

now turn your photo up side down , figure 4(don't forget Do Not use your original photo)(at Wal Mart you can scan photos and have them printed out on photo paper)

On the back of your photos trace your template in all 4 corners as the example in figure 5 shows(the blue part shown in figure 5 is the back of the photo that will be trimmed off. When you trim all the corners of the photo the back and front of your photo should look like figure 6&7.

after you have all the photos ready , position your first photo where you want it with the front of the photo facing the glass. now cut a 3/4 " square from your roll of electrical tape. Place one in each corner as the example in figure 8 shows. Your photo is now secure to the glass and from the front it should look like

 figure 9. And then just repeat with the rest of your photos. This also works for copies of old postcards.

Here is a closer look at the window that I did.

Here is a little tweaking I did to the rest of the living room .

On the wall , left of the old pipe is a old piece of wood that I dry brushed with grey paint and distressed a little. Then I added 4 nails and hung 4 metal plaques that I bought at the Christmas tree shop for $1 each. On the left of the pipe I hung some plates I have been collecting. I used a rubber stamp and some grey paint to put some letters on them.

Don't forget to DREAM !

Here is the room before tweaking.

and here it is after.

 This picture is of my mom when she was little.

She died at the age of 41 from breast cancer in 1990.

I'm blessed to have her smiling at me always.

I hope yous enjoyed the post .... It has been a while.