Project 24: Harry Potter Kitchen Vignettes

Lately I've been doing a lot of vignette decorating. Doing a little display here or there with things that make me happy. Most of the time when I do this I go "shopping" throughout my house and pick up items that would belong, bring them to the spot and start arranging them. It's something that my mom used to do all the time growing up.

We recently remodeled part of our main bathroom. Previously I had it designed as a Harry Potter themed room. After the remodel last month most of the accessories were put in my craft room (except for the entrance to the Ministry of Magic ;), of course) but I moved them to the kitchen today.

I recently painted the back splash area with the same color that graces most of my home, aqua. It really needed a touch up. Once it was painted I was thinking about adding red to the kitchen so I went "shopping" and started bringing red accessories in. The largest item was my Hogwarts Express sign and that gave me the idea to bring all my Harry Potter items into the kitchen. You've seen this fabric bunting in my craft room redo  and I've moved it around to other areas of the house when I've needed it. I cut some red fabric strips out of my stash to make it fit in here.

Here's some close up shots of some of the items I previously made for the Powder room. They've really held up and still look great. 

This Wolfsbane Potion is actually just salt now. My olive oil container was reused from a cranberry liquor from last holiday season. 

This is the broom I use everyday. I fell in love with it because it looks so much like a quidditch broom. The snitch resided here until I decorate the powder room, now it's back in it's original location. 

I painted this cup at a local paint your own pottery place last year. It's my favorite cup, especially since I switched to a one cup coffee maker. 

This is my Hermione time turner necklace, I actually wore it to the grocery store this morning. When I say I go "shopping" in the house, nothing is off limits. 

It is held on to this vase with painters tape on the back where you can't see it. 

Many times when I'm doing a little redecorating I search for Printables that might fit my theme. This one is from Simply Fresh Designs and is a Dumbledore quote that I already loved since all of my kiddos have varying degrees of special needs. 

Project 23: Bug Report & Soft Sculpture

One of the things that I love about my kids going to a small school is that they often have the same teachers that their siblings had before. My son, Charlie is very bonded to his first grade teacher and has come to love school this year. Because of his developmental delays he has been in a school setting since he was 2 years old. But this is the year that things opened up for him. He is excited about learning new things and doing educational projects.

The kids have 2 or 3 big projects a year and I typically help them with the visual part of the project and my wife helps with the written part of the project. It works out well because it relies on both of our strengths so we don't get to a point where we are pulling our hair out. For this project Charlie had to choose a bug or insect to do a report and create a project. He chose a black widow spider. We've had fun learning about the specific anatomy of spiders. I never realized that the legs of a spider are attached to the small part- the cephalothorax if you're interested.

Here he is with his finished soft sculpture. He did all of the sewing except for the legs- I went back and resewed over his part because they were giving us lots of trouble staying in place.

Project 22: Garden Chandelier

I've been in the garden quite a bit. I found a quote I love in a garden book I've been reading:

 "All gardens begin in winter dreams."

 Isn't that so beautiful and spot on. I love spring when all those winter dreams begin to take shape. Our local Ben Franklin had signs up the last time that I was there that said Don't just Pin it, do it. This is one of those projects that I put on my garden pinterest board this winter.

The first thing I did with my ten dollar thrift store find is strip the wiring out. This involved dismantling the candelabras and taking the bottom off to access the wiring. The hardest part was unscrewing the nuts on the candelabra. I used a screwdriver as a pry bar to loosen it. 

Most of the pinterest chandeliers were spray painted. I knew I didn't want to do that because my style is more Grandma chic than Ikea hip. I wanted an antique finish that would weather and look better with time. I used chalk paint and didn't clean, sand or do any prep work at all. 

PS. One of the perks of using what you have: The paint matches my beachy outdoor set. If it dripped it didn't matter because this color is already in the table finish. I used a sponge brush because I wasn't concerned with coverage. I like the spots where the brass shows through. I didn't want brush marks to show though so I sponge painted it. This technique is something I mastered in 1980-something when my mother had me help her sponge paint the entire living room. I painted the chandelier and the metal parts of the solar lights. These lights are the second set I purchased for this project. I returned the first set because the size was too big and it made it look out of proportion. 

Glueing them into the candelabra cups proved more difficult. I ended up using a long set and quick set glue. 

I can't wait to see it lit up tonight. 

Project 21: Garden Art

I recently found this beautiful rusty watering can at a yard sale. It was a great find at only $2. I would have haggled but I was so giddy to find it and the little garden box beside it that I didn't even think to. I shoved money at them and hugged it all the way back to my messy minivan. I love the colors of both items. I have to remember this "white wash" over my favorite pastels. It makes it look so romantic. The color is almost a perfect match to my jadeite. I should have known. I like what I like. 

The black pouch in the photo is a bag full of chandelier crystals. Many of my craft supplies are my mother's items. She kept everything because it might be useful. I shook my head at her when she was alive, now I use so many of her items in my projects. 

I added one of the largest chandelier crystals hanging like a large water droplet from the spout. I used more crystals but I like the simplicity of just one. I haven't found a great spot to hang it yet. I think it needs a shepard's hook. But, for now I love to look at it outside my kitchen window. The crystal really sparkles in person. It's hard to capture in a photo.

It's not much of a project, but:


"To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it." - Kurt Vonnegut

Project 20: Veggie Garden

I have a vegetable garden every year. This year is a little different though. I usually plant starts purchased at our local home store. I may plant some easy things from seed, like peas or green beans, but mostly everything is purchased as plants from the store. Not this year. My greenhouse set up worked out so well I am growing my entire vegetable garden from seeds I started this year. 

6 flats of plants! I had to do some serious planning on paper to figure out where I was going to fit everything into the garden. 30+ tomato plants, 30+ tomatillo plants, corn, beans, peppers, squash, herbs. I've already planted my brocolli, cauliflower, radishes, peas and lettuce. Planting day 2014 is done! 

Project 19: A gift for a friend

I might be a little vague in this post because this gift is a secret. Shhhh.

Last year, we tore down an old cedar privacy fence in the back yard. This left me with a huge pile of beautiful weathered wood.

I mean, isn't that beautiful? It reminds me of a long walk down a country gravel road. I can't get rid of this huge pile of wood because I love it so. Back to the project at hand though. 

It started like this: 

I ended up taking it into the garage to cut because it was getting everywhere. 

I sanded off a lot of the texture since I was going to paint it and I didn't want all the paint to flake off. I still left the grain of the wood showing through. 

I picked out the design I wanted and printed out, sizing it according to my project. 

Using transfer paper I lightly traced the design and then "painted" it in. I use quotes because I actually used sharpies here since the grain of the wood is so pronounced. 

I think it looks great just like this, but I had something else in mind.....you know something with words. I love word art. P.S. That pink thing is a bunny tail. I'm painting on one of my kids old towels, it used to have bunny ears too. Then we got a dog. Ha! 

Here is the finished project. I added a little white paint to make it seem more worn. It is a gift for a friend that was there for me during one of the most difficult times of my life. We met on an online forum and realized that we lived in the same city.  Another friend is helping to make sure she feels her echo of love coming back to her. 

Project 18: Fairy Furniture

We have an ever evolving fairy garden. It used to be contained to one small area, but, that was before the dog. Our fairy garden is now outside the fence because of our curious, energetic puppy. It takes over a much larger area than it previously did so we needed some more furniture and accessories. My daughter, Josie, was very excited to try her hand at building a few things. Like many kids her age she's obsessed with the video game Minecraft. She liked making the fairy furniture with me because "It's like real life Minecraft Mom, I have to figure out how to build it!"