It’s Hurricane Season!

My Dollar Tree finally {finally!} had the large glass vases to make the hurricanes and I picked up four this past weekend.  I probably should have got more, because last year I couldn’t find these at all.  I had to go with the next size down last year and, while they turned out nice, I really wanted to do the larger size.  You can read last year’s post here.  Even Dollar Tree knows they will go fast ~ they didn’t even bother to take them out of the box!

For under $10.00 you can get a nice Fall decorative piece that will carry you through to Thanksgiving and beyond.   You will need one of the larger glass vases with a flat bottom ~ the main one has a slight flare to the top.  You will also need the vase the next size down {no flare}, also flat bottomed, and I checked it in the store to make sure it fit inside the larger one; one candlestick {the stand}; some Fall leaf picks; and glass adhesive. 

I had my glass adhesive so I don’t know if the dollar store carries it.  I definitely suggest glass adhesive as last year I had a problem with some of my pieces coming apart and I used three different adhesives that were mentioned as being used with this project.  I have since fixed all my pieces with glass adhesive and so far nothing has come apart. 

I washed all my pieces and follow the directions on your adhesive.  Mine mentions wiping the area to be glued down with nail polish remover, so each adhesive might have different instructions.  Once everything was clean and dry, I applied the adhesive to the candlestick and placed it in the center of the bottom of the larger glass vase.   This is your stand.  I left this to dry for a couple of hours.  Once dry, I put the other vase inside this and started to cut some leaves off my Fall leaf pick, varying the shape, size and color. 

I started to put the leaves in between the main vase and the inserted glass vase.  To make it a little easier to get the leaves further down, I also cut one of the stems and used that to push the leaves down. 

Once you’ve got that how you want it to look, put your pillar candle in the inserted vase.  Place it in the desired location in your home {I put two of these on my dining room table}, light and “ooh/ahh” over the beautiful job you did!

Once Thanksgiving is over, just take out the glass insert to easily remove your leaves.  Now you can add something decorative for Christmas or Hannukah!  Some fake snow or snowflake decorations will take you right through Winter.

On a side note, and to give a little Etsy love, I got these great fabric pumpkins you see on my table from Becky at Junk to Joy.  I just love them!  Three of them came as a set and I also purchased a great looking set of tags from Becky as well.  This is a new Etsy shop, so I hope you will visit Becky and check out all her great things.  She is one of my new favorites!

Linked up to:

Fall Party at Tatertots and Jello

Much To Do Beside Blogging

I’ve got my hands full, so to speak.  Things have been just a little busy for me recently and I see it continuing for a few weeks.  I’m going to have to slow things down and my blog will be the first to feel it. I have a couple of posts prepared, but my commenting will be sporadic.   I hope you’ll hang in there!

Tabletop Tuesday

I can’t believe I actually redecorated something in my house over the weekend that enables me to participate in Tabletop Tuesday over at Marty’s A Stroll Thru Life linky party!  I redecorated the top of the chest in my entry foyer. 

With Fall coming I removed some dollar store birds, an apothecary with a nest and moss, a picture of a nest, a medium size pot of mini daffodils, and the tray I had in the middle of the chest {holding the apothecary, the fern and an extra drapery hardware finial just as a decorative piece}.  I moved a few things around and kept them on the chest; the little fern, my Goodwill clock and the books. 

I brought in the floral arrangement I did several posts back {because I want to do something different on my dining room table} and used it to balance out the lamp, an extra book The House In Good Taste by Elsie de Wolfe in its lovely orange cover, a new reading bunny which I totally copied the idea of from Pat at Back Porch Musings, and a faux white pumpkin {from Michaels last year}. 

Can I tell you how much I love this bunny?

I also put my Fall/Winter window treatments back up in the dining room, which is just to the left of this area.  It gets too dark to take photos, so I don’t have any to share.  Hopefully, when I do what I have planned for the dining room table, I’ll get a shot to share.

The pillow on the dining chair below is from Rhonda at Blue Creek Home.  She makes such great pillows!  This one has bunnies on it and the colors go with my dining room, so I couldn’t resist buying it.

I don’t really do much decorating for Fall.  Luckily, I do have Fall {warm} colors in my dining room.  I do decorate a bit for Halloween, so I will kind of mix that in with the Fall stuff in October.  I decided not to buy any other Fall things and just use what I have to get the feeling of Fall across.  This is especially since we hope to put our house back on the market after the holidays and I don’t need to make up a whole new box dedicated to holiday decorations!

Update:  I moved the cloche I made {see post below} over to this chest so I’m just adding a few pictures here rather than redoing all the pictures in this post.

 I really like this little cloche I made!  I’ll have to see what ribbon I have that might look nice tied around the knob. 

Sneak Peek ~ 2011 Color Trends

A sneak peek at color trends for 2011, courtesy of Sherwin Williams.  Take a look at these offerings, some of which still look familiar, and see which is your favorite.

GENTLE MEDLEY ~ FRESH. AIRY. INNOCENT.
Hard times call for soft colors: the hint of green in a spring leaf bud; the chalky blush of a seashell; the time-etched beauty of a vintage fabric or photograph. Fashion has turned a romantic, nostalgic corner, bringing pastels and parchment-pale neutrals back into the palette. The hues are innocent without being sweet — flirty, yet not feminine. They reflect not just a yearning for youthful innocence and gentler times, but also a refreshing honesty and lack of pretension that are thoroughly modern.

RESTLESS NOMAD ~ SULTRY. EXOTIC. PRIMAL.
Thanks to the Internet, everyone now has a passport to wander the world, soaking up its flavors, images and colors, and stirring them into an eclectic global design stew. Morocco and Turkey are making their presence felt, but there’s no need to stop there. Today’s adventurers feel free to sample from anywhere and everywhere, pairing Persian paisleys with exotic animal skins and Indonesian batiks. Colors, too, wander all over the palette: from dusky darks, to hot vibrant pinks and reds, to earthy food-influenced hues that evoke eggplants and cabbages.

PURELY REFINED ~ ELEGANT. TAILORED. UNDERSTATED.
True luxury doesn’t shout its presence with glitz, glamour and bling. It whispers, revealing its pedigree through clean, classic lines, exquisite tailoring and handcrafted heirloom quality. Pared down is the new upscale, and its color palette demonstrates similar restraint, filled with understated neutrals, yet with nuances and undertones that interact in intriguing ways. Layering, organic textures and subtle detailing add to the natural elegance of this timeless look.

BOLD INVENTION ~ EXPERIMENTAL. ARTSY. EXPRESSIVE.
The city never sleeps. Neither do its colors.These high-energy hues vibrate with spontaneity and rebellion. Neon bright, graffiti bold and digitally enhanced to 3-D luminosity, they’re the colors of technology, of avant-garde art and of the entrepreneurial spirit that celebrates shaking off dull routine to do what you love. The eclectic global influences range from the Cynical Realism art movement of urban China to the carnival spirit of Rio de Janeiro, host of the 2016 Summer Olympics. Anything goes, and self-expression is the new metropolitan mantra.

I am drawn to both the Gentle Medley and Restless Nomad colors.  How about you?

Pictures and descriptions are from Sherwin Williams.

How A Vase Becomes A Cloche

I had purchased this pillar candle holder when I went to the Pottery Barn Outlet back in August.  It’s a good size all around to be a base for a cloche and that was my intention when I bought it. 

It was just this weekend that I realized I had a vase that was put away with my Halloween decorations that would actually work as the cloche.  It just needed a knob of some kind on the top, so I pulled out what I had on hand.  Here are the models for you.

Round wooden ball

Wooden finial

Glass knob

I decided to go with a glass knob that I had left over from when I painted my pine armoire black and changed out the original wood knobs to glass knobs.  This looks the best out of the three, I think.

I used a glass adhesive because all those glass vases and candleholders that I glued together last year with other adhesives came apart!  That was not fun!  Now I make sure I have a glass adhesive on hand, and that was how I fixed all the other hurricanes and such I made last year.

I used one of the Fall pinecone fillers I bought last year in it and put it on my entry foyer chest.

 

Done!  What do you think?  A cloche from a vase.  I love it!  So next time Marty at A Stroll Thru Life has a cloche party ~ I’m ready!

Linking this post up with:

Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps On The Porch

It’s So Very Creative at It’s So Very Cheri

A Cloche By Any Other Name {Is A Cheese Dome}

I am taking Marty up on her offer to use “other things” to join in on the cloche party at her blog A Stroll Thru LIfe.  I decided to use this cheese dome I have that really gets little to no use.  I just left the marble base in the cabinet and used a Fall-inspired dish.

It is currently housing my wooden acorns that I picked up last Fall at Pier 1.  I may change this out or at least add some leaves to the base.

The cloche I did find at Goodwill just a few months ago and I glued the sundae dish to the bottom as a base to lift it up.  I decided to play around with it on my bookshelf for these pictures.

I had a faux cupcake in there and found that one of my faux pumpkins from a filler package fit inside it nicely.

Also, while it’s not a cloche or a glass enclosed container of any kind, my metal birdcage that is in a corner of my kitchen is housing a new nest that I ordered form a fellow blogger.  {I could cry; I can’t find her email so that I can give you her name and blog link.  If you know who I’m referring to, please let me know in the comments so I can edit this post}.  I love this nest!  I went on a waiting list in April this year for an August delivery and true to her word, I got my nest in hand in August. 

 

These pictures in no way do this justice!  I have it perched on a pot for height and used a leaf garland that I got last year at Michaels to fill inside the birdcage and hung a bit of it off the top knob with a nest tag. 

The top of the birdcage is on a hinge for easy opening.  For many years I just had faux greenery sitting in here.  Now that I’ve gotten rid of it,  I’ll have to come up with ways to decorate it for the holidays and seasons.

Thanks for visiting!  This was a nice way to kick off my Fall decorating.  I hope you’ll swing by Marty’s and see what some talented people have put together under their cloches.