A Touch of Fall

Oh, how I long for a chill in the air!  Alas, here in Arizona we can't look forward to that for at least another couple of months.  While the weather is still screaming summer, the calendar is saying fall and I decided it was time to get in the mood.  It is September after all! 

For a while now, I have felt that this little vignette on the fireplace hearth needed a little face lift.  You may remember the split pea cones.  They were so wonderful, fresh and Springy when I made them last February.

However, they have become faded, almost yellow and the kids have knocked them down a few too many times which has made more than a few hundred peas flake off.  They just did not have the "life" in them anymore.  Of course, the thrifty in me couldn't just throw away two dollar store cones covered in an 88 cent bag of split peas.  Oh no.  Not this frugal girl.  All they need is a touch of paint.  My first thought was to use some craft paint, but then as I was walking the aisles of Lowes the other day guess what caught my eye -  Valspar La Frontera Copper spray paint - the perfect harvest orange, not too bright, just right!

 

I popped them on a skewer, took them outside and gave them a nice coat of paint.  Beautiful, but it was missing something, some depth.  So I grabbed a can of oil rubbed bronze spray paint and gave it a very light dusting.  It was great, however a couple of spots got a bit thick, so I dusted it again with the copper.  Perfect.  Don't you just love the texture of the split peas.

To change up the look a bit, I pulled out some fall leaf foil garland I picked up at the dollar store a couple weeks back and made another tree.  I gave my Styrofoam cone a light coat of orange spray paint and then started wrapping the garland.  It is a wire so I simply poked the end in the cone and started wrapping - first the gold, then the brown, then the red and repeat.  After I was done, I fluffed it up a bit, pulling the leaves out from under the wire.

I only had two of the wood candle sticks so I grabbed a small glass one from my stash.  I dusted it with orange and then the ORB.  I love the speckled effect in this application.

To balance out this new display, I pulled out my orange candles and placed them on the candlesticks on the side table along with a bit more of the garland.

Have you started decorating for Fall?

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Split Peas!

Last week I was perusing my favorite blogs and fell in love with the decor balls that Allison over at House of Hepworths made using split peas.  I love, love, loved the green and just knew that I had to do something with this fabulous idea.  Since Valentines day is Monday, I also knew that I was going to have to take down my conversations cones and replace this wonderful display with something.  So, after a trip to the Dollar Tree and Fry's Food - here is what we have.

INSPIRATION:

BEFORE:

DURING:

(Yes, every project begins with Diet Coke!)

AFTER

I found that awesome plaster medallion at Goodwill a while back for $2.99, isn't it lovely.  Yesterday when my Mom and I were working on another project for my walls (maybe next week it will be done), I came across the medallion and the easel and they were a match made in heaven.  I love our new hearth decor.

While I had the hotglue gun out, I whipped up a split pea decor ball and another larger ball out of some twine.  I grabbed a pinto bean decor ball I made before Christmas and added them into this awesome little tray that I found at Family Dollar for $3.00.  I am late to the Decor Ball craze but I am in love with them right now.



Conversation ♥ Cones

I have been inspired in 2011 to do more crafting and decorating of our new house.  I love being creative and the excitement of completing a project or two.  So a friend of mine shared her new craft blog Simply Crafty Blog on facebook where she had just completed a wreath using conversation hearts.  I loved it but decided to do a little twist on it.  So (as she said) off to Dollar Tree I went to pick up a few bags of hearts and a couple of styrofoam cones.  I had to hit a couple of stores as the first store I went to did not have the cones but I knew I had seen them at one of the other locations - near my favorite new Goodwill store but that is a post for another day.

With glue gun in hand, I burned a few fingers and completed two awesome cones.  The extra hearts went into my favorite vase (from Goodwill of course) and the subway art printable I found at eighteen25.  Here they sit on the hearth.  Happy Valentine's day!

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