Primitives and a Sign

I’m sharing a few of my primitive decor items I’ve made and sold.

If you've read my blog over the past year, you may have noticed where I mentioned primitive decor. Well, I'm not one to sit and craft all day long, six days a week. In fact, there are times when I don't touch any of my crafting. Sadly, that includes my knitting.

These are just some of the items, I made last year and sold on Etsy.

~ Cupid's Arrows~

~Pip Berry Spoon Wall Hanger~

~Sugar Cookie Candles~

My favorite item to make - CANDLES!

I made this pillow last spring after looking at several wool pillows and their prices

and decided to give it a try with felt. It turned out really cute and it is now sitting 

in my Great Grandmother's chair along with my Maw Maw's Bible.

I was a little surprised to come across a primitive section in an Ace Hardware store in a city not too far from here. Honestly, I did not buy anything because everything was made in China. But I did get some ideas for my shop. If I'm going to by primitive/colonial items, I'm going to support a Made in the USA or Canada small business.

Since we've moved and people actually see our front door, I decided it was time to make a year round sign. I'm not one for changing every month, so when I took my Christmas moose off the door, I knew I wanted something to stay until at least spring. Last week, we stopped at the lumber store in Miles City and picked up an 8 foot piece of spruce 1x4.  I already knew how I want the actual wood to look, and knew how I was going to accomplish it. Yes, I'm a planner!

My friend Pamela at Our Pioneer Homestead has a super easy tutorial on making wood look old. You can find it HERE.  Now, I'm one who likes easy, so I searched high and low for a better way to paint my "Welcome Friends" on the wood. I really dislike the idea of cutting out all the letters and keeping up with all the little fillers for some of the letters. So when I found THIS tutorial on how to paint on letters, I was hooked!

Here's the finished product~

Have a great weekend!

A Primitive Package

Last month, I joined a prim swap. I was so excited about doing a swap, since it has been several years since I joined in on one. This was my first prim swap, so it was REALLY exciting! 

Yesterday, my package came in the mail. We stopped at the mailbox when we pulled into the driveway and I watched Jamie as he went and pulled out all the mail. Yep, I forgot to go on Thursday until it was dark and since we have coyotes and foxes on the prowl, I just left the mail.The first thing he pulled out was a large envelope and I got all excited.

 When we came in the house, Jamie and I sat at the table oohed and awed over everything and enjoyed some very yummy fudge that was included in the package. It was like Christmas!

This is what my friend Nancy sent.


I took a picture of all the things that I sent to her, once she receives her package, I'll post a picture.  Nancy has been working on a Celebrity's Favorite Recipe Cookbook. You can see more about it on her selling BLOG.

I hope you all have had a good week and having a good weekend.

Drying Flowers

I love the dried flowers! Not the brown, crunchy kind that have not been taken care of, but the flowers that still have color. When I walk through the flowers at Hobby Lobby and Michaels, I always end up in the dried flower section. I love them! I just don't like the prices on them.

Several years ago, I was watching a DIY show and the lady was talking about drying flowers and how to keep them from looking "unloved". The one thing that she stressed was that drying flowers was easy without using chemicals; you really don't need it for most flowers. She took a bouquet of roses and wrapped a rubber band around the stems and then wrapped the other end of the band around a wire clothes hanger. She even clipped a clothes pin to hold the rubber band for added protection. The lady went on to say to hang the hanger where the flowers will be able to hang without touching anything, so they won't end up with a mashed side.  Once the flowers are dried, spray them with a clear acrylic spray.
 
I did this with some of the small flowers that came from my Mother in law's funeral in 2008. The flowers that had color other than white or cream, has kept their color. The first picture with shows a cream and dark pink edged rose. The pink has stayed. The red roses did beautifully.


In this photo, you'll see how all the roses stayed closed and perfect in shape except for the one with the arrow. I think I have bumped it several times while dusting, so it has loosened up some.  As for dusting? All I do is gently blow on the flowers.

Back in January our spring flowers began blooming. In our woods we found two places that are about 20x20 full of daffodils.   These were some that I picked. After keeping them in water for about a week, I noticed that they began to dry. So I bundled them up  and hung them in my laundry room, not knowing how they would do...

I went to the laundry room on Wednesday and pulled the daffodils down and this is what I found. They are very papery. I did spray them, so hopefully, I'll be able to keep them awhile. The brown bottle I put them in is one of my husband's treasures he found while digging around in the woods.

The only thing about the daffodils is their heads tend to turn up when they are hanging. So I ran out to the field and picked a few more and hopefully came up with a solution.  DO NOT LAUGH!

I knew I wanted to try and keep the heads up when they are dried. So I took a piece of twine and tied around the stems right under the flower. Then I put the flowers in a tissue paper tube and put them in just a smidgen of water, since I'm not wanting to keep these out for long. Tonight I'll take the flowers and the tube and hang them upside down. Hopefully, the weight of the tube will help hold the flowers down while drying.

This was an experiment on drying daffodils. I am not an expert on flower drying.

A Little of This and That

I've been looking over my posts for the past two months and I've noticed that I've fallen off the wagon except for book reviews. Hopefully, I'll be able to get back into writing more.



 I have so much going on here that it seems like I'm in a nonstop mode. I get up in the mornings to run, run, run and then I fall dead into bed at night. That is something that is really unusual for me. I'm a nighttime reader and love being able to read a book while in bed. In the past, I would pull out the old flashlight so I would not bother my husband. Now I read on my Kindle and have the brightness set where he doesn't even know that I'm reading. For the past few weeks, I have not been able hold my eyes open to even read one page. I guess I could say this is a good thing.

I joined an envelope swap for primitives last month. I'm working on gathering items for this swap and I'm having a lot of fun.  I don't really talk about primitives here much (that's going to change), but I really love the look of the lifestyle. Having a "prim home" is a lifestyle for some but then it's just decoration for others. It's something that you have to ease into if you are not completely sure of it. If you're willing to decorate with the items, then they should be usable (if possible). These are some things that I learned on Monday and are willing to do.  I was able to go to Homestead House over in Clarkesville. Let me tell you ~ I could have easily lived in the cabin.  If you ever get a chance to visit; DO IT! you won't be disappointed.

My husband and I have finally took the plunge. We have talked for almost a year about getting chickens and every time we take a step, something seemed to hinder the process. Well, on Monday afternoon on our way home, we stopped at Lowe's and bought the lumber. That night we began building our chicken coop/tractor. Since my husband has long hours with work, he will have to finish it this coming Monday. Just as soon as everything is finished I'll post pictures.  I am really excited! Our local feed store will be getting chicks, ducklings, and turkey poults in soon. I have a friend who is holding two hens for me, just as soon as I get the coop finished we'll pick them up.

I would love to be able to get some ducklings and maybe a poult. But with the coyotes in the fields and the two foxes that we have wondering around, I think chickens will be the only feather babies we will have until we can do something about foxes. Last week, we saw them out the kitchen window. They came sneaking out of the woods and walked across the back yard. Then on Monday while we were on the porch finishing up the coop one of them walked right out into the light which was about 10 feet from where we were and he walked right on by. My husband had his gun ready and aiming if the little critter decided to lunge towards us but he didn't. He minded is own business and walked right on. Hopefully, we won't have any problems out of either one.

There is so much going on, I could keep writing, but I'd end up with a book. And we all know we don't have the time to sit and read my book about what is going on. So I'll end with a beautiful photo my husband took a couple of summers ago...