A Frame with an Agricultu'R'al Feel

This is the newest frame I added to the gallery wall in our living room.

Originally I was going with all black frames, then I tried some pine frames, and after I painted this old frame white I was inspired to add it to the gallery. I was looking for a creative way to frame the black letter 'R' and asked K, our almost 15 year old son, to cut some of his extra rabbit wire to the size of the frame.

This idea is not original to me but I really like the industrial/agricultural feel the rabbit cage wire gives to my gallery. A staple gun made quick work of attaching the wire to the frame.

A simple piece of twine ties the black 'R' to the rabbit wire.

I think it looks so much better framed.

On Thursday I shared the living room gallery work-in-progress as it was at Christmas,

and the Feed and Seed sign I painted. I still want to get a bigger frame for the photo of K's prize winning 4-H calf and I might rearrange a few things, but the wall is starting to come together.

The cost for this project was around $8 (yard sale frame $1, letter R $7 at a local decor shop, rabbit cage wire -free, and paint we had on hand.) This gallery wall is taking a long time to come together but I am enjoying the process. 

You can find me at the following parties...

It's So Very Cheri's It's Party Time

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm

Tuesday's Treasures at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Creative Things Thursday at The Vintage Farmhouse

Savvy Southern Style's Wow Us Wednesday's #55

White Wednesday at Faded Charm

Cowgirl Up! #4 at Cedar Hill Ranch also available on The Farmhouse Porch and two others

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

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Feed and Seed Sign

Well, I figured out how to upload my photos from my camera onto our new laptop so I could share photos of the sign I painted on the weeekend.

 Now I need to figure out how to get Picasa working on the laptop so I can edit my photos. Oh, and practice to hit the shift key and not the backslash key :( But I'm getting there. 

(It was a bit overcast when I took these photos so I apologize in advance for the straight out of camera shots.) I'm still working on the gallery wall in our living room and decided we needed a sign. Of course I wanted to have something a bit 'farm' related so I chose 'Feed and Seed.'

 I recycled the first sign I painted a bunch of years ago by painting white and then off-white over the beige with dark green 'CANOE RENTALS'. The board was a rough cut piece and so it has some natural roughness to it that made distressing really easy. Some Minwax stain wiped on and off added age to the distressed hand painted letters.

If you look closely you can see a hint of the old lettering and I really like that. The cost was $0, my favourite kind, because I had everything on hand.

I still need a few frames to complete this gallery, shown in the photo above at Christmas, but I think this sign is another step in the right direction. I will be sharing another addition to this gallery wall later in the week. It involves some rabbit wire (similar to chicken wire.) 

The lettering is not perfectly straight, but do you think it fits the agriculture theme of our living room gallery wall? Actually, we have pretty big hints of our love of agriculture in our home, including our kitchen, above, with the Farmer's Market sign I painted, and the barn photos. Hoping you have a great end to the week. We are expecting a big snowstorm tonight, weirdly enough the biggest one of this almost snowless winter of ours.

You can find me here....

Potpourri Friday at 2805

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

SNS #122at Funky Junk Interiors

Rustic, Recycled, and Chic

It's So Very Cheri's It's Party Time

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm

and Best DIY Projects of February at Beneath My Heart

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I Could Do This All Day and 3 Year Blog Anniversary

Playing with clay and painting-what a great way to spend a day!

On a recent school trip/retreat, the staff and students were encouraged to paint and create several pieces. This bowl was created by the nun running the retreat, and I got to paint it!

 Of course I chose blues and I am very happy with how it turned out.

This piece is much chunkier and primitive, but I had the opportunity to create it from a chunk of clay. I love the wash of colours Sister chose for it (we ran out of time to paint as our bus arrived.)

It is a wee bit lower on one side, but not nearly as much as this picture implies. When I brought the pieces home I showed them to our boys and my youngest (13) said this piece was his favourite because it had 'my fingerprints.' 

We rolled clay and shaped this last piece over a 'pattern' plate.

We had a lovely and relaxing day and enjoyed the staff and students really enjoyed unwrapping all our pieces when they were delivered. I would love to try my hand at more pieces one day. I felt quite hypnotized watching Sister spin a bowl and weave her story. Totally stress free. Have you ever painted or worked with clay before? I'm going to enjoy finding a use for them. 

Today is my 3 year blogging anniversary! 

I'm sharing this with...

Potpourri Friday at 2805

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Inspiration Friday @ At The Picket Fence

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A Little Crate

 It was exactly what I had in mind, until I stained it.

Do you ever pick the wrong stain or paint colour? I think I did this time. Our 14 year old son made this little crate box for me at my request, and I added the little casters from Home Depot.

I enjoyed hand painting some lettering, FRESH MILK on one end, and MOUNTAINVIEW DAIRY on the other. I stained it with Minwax English Chestnut and it looks way darker than I had planned. Almost chocolate brown.

This little crate is darker than I wanted, but I am so proud of my son for making it for me.

I'll live with the darker colour for now, and maybe when it warms up I can try sanding it back a bit. 

Hoping you are having a great weekend, I'm busy painting our basement guest bedroom. The wood piled against the baseboard in the background is to finish our fireplace board and batten. Lots of projects on the go here!

I'm sharing this with....

SNS at Funky Junk Interiors

Wow Us Wednesdays #48 at Savvy Southern Style

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A Ruffled Drop Cloth Pillow

I snuck in one more project before the end of the year.

I used some leftover drop cloth fabric and a simple envelope style back to make a pillow slip, adding a loosely gathered ruffle detail. This time I left the ruffle edge raw. I had both the down insert and the drop cloth on hand, so this was a freebie project.

The chair is one of three I picked up recently with a lovely round oak pedestal table. I was going to paint the table for our kitchen but it was too big for the space, so I sold it on kijiji for more than I paid for all four pieces. That left me with three very sturdy chairs that I plan to paint. I would love to try some chalk paint on these, probably white.

We have had several days of snow since Christmas and I have been busy tidying and organizing, and blog hopping of course! Time to get out for a nice walk with the dog. So as this year draws to a close, I was wondering if you think using drop cloth fabric for projects is here to stay a while, or will it be a '2011' thing? I personally love that it is not only neutral, but so affordable and easy to wash with kids and a dog.

I'm joining in at the following link parties...

Air Your Laundry Friday #47 at Freckled Laundry

Best DIY Project of December at Beneath My Heart

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Best of 2011 Projects

Welcome to my year of favourites post. It has been fun looking back at projects completed this year (and a bit overwhelming seeing projects that still need to be completed) and deciding on my favourites. You know how it goes, if you want to see more details click on the link to the original posts : )

Board and Batten Wall in the Kitchen Part 1 

Board and Batten Soffits in the Kitchen Part 2

 Hand Painted Livestock and Farmer's Market Sign

No. 8 Hand Painted Faux Grainsack Pillow

Where Bloggers Create, My Studio/Hobby Room Updated

Before: 

Weathered Tables to Fresh Grey

Painted Living Room Benjamin Moore Cotton Ball

Quilted Pillows in Denim and Whites

Thanks so much for stopping by and for the many kind comments I have received this year.

I'm joining the fun (and looking for inspiration) at the following parties...

Southern Hospitality Top Projects of 2011

Savvy Southern Style Wow Us Wednesdays Favorites from 2011

From My Front Porch To Yours First Annual Auld Lang Syne

Beyond The Picket Fence These Are A Few of My Favorite Things Party

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A Simple Christmas Dining Table with Faux Grainsack Runner

Going for a simpler and more rustic look, I added a faux grainsack runner and a smaller arrangement to our dining room table.

When I shared our Christmas dining room tablescape here, I knew that to use our table for dining, something simple and lower would be more practical. I loved seeing this as I walked by many times each day, but the height will make it a bit more difficult for conversation and there will be lots of great-nieces and great-nephews around over the holidays. I already had one casualty, a candlestick not a kid ;)

On Saturday I had to pick my niece up from her volleyball practice in a nearby city so I stopped into Fabricland. This tea towel fabric has been on my 'want' list for a while and this weekend it was on sale for 40% off.

Blue stripes came home with me but it also comes in red, green and yellow. For $12 I have the the look of grainsack and although not as rustic as vintage grainsack, this was an easy and affordable project. The ends could be left raw or frayed, but I chose to simply hem them.

From the original Christmas centerpiece I kept a piece of burlap ribbon, a birch kissing ball, large and small pinecones and mini glass ornaments in blue, silver and cream.

For votives I used mini canning jars with tealights nestled in table salt (epsom salts are on my shopping list.)

Sisal twine wrapped around the jars makes them a little more rustic and, I think, cuter. I have seen this done in so many pretty homes I have visited with all the Christmas party link ups and if I get a chance before Christmas I may add some cute numbers or such to each one.

For actual dining purposes (and so I can put a place setting at the ends of the table) I will probably cut the burlap in half and use a shorter version, with the extra going to our farmhouse table in the kitchen. I have a large family and we usually overflow several tables. I plan to wait and add sprigs of fresh greenery to the tables on Christmas Eve so they don't dry out before then.

And because I still love seeing my china cabinet arrangement, I am sharing a link to Christmas in our dining room and our Christmas home tour. Thanks for stopping by, and to my new followers from the Christmas tour, welcome! As I'm sure many of you are facing, this week will be especially busy but I am making a real effort to not sweat the small stuff and to enjoy this last week of Advent. I have a few gift certificates to pick up after work tomorrow, and then some wrapping left to do. What about you?

I'm sharing this with...

 Tabletop Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life

Tuesday's Treasures at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Wow Us Wednesday #45 at Savvy Southern Style

White Wednesday #131 at Faded Charm

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