Finally Fall Salt Dough Bowl Fillers…Well.. Sort of….

Hello everyone! Hope you are all doing great! It has been a whirlwind around our house lately! We are back into a school routine, everyone is going to bed good and getting up good! And they ALL love school! Yay!

With all five kiddos in school now, I get a few hours in the afternoons to do whatever I wish! This is all new to me. After 16 years of being home with our children, having time to myself is so different! I go to the gym for a couple hours and then I can get groceries or clean/do laundry ..but just to have that choice is kind of fun! And having the kids enjoy school makes it all that much more enjoyable for me!

We just got done moving and rearranging some furniture this past weekend, giving our two oldest boys their OWN bedrooms, we gave up our office for a bedroom, but that is o.k. it all worked out great! And in the moving process we got some major cleaning done, it feels SO good! I am now ready to start decorating for Fall! Yippee! Love, Love Fall! Like you all didn’t already know that! My most favorite season!

Speaking of Fall, I am FINALLY painting my Fall Salt Dough Bowl Fillers tonight! I always have to do this project in shifts. They are all cut-out, baked and cooled but that is as far as I got! Every project always has a way of eventually getting done, it just takes me a while to get from point A to point B!

I thought I would share some before pictures of the  bowl fillers.

Here they are before they are baked~

Acorns are one of my favorite things about Fall~

Can’t wait to paint and finish the leaves and pumpkins of course~

Here they are baking away~

Do you think I made enough?….

Lots of sunflowers, I love sunflowers~

A little bit of Fall and Halloween in there~

So stay tuned, I took a break from painting to blog about these! My favorite part is distressing/sanding and dipping them in wax after they are painted. That is when they each take on their own primitive look!

I plan on making more. My daughter missed out on helping with this batch. I did these while she was at school. So we will be doing another batch together! Such a fun and easy project! In case you need or want the recipe and directions here is a link to Colleen’s blog And Baby Makes Five SO fun to make for all reasons and all seasons!

I better get back to my painting! I will share the finished products soon!

Oh, just for fun…here is what I have burning tonight! Sooo yummy! It is from Village Candle, it is called Cinnamon Stick. I just love the warm toasty scent! Enjoying it while I am painting…oh yea…I am supposed to be painting!! Bye!

Until next time, take care!

~Sarah~

My Swap With Dana!

Hope you are all having a wonderful Monday! The sun is shining and I think it is supposed to be a pretty mild day. We are back in school and back into a routine. Still finding time to go to the pool after school, squeezing the last few drops out of Summer!

As promised I want to share my wonderful handmade goodies that I got from Dana  in our swap. She is so talented, and everything looks and smells soooo good! You can get all of these goodies on her website, she is working on new Fall creations right now, I can’t wait to see….

Here is her folk lamb. The detail on him is wonderful!

Primitive Sunflower Tarts, these are fabulous!  Mine are scented with Apple Cinnamon…Yum!

Mini Sunflower Tarts. I think they are too pretty to melt but Dana always says “please melt them Sarah, enjoy them”!

Close up~

Love these, Dana custom made these flower shaped tarts, I asked for them to be the brown beeswax and they turned out so nice!

Here is a closer look, dusted with cinnamon!

Primitive Olde Crow Tarts~

Mini Pineapple Tarts~

A closer Peek~

Primitive Button Tarts, love these. Dana scores all these great prim shapes into them! Especially LOVE the one that says Prim!

These are darling! Mini Ball jars, you can even see the word Ball on the front, again…the detail is unbelievable!

Measuring Spoons~

Prim Bunny Tarts~

Bunny close up~

Primitive Blessings Flicker Light. This was from a previous swap with Dana. I don’t think I ever shared it!

Lavender Tarts, they smell divine!

I TOLD you she spoiled me! What a dear and generous friend she is! Thank you Dana, I will enjoy these for a long time and I will think of you whenever I look at them or melt them (if I can ever bring myself to melt them)! Haha! :)

One more picture to get you in the mood for Fall. Dana’s Pumpkin Tarts (also from a previous swap). These are my absolute favorite thing that she makes!  They are scented in Pumpkin Crunch, my favorite scent!

By the way, Dana is having a giveaway over on her blog! Maybe you could win some of her goodies! Click HERE to become a follower and enter!

That’s all for today! I am going to do some work around the house and then I am heading to the gym later! I hope you all have a wonderful day!

I will leave you with this quote.

“Friendship can weather most things and thrive in thin soil - but
      it needs a little mulch of letters and phone calls and small silly 
      presents every so often  - just to save it from drying out completely”.
                                                                            - ~Pam Brown~

Give that special friend a call today, let them know you are thinking of them. Or maybe stick a small package in the mail just to make them smile! :)

Until next time, take care.

~Sarah~

Where Did The Summer Go? I Am So Ready For Fall!

Hello everyone! Long time no blog! It has been a very busy Summer, as I am sure it has been for all of you too! We just got back from our family vacation to Kansas City. Almost all of our school shopping is done, good thing because the first day is right around the corner! Whew… It seems like we blinked and Summer was over.

We finally got some relief today from the intense heat we have had. We went to the farmer’s market today and could sit out on the deck while our steaks grilled without breaking a sweat for the first time in many days! I hope where ever you are the weather is pleasant!

I haven’t blogged in a while and I have missed it. I have a few things to share. First, I think you all know by now that Fall is my most favorite season. Well, I got a couple new signs that I just have to show you. Obviously I haven’t started decorating for Fall yet, but now that I have these signs I am just itching to! They are both made by my talented friend Lisa. Check out her selling blog Black Sheep’s Mercantile. Thanks Lisa, I couldn’t be more happy with my signs!

This one Lisa custom made for me. Every year it is a tradition for our family to have a pumpkin carving contest after we have visited our local pumpkin patch. This sign has special meaning to our family!

Here is a close up. I just love the detail and the distressing.

And here is the second one. It is a great sign that I can easily find just the right spot for!

Another close up just for fun. I love the wood she used!

Doesn’t it just get you in the mood for Fall?

Here is something else that will get you into the Fall mood. I LOVE these 1803 Candles. Here is my little stash of Autumn scents. Some I have ordered straight from their website. And some I have purchased from a wonderful  store called Aunt Patty’s Attic. Check out their blog HERE.

Scents from left to right are: Witches Cauldron, Pumpkin Hollow, Pumpkin Cornbread and Simply Autumn. All are wonderful, I just love the look of them. And the scents are to die for. Try these out, you won’t be disappointed. For those of you who already have them, you know what I am talking about!

Here is a makeover that I did a while back. And I am just now getting around to sharing it. I bought this little cabinet with four drawers a LONG time ago at Goodwill for $4.00. Just like all of my other goodies it sat in my garage and patiently waited for me to make it over. 

Here it is before~

And here it is after~

Close up~

I took off the porcelain knobs. Then I sanded the whole piece down and wiped it with a tack cloth. Gave it two coats of Americana black paint. Sanded and distressed it (I even hit it with a hammer in some places)! The new wood knobs I purchased at Michaels craft store, I attached those with a screw through the backside of the drawers. I predrilled a small hole first (in both the knob and the drawers) so I didn’t split any wood. I wiped off all of the excess saw dust with a tack cloth and then coated the whole thing with Minwax gel stain in Walnut.

It is the perfect length and width for the back of the tank on the toilet. It holds hair ties and bobby pins, q-tips etc. A great little wooden find! I love things with little drawers!

That is about it for this time! It has been fun chatting with you again! Next time I will be blogging about a wonderful swap I did with a very dear friend. But in the meantime, check out her blog! She is one very talented gal!!  Homespun Treasures By Dana. Here is a link to her website too! Homespun Treasures.

Until next time, take care.

~Sarah~