Category Archives: home decor

The 1968 Easter Egg Tree

24 Sunday Mar 2013

Posted by in All Sparkled Up, crafts, Easter, family, home decor, miniature

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My mom was going to throw out the decorated Easter Eggs she made in 1968. They were dusty, damaged and bug-eaten. Then she considered giving them to someone to salvage any useable trims. Of course I wanted them, cracked shells and all! They cleaned up beautifully.

Egg tree eggs, made in 1968 by my mom.

Egg tree eggs, made in 1968 by my mom. My sisters and I made some of these eggs, but not the prettiest.

At first glance, these seem like really simple eggs compared to the lavish rubber-stamped, lace-trimmed, glittered eggs made today. What makes these eggs so remarkable was the creativity with such limited supplies. My mom had very little to work with. She used poster paint, nail polish and a couple jars of my brother’s model car paints to paint the eggs. There was no shiny spray-on acrylic finish back then so she used clear nail polish to make them shiny. She purchased the gold paper trim from a mail order catalog from Lee Wards, a huge craft store in another state. There was no internet from which to buy craft supplies. There were no big Walmart craft aisles, Michael’s or craft stores. The only place for craft supplies was the local 5 & Dime store and even there, craft supplies were extremely limited.

Some of these eggs are missing pearls, some have bent trim, some have cracked shells. But when they are hung on the tree, they are all beautiful together.

1968 The Blue Egg with a tiny plastic dove inside.

1968 Decorated Egg – the Blue Egg with a tiny plastic dove inside.

3 1968 Purple Egg

1968 Decorate Egg – The Purple Egg.

4 1968 Pearly Green Egg

1968 Decorated Egg – My mom painted this egg with a jar of my brother’s model car paint. The plastic hollow sequin “gems” on each side were precious and I was in awe of them.

5 1968 Yellow Egg

1968 Decorated Egg – The Yellow Rose Egg. A tiny sequin butterfly flutters above the plastic rose.

6 1968 Blue Rick Rack Egg

1968 Decorated Egg – Painted with poster paint, covered with clear nail polish.

7 1968 Green w Trim Egg

1968 Decorated Egg – I love the spring green color of this egg. I have a couple plastic flowers like those used on this egg so I will restore it before putting it away at the end of the season.

8 1968 Pink Rose Egg

1968 Decorated Egg – A pink sequin butterfly flutters over a pink fabric rose. My mom didn’t have much gold paper trim so she cut it apart and used pieces sparingly.

9 1968 Balloon Egg

1968 Decorated Egg. – The Hot Air Balloon egg.

10 1968 Spiral Trim Egg

1968 Decorated egg – The Lavender Spiral egg.

1968 Decorated Egg - The Purple Rickrack and Gold Trim egg.

1968 Decorated Egg – The Purple Rickrack and Gold Trim egg.

12 1968 Blue Flower Egg

1968 Decorated Egg – Painted with poster paint, brushed shiny with clear nail polish.

13 1968 Pink Egg

1968 Decorated Egg – Painted with pink nail polish.

1968 Decorate Egg - The Bunny Basket Egg. This was one of the few eggs I made for the tree. Even though the bright colors didn't fit in with my mom's elegant color scheme, she graciously added it to the family tree. That's true Mother's love.

1968 Decorate Egg – The Bunny Basket Egg. This was one of the few eggs I made for the tree. Even though the bright colors didn’t fit in with my mom’s elegant color scheme, she graciously added it to the family tree. That’s true Mother’s love.

14 1968 Pink Rose Egg back

1968 Decorated Egg – The back of the pink rose egg, with a very design of pink rick rack and gold paper trim.

15 1968 M Egg

1968 Decorated Egg – my favorite: The elegant M Egg. I don’t know where my mom got the embroidered M trim. M was for our last name – Musser.

 

16 1968 Lily Egg

1968 Decorated Egg – The Lily Egg. I love how this egg has one side white, the other green. This egg was so shattered on the top that I had to flip it over and reattach the wire on the bottom so it could hang. The little plastic lilies were just tucked inside so they were easy to turn right side up.

17 Peter Rabbit Egg

The only non-1968 eggs on the tree are the Peter Rabbit Eggs, purchased from Pottery Barn Kids several years ago. My mom used to read Peter Rabbit to my sisters, brother and I so I was thrilled to find eggs featuring illustrations from Peter Rabbit. Here Mrs Rabbit is fastening the brass buttons on Peter Rabbit’s blue jacket.

 

18 1968 Egg Tree 1 19 1968 Egg Tree 2

20 1968 Egg Tree 3

Even though these eggs have missing beads and cracked shells, they are still so precious. When I look at them, I am reminded of simpler times, days of ingenuity, days crafting with my sisters, days of being read to by a mother that loved us. This little egg tree serves to remind me that it doesn’t take a studio of amazing craft supplies to make something all sparkled up, it just takes an eye for beauty and a determination to make do with what you have.

The Dewing of the Hanging Plant Easter Egg Tree

19 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by in All Sparkled Up, beading, crafts, Easter, flowers, gardening, home decor, miniature, sparkling, tutorial

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Last year I posted about the Hanging Plant Easter Egg Tree I made. It’s time to get it out again. Adding the drops of dew was my favorite part.
After I finished each miniature plant, with it’s tiny leaves and petals, I hung it on the tree. Though pretty, the plant didn’t seem fully alive it was all sparkled up with spring rain or drops of dew.
For each drop, I used tweezers to dab a single crystal seed bead in tacky glue and attach it where it should go, hanging from the tip of a leaf or puddled in the folds of a petal.

The tree was from Pottery Barn a couple years ago. The hanging egg baskets are cut from small plastic eggs and filled with tiny plants

The tree was from Pottery Barn a couple years ago. The hanging egg baskets were cut from small plastic eggs. The miniature plants were made by cutting up full-size artificial flowers and leaves. Some of the hanging vines were made by gluing hand-cut leaves to artificial plant stems. Click on photos to see the full size images if you wish.

2 Miniature Daisies

Miniature Daisies.

3 Miniature Daisies 2

Miniature daisies.

4 Miniature Lily of the Valley

Miniature Lily of the Valley.

5 Miniature Lily of the Valley 2

6 Miniature Fern

Miniature ferns and moss.

7 Miniature Forget me not 2

Miniature Forget-me-not.

8 Miniature Forget me not

9 Miniature Burros Tail

Miniature Burros Tail.

If you want to add realistic drops to an artificial plant, remember how real water acts. It flows down hill. So it will puddle at the bottom of a flower center, or hang from the lower tip of a petal or leaf.

10 Miniature Blue Flowers

Miniature Blue Flowers. The fluffy white balls were actually stamens cut from the center of a full-size artificial flower.

11 Miniature Ferns

Miniature ferns and moss.

12 Miniature Tuberous Begonia

Miniature Tuberous Begonia, reminiscent of the colors of my mom’s beautiful begonia hanging plant.

13 Miniature Peony

14 Miniature Peony 3

15 Miniature Marigolds

Miniature Marigold.

16 Miniature Rose

Miniature Roses. To make a rose, I took one petal from a 1″ artificial rose, folded it in half and glued and rolled it up into a cone shape. The pointed tip of the cone was cut off and stuck down inside the top part of the cone to make center of the rose. Some cone tips are also used as the buds.

17 Miniature Roses 2

18 Hanging Basket Egg Tree

Placing the tiny bead droplets on the plants was a very contemplative task, like yoga or painting, with each moment crystallized and beautiful. No it was not tedious, it was restorative and full of light. All sparkled up.

“And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.” Isaiah 58:11

Spoonflower!

10 Sunday Mar 2013

Posted by in community, crafts, fabric, home decor, projects, sewing, Spoonflower

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Last year I had the wonderful opportunity of touring the Spoonflower facility, located in Durham, North Carolina during their Open House. I love that place! The minute you walk in there is a rush of “Eau de Cotton”. For anyone who loves to sew, there is nothing more inspiring than the smell of cotton. Mmmm…

Spoonflower is a small company that prints fabric on demand from your very own designs, by the yard. Such an awesome idea. I discovered them online while doing a search for “print your own fabric.” I’d been trying unsuccessfully to print my own designs on fabric with my home printer. I managed to print on muslin taped to cardstock with masking tape but that nearly ruined my printer, the sheets were just 6″ x 8″ and the colors were washed out so I gave up. What I wanted was yardage so I was thrilled when I stumbled upon Spoonflower.

The process is simple. You set up an account and upload your own design file to Spoonflower. There are ten different beautiful fabrics from which to choose, from silk to organic cotton to upholstery weight linen blends. Spoonflower prints your design on the fabric of your choice and mails it to you. It’s that simple. If you don’t want to design your own fabric, you can purchase fabric from thousands of other designers. They also print Wallpaper and Wall Decals so you can paper your whole house with your own design if you want.

I snapped some quick photos during the tour through the facility but would love to go back to get more. Seriously. I didn’t get a fraction of all the beautiful scenes. I’m sorry I didn’t take any photos looking up – even the ceiling was dangling with fabric delights. That place is filled with creative people and every part of the “factory” is a visual feast.

The first item I saw was this terrific Giant Stuffed Unicorn, made by some of the staff members of Spoonflower for a staff competition. You can read more about it here.

Spoonflower - Giant Stuffed Unicorn

Another staff-created project is the terrific Chevron slipcover for their office sofa, which you can read about here.

Spoonflower - Chevron Revolution Sofa

One area of the office featured projects using Spoonflower fabrics.

Spoonflower - Items using Spoonflower fabrics

Old spools were wrapped with strips of fabric printed by Spoonflower.

Another staff-created project was this reupholstered chair. What a terrific idea to update a piece of furniture. The pillow, the picture against the window, the giant “S” … all done with fabrics from Spoonflower designers.

Spoonflower - Reupholstered Heirloom Chair

Reupholstered chair pads, each a different pattern and color. I would love to do something like this for our occasional chairs, perhaps using fabric featuring my own children’s drawings, or fabric designed from one of my mom’s floral paintings!

Spoonflower - Guest Seating

I realize that this item doesn’t feature fabric, but it DOES have to do with Spoonflower… they fashioned a sofa from the leftover tubes that their rolls of fabric come on. That is SO ingenious!

Spoonflower - Recycled Cardboard Tube Sofa

Spoonflower - Recycled Cardboard Tube Sofa detail

I was quite fascinated with the actual printing room. Mist was piped down over the machines as the print heads zipped back and forth printing fabric.

Spoonflower - Fabric printer in action

In another area of the facility was the steam setting machines. Fabric was slowly spooled through the machine as the fresh ink was set with steam.

Spoonflower - Steam setting machine

Once a roll of fabric was printed and set, it was then moved to the cutting tables. Each order was cut from the roll and folded and placed in cubbies. The fabric was then carefully packaged for shipping. There are several large shelving units of cubbies filled with hundreds of folded pieces of fabrics waiting to be sent out to designers from all over the world.

Spoonflower - A glimpse of the cutting tables through the cubbies

I love this design printed on wallpaper on one of the walls.

Spoonflower - Wall covering

Fabric panels are stretched over canvas on an art wall

The tour was wonderful and inspiring and I went away with new ideas to use my own Spoonflower fabric designs. Best, I got to meet the great creators of the company and staff.

As I was leaving, I noticed a pillow on a sofa in the guest area. It was made with Granny Square Fabric. I was thrilled to see the pillow because, unbeknownst to my tour guide, I was the original creator of the Granny Square fabric! Someone from Spoonflower had purchased the yardage and made a pillow of it. What an honor to see the end result of my fabric.

Pillow made with Granny Square Fabric

If you want a custom fabric that is truly original, consider having your own designs printed by Spoonflower. Most of the fabric I designed has deep personal meaning to me, such as Granny Square fabric, Julie 1971 fabric, Vintage Snowflake Wallpaper and more. Having your own designs printed on fabric is a terrific way to create a unique heirloom.

And Thank You Spoonflower and Stephen! I loved the tour, you have a terrific company and I hope to stop in again this year.

Enjoying the Oven Fireplace

25 Friday Jan 2013

Posted by in crafts, family, funny, home, home decor, painting, tea time

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We never got around to getting the chimney swept this year. Plus, the wood stove is in the basement. Not to miss out on the fireplace experience this cold icy night, we made it happen.
As the water warmed for tea, we turned on the oven and enjoyed the nice ambient glow.

Oven Fireplace. Actually, we taped plastic wrap to the oven with electrician's tape. And then painted the logs and flames with acrylic paint.

Oven Fireplace. Actually, we taped plastic wrap to the oven with electrician’s tape and then painted the logs and flames with acrylic paint. We also dragged two big chairs from the living room out to the kitchen. Oh yeah!

 

There must have been something magical about the glow because the guys stayed a while.

9 Weeks Post – Op

05 Wednesday Dec 2012

Posted by in All Sparkled Up, Christmas, home decor, lighting, Scoliosis

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I’m returning from far away. It is now 9 weeks since my Scoliosis surgery. The recovery got worse before it got better. Weeks went by and I curled up and disappeared and the pain crashed over me and fell down as tears as I lay immobile on my back.

This past week, Week Nine, was a miracle. I went from spending 90% of my day lying flat on my back to 90% of the day sitting up and standing and working with my hands. Last week I couldn’t even move my arm to write a Thank You note without intense pain. This is what we did today.

Garland 2012 1

Garland 2012 2

Garland 2012 3

Garland 2012 4

Garland 2012 5

Garland 2012 6

God was with me before and He goes ahead of me. When I was immobile God taught me beauty in the pain and my peace remained with me. But now I am emerging from that strange time.

I am still in great pain but I am getting strong. As I stood in the dining room and looked at the lights we put up today, I cried. But this time, the tears weren’t from pain, they were from a thankful heart.

Christmas decor 2012 1

Now that I can hold my camera, I shall be posting again. I’ve missed being able to share with you all. Thank you so much for your patience.

Hanging Plant Easter Egg Tree

07 Saturday Apr 2012

Posted by in crafts, Easter, flowers, home decor, miniature

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Last year I finally had time to make an Easter Egg tree and I’m happy to display it again this year. I’ve been wanting to make one for many years. I have a couple precious decorated eggs left from the tree of my childhood and some day I will restore the eggs and call that tree my Heritage Tree. For now, this Hanging Plant Easter Egg Tree will adorn my dining room table.

The tree was from Pottery Barn. The eggs are plastic, cut into little baskets with a craft knife. I made all the hanging plants from bits and pieces of full size artificial plants. The hundreds of tiny leaves were cut out individually with manicure scissors. Crystal beads were glued strategically from the tips of petals and leaves to look like they were freshly washed with a light spring rain. It took several weeks to make these eggs, working on them when I could during evenings last year.

Easter Egg Tree - click photo to see a larger image.

These little hanging plants are made from bits and pieces cut from artificial plants and flowers tucked into plastic eggs. Click on photos to see a larger image.

Egg Tree - The Purple Egg.

Egg Tree - The Spring Green Egg

Egg Tree - The Little Blue Birds Egg

Egg Tree - The Yellow Green Moss Egg

Egg Tree - The Blue Forget-me-not Egg

Egg Tree - The Orange Marigold Egg

Egg Tree - The White Lily-of-the-Valley Egg

Egg Tree - The Pink Peony Egg

Egg Tree - The Yellow Daisy Egg

Egg Tree - The Miniature Pink Rose Egg

The Chandelier Tree

14 Wednesday Mar 2012

Posted by in home decor, lighting, miniature, sparkling, wedding

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My computer is in a corner, a dark corner. And my back is to the whole room, where all the light is. So two years ago I put a little Pottery Barn Easter Egg tree in the corner behind my computer monitor and strung it with rice lights.

Last December, I bought a couple miniature chandelier ornaments for the Christmas tree and hung them on my little corner tree temporarily until we put up the Christmas tree. I loved the look so much that the chandeliers never did get put on the Christmas tree.

There is room for four more little chandeliers on the tree. I bought the beads to make them but haven’t had time. Meanwhile, I can work on the computer and my whole corner is all sparkled up. =)

I think a Chandelier Tree would make a beautiful wedding reception table decoration. It would be expensive to do a couple tables and I’m not sure how the electric lights could be powered but it would look amazing.

Chandelier Tree