Hot, Hot, Hot - Dreaming of Fall and Christmas in July

My truck thermometer read 112 yesterday afternoon, while I think it was more like 102, but still! All this hot and dry weather has me dreaming about Fall and Christmas in July! 

I've been working on lots of new seasonal decor this month, in addition to all the wedding orders. It's too hot to enjoy being outside for long and my yard is very blah as of late, so you can reap the benefits of lots of pretties added to my shop! Here's a sampling of some new fall and Christmas wreaths, including several new western rope wreaths. 

I've also been making a few more pillows this week and now I'm obsessed with this cute bunting! All I want to do today is make pennant banners! Last year, I traded a rope wreath for a sewing machine and a wedding dress. I didn't need the sewing machine at the time (or so I thought,) but I stuffed it back in the camper and let it be. I have both my grandmothers machines, but I'll admit, they can be quite cranky (the sewing machines) at times and sewing can seem like a struggle. I was working on two pillows for an order when my machine decided to only back stitch! What in the world? I went and got that new machine out of the camper and y'all, it is dummy proof! I am in love with my new Brother (that's the brand name!) It is portable, which means I can work wherever I choose, it's easy to thread and winding a bobber is no big deal. I am enjoying sewing! The bobbin winder didn't work on one of my machines and the other didn't do cute zig zag stitches. Now I'm having sew much fun with it! 

I had someone request turquoise camper pillows, so there are a couple of them available along with a neutral colored one, a doily and lace pillow and a winged one with the quote "What if I fail? Oh, but my darling, what if you fly?" e.h.  I still have a few pillow forms that I haven't sewn up yet, so if you want a different colored camper, please send a custom request and I'd be happy to make you one or two for your glamper. I've also thought about doing pillow wraps or just pillow covers, so they would be easy to store and ship. Would you like this option? And if so, what size pillows do you want these made for? 

I had thought about painting a pennant banner on my camper, but never did it. I'm really glad I didn't, because now I can change out the banners from time to time. This one has a very fall, floral attitude to it. I am so ready for some cooler weather and dreaming of glamping and a campfire actually feeling good!

Christmas in July. There are several styles of rustic Christmas wreaths now available. Here's a sampling of some of the Christmas rope wreaths. 

So the question of the day, how hot is it where you are? And are you ready for fall or winter? 

Rusty Garden Planters and Visitors

I don't think I ever shared this framed oregano on here. This frame is what was left when an old junk wheelbarrow rusted out and of course, I didn't throw it away! The flower pot is missing a few of its peg feet, so it wouldn't sit up, so I tied on some burlap ribbon and made it a hanging planter instead. A wreath hanger holds the plant on the door inside my gazebo. Do you see the photo bomber?  

This itsy bitsy, little frog has been hanging out around the gazebo! In the top picture, he is sitting on the frame, here he is on the planter 

And then one night he was in this bucket of coleus! 

He just set there staring me down as I took a bunch of pictures of him. I figured once my flash went off that he would jump and land on my camera, but he never moved a muscle. 

I love rusty buckets of flowers! 

Also found this praying mantis while watering one evening. I bet he was praying I wouldn't give him a good shower with the water hose! 

Other than my little visitors, there hasn't been much happening in the yard lately. It's hot, dry, and not much is blooming. I realized a few weeks ago that several of my lantanas didn't come back this year. They must have drowned in the spring, so the butterflies and I am missing the yellow blooms. I planted 2 packages of sunflower seeds, two seeds came up and I think a rabbit ate one of them down. I've put a cage around the lone stem and hoping we might get a sunflower bloom sometime soon.  I also planted sweet potatoes, that have yet to make an appearance, so needless to say, my garden isn't flourishing this year. How about you? Do you have a garden bounty this year or has it been a bust? 

Burlap Brooch Bouquet and Photo Album

I wanted to share a couple of new items in my etsy shop. 

I love searching for vintage brooches at estate sales and when I find enough that coordinate together, I get to create a Brooch Bouquet. Its a great reason to go picking and garage saling :) Wouldn't you agree? 

The rustic Burlap and Lace Photo Albums have been a popular item in my shop this year as well and I have another one available now. 

This bouquet has a mixture of tan and cream burlap roses, shabby chic frayed ribbon roses, vintage lace flowers and over 20 brooches and jewelry pieces. They are mostly in the gold tones, with rhinestones and pearls.

Its really hard to show all the details of this bouquet and I feel like the pictures just don't do it justice.

Here is a couple more pictures of the photo album The album is completely covered in fabric. The outside is adorned with burlap, lace, a doily, vintage skeleton style key, jute twine bow, and a button.

While the inside is covered in a vintage script style fabric and trimmed in crotchet style lace. These have been popular for wedding gifts and for newlyweds to keep their wedding and honeymoon pictures in. Although, theses are not specifically for weddings - I'm thinking I might have to make a few of them for Christmas gifts this year! I know we've all got lots of pictures on our phones that need to escape and be printed out and saved. Right? Please tell me I'm not alone! My scrapbooking and photo albums have been lacking the past few years, so that's something I need to get busy on.

Succulents and Burlap Bouquet

Succulents seem to becoming more popular and I'll admit to loving them myself.  You may remember me getting some on the half price sale a few weeks back. Some (most) of my plants this year are not looking great and any plant that can tolerate hot July weather and wants me to forget about watering it, well that's even better! 

I replaced the ugly flowers in my rusty, bottomless bucket with this succulent. It reminds me go aloe vera. 

So when I was out shopping for supplies last week and came across faux succulents, I knew I had to make a bridal bouquet with them! Very rustic, desert wedding, cactus vibe going on. I first envisioned mostly neutral colors, then couldn't help adding in some turquoise roses. 

Vintage ivory lace is tucked among the flowers. This keepsake bouquet can be found in my shop and is ready to ship. 

Want other colors? Message me through etsy convo and request a custom order and I'll be happy to help you! 

Has the succulent bug bit you yet? I love how they stay pretty and want to be neglected. My only wish was they attracted butterflies and hummingbirds, as I don't have an abundance of colorful blooms to attract them this year. 

Reminiscing and Window Units

Yesterday morning, within 5 minutes of getting up, we realize the house air conditioner was not working properly. A big oh no! 

We've got supplies ordered to fix it and they should be here in a couple days. In the meantime, we've moved two window unit air conditioners to the house and we are staying as cool as we need to. Our house is not that big, so it works for us. 

I went back to the bedroom to get something earlier and it took me back to summers at grandmama's house. She had no central heat or air; just window units, fans and a fireplace. Our bedroom was cool, that sweet hum of the ac was playing, the sun was filtering through the blinds and I sat and reminisced about her soft cool sheets and all her hand made quilts, along with summers spent at her house. She had a "Dutch Girl" quilt on one bed and I would play school and each girl was one of my students! The good ol' days... 

So I might have drifted off into dreamland and took a nap. 

Hope you are all staying cool this summer! I've listened to that lady on the radio telling me "your air will go out on the hottest day of the year..." and she was right. The hot water heater went out last month, so I'm scared to know what's next, but I'm not going to complain. It could always be much worse and I'm thankful for what we have and a husband who is capable and knowledgeable to fix almost anything. 

New Lariat Rope and Fall Wreaths

"Howdy!"

I've been working on several new western rope wreaths and a some new fall wreaths lately. 

or maybe you say "Welcome." 

I usually say Howdy or Hey (hey, maybe that's an idea for another wreath!) These two wreaths have a hand painted sign and an assortment of greenery and feathers. Pretty neutral in color and can be displayed year round on your door or wall. 

 This lasso has deep burgundy red peonies along with assorted greenery and a burlap bow. It can even be hung with the arrangement on the right side or turned to the bottom of the wreath. This wreath could also be used year round in your farmhouse - reds a great color that matches lots of holidays.

 This is a pink rope wreath for any fun loving cowgirl! Pink roses, green hydrangeas, burlap and raffia ribbon and greenery are included, along with the Cowgirl sign (can be removed, if unwanted.)

I've also made several fall themed wreaths. I love the fall colors and think they can be very elegant and pretty. This first rope wreath has sunflowers, rusty orange peonies, cattails, red daisies, fern, ivy, eucalyptus. among other greeneries and foliage. 

Red sunflowers and yellow sundaisies are the focal point of this lariat rope. 

 I'm always happy to make fall stuff - maybe its because I love sunflowers and all the different textures and colors. I know it's still July, but our creek is lined with gorgeous cattails, willow trees, solidago, and so many unique grasses and yellow wildflowers and they really inspired me to get to making fall pieces.  I took these next two grapevine wreaths out in the pasture, along the creek to take their pictures. 

This wreath has a sunflower shaped chalkboard sign that can be personalized. I wrote "Welcome Y'all", but you could customize it with your name, Happy Fall, Harvest Greetings, Happy Birthday, really anything you wish. Would even be  great back to school decorations for a classroom! 

All about the texture - lotus pods, grapevine balls, pheasant feathers, cattails, fall leaves, sunflowers, mums, daisies and berries. Ahhh, I think I'm ready for fall! How about you? 

All wreaths are ready to ship and can be found in my etsy shop. Thanks to a friend who found me a large lot of ropes at a recent sale, I'll have ropes to make wreaths for a while! Any certain colors, sign choices, or flowers you would like to see on a wreath? 

Oh, and there's also a couple of Christmas ropes available for Christmas in July!

 I'll definitely be making more Cowboy Christmas wreaths this year!   

Ramblin'

Working from home has it's perks: I choose the hours I work and nobody knows if my hairs a mess, my clothes are ironed or my makeup is on. I'm not an early morning girl and now I don't have to be presentable and on the road early. My morning commute is short and the only traffic I have is a dog or cat! My creativity is best in the late afternoon and evenings and here I sit writing this post at 11:00 at night. 

Sometimes I miss the conversations with people and coworkers. I've been busy for the last few weeks and haven't been out a about too much and well the last day or two, I've been moody. Yesterday I just wanted to hook up my camper and take off somewhere, anywhere. I needed to get out and nothing was time sensitive for today's orders. I packed some snacks, a thermos of tea and water and headed to the farm mid morning. I was going to mow on my tractor a while and work on my farmers tan, although my tractor wouldn't crank. Wahhhhhhhhh, I wanted to cry. 

So on to Plan B. I wasn't in the mood to go back home yet and didn't want to be in a rush to get anywhere. I knew of a few garage sales in the area and decided to check them out! 

Hidden under this pile of blankets and towels was a bunch of very vintage french lace and several doilies! Ahhh, my day just got better! I mean for Pete's sake, why would they hide the pretty stuff? 

You better believe I scopped it all up! I may or may not have a lace hoarding problem and to think when I was a kid, I hated lace! 

I ventured on to a few more sales and met a very interesting couple, got two pair of shorts and a hoop that I hope to turn into a doily dream catcher, all the while drinking tea from my thermos.

Then I stopped to visit with a friend for a while. I needed today to get out, to visit, to have conversation and of course find vintage lace. Afterall, finding pretty lace is part of my job! Plan B was what I needed and made my day better. I'm trying to see the positive in Plan A not working out.  I came home, photographed a couple of bouquets and now I'm ready to get back to creating tomorrow and figuring out what's wrong with that tractor. Well, maybe Jeff can figure that out. 

Thanks for letting me ramble on...

Now, what should I make with all this lace??? 

This Week in the Burlap Factory

Wedding season is in full swing and it's been a busy week in the work shop or the "burlap factory" as it's also known around here. I think the fireworks this weekend were actually celebrating the fact that I had finished this order Saturday afternoon! ;) heehee! It took me most of last week to make everything and was happy to ship them to an excited and nice bride to be today. Breanne's colors for her summer 2016 wedding are Bahama turquoise, tan, brown, white and just a splash of dark plum burlap, along with white lace.

By the numbers:

Over 38 dozen burlap roses

47 items

25 pounds of burlap and lace

Shipped in 2 large boxes 

100 + rose petals

8 flower balls that she will hang from a pergola that they are making, that will be the focal point of their wedding.

1 bridal bouquet

1 toss bouquet

5 medium size bridesmaid bouquets 

29 boutonnières 

2 mothers wristlet corsages

I am so thankful for wonderful customers who allow me to design wedding flowers for them and be a part of their special day. I truly appreciate each and everyone of you that support my small business. 

Here's a few other custom orders I have been working on recently -

This navy order shows the 3 main sizes of bouquets I make. The bride chose a small toss bouquet, medium matron of honor arrangement and full size bridal bouquet for her fall wedding. 

This order will be shipping out Wednesday with teal (jade), black and tan burlap rose and white lace for a wedding next week! If at all possible, I try my best to accommodate rush orders, pending I have the supplies on hand and not booked with other rush orders.

This was a custom wedding album for a newlywed couple to hold their 500 wedding and honeymoon pictures.  

This album is on it's way to Hawaii and marks the 46th state that I have shipped to! At this point, I'm kind of like kids on vacation, playing the license plate game and looking forward to crossing those last four states off my list! 

I'm already working towards some fall pieces and sketching out some Christmas ideas, so stay tuned for some new stuff coming soon. So that's what's been happening in the shop. Hope y'all are all having a wonderful summer!