Rain makes for a Productive Day!

I'm never one to complain and as a matter of fact, living in Arizona, we always welcome the rainfall, but sheesh, it's rained more these past 2 months than in the past 3 years we've been here.

When rain comes around, I tend to go into Creative mode, it's when I'm most eager to craft and sew and reorganize my home, so chances are, if it's raining outside, you'll find me pottering around with crochet hooks, candles and sewing thread.

And that is exactly what I did this weekend.

I'm always looking for ways to make my home more cozy, more representative of who I am and what I love, which is family and simplicity, which makes the whole country, primitive, colonial, early american decorating a huge appeal to me.

It's a work in process, living on a military base I don't have the luxury of splashing my favorite color paint on the walls, I have to make do with the typical egg shell white which is prevalent in all military housing.

But enough with the blah blah blah, let me show you some corners of my home and a bit of what I've been up to.

First thing I did was bring my breakfast nook back into the kitchen. We had pulled out our big wooden table but I was ready for a change, so while hubby was at work yesterday, I got up, and before I even had my first cup of coffee, I was sprawled out on the kitchen floor with screws and nails and bits and bobs, but I got it done.

In my corner, above the benches, I set up this little gathering area for my candles and lantern. I added a little bunch of cinnamon sticks and also made those grubby taper candles that you see in the tub.

I have this basket on my little entertainment center that holds our flat screen tv. I have started making bowl fillers, so far I've made 4 of those little stars and one of the hearts. I have another 4 stars to finish sewing and another 2 hearts, one says Faith and the other says Hope. Those are not going to stay in the basket, I'm adding some jute and hanging them from one of my shelves.

I love vintage photographs, these above are of my grandfather, grandmother and greatgrandmother, I made them black and white and printed them on photo paper. Added some more of my grubby taper candles and called it good.

Here's a close up of the candles, I'll have a tutorial for you later this week. It was my first attempt making them and they're not perfect, but I like the raw look. What you see is actually a mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and pumpkin pie spice. It smells divine.

I moved this shelf from the living room to my bedroom and placed it above my headboard. Added some little bunnies, old books from 1904, a sign and a bundle of grubby candles and cinnamon.

On either side, I put up the president pictures, I printed the pictures in black and white and put them in a frame. Those will stay like that for now, but this weekend I'm painting the shelves and frames black and distressing them.

Here's a closer look at the candles and cinnamon sticks. It not only looks great but my bedroom smells wonderful.

A closer look at the books, I love love love old books. I got these from ebay many years ago, they came with a copy of Macbeth and Hamlet, also hardcover old books. I'll have to take a photo of those and show you.

Above is one of the projects I'm working on right now. I have two of these black frames and you won't believe where I got them from. They are actually the outer frames from an old shoe rack.

I printed out black and white photos of my nieces and nephews and my kids to fill this one, the other one I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do, I'm thinking of finding old colonial costume photos and printing them out in black and white or sepia. We'll see what strikes my fancy.

And last but not least, Amy left me a comment and asked me to post the link to my crochet bag. Do you remember the one I made while on vacation in Texas last year?

It was a great pattern by Lucy over at Attic 24.

So there you have it, I've been busy around here and I have plenty more projects on the way, I've started crocheting a bunch of little eggs for Easter decorating and I also have some Bonnet patterns that I want to give a crack at to hang from my shelves. If you happen to know where I can find some, please let me know.

Hope you're having a wonderful Monday, I'm off to enjoy yet more rain while I eat my Orange Chicken for dinner.