Small and Simple Things

Sandhi Schimmel won me with her mastery in mosaics. Then warmed the cockles of my heart when I discovered her medium is junk mail!

I am so inspired by people who make beautiful things from that which is ordinary, or cast off.

It brings to mind the scripture that says..."by small and simple things are great things brought to pass".     Alma 37:6

Vicki

Christmas Ornament Chandelier

There  are so many gorgeous ornaments out there! They come in all different shapes and sizes we knew there had to be something more you can do with them other than put them on a Christmas tree. So we made a chandelier!!

We mixed the feminine, delicate, hand blown Egyptian glass ornaments with a rusty geometric piece of wire we found out in the yard. The result was quite stunning!

We thought it would be pretty cool to hang them in the shape of a tree and use them as an alternative to a Christmas tree or even hang them from a wreath hung horizontal. What do you think?

To see it in real life... stop by Stecher's Country Store!! Let us know you're going and we'll meet you up there!

Oh how I love wood...

There is a local chainsaw wood carver just minutes from my house. I have driven by his workshop numerous numerous times and over the years he has expanded his horizons going from a few bears to a gigantic pirate and turtles. This fall however he moved into the realm of home decor. He had carved some pumpkins out of wood and spray painted them orange with a green stem. I was intrigued. So... we stopped one day to check them out.

Little did we know what we would find! Two wonderful pieces of maple wood. They actually are quite large... or rather... huge! Each piece is approximately 54" W x 84" L x 3" D. But they really are gorgeous!!

We took a special trip to pick them up, bringing my brother Christian and my dad to help move them.

My mom, being the wonderful networker she is, has a great carpenter to finish them when they are properly dried. This carpenter was also able to direct us to a local workshop with a kiln where we took the wood. The workshop manufactures cedar products like dog houses. It was quite interesting actually.

So in three or four months our wood will be dried and ready to be finished! Now what to make.......?

I'm currently obsessed with...

1..Bedoin Rug..We saw many Bedoin people while traveling along the Red Sea Peninsula in Egypt! They use beautiful colors and patterns in all their rugs and fabrics!

2..1938 Butterfly Chair..Oh how I love these chairs!

3..Snuggly Steps Slippers..Can I please where these in public??

4..Triangle Neck Scarf..love love the length and the color and the price!

5..Pallet Wood Walls..I think I need one in my house! We made a few for Stecher's and now I have got to find a place in my house for one!

6..Snowman Family Kit..Now I just can't wait for snow

7..Mid Century Designers Pencil Set.. Need I say more?!

8..Vivienne Maternity Bellyhood..The colors are wonderful! I just need the belly again! (I can't blieve I just said that...)

Scrapbook Paper Frames

I love love love paper... there is just so much you can do with it and the patterns really are so fantastic. The funny thing is I don't scrapbook... but I have a huge pile of scrapbook paper. So recently I discovered a way to frame some of my very favorite pictures using scrapbook paper, masking tape, and a marker!

I thought I would share the idea!

Materials:

Paper cutter

Ruler

Masking tape

Scrapbook paper

Maker (I used Chartpak)

An amazing photo!

To begin I cut the 12x12 piece of paper down to 8x10. You can use whatever size you want, 8x10 is a great size though for a 4x6 piece of paper and to find a frame for if you wanted to.

Mark where the picture needs to go. The photos I was using were 4x6 so an 8x10 piece of paper gave me two inches around each side of the picture.

I used a small piece of masking tape to hold the picture in place before the masking tape was put down all around the picture.

Once the picture is in place, tape it down on all four sides using the masking tape. Don't worry about the tape overlapping, or going too far beyond the edge of the picture. That all gives it character in my book!

After the tape was down, I used a marker to "stain" the tape any color you would like! I used a Chartpak marker because of the bleeding qualities. I wanted it to look as much like stain as possible.

TA-DA! That's it! What do you think?? It was really simple, fast, and easy I went to town! I framed eight pictures in one sitting... it definitely added some much needed color and pattern to my house!

Now I'm trying to decide though how to hang them. Framed or not framed? I would love to see them all lined up in a grid in the same simple black frame. Or I could hang them from some string with clothes pins... hm... what to do what to do? Maybe I'll hang them on string with clothes pins until I get the frames!

Blowing Bubbles

I have a thing for bubbles... they are so magical and whimsical! I'll tell you a little secret actually... when I was younger I used to think that when you popped a bubble you released a fairy! So popping bubbles was one of the most important things a little girl could do... Still to this day I absolutely love them! So when my brothers were spending the day with me a while ago they kept coming to me complaining they were bored... how can two little boys be bored on a Saturday morning?! Needless to say, I decided we were going to test an idea I found, blowing bubbles with water bottles. The boys got all the empty water bottles out of my car, we cut the ends off, made some bubble mix with dish soap and water and went to town!

The boys had a blast! They were busy building bubble blowers and blowing bubbles for a few hours!! It was marvelous actually!

Dawnelle

Where in the world have we been??

Well... all over the place metaphorically speaking. Really we have just been here... in fifth gear moving a million miles a minute. The summer has come and gone... sadly there was no vacation involved in the summer break for us but we definitely have had a wonderful time with our family! And now we are less than two months away from Christmas (GASP!) and up to our eyeballs in Christmas preparation at Stecher's Country Store. It has been quite the adventure... the past few months. We've been involved in everything from a wedding (Congratulations to Hannah and Zachary Elliott!) to kids and then right into Fall Family Fun at Stecher's with the hay rides and merchandising.

At Stecher's for the Fall Hayride!

 

 Now that Christmas is coming, we're turning Stecher's into a Christmas wonderland all while trying to be innovative, edgy, and resourceful! Here's a little taste to wet your appetite.

  

If you're in the area, come visit us! We're there almost everyday and we would absolutely love to see you!


Dawnelle and Vicki

Stecher's Country Store
1018 Township Line Road
Woolwich Township, NJ 08085
(856) 467-2208
Or look us up on Facebook!

All pictures courtesy of Dawnelle!