Friday: Cookbooks and Menu Chalkboard

As you walk up the stairs into our home, after you see the entryway buffet/hutch, you then see my bookshelf of my cookbooks.  I used to have at least double this many cookbooks but had to narrow it down to what would fit in this bookshelf.  I put a few in order of colors, just for fun, red being on top. 

One of my inspiration pictures for The Wedding (I showed here) was a menu chalkboard. I looked for a frame close to the one in my inspiration picture but couldn't find one.  So when we were at our one and only flea market in the summer I found this frame.  It was all beat up, with nothing in it, just the frame.  (I don't have any "before" pictures, things got a little rushed and crazy the weeks leading up to the wedding.)  I found a board that fit perfectly in the back of the frame, nailed and glued that in then painted it with chalkboard paint.  For the top "windows" I used fabric and covered a cardboard cut the same size as the openings. That was the same fabric I used for the mailbox (for cards, you can just barely see the mailbox on the table in this post here) and for the flower girl baskets.  Jessica and I found this fabric at that same flea market, it was probably less than a yard, but I sure made it cover the pieces I wanted, tying that fabric into a various wedding crafts. 

I nailed this menu chalkboard up to the side wall of where the caterers were serving food.  I don't have any photos of that (yet).  I had asked the caterer to write the menu on it, and he did!  The food was all so yummy.  The caterer had four high school girls working for us, and they served the salads to the table, but the main food was served buffet style.  The fresh green salad was TDF (to die for).  It was a delicious mix of greens, with tomatoes, strawberries and dried cranberries served with a tasty raspberry vinaigrette dressing.  It was about the only thing I ate all night!  Oh, and the cake, which I'll have to write more about soon.

So now this menu board hangs on the wall at the top of our entryway stairs.  I don't think I could ever erase that menu...oh the memories!

 (image above from Teresa Sheely)

(sign I painted)

Have a blessed weekend!  Hugs, Heidi

For Cindy's Show and Tell Friday Friday and Design It Chic Blog Friday

Where I Create (craft room)

             For Cindy's SHOW AND TELL FRIDAY!
                      My Romantic Home!

Here's the story and I'm sticking with it: For The Wedding we rented truckloads of items, first the tent itself, then chairs, tables and so much more.  We rented 15 large round tables for eating but I decided I could save a little money for the other tables (food, drinks, etc) by using tables from around here.  One day I was up in our shop and I saw this nice, big, heavy, oak table leaning against the wall.  Nothing was on it, we had pulled off the hinges and knob years ago.  I helped Mark attach some of those legs that are on folding tables and voila!  A perfect table for the wedding.

We put layered some pretty tablecloths on it and put it in the "Candy Shack" for gift.  (I'll have to talk more about the candy shack another day....delightful!).  Nice table, right?  Oh, the gift card MAILBOX might be another story, I made that, too, from an old beat up mailbox I found years ago in a dump pile. But by the end of the night you couldn't even see that cute mailbox, I should have made sure it stayed in front somehow! 

(The "Candy Shack" was in our little barn!  So was the gift table and more!)

Once the wedding was over we had to put everything away.  We started to load up the door-table when I had a light bulb moment.....wouldn't this BIG table be nice in my craft room?  My already full craft room?  My craft room which is a bedroom in our house?  Yes!  Mark is so sweet, he just said, show me where we'll take it and away we went with the solid-core-heavy-oak-door-now-table....up the stairs into the second floor of the house!

So now that you've know "how I turned a door into a table" I'll go ahead and show you photos of the craft room as it looks this very moment! Keep in mind I'm working on a lot of things, and I tend to have everything out and open all at once.  Yes, I realize my craft room (in this state) will probably never make the cover of "Where Women Create", but I thought some of you might like it. I'm keeping it real!

I put a white tablecloth on the table-door.  Probably not a good idea, you know how quick that white is going to have paint, markers, soldering burns and more on it?  But for now it's fine. 

(Notice the tote, I've tagged it as "Heidi's Tulle Box"!)

REMEMBER, you can click on any photo to SEE IT UP CLOSE and see all the details (mess) better!

Now, on to the photos.  Pour a mug of coffee or make yourself some tea.  Click on the photos and have a visit with me in where I create!  There are SO many things in here from my blog friends, look around you might see something you made! Tell me what you see, okay?

(I don't have any curtains, drapes or shades on the window, only the deer can see in anyway!)

(In this photo notice the light fixture. I made it from an old light, painting it white, wiring it in the ceiling and adding the beads and garlands.)

(Notice my soldering tray on the floor, I need to put that away!)

(This is inside the closet where I store a ton of stuff.  I took off the original closet doors and added the shelves.  It's packed)

(Notice another tote on this sewing table.  Whenever I see them at garage sales I always buy them, take them home and paint them white.  I love totes!  One time a seller wouldn't sell just the tote, I had to take everything in it.  That actual turned out good, Mark was happy for the nails, screws and hardware--all for $2, not bad!  There's another wood tote or two under the big door-table.)

(Here's my second buffet-hutch. The other one is now in our entry way.  Notice I have a mess everywhere?  I work best like this, don't you?  I wanted to add some appliques to the front doors of this hutch after I painted it but just never got around to doing that. I love wire baskets, too.  There's one now with cookie cutters in it.)

(This is just half of a huge bulletin board I have up. Instead of painted it I just covered it with a real shear fabric.  Notice the vintage picnic basket?  I use that to store my larger sheets of paper. In no order, but you've already guessed that....I don't have a whole lot of order going on in this room!)

(More projects on the wall, everywhere!)

(I built this corner shelf a long time ago for Jessica, when she had this room as her bedroom.)

(This is my motto out here in the country, there are no stores nearby: 

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.")

  

(This couple on my windowsill keeps me company.)

(Good view of the table  in this picture.)

(Notice my "Heidi's Tulle Box" tote! Notice the nice view of our property outside the window?)

(Mary Engelbreight signed this just for me!)

(Take a quick look inside the hutch-buffet here.  The one I kept in the craft room, the other one is now in the entry way, see last Friday's post for that one!)

Now that I've uploaded all these photos and are looking through them.....I'm thinking maybe I need to send a day organizing.  What do you think?  Nah, you're right, if it were all clean and tidy I couldn't create!

If you've made it this far.....Thank you so much for visiting me in my craft room.!

Blessings!  Heidi

JFF (JustForFun), I'm also linking to Design it Chic's

"Boost My Blog Friday"!

Moving the Hutch

The hutch in our entry way.

I'm posting this for "My Romantic Home's" Show and Tell Friday.

Throughout the wedding we were moving things, indoors and outdoors.  The wedding was on a big tent on our property so Jessica went around our home and would point out things she wanted to bring out to the tent to give it a comfy-homey feeling.  We brought out benches, fountains, tables, pillows, blankets and more.  One of the pieces of furniture pieces I wanted to bring out was this hutch, which was in my craft room.  The drawers are filled with ribbons, rick-rack, lace, and more.  I thought the drinks would be fun to serve on it.  So I had Mark help me move it out to our entry way, to have it ready to move out to the tent when it was set up.

Remember the rain the day of the wedding?  Remember how busy we were the days before the wedding?  We just never had time to move it out into the tent.  We used a table for the drinks, putting cinder-cement blocks and fabrics on top to build up the area for our three cold drinks.  We served raspberry-lemonade, with frozen raspberries floating in it.  That was my favorite.  We also had lemon-iced-tea, with lemons floating.  And the third drink was just plain lemonade with lemons.  The caterer had pitchers of iced cold water on the tables, and had preserved all the glasses on each table with water and a slice of lemon in every single glass.  I loved that detail. 

Here's the drink table, which we used instead of the hutch, with the signs I painted above it.  I think it all turned out nice, and I do love the buffet hutch in my entry way now. 

Back to the hutch....I had bought this at a thrift store a few years back.  I painted it white and cemented on the appliques.  The floral appliques were some I found unfinished.  I painted them with light colors, then lightly coated that with some white paint for a washed out look.  I glued them on with the most powerful glue you can use: E6000.  If you have never used it buy some today, it's very strong. Yes, it has a strong smell, too, but it will slowly fade after a few days. Here's the hutch, still on the truck the day we brought it home.    

I loved using this in my craft room so much I had bought another one a little later.  That one is still in my craft room, also painted white.  Maybe I"ll show pictures of my craft room next Friday!

Have a great weekend!

Blessings, Heidi

New Romantic Book and Cookie Cutters

If you love magazines and books like I do, you may already know about Fifi O'Neill.  She's an author, a magazine publisher, and a wonderfully creative person!  Fifi teamed up with photographer Mark Lohman to write a book, "Romantic Prairie Style", which is now available on Amazon for Pre-Order.  You can go to my right-side column and use my Amazon box to jump right over to Amazon to place your pre-order.

I mentioned I'm working on some cookie cutter crafts.  One of my biggest challenges is to find all my cookie cutters.  I've collected them for over 20 years now and have them literally stashed all over my home. In boxes in my storage areas, in jars on my kitchen shelves, in bowls, boxes, on my vintage ironing board, hum I think there's some even in my jewelry boxes.  (More on that soon!)

Here's a few photos my hunt for my own cookie cutters:

(In crock on floor...)

(In the vintage BREAD box on chair in entryway...)

(In glass jars on my cookbook bookshelf...)

 (Yes, they are in these PINK vintage containers, too...)

(Currently on our kitchen table...)

(Above my kitchen cabinets in glass jars...)

(Old metal basket in my craft room....)

(On my vintage ironing board, yes it's the original cover; yes it has wooden legs...)

(Alphabet set on my kitchen counter...)

Now these are the cookie cutters the little ones and I used to make cookies just last week.  I asked John Mark what word he wanted to make and because we were just watching our little yellow finches on my deck he said, "BIRD".  So we pulled out the B I R D cutters and made cookies. 

For fun Ellie wanted to spell out her little sister/princess's name, Claira. Speaking of Princesses, the other day Ellie said to me, "Grandma Heidi, you were a princess when you were little, right?  And so was Jessica, right?"  It was so sweet!

 I think that's enough for you to look at for a while.  Don't forget to PRE-ORDER the new book!

Blessings, Heidi

Cookies!

Check out this link....there is cookie and more YOU could win!
           Prairie Flower Farm blog

I'm working on a cookie cutter project, I'll be blogging about it soon. Meanwhile, go visit Linda!

Blesssings.....and be sure to eat a cookie today!
          Hugs, Heidi

Finding my Autumn Groove

The title of this post is "Finding My Autumn Groove".  In reality it should be titled, "Looking for my autumn groove!"  Yes, after the events of 2010 so far, I'm now sitting back pondering the question, "Why don't I feel busy?"  I know it's fall, autumn, Halloween, and Thanksgiving...but I just can't find my groove.  I go in my craft room, turn circles then walk back out.  Possibly I could be working on Christmas crafts and gifts, but can't get into that groove.  I know I could be pulling out my fall decorations, but seriously, I'm still putting away the wedding decorations.  I just today took down a candle holder from the pump house.  (We never even put the candles in, thanks to the rain on the wedding day.)

Maybe I'm not just not over the Big Events and need to post more about them!  First the wedding...

Jessica and Craig's wedding was perfect.  Yes, even the rain let up enough to allow our guests to walk back and forth from the food and candy shack/bar area to the Big White Tent.  A week before the wedding I was finally able to get the 7 day forecast: rain.  My heart sank.  When I told Mark, and he immediately began to pray for good weather.  His has incredible faith.  Even if it rained, he said, it would fine because God is in control.  My faith for good weather was weak, I'll admit.  I immediately called and doubled the size of the tent rental.  Then I went to town and bought 8 umbrellas for the bridesmaids!  (photo by Corey)...See?

A few details....after working on my dress for a few hours of pulling out seams on three layers I threw it in a heap and decided to find a new one.  I had bought a dress that was too small when I purchased it, thinking I could alter it!  After shopping for a new MOB (mother of the bride) dress, and NOT finding anything as nice as the one I bought, I came back home and spent a few more hours on alterations.  It was fine, see?

The little flower girl dresses were so darling on the girls.  See? (this is Ellie...)

Remember the plastic bags I preapred for kettle-corn popcorn to give out after the wedding, as a snack to eat as they drove out to the reception?  Well, Mark said, "who is going to clean up all that popcorn they thow at Craig and Jessica?"   LOL I quickly changed plans and asked my Aunt Wanda to help me make 125 Snickerdoodle cookies!  Yum, were they ever good!  See?

The two flower pots I painted and stained were filled with pink mums...lovely. See?

The music I used to line the wedding invitations was sort of the theme I used for the reception table napkins.  My  mom helped me rip sheet music from the book, "My Fair Lady", and we wrapped the napkins with that.  My  mom kept taking the music to the piano to play!  I actually had several piano players say they too took their envelopes to their pianos to play!  A fun detail.  If I had more time (famous last words) I would have warped the music around all the short votive candles on the tables.  Jessica wanted a vintage, romantic and evening wedding.  It was perfect! See?

My friend Corey was our photographer.  She blessed us so by saying "yes" to this job.  She. Was. Perfect. My prayer for her is that on her daughter's wedding day (a very, very long time from now!) that she has a photographer that is so tender with her daughter.  You just must see her "First Look" photos on her blog, it may bring tears to your eyes.   See?

When I have more photos and am able to share them,  I will post more photos from the wedding.  Until then, I'll be making cookies with my grandchildren, and trying to find my autumn groove.

Hugs and blessings, Heidi

(some photos on this post are courtesy of Corey, "Life Unwrapped Photography")