If I Had A Million Dollars....

How many of your projects have started like this; a pile of crap stuff from the Dollar Store? My SIL (sister-in-love) was coming over from Craptacular Tuesday. (When Miss Priss was little bitty she couldn't say crafts, it came out craps which has sense been known in our house as arts and craps which as we all know is sometimes the absolute truth) But I digress. A pile of crap stuff. Hum...how to make these look less Dollar Store, more million dollars. Or at least Target quality and maybe if we are lucky, Pottery Barn knock off. Bring on the paint, ModPodge, glitter, sticks, arsenal of craft supplies.

Mixed a little "vanilla" paint with MP and gave all the gourds a good healthy coating. Let dry for surprise result. Kabob them with chopsticks, removed the plastic stem, inserted sticks from the yard.

I already had the urns and the moss. Plop they went into the center.

I didn't want to coat them all white, liked the colors of the gourds, just needed to be toned down and a little a lot less plastic looking. Just ditching the plastic stems were a giant improvement.

I think I'm diggin' the colors.

This last one is a little change of speed.  But figured I'd toss it in as well seeing as it was created on Craptacular Tuesday as well. My SIL made three of these to take back to her hacienda as well.

These are a few others we did with the glitter method. MP and chocolate glitter. Once again, rip out the plastic stem and insert stick. Instant improvement. These are kickin' it in my living room while the others are residing on my dinning room table. Ahhh, a few little inklings of Fall are cropping up around the Savvy Shanty.

Well whats the vote, Dollar Store, Target or Pottery Barn knock off? Let me know what you think.

Enjoy,

ginger

Linking up to:

Sunday Showoff @ Under The Table and Dreaming

I Heart Nap Time

Hooked on Houses

Censational Girl It's Fall Y'all Party

At Home with K, Terrific Under Ten Tuesday

Falling For You

So they say that a few days ago was the first day of fall; hmpf, it was 85 here. But we have had a few cool nights and it has given me the itch to switch a few things around the Savvy Shanty.

Now I have a confession to make, I'm not a big Halloween girl. Its not that I don't like it, I just don't like most of the decorations that go with it. So usually, I do a fall mix up and it hangs out til Thanksgiving if it lasts that long. And really, this whole Halloween/Thanksgiving thing is just the prelude to the debutante of the season, Christmas. Which usually starts making an appearance around here sometime mid November which isn't a problem because I have made it a personal goal to never host Thanksgiving at my house. And there is my second confession of the day.

Now we have discussed that I don't like most of the Halloween stuff but I do love a good pumpkin, fat ones, skinny ones, white ones, lumpy bumpy grey ones. It doesn't matter. BUT.......the Savvy Shanty has a very Hemingway- plantation-coastal vibe going on. Which makes the whole fall decor thing a little dicey. Pumpkins and rattan aren't necessarily kissing cousins you know. 

Finding a balance between fall and all the other hemingwayish-old florida-yachting-travel goodies we have collected seems to be one of the more difficult seasons for me to decorate for. Summer is easy peasy, Christmas is even a cake walk but fall, well....y'all let me know how I did.

So funny little story about the window in the background. I was walking up  to see my friend one day this summer and a fellow neighbor had three vintage windows sitting next to his trash. Well I detour over to the neighbors trash and scooped up all three (like you do!) and right as I am scavenging windows out of the trash, my neighbor walks out and catches me red handed. I just smiled and said, "Does it creep you out that I'm gathering your trash?!" He just laughs and says, "If it was anyone else but you, it would. We have held on to those windows forever and couldn't figure out what to do with them but I feel certain you'll know exactly what to do with them." Well thank you very much! I think this one is a nice little prop for my fall mantle.

Enjoy,

ginger

PS. I need to give credit, the framed photo is a print from The Graphics Fairy

Linking Up To:

It's Fall Y'all, Autumn Link Party @ The Lettered Cottage

Tuesday Treasures at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

No Minimalist Here 

Under The Table and Dreaming

Hooked on Houses

The Tablescaper

Beauty School Dropout.

Yup, this is what our homeschooling room looks like after a summer of shenanigans! One hot mess! While we continued learning throughout the summer, we were on a modified version that was done at the kitchen island. Which left this room open for a dumping ground. Ahhck! Well school is back in session and we have added a new student to our one room school house, thus requiring some organization and rearranging. Now of course I thought to take pictures half way through the process. And when I say design on a dime, well that would have been a luxury, this was design on no dime, use what you have, make it work People!

After I had moved the desk from the wall, I remembered to take pictures! Oh me and my impatience!

This desk was previously up against the wall, I had to come up with something new to accommodate three students opposed to two.

Which opened up this wall for props.

Ohh, look, we can get to the shelves! What a concept?!

These are the shelves that were cluttered and blocked, broke them down and ran them along the wall of windows. These sit behind the desk where I can get to all of our supplies.

And this is where I found Miss Priss reading her bible in our new, uncluttered, classroom. Ahhh.....

Enjoy,

ginger