Projects... and Gnomes!

Meet Henry,



He was my first Gnome. A gift from a co=worker for last years Christmas gift exchange. We had to write down 3 things, to give our Secret Santa some ideas and I just wrote down some random stuff. I never in a million years thought A) she would be able to find a gnome in winter and B) that the gnome was actually the giFt she purchased. Not that I'm complaining.

I love gnomes, I don't really know why, but there is an unexplained soft spot in my heart for them. Maybe it's from that episode of King of the Hill (Gnomenclature... oh Bobby Hill) or maybe its just carrying over from my other current obsession of all things woodland.  Maybe it's both, maybe its neither... I can never really be sure.

Speaking of woodland, remember those cute little terrriums I talked about in this post? Well, I finally got around to making a couple at naptime today. I froze my butt off while I was outside building them, but at least it wasn't raining.



Here is Conrad,


And this is Norman,


I think I remember reading that they need to be covered, but I can't really confirm that. And I'm not much of a green thumb. In fact, I think my thumbs just may be the grim reaper to plants, so we shall see how these fare. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but I'll have to keep you posted on the outcome.

And projects... maybe I should have called this post "Gnomes... and Projects" instead. No, I think I'm okay. The terrariums were projects, right?

Did you happen to notice the dessert trays in the previous pictures? Well... I made them. 

A while back I bought these two blue candle holders from the dollar store with this project from Once Wed in mind. So anyway, I was trying to take the easy way out and just match the blue candle holder to a plate... not as easy as I thought though. Apparently, this particular blue is a difficult shade to match

So after looking 4 EVR with no luck I finally found the plates... in the gardening department of Tuesday Morning (a retail discount store kinda like BIg Lots) of all places.



They were glazed terra cotta planter bottoms and the matched perfectly and for only $3 bucks a piece, they were exactly what I was looking for. I painted the bottoms red and then added some cute trims to finish them off. I plan on using them for Goose's birthday (in less than a month *tears*) so, I will probably trow some paper doilies on top and call it a day. To attach the trim to the plate I used Fabri-Tac (love it!) and to attach the plate to the candle holder I used E600 (also love it!).

I also worked on this nifty little package of pretty blog candy for my friend Julia:

Wanna find out how to win it? Click on the button below to find out ALL about it!

I'll post more details about Julia's contest later, but right now I am going to go put my feet up and try not to fall asleep on the couch before Goose's bedtime.  Mamma is tired!

Tuesday Cute-day!

It doesn't take much too see that lately I have been obsessed with all things woodland. It's even so noticeable that Hubs called me out on it. Whether it be the naughty little fawn in my header or the "Wood you be mine? I'm nuts about you" card that I gave him for Valentine's Day. Owls, mushrooms, fawns, Gnomes (especially gnomes), I'm bat-s*th crazy about them all! And if you are a frequent Etsy "window" shopper like I am, you have probably seen the darling little moss terrariums that many sellers have in their shoppes.

Here are some that I love!!!


Love the Little Pet shop pet in there... may have to swipe one of Harley-beast's. This one is from CharlotteCramer


In necklace form? How cute is this???
From 4TheSparrowsNest.


You can even get DIY kits from LadyFarrah.

Now, I'm always hesitant to pruchase something ($20 for moss? I don't think so) that I can make myself, as many crafters are. So with the help of my favorite internet tool (Google) I went off to search blogland to see if there were any DIY tutorials so I can make my own. I mean, moss in a jar, how hard is that, right? LOL!

I was actually able to find several great sites, all with different directions. Some said to add rocks to the bottom, some said soil only, some said soil and rocks, some said soil, rocks and activated charcoal... but the best one I found was this tutorial from I Dare Say.

Cute and simple... just like I like. AND I'm pretty sure that the sidewalk I take my daily walks on is covered in moss, so guess what I will be doing on my afternoon break. I may even have to hit up the dollar store at lunch to see what they have in the way of containers.

I'm very excited to try this out, I might even make a whole collection of them to keep my Gnome (Henry, he was a Christmas gift) company.


ETA - Found some nice containers at Dollar Tree and got some moss from the sidewalk when I took my afternon walk. I plan on working on these tonight so I'll take pics and let you know how it goes!