Scene and Story

A moment captured.

This photo was taken by my son after our granddaughter Edie's baptism. Because I'm the "picture taker", I'm usually not in many pictures.  My son grabbed my camera while I was cuddling with her and he took a few.   We were in the back of the church surrounded by modern stained glass windows and next to a huge marble baptismal font. My oldest and the mother to this sweet little one is the one looking on. During this time Edie's two older sisters were running around being entertained by other grandparents and their aunts.

I really loved the moment that he captured, but it was slightly blurred.  Not his fault, the lighting was low and I had the camera set to a fairly slow shutter speed. I struggled with focus in my shots too.

I never would have edited this picture this way if it weren't for trying to save it and what a wonderful gift that was. I love it this way more than if it would have been true to the setting.  The faded effect freezes the moment in time.

So, I didn't actually take this picture, but I did do the editing. :)  

I'm linking up with Sarah at Paisley Rain Boots this week (and hopefully, all year!) with her blog link up of Scene and Story: a place to share a favorite picture from the last month and the story that goes along with it.

Technically, it was taken at the end of November and not in the last month...but gosh, it's hard to follow rules. 

An Experiment

This past August I gathered up a little posy from the Tank Garden and wondered if it would work to press the whole little bouquet as is.  I dry full gatherings together all of the time.  But, when I press flowers, I press the blossoms individually.  I grabbed this old piece of wood I had out of the barn, thinking that if it worked I'd have the display backing in place. 

I layered on a few paper towels and another piece of wood on top,  then weighted it down with books, and left it in my laundry room.  I checked it in a couple of weeks, and thankfully, I did because I realized that it would mold if not put out to dry completely.  That is the downfall with the layering, it will mold before it dries if you let it go like you do pressed flowers.  The flowers were nice and flat and the drying had begun, so I put it out in the sun to fully dry.

Then it went back in the laundry room on a shelf  to wait (and wait some more) for me.  

After all the Christmas activity, was able to glue it down.  I gently disassembled it, then used mod podge generously to very gently glue it all back in place.  Then again, this time with waxed paper on top and just a light towel to give it some weight, it was set to dry for a bit.  I then removed the wax paper and towel about a day later and let it finished drying.

I decided to give it a coat of spray finish to darken the colors in the flowers as they fade a bit when they are pressed and dried. 

I wish I would have drilled holes in the board so I could hang it with twine. I still may take the chance of taking a drill to it.  The flowers are adhered firmly, but they are only pressed flowers, so it's pretty fragile.  I'm really pleased how it turned out and expect to press more little bouquets this summer.

This isn't exactly a January decoration!  But, it makes me long for spring and gardening.

The first garden catalog came last week.  Yes!

Mood Boards and Inspiration Boards

I love the idea of mood boards and inspiration boards.  When I put up the bed springs in my sewing room to serve as an inspiration board I thought it would be great to pin up ideas and inspiration to guide a project or many projects.  Well, it became a display board (and got filled up!) and I never wanted to take anything off of it to change it up on a regular basis!  

So, I spent some time to set up a template in Photoshop to make mood boards from my photos. I hope to make more templates and more mood boards. I've also found these free templates I may try here and here.  Why mood boards?  They're just inspirational!  I also hope to make a tangible inspiration board in my sewing room too. My plan is to use one of the enamel table tops I have from an old Hoosier to use as the board and use washi tape and magnets to hold the items on. That's the plan anyway. :)

We are moving one of our daughters tomorrow in the morning and boy it's going to be cold!  And, my 17 year old just walked out the door in a sleeveless dress to the Snowball dance.  It's 7 degrees out now.  She did have a coat, but really?! I'm a three layer kind of person.

Have a great weekend!

I'm a Little Slow

Here are a few pictures from our nature inspired tree.

I took these a few weeks ago, but never got the time to post them.  Since then I've added some more ornaments that a friend gave to me. A picture of a tree in the day time is always a bit disappointing.  In person, I really liked the tree.

I enjoyed hanging these large wreaths. I used thin craft wire to hold them together after forming them from the wild grape vines that grow on our property.

I shaped the little nests out of the same grape vines and wire vine from the summer garden.  I already had the clay eggs that I made a few years ago.

I have more wood burning projects in mind!

The bird houses were heavy so were nestled inside the branches.

We've had this artificial tree for I'd guess 24 years and it's getting thin!  Maybe sometime I'll get a new one, but it seems like it can always be used another year. I don't have a close up picture, but the pine cone garland that I sprayed flocking on was super simple to make.  Just twine around the pine cones. The pine cones were foraged fresh from outside so they were still sticky from sap.  I think I will try to save these in a bag to use somewhere next year too.  The flocking will flake off, but I think it will be okay. I hung some in a window too.

You can see a closer picture of the twig stars here on Instagram.  

The tree topper was just twigs that I flocked.  It worked well and back out to the woods it will go when I take it down.

I hope your new year is off to a great start! 

So perfect that Christmas comes and then the New Year.  Fresh beginnings should always be tied to the Christ Child.  The new baby that offers us a fresh beginning every day, not just in the new year.

His mercies are renewed each morning. 

from Lamentations 3:23