I really don't have a mantle, so I use my buffet as a substitute. If you visit me often you know it's constantly changing with the seasons. I decided to try something simple and white so I pulled out my white pumpkins, my rooster, some old books and a piece of luggage that I painted a while ago I added  faux wheat, grasses and berries and put it all together and came up with this;

Stacked Trays

I think I have a thing for gluing stuff together to make new stuff. I found a set of trays at Goodwill,hated the design but for 5.00 bucks for three nice trays I thought I could do something with them.

Decoupaged Cake Stand

 Like a lot of us I have a love for collecting. One of my favorite things to collect are cake stands. Whenever I see one that I like, usually in a thrift store I snap it up. I've been wanting to diy one for a while and since I haven't found one lately that I really liked while thrifting I decided to go ahead and make one.

Weathered Carrier

I bought this carrier unfinished years ago from the craft store. Like a lot of things it's sat in my craft closet just waiting for me to do something with it. I've seen so many beautiful rustic tool carriers around blogland that I was  inspired to give mine a makeover, finally.

I dry brushed multiple coats of gray and white paint and wiped it back. I wanted a weathered look and this technique reminds me of driftwood. Here's what I stared with.

Copying Veranda

 At first I couldn't find anything to copy and then I remembered the Ex Votos I started last Christmas.  I saw a picture in Veranda Magazine and  my wheels started spinning. I've been seeing  beautiful Ex Votos   everywhere, so I decided I would try making my own. I molded my Ex Voto copies last November so I pulled them out and finished them. Then I set about trying to style the picture sort of like the inspiration pic. This is what I came up with;

Old Pot New Look

I've had this  pot for ever, it's pretty but I was tired of it and wanted it to blend in with my color scheme. What's a girl to do? paint it of course.

I sprayed on a couple of  coats of primer, the primer took forever to dry because it's so humid here. I had envisioned doing an elaborate distressing technique but that idea quickly went away, with the humidity it would have taken me a lot longer than I wanted to spend on this, so I went to plan B.After the primer dried I painted on two coats of Talc by MS paints that I had leftover from my buffet makeover,  it's a nice creamy off white without the yellow. Here's what I started with;

Blown Away...Almost

Well Hello,

           It's good to be back. We had a terrible storm on the east coast. My area was hit by 80 mph winds at around 1:00 am Saturday and intense thunder and lighting. We were without power for four days, which meant no internet, no TV, no lights no refrigeration and no air conditioning. The temperatures were in the high 90's the whole time. I don't handle heat well and was already not feeling well so needless to say it was an ordeal. for everyone.Some  unfortunate souls are still without power.  Ours was restored last evening around 5:30 pm.Hopefully everyone will have power by Friday. We lost one tree, luckily it was at the back of our property far from the house. Unfortunately for my neighbor our tree hit his shed, but there was no major damage.All of the surrounding neighborhoods had rows of trees down as well as damaged fences and lost roof  shingles. I don't think anyone was injured or killed in my immediate area and we are grateful for that. My husband cleaned up all of the brush and tree limbs and patched up our fence. We're pretty much back to normal around here. We are grateful to be safe and to have our home intact. It could have been much worse. Our home is surrounded by a lot of big trees that are close to the house.  This is our downed tree;