Pretty Small Things: dear deer wall art

I just couldn't help myself... dear? deer? hehe I'm sorry...



Because I am clearly a hoarder who just hasn't quite made it to the point of intervention, I'm here to share yet more weekend finds. These two deer paintings were thrift store finds that are still making me swoon. They're about 3 feet tall and were $26 for the pair. If you've seen any other pictures of my house, you know these are right in line with my color palette. I'm so excited that I have about 10 different places I'd like to hang them! Just have to choose one...



And what's this? The itty bitty edge of experimentation towards sharing outfit posts? Methinks so... I've been pondering adding that series to the good ole blog, so let me know if you're interested. I don't have a crazy experimental style, but I like mixing classic looks with homemade vibes. For example, this cute cute cute apron and belt that I got this weekend...



... love those little tulips. (Apron $3, belt $2.) No, I wouldn't wear the apron for anything but cooking, and yes, I bought another doily. (Those are clearly related thoughts...) Just FYI, my doily collection is getting overwhelming in that it's overwhelmingly awesome.



So help me out, what do those deer paintings scream to you? Living room? Bedroom? Kitchen? Craft room? Hunter - look out!? Couldn't help myself again... :)

Home Depot and Healthy Air Plants

A few weeks ago I was thrilled to buy a beautiful Air Plant from Home Depot and hang it in a picture frame - so lovely!!



The air plant came with a copper wire hanger that I thought was super clever. Well, it turns out that a copper wire hanger is not very smart at all! A super awesome reader shared some crucial information with me...

And yes, my air plant had died!
(Here's an article that says the same thing about copper.)

I've since updated that post, but I wanted to point this out separately for regular readers who might not travel back into my archives before wrapping their own air plant in copper poison. COPPER KILLS AIR PLANTS!

Home Depot is such a smart place - why would they sell a product that was made to fail?? Well the good news is that Home Depot has a fantastic return policy and really really great customer service!



When I told them about the copper, they exchanged my very dead air plant for a brand new one. This time I chose an air plant with an aluminum wire hanger. Into the picture frame it went. Much better.



But there were still a half a dozen air plants for sale at Home Depot that were wrapped in copper. Serious sad face...

Home Depot, if by some chance you happen to read this, please stop selling air plants wrapped in copper. Also, thank you for having such a great return policy. You guys are the best and are waaaay above selling faulty products.



PS. I took these photos in my new craft room. It gets such lovely light and I even managed to capture a few sun flares! Love! It's going to be a while before I get it all put together, but I sure can't wait to share :)

Pretty Small Things: estate sale

I've only been to two estate sales in my life - I'm usually more of a thrift store girl - and I have to say, you can find some pretty sweet stuff!



Last weekend, Tim and I happened upon a sign for an estate sale and popped on by. (You know you've found a good partner when they're up for random estate sale exploring on a Saturday morning!)

We explored a lot, but didn't buy much - probably the best combination :)



We bought a set of four of these copper containers for just $8. They're in great shape and I love the little wooden knobs.



After digging through piles of linens, I walked away with this adorable hand towel for $1. The colors are so happy they just kill me! Hmmm a weird combination in retrospect...



This blue crochet blanket was the first thing I saw when I walked in the house. $2! You know I snatched her up! Carrying it around for the rest of our estate sale exploration was not super fun.... ;)



Tim and I have mixed feelings about estate sales. One the one hand, they're so packed and full of stuff you can really dig into. On the other hand, it's a little sad to be confronted by all of the treasured possessions of someone who's not there anymore... What do you think? Any estate sale junkies out there?

Natural Brass Cleaner

You know I love me some brass! (Apparently, I "love me" a lot of things. As in, I think I use that phrase too much... oh well...)

ANYWHO. A couple of weekends ago while thrifting when I should have been packing, I found this dirty little (brass) bird.



Patina is the best, but this was just looking grungy. I knew I could probably buy some brass cleaner to do the job, but I seemed to remember there were some great natural cleaners for brass. A little internet research proved this to be the case.



Along with ketchup (catsup?), lemon juice is allegedly a great brass cleaner. Time to put it to the test!



Not to shabby eh? I only needed paper towels and lemon juice from the bottle to get this all spiffed up. For the more persistant spots, I let the lemon juice sit for a few minutes or scrubbed extra hard with the paper towel. After the bird dish looked good-n-shiny, I cleaned off the excess lemon juice with a little dish soap.





You can see that it's not a perfect method, but I like that the lemon juice didn't brass things up to a garish point. A little bit of tarnish keeps things interesting. I especially like that the discoloration in the etching on the bird stayed put.



Easy new way to clean brass - check!



Do you swear by any natural cleaning solutions? Please share! They're so awesome!

DIY Save the Date

Let the wedding DIY begin! While Tim and I know we can't do everything on our own (and don't want to), we're really excited to tackle a couple of wedding projects ourselves.

The first one is done!

(if you're viewing this in a reader and can't see the video, just pop over to the blog)

We decided to do a video Save the Date because 1) it saves paper and is overall enviro-happy 2) it was a fun new challenge and 3) it could be something we and our family/friends could watch and enjoy in the future. I'm not going to lie - it was hard, but so worth it!

If you're interested in making your own...
   The photos were taken by me with a tripod and camera remote
   The cartoons are paper cutouts I made, photographed, and edited using photoshop
   Tim put it all together using Flash (and boy that program has its quirks...)



For you facebook friends, yes this was the mess of the day special project I hinted at twice :)

We emailed the video to our friends and family this past weekend - BAM DONE. I only wish we could invite every single person who has been an awesome influence in our lives (including you sweet readers), but dang this wedding biddness is expensive.

Next on the DIY list is invitations. I'm thinking stamps... love me some stamps...