Fun With Chicken Feathers

 

While doing some sprucing up for spring this weekend, I came across a collection of chicken feathers I've saved from our little flock. We've kept several different breeds over the years. I just love studying the different colors and patterns of chicken feathers!   

Can you guess what some of them were by looking at the photo above?

Nature is the ultimate designer when it comes to color, form and pattern. Artists enjoy working with chicken feathers as a medium too! I'm sure you've seen some of the beautiful artwork and jewelery being created today inspired by our feathered friends. 

I simply wanted to enjoy my little collection of chicken feathers so I arranged them in an antique creamer and placed them on my buffet in our kitchen where I can see them everyday.

It makes me smile to look at them and reminds me of the old adage, 
" Some Days Chickens, Some Days Feathers."

The top photo is a little sedum plant that was given to me by a fellow chicken keeper and friend. She tucked a feather into the pot for an added touch of whimsy and after the long winter we've had that's just what this girl needed! 

Do you collect feathers from your flock too? 

What do you like to do with them?

I'm sharing this post on the Simple Saturdays Blog Hop!
 Check it out for more great posts on simple lessons in Self Reliance

Frugal Thanksgiving Table Setting Ideas

Dear Friends,

It seems like we were just clearing out the garden beds yesterday and here we are just a few days away from Thanksgiving! I'm very excited to be hosting dinner this year for our family and some of of our dear friends. It's so easy to get caught up in pre- holiday spending when it comes to decorating for fall and your Thanksgiving table what with all the beautiful dinner ware, linens, and faux harvest decor items for sale in your favorite discount department store's. Before you know it, your convinced you need to buy entire sets of dishes, glassware, silver ware and serving trays just for one day of the year. It happens to the best of us! To me there's nothing better or more FUN than rummaging around in my own china cabinet to see what I can create out of things I already have then ADD to it at minimal cost or FREE if I can get away with it!

 Here are a few FUN and FRUGAL table setting ideas sure to add the festive feeling you're after for little or no cost.

I love finding finding sale items that will make my holiday table special but that can be re-used the rest of the year as well. We are having 15 guests this year and I don't have 15 of anything the same!  So, I'm going to mix and match plates, napkins, and silverware. I'm borrowing some beautiful VINTAGE amber glass goblets from my mom to unify the table settings. She actually has 15 of them!

source

   Instead of spending money on fancy napkin rings I'm making my own out of jute twine and cuttings from the garden.

Floral Napkins from Home Goods

Simply tied with a sprig of dried seed pods tucked in they make a natural, but elegant statement for FREE!  ( I already had the twine on hand )

TABLE DECORATIONS

The centerpieces will be small dried flower arrangements cut from the garden tied with the same jute around the mouth of each jar. I'm using small ball mason jars, but recycled food jars would work great too! I'm using folded burlap purchased from my feed store for a table runner. I can re-use it in the garden next season, or make pillows, chair covers or pillows with it when I'm done!

PLACE MARKERS

BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS ( and my pinterest )

I just love these personalized pumpkins by Better Homes and Gardens. I think it ties in to my natural garden Thanksgiving table scape perfectly!

I hope you're inspired to keep more of your money in your pocket and create a personal table scape that reflects your personality and creativity! Your family, friends and guests will feel all the more cherished because of it!

Sharing with the Clever Chic Blog Hop , Tilly's Nest Down Home Blog Hop

Cozy Colors For Your Nest

Stevie the Rebel Chick in full Molt

Is anyone still in serious nesting mode? Stevie has taken the concept " feather your nest " quite literally this year. I was worried if she kept loosing her feathers, I might not have to buy shavings for the hen hen house at all!  She was nearly bald when I took this shot of her a couple of weeks ago. I'm happy to report she's grown new feathers, just in time for cooler weather ahead! Remember when I declared October National Painting Month? ( It's alright if you forgot... I won't hold it against ya). Like Stevie, I have taken my own nesting pretty serious here at Dandelion House too!  I've been chipping away at left over painting projects this fall. I've rolled over a new color leaf! I swapped out my deep apricot colored walls in the living room for a warm, cozy, creamy, off- white. I loved the rich, sunset glow of my previous color but we were all ready for a lighter look and something we could rely on to keep our spirits high while the sun is low over the winter months.
 My favorite part about painting is going from room to room  ( as the paint dries ) gathering pieces of furniture to trade out with.  It's as good as a trip to my local consignment shop only better because it's FREE!

This little gem of a suitcase was a gift from my sweet mother in law. Those are her initials  monogrammed above the handle. I love the earthy brown and the bright tan worn spots from years of banging around this earth. It's fun to think of her possibly as a young bride going off on her honeymoon with this suitcase packed with all the essentials of the day!

It looks right at home nestled underneath one of our Boz Scenes .

It sits on a stand similar to a luggage wrack with a strap for support. A wooden tray usually sits on top of it, but I'm using that in a new place now. Vintage and Antiques add warm patina and soul to a home, especially if you don't have the good fortune to live in an old farmhouse or antique home.

Best of all, I didn't get rid of my apricot all together. I love fall colors! They are my favorite to decorate with. I added new tangerine and paprika pillows to our ten year old sage green sofa and a new leaf patterned accent pillow to " my "  English wing chair covered in deep brick red velvet like fabric.  Orange and golden berries in an old Ball jar cinch my autumn nesting makover...
Now, I can start thinking about Thanksgiving!

How about you? What are your favorite cozy colors for fall decorating? 

Sharing with Tilly's Nest Down Home Blog Hop,  and Heidi's Simple Country Homemaker Hop!

SIMPLE Cozy Kitchen Door Window Treatment

Dear friends,
The joys of nesting have come home to roost here at Dandelion House! Last night while listening to the wind howl ( the prelude to an all night rain storm ) I put the petal to the metal on my grandmothers sewing machine and whipped up a cozy kitchen door window treatment.

After removing the tired, dirty old mini blind I gave the door a fresh coat of paint to match the walls and got to work. I made a valance with some left over fabric from our dining room curtains  and a cute little burlap cafe curtain for the bottom half of the window.

 It's easy to make a simple valance and cafe curtain without a pattern with basic sewing skills.

Here's how I made mine~

VALANCE:

• measure the width of your window and times it by 2
• measure the length you would like it to " drop " from the curtain rod and add three inches.
• this will give you enough for a rod pocket at the top and a hem at the bottom
• this valance has a finished 11 inch drop.

Magnetic Curtain Rod for metal doors

CAFE CURTAIN:

• measure the width of your window and x it by two. This will be your fabric width.
• measure the length from top to bottom adding two inches for a rod pocket and another inch all around for hemming the sides and bottom if you are not using burlap and leaving the edges fringed like I did here.

I sewed a rod pocket on the top of the burlap and left the sides and bottom fringed. The burlap let's the natural light in but also provides a bit of privacy.

 Here it is all together... I love how it cozies up our kitchen but our daughter says it looks like I hung a potato sack on our side door which is just the look I was going for without actually using a potato sack.

 I guess that makes us both right!  What are you sewing right now?
I'm sharing my kitchen door swag with Heidi's Homemaker Hop ,Tilly's Nest Down Home Hop # 3  and the Homestead Revival Barn Hop!
 Go visit them all for more homemaking/homesteading inspiration!

Fall Finery ~ show off YOUR best Fall blog posts

I hope you'll forgive me for using the F- word in this post. I've been biting my tongue for days trying not to say it out loud but I just can't keep it in any more! FALL is right around the corner and it's my all time favorite season to boot! I haven't done a lick of seasonal decorating yet because I'm still up to my eyeballs ( literally) in yard flowers. But, I know she's a comin' and I  think it would be fun to focus our next few Farmgirl Fridays on everything Fall.What do you say sisters? 

 Let's get gussied up for fall together! Here's how we'll do it...

Bring us your BEST FALL food and decorating posts and I'll highlight a few each week along the way. Plus, I've got a surprise FALL giveaway coming SOON!

If you're all ready to go with a fantabulous fall post now, link up to this weeks Farmgirl Friday blog hop or start planning ahead next week's hop!

See you in the corn-maze!

love,
Deborah Jean, Deb, Debbie Doo...me.

Farmgirl Friday blog hop # 61

 

Welcome one and all to the Farmgirl/guy Friday Blog Hop! 

Here's where you get to strut your stuff about all things, homesteading, crafting, cooking, gardening, keeping chickens and more! As always I so enjoy each and every entry but only one of you can be the featured farmgirl/guy! This week I chose Jabez Farm for her post on Expressing One's Farmness!

I got a kick out of it! If you didn't get a chance to read it last week click here! 

So, what sort of Farmness have you been up too this week? I got the veggie garden planted and the rest of the raised beds for cut flowers filled! Only one more bed to plant;then I can mulch and begin to relax a little while everything grows!

A friend and I went to our local Farmers Market today to check out the early June harvest.

Tender Herb seedlings ready for planting.

Homemade bread

 chocolate buns!

FOR THE FULL STORY " Meet Me at the Market " 

 

  visit the MJFbeach farmgirl blog 

Don't all farmgirls love chocolate? 

Now it's your turn to flaunt your farmgirl/guy spirit!

1.) Write a post about your farmgirl lifestyle and brag a little about your farmgirl talents while your at it! Share what being a farmgirl means to you. Include lots of photos of your farm, crafts, animals, quilts, home decor projects and thrifty make overs, your backyard garden, chicken coop, recipes, studio or workshop. You get the idea!

2). Leave your entry in the Mr. Linky space to your Farmgirl Friday post.


3). Please include the Farmgirl Friday button ( or link back here ) in your post and remember to share this hop with all of your blogging friends!


Have a great week everyone and thank you so much for all you share here every Friday! 

Farmgirl Blessings to all!

Lighten Up for Fall

There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort. ~Jane Austen

Dear friends,
I just love this time of year, don''t you? I've been busy following my nesting instincts and I've managed to get a few things checked off my Fall to- do list too!

•  replace hideous vinyl flooring
• get a small section of picket fencing installed ( Home Depot, here I come )
• refresh our dining room and kitchen with a new coat of paint
• fall cleaning and organizing
• figure out how to keep Stevie, our rebel chicken in the run ( honey, are you reading today?)

 If you've been reading my blog for a while you know I LOVE gardening and sharing images from all seasons with you.

Here are a couple of fun and easy fall decorating ideas. The old tea pot that was brimming with nasturtium's this summer is brewing silk flowers in vibrant fall colors.

 This tiered desert tray is perfect for creating a tall fall arrangement! I added some dried Hydrangea blossoms from our garden, a pine cone, a birds nest and some small pumpkins to each level and WA La! Instant Fall! I also like to do my fair share of feathering our nest inside too, but let's face it, being in the middle of a make- over is the messiest part of the process, kind of like having your hair woven at the Salon. The time to unveil your new do isn't when your head is covered in foil!  That being said, we've finally gotten things together enough to give you a peak of some  of the progress we've made.  Our Fall decorating frenzy started with picking up where we left off last December.. in the middle of a kitchen remodel! We don't like to rush into things around here! Why the long break? We had to find just the right light fixture to replace the HELICOPTOR  over our dining room table. It was here when we moved in 9 years ago!

It was a happy day when the electrician came to remove IT! We saved big $$$ by looking online at Restoration Hardware for our light fixture then finding an outlet nearby for better pricing.

We love the aged bronze tone of the metal and it matches the hardware on our new kitchen cabinets which I promise to feature soon.... Today it's all about color and light!

Notice the cozy, warm apricot colored walls in the the back ground of both of these photo's? I'm a big fan of using colors that speak to my soul in decorating. A few years back, I was drawn to a color I found at Lowe's in their Waverly Paint line. To me, it spoke of the warm western sunsets of the high desert that I grew up with and the sunsets that I now enjoy here on the East Coast or images of cozy English cottage walls bathed in orange sunshine sure to chase away the winter doldrums. I found it so wonderfully comforting that I wrapped our dining room and living room walls in Autumn Glow and settled in to enjoy it for as long as the feeling lasted. It's been about five years and all I had hoped for in a wall color! It made us feel cozy during long, gray winters and was the perfect color to off set many of the flowers that we can see from our dining room and kitchen window. Lately though, I've been craving a lighter, fresher look but with plenty of colorful accents!  My need for comfort with that color has been satisfied and I'm ready to throw off my blanket of Autumn Glow in exchange for something a little brighter, creamier and yummier! I courted the new color for a while to see how it made me feel. After a while I noticed something interesting. The new paint color is also the color of my favorite winter robe, my favorite scented candle ( vanilla ) and my favorite milkshake, Lumina Pumpkins and sea shells softened by waves and bleached by the sun.

TA DA! Benjamin Moores Standish White is our new wall color!

I believe a persons home should reflect their personality, not what the latest shelter magazine has predicted as the latest popular trend. I do look to them for inspiration in things like furniture placement, lighting, window treatments, flooring, and color combinations but I always go with my gut when it comes to decorating my own home.  Besides my MaryJanesFarm magazine, I LOVE  The English Home, The English Garden, Victoria and Natural Home.

 I made our window treatments with a Waverly Fabric and a pattern from Joanne's Fabric Store.

Creativity is key when you are decorating on a budget and you want a home that expresses your family not someones elses! We use and re-use our furniture pieces that we've collected over the years by placing them in different rooms or just adding a quick ( or not so quick ) coat of paint. The antique table in the above photo is from the early 1900's made from oak. I painted it black a few years ago but it's on the list for some re-freshening in the near future.

Faux Brick walls are a fun way to add some character to your home. They come and go as far as trends go, but if you like them, paint them! The beauty of painting your own bricks is you can make them any color you wish! I wanted a warm, rosy brick color with a few blackened bricks for an aged look...I first painted the walls with a suede paint in a neutral color, then with a brick wall stencil from Royal Design Studio I went to work creating my bricks one section at a time using various craft paints and sponges. They feel real to the touch because of the base coated suede paint underneath.

Look for future posts on how you can create an environment that supports creativity in yourself and your family members, by DE- cluttering, re-arranging furniture, then organizing! You'll feel better, think clearer and be much more productive and prosperous in your creative endeavors!

How do you decorate to make you feel AT HOME?

Happy feathering!

Forever fluffing,
Deb

Linking up with the wonderful Homestead Barn Hop  and Show off your Cottage Monday with The House in the Roses.