{ saving those sweet christmas cards }

Today I am sharing an idea from my good friend Kiley.  During Christmas, a few years ago. I noticed these cute packets of Christmas cards at her home.  After a little investigating she shared that at the end of each Christmas season she collects all of their cards, punches a hole in the upper corner and adds a cute ribbon.  I loved the idea and have been doing this for the past couple of years.  I noticed this year, as I unpacked all of our decorations, our kids sat and looked through them remembering their friends.

For our table I laid out plain brown craft paper as a table cloth and painted white "place mats".  I think it would be fun for the kids to decorate their place setting while they "patiently" wait for dinner!

{ twine and christmas ornaments }

I'm not sure how you attack decorating projects in your home...but for something like Christmas where I need to do more than one decorating project at once, I make a quick list of my "hot spots" were I like to have a little extra something.  Some of you might have your mantel, your front door, a kitchen counter, an entry table, your dining room table, ect.  One of mine is a set of rustic metal bow candle holders that hang in our entry.  This year I decided to add my new fave, torn pieces of fabric and soft gold ribbons.  To finish the look I added a few gold, silver and creamy white ornaments with long pieces of twine.  I think it is just the right amount of shiny and rustic.

I have found that the twine at a hardware store works great for lots of decorating projects.  It is less expensive than a hobby store and comes in larger rolls.  Enjoy!

{ Christmas decorating with old frames }

We are so excited to have inherited a really cool old bar that my husband's grandfather built years ago.  I am a bit surprised that it actually blends nicely into our home, despite the fact that we took it out of a Bass Lake cabin.  It provides a great spot to decorate.  For a few days I just sat and stared at it from across the room.  It is really big and heavy looking, so I knew I needed some smaller items to help break up the "massiveness" of its weight.  I finally decided to use some chalkboards that I have.  I wrote some fun sayings on them.  They of course were too small on their own so I added a few empty frames that I have been collecting. 

To fill in one of my blank spots I glued 3 small shells, that I had collected this past summer, to an open frame.  I hung the frame from a long piece of twine.  I love all of the textures - the mix of glittery gold with matte black and rough twine.  That's me; one part rustic, one part shinny and one part simple!

{ hats on display }

I was so excited this past summer when we inherited a large collection of hats from my husband's grandfather.  I am a hat lover.  I have been since high school.  And I am proud to say that I am not one of those hat collectors that never wears them.  I do wear them and love it.  Our little family also has many of our own cowboy hats.  I decided to display all of them in our entry.  It makes it easy for our four year old to grab his cowboy hat and run out the door.  This display makes me smile every time I walk by.

{ polly & matthew 10.13.12 }

Amazing fun colors paired with rich dark chocolate.  Polly had such a fun vision for their wedding and it was pure joy to work with her.  She used a dark persimmon orange with a fun dark fuchsia punctuated with tans, chocolates and moss green.

Matthew and Polly exchanged vows and entertained guests at the Birdstone Winery north of Fresno in Madera County.  It was my first time out there and I was pleasantly surprised at how quaint and well organized it was.  They have a beautiful location.

This was fun use of our rustic wooden boxes.  We added 3 silver mercury votive's along with mound moss and presto a cute set of candles.

{ painted chevron bulletin boards }

Looking for a cute way to quickly and cheaply update a plain bulletin board?  I recently painted grey and white chevron stripes on two of my boards.  I first cut out my design on a scrap of cardboard - measure equal distances a part - I think my stripe is 4" thick.  Make your cut-out the length of your board.  Trace your cut-out until your board is covered with pencil drawn lines.  Next take painters tape and tape off the side that you want to paint.  Really press the painters tape down really tight so that the paint doesn't seep under the tape.  Paint and let dry for at least one day.  If you want to do an additional color, tape off the part that you already painted and repeat with a contrasting color on the blank cork board.  Let dry a couple of days before use. 

I actually liked the grey and natural cork brown the best I think.  But the white and grey is cute too.

Finished product!

{ felt advent calendar }

The winter before our daughter Mary was born I came across a really cool felt advent calendar in Pottery Barn...yes I am a Pottery Barn idea stealer!  {PBIS for short} My automatic response is always, "I can make that".  It was great project and my kids have loved it the past couple of years.  I wanted to share because my sister in law Coll recently made one for her family and it turned out great!  Here is ours...

If you'd like to make one for your home here is how I did it...

{You will need}

1.  large piece of felt for the backdrop.  {Approximately 25 x 36 }

2.  smaller pieces in various colors for the date squares, wording, and pictures.  I found felt at Micheal's for $.29 per square and also at Hancock Fabrics and Joann's. 

3.  velcro for the squares. You can use white but I chose a red velcro to coordinate with my burgundy backdrop.  Coll had this cute idea - which I copied this year - and that was to hang each square from ribbons on either side of your calendar.  

4.  fabric glue or hot glue

5. embellishments to "dress up" your designs like buttons, sequins and ribbon

6. wooden dowel - medium size about 34" long - available at Lowe's, Home Depot or Micheal's

{To Make the Daily Squares}

1. Cut 25 squares in 3"x5" sizes - one for each day.  You can do the same color or all different colors.

2. Cut out numbers 1 - 25 -- I used a number stencil that I laid on black fabric and cut around (this was the hardest part for me.)  Glue one day to each square so that you have 25 days numbered.

3. Make a list on a sheet of paper numbered 1-25 and decided on your designs for each day.  Some of ours include an angle, the shepherd with a sheep, Christmas gifts, a sleigh, Santa, candy cane, the Three Kings...

4. Then begin cutting out shapes for each of your designs.  Felt is great because their is no sewing needed.  And if you mess up or aren't happy with your design just start again.  Felt is fairly inexpensive and goes a long way - you don't need too  much.

5.  After you have your design cut out glue it to one of the day squares and let dry.  You may also want to add sequins, buttons, ribbon or additional pieces of accent felt.

{To prepare your backdrop for the calendar}

1. Lay out your larger piece of felt.  My finished size is 25" wide by 32" long.  Leave about 2-3" at the top to fold over and either sew or glue to create a pocket to slip your dowel through - this is what you will hang the calendar from so that it stays nice and straight. 

2.  About 6" in from each side of the calendar cut a small slit in the felt and slip a ribbon through making sure to go around the dowel attach the ribbon at the top to create a cute hanger for the calendar.

3.  Add wording to calendar if you want.  I did mine on the side but the top or bottom would also work.  You could even do your family's last name.

4.  Lay all of your square out on the felt in order from 1 to 25.  Space them evenly and glue a small square about 1/2" long to the felt and the other piece of the velcro to your square back.  Line up the row of velcro evenly as you will see all of your velcro's until each square is put up throughout the month.

5.  Add ribbon embellishments to the top and bottom.

Either place all of your squares in a decorative bowl where children can reach each day or do as Coll did and hang them up to enjoy!

Here are some of our squares...

{one of my favorites...a shepherd with his sheep...use your imagination on this one}

{ penguin in a snow globe...PBIS}

{We Three Kings and Christmas bells}

I made one square for Mary's stocking.

And my last one the baby Jesus in the manger.  The reason for the season.

{ ripped fabric skirt for wine barrel }

I saw this so so so cute wine barrel "skirt" at one of our recent weddings.  I didn't make it and I'm not sure who did but I couldn't get it out of my mind.  I recently made one and wanted to share.  Am I the only one that thinks this is so fun? 

Basically I took a piece of twine and tied odds and ends to it.  I had just told my assistant Miriam that I wanted to recycle all of our old ribbons - they were taking over the back part of my office.  You'd only understand this concept if you are a crafter like me.  I CAN NOT throw away ribbon.  If I didn't have a floral business I'd love to have a ribbon store.  Anyway, we have bags and bags of slightly used ribbons.  Instead of recycling them I found one more use...I tied them to my long piece of burlap twine and made this "skirt" for my wine barrel. 

You could do this to hang behind an impromptu photo area, over a bed or even over an old door.  In between various ribbons I tore long strips of cream muslin fabric.  To give it a bit more "scrunch" I also added strips of burlap.

{photo area prop Shannon Garvin wedding}

This barrel was used to hold awesome cupcakes from "Frosted" for a barn party I hosted in November.

{ cupcakes by Frosted, mini silver and gold glitter flag Target}

{ Thanksgiving Centerpieces for Sale }

This year I thought I'd offer centerpieces for Thanksgiving!  Bring home Brown Bunny Flowers for the holidays.  These arrangements are perfect for your dinner table, kitchen island, entry table or as a hostess gift. We are offering four unique designs in very cute and different containers.

Napa Valley $35

Fresh green moss container filled with fall flowers.

{Overall size is 8" wide by 8" high}

{Container size approx. 5" x 5" square }

American Vintage $45

Brushed wood veneer round container filled with lush fall flowers in interesting textures.

{ Overall size 8 wide by 14 high }

Italian Courtyard $50

Something a little different for Thanksgiving...soft textures with elegant undertones.

New moss rectangle box filled with soft cream and green flowers with a touch of blue thistle and wheat.

{ Overall size 10" long by 5" wide by 10" high }

French Countryside $60

Fun tulip shaped tin container filled with fall flowers and brown twigs.  A slightly taller arrangement perfect for your kitchen island or bar.  Burlap ribbon bow included.

Orders due by November 14th.  Please email brownbunnyflowers@gmail.com

Delivery available on Wednesday November 21st in the Fresno / Clovis area for an additional $8

Pick up also available on Wednesday November 21st between 9am and 7pm at

4656 N. Thompson Ave. Clovis, Ca 93619

Payment methods accepted: Cash or Personal Check

All items taxable at 7.975%

Questions...please call Amy at (559) 313-5447 or email us at

brownbunnyflowers@gmail.com

Give Thanks in All Things!

{ fall wine bottle decoration }

I wanted to share this easy and cute fall table decoration.  I told my daughter, "it's art"!  My husband said he thought I had some new reindeer statues!  Obviously art is in the eyes of the beholder!  Take the labels off green and amber colored bottles and paint with gold or silver paint.  Some of the label glue was stubborn and required "Goo Be Gone."  I used stalks from our fountain grass plant along with some dried yellow billy balls.  No water is needed because both these blooms dry easily.  Enjoy!