Chicken wire

These are fun, don't you think?

I painted and distressed old frames, then attached chicken wire to them. Use clothespins to attach memos, or recipes, or photos to them. I've also seen them used to hang jewelry.

Suggestion: If it's as hot where you are as it is here, look in your photo albums for a picture like this one:



Blow it up poster size, then just sit and stare at it for awhile!

I guess I shouldn't complain. We're having mid 90's here, while much of the nation is in the triple digits.

And when I think about the firefighter's battling the Colorado fires........
Or our soldiers in the desert heat........

I hope wherever you are, you manage to keep cool!

Quilted wall hangings

My friend Debbie made all the wall hangings below. The pictures don't do them justice!

We decided to come up with some unique hangers, so I started digging through my barnwood stash.

On some, I put the barnwood in the front, on others it went on the back. When the wallhanging is on the back, it's simply stapled to the wood. When the wallhanging is on the front, it's attached with upholstery nails.

The barnwood is then embellished with rusty stars, or buttons, or painted & distressed wood stars, or whatever I find laying around.

She also made the embroidered stitcheries in this photo. Gotta love locally made, don't ya?

Some have tab hangers. George made the metal rod that this one is hanging on. (...oh by the way honey, I'll need you to make some more of those...)

I'm loving these, what a great way to decorate a wall in your home! Stop in to see the rest of them!

   

Oh, the West Virginia hills, how majestic and how grand

I suppose the residents of every state think theirs is the best. But I like to think ours has a little edge. As John Denver penned in his famous song, our beloved West Virginia is "Almost Heaven"!

 From the farms...

   

  to the mountains.

 

The creeks...

 

  

and the waterfalls.

 

 

The mountain roads in the green of summer...

 

and the orange and yellow of fall.

 

There's beauty everywhere you look

 

and we thank God for our "home among the hills".

Happy Birthday West Virginia!

I'm loving how these patriotic banners turned out............

The pictures don't do them justice, the camera sort of washed them out. Oh well.

The embroidery is on muslin and ticking. I attached it to barnwood with upholstery tacks, then added other embellishments...painted and distressed wood stars in the top photo, rusty metal stars cut from an old barn roof in the second photo.

And old, rusty coat hooks in this last photo. Fun!

Still haven't had time to take pics for the blog...though I did have fun the other evening taking engagement pictures of my son and his fiance! It's so much fun to take pictures with a GOOD camera! Wonder if I can talk him into giving it to me? No? Didn't think so.

I've spent the last couple of days playing with my new Sihlouette Cameo. I've seen lots of talk about it in blogland, most of which says it's super easy to use. Well......I don't know about SUPER easy, but I'm getting there. Part of my problem has been trying to learn on small, intricate cuts. Best to learn on something with some size!

My biggest problem has been getting the knife set at the right depth. Trial and error is working that bug out though.

The other problem was the noise. It was really getting on my nerves! I had it sitting on top of a wood cupboard, and it was very, very noisy. Finally, I got smart and put a quilt under it. What a difference! That absorbed much of the noise. I'll switch out to a towel or something similar, but for today, I just grabbed the first thick piece of cloth I came to.

The best part? I was cutting out tractors, barns, goats, chickens, sheep, cows, and cowboy boots. Guess what those templates cost me? NOTHING! No cartridges (think Cricut). I just downloaded some images I found online, traced around them with the Sihlouette software, and had my die cuts! Wonderful!!!

I've got to go....there's a big car show going on in the street in front of me. Time to stroll and admire!