Ornamental, my dear Watson!

So I'm talking to Cheryl on the phone the other day and she mentions that she has to run to the craft store for more of whatever fabulous glue she uses to make all those fabulous altered items. I told her that if I found myself suddenly out of glue I'd be mixing up some baking soda or melting down a horse hoof or something - anything to keep me from having to venture out.

And no, I don't actually have any horse hooves lying around.

But I digress. . .

I put the draperies up last week after purchasing them with my 20%-off-everything coupon. Here are some photos:

Bay Window - before and after

Side Window - after. The eggplant color of the curtains looks like it was dyed to match the walls! Awesome!

We remain sans-table until the hardwood floors go in.

The drapes are button-top chenille and the rods came with these fancy twisty finials, of which I only needed 2 for the bay window.

Looking at the four leftover finials it struck me that they'd make great Christmas ornaments.

Which brings me back to my original point about the horse hooves.

I wanted to alter the finials, but I needed to figure out how to hang them. They're threaded, so the most logical solution would have been a trip to the hardware store to see if they had eye-hooks with the same size thread. Did I do that? Of course not!

Instead I spent a bunch of time cutting up a styrofoam block to make plugs, threading chains through the foam, hot gluing the plugs into the finials, and then covering the tops with punched cardstock circles. It worked, but probably took longer than a trip to the hardware store.

The ornaments turned out adorable, though:

#1: Gold and Silver ribbon woven, God's Eye style, through the ornament. Gold organza ribbon bow.

#2: Tacky tape wrapped around each spoke and then dipped in green glitter. Red ribbon bow and hot-glued silver star button.

#3: Beaded wire wrapped around the spokes. Silver ribbon bow.

#4: Tightly wrapped ribbon around the spokes. Gold ribbon bow.

I also had the wild idea to decorate a pinecone as an ornament. I only made one. You can see why:

I sat on the floor and hand-cut all those little pieces of paper and hot-glued them onto the pinecone. Why did I do this? Dunno.

It's one piece of Scenic Route paper, glitter and ribbon.

Plus a pinecone.

Plus a lot of patience.

Oh, and you have to hang the ornament low on the tree so you can see all the *&%@# paper! From the side it still looks like a brown pinecone. Aurgh!

And that's what I've been doing instead of laundry.

REQOTD (Emma: Thanks for giving all those craft supplies to my Girl Scout troop, Mom. Me: No problem - that's what Moms are for! Emma: (after a long pause) Well . . . I don't think that's what Moms are FOR, exactly.)

Comments

[Alana M]

Now WHERE did you get those neato plain ornaments? Was it mentioned before because I must have missed it...I love them all but I don't think I'd make the glitter one, glitter has a way of migrating in my house.

I will tell all the horses to stay away from your house too.

[Alana M]

Okay so I'm brain dead...so sue me!

[Stacey C.]

LOVE them! The view from the top of the pinecone Rocks too!

...... just joking!

[Fauve]

WOW your drapes looks beautiful,and love the ornaments you made.Maybe i am going to pimp a pinecorn as wel,it looks so cute!!

[Juls]

Beautiful ornaments, all of them. And I think you deserve a drink for the patience on that pinecone. It looks fabulous though. And I LOVE the drapes and the color of your walls. We have colorful walls all around so I definitely appreciate your shades.

[Amy B-perumbula]

gorgeous all around! love the drapes. definitely worth the wait. and I love your finials. it seems you did catch that altering virus. ;)

[corinne]

Bwhahahahaha that pinecone is hillarious, girl what you dont do to keep yourself from the laundry, lol. but it sure does look cute!

corinnexxx

[Mimi]

So, um, you aren't making 50 pinecones this year?

[cheryl mezzetti]

Okay so you are now officially inducted into the altering house of fame.....*snicker*

[Cat]

How very crafty of you, my dear! So - did you think of maybe hanging the pinecone upside down and then the paper would show from underneath? Just a thought...

Love the draperies... you are quite the domestic goddess. And who knew how fancy those finials could be? Submit that one to Martha!! She probably can send you her ankle bracelet as a thank-you. Then you could turn that around in e-bay for billions! Gen-i-us!

[Michelle OKeefe]

Well............you "could" put more paper on the bottom of each and every pinecone (what do they call them? oh yeah) thingy.

These look fabulous Karen. Glad to see someone is in the holiday spirit. I need to get through Thanksgiving first. Very cool. Inspired, thanks !

[Heather Moll]

Oh my gosh, woman! You are insane and those ornaments are GORGEOUS! WOW! Fantastic work! I can't believe you cut and glued all that paper! WOW!
Oh and the new window treatment is awesome too!

[Mary Kay Seckinger]

The ornaments are fab, but the REQOTD is the best.

[jen]

I love the curtains...and I thought of you when I got extra Linens & Things coupons in my paper this week.
Love the ornaments...but where on earth did you find the extra 6 hours a day? LOL Please send them my way, please? Only have a scrapbook calendar to finish as a baby gift for a baby who is now a month old! Gah.