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Fan Pulls: for Winter and February

January 29, 2010 By Laura 9 Comments

I have found I enjoy making fan pulls for our home decor, to go with various seasons or holidays. But it was almost the end of January, when I put up our winter-themed fan pull. Reasons being, I had to make it first!  Next year, they will all be up right on time, because they’ll all already be made.  But for this little craft-session, I also made February’s. A LOVE theme of course.

We’ll look at the winter one first.  This one we’ll probably use maybe in late November, if it has snowed, and maybe the first week or so of December. But then we’ll be having our Christmas fan pull up for the rest of December.  The winter one here will go back up for the month of January, and maybe early March until it feels like spring.  Unless of course I make a St.Patrick’s Day one, although we’re not Irish. But I suppose that’s not St. Patrick’s fault. lol

winter-fan-pull-decor-craft

I’d like to take this opportunity to say . . . fan pulls are very hard to photograph!    Maybe I’m not using the right lens, that I don’t have. : )   But I just can’t seem to capture beauty of the fan pulls, in relation to the room, if that makes any sense.  So…I do the best I can for you.  They are also difficult to crop, being a very thin piece straight down so – forgive me for some of the tall vertical photos that require extra-scrolling. I did get into the photo taking because, they have beautiful detail.  So the extra photos are just some art-fun I was having, that I hope you’ll appreciate.

The winter fan pull was easy to make, because I found little snowflakes, already on a chain!  So I bought 2 of them, and just connected them.  I used 26 gauge wire at the very top and like last time, just sort of balled it, to slip into the catch from the actual fan chain higher up.

You will find I am showing lots of seemingly similar photos in this post, because I want to show you the various displays of color that these throw when the light hits them. BEAUTIFUL hanging there on a sunny day.

winter-fan-pull-decor-craft-1

See here….blues, purples….
–

winter-fan-pull-decor-craft-2
… and here….oranges and pinks!
So as it spins or swings some, it’s just lovely with the colors changing rapidly.
–

winter-fan-pull-decor-craft-3
Here is a closer up of the snowflakes on the chain.

Yesterday when I was making them, it was snowing out!

But it’s gone today.  It’ll snow again though.

winter-fan-pull-decor-craft-4

The gorgeous big snowflake on the bottom, I found separately at the craft store, and added to the snowflake chains.
Love the colors in this one above.

winter-fan-pull-decor-craft-5
Now look at this!  Same big snowflake from a different angle.  See?
It’s glass or crystal I think.  I’m not sure.
–

winter-fan-pull-decor-craft-6 Here is the snow flake chain laying on the table.
It is SO much easier for me to photograph them this way, than them hanging in the middle of the room.
Pretty though, huh?

winter-fan-pull-decor-craft-7

So these are more what they look like hanging up.  It’s just hard to photograph that way.

winter-fan-pull-decor-craft-8

winter-fan-pull-decor-craft-9
I couldn’t stop taking photos. lol

So…..that’s for winter.

For February, the month of love, here is what I did….

valentines-day-fan-pull-decor-craft

…which again, the photo just doesn’t do it justice.   I do want to mention that this one IS threaded beads all the way.  And, unlike using 26 gauge wire all the way through as I did for December’s, I found that heavy fishing line works great!  I did double it for extra strength, just in case.  And THEN, I used the wire to attach at the top.   It’s one of those things, like with anything new, you learn a little bit every time, and do better next time.  If you recall, December’s has a little swagger, from the wire through the beads.  It didn’t hang straight.  I SAID I liked it, and thought it gave it character. But I just didn’t want to do it over. ; )  I like the slinky flexibility of heavy fishing line, much better.

So here is a much better and closer look.   Red beads in 2 different sizes, some little silver bars, and some diamond-like studded squares.  I LOVE them.  They did not come with the red beads….I put them all together.  They were all cheap-cheap.

valentines-day-fan-pull-decor-craft-1

But the big heart at the bottom….not so much!!  When I found it, it was SO PERFECT and JUST what I was looking for for the bottom of this fan pull.   So I looked to see how much it was.  $15.00!! It was a cubic zirconia.  I almost cried.  I mean….I just don’t spend money on such frivolous things.  We can’t!!  But I REALLY wanted it!  Most all of the beads were on sale….so I was thinking, somehow, this one must be too.  It was with all of the beads. So {A} brought it to the register to have them price check it.  But guess what?  It was really and truly $15.00.

I just stood in the aisle…frozen.  I couldn’t spend that on it, and I couldn’t leave with out it.   So there was nothing else to do, but just stand there.   With my whole family around me, who were losing their patience.

So, Michael finally said, “Oh just get it!!.  Gosh….every time I pull that fan chain, I’m going to say, “$15.00!!  $15.00!!” He really would too.  Trust me.  Not that I would ever forget myself….but the joy of seeing the beauty of it would help me get past it, in time. But not Michael. Well, I already felt guilty enough.  That little announcement would surely tarnish that ‘love’ feeling I would have had going on through-out the month of February.  So….when I got to the register, I did what I would recommend YOU ALL DO, whenever you can.   I begged for a coupon or a discount!  I said, “Please….do you have a coupon hanging around I can use?” And she said promptly answered, “No I don’t. Sorry.” (For the record, she didn’t really sound sorry.)  So I said, “But my husband said he is going to say “$15.00″ every time he pulls the fan pull chain!”.  THEN she said….“Actually, I guess I do have this 40% off one item coupon in my drawer here.”

See?  : )  So then I did the happy dance, let out a “YA-HOOOO!!” through out the whole store, the kids said, “MAMAAAA!“, and then I thanked her profusely, of course.

She said I was welcome, and I believed her that time.

valentines-day-fan-pull-decor-craft-3

Oohh….Be still my heart!  (No pun intended. lol)

It’s a gorgeous piece, is it not?

I think the whole fan pull, is just beautiful. Classy.  Gorgeous. It twinkles!

And every time Michael pulls that chain to turn the fan on and off, he can smile and say…

valentines-day-fan-pull-decor-craft-2
“40% off!”.

“40% off!”

Well Folks, that’s it for this edition of ‘Fan Pulls’!

I hope you found that my crafting, and shopping tips, inspired you!

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Filed Under: Crafts & Creations, FALL Crafts and Creations, Fan Pulls, Holiday Crafts, Seasonal Crafts and Creations, WINTER Crafts and Creations Tagged With: crafts, fan pull crafts, fan-pull-decor, fan-pull-ideas, love-fan-pull-craft, snowflake-crafts, valentine's-day-fan-pull-craft, winter-fan-pull-craft

Kids’ Thankful Tree

November 30, 2009 By Laura 4 Comments

Like many of you, this past Thanksgiving, we counted our blessings.
And the kids created a little  ‘Thankful Tree’.
We are blessed.  So very blessed.

kids thankful activity

We don’t have a lot.  Many are surprised at the things we simply do without.

Some is by choice.  Much is by necessity.

But we know we are rich, by the simple things.

kids thankful activity

Because in all of the simple things….

is all of which we need to survive.

All of the things which we would hardly be able to bare to live without….

literally, or by the heart,

are the simple things, indeed.

kids thankful activity

So the simple things, are all we really need.

And it’s the simple things, that we couldn’t be more thankful for.

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Filed Under: Crafts & Creations, FALL Crafts and Creations, FALL Home Decor, Holiday Crafts, Holidays, Home Decor, Seasonal Crafts and Creations, Seasonal Home decor, The Big Picture Tagged With: fall-decor-ideas, kids-thankful-tree, kids-thanksgiving-activity, Thanksgiving-ideas

Getting Creative with Pumpkins

September 29, 2008 By Laura 3 Comments

unique-pumpkin-decorating_

On Sunday after mass, we went and picked up our pumpkins, having planned to paint some for our home decor.  It’s such a wonderful and inspiring time of year, and we were really looking forward to this project.

The kids worked together on this white pumpkin, below.  The polka dot theme was inspired by September’s issue of Better Home and Gardens.  The circles were embossed with an plunger-type apple corer.  While the directions instructed to insert the completely cored out pieces from other colored pumpkins into other colored pumpkin’s holes, (which is a great idea), we opted to just just partially carve a circle, and paint it in. We didn’t have enough different colored pumpkins to do the other way anyway. The kids all worked on this one together.

kids-painting-pumpkins

And it came out great!  So fun and whimsical!!

polka-dot-pumpkin

I was really excited about a design idea I saw in a magazine last year.  That particular project suggested using paper doilies as a template.  After going to 3-4 stores that were out of doilies completely, or didn’t carry them, I came up with Plan B….have my husband cut some designs out of vinyl, and use those as a template! : )  Seemed like a great idea, but applying a flat piece of sticky vinyl to a very round pumpkin, was a challenge and 1/2, to say the very least.

pumpkin-masking_

I had intended on painting it with some black acrylic I bought, until we tried some gouache markers we had.  They colored in like a dream…the coverage was unbelievably perfect, fast and easy.

pumpkin-masking

I thought this big pumpkin was my own to work on, but soon had begging helpers who got to work with me too. It seemed you couldn’t really make a mistake, so I let them join in.  I was anxious to peel off the vinyl template anyway, so the more hands, the better.

pumpkin-decorating

But I got too excited, too soon. When we peeled off the template, it had really bled (a lot!) underneath the edges of the vinyl.  What a mess. While the designs look pretty dang nice in the end, I can’t tell you how much cleaning up I had to do on the first big pumpkin. (The one we are painting in above.)  I mostly used the edge of an x-acto blade, but also some wet q-tips and a pencil eraser for the light smudges left.  Talk about tedious work.  But it was worth it to me. : )

Just 2 pumpkins took so much longer than I had expected, so after the kids went to bed, my husband and I got to work on the other big one, with acrylic paint and a sponge brush this time.  It went pretty easy still, and came out much cleaner.  Some cleaning up to do still, but not nearly as much.   Then we did the little ones, and I was sad when I turned around and realized we did the last pumpkin!  I wanted to do more!!  I just LOVE them. and can’t decide exactly where to put the 6 we did around our home, because I want them everywhere, in every room!

Below are all of the ones we did. We may do more if we have time this month.  If not, this is a project worth doing again next year.

unique-pumpkin-decorating

Today, the colors of Fall we have seen so far, continued to inspire everyone…..

kids-watercoloring

We’ve only just begun to enjoy our harvest festivities!  We have so many places we want to go, plans and ideas for creating, crafting and baking, and can only hope we manage to get them all in!  We don’t want to miss a moment of the joy this season brings.

Thanks for dropping in.  Come by again soon.  : )

Filed Under: Crafts & Creations, FALL Crafts and Creations, Home Decor, Seasonal Crafts and Creations, The Homestead Tagged With: decorating-with-pumpkins, fall-crafts, painted-pumpkins, pumpkin-designs, pumpkins, seasonal-decorating, unique-pumpkin-decorating

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