No-Sew Burlap Tablerunner

I have a secret.  Well actually I have many, ha ha, but today I am revealing one:  I can't sew.  Don't judge, don't hate... I. don't. sew.  It's true and I will readily admit it.  I truly envy all the beautifully sewn creations I see out there in blog land.  But, while I have many talents, sewing just isn't one of them.  It is on my very long list of "things to do before I die."

As with many of you, I have fallen in love with burlap.  It all began with my kitchen update to French Country and discover that natural fabrics are part of the decor.  Thus enter burlap.  Hmmm... what can I do with burlap... such a lovely fabric...

 I discovered all sorts of very cool table runners created out of burlap all over blog land and Etsy.  But, most, if not all, involved sewing.  Crap!  Well, never one to be deterred easily, I decided to create my own. 

The first one I made was super simple.  Go to Joanne's, get a few yards of fabric, cut to desired length and width, wash, dry, and iron out the wrinkles.  The washing and drying create awesome fraying which of course we want.  I loved it and it worked perfectly in my kitchen. 

But then I started seeing some more elaborate burlap runners with lace and rosettes.  I love the combination of the burlap and lace but it required sewing.  Or does it?  Not if your brain works like mine!  I. Can. Glue. It!

Now I ask you:  why was fabric glue invented?  For non-sewers right?  Well, maybe not but it works.

What I used:

Burlap fabric cut to about 72" L x 16" W

Vintage Lace

Rosette (I cheated a bit and used some Melissa Frances ones that I had)

Fabric Tac

I discovered that it's really quite easy to fray burlap myself by pulling threads at the ends.  That way I could control how "frayed" I wanted it.  Then I measured my vintage lace and glued it to the ends and also glued the rosette on.  Easy, easy, easy and yet so pretty!

What do you think?  I am in love and it looks fabulous in my French Country kitchen!



It all started with this...

(sorry about the picture quality)

WARNING:  Picture intensive post!!!!!  (I think I got a tiny bit over zealous!)

So a couple of months ago I decided I really hated my kitchen curtains and needed some new ones.  Simple right?  Ha, wrong!  I then found a burlap table runner that I loved and it was so easy for me to make that I had to run out to Joanne's right then and get the burlap.  Then I discovered that burlap is often used in French Farmhouse decor.  Well, after searching French Farmhouse, I stumbled upon French Country and it was love, instantly!  You see how a total kitchen re-do can occur because of new curtains right?  I am not crazy or anything, right?

What I discovered was that French Country includes roosters (which I adore), natural materials such as burlap, striped or checked fabric, colors such as yellows, blues, and even soft ocean tones, sunflowers, grapes, toile designs, displays of flowers, fruits and vegetables, and lavender.  Plus, the point of the kitchen is to have things handy.  Thus, baskets and displays of kitchen objects are useful!  Oh, did I mention I am in LOVE?!

We completely remodeled our kitchen several years ago which included knocking out a wall to combine the kitchen and dining areas, getting new oak cupboards, and new laminate flooring.  Plus, we just painted the kitchen yellow last year and I already had cobalt blue accents and roosters.  Some how, I just never tire of roosters, ha!

So here's some of what I have added:

 new clock and a vintage inspired rooster print

 a lovely french sign from this Esty seller

 French Farmhouse baskets from my site filled with faux pears and lavender (I hand made the burlap rosette)

 vintage inspired wire basket filled with new and vintage cookie cutters

 a wire basket center piece with apples and Fleur DE Lis votive holders from Yankee Candle (though I often fill them with flowers)

 love, love, love these farm house prints from this eBay seller



 burlap pillows on my new bench - see that number 3 pillow - if you read my blog regularly you know I have triplets and I couldn't turn down this muslin pillow - it spoke to me, ya know

 toile ware juicer and salt and pepper shakers - I actually use that juicer quite often - who knew

 enamelware utensil holder with a Graphics Fairy silverware transfer using the Citrasolv method which I will share in a later post (super, duper easy)



 a cluster of French Country adornments - I made the chalk board myself and I will share that too - of course you can find that all over blog land

 more GF graphics inserted into a frame I painted and distressed

 a nice vignette of more FC decor including roosters and paper hydrangeas

 more roosters of course

 a view of my table with my homemade burlap runner

 fresh fruit to add to that FC feel

 vintage blue ball jars filled with silverware

so  I could do this with my spices - no more endless searches, yay~

 rooster canisters because what else would you expect, ha

and of course some fresh flowers in a vintage ball jar.

Thanks for taking the tour today.  I just realized that I didn't add pictures so you can see the entire kitchen.  Sorry about that.

Have a wonderful week!

Hugs,

Jacalyn

I am still around!

Hey!  How are you all?  I sure have missed my blogging friends!  I just wanted to let you know that I am still around, ha!  I have been visiting a lot of you but stupid blogger hasn't let me leave comments.  I think (I hope) that problem has been corrected!

I have actually accomplished so much since we last talked!  I've:
~updated my kitchen
~completed my landscaping
~celebrated the triplet's 20th birthday
~helped my last daughter move out
~cleaned, cleaned, and cleaned some more! There's still plenty of that to do though.  Since all of my children moved out, I have been going through lots of stuff and getting rid of it!  I am cleaning and sprucing up my house with the thought that I will be selling it in a couple of years.  So, anything I don't want to move gets tossed!
~took a couple of trips
~focused on getting things organized in my new practice
~spent more time with hubby
and oh so much more!  While I miss blogging I have enjoyed some time to do other things.  But, having said that I have oh so much to blog about so I will be back soon.   First up will be my kitchen.  It didn't need any major updates but I changed up the decor.  Let's just say it all started with this:

Sorry about the picture but the "this" I am talking about are the new curtains...  more to come!

Have a great week!

Hugs,
Jacalyn

Fun with Piknic

Am I the last person on Earth to find out how much fun Picnik is?  I have browsed it before but never really did anything with it until the last month or so and yes, I paid for the premium package.  It has a lot of wonderful tools but I know it's not as good as Photoshop.  I actually have Photoshop but it overwhelms me and I even bought a book, ha!  I am more of a visual learner though so I need to take a class and it is on my list of "things to do before I die."

I wanted to make some vintage type labels for my new cleaning products... more on that later. 

I loved these 2 graphics from Dover and the Graphics Fairy so I blended them together to create a label for my kitchen cleanser:

Picnik has a cloning tool which helped me add the flowers to cover up what was in the original label and to add the bird.  I used Marcella Font which I love!  As you can tell I cropped out some of the original picture too.  Since my kitchen is yellow and cobalt blue, this label goes very well!  The tag line "All the Clean You Need" is actual a saying I found on a vintage Tide advertisement.

Here you can see that I added a scrub brush from the picture on the right to the rose label.

Again, I added a wash tub to this graphic with the cloning feature.  I think this might be my favorite.

Just a couple of more examples...

Most graphics are from the wonderful Graphics Fairy, many of whom love her too! 

Some day I will learn to Photoshop but in the meantime I will continue to play with Picnik.

Hugs,

Jacalyn

Pink Saturday and a very pink bathroom!

Happy Pink Saturday!  Please be sure and stop by and see Beverly, our hostess ever week, to view all of the participants this week!  You remember the post from last week about painting my bathroom pink? 

Well I sure did go a head and paint it and who knew that Carnation Pink would come out sooooooo very pink! Yikes!

 

It's not that I don't like it.  I really like the color but boy is it darker than I thought it would be.  My bathroom is not very large so, that's just say, it is VERY pink!  The trim is white and I must admit that it looks really pretty against the pink.  Here's a little pink tour.

I didn't want to shock you all by showing you an entire pink bathroom, ha, so I just gave you some snippets!  But, I have a little dilemma that maybe you can help me solve.  I have a curtain that I have had up since the bathroom was a very pale pink and I would like to change it.

I think a plain white one would look better - my shower curtain, the trim, and the cupboards are all white which look very nice against the pink.  But, my husband and daughter think I should leave the present curtain.  I just wonder if it's too much not that my bathroom is so pink.  Opinions? 

Does anyone know how to lighten paint without re-painting the entire room?  I was thinking that maybe there's some magic potion out there that I don't know about, ha, ha!

Oh and would you all be so kind to vote for me in the Shabby Lane Shop Website Holiday Decorating Contest?  If you already voted, thank you, but you can vote again too!  Click on the link below to vote.  My most heartfelt thanks!

Have a wonderful weekend! 

OXOXOXOX,
Jacalyn

To embellish or not to embellish... Now there's a question!

I found some really neat things recently that I absolutely adore.



Like these amazing bottles I purchased on eBay. One day I decided that I needed more aqua colored items in my shabby pink office (my new fav color). Thus, I went searching on eBay and this is what I found and won! They are old... anywhere from the Civil War era to the late 1800's.



The color is Divine!


The shapes are amazing! My husband says to leave them as they are (he is a Civil War buff). But...


Then I recently went to an Estate Sale and found this...





A gorgeous enamelware container... the REAL enamelware... nice and heavy! It looks like the previous owner used it for paint. I fell in love!

So, here's my question. Do I re-purpose or embellish these items? Or do I leave them in their natural and beautiful condition? I have soooooo many ideas for re-purposing. Yet somehow I just don't know! What do you think?

Hugs,
Jacalyn