A Christmas Feed Sack Shower Curtain

Ok, so this is the post I have been so excited to share with you guys!!  

Once the idea for this project hit me I couldn't wait to get it finished, and then once I had it finished I couldn't wait to get it photographed and up on the blog to share with my readers.   

You probably remember several months ago I shared my DIY "feed sack" shower curtain I made out of painter's drop cloth.

Well, since then I've started selling them in my Etsy shop and they are selling surprisingly well!  I have a waiting list that takes me well into next year!  Well, in the midst of making one of these curtains for a customer I messed up and made it too short for the order.  I folded it up and just tossed it in my basket of scraps until I could figure out what to do with it.

A couple of weeks later this idea hit me and I decided that instead of using it for scraps I'd turn it into another curtain for myself.  It was too short for the ones I sell in the shop, but it wasn't too short for me.  So I came up with a whole new design, this time for Christmas.

A reindeer feed sack!  

I'm loving how it turned out and it's such a fun change for the holiday season. 

I changed up the font from the original curtain, found a reindeer clip art that was free, made the stripes on the sides red instead of the usual grey, and added "North Pole Granary" to it.  My husband asked me, "Shouldn't that be 'grainary?'"  But I Googled it before I painted it to make sure, and it is indeed "granary."  I'm not exactly sure why the "i" gets dropped, just another annoying quirk of the English language I guess.

I kept it pretty simple.  I didn't want anything about Santa Claus or magic on it like I've seen on some of the other reindeer themed pillows and such that are out there.  There really are reindeer (caribou if you want to be technical), and there really is a North Pole so I can feel comfortable that I'm not spreading any lies to my little ones.  : )  We've never told them that Santa is real, but we've never told them that he's not real either.  We've always just let him be a fun part of Christmas, and we've known they would figure it out on their own eventually.  In fact, when I was working on this curtain my 7 year old asked me why I put a reindeer on it since Santa isn't real.  I asked her how she knew he wasn't real, and she said, "I just know."  So we had a conversation about how he's just a fun tradition, but there really are reindeer, they don't fly of course, but they're a real animal and there really is a place called the North Pole even if Santa isn't actually real.  I was thankful that I had never told her that he was, because when I was unexpectedly asked about it point blank I didn't have any feelings of guilt for having lied to her, she didn't have any blame for me or my husband, and she can still keep enjoying him as a fun part of Christmas while still knowing the true meaning of it all.  I understand that not everyone believes the way we do or handles the situation the same as us, to each their own, but this is how we've handled it in our home.

Anyways, back off of that rabbit trail.  : )  

I had so much fun coming up with this reindeer feed sack design and turning a messed up pile of scrap into something beautiful.  I'm loving it, my kiddos are loving it, and even Hubby was a little bit impressed.  : )

I'd love to hear what you think of my salvaged mistake! 

                                                                

Linking up to:

Wow Us Wednesdays #196 - Savvy Southern Style
Party Junk #256 - Funky Junk Interiors
Party Junk #259 - Funky Junk Interiors

Farmhouse Fall Decor {Part 2}

 So...I finished up a project this week that I am SO excited to share with you!  I can hardly wait, but wait I must because it was a Christmas project and I never did finish showing you my fall decor in the dining room and kitchen so I feel I need to do that first.  

On the table I have a set of place mats that I thrifted years ago.  We alternate between these and a pretty fall tablecloth that I also thrifted.  When the 4 year old spills something (and he always does) then we switch them out.  I also have a cute little leaf S&P shaker set given to me by a friend a few years ago, along with a fall themed silverware caddy.  Though we're using it to hold napkins and seasonings that Hubs likes left on the table.

Behind the table in the buffet area I hung my fall picture I love so much.  Of course,  I love old red trucks for sure, but it's also really special because it belonged to my grandparents before they passed away and the truck has the name of the town where they lived on it.

The plaid runner was thrifted a couple of years ago.  It was actually just a strip of fabric that I turned into a valance to use in our 2nd bathroom at our last house.  In this house I don't have any place to use it as a valance so I simply folded it in half and used it as a runner.  I added the Rub-N-Buff made over candleholders set and some pillar candles with a bit of moss around them.  I really wanted to find pretty fall candles to put in these, but I couldn't find just the right ones like I had in mind.  I already had these ivory colored ones so I ended up using those instead and just added a bit of twine and an old key to make them a little more interesting and a little less "vanilla."  : )

Here's a reminder of what these candleholders looked like before.

A bit of silver Rub-N-Buff and then some Spanish Copper over top of that gave them a perfectly aged looking patina.  A 5 minute project with wonderful results.

My $1 rusty rooster makes his appearance again.  I love this little guy!  

Some faux bittersweet tucked in around it finishes it off.

I tucked in a berry vine around my Mason jars that are lined up in the big dining room window.

Above the kitchen cupboards I added a few touches of fall as well.

This end has a Pilgrim couple that my mom gave me and one little faux gourd.

In the middles hangs a vintage looking sign that I got several years ago, probably from Home Goods.

On this end, I took away the little stack of towels on the scale and added a small faux pumpkin, and I replaced the bright red geraniums with a fall colored bouquet.

The cookie bucket belonged to my granny back in the day and my mom just gave it to me recently.

Beside the sink I have this little touch of autumn.

It's a vintage potato masher.  

I added a small berry vine around it and tucked in a tiny little jar candle. 

Above the sink in the window I have this little arrangement.  I took the picture in the dark because it looked so cozy with the candle lit.

I keep this little feeder jar that my sister found at a thrift store on the counter within easy reach.  We added some candy corn to it for fall, and then for Christmas we'll change it out to some green and red M&M's.  Ain't it so cute?!?

And then I just had to show you our painted pumpkins from this year.  In my last post I shared a picture of our pumpkins from last year, but I never did show you this year's.  My daughter decided she wanted to make hers a minion this time around.  Well, when my son heard that he decided he wanted his to be Gru.  So, then we decided well if we have two Despicable Me pumpkins then we might as well go ahead and do all of them as characters from those movies.  So here's what we came up with.

This yellow minion pumpkin is my daughter's.  I drew in the parts for her and she did all the painting.  We glued on canning jar lids as his goggles.

Here's Gru, done by my 4 year old.  He painted the whole thing pinkish, I drew in his main parts and he painted them, and then I finished off a few of the details of the eyes for him.  I molded his nose out of Play-Dough and we attached it with a skewer.  A thrifted scarf finished him off.

The kids decided that mine should be a purple minion.  I found this fuzzy purple hat at a thrift store for $1.  I tucked the brim under and it made for the perfect crazy purple hair for it.

We all decided that Hub's had to be an El Macho pumpkin since Hubs has a big mustache, too.  :D  It ended up that he was too busy to paint his pumpkin this time around so I did it for him.  I thought it turned out pretty cute.  :)

 This last picture has nothing to do with decor, but I wanted to share one more thing with you.  We hosted a fall festival on Halloween night at our house for our church's youth group and one of the things I did was to make this Pumpkin Puke chip dip.

It was just spinach dip, and I wasn't sure how the kids would react to it but they loved it and thought it was the coolest thing ever and gobbled it right up to the last scrapings.  Brave bunch.  :)

That's it for my fall posts for this year.  Later today I'm off for my weekend trip to Mt. Dora, FL for the Renninger's Antique and Flea Market Extravaganza.  I am SO very excited to be going again!  I went about 5 years ago with Hubby for my birthday, and it was 8 solid hours of walking to booth after booth after booth and we didn't even get to them all!  This year I'm going with my mother-in-law, just us girls, no men, no kids, for 2.5 days.  It's in celebration of both of our birthdays this month and it's gonna be some serious junkin' fun!!!  

And when I get back from that.....the Christmas decor is coming out!  I am so excited for Christmas this year for some reason.  I just love love love it and it never lasts long enough for me.  So this year I'm breaking my rule of waiting until after Thanksgiving to decorate and we're gonna get our jingle on a couple of weeks early.  I can't wait!!

How about you?  Are you already decorating for Christmas?   Or are you a die hard for waiting until Thanksgiving is over?  Has anybody else ever been to the Mt. Dora Extravaganza?

I'd love to hear from you!