Fall Foliage And Joseph's Coat of Many Colors

Procrastination - my middle name.  I acknowledge it.  I declare it to you in all honesty.  But, I wish it wasn't so.  I need a 12 step program.  Perhaps it's because I spent so many years doing "production" type work with serious deadlines that could not be missed.  There were weddings that depended upon me, receptions, holidays with hundreds of deliveries waiting to be made that let people know there were those who loved them and sent flowers as an expression of their love.  I swore never again would I work that hard. Aching back, aching feet, aching brain, sometimes 40 straight hours without going home.

So what was my next career choice?  Costuming.  Seriously.  Talk about deadlines.  Measurements, fittings, plotting the script, choosing fabrics, building costumes, deliveries, more fittings, dress rehearsals, and productions.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  Many times, there were three or four productions due at the same time.  Ten long years of hard grueling work, 14 hours a day, 7 days a week - but there were so many fantastic results.  Happy students who were proud to wear their costumes.  Lifetime friendships made.  So many wonderful productions that brought joy and happiness to so many, including me.

Now, I hate deadlines.  I procrastinate which only makes my life more difficult.   Why?  I guess it's because I want to play, to be able to enjoy each and every day my way.  But, I make promises that have - guess what? - deadlines.  Today, I should have been cutting Halloween costumes for our grandsons.  Did I?  Of course not.  Dan asked if I wanted to go out for a bit.  Uh, yes I did!  And we enjoyed one beautiful fall day that will never come this way again.  Happy?  You bet!

We headed to Cool Springs where they have the best Dollar Tree ever!  And a Michael's Craft Store, and lots and lots of places to lunch.  As we made our way around Briley Parkway, I took in the beauty of the trees, the azure sky, the sunshine, the joy and perfection of this beautiful day.  Yes, I will cut those costumes tomorrow and work into the night sewing them.  Taking this play day was worth every minute.

If you know our family, you know our children performed in many, many musicals and plays.  We are a musical family.  I costumed innumerable musicals and one of my favorites is Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat taken from the Biblical story of Joseph and his brothers in the book of Genesis.  The song Joseph's Coat ran through my head as we headed down Franklin Road where there are such beautiful hills and trees.  Here is the last verse of the song sung by Joseph about his beautiful coat given to him by his father, written by Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice.  If you don't know this song, look it up on YouTube.  It's awesome.

Joseph:

I look handsome, I look smart,
 I am a walking work of art.
Such a dazzling coat of colors,
How I love my coat of many colors.

It was red and yellow and green and brown, and scarlet and black and ochre and peach, and ruby and olive and violet and fawn, and lilac and gold and chocolate and mauve, and cream and crimson and silver and rose, and azure and lemon and russet and grey, and purple and white and pink and orange and blue.............

Just like the hillsides in Tennessee today.  These pictures were taken from the car as we drove.  Sorry for the streaks in the windshield.  Enjoy this tour of fall foliage.

How can this not make your heart happy?  Fill your soul?  Make you appreciate the Universal creativity that gave us such beauty.  Look at that sky!  The vibrant flames of oranges, yellows, and reds in the leaves that are so reminiscent of Joseph's beautiful dazzling coat.  If I could paint, this is what I would paint.  Instead, I will sing.  Who says life is not like a musical?  That no one spontaneously breaks into song for no reason?  With inspiration like this, we should all sing together....

It was red and yellow and green and brown....

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.  L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

New Summer Decorations

Hooray, it's FRIDAY!  Are you looking forward to the weekend?  We sure are.  The weather is absolutely fabulous today.  The temp hovered around  70 and it was so nice not to roast so early in the summer season.  It has been awfully hot awfully early.  We got some much needed rain and our garden is looking fabulous.  The squash are blooming, there are some green tomatoes on the vine and some little peppers on the pepper plants.  It won't be long until we will be enjoying some yummy produce directly from our yard.

All of our spring decorations were changed over right before memorial day.  Remember my spring/Easter decorations on this cabinet?  I had a wreath and a small banner on the wicker arch and a beautiful bunny and a little blue bird on the cabinet top.  You can find it in an earlier post if you don't remember.  Well, spring decorations have been put away, and we moved on to our summer Americana theme to celebrate our patriotic holidays, the upcoming Summer Olympics and presidential election.  Actually, I just really love Americana and these events gave me an excuse to make some new decorations.  It really doesn't take much for me.

This cabinet sits inside our front door and is the first thing you see when entering the house.  It is also visible from the living room and the kitchen, so I always like to have something special on it for each season.  On the top of the wicker arch sitting on the cabinet, I made a paper cone wreath in the colors of our flag.  The plaque beneath was made on one of my $5.00 unfinished cabinet doors I found at the Habitat store.  The USA letters came from JoAnn's which I painted, and I highlighted them from behind with some glittered red #40 ribbon that is gorgeous!

The wreath is made on a piece of cardboard from a shoebox and the cones are two sided scrapbook paper that was on sale 5 pieces for a $1.  Total cost for the wreath was $3.00.  I bought 5 pieces of red, 5 white and 5 blue.  That's my kind of price.  Cone wreaths are all over the blogosphere these days.  Most of them are made from the pages of old books or sheet music and I love the way they look.  Since I wanted patriotic colors, I turned to scrapbook paper.  You could also use construction paper, it's just a littler more matte than the scrapbook paper.

To make the wreath, I measured the area where it would hang and drew a circle on a piece of cardboard with a smaller circle in the middle.  After doing that, I decided I would not cut the middle out like a regular wreath, so I simply marked the center of the circle so I would know where I would place the ends of the cones.

Scrapbook paper is 12x12, so I cut each piece into 4  6x6 squares.  Using a ruler, mark 6 inches to the center vertically and horizontally and cut along the lines.  The next step is to roll your cones and you can make them pointed or round, your preference  I liked pointed.  Place a dot of hot glue on the underside of the point where it is rolled around the middle of the cone and hold until set.

To place the cones on the cardboard backing, I started with navy blue at 9 and 12 o'clock.  Then I placed red and white cones alternately back around to the navy blue and hot glued them to the cardboard.  I would recommend laying out your pattern before you begin gluing the cones down.  Paper will tear if you have to move it after gluing it down.  

Ack, I forgot to rotate the picture when I edited it.  So, just look at it sideways and you will get the drift.
Now, it's time to fill in the circle.  Place more red cones next to red, and more white next to white on the cardboard and then glue them down.  Then, you will make a top row by placing cones between the ones on the bottom row.  Lay them out first, then glue them to the bottom cones.   You just sort of have to play it by ear here.  To finish the wreath, I used a big star cookie cutter I have and traced a star on a white piece of scrapbook paper for the middle.   The star covers where all the cone points come together and it looks sort of unfinished.  I put some Mod Podge on the star and sprinkled it with white glitter and glued it to the center of the wreath when it dried.  Ta da!  Done.

You may figure out another way to do your wreath, but this is what mine looks like completed.  It's inexpensive and quite showy, don't you think?  Not bad for $3.00 plus tax.

The red plaque underneath was simply spray painted and then I stamped a line from "America" that says "from every mountainside let freedom ring."  I wrote down patriotic lines that I could think of before deciding on this one.  Even had to sing a bunch of songs through to come up with lines, but it was kind of fun.  Of course, there are some stars stenciled on it!  You know me and stars.   After looking at it, I decided it needed some blue, so I used navy blue acrylic paint and simply followed one of the raised edges on the panel.

The USA letters were $2.99 each at JoAnn's and were all white.  I painted them barn red, ivory, and navy blue and sat them on the cabinet top after they dried.  That glittery red ribbon just ties everything together and of course, it SPARKLES!  What could be better?

Here's a close-up of the vignette.  I like that wicker arch so much, I couldn't bear to take it down after Easter.  It adds height to the cabinet, but is still open and airy and present many decorative possibilities.

I hope this will give you some ideas for things you can do that won't cost a lot of money, but will add beauty and interest to your home.  Be sure and join me next week, we are going to be talking food which everyone enjoys and must have.  I've got some good recipes and summertime ideas for you.  Have a great weekend.

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

Surround yourself with things you love and they don't always have to cost a lot of money.