Welcome! From the moment you step foot on the brick pathway to my front door, I want you to feel welcome. For me, hospitality starts outside my front door. When you come to the door, my goal is for you to already be sensing that you are important and valued. In addition to laying down the welcome mat a great way to make our homes look and feel inviting is to add a seasonal wreath to the front door. Beautify the Front Door for Easter with a Burlap & Pastel Grapevine Wreath As you might guess, I have a few seasonal wreaths that I change out … [Read more...]
Welcome to.... Decorative Paper {Pennant, Garland, Flag, Bunting} Banner-Making 101* By the time you complete this easy DIY tutorial, you should have a lovely pennant banner to grace your wall or mantel. Are you ready? Let's start! For way too long I have been admiring the lovely pennant banners that grace walls, mantels, porches, windows, and more. I wanted a lovely flag garland to drape somewhere in my home, but I needed a pattern, a how-to. One day the desire overcame the need for a how-to and I created my own lovely pennant flag banner. Keep in mind that beauty is in the eye … [Read more...]
Remember how I said I was embracing Winter? Not anymore! Today I flung open the doors and welcomed Spring with open arms. Well not literally...it's only 27 degrees! Instead, I exercised my decorating creativity and paper crafting skills to make a fun pennant banner embellished with colorful birds and music pages from vintage hymnals. My vintage window has now undergone its third transformation since I received it as a gift on Thanksgiving. Take a peek at it as a Christmas Window and later as a Valentine Window. Who knew that an old window would make such a fabulous … [Read more...]
Lovely. Floating. Flakes. Gathering. Whiteness. Snowfall. The other evening we had an unexpected snow at dinner time. Look closely and you can see the large falling snowflakes. It was a magical few hours. Truly extraordinary!! Supper was ready and I sat down to eat. However I could not contain myself. It was getting late and the light was getting low. So, I excused myself from the table, grabbed my camera, and attempted to capture the moment. The windows which had been locked against the winter winds were cranked open to capture this photo and many more. Such a … [Read more...]
The other day I wanted to do something fun for St. Valentine's Day. And I wanted to do it quick. Let me present to you this sweet... Framed 3-D Valentine Heart & Tutorial This is a quick and easy bit of Valentine home decor to make.... using a photo frame, a piece of fabric, magazine pages, scissors, and glue. This day of love will be here before you know it! Here is a great way to use things you already have on hand to create a sweet, heart-moment for that perfect spot that needs just a little bit of loving. But before we take off on our little … [Read more...]
I finally settled on my word for the year... Joy. If you read my previous Joy Day! post you already know that. And so I thought it would be fun to show you how I put together this little Wintry Wall Vignette over my sideboard and share a little more of the behind the scenes meaning. Plus, a brief tutorial! Ready?! The JOY Basket. Last year during the Christmas season I created this basket of joy. This year I didn't have a place for it. After all the gold and glitz of Christmas got put away, I came across the joy basket again and propped it up on … [Read more...]
Winter came roaring back this week. Cold temps. High winds. And plenty of those frozen crystals that fall from the sky. Though we would like to be seeing daffodils and tulips....it's still a bit early. With that in mind, I spent this week embracing winter. Inside. This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase a product through an affiliate link An Extraordinary Day will receive a small commission which will help with the costs of this site. Thank you! St. Valentine's Day will be here soon. But, as much as I enjoy hearts I want Winter to be the lead with St. Valentine … [Read more...]
Moments. That's what my friend calls little vignettes. Don't you just love that term? How to Create a Simple and Easy Valentine's Day Vignette As I was organizing my studio, you know, the one I talk about showing you but never do? I uncovered a little frame I picked up at the thrift store last year, and I remembered Jennifer's post I had read that morning and pinned, and just like that...I was inspired. So instead of defaulting to "too busy," I sat down at my table and had some Valentine fun creating a little 'moment.' If you follow An Extraordinary Day on Facebook, you'll … [Read more...]
Originally I had planned to give the house a warm and wintry feeling after taking down all the Christmas decorations. But, when you get smacked in the face with your husband's unexpected unemployment, everything changes. Decorating doesn't seem important any more. Packing for a new destination is first and forefront. Yet, somewhere along the way the sparse sun room, with the bare-branched faux evergreen, beckoned me to do something. Something that did not involve a bunch of time and certainly no pennies either. You may remember the sun room from my Very Merry Christmas House … [Read more...]
This year I've had fun making my New Year's table sparkle with gold and silver and candlelight. You might remember my Thanksgiving table. The gold trim on the plates were the hint I needed to splash gold accents all over my table. Then for an early Christmas party I decided to splurge and purchased some silver chargers for just 99 cents. That table setting was a twist on elements of the Thanksgiving table but in silver. In preparing my New Year's table setting, I thought it would be fun to meld the gold and silver together for a perfectly imperfect New … [Read more...]
Happy New Year! Okay...maybe I'm a wee bit early. But only 25 hours early! Remember my Joy Wreath hanging over the sideboard? I thought it would be fun to quickly and easily transform it into a New Year's Wreath. After removing the vintage balls and Joy and other nativity words, I added in some semi-blingy woodland picks I had in my stash. I borrowed a Silhouette machine which I have yet to master and cut out the Happy - New - Year - 2013 in some gold cardstock I also had in my stash. BUT, you can easily create these by using stencils and tracing them on cardstock … [Read more...]
Looking for a simple, low-cost, out-of-the-ordinary way to add pizzazz to your Christmas decor? And maybe at the last minute too? Try your hand today at making Folded Paperback Book Christmas Trees. It's super easy! My husband says if you can make a paper airplane, you can make these. In his words, "It's like folding the left wing 200 times!" He even folded the three trees gracing the top of my vintage china cabinet here. This post contains affiliate links. To make it even easier for you, I created the.... Folded Paperback Book Tree Tutorial First...check out the … [Read more...]
Christmas stockings. I've been seeing them everywhere. Maybe you have too? People of all ages are hoping Santa Claus stops by with a few treats. Although my husband and I still have our childhood Christmas stockings, I thought it would be fun to try my hand at repurposing a cable knit sweater from the thrift store... into....yes...a pair of Christmas stockings! Karin was my inspiration. She says her collection is approaching 150 and it seems that she may have made most of them. Yes, I'm impressed. And so it seems that I should be able to make at least one, … [Read more...]
Paperwhites! What can be prettier in the dead of winter than live plants sending up beautiful white flowers? Today I'm sharing with you A Visual Tutorial for growing paperwhites for the holidays. Are those just not the prettiest flowers ever? You can pretty up your home with paperwhites too! Here's what to do.... Paperwhites : Easy DIY Holiday Project 1. Gather the following supplies: Waterproof container (I used … [Read more...]
Welcome! And Merry Christmas!! I'm so pleased that you dropped by for my Christmas house tour. Can you smell the spiced cider simmering? Here, let me take your coat. Please, help yourself to some cider and sweets. Now let's get started. One thing that I always love when I take tours is getting the behind the scenes details. And yes, I have a bit of that for you too. Don't you love those pretty French provincial "screens" I found on the side of the road that grace the front windows so beautifully? Read: Roadside Find: Vintage French … [Read more...]
Many people began the new year with a resolution and a word for the year. Choosing a word seemed like a good thing and so I selected 'intentional' as my word. What's been interesting, is that as the year wore on, another word came to the forefront of my thinking. If you're a regular reader, I'm guessing that you will guess what that word is. Yes, it's 'joy.' As I began decorating my home for Christmas I started adding the word 'joy' to my wreaths and packages. For some time I've been smitten with banners and decided to make one for Christmas. Rejoice seemed to be the perfect word for my banner … [Read more...]
Now....it's beginning to look like Christmas at my house! For those of you who have been following my slow slide into the season of Christmas, you'll be pleased to finally see something here! I am over-the-top happy to have the mantel done. Oh, that's right, I don't have a mantel. I do have a sideboard thanks to my wonderful friend. And I recently splashed it up with that ever-popular Annie Sloan Chalk Paint which I recently talked about. Do you ever notice that when someone says it's confession time, heads turn from tables clear at … [Read more...]
