What colors elicit the feeling of Spring for you? Yellow is one of my favorite colors, so when the Daffodils begin blooming, it's like I see happiness popping up all over my world. Several years ago as I was going through my parents' cupboards....you know the way-up-high kitchen storage that once an item goes up there, no one ever sees again? That's where I found this yellow Crocus planter. As I was trying to decide what to put together without spending a dime, I remembered that bright yellow pot I had taken home with me. It was the starting place for this yellow, blue, and … [Read more...]
Spring... You've been teasing us with warm days and buds bursting from the soil with new life. And then you turn around and shower us with sleet, and snow for days on end, and through clouds of steel give us only glimpses of sunshine. Some days I think you are positively mean. And then I realize...it is not Spring...it is still winter...for a few more days. Winter officially departs and lovely dear Spring rides in March 20, at precisely 7:02 AM EDT. It fascinates me that on this first day of Spring...day and night are each approximately 12 hours long. Did you know that the … [Read more...]
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...]
Do you have a mantel? Though I snapped my fingers, for some reason, a lovely fireplace and mantel fail to appear in my great room. So what's a gal supposed to do? Improvise. You might remember last fall I wanted to decorate a mantel for...um... Fall! What did I do? Decorated my sideboard. It worked. Now that Spring is on the horizon, and no fireplace or mantel is gracing my home, I picked the top of the piano to be my imitation mantel. I think it works. I know that most people choose to decorate for Spring with daffodil yellow, springy green, and just … [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...]
Cloches. I love the look of a cloche in a vignette. You too? But, cloches can be expensive. What do you do if you love the look but don't have one in your stash? Choose any tapered cylindrical container... invert it over your object and voila! you have a cloche! Isn't that easy? How many glass containers can your repurpose for a cloche? This vignette on my sideboard may look a wee bit familiar to you. That's because I recently shared about it here. Marty from a Stroll Through Life also enjoys cloches in her decorating. So much so, that she decided to turn her regular … [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...]
One of my dearest friends and her husband came to visit for the Thanksgiving weekend. We had a wonderful time together. She came bearing a most unusual hostess gift. A window from one of her previous homes. It was a window to a sun porch where we spent lots of time together, drinking tea - me and coffee -her, planning, and creating. An old window is so much fun to play with....but this one is special because of the memories associated with it. I couldn't wait to decorate with my new window! My husband helped me hang it up for the Christmas season. He screwed into the back of the … [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...]
~~ An Extraordinary Day now has its own Facebook page! ~~ ~~ Please take a second now to click the icon on the right and “Like” our page! ~~ Did I ever tell you that I used to weave baskets? What a great art to learn. I pretty much gave away every basket I crafted for gifts, I might have three or four left. During that time I was introduced to Longaberger....a basket woven of hardwood maple, unlike mine that were made of reed. I was smitten. My creations were beautiful, but they were not capable of the abuse, nor of holding all the weight a Longaberger basket can hold. This … [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...]
