Christmas houses

I decorated the little houses on the living room wall for the fifth and last time this year. I made them in January and changed their decoration with the seasons. You can find the other posts about it here: winter, spring, summer and fall. 

This time I used mainly the figures of our nativity scene. The boys are playing normally farm with it and at least Maria and Jesus have been left outside last year. Josef had more luck, he can be a shepherd. To honor them a bit more, they got a place in one of the houses, together with some of the animals. Have a look:

A bientôt,
Jane

Fall houses

Last weekend we had the most beautiful fall weather that called us outside into the garden most of the time. I got a lot of gardening done and the boys had fun playing ... and apparently crafting: Son no.1 came and asked to use my camera for making a picture of his temporary art: A sun! (all his idea!)

I wanted to show you also the deco houses in our living room, that are now decorated for fall! You can find pictures of the previous decorations in this year here, here and here.

The dried leaves are a bit everywhere, but this is how it is in fall. You should see my garden!

I leave tomorrow for 10 days to Germany for spending some time with my family. I wish you two nice weeks of fall - hopefully you can enjoy it! (And hopefully the shitty weather in northern germany changes too)

A bientôt,
Jane

Summer houses

I didn't jet showed you my summerly decorated houses on the living room wall, mainly because I didn't finished it until yesterday :-). Somehow there haven't been any inspirations. You can have a look at the former decorations here and here. 

House one is hosting lavender and a snail. For putting the lavender twigs upright I drilled small holes in a piece of leftover wood. It is tending to tip over, but I fixed it with a piece of patafix.

 The second house didn't changed at all, I just dusted it.

House number three has a maritime touch. In a box with treasures from my childhood I found this wooden boat and added a post-card with a fish and waves (hardly visible).

You have already seen the flower zen-tangle I made last month. It has it's place now in the fourth house and three other snails for company. They are not allowed to eat those flowers! It is still looking a little empty, isn't it?

In the last house is a happy worm and his offspring living, who would love to eat the flowers and grass I put in using the same method as for the lavender.

In fact I it has been so easy and I liked the effect of the wooden-pieces spiked with green, that I quickly made a table decoration out of a branch of floating wood. Some little holes, some herbs (my oregano is flowering and it looks still nice, when it is dry), weeds and seed capsules (poppy and montbretia) and I have a new decoration for my dining table. As the branch isn't straight it is perfectly stable. 

A bientôt,
Jane (qui est bien occupee de perfectionner sa boutique)

Spring houses

I redecorated my living room houses. I am not completely satisfied, but I will leave soon for two weeks and then Easter is coming, so the style might be okay for Easter season. Have a look:

I already have those felt chicken for a long time. The post-card has been made in water color by a former college of mine. It has been me who painted the egg, also at least 10 years ago.

The next house didn't change a lot since winter decoration. I only glued green paper leaves to the twig and added a little garland with fabric pennons. 

When trying making nests out of twigs (see here), I made also some little crowns that didn't turn into nests. One of them is now inhabited by the last felt chicken and the left overs of a broken, hand painted by me :-(, eggshell. I let it drop while handling with the decoration of that house.

The next house has a nest on the roof, where is a fabric bird in, that I made a few years ago following this tutorial. Inside the house is for now just a little flower vase and an allover painted egg-shaped stone.

And in the last house there are some origami-tulips I made with my kids, together with the second half of the fabric garland from house two and an other little twig crown.

I just see that the photos are not the best quality, but we had very little sunshine the last three days and flash-light photos are not nice either.

And now I got finally a delivery of jersey fabrics and need to make some more pyjama pants ...

A bientôt,
Jane

Housing

Since we live in our house (soon 5 years) I had problems decorating the living room wall. There is a big blank wall with only the TV-furniture in front. Initially I thought we need something big to hang on the wall, as it is a wide room and includes also the dining table. When coming in the room you are always looking at that wall first. Of course I had plenty patchwork ideas, but as we have already the big colorful other patch hanging on the other side of the room, I don't want to overload the room with fabric.

I wanted a painting, but never found one in the dimensions I had in mind. I tried myself to paint something abstract, but it didn't turn out.

We changed the wall color from white to cappuccino that helped a little.

There has been always something hanging at the wall, but never something we really liked or thought this could stay. Lately there was nothing except some little wooden stars.

I thought about a long shelf all over the length of the room to just put decoration and framed pictures on it or bottles with flowers, changing it regularly - depending on the mood. My darling didn't like the idea and didn't want to install a shelf.

Then 10 Days ago I had an other idea and I have been able to try it out without a mans help. So I went directly to our basement, found an old board and some bars (left from an old lath floor) and started cutting, sanding, gluing and painting ...

5 little white houses. I made first 3 of them and then again 2 - that's why it took me 10 days. They are 22 cm wide and between 25 cm and 30 cm high. The frame is about 4 cm profound, so you can put something on it.

This is how I decorated it today, but it can be changed whenever I have a new idea or need other seasonal deco.

The first one has one of the snowmen's inside that I already showed here.

For the second one I took a twig from outside and put two clay birds for company. The birds are whistles that my boys got for Christmas, but the tone is so high that our cat is always hiding when they blow it. So now it is forbidden to use them in the house. It will last longer as deco anyway :-)

The third one in the row is actually the last one I decorated and I had not many ideas left, so for the beginning it is just a little drawing I made in 10 minutes this afternoon. It will probably change soon.

The forth one houses a stack of wood. I cut the trunk of our Christmas tree in slices and oiled them with olive oil to get out the texture. As the wood has been still very wet when I cut it, I am not sure how it will behalf when drying inside. It will probably crack. I cut a cat out of thick black paper.

In the last house is a drawing I made last year.

For the moment I am very satisfied with this wall! I am looking forward of changing the decoration throughout the year. I will tell about it ....

A bientôt,
Jane