frames

all American

| circadee

Hello!  Hello!  For all of my American readers, did you vote yet today?  Don’t forget, mmm kay?  It is your right!  Here at casa di Circa Dee we always vote Beagle.

How could we not?  Everyone knows Wilson is the boss around here.

I found that great beagle political poster at cafepress.  They have a few other breeds as well but you’ll probably just want to obey the beagle.

No, this isn’t a sponsored post by beagles around the nation.  Or cafepress.  I am getting to the project here…

The posters come in different sizes but none are your standard frame size.  Ours was 11×16.  As you probably know, having a custom frame made costs oodles of dollars.  So Ryan made one for us.

Out of…ready for it…chestnut wood!

Why am I so excited about a chestnut frame?  Oh because the horticultural nerd in me is about to come out.  Have you ever heard of the American chestnut blight?

Back in the day, a.k.a. like 100 years ago, nearly all chestnut trees in North America were wiped out.  They’re practically extinct now because of a fungus that was introduced to the trees.  If you’re so inclined, you can read more about the chestnut blight here.

So if you come across anything truly made of chestnut you can A.) pretty much guarantee that it is an antique and B.) buy it because it is a little piece of American history.  We had the opportunity to buy a few chestnut hardwood floor boards recently.  Honestly, they sat in the garage for a few months.  Until Ryan put together this custom frame for our beagle propaganda.  I ordered a piece of glass and we added some hardware and foam core board to the back.

Of course I love the wear and tear the hardwoods show from a previous life of being walked all over.

Our new to us frame coordinates nicely with an antique chestnut chest we just got to use as a media console.  I will share that in a future post as this room is not quite finished yet.

As for custom frames, I love them!  The look and feel of reclaimed hardwoods, painted floorboards and molding being given a new life as a frame is just so cool.

We have a few open frames on our mantel right now.

We just completed a set of 3 layered frames for our friend’s wedding photos.  They came out really cool too.  Also, another photo I will have to share at a future date.

And you may remember our original floorboard frame.  Still my fave.

However, we are moving away from creating our own reclaimed wood frames due to time constraints.  But we’ve found a great US-based company who does just that!  We’ve started stocking them in our shop.  Part of growing a business, I’ve quickly learned, is figuring out what to outsource and what to keep in-house.

They make unique gifts!  And we can still have custom colors and sizes made.  In fact, they have a stellar selection of colors!  I’m so happy to have found this artisan.  I’m pretty sure Ryan is too since frame making sort of fell under him.

In honor of election day, I kept this post all American for you – voting, American history and outsourcing in America. Now go vote!

pinning & framing spring

| circadee

A couple of weeks ago when signs of spring started to emerge here in PA, I was itching for a new wreath for my front door.  I spied a pretty one out shopping but it was $40 which didn’t seem like a necessary purchase at the time.  I knew I had plenty of materials to make a new wreath at home so I vowed to not spend any money on a spring wreath and only use materials around my house.  But I was tired of the tried and true round wreaths I have on hand.  (I have a ton.)  I took to pinterest for some pinspiration.  I typed in “spring wreath” and the results were gorgeous and overwhelming.  I finally decided on fabric flowers and a square wreath which was inspired by this pin.

Here is what I came up with in under an hour…

It was so simple to make once I had the vision. First, I shopped the garage and found an old nondescript frame which lost its glass long ago.  A light coat of hot pink spray paint brightened it up but allowed the grain to still show through.

Next, I perused the yard for some twigs which I spray painted white. Then I cruised fabric scraps where I found some springy colors.

Wilson also assisted in creating the door decor.  Because the frame was kind of thin, I took some leftover foam core board and cut a triangle to add in the lower corner with glue.

For the flowers, I cut various strips of fabric anywhere from about 10-18 inches long and just a couple of inches wide.  The larger the piece of fabric, the larger the flower.  Obv.  Then I twisted and turned and fluffed the fabric as pictured below until I got something sort of resembling a blooming rose.  I added a dab of hot glue to the end which I pulled through like a loose knot.

Then I hot glued the twigs and flowers in a delightful pattern onto the frame and foam core board.

Wilson conducted a quality check.

And he approved of the final product. 

Up on the door the spring wreath went.

Replacing the old feather wreath which is so un-springy. It looked like a flock of pigeons were laid to rest at my front door. Which may be an ok look for winter (if dead pigeons is ever an ok look) but not for spring!

Out with death and in with new life!  Bright and cheery for $0 and less than an hour from concept to finish.

Have you found any pinspiration for your spring decor?

Linking to:  Thrifty Decor Chick, Southern Hospitality, It’s a Cinch

farm fresh

| circadee

Hi friends!  We are officially a day into spring. Yay!  Did you get your free Rita’s Water Ice yesterday?  Is that just a regional thing here in PA?  Mmm, I love Rita’s but the lines were so long so I skipped the free water ice.  Free is nice but time is money, now isn’t it?  Anyway, a day into spring and I am already getting so behind on posting my spring projects.  Life is just flying by so stay tuned as I try to get the projects up starting with our farm fresh Easter Mantel…

I went hard on the Easter theme over a general spring theme.  You can see there are eggs everywhere.  I couldn’t resist lining the mantel in all of my vintage egg baskets and flea market coop finds.

I don’t know if I will ever get sick of chicken coop wire.  I love it.  Oh and this little basekt sent me on a wild goose chase.  (Duh, that wasn’t an attempt at a lame poultry pun.)  Seriously, I bought it last fall and tucked it away for Easter decor.  I about threw in the towel on finding it.  Then I did some garage purging last weekend and it surfaced amongst the other farmy decor.  Obvi.

This is another adorable small egg basket.  I switched it up with moss balls instead of more eggs.

I also had a wiry canning jar holder that supports our jar turned vase full of felt roses.  Do you like how it is all framed out in my favorite aqua color?  So springy!  The aqua frame is made from old door molding found in that color and condition at the salvage.

In the center of the mantel is a pink chicken coop baby carriage.  Have you ever seen such a thing?  I put a ceramic baby chick in there.  Maybe a little bit creepy but whatever we are celebrating new life in all forms here!  Not all babies are cute.  Sorry chickadee.

All of the “grass” in the baskets are phonebook pages that we shredded.  Which I’ve learned also makes great shipping material.  And the vintage handpainted daisy tray has been floating along the mantel adding another pop of light aqua. I found it last year for 5 bucks and just love it.

With all of the pastels in place, the arrangement needed a dark color to ground it so I used faux moss flowers.

The box is an original vintage egg box, never used, and I have more than one so if you love it as much as I do, you can go snag it from my etsy shop in time for Easter.  Here is what the graphics on top look like. 

Another change this season is the brick fireplace. I finally painted it and am so glad I did. I don’t know what I was waiting for. We had acquired the painted red bricks when we moved in last year and I never liked it but wasn’t sure what I wanted.

I finally decided on painting the bricks with one coat of ASCP cream allowing the brick color to show through.  So glad I did and hard to believe I waited so long because the simple change really brightens up the space and feels more like us.  And yes that is another egg basket down there – larger size.  How many egg baskets are too many?

Happy Spring!  How have you been decorating for the season? 

Linking up to The Lettered Cottage