The Red Wren

I embarked on two projects this weekend, but they ended up being one!

Project 1.

A 1mx1.5m canvas painted in a bright ’sprig green’ to add some colour to our back room which has cream walls and dark furniture.

Project 2.

Pictures from a free Notebook Magazine calendar glued onto 50cmx70cm canvases.

Project Combine:

I wasn’t happy with the canvas on it’s own once we hung it. It looked a bit too out of place. The flower canvases looked ok for what they were but I wasn’t sure where to actually hang them. Then the lightbulb moment came! Perhaps I could attach the flower canvases to the green canvas in a way that if it looks bad I can still unattach them…. a few lengths of ribbon, my trusty staple gun and some more paint and we have:

A little wonky, but I’m so happy with it! The wall looks much less drab and the whole project was under $50. Yay!

My cat Cinders gets a little apprehensive when things aren’t where she’d expect them, like the plum that appeared in our deck the other day.

After running outside, coming to a screeching halt in front of it and sniffing it, the following scene played out:

Oooh! New toy for me!! Hmm, but it’s a bit squishy and doesn’t roll….

..better stand guard incase someone tries to steal it!

30 minutes later…. Look mum! I have a new plum friend.

It was quite strange watching her!

What’s even stranger is that there’s now two plums on the deck. No idea where they’re coming from!

PS- excuse the quality, they’re taken through a window so as not to scare her away.

I started to pan-ic…

Today I saw a post from Liesl from Hoppo Bumpo that among other things said “Christmas decorations should be … (c) taken down by Twelfth Night (5 January) to avoid bad luck” . I immediately thought ‘No – it’s the sixth of January to avoid bad luck isn’t it? Isn’t it? (with rising hysteria).

A quick Google yielded even more alarming results;

“Twelfth Night (5th January) is when all Christmas Decorations should be removed so as not to bring bad luck upon the home. If decorations are not removed on Twelfth Night, they should stay up all year.*

All year? All year? Now don’t get me wrong, I am mad about Christmas decorations and as you will have seen from previous posts go a bit loopy with decorating but I certainly don’t want them up all year round. So tonight they had to be taken down. It took over three hours, but we are now Christmas free (except a sweet little toadstool that isn’t really Christmassy..)

Next up, I opened up the latest copy of Better Homes and Gardens which arrived today. It proved to be a good omen that I will not be having bad luck this year; look!

It’s all things I want to read about right now! BBQ recipes – well we just get a new BBQ. Storage ideas! We’re about to build shelves! Cross Stitch!! Refer to previous posts! Get fit, slim and fab! Yes please! And there’s more -  Lose the lawn (hubby hates the lawn), make jewellery, decorate with colour… I swear this month was written for me!!

So bring on more of 2010 as it’s looking pretty good already**. I’ll leave you with a photo of my new salt lamp with my mini Empire State Building in front.

*Source – British Life and Culture

** I will share with you that my Great Uncle Ray passed away on Boxing Day. I attended his funeral yesterday so while 2010 looks promising, losing Ray was sad. However he lived to the wonderful age of 92 and up until the last couple of years was still gardening, re-stumping the house and climbing ladders.

Turquoise! Hooray! One of my favourite colours – just look at today’s washing: