Grandma's Decadent Date Bar Cookie Recipe

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Only 9 days until Christmas, and at our house, that means the baking frenzy has begun.  Every year I spend a couple of days baking cookies and making candies with my grandkids - this is one of our fondest traditions.  When they were young they would help as they could with the stirring, the cutting out of cookies and putting the sprinkles and colored sugars on the cookies. I remember how much fun they would have decorating those cookies and making them "perfect".   We even tried the gingerbread house making a few times - with our share of house disasters, lol.    Now, that they are young adults, they do most of the baking and I do the sprinkling of colored sugars while enjoying the time spent with them.  We drink lots of coffee and hot chocolate and laugh and talk and reminisce about past cookie baking days.  It is a day we all look forward to.
  

How to Create the Perfect Rustic Wood Sign

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What a difference a couple of days can make - Monday we were having beautiful warm, sunny, 70* weather and today it's raining and absolutely freezing - the temp was 32* this morning.  No wonder our family has the sniffles.  And, I saw snow is falling in some of our most southern states - so crazy. But, at least it looks and feels like Christmas now.
Also, on Monday I shared our Rustic Christmas Mantel with you and promised I would give you the tutorial on how to create the rustic wood BELIEVE sign that is sitting on it.  This is a fairly easy project that can be done in one afternoon as long as you plan ahead for the drying of paint.

How to Create a Rustic Farmhouse Christmas Mantel Easily

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I like to change up our Christmas decor a bit each year by moving things around and making new vignettes.  But, this year I really wanted to change it up a lot and decided to go in a whole new direction in our family room.  I have used the same decor for several years and was really wanting a new look.  So, before Thanksgiving, I started looking around and getting some ideas.  I fell in love with red and black buffalo plaid fabric and if you've been following me you've seen a couple of projects I've made using it already.  So, I built my family room Christmas decor around that fabric and today I am going to share my Rustic farmhouse Christmas mantel with you.

DIY Farmhouse Christmas Wreath

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Christmas is in full swing here at Vintage, Paint and more as I am sure it is at your home also.  There are boxes of Christmas ornaments and decor scattered about, half finished areas done, in progress crafts and lots of fun with family putting it all together.  So, finding something finished to bring to you this morning was a bit of a challenge.  However, I think you will absolutely love this project as much as I do.  A DIY Farmhouse Christmas Wreath made with a buffalo plaid deer head and a yarn wreath - rustic farmhouse to the max.

Easy Christmas Rag Wreath

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I have lived most of my adult life in the South and still it is so hard for me to get into the Christmas spirit when it's still so warm we have the windows open.  However, Christmas will soon be here and for those of us who love to craft our Christmas decor -  we need to get started.   I have been picking up a few things here and there to work with and am getting excited about putting it all together to share with you.  This year I am changing my decor up a bit and I think I'm going to love it.  I have fallen in love with all things red and black buffalo plaid and have lots of projects for you.  Today I'm going to show you a little hint of what I'm going to be doing - I have my first Christmas craft of the season for you.

                                    Easy Christmas Rag Wreath

7 Wonderfully Cozy Crocheted Afghans

Happy Monday everyone, how was your weekend?  We are finally getting some nice Fall temps here in the South and was able to spend our days outside enjoying them.  The evenings are starting to cool down a bit - enough for a light jacket or a nice throw.
I love sitting out on our patio in the early morning at this time of year. Enjoying a great cup of coffee and a nice warm blanket to get ready for the upcoming days' routines.  This is my time to relax, meditate and revel in Mother Nature's beauty.  With cooler mornings come the cooler evenings when I curl up on the couch with my favorite afghan or throw to watch an old movie or read a great book.  

I have made several of these cozy afghans and thought I would share them with you this morning so you too, can make your own if you so choose.  Each one can be done in the color scheme of your choice and run from easy to moderately difficult on my scale of difficulty.  Just click on the link below the picture and it will take you to the pattern instructions to make it. 

Easy Lacy Vintage Pumpkins

Can you believe it's the middle of October already?  It seems like time is flying by so fast.  Soon it will be time to start decorating for the holidays. While many of you are enjoying fun Fall activities such as hayrides, pumpkin farms and corn mazes we are still having summer temps and Miss A and her friends spent yesterday at the pool.  But, the weatherman promises we will have some fall temps in the next couple of days.  I can hardly wait.  Well, so much for the weather let's get on with today's project.  

Aren't these little guys the cutest?  My sister owns a fabric store and every once in a while she sends me some sort of cool item along with a challenge to see if I can come up with an idea using whatever she has sent.  So this time it's buttonhole trim.  I'm sure you've seen it - on the backs of wedding gowns and prom dresses.  It's the loops that are used to button all those tiny little satin covered buttons on those beautiful long backs. I've used it before - you can see those projects here and here.  So for fall, I decided to wrap this trim around a little dollar store pumpkin.  I think they turned out really cute and it takes such a short time to make one that you can have a whole patch made in an afternoon. 

Simple Fall Decor in the Kitchen

I love decorating for the seasons and Fall is my absolute favorite.  But, what I do not like is taking down each season's decor and changing it out. Way too much work for this gal. So, I have decided it's time to keep it simple.  No more changing out all the tchotchkes and baubles to herald the new season in.  I have a basic main decor for each room and just simply add a few things to it to make the season known - for fall it's simply lots of pumpkins and faux foliage.  These can be easily added to your decor in an afternoon without too much fuss.  Let me show you how I made just a few small changes to my kitchen shelves to make them fall ready.

One Amazing Dress

Today I want to share something really fun with you.  A few mornings ago as I was nursing my morning cup of coffee trying to clear my usual morning brain fog perusing Facebook when I scrolled upon a picture that gave me one of those mouth-dropping, eye-popping, "Oh My Word" moments.  I have to say I was totally amazed.  This is the picture I saw.....

Easy Twine Wrapped Acorns

A couple of weeks ago I got the idea that I needed to clean my closet out a bit - a job I was not too interested in (not fun) nor enthusiastic about.  As I was rummaging through some of the drawers I came upon a partial bag of paper mache eggs left over from a project I had done a couple of years ago.  I set them aside and kept digging and found a few other supplies that gave me an idea to make with them. So I got busy and before long - I had some twine wrapped acorns for my Fall baskets.

Fall Mantel with Wood FALL Sign

 Although we have escaped the worst of Hurricane Irma - I have to say it has been a roller coaster ride this week.  Our evacuation orders were rescinded, however, we still received some winds, rain, storm surge and tornado threats - much better than what they were predicting at the beginning of last week.  We lived in central Florida for 20 years and have many friends and family still there - my heart goes out to them - let's remember them in our thoughts and prayers as we go about our day. Let's also pray Hurricane Jose stays out to sea - it's way too soon to go through this again.
Besides the weather threats here we are also having some much awaited cool temps and fall-like days.  I have been anxiously awaiting these.  With these cooler days, it feels more like Fall so I thought I would share my Fall Mantel decor with you all today.

Little Fabric Pumpkins Tutorial

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Hope you all had a wonderful Labor Day weekend. We were busy putting in a patio in our back yard while also keeping a close eye on the weather channel - Hurricane Irma is out there and it's still uncertain what path she is taking.  The next few days we will be preparing for the worst but, for today I am going to share a cute little fabric pumpkin I've been making.

Using Scarves in Your Decor

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Last year I fell in love with and bought several of the trendy blanket scarves that were out.  So this year when I was going through some things and came across them again I had a "duh moment".  Why not use these to decorate with. They're large, colorful, have lots of texture and give a feeling of coziness.  And so, I began to try them in different ways and this how I decided to use them in my fall decor.

           Using Scarves in Your Decor

Twisted Paper Pumpkins

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Yesterday was the first day of school for Miss A and with that, we officially close the door to summer and start ushering in fall at our house.  This means back to a normal routine instead of the hub bub and craziness of summer days and bringing out all the fall decor.  I love this part - putting all the vibrant colors and textures in our home to make it a cozy little retreat for those cool days that are coming.
I have been working on several fall projects the past few weeks and will be sharing them with you soon but, today I thought I would reshare a cute little pumpkin that I made a few years back.  It's a quick and easy project you might enjoy making and will get you in the mood for fall.


          DIY  Twisted Paper Pumpkins

Cotton Wreath Made from a Cotton Garland

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This summer I spent most of my time getting projects done for my grand daughter's upcoming wedding.  Then it had to be postponed.  Her fiance' is in the Marines and is being deployed. Since she has her heart set on a fall barn wedding she decided to wait till next fall.    So, I began putting all the things away - done projects, parts of projects and supplies to make more projects when I came across a piece of cotton garland I had leftover from one of the projects we did. 

                               COTTON WREATH MADE FROM A COTTON GARLAND

Colors of Fall

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This morning as I was sitting on the back porch enjoying my morning coffee and listening to the cicadas sing I realized that Fall is just around the corner.  I know, I know it's only mid-August and the temp and humidity are still hotter than a firecracker but the evenings are becoming very enjoyable with cool sea breezes. But, the sun is setting much earlier and in 10 days Miss A starts back to school.  So with those thoughts, I started thinking about how I was going to decorate for Fall this year thinking about the

                COLORS OF FALL

DIY Kitchen Shelf Unit

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 When we moved into this house the previous owners left us with a beat up old unfinished shelf unit in the garage that had seen better days.  However, it was still quite sturdy and I felt very functional even though Mr. VPM and T felt like it had seen its best days and needed to be sent to the dump.  So, I set out to prove them wrong and turn it into a pretty little Kitchen Shelf Unit.  I love when I can recycle something that is headed for the dump and make it into something useful and beautiful.

Upholstering a Wood Chair Seat

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Recently I shared the makeover of my dining room with you.  The biggest part of that makeover was the upcycling of our table and chairs instead of getting new ones.  This saved us a lot of money being able to update this set and still use it, as it is in great shape and has good bones.  So I was glad I could make it work in this room.  Today I am going to show you how I upholstered the chair seats to bring this set together and make it look as though it had been sold this way. 

Delicious Fruit Infused Water

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Here it is the last few days of July - some of the hottest days of the year here - as in most areas of the country.  With the hot temps and high humidity, I find I nearly melt down into my shoes when I go outside.  Working on any projects that require me to be outside is totally out of the question.  I also find that these days tend to make me feel quite lazy and laid back so basically doing any projects just isn't in the stars right now.  So, today instead of a project I thought I would share a nice refreshing cool treat that has become my go to for these hot summer days - Delicious Fruit Infused Water.

Vintage Dining Room Makeover Done on a Budget

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Last year I took a long hiatus due to some health issues that I needed to tend to.  While I was recuperating I was able to work on a few projects around our house that I hadn't had the energy to tackle before.  I was able to take my time and some of the projects actually took several months to complete.  Today I want to share our dining room makeover with you - taking it from beachy to vintage on a budget. This actually took me about 5 months to complete. But I think it was so worth it.  I am totally in love with the new room. Let's see what you think.

DIY Vintage Kitchen Sign

Summer is here and with that comes the beautiful sunny days, blue skies and warm ocean breezes you find at the beach but it also brings the hot temps which I am not so fond of.  When the heat indices start climbing toward 110 I hibernate inside with the air conditioning, a nice glass of ice tea and a fun project.  Today is one of those days so grab your glass of sweet tea and come join me as I share how I made this cute DIY vintage kitchen sign with you. 

Starting All Over

It has been some time - 18 months- since I last blogged and you may have forgotten you signed up for emails from Vintage, Paint and more... I hope you enjoyed the newsletter when you were receiving it and will continue to enjoy all the great things I have planned to share with you in the future.  





What a beautiful summer day we're having here at the beach.  I love these days  - beautiful blue skies and warm ocean breezes make for just lazing around - reading or finally getting back to writing. It's been a while since I last posted. 

                       

Spring Market Basket Remake

Hi everyone.... can you believe it's been almost a year since I last posted.  I've been meaning to write something for a while now but it just didn't get it done. During  my hiatus I worked on lots of great projects to share with you and will be doing so in the next few weeks.  But today I would like to share an easy spring project that can be done in an afternoon. 

I made a pretty little spring basket for our dining room table out of a plain old market basket my DIL brought home with fruit in it this past Christmas.   

I found it sitting around in the garage taking up space this past month and decided to put it to good use. 

So I painted it.  I used Valspar's Gravity Gray to base paint it - inside and out using a craft brush.  Then when it was dry I simply used a dry brush of white craft paint and brushed lightly over the entire outside of the basket to make it look aged and vintage.

Here you can see how the white is just lightly brushed over the gray - the effect is wonderful.

Then I filled it with "faux" blue hydrangeas, white stems and some variegated ivy I found at Michael's at 50% off.  I then tied a black check wired ribbon around the top of the basket.  I love this look - it goes so well with my "new" dining table I will be sharing at a later date. 

I placed it on a vintage doily my Mother crocheted many years ago.  Then placed my vintage ceramic rabbit next to it.  I now have a pretty little Easter/Spring centerpiece.  I'll just take the rabbit away after Easter and leave the basket for a few more weeks.  I love versatile and effortless decorating.

I also love how you can take a plain ole basket and turn it into a lovely one of a kind centerpiece in just an afternoon.  

That's it for me today - what have you been up to?  Would love to hear from you in the comments below.  

I will be sharing this with the link parties listed on my Where I Party page.  

If you liked this post you may also enjoy these:

                      DIY Vintage Pallet Tray

                                                                        Pastel Spring Mantel

                                                             DIY Spring Wreath