Easy No-Sew Burlap Placemats

Court hosted Thanksgiving this year in Pennsylvania and I wanted to bring a little hostess gift for her. I'm loving all things burlap these days, so I decided to make burlap place mats for her! (Sidenote: I also needed something quick, EASY & cheap - this project fit my requirements perfectly!). Our friend recently got married and she made burlap table runners for her tables. The centerpieces for the tables were an assortment of milk glass vases filled with flowers and vintage books stacked on top of each other. LOVE!

Anyway! I used this tutorial from the Nate Berkus show for my inspiration/guide, since I had never worked with burlap before.

What I used:

Burlap

Ruler

Pencil

Rotary Cutter

Stencil

Fabric paint

I cut my burlap pieces to 13 "x 20". (Nate used 12.5" for the height, but I like round numbers!) The rotary cutter worked great on the burlap, although it might have done a number on the blade...I'll probably have to replace that asap. Oh and burlap is messy - lots of little pieces & dust everywhere. I definitely needed to vacuum after this project!

(Those little burlap pieces show up everywhere! See it, to the right of the H?

I missed that when I was taking the pic!)

After all of the place mats were cut, I pulled about 4 to 5 threads with my fingers to fringe each side of the placemat. I kept going until I liked the width of the fringe. It's not supposed to be perfect or exact, but I trimmed the fridge on some of the sides to make it look more even.

I picked out an "H" stencil (for Court's last name) to use in the lower right hand of the place mat. Selfishly, I was excited about this stencil choice, because my last name also starts with H...and I thought that she might let me take home the extra place mats. ;) Court told me she was using fall covered berries for the napkin rings, so I decided on a wine-colored red for the stencil color.

Wouldn't a starfish or a an anchor stencil be precious for some summer place mats?!

And we even had sweet little place cards, courtesy of my niece, Bridget.

I think she's got the creative/crafty bug.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Wine Cork Wreath

I looooove collecting wine corks.  I usually display them in a pretty vase on the bookshelf, much to my husband's dismay.  :)  I put the corks to good use last year and made a Christmas ornament.  This year, I made a wreath!

Supplies needed:
glue gun & glue
wine corks (A LOT!)
styrofoam wreath
ribbon

I'm definitely going to make this wreath again (maybe for a lucky sister or friend!?). Lessons learned:  Next time, I will wrap the wreath with ribbon before gluing the corks, to make the spaces in between the corks less noticeable.  Also, I'm going to buy a thicker ribbon, possibly in a deep red color, to hang the wreath.  FYI, have a knife on hand in case you have to cut a cork or two in order to make them fit!

I am in lurve.....

Here is the final result of a year-long project.  I had an old rug of our grandmother's that was poorly patched so not good enough for the floors.  Instead, with the creative help of our mother, I decided to turn it into an upholstered ottoman.  I had it cleaned, holes re-woven, frame built and upholstered.

What do I love most about my new ottoman?  Let me see.....  It's an heirloom piece, a constant reminder of our grandmother.  It has wonderful legs salvaged from an old coffee table.  My upholsterer did a painstaking job of lining up the pattern so that it appeared symmetrical on all sides.  It is sturdy as a rock so it can be used for seating.  And finally, and my husband loves it......it's hard to get this particular husband to "love" a piece of furniture.