Mermaids of the Lake Blog

Let's Get Creative: Grandma's Chandelier

By Mermaid Debbie

I inherited my Grandma's beloved chandelier and I am incredibly grateful and happy about it! Grandma loved her chandelier for a number of reasons. It was especially beautiful and elegant for the era in which it came from! The 1970's was certainly not a time of crystal chandeliers; more likely a big pendant lamp in the shape of a "harvest gold" colored mushroom!

It was 1976 and my adored Grandpa had been diagnosed with cancer. He went through treatments and we dared to hope, but sadly, we knew that Grandpa would pass within the year. While he was still healthy enough to make decisions, he and Grandma decided they needed to sell their home in beautiful Hauser Lake, Idaho and move into town. Grandpa wanted Grandma to be in a safe, cozy place, knowing she would soon be alone.... So, they purchased a small, adorable mobile home and moved into a beautiful setting on the Spokane River in a 55 and over community. That is where Grandpa and Grandma spent their last three months together.

My family wanted to bring Grandma something beautiful to have in her new home. One Sunday afternoon we knocked on their door with a big box in our hands. Grandma truly squealed with delight when she greeted us. She usually did! She loved nothing more than being surrounded by her family. Grandma was an amazing and adventurous cook and hostess. She loved to entertain. This was the perfect gift; something beautiful to adorn her favorite place in her home, her dining room table!

I will never forget this day. Grandpa lay on the sofa, covered up in a blanket, his head surrounded by pillows. He was comfortable and peaceful. Grandpa cried sweet tears of joy as he watched Grandma open the big box. My dad immediately got out his tools and istalled the chandelier above the dining room table and there it hung, for another 34 years, illuminating the love of family and friends gathered around the table for a meal, conversation, laughter, and fun.

Grandma passed a way a couple of years ago at the age of 95. Her chandelier had been in storage, as Grandma had spent her last year in a retirement home. I brought her chandelier home and was disappointed to see that it really was in bad shape; dusty, tarnished, and a few crystals missing. And, it really didn't look as pretty in my dining room as it did in hers. Knowing that Grandma was my original role model for crafting and creating, I knew exactly what to do! PAINT it!!!! Grandma would approve!!!! I also inherited Grandma's wonderful antique dining room table and chairs. A perfect match.

Before

 Carefully take apart and pay close attention to what crystals and beads go where, so putting it back together isn't a guessing game. I separated the pieces in groups.

Wash and dry each piece

 I then spray painted it a beautiful, soft yellow.

Thank you, Grandma. I love it!!!

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Very Pink Vintage Kitchens for Pink Saturday!

Wow! Somehow it is hard for me to imagine the men in the 1950's living in a house with a pink kitchen! I am so intrigued by these images. They are so very cool and so very awful at the same time.

Happy Pink Saturday!

Please visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound. She is our host for Pink Saturday. If you like the color pink, How Sweet the Sound is the place to be!

Thank you for visiting our blog. We are so pleased to welcome you here. Did you know that Mermaids of the Lake is an online women's magazine? Please visit our e-zine for loads of INSPIRATION!

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Blessings in the Mail - We love our friends!

By Mermaid Debbie

We are so excited and feel blessed to have such wonderful friends. Shelley and I love what we do! Publishing Mermaids of the Lake (our online women's magazine) has, and continues to be a fun and rewarding adventure. We have met so many new friends. We are grateful for every one!

One such friend is Barbara Wiggins. Barbara lives in California and we have never actually met in person. (We will though!!!) We found each other through our Facebook Business Pages. Shelley and I soon realized that we liked Barbara. She was sort of a kindred spirt, a fellow woman, striving to live her dreams; persevering through life's struggles; reaching out to others; keeping a positive attitude and more!

Barbara has a wonderful, creative business called Shabby Cowgirl. We love Shabby Cowgirl creations!!! I recently purchased a beautiful, handmade apron from her. The apron I chose has a big pink cause ribbon on it. I bought it to give another dear friend in honor of her mom whom she lost to breast cancer. Barbara lovingly donates profits from these beautiful aprons to breast cancer causes.

Isn't it adorable?

Barbara crafts these gorgeous aprons with skill, love and a bit of vintage something!!! Look at the pocket!

As I unpacked the mailing box, I soon realized that there was something else in the box. Barbara had added a surprise for us!!! She gave each of us our own beautiful apron and an adorable headband.

Shelley's wraps around the waist. Mine is bib style. Love them!! 

Shelley loves her gifts!

And so do I! Although I forgot my headband!

So I took this picture of it later.

My daughter had already worn it several times and now, so has Janie!

We are grateful and happy! Barbara, thank you, thank you!!!! We wish you continued blessings of dear friends and everything else good! (including great success with your awesome endeavors!)

Please visit Barbara's Etsy Shop: Shabby Cowgirl and her Facebook Page.

A Merry Modern Christmas

By Mermaid Shelley

 

Silver bells, red sashes, and piney Christmas trees are things that our favorite old-time holiday stories are made of. But you, the creative rebel that you are, love all sorts of colors and want to celebrate the season by mixing things up a bit. Well, you're not alone! Christmas in a modern world allows for every color imaginable to ring in the season. Here are some fun yuletide color displays that should get the decorator in you excited!

Lime green and silver are beautiful together
Why not brighten up the holiday with this stunning combination!

Silver has long been a Christmas standard
Using it as a feature color is dazzling

The richness of combining copper and teal decorations on a large tree
make a statement of warmth and majesty

 

Candy canes, little red treats and white lights
are more than enough to bring Christmas cheer this year

 

Go ahead, use every bright color you can thing of!
It's a wonderful way to enliven the season

 

Whimsy and prettiness are guaranteed to make your
Christmas princess dream of sugar plums

 

Make a statement with teal, combined with greenery and crystal
It is modern and sophisticated

 

Red and white are so traditional
But, presented in a bold scale, they are contemporary and grand

 

Here's another fun way to mix up traditional red and silver
Add a little lavender, now you have something special

 

Aqua, chartreuse, and hot pink reindeer? Why not!
Don't forget to add bright red, orange, and purple to this party

This table setting is brilliant with shiny bright green
and pink accents against silver and black

 

Being inspired by the modern decor in your home
is a beautiful way to add Christmas to pieces already on display

 

Non-traditional magenta mixes with
conventional white in an eye-catching holiday mantel display

 

Traditional Victorian elements in
non-traditional pink and cream. How lovely!

 

Want to shake up the Christmas spirit?
A sea of purple and silver balls will get things really rockin'

A snowy field of white and icy crystal
Is a sexy and modern way to deck the halls

 

Homemade can be modern with a
very contemporary combo of teal and tomato red

 

Santa loves modern, too! Bet he chuckles an extra ho ho ho
when he see these great stockings

How ever you wrap things this Christmas,
feel free to explore modern ways to color your holiday

Wishing you a Merry Modern Christmas!

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We are linking up for Pink Saturday with Beverly of How Sweet the Sound. Please visit her and see all of the beautiful pics and posts!

Let's Get Creative: Adorn Your Mantle With Nature's Abundance and a Little Help From the Store

By Mermaid Debbie

I live in a lake cottage in the woods and decorating my mantle with a little help from nature is as easy as one, two, three, four! You can bring the look of nature indoors too. If you are lucky enough to be able to gather your own boughs and pine cones from your yard, roadside or even nearby park, you will find this creative project an inexpensive breeze. If not, head to your closest Michael's or Hobby Lobby (most craft stores) and purchase a few items. The grocery stores in our area even carry bags of pine cones. (the cinnamon-scented ones) You can also purchase many varieties of artificial evergreen boughs and sprigs from the craft store. If you buy a live Christmas tree from a lot, ask if you can have the branches that they have trimmed off of the trees. They usually have piles!

Happy Holidays!

You will need:

• A store-bought garland, preferably with pine cones attached
• String of white lights (100 count)
• Evergreen boughs
• Candle sticks (with candles)
• pine cones of varying sizes (Michael's even has the great big ones now)
• Two small wreath-like rings of greenery to place on the candle sticks
• Small bunches of red, artificial berries from the craft store
• Heavy-duty scissors (like kitchen shears)
• Branch snippers
• Grandma's silver!

Step one: Lay out a store bought garland. I chose one from Michael's that has real pine cones attached to it. This will give you a nice sturdy piece to start tucking your bits of pine and fir boughs into.

Step two: Add the string of white lights

Step three: Tuck in the evergreen boughs. I snip these from my yard and I have a couple of types of pine, as well as fir and balsam, so I generally use a variety.

Step four: Add pinecones and tuck in red berry-sprigs

Note: If you want a fish or two for your holiday display... it is a much more difficult process. You must spend hours and hours on the water, patiently waiting to catch your own, and pay enormous amounts of money to a taxidermist. Slipping a vintage ornament in the mouth is easy!

I love the look of shiny, silver mixed in with the rustic pinecones and boughs.

For more holiday Let's get creative ideas see below:

Let's get creative: Cookie and cake plates
Let's get creative: Cutest ever gift tags

We are so happy to be participating in PINK SATURDAY this week. Every Saturday hundreds of bloggers link up with posts on something pink! This month, our host of PINK SATURDAY, Beverly of How Sweet the Sound has decided that we can choose something pink or something holiday themed! Join in the fun! Visit How Sweet the Sound today!

Please visit our Mermaids of the Lake online women's magazine.
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Lampshade redo

By Mermaid Debbie

I have been redoing my art studio/mermaid's publishing office. I inherited this sweet lamp when my sweet grandma passed last year. I love it so much and it reminds me of her.

I bought this plain little shade and... ugh... it is plain and too short. So I dug into my hat box full of vintage lace and hankies and I love how it turned out. It only took about 10 minutes too! Oh, how I love projects that make this much of a difference and only take 10 minutes!

Before

 

Glue old bits of lace and hankies with a hot glue gun

A cute helper adds to the awesomeness

I love it! I even love the ripped, antique lace the best!

I am linking this post to Pink Saturday at How Sweet the Sound today! Please visit this link and see all of the other awesome pink posts!

Did you know that Mermaids of the Lake is an online women's magazine!? Hope on over and see why we love doing what we do! It's pretty awesome, if we do say so!!! www.mermaidsofthelake.com

We also have a free newsletter! We send it out twice a month to highlight special points of interest in our e-zine. (internet lingo for online magazine!) Sign up for our newsletter here:http://mermaidsofthelake.com/enewssignup.asp

New way to use an old vase

By Mermaid Shelley

A few weeks back I was wandering the shops of Poulsbo, Washington with Debbie. We entered a darling gift store that had many lovely things. I don't think I bought anything, but I did come away with a great idea. I love it when that happens!

The store had these beautiful vases with reed diffusers. They were just lovely, and, very pricey. I thought to myself, aha!, you have many old vases at home, why not recreate this? So, I did. Look at how great these are!

I already had one of Pier 1's generic reed diffusers. I just transferred the reeds and the oil to a vase. I then bought a large container of my favorite scent and several packets of the reeds. This is so much less expensive than sets I saw at the gift shop.

I love this darling vase and not only does it adds a nice decorative element to my self, it smells wonderful! I've placed several of these around the house. It's a fun way to display some of my darling old vases and it makes the place smell yummy.

 

Pretty and functional

By Mermaid Shelley

Our friend, Stacey, has a creative flair that both Debbie and I admire. She arranges pictures in unusual, yet captivating ways and pairs keepsakes and functional items in displays that are eye-catching.

This last visit to her home, I asked her about the great smelling glassy rocks she had in a variety of dishes around the place. Where did she get them? Stacey got this mischievous smile and answered, "Walmart." Then, we took a trip to her local store and she turned me on to something pretty and functional: Renuzit Crystal Elements.

When I got home I took her creative inspiration with me. Here are a few dishes I made and have placed strategically around the house.

I first filled this little dish with the blue Renuzit crystals. I added a few small shells and topped it with rice-sized glass beads (I got a package of these at Walmart in the floral section). This dish is about 3"x3" which is small enough to set on my chair-side table. It's just a little pretty something that adds interest.

I used the same process with one of my favorite crystal bowls, but I added larger shells. I also added a few of my favorite rocks. I think this is a fun way to use my crystal in a different way.

This is leaf-shaped dish is my favorite color and I like to have it out. This time I added small trinkets to the Renuzit crystals and glass beads: a couple of marbles, a few "word" rocks, several small metal hearts, and an actual crystal. This dish I put on my coffee table:

Finding a ways to combine pretty and function is always fun. I'm so excited about this little creative process! And, the great things is, you can use dishes, cups, and other containers you already have in new and imaginative ways. 

These are a few of my favorite things

By Mermaid Shelley

I was looking over older blog posts, trying to hunt down a recipe or something, when I ran across a post I did called Can Color Be a Treat? You Bet! I was celebrating the bits of my favorite blue-green color that I have around my home. As I looked over the pictures, it made me so excited! I still just thrill when I see these colors. I actually have a few more things to share!

This amazing textile art piece was a gift from my son this Christmas. He brought it back from the middle east. All the colors are perfect in my dining room, especially the bright aqua.

 

I just love this vase. It sits on my dresser filled with a dried flower arrangement from Pike Street Market in Seattle. I found the ceramic piece on one of the Mermaid's junking trips. Great find, huh?

 

These pillows are so fun. I love the fabric! They brighten the guest bed in my loft.

 

I think this is so "mermaid!" Another wonderful junking find. I think I paid $3 for it and it's one of my favorite pieces. The color and shape are perfect.

 

Isn't this beautiful? I love this Asian version of the ride to Bethlehem. Debbie gave this to me last year for my birthday. It hangs in my kitchen of all places. 

 

I keep cotton balls in this darling Fransican sugar bowl. It's so pretty sitting on my bathroom counter.

 

Two special pieces here. The vase is another piece my son brought home from the middle east. It is hand painted with colors that I love. The other is the wonderful triple tulip vase. It is so unusal. It works perfectly for votive candles.

 

This beautiful aqua crystal cross is another gift from Debbie. It hangs from a floor lamp in my living room. When the sun hits it, there are sparkles everywhere. 

 

These are huge! I have them on top of my bookshelves. Because they are up so high, they don't seem too big. I love the verdigris on the largest one. 

 

This large vase sits atop my bookshelves, too. It's one of my favorite finds from the Farm Chicks show two years ago.

 

My best St. Vincent's find - a perfect teapot for $6. And, it just thrills me because of it's darling shape and of course, the awesome color.

As I said at the end of my previous post, yes, color can be a treat. If you have a color that thrills you, find a way to give yourself a smile by putting it in large and small places.

Feeling the LOVE!

By Mermaid Debbie

As I quoted in my earlier post this week: "How I love the simple things. The simple things just are..."  ~Jim Brickman song

It is February, the month of love and instead of feeling the sort of dark and drab of this shortest-but-feels-like-longest month of the year... I am purposefully feeling the love by being in a state of gratitude and loving what I love!!!

 I found this sweet and sparkly word in the dollar section at Target...

I LOVE it!

My personal motto: "Love what you love! Surround yourself with what you love and who you love and you will attract to you, a life abundant with love!" ~ Debbie

~ my view, even on a dark and cloudy day

~ my pot rack made from one of the original windows of my house, adorned with a sparkling Valentine garland

~ Grandma's chandelier, re-painted yellow with love!

~ this gorgeous magazine that inspires me and validates my need to create!

~ my latest thrift-store find!

~ wearing Grandma's wedding ring... love, love, love!

~ to create! I saved this XOXO white purse from the garbage and made it pretty again with a sharpie marker and paint!

~ these because he (Willie) loves them so!

~ red transferware china

~ this awesome picnic jug


~ things that sparkle!!!!!!!

~ whimisical, silly, and sweet pixie faces

~ vintage sewing boxes and the wonderous things they hold!

~mermaids


~ skunks


~squirrels

~ and these feet... especially these feet!

Have a fabulous day full of love! Have a fantastic weekend, week, and month full of love! Have a super, fantastic, fabulous year, decade and life filled to the brim with an abundance of LOVE!