Lisa's Little House: 2011

November 17, 2011

I am giving a Free Ornament Demo at Town Hall Antique Mall Saturday!

This Saturday, November 19, I will be at Town Hall Antique Mall at Bothell's Country Village from

1-2 p.m. demonstrating how to make these darling Ribbon Wrapped Wire Ornaments. I will be using lovely Midori ribbon in silk, velvet and double-faced satin...Yummy!

These ornaments are simple to make and customize anyway you like.

I have even made initals for gift toppers!

I hope to see you soon!

October 17, 2011

Home Sweet Home, The Sequel

Saturday was another beautiful day at Pine Creek Nursery in Monroe teaching my Rustic Birdhouse Workshop. The class was full; the attendees were fun and the folks at Pine Creek are a delight to work with! We are cooking up some fun workshop ideas for the spring, so be sure to get on their email list!

These two were amazing. He had his own Milwaukee drill set and she was fearless!

Some quickly snapped shots of some darling Chickadee Birdhouses!

Beautiful glass flower pieces attached to this 'sunshiny' home.

You can check out Pine Creek Nursery's booth this weekend at the Ruffles and Rust Vintage Market to Inspire in Monroe. The show is bigger and better than ever this year. Henry and I will be there shopping!

October 14, 2011

Birthday Bling!

I love making gifts for my Burger Buddies!

We celebrated Colleen's birthday at the Ranch Drive-in this week. Colleen wears a lot of beautiful pins and loves sparkle so I created a Fork Pin for her fashioned in my Fork Pendant Necklace style with turned up tines for hanging charms. And I included a charm I made from an old Prince Matchabelli perfume bottle. It still had some perfume in it so when I added some silver German glass glitter it coated the inside...Love it! Then I soldered the top and added a jump ring. Good to go!

Judy's birthday was a few month back and I made her one of my Fork Pendant Necklaces. This time I created a flower from a collection of metal flowers from Wendy Baker and a Miriam Haskell leaf I purchased from The Curious Nest in Seattle. I attached it to the top of the Pendant and was happy with the mixture of metals.

I also gifted her a selection of some of my favorite fibers that I rolled onto wooden spools. The 3-tone rick rack is the bomb!

Happy Birthday, my dear friends!

October 11, 2011

Our Lady of Lunch

I love lunch!

Ophelia, Henry and I recently had lunch together from Here and There Grill...you know how much I love Julie's food. We walked the short block over to Bountiful Home in Edmonds to enjoy our meal in Todd's garden nursery. Of course, he was 'The Host with the Most' and created a delightful lunch spot for us under the apple arbor. Young Henry was quite smitten with Todd (who isn't?!) that day. We are sure Henry remembers how much fun he had the last time he hung out with Todd and committed a party foul by pee-ing on him! Good times!

It was a gorgeous day. I spent some time snapping photos of the garden. Fall inspiration and beauty!

October 5, 2011

There goes the neighborhood!

Crazy times at Lisa's Little House! But it is all good...

New water main installed. Check!
Mom here. Check!
Cruise taken and enjoyed immensely. Check!

But the craziest news of all...Henry and his parents are going to be moving into the house NEXT DOOR to me at the end of the month! I know! Can you believe it? Pinch me!

We have the best neighbors. We hang out, barbeque, share special holiday traditions like our annual Progressive Dinner. So it is bittersweet that Greg, Courtney, Katelynne and Taylor are moving. They found a larger home for their family and were looking for renters for their old house. They offered it to Henry and his parents first, bless their hearts. And it worked out for everyone...especially Auntie!

We are beside ourselves. How often in this day and age can family live so close together? Henry will grow up surrounded by family and friends 24/7. And since I am going to be his primary care-giver while his parents work, my commute will be a dream.

God is good!

August 29, 2011

'Charmed' to be back!

I hadn't planned on a one-month blogging hiatus. Life just happened. Thank you to those who have visited faithfully waiting for me to get my sh*t together this summer! So how about we kick it off with some charms from a Charm Swap I participated in this past weekend?

I have a ton of old keys...but some aren't too sexy, so I decided to cut off the part that goes into the lock and then they started looking more interesting.

I added a dangle I made from an old turquoise-y shell necklace I had, a mother of pearl button and a bead along with a 'fancy' rhinestone button. Love them!

I added a key-shaped tag and I was good to go.

Here are the charms I received in return! Stunning!

And a few folks put together charm kits or provided interesting objects for displaying charms as jewelry.

Thank you, Swappers!

July 18, 2011

Home Sweet Home

Don't we just love that saying? And 11 birds will have a new Home Sweet Home thanks to my awesome class attendees at the Rustic Birdhouse Workshop Saturday at Pine Creek Nursery.

Cans (later used as roofs) with birdhouse potential just waiting inside.

Antonya brought these awesome bottlecaps to share!

Bits and bobs of ephemera for decorating.

They came armed with cordless drills, hammers and their creative caps on.

I will let the photos tell the story!

Adding personal touches.

I would totally move in here if I was a bird!

A garden oasis on a birdhouse.

The chimney with 'smoke' is darling!

Carol said "I'm not crafty" Ha! She can't say that anymore.

Patty said "I wasn't sure I could do this, but I love it!" She even used a jig-saw for the first time!

And then we had goodies!

Pine Creek Nursery knows how to throw a workshop!

A big thank you to everyone and my trusty assistant, Doug!

My next workshop at Pine Creek will be the Silverware Suet Feeder I created for Birds & Blooms Magazine.

July 11, 2011

Celebrate...

Oriental poppies from my mom's garden.

...each milestone, each achievement, each day!

Today I am celebrating a few things.

It is my one year blog anniversary. I opened up the doors to my Little House a year ago and it has been delightful sharing, visiting and getting to know all of you. Thank you for your kindess and support.

I had big plans to celebrate my blog-iversary but unexpected things happen to people everyday and that leads me to the next thing I am celebrating today...my husband, Doug!

Saturday I brought him home from the hospital after he was diagnosed with several pulmonary embolisms (blood clots in the lungs). Thankfully it was caught early and the clots ended up in the lungs and not in his heart or brain. I can't even begin to process or comprehend the situation much beyond that.

So today I celebrate: new friends and adventures, old loves and my beautiful everyday life!

July 1, 2011

For the Birds...

The birds in my garden are my 'flying flowers'! I love their colors, songs and funny antics. The cats and I could watch them all day! My garden has been a Certified Backyard Wildlife Sanctuary for years (I am close to saying 'decades' now...just a few more years!) A big part of my habitat success is birdhouses. I have several styles for several types of birds and every year they are occupied with our feathered friends.

On July 16, I am teaching a Rustic Birdhouse Workshop at Pine Creek Nursery in Monroe. It is the first of three workshops we have teamed up to present to you. Click on the Workshop tab at the top of this page to get the details. Come and enjoy the beautiful nursery, pound a few nails and create a darling birdhouse custom-made by you for our Chickadee friends. Next spring you may be blessed with some of your own 'flying flowers'!

June 28, 2011

Catching up!

I am so behind on my blog posts! Yikes!
I wanted to share my Birthday Burger Day treasures from my burger buddies.

First, Colleen and Judy decorated this darling, chippy, rusty wire chicken for me with a paper crown, butterfly garland (to hide the gift) and a butterfly pennant flag. I thought the 'packaging' was the gift...but no, there was more!