Rotten Potpourri, Meal Worms, and A Blond Moment

If you follow Our Prairie Home on Facebook, yesterday I shared this picture...

and told you I would reveal its transformation from a meal worm infested, rotten potpourri holding vessel to a thing to delight in.  And I will. In a minute.

But first...

If you haven't liked me on Facebook yet, please use the link on the top right of the sidebar to do so OR search pages on FB for "Our Prairie Home".  Today we hit over 200 followers!  Can you believe that?  I am so humbled and honored that so many think that my ideas and decorating are worth "liking".  Truly.  So today in appreciation to all of those fantastic peeps, I'm hosting a giveaway of some of the glass ornaments I've made, so "like" me if you haven't already and leave a comment under the giveaway post!  I will randomly pick a winner and announce it tonight at 9:00 pm CST.  The package will be priority mailed tomorrow to get to you in time for Christmas!  :)

A medium-sized bleached bottle brush tree sits inside a large glass globe filled with poly-glitter and sugar.  Accented with a cream grosgrain ribbon, jingle bell and a hand-stamped tag that proclaims, "Believe".

A small glass ornament tied with white grosgrain ribbon is filled with hand-cut book pages and liberally coated with glitter, while a medium-sized glass globe is filled with a small, bleached bottle brush tree, sugar and poly-glitter.
A hand-stamped tag says, "Joy to the World".

I hope you'll join us for the giveaway!

Okay...  Back to my story...

So, yesterday I decided I was going to jump on the painted branch bandwagon, since I've been at a loss for another way to decorate my dining room with zero budget. (Six kiddos to buy Christmas for, ya know.)  I gazed around my yard and tried to find the perfect tree from which to cut the branches and my eyes landed on these:

  
Aren't they perfect?  Yep.  I thought so too.

So, I happily trotted across our yard and commenced hacking away at the perfectly shaped branches.

What?  You don't use a steak knife to cut branches????  What do you use?  A handsaw?  A hacksaw?  A chainsaw?  Yeah?  Well, some people just don't have stuff like that just laying around.   I mean...  Pfft.  You'd think we own a tree company or something.  (Read:  My husband has all that stuff stashed in his bucket truck for work, while I have to make do with using a kitchen utensil.  :P)

Anyhoo...  I hacked away with my trusty Rada steak knife and amassed a wonderously large pile that I planned to put in some kind of fabric wrapped container... beautifully spray painted white, coated with a liberal amount of Epsom Salt, sealed with clear gloss spray paint, and entwined with twinkling white mini-lights.  Instead, I got sidetracked with my lantern find and left the pile outside to do until today.

While Scott and I made a run to Wal-Mart for some groceries and a few other odds and ends I needed, I mentioned to him I needed some Epsom Salt.  While we were hunting for it, I explained to him what I wanted to do.  Then...

"Where'd you find the limbs?" he asked.

"In the fence row." I replied.

"Where at in the fence row?"

"I don't know.  Just in the fence row."

"But what kind of tree?"

"Well, they're not from a tree.  They're more like a bush."

"Which ones, Laura?"

"I don't know.  They're the ones that you see when you look straight out the bay window to the east."

At this point I'm getting exasperated.  I mean, is it really that big of a deal where they came from?  We kill trees for a living for heaven's sake!

And he bursts out laughing.

"Those aren't bushes."

I say, "Yes, they are."

He says, "No, they're not." (In between shaking his head and laughing at me.)

"Well, whatever.  Trees, bushes, whatever.  That's where they came from."

And he finally gasps out...

"Its poison ivy."

DO WHAT???!!!!

Evidently, when poison ivy is left to grow unchecked, it begins to resemble a small tree or bush.  Yeah.  Who knew?

And I used my nice leather gloves that are now ruined because they've got the oil all over it.  I touched my hands, my face, my eyes...  Pretty much everywhere because I didn't wash my hands until it was time to make Landon lunch.  Yep.  Pretty soon I'll probably be looking like the dude from the Hunchback of Notre Dome - distorted face and all.  Lovely.

And they were the perfect limbs, darn it!

Anyway...  Just had to share that wonderful little blond moment with you.  Er.

Now back to the real story...

So, I found this beautiful lantern at our local thrift on Tuesday for $7.50.

This is a picture after I cleaned it.  The glass vessel was filled with half rotted, partially petrified potpourri and in the bottom of the lantern itself?  Yeah.  Little petrified husks of meal worms.  YUM!  This is what it looked like after scraping out the potpourri, letting the whole kit and caboodle soak overnight in the sink, and windexing it all the next morning.  Yes, in my world windexing is a verb.

I taped all the glass off...

And then I broke out my trusty can of spray primer and  Krylon Brushed Metallic spray paint in Nickel with a satin finish.  Filled the vessel with the Christmas ornaments, I also found at the thrift for $0.75 (entire bag, baby!) and a few I stole off the back of our tree...

Placed on top of the mirror I found at the thrift a few weeks ago with some greenery from a non-poison ivy evergreen tree out in the yard.  I added 100 count mini-lights and a few picks to make it the centerpiece for our table.

Yes, I know it makes the conversation difficult, but I put Noah and Ian on each side and it makes a great barrier to keep them from arguing!  LOL!  Besides, as you saw with our Thanksgiving feast, I usually remove the centerpiece all together and let the turkey/ham have the place of honor at the center of the table, surrounded by all the sides.  :)

So, here's the moral(s) of today's post:

1)  If the bush looks perfect, its probably poison ivy.

2)  Even a rotting potpourri, meal worm infested piece of trash has wonderful potential!

THE END

;)

See you tomorrow for Friday's Finds!