Latest Labor

It would be safe to say I am addicted to letters, monograms, whatever you want to call them. It seems you can't walk into any store lately and not see a selection of these. So what's a girl to do when she already has a few "T's" for her last name (here and here), her kid's initials here, and a similar double shelf setup she just did for the dogs (will blog soon)?

Well, we were looking for something long to go across the wall opposite of our fireplace. Thank goodness Mr. Trudeau has been so willing to go for my ideas lately. I wanted to create a word with mismatched letters. We of course brainstormed the obvious..... "Family"..... "Gather"........ etc.... but knew we wanted something different. We came up with "Harvest". It's the name of the road we live on, and more in tune with our "style" of decorating now. Lot's of antiques and weathered items, "rusty gold" objects, plus we live in the middle of farm fields. It was perfect.

So, I set out on the task of finding the letters. Trying to get proportions and colors right (and without carrying them all around with me all of the time, this was tougher than I thought)! After we had them all together, instead of hanging them on the wall I suggested a shelf (I am kinda addicted to ledge shelves too). Jon was more than happy to put one together after I showed him some ideas on Pinterest. He used pallet wood, and we got pipes to support/hang it! We both love how it turned out, and more importantly, it was inexpensive and has that touch of handmade. Here's an idea of what a similar shelf would cost if you were to buy it. 

 Detail of the brackets. And, on the left side is a basket I've had forever with some dried flowers my Mom shared with me.

 The "H" is from Hobby Lobby.....

 The "A" is from TJ Maxx..........

 The grapevine "R" is from Joann Fabrics, and we attached it to some leftover pallet wood. The pussy willow stem is from a flower arrangement from my Grandpa's funeral service.......

 The "V" we made from a yard stick we found when we moved into the house......

 The "E" is from Joann Fabrics.......

 The "S" is from Michaels, however I didn't like the pattern that was on it. So I took the metal embellishment off and recovered it with some scrapbook paper I had, then reattached the scroll.......

 The paper mache "T" is from Joann Fabrics, but I covered it with burlap.

 Detail shot below.... I love the different colors and textures of the wood! On the right hand side, there is a basket from some flowers my friend Kristen brought us when we were in the hospital with Carson. It is filled with pine cones and dried eucalyptus from my Grandpa's funeral service. I love that were were able to use things that were meaningful to us to decorate around the letters. I might still put some small things up there, but not too much as I do not want to take away from the impact.

You might also notice some burlap in the close ups of the letters. When Jon built the shelf, we wanted it to be thick, but of course not too heavy. So he just made sort of a "shell" with the wood which created quite a "lip" all the way around. I didn't want things sitting down in there with part of them hidden, so I got some foam which I covered in burlap to bring everything level.

 And here's a shot further back. Next up? Updating the family photo collage to include Carson. Ahhh, always something to do around here. At least it's all fun for the most part!