Monday, October 30, 2017

Making Wood Rounds



Jenny's friend Emily was planning her wedding over the summer and wanted some wood rounds for the centerpieces on the tables for the guests. 
wood rounds, mountain cottage, trees, cottage, cottage style, farmhouse, farmhouse style, diy, diyDesignFanatic.com

I looked high and low for her, desperately trying to find some inexpensive options online and in stores. I found these in HomeGoods, but they were a little pricey at 19.99. X 20 tables and it was a no go.
wood rounds, mountain cottage, trees, cottage, cottage style, farmhouse, farmhouse style, diy, diyDesignFanatic.com

Emily and Jenny thought we might be able to cut some rounds out of the large pile of huge, unsplit oak logs  at our mountain cottage, but most of the logs we had cut were missing the bark.

There are several smaller trees on our property that need to be cut down because in a few years. they'll block our much loved view.  We thought one of the tree trunks might be large enough in diameter and could be cut up in rounds. We hadn't planned on cutting down the trees, though, until the Winter after the leaves had fallen and most likely, not until next year. 

I wasn't sure we'd have enough time to fit that into the list of projects we needed to do, but Tim thought if Jenny, Emily and Aaron (Emily's fiancee) went up and helped him, they could get it all done that day.


Here's a pic of the trees that needed to take down. We thought that one of those trees was large enough to be cut up as rounds.They chose the tree below the arrow. It was a Poplar tree about 50-60 feet tall and only a few years old. Poplar trees grow FAST!
wood rounds, mountain cottage, trees, cottage, cottage style, farmhouse, farmhouse style, diy, diyDesignFanatic.com

Here's how it looks after the tree was cut down. Mr. DIY met Jenny and her friends at the Mountain Cottage on a Saturday and were able to get the job done. It was easy enough to cut the tree down, but getting the logs up the hill to the wood pile next to the driveway, took teamwork. Mr. DIY said he couldn't have gotten it done on one Saturday without their help. 
wood rounds, mountain cottage, trees, cottage, cottage style, farmhouse, farmhouse style, diy, diyDesignFanatic.com


Mr. DIY gave the larger rounds to Emily and Aaron for their wedding and brought home 5 of the smaller ones to me. I was thrilled. Here's how the rounds looked when he brought them home. They were pretty wet and the rounds were rough since they had only been cut with a chainsaw.
wood rounds, mountain cottage, trees, cottage, cottage style, farmhouse, farmhouse style, diy, diyDesignFanatic.com


I set them outside on the table on the screened porch. It was pretty humid over the summer and thought they would dry out slowly.
wood rounds, mountain cottage, trees, cottage, cottage style, farmhouse, farmhouse style, diy, diyDesignFanatic.com


Looking back, I would have stacked them up like this and wrapping them in muslin fabric so they would dry more slowly. You'll see in the next photo that the rounds cracked. I still like them though...
wood rounds, mountain cottage, trees, cottage, cottage style, farmhouse, farmhouse style, diy, diyDesignFanatic.com



Mr. DIY sanded the rounds down for me with a belt sander.  Note to self: do this outside and not in the garage! Dust was everywhere after sanding the first wood round! He sanded the rest outside in the backyard.  I left my wood rounds unfinished, but I might apply some poly in the near future.
wood rounds, mountain cottage, trees, cottage, cottage style, farmhouse, farmhouse style, diy, diyDesignFanatic.com

I used mine for Emily's shower that Jenny hosted at our house. You can see more about the shower HERE:
wood rounds, mountain cottage, trees, cottage, cottage style, farmhouse, farmhouse style, diy, diyDesignFanatic.com

I continue to use the rounds for decoration. Here, you barely see the round, but it raises the green plant to just the right height.
wood rounds, mountain cottage, trees, cottage, cottage style, farmhouse, farmhouse style


Thanks for stopping by!

Pam

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Fall On The Screened Porch


Welcome friends!

Do you have a favorite spot in your house, but in the Summer it's a little warm in the late afternoon?
Well, that's our Screened Porch. 

Now that's the weather is cooler, it's a lovely space to sit and enjoy any time of day - it's even perfect in the late afternoon.

I ordered a few things and pulled some other things from here and there and decorated the Screened Porch for Fall. 


screened porch, cottage, cottage style, farmhouse, farmhouse style, Fall, Fall Decorating,  Cat Cave, Lighted Grapevine Orb, diyDesignFanatic.com



Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Fall on the Front Porch

*this post contains affiliate links

Yesterday I dressed up my porch for Fall and I felt a little silly.


My neighbors must have thought I had gone crazy too.

You see,  Nate (the hurricane) pushed up some very humid air up from the Gulf and interrupted our warm, wonderful weather with cool nights that we had been enjoying for several weeks.
I mean, who in their right mind would put a throw blanket with a bunch of pillows in the middle of 80 degree weather with 80-90% humidity?
Seriously.
I was sweating as I set out everything out.

Ah, but I persisted.
And even though I felt silly fluffy pillows and setting the throw just so,  I continued to taking photos as cars drove past my house.
I didn't even turn around and wave as many in our neighborhood do... I just pretended I didn't hear or see them.

Oh, don't tell me you don't do the same thing when you're outside or at the grocery store when you didn't put your make up on. I can't be the only one.

Anyway, it's going to get cool here sooner or later and my porch will be ready for the cool evenings of Fall.


Fall, fall porch, cottage, cottage style, farmhouse, farmhouse style, Ikea, Craftberrybush,



Thursday, October 5, 2017

Fall Tablescape In The Breakfast Room

The weather is still warm here and I'm loving it. 
Reminds me of Fall in Southern California.
Short sleeves for warm days and a light jacket for the cool nights.
The weather is just right...

Fall, tablescape , sunflowers, pumpkins, cottage, cottage style, farmhouse, farmhouse style