A little upcycling for your rainy Sunday.

The last couple days have been unseasonably warm for January, so I decided to work on a quick project that I've been meaning to do for quite a long time.

The previous owners of our house (which was built in 1840-ish) left several of the original windows in the shed. Since I am totally at a loss for what to do with our mantel for winter and spring, I decided to clean one of the windows up and use that as the focal point. It's kind of a popular trend right now, but I like it.

Here's what it looked like when I pulled it out of the shed. I liked this one because all the glass was still in tact and it was 9-pane, a little different than the typical window. It was covered in dust and spiderwebs and who knows what else, so I used our Dustbuster to get the big stuff off before starting the cleaning process.

First I sprayed this GreenWorks stuff all over both sides of it and let it sit for about 10 minutes or so. Then I rinsed it off using an old rag dunked in water and a little dish soap. I also lost a pane in the process (the topmost right one).

Then I rinsed it with a bleach and water mixture and used a toothbrush to clean out the nooks and crannies. This is the opposite side of what I've been posting, but you can see how much cleaner it is at this point. It's also lighter, because another pane fell out (the middle left one). It adds character.

I let it dry overnight and then cleaned the windows on both sides (very carefully, I might add) with vinegar and water using coffee filters to cut back on streaking.

And here's the final product!

I am totally at a loss for how to finish out my winter mantel. I love the two little bundled-up birdies perched in the empty spots, and I placed a birdhouse my dad made next to them on top of a book called "A Daughter of the Snows," but everything else is sort of thrown together. I kind of wanted to do an all winter-white theme, since I found a bunch of white milkglass for super cheap at a local antique store, but I don't know. Suggestions are always welcome, of course. I think I'll keep the window up for spring and then put the crane painting that my grandpa did back up for summer.

This is as crafty as it gets around here.

 Yep, with a little help from Hobby Lobby, I made that.

I got the idea from 52Mantels (this one in particular)... I love that prayer. Simple and relevant to all seasons, but especially fall.

So first I nosed around Google until I found a suitable frame for the quote (I searched for "baroque frame vector," I think). This one was a free preview that I blew up in MS Publisher. I suppose I could have paid for one that would have printed at a little higher resolution, but it's going up on the mantel and didn't really print that pixellated after I turned it into a PDF.

I typed up the quote (using "Monoment" from DaFont.com and "Baskerville Old Face" for the credit), centered everything, and printed it out on grayish mottled cardstock.

Then I checked the trusty Hobby Lobby website to make sure that what I wanted was on sale... sho nuff, frames and scrapbook paper were half price and 30% off, respectively.

 While the frame was easy to pick out - I'd seen it last week and liked it - trying to find suitable scrapbook paper was not as simple. I'd like to point out that, being a non-crafter and all, I know next to nothing about scrapbooking. So is Thanksgiving a not-often-scrapbooked holiday or what? There was hardly anything fall-related except for Halloween (and all those were ridiculously cute and made me want to start getting on board the crazy scrapbook train like, yesterday).

Anyway, as you can see from the above photos, I chose this two-sided page because I wasn't sure what would look good with the cardstock. I ended up going with the yellow stripe because the swirls on the frame kind of blended in with the floral pattern.

So yeah. I cut the paper to size, cut out the quote (leaving a little white space all the way around), glued it down on the scrapbook page, and stuck it in the frame. I'm really happy with it and looking forward to finding something else I can put in there for Christmas.

I feel like this was an extra long entry for something that didn't really require it. Anyway... go out there and make one of your own. If I can do it, anyone can. I'll post pictures of the completed fall mantel soon.

How to Paint a Chevron Pattern on a Pumpkin: An Illustrated Guide

1. Get the necessary supplies: masking tape, ruler, pencil, paint color of your choice, paint brush, and of course, a pumpkin.

2. Measure out your chevrons and mark with pencil dots. Mine were two inches long and 2 and 1/4 inches apart. Tape those suckers off. Looks good so far!

3. Attempt to recreate an even row for the next section. Realize it looks awful and the tape isn't really sticking anyway.

4. Tear all the tape off.

5. Start over using clear packing tape. Measure each piece first and then assemble it before placing it on the pumpkin. Congratulate yourself on figuring this out.

6. This stupid tape doesn't stick either and the little structure doesn't account for a round surface. Discard tape; bang head on kitchen table.

7. Take a deep breath. Remember where your strengths lie - painting - and go on dafont.com to chose a nice script initial to paint on the pumpkin instead of f***ing with tape and all that bulls**t.

8. Oh, good. Your paintbrush is old and terrible and silver paint doesn't really show up that well on a white pumpkin.

9. Wipe the paint off the stupid pumpkin and take it outside to be with its friends in its natural state. Vow never to craft again.