Fire and water

This weekend I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather - I'm having a barbecue today :) It usually involves lots of working out how to keep the dogs away from the food. They would happily eat everything in sight leaving us, poor people, starved. So of course someone has to be around all the time to keep an eye on these evil creatures :P Sometimes it's not enough, though, because what can you do when he smiles at you like this? You can't not give him a nice piece of meat ;)

I'd like to introduce my dogs to you more properly next time. Now let's just get back to the point :) It's midsummer, hot and sunny so I thought I could use some beach/summer elements on the table, and what's more beachy than shells? I tried out my ideas yesterday. Maybe it isn't very impressive but....

with some water.....

and fire....

it is beautiful. :) Especially with some other elements.

I could watch these little flickering candles and the reflections in the water for hours. It's kind of hypnotising ;)

And how cute is this little shell I found in a nearby wild pond? It's so light it keeps floating just under the surface.

Take care,

Kate.

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My summer ideas and the bottle net

I believe that my home should change together with the seasons. Because of that I've made some summer decor that helps to bring the summer inside. I found some good ideas ( as usual )on  www.potterybarn.com :

I really liked those golden shells so I made something similar, easy :) A bit of gold spray paint, a few shells I had  lying around, some beach sand and a big jar, that's all it took.

Here are my other ideas:

Do you like the bottle? Hope so :) because here comes the tutorial for the net.

You need a bottle (I love the green color of mine) and some jute. Wrap a piece of jute around the neck of the bottle.

Cut six pieces of jute, each of them about three times the height of your bottle.

Tie a knot as shown below:

Tie all six pieces of jute evenly around the original loop:

Take two pieces of jute (one from the left and one from the right). The pictures show how to tie the knot: 

Continue around the bottle until you get to the bottom.

Make another ring about half the size of the bottom of the bottle: 

Tie all the pieces using the same knot as earlier and trim all extra jute. That's the end result:

 (I'm really surprised it turned out so even, I usually have problems with symmetry :P)

I used the same method for the baubles (www.potterybarn.com):

There's only one difference, you should start by making a hoop at the bottom of the christmas baubles and work your way up like you did with the bottle. Tie a knot at the top and you're done:

Have a nice day,

Love,

Kate

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