Copycat Feature: Thanksgiving Branch

It's been a while since my last copycat project.

I had seen this project a year ago on Kelle Hampton's blog Enjoying the Small Things.  (have you been to her blog? No? You should.  Beautiful pictures, beautiful words.)

Isn't it lovely?  I thought so.  So, I put Michael on a mission: "Find me a branch, so we can do this, please." Well, my man delivered!  He brought home three branches for me to choose from, and after two nights (one for hanging the branch, and the second for me to make the leaves) we had our copycat version:

 Not to bad, right?  I mean, I think I need to add a couple more rows of leaves, and next year I'll defiantly make my leaves smaller.  I mixed felt and scrapbook paper.  We have a sharpie on the table underneath the branch so whenever we're feeling thankful, we can jot it down on one of the leaves. 

I love the colors of fall.  They're rich and warm.  They're comforting and spicy.  And they're popping up all over my house!

I also made a wreath using a cheap foam wreath I found in the dollar section at Target, twine, and some felt flowers:

 The rest of the yellow bungalow has splashes of fall around it from Thanksgiving pasts.  Including the entryway:

 and the mantel.  

I just have to share a common weirdness that my husband and I share:  As I'm typing this, Michael is working like a madman in the kitchen.  He gets on these kicks of cleaning and organizing.  We both do, but I guess tonight is his turn.  Early tonight, I informed him that I was taking a shower to "wash off my Monday", and he offered to do the dishes because he's nice like that.  When I came back out, he showed me how he organized our tupperware drawer, and is throwing away lids that don't match to anything else.  I applauded his hard work, but it was clear he wasn't even close to being done.  So I let him and his techi podcast be, while I finish this post.  I think right now he is gutting and completely reorganizing our pantry.  It's weird, but I get it.  We both have that quirk.  That, "I don't know why but I have to completely finish this non urgent project right now!" quirk.  Michael can tell when I'm in it, too.  He usually smiles, and lets me be.  We're imperfectly perfect for each other.  

The warm wind known to us locals as Santa Anas have been picking up lately.  Milo's intrigued.

(look at that hair!  I refuse to cut it, you can't make me!)

I wish I could show you his "ooohhh" face.  It's purty darn cute.  He's becoming a little parrot.  And true to form, Michael and I are have become the cheesy parents that tell their kids "Say...bye bye!,"  "Say....stars!,"  "Say, Mommy/Daddy/baby!"  It's ridiculous.  And there's no end in sight.

copycat feature - ladder chandelier

A few months ago, I posted that I wanted to turn our curb alert door into a ladder chandelier like here:

That evening I got an email from our friend Marc.  Marc was an architect, and has crazy handyman skills.  He told me that he was picking up some spare wood at his dad's house to build a ladder for our chandelier. 

He schooled me in the art of architectural design.  I learned that having a wider object like a door hanging over people's heads, makes them feel uneasy.  The second he said it, I thought of course "of course it would."  I felt slightly sheepish.

It took Marc the Arc no time at all to make it.  Unfortunately, it took quite a while for us to hang it and find the lanterns.  We had collected the lanterns and just had to find the time to hang them.

Cue Christina's shower. Since Christina is Marc's beautiful wife, it was the perfect motivation the Hacker needed to get the job done.  

So we purchased different sizes of rope from Home Depot, and the Hacker channeled his inner boy scout to get the knots just right.  

Here is our copycat version of the ladder chandelier:

Of course we didn't include oversized lanterns, instead we used what we got.  And I think what we got is pretty good. 

Here is the a closeup of the detail that Marc included on the ladder.  He distressed it and added very cool notches to each step of the ladder.

After the Hacker tied each knot, he burnt the edge to keep in place.

He attached the ladder to our patio cover with an eye-hook.  

He used a level to make sure the ladder was, well level.  Because our patio cover has a slight slope, it can be deceiving to the eye.

Each lantern was added to a different step, and then, we were done. 

So what do you think of our copycat chandelier?  

We're pretty pleased with it.  So thanks Marc. It adds a special touch to the whole patio.

What copycat features have you added to your house?  How did they turn out?

thanks for reading, 

Kristin