Black History Month Event Centerpiece

February is coming to a close.  

Can you believe that?!  It's almost March already... Time is flying by...

This past month I had the honor of helping out my friend, Ken, with centerpieces for a Black History Month Luncheon with a guest list of over 200 people with 22 tables.  The budget was tight, but he put together 22 pots with beautiful white petunias.  He then added these funky circles to the center of each arrangement that I made for him.

Materials

Craft Paper (in the color of the African American Flag)

Images of famous people/leaders in Black American History (past and present)

skewers

glue stick

hot glue gun with sticks

scissors

Numbers ( I made mine out of paper with my Silhouette Cameo)

Curling Ribbon

I first researched and compiled a list of 22 famous people, searched and found images on the Internet and printed them on regular printer paper.  I then simply free form cut out the papers layering them to give it a fun and funky look and gluing them together with a glue stick.  I hot glued the skewer to the back and added a table number.  I then finished off each piece with curling ribbon to add a little 'something.'

Ken printed out a copy of the list with the name of each famous person, so that the guests had a source to look up who was the dignitary they were "seated with" for the luncheon.  Obviously people like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Condoleezza Rice were easy ones.  But I put a few tougher gets...like Congressman John Lewis's image was back in 1961 when he participated in the Freedom Rider events during the 1960's Civil Rights Movement.   When the guests arrived, they were able to mingle from table to table honoring each amazing Black American.

So many times we spend a ton of time and effort to make centerpieces beautiful or different.  It was nice to add meaningful element that was also somewhat educational.  The guests really appreciated it.  I enjoyed helping out a friend.

-The End-

Quick Stop at Thrift Shop Yields a Few Finds And A Question

I dropped in at my local Goodwill yesterday afternoon.  My daughter is in the school play, Peter Pan, next month and I needed a few old blanket props for the Lost Children.  But, you know me.  I had to take a look around and I found a few interesting things for next to nothing.

The box is going to get a spruce up and be used in my Master Bath to store my cosmetics. I love the handle...kinda beachy.  The light switch covers were only 25 cents.  I have no idea what I might do with them.  They will most likely be re-purposed since my home doesn't have any one switch units.  The little bird house was only 50 cents.  It will pop up somewhere soon.  The other birdie thing?  I have no earthly idea what it is?  Do you?  It is a very heavy iron material. The inside of the cloche part has a hook at the inside top. It's total height is about 8 inches.   Somebody help me out here...

I have been doing a few little things in the studio, but haven't taken images of them.  I promise I will in the next few days.   In the meantime...help a gal out and tell me what this birdie thing is, will ya?!!

-The End-

Blast from the Past: Simple Chandy Decor

Many of you who follow The Homeless Finch found me way after I started blogging.  I remember days gone by when I was working in my studio, blogging about my projects and I only had about 20 followers who were mainly friends from my 'real' world life.  Because of this, I have decided to bring to you from time to time some of my Blasts From the Past Blog Posts.  Ya know...stuff I did before you found me, but stuff I think is worthy to re-visit and highlight.  I am calling these my "Blast From The Past Posts" and on days like today, I will re-introduce them.   For those who missed this stuff....hope you enjoy!

This post was published within the first 2 weeks of my blog back in April of 2011.  I have been spending a lot of time in the last few days re-evaluating The Homeless Finch and trying to connect with why I started to blog in the first place.  This was my first tutorial.  I think the project is worthy enough to re-post.  I was still using flash, so excuse the quality of some of the images.  

Blast from the Past:  How to:  Simple Chandelier Decor

So, as promised, here is my "How To" project on how to simply dress up your dining room light fixture for Spring. (and summer if you forget to take it down)  You don't need a lot of supplies to make this happen.  Above is an image of my dining room chandelier.   Pretty cool, eh?  I bought it several years back at one of my favorite stores that has since closed down.  I have had it in three of my homes and will never ever sell it with a house.

Supplies

Pair of pliers (Preferably a pair that also does wire cutting)

  Green twist tie (I buy it by the roll and use it for everything.  It's great for tying up kids.) 

Long stemmed flowers. 

I quick comment about how to pick the right flower for your home.  I just painted the interior of my house.  It needed a fresh color.  As you can see in the background of this image, I chose an asparagus green.  It's bright and happy.  When I saw these roses, the touches of green were similar to my new walls, so I knew they would look awesome.  So, pay attention to the colors in your room even if you would call it neutral.  Take that color as a cue.  It helps. 

So, take your long stem flower and temporarily take off the leaves.  They just get in the way and you can pop them back on later. Besides, you might damage the fragile leaves in the process.  (Learned that one the hard way.)  Next you are going to start forming the ring buy bending the stem into a circle. See below.

You might need to use your pliers to bend this in areas that the wire inside the stem is stiff.  Next, you will start to weave the stem over and under itself while working it in a circle. This keeps the ring intact by locking them together.  (See below)

Keep bending and working the stem around itself weaving up and over and back down again.  If the flower falls off, or if it is easier to weave this without the flower on the end, feel free to remove it temporarily.  You can add it back on later. (See below)

See that end in the upper part of the above image?  I use my pliers to bend it back into the circle.  A lot of these stems are just too stuff to only use your fingers and hand.  I then secured that end with the entire ring with a 2 inch piece of my floral tie twisted tightly around it.  I used my the wire cutter part of the pliers to trim the ends of the floral twist tie. (See below)

Now place your flower (if you removed it) back onto the stem.  If you need to, use a glue gun to secure it back in place. Find the little 'poky things' that your leaves were previously attached to and work them back onto the ring.  In some cases, I didn't like the location of that poky thing, so I just used a little of that green twisty tie and placed one where I wanted it.  Work it however you chose.  I didn't always return every leaf to the ring.  I will keep the extras for a future project.

So this is what it should like like..... Only....I am sure that I twisted that leaf around so that the nice green side shows forward with the flower. (wink)

You can add a wrap with some nice ribbon at this point, but I preferred the simplicity of the green thorny stems.  (I didn't appreciate the blister the plastic thorns  gave me on my left pointer finger.)  Moving on, slip the little ring over your candlestick, or light bulb....whatever is there......like this.....

I have ten candlesticks on this chandelier, so I repeated this 10 times.  I used an assortment of roses that were in the same collection, yet slightly different from each other.  You can keep it consistent, by using the same flower or mix it up. It's your choice.  After all it's your home.

So, here are the results! 

Pretty cool I think.  I did this entire project for 10 dollars, but I think it looks like a million bucks!  

Remember, every path is worth taking.

Hope you enjoyed this re-published blog post.  I removed these roses and replaced them with sunflowers during the summer.  I can't find the darn bag with these roses in it!!!  Wanna come over and help me look?!

-The End-