Miss Mustard Seed's 'Copy Me!' Challenge

Happy Wednesday everyone! Today's post is all things inspired by that beautiful blogstress Miss Mustard Seed. You know, the brilliant woman who puts together beautiful tablescapes and vignettes and crafty little projects and furniture pieces that make my heart go pitter pat and my mind go racing as to how I can copy what she's done. Well little did I know she was going to be hosting a Copy Me! Challenge to see how her followers emulate her style and decorating expertise! Woo to the hoo!!! :)


So to enter her challenge I took photos of my MMS-inspired projects and I'm posting them here today to enter and link-up...here we go!


The first project MMS inspired me to do was her sheet music wreath. As I've followed her blog, I learned that she and I have a few things in common, one of those things being music. Like MMS, I L-O-V-E, LOVE! musical theater (that's what I minored in actually) and there is something about song that just has a way of hitting you at the heart and making you feel things like no other medium on the planet can - does that make sense? It does to me anyway, haha. So when I saw her sheet music wreath post I HAD to copy it.

Withouth further ado, here's my finished product:

That's my mom in the black-and-white picture at the bottem left of the wreath - she was dancing and acting like a goofball when I snapped that photo and I love it! It's the perfect pose :)

I didn't have real antique sheet musice like MMS did, so I printed some of my favorite songs off the computer on regular printer paper. Then I tea-stained each sheet, all at varying degrees (some are darker tea-stained than others) because I thought it would give the wreath a little dimension. I love how it turned out!

In total, the sheet music wreath cost me next to nothing since I already had everything (glue gun, glue and printer paper) except the circular backing, which I bought for about $3 at Michael's.

 The next project I copied MMS on is her spindle starburst mirror -

             

                                          here's hers:                                        

and here's mine:

Again, I LOVE the result! What do you think? Did I come pretty close to the real deal?

I used a cheapo craft mirror like MMS did, and my spindles came from my hubby's grandparent's tool area in their basement. The house was sold and needed to be cleaned out and family could take what they liked. I remember my mother-in-law looking at me funny when I brought a bunch of sticks upstairs - "What are you going to do with those?" she said. "Oh I have a project in mind." I replied. So Nance, what d'ya think? :)

I had the hubs snap a quick photo as I was gluing everything together (thanks hun!) and I just picked up random lenghts and colors from the bunch of spindles I had as I went along. Not all of the sticks are spindles - some of them are flat little paint stir sticks, or something of the like. I didn't know what all the pieces were, I just knew I liked their shapes and colors and hoped they'd look good in the end.

Here's a few more snapshots from different angles:

And lastly, I put together a little vignette, MMS style, and added a lil bit o' green in anticipation of Spring. (Phil the groundhog did say Spring will come early this year - thank the Lord!)

I think the white/neutral colors of the linens, bowl and pitcher -  sorry, not Ironstone! :(  - and that leggy little table all mix to make a great little combination that MMS could be proud of - hopefully! :)  Everything but the books and pitcher, and ladder with the basket came from Nana and Pap-pap's house too. I love the table (which I may paint out white with an antique glazing treatment - a la MMS - sometime in the future).

The ladder I hung on the wall above the table is something I found at the Flower and Craft Warehouse in Lancaster, PA. The whitewashed cone basket came from K & S Flower and Vine Warehouse in Schuylkill Haven.

The dried hydrangeas in the basket were yet another find at Nana's house - she dried them and stored them beautifully and I'm so glad I found them and used them here.

I also copied her sheet music decorative balls and made mine into hanging christmas tree ornaments. But sadly, I took no pictures of those and they're currently being stored in the attic - NOT going up there til next Christmas :/ 

 But imagine hers (seen below) with little twine loops hot glued on top and hanging sweetly from a crisp evergreen branch - did I paint a pretty enough picture for ya there?! haha! :)

Next up on my copy MMS list (yes I have a list, haha) - A craigslist dining room set of table and chairs. I just picked up the set not too long ago so I'll have to take the before photos and post them later. I'm not going to work on them until the weather gets warmer since my workspace is in the garage and painting (as much as I love it) in 30-degree weather is not my idea of fun :)

Well, that's my submission for Miss Mustard Seed's Copy Me! Challenge. Hopefully my knock-offs are worthy of her praise and possibly the winning prize...fingers crossed! :)

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Wednesday friends!

~Amy