For September I decided I wanted the theme to be apples/orchard.  It is a beginning of fall-ish theme, and in Washington school always starts in September so if I decide I want to do a school theme when we have kids, then apples go along great with that.

The first thing I decided to make was what I like to call a puzzle tree.  I had the idea for the master bedroom and wanted to make a tiny one for the shadowbox over the bookcases, but I still haven’t gotten around to it.  I wanted to take multiple pieces of wood and cut just a couple of big branches out of each one, so when you put them all together they make the whole tree with a little bit of 3D added in.

The apples in the white frame are on a white piece of cardstock and I painted the apples on it with acrylic paint.  I used a picture of some fabric I found on Pinterest as the design inspiration.

For the puzzle tree I drew out the basic outline of the final tree on some paper, then using colored pencils went over each section dividing it into 3 colors with the branches sort of evenly distributed between each piece.  Then with pencil I outlined the top piece on some 1/2″ thick plywood and cut it out with my scroll saw.  This was a bit tricky, and took many, many little sections cut out at a time.  And of course being really careful to not get any fingers.  Because you know what would kind of suck.  Then I repeated that with the second and third one, and painted each onea different color.  I attached them together with some Velcro in case I ever want to separate them and to add a little bit of space between each one to give it a little more dimension.  I love how it came out!

I got some apples and placed them in the little white boxes I made for June, and I also found this wooden “Home” sign at Michael’s and painted it with one thin coat of red paint.  I found the “A” letter block at the Issaquah antique store (which was closed for over a year because they are building condo’s in their old location and I am SOOOO excited they are finally open again) and painted it red and using a push pin to make the stem, pinned a paper leaf to it (idea found here).  The brass apple is a bell I found at Value Village and I also made the book page apples from a book I found there, using this tutorial.

The square 4×4 apples are my favorite thing for the month.  I saw them on Pinterest, but the Etsy store is no longer selling them, so I made my own instead.  Of course.   My friend Misty had a bunch of leftover pieces of 4×4 from the firecrakcers we made at the craft night she hosted and she was kind enough to let me have a few square pieces of it so I didn’t have to buy a whole beam.  They already had a white primer on all the sides, then I painted them, sanded them to distress them, and wiped a very small amount of stain over them.

The green one is my favorite.  I did 2 different colors of paint, a mint first and an apple green over it, and I love all of the different colors that show through.  I cut some leaves out of a sheet of bronze coated aluminum (this is my favorite word with a British accent) and my dad was in town and he drilled some holes into the leaves for the nails.  Drilling through metal makes me very nervous, so I was really happy he was able to help me with it.  I painted and stained them,and did a very tiny bit of sanding to the edges.  Not a lot because the paint is inclined to scrape off anyway, so at the end I sprayed a nice thick coat of finish over them to minimize that as much as possible.  Then I nailed them in with some bronze painted nails.  I made one green and two red ones.

I made some red cotton tassels to hang as a garland.

This tray is from Lucky Home in Gilman village again.  And I LOVE it.  I love the metal and the wood together.  I spray painted some plastic apples to go inside along with our photo books.

Once again I really wanted to have some kind of wreath or something else to go over the top of the mirror, but I couldn’t come up with anything that I liked and I ran out of time before I went on Vacation.

I made a wooden framed, wire and bead tree of life to sit on the piano.  I was planning on making it smaller, and I think I would like it more if it were.  I might redo it next year.  Also I need a nail gun before I do it, because it was the biggest pain to get the thing to hold together with wood glue, and I tried nailing it afterwards and it just kept falling apart.  It was super annoying.

My mom bought me and Rachel these leaf placemats when we first moved out to Washington together and I still love them.  They were part of the inspiration for the apple/orchard green and red theme.  I turned the wooden décor box over and lined up some pretty red and green apples on them.  And there you have it.  9 of 12 done!

January, February, March, April, May, June, July and August.