As I write this, the weather outside has turned from autumn-mild to chilly, with something wet, something between snow and rain, coming down from the dark sky — and underfoot, the ground is getting soft and muddy.

Ah, what can you do with November in Canada?

Splash out in a pair of stunning wellies, that’s what!

Grey days and mud puddles could be no match for the Autumn Wellington boots, featured at the Victorian Trading Company this month. The beautiful boots are free to e-newsletter subscribers with any $69 minimum purchase, or you can order them up all by themselves for $49.95.

Waterproof rubber and nostalgic flowers in the rich romantic colours of chocolate, raspberry and sage… way to brighten up a wet-weather season!

Inspiration:
Sari Silk Patchwork Box
ArtAsiaOnline.com

Round, pink box decorated with sari patches with tassel. Delicate gold and silver embroidery, embellished with sequins… 9 cm x 10 cm.

I’m reminded of a Victorian-era crazy quilt in scraps of silk, satin, velvet, and brocade. The embellishment is key — no plain quilting, for example, but a line of fancy embroidery stitches along the seam between patchwork pieces…

DIY Ideas and Resources:

There are instructions for creating a cylindrical box in the book Creating Books & Boxes: Fun and Unique Approaches to Handmade Structures by Benjamin Rinehart, published in 2007 by Quarry Press.

No time to build from scratch? Paper mache craft boxes might be a good starting point… but recycling is even better. I understand that Quaker Oats come in a cylindrical box that’s suitable for making pinhole cameras, too, not to mention a good excuse for making a batch of oatmeal cookies…

You’d want to be careful with any padding, and the thickness of the fabric scraps used, to make sure that the lid would still fit. I’m inclined to think that making a round box out of heavy cardboard would be just as easy in the long run.

Okay, now I may be just bragging:
Look, Ma, I painted this cute little birdhouse all by myself!

This church-shaped birdhouse was a gift for an elderly friend, made following a pattern in Making & Painting Victorian Birdhouses, which I picked up for $5 last year, during an excellent Amazon sale.

My friend’s son did the woodworking and I did the painting.

It was the first time I ever painted something as small as those tiny little flowers that climb up in front of the stained-glass windows. My hands really were shaking!

But it was just so much fun to make something like this, myself, at home!

And a very frugal gift, too, as well as a very personal one.

Some of the hardware stores have blank wooden shapes for decorative painting that would be fun to play with if you don’t know anyone who likes to make little objects out of wood.

I painted a smiling little bee for a sign this summer. There’s a picture of it somewhere around here… I’ll post it later if I can find it…

The church birdhouse has a coat of clear weather-proofing stuff on it, but my friend thought it was too pretty to put outdoors so she keeps it on display on a wide windowsill in her apartment.