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For the Love of Animals

August 7, 2016 by Ashley Hackshaw

We’ve been so overwhelmed by the response to United Paws of America! We’ve received 135 donations from 39 states! And in two weeks we’ve been able to fill in two of them:

You can read the original post here but here’s a quick overview: Our goal is to get ten donations from each state to help out our lone small rural animal shelter that receives no assistance from our county.

A few states we’d love to get our first donations from are: Delaware, Iowa, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont and Wyoming. Thank you for your support!

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Please consider sharing this post and/or donating to PAWS Animal Shelter. Any amount will help!

How to Donate by Paypal:

Click here —> PAWS Animal Shelter

or send funds direct to pawsbc @ yahoo.com

**Please add “Sienna Hackshaw Project” in the notes with your STATE so that we update our map and show you our progress as we go!

How to Donate by Check:

PAWS Animal Shelter
Attn: Sienna Hackshaw Project
P.O. Box 1814
Bryson City, NC 28713

DIY Yarn Wall Hanging

August 1, 2016 by Ashley Hackshaw

August’s Michaels Maker challenge is all about Fall Décor and I decided to go with a simple DIY yarn wall hanging that will add a bit of autumnal warmth to any door or wall!

To make your own all you need is at least two skeins of chunky yarn. I love the beautiful combination of the colors in this chunky acrylic yarn:

You’ll also need one or two embroidery hoops. I used 8″ and 14″ sized hoops:

The first step is to cut your yarn into equal lengths. I went with 48″ for my pieces:

Take each piece and fold it in half as shown:

Take the two loose ends and insert them through the loop:

Pull the ends all the way through until your yarn looks like this on the hoop:

Keep repeating this process!

I added yarn to two hoops and tied them together with wax twine so that they looked like this:

I love how they turned out!

An easy Autumn addition for the fall!

From fall wreaths and porch décor to seasonal tablescapes and pumpkins, Michaels has everything you need for the latest Fall Décor trends!

Check out all the other Michaels Maker’s fall project ideas below and be sure to check out all of the other Michaels Makers fall decor ideas on the Michaels blog.

An InLinkz Link-up

Disclosure: I receive product from Michaels to come up with new and unique ideas.

Things I Found at the Biltmore

July 30, 2016 by Ashley Hackshaw

A few things I found at the Biltmore yesterday. We have annual passes to the Biltmore House in Asheville and we visit often. I always find something new and amazing every time we go. Like Myrtle.

At the Biltmore barnyard, Myrtle laid right out in front of us in the sun and we couldn’t help but admire her wonderful weird beauty. She’s a Transylvanian Naked Neck chicken. Her bare neck is supposed to be that way..it helps reduce heat stress. I love that she has two odd feathers just hanging from the middle of her neck like accessories:

We spent a lot of time in the Biltmore Conservatory this trip. I guess it’s a place that many people skip over when visiting! Brett’s Aunt Karen was visiting with us and she knew the name of almost every flower in the greenhouses. It was like we had a personal tour guide. I love this beautiful Coleus. I think it’s a Strawberry Dew Drop variety. It would look wonderful as a fabric print:

Before and After. These little pods of this hanging Hoya wax plant were opening up into these beautiful little stars. Don’t they look like they could have come straight from the planet Pandora in the movie Avatar?

Another alien looking plant…the Southern Purple Pitcher plant! These cluster together into a dense crowd and collect any rainfall. Each one held pool of water:

This gorgeous Hibiscus took my breath away. The colors were so bright!

These leaves look like someone just took a paintbrush to it:

Still no idea what this one is…anyone?

I love the Biltmore’s blog…a recent post about the Vanderbilt’s daughter Cornelia detailed her own love of flowers. I couldn’t imagine growing up with that amazing conservatory! The superintendent used to send the young Cornelia pressed flowers from her garden while she was traveling for extended amounts of time with her parents!