Holiday Wreath for 2014

It's no secret that the best time to do holiday shopping is the day after Christmas. Call me crazy, but I just can't pass up a good sale and our local Michael's craft store had some excellent deals this year. Sadly, many of their sale items were heavily picked over by the time my mom and I arrived at the store, but we still found some things that made it worth the trip.

Somehow I got it into my mind that I would create a silver and purple holiday wreath for our church for use next year and lo and behold, a few bags of floral goodies and several glue sticks later, my dream came to life. Here's how it progressed:

After I'd picked out the wreath fillers at Michaels, I came home and arranged them sans glue to see how they would look.

I couldn't find silver pointsettias so I used white ones instead and added silver glitter
around the center. 

Then I used silver spray paint on the filler items I found so that they'd go with the color palette.

The finished product!

Celebrating Fall

I had the foresight to decorate our front porch for the fall season before the boys arrived. I'm so glad I did! For the sake of saving precious free time (which I have little of these days), I went with a theme that we can keep up over Halloween and Thanksgiving. Done and done.

It sort of seems silly to be excited about such a trivial thing as fall decorations, but I'm quickly discovering that any "me time" activities that I can squeeze in throughout the day help keep me sane. Oh, the joys of motherhood! :)

Fun With Washi Tape

Ashley's Dandelion Wishes has TONS of ideas for using washi tape. (If you're unfamiliar with washi tape, hink duct tape light, but with more design options.) Here are a few fun ideas that stood out to me, but you can check out the entire list here. So creative!

More Home Improvements

We've also added some new pieces to our living room and dining room recently and I'm in love with the changes. In the living room, we added some french-inspired artwork on the walls and added a beautiful oriental rug underneath the coffee table. In the dining room, we added new lighting fixtures that also sort of have some french flair. One year after moving in, we're finally putting our stamp on our house. It's been a lot of fun so far!

DIY Fabric Bleach Art

Craft By Photo has this fun idea for adding a fun design to ordinary table napkins.  You just need a little bleach, a pencil, and some toothpicks. In the example below, she created a pretty floral pattern, but if you're artsy enough, the sky is the limit!

Home Improvement Projects Galore

With two babies on the way in October this year (yay!), we've gone into a cleaning frenzy in preparation for our impending lack of free time.

Last week we tackled the rock steps in our backyard. As you can see from the first photo below, the steps didn't align with our gate and they were crooked and quite steep so climbing up and down them was tricky. With some heavy machinery, cheap paid help, and guidance from my father (who happens to be a professional landscaper), we were able to complete the project in about 4 hours. Now I just need to find some time to plant some water-absorbing ground cover around the stones so it looks a little more lively.

Up next week: we redo our front porch!

BEFORE

AFTER!

Mid-Week Blues

Anyone else feeling the mid-week blahs? It would be so nice to stay at home and craft something like this Sharpie pen bowl today, but alas, I started a new job last week and duty calls. I have a love for all things with polka dots so this bowl really speaks to me, but this project could be replicated using other fun shapes (hearts, triangles, etc.). I also love that it utilizes Ikea dinnerware. Cheap and easy! 

You can read the full set of DIY instructions here. 

In Search of New Oven Mitts

Our oven mitts have seen better days so I'm on the prowl for a new pair. I find that cooking can sometimes be boring so I'm looking for something that'll keep things interesting in the kitchen.  I'm shying away from the standard paisley and cupcake prints and going for fun. Perhaps I'll go with one of these choices?

Lately...

Remember all those unfinished projects I mentioned I'd be tackling as a result of unemployment? One of those projects was painting some of the rooms in our house that either need a fresh coat of paint or a completely new color. I started with our living room and worked my way into our dining room (pictured below). I'll be moving on to our hallway next. I'm thinking something along the lines of seafoam green there, but I haven't decided yet. Painting is a lot of work, but I'm having a blast!

Simple DIY Gift Ideas on Pinterest

I found this "10 Simple DIY Gift Ideas" guide on Mashable and some of these ideas were just too cute not to share. My favorites are below, but there's a lot to choose from for anyone in the do-it-yourself gift-giving mode this year.

I love these adorable jelly jars with painted animal lids. 

Men's old dress shirts find new purpose with these wine bottle holders. 

Sheet Music Christmas Trees

Holy Craft has a quick and easy way for bringing a little bit of old world charm to your holiday decorating with the use of sheet music. Personally, I've been wanting to add some miniature Christmas trees to my existing holiday decorations, but they're so darn expensive. I like this idea because it's much cheaper and you can use songs that mean something to you for a more personal touch. If songs aren't your thing, I bet you could use holiday wrapping paper as a substitute instead. Cute idea!

Holiday Apple Centerpieces

We're hosting a few holiday gatherings in the coming weeks and I'm looking for cute, cost-effective ideas for decorating our dining room table. Apple centerpieces seem to be popping up all over Pinterest this year and given the popularity of them in Washington state, I think they'd make for a great solution. Now which one to go with... I like them all!

Via Finding Home Online

Via Hanna's Charming Christmas

Unknown source

Via Tangled Up in Knots

Mason Jar Soap Dispenser

If you have a farmhouse/country style when it comes to decorating, you'll love this project. Our Lovely Bungalow has a great idea for making mason jar soap dispensers using thrift store finds, a can of spray paint, a hammer and a little glue. It doesn't take much to complete the transformation and this project is completely customizable. With the holidays just around the corner, I might even use red spray paint instead of white and wrap some plaid ribbon around the top of the jar to spruce it up. So many things you can do!

Wordy Eggs, A Novel Idea

Hello readers! It's been a while. Apologies for being MIA last week. We've been out of town working on the family cabin renovations. The good news is that it's starting to look awesome! Will post pictures later this week.

In other news... isn't this wordy egg tutorial awesome? I love those little birds nests with robin eggs that shabby chic fans like to put everywhere and this offers a nice alternative, especially if you choose pages from a favorite poem or novel. So cute!

Lost Sock Board

Good morning, readers! It's guilty secret sharing time!

The topic for the day: the scoop on socks.

I'll admit it. I'm terrible when it comes to loading the wash machine with full sets of socks so I always end up with mismatched items at the end of the cycle. Even worse, I toss the mismatched socks into our sock drawers and what's out of sight then becomes out of mind... so our socks stay mismatched for weeks.

Enter: missing sock boards! They're small enough to fit somewhere in or near the laundry room so our stuff doesn't just get tucked away, destined to be forgotten. How's that for organization?

I'm not a huge fan of the color scheme, but that can be customized. You can read the full tutorial at Just Us Four.

Globes Galore

Lately, I've had a major sense of wanderlust which may explain why I'm so drawn to these amazing repurposed globe projects.  Aren't they fascinating? I love it when something ordinary takes on a new, inspirational form.

1.  Clock - Dishfunctional Designs
2.  Night Lights/Art - Positive Ponderings
3.  Disco Ball - Six Axle
4.  Grill - Inhabitat.com
5.  Bowl - Rose of Sharon Blog
6.  Kitchen Light - The Inspired Room

Coffee Filter Lamp Shades

Dude Craft has a great idea for transforming an ordinary paper lamp (think Ikea) into a work of art, using nothing but a Modge Podge and coffee filters. The patterns are beautiful, aren't they?

DIY St. Patrick's Day Votive Holders

Here's a fun little project I came up with over the weekend: do-it-yourself festive St. Patrick's Day votive holders!

I had a strong desire to do something creative and I'd been wanting to try Sharpie paint pens for a while. It turns out they're really fun to paint with! Also, when you're drawing with them on glass, if you make a mistake, you can quickly wipe it away and start over.  No fuss or mess!

Here's what you'll need to make your own St. Patrick's Day votive holders:

• glass votive holders (I used one that I had sitting around the house)
• votive candles
• Sharpie paint pens (I picked up several in green, silver, white and black from Michael's)

The green and silver colors contrast nicely, don't they?

Jumbo Sharpie paint pens like this one go for $3.00 each at craft stores.

A closer look...

I've shared this project at:

http://www.alittletipsy.com/
http://polkadotsonparade.blogspot.com/
http://somedaycrafts.blogspot.com/

DIY Amber Mason Jars

C.W. Frosting always has fabulous inspirational DIY projects and this week is no exception.  Check out this tutorial for turning old mason jars into beautiful works of art.

I can imagine these serving as gorgeous centerpiece arrangements at a wedding, baby shower or birthday party. Add some yellow wildflowers and greenery and these things will look like they came straight out of the pages of an event planner's portfolio!

Romantic Love Letter Lamp

Love Pottery Barn, but hate their high prices?  The Shabby Sheek Creek has this step-by-step guide for turning an ordinary lamp into something that looks like it came straight from the store.

The lamp shade itself contains words from old love letters and cards that have been translated into French, though you could also pull phrases from treasured poems, books, etc. It makes for one beautiful, personalized, shabby chic lamp that's sure to get people talking!

A lamp like this goes fro $200+ in the store.
You can make it for under $150!