Valentine’s Day Garland: Two Ways

February 13, 2013 By Leave a Comment

T’was the night before Valentine’s Day and all through the house…I was scrambling to put up last minute decorations.  Par for the course.  For a quick project, I made heart garland using a couple sheets of craft paper and twine.  I used a cookie cutter to trace hearts on the paper (hey, use what ya’ got), cut them out and strung them on the twine.

I couldn’t decide where to put the garland so I tried two options.  First, I strung the garland on a frame we had sitting around the house (same one I used for the glitter deer bust at Christmas) -

The frame has little metal clips to secure the back, so I pulled those out and wrapped the twine around them -

I put the frame on the side table by our front door, along with some Valentine’s M&M’s (which probably won’t make it through the night…) -

For option #2, I hung the garland on my old standby, the fireplace -

Oh garland, I love you anywhere I put you.

Filed Under: Decor, Holiday

Pure Michigan Christmas

January 1, 2013 By Leave a Comment

 So this post has been a bit delayed as I’ve spent the last couple days laying in the fetal position in bed and in the ER due to a nasty little stomach bug.  Ending 2012 with a bang!

This Christmas, we packed up our presents and got our snow on in Michigan.  It’s a quick 12 hour drive, but thanks to a new DVD player for the car, Juice was a champ during the trip -

The weather made our travels a little suspect at times, but we made it safe and sound to the big mitten.  While there wasn’t a ton of it, Brian immediately took Olivia out to play in the snow, something she’d never seen before -

Then Brian and I headed out to catch a Michigan State basketball game -

We spent the next couple days with family, and lots of food, and then it was Christmas time!

Olivia had a very successful Christmas, but apparently she favors more masculine toys because she immediately snatched up her cousins Ninja Turtles, The Hulk, and dinosaurs -

And she got a sled, which would come in handy the next couple days -

She even got a little sledding practice in when her cousin Luke pulled her around the house -

To truely make it a Michigan Christmas, I gave Brian a box full of Michigan goodies, including beer brewed in Michigan, Faygo, Verners, Schulers Cheese, Sanders ice cream topping, Cherry Republic cherry salsa and cherry jam, and a Say Yes to Michigan shirt -

After Christmas we headed up to my parents cottage and spent the next couple days playing in the snow -

 

Then it was time for the slopes, where Brian managed to get me on a snowboard -

 

I never made it off the bunny hill, spending most of my time on my backside cursing at all the little kids skiing laps around me, including our nephews -

 So the next day we kept it a little more low key and went snowshoeing -

 In the end, it was another great trip back home, Pure Michigan style.  After an action packed week, Juice was ready for some sleep -

Filed Under: Family, Holiday

Merry Everything!

December 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Merry/Happy (insert whatever holiday you celebrate here)!

Wishing you a very happy holiday season!

We have arrived safetly in Michigan (Juice did amazing on the car ride up) and we’re enjoying a break from the chaos that is our lives. I’ve been plotting and scheming more projects for when we get home, can’t wait to get our DIY on again!

Filed Under: Holiday

Target Hack: Balls & Bells

December 16, 2012 By 3 Comments

I was at Target a couple weeks ago and saw this guy -

Love!  But I just couldn’t bring myself to shell out $25 (which actually isn’t that bad).  Instead I snapped a picture and headed off to Micheal’s.  A Styrofoam wreath, some poms, and a couple packages of bells later, I was ready to bust out the glue gun again!

I started by randomly gluing the large poms on -

Then filled in the rest of the wreath with the small poms -

Last, I glued on the bells -

I’m glad I went with gold and silver bells and it might be hard to tell from the pictures, but they’re frosted, not shiny.

In all, it took me about a half  hour to make and ended up being about $10 less than the Target wreath.

       Styrofoam wreath: $2.49 (50% off)
       2 packages 1.5″ pom poms: $1.99 each
       3 packages 1″ pom poms: $1.99
       1 package assorted silver and gold bells: $3.99
 
       Total: $16.43

Our new wreath is now hanging out on our blue back door -

What holiday decor have you DIY’d this year?

Filed Under: DIY, Holiday

Taking Christmas by the Antlers

December 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Animals heads are popping up everywhere right now.  Cardboard, paper mache, ceramic…and glitter?  Yea, glitter isn’t exactly my style but I’ve seen a couple versions lately that were pretty cute.  And the cheapskate in me thought this would be a great way to incorporate some wildlife into our house while I save my pennies for this little fella -

 

 

So I tapped my inner 4 year old and got my glitter on!  I found a deer silhouette here and traced it on a poster board.   Then I spread a thin layer of glue in the silhouette and poured a crap-ton of glitter over the glue.  After letting it sit for a few minutes, I swept off of excess glitter and gave it a light spritz of hairspray so we wouldn’t be finding glitter all over our house for years to come.  Then I put it in a frame we had laying around the house and voila, he was ready!

If you look closely you can see a couple spots where the glitter didn’t really take.  I just used my finger and a q-tip to spread the glue, but it might go on more evenly if you used a small paint brush.  I actually don’t mind the gaps, it breaks up the insane amount of glitter I used.  Right now, he resides on the Christmas-ish mantel with the felt and twine trees I made -

I can’t believe we’re already t-minus 13 days until these stockings are full!

Filed Under: Decor, DIY, Holiday

Charlie Brown In the House

December 10, 2012 By 3 Comments

Well…his tree anyway -

We welcomed this pint sized little guy into our pint sized house last weekend and it will be illuminating our living room until we head to Michigan for Christmas this year.  To be honest, we really don’t have enough ornaments to fill a big tree and Livie is at the put-my-hands-on-everything stage so a small, and elevated, tree is perfect.  To give the tree a little extra sumthin’ sumthin’, we put her in a planter that we picked up from IKEA a while back -

We’d been using the planter as a home for Juice’s stuffed animals, but they’ve been temporarily evicted and are now braving it on the living room floor, taking turns keeping watch for Riley.  We’ve only had one casualty so far -

A faux fur rug and some lights later, we were in business!

And to get the most out of our short time with the tree, we used it to lure Olivia into a cute Christmas card picture.  A thousand pictures later, we had one good picture and tons of, well, these -

 

Grandparents, you can expect your cards in 5-10 business days.

Filed Under: Holiday

Hostess With the Mostess

December 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment

‘Tis the season…for holiday parties!  And according to a magazine I was reading this weekend, that means I need to stock up on hostess gifts. The thing is, I don’t really operate in a world where we run around giving each other hostess gifts.  We love each other and all, but I would actually feel guilty if someone gave me a gift just because I had a party for people I already like.  But what got me wasn’t the fact that the magazine suggested I give hosts a present, it was what they suggested I give them.  A $200 portable speaker?  I don’t know who wrote this article, but I need to start inviting them to our parties!

It got me thinking though…how could a normal person show their appreciation to a host without spending $1000 or making the host feel guilty?  Then it hit me, undercover presents!  What’s an undercover present you ask?   It’s a present that doesn’t look like a present.  For example, let’s say your bringing food to a party.  Buy a cute dish to bring it in and leave the dish at the end of the night.  Or leave a serving set you used for the food.

  

Still more than you were looking to spend?  You could buy some recipe cards, like these -

And jot down the recipe of the dish you brought (assuming you’re a good cook and people would actually want to make your dish again…).  Not bringing any food?  Maybe you could bring a cook book to inspire your host for the next party they throw -

Or you could go a completely different route.  Guarantee a good party by bringing a game for everyone to play -

Or stick with something more traditional like a plant or an herb, but put it in a cute planter that will last long after the plant dies (oh come on, I’m not the only person out there with a black thumb)

Now go out and stockpile those gifts!

Filed Under: Holiday, Products

A Tree of a Different Color

November 29, 2012 By 6 Comments

Not to sound like a Scrooge, but I’ve never been big on decorating for holidays.  A Christmas tree here, some pumpkins there, maybe even some candy hearts in a bowl, but nothing over the top.  It’s not that I don’t like holidays, I think I just have a hard time shelling out the cash for decorations.  But with Juice getting older, it’s time I step it up and be a good mama and decorate!  So this Christmas I decided to take matters into my own hands and make some decorations.  I promised myself I would wait until Thanksgiving passed, but this week it was on!  Project #1 included two cones, felt, and some twine.

Oh yeah, and my first experience with a glue gun.  It. Was. Awesome.  For the first tree, I used the twine to cover one of the cones.  I had some trouble at the top, trying to figure out what technique to use, but after a couple times around the tree I get a pretty good rhythm going -

I figured out it was best not to glue every inch of the twine down (way to tedious and messy), but to just use a touch of glue every once in a while.  When I was done I had one fuzzy little tree, but after giving it a trim it looked pretty good!

For the second tree, I did a play off this one from Land of Nod -

I loved the scalloped pattern, which I’m totally obsessed with right now.  I decided to mainly use gray and cream, with a touch of red mixed in -

I cut two different sizes of half circles, using the larger ones at the bottom and the smaller ones as I moved towards the top -

After topping off the tree with one last large piece, it was done!

Right now the trees reside on the fireplace mantel, which is begging for a little more Christmas cheer.

The grand total for both trees?  Less than $10!

  • paper mache cone – large: $2.99
  • paper mache cone – small: $2.69
  • felt sheets – 7 @ $0.20

Total cost: $7.08

Hopefully this week we’ll bust out the rest of the Christmas decorations…and maybe throw in a couple more holiday crafts…Ah, the Christmas season has arrived!

Filed Under: Decor, DIY, Holiday

Turkey Rewind

November 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Wow, I’ve been really bad at this blog thing the last couple weeks. Holidays + 9 to 5 + Life = No Time.  But I’m back!  While I’ve got some small crafty holiday projects and a couple home projects up my sleeve for the next couple weeks (including furniture making, gasp!), I thought I’d start with a quick recap of our Thanksgiving break.  I was lucky to have 5 days off work and I spent it doing more R&R than DIY. We spent Thanksgiving morning at the park, where Juice has discovered her love of slides.  She’s totally cool with going down by herself, but every time she flips herself over on her stomach and slides down feet first.  Apparently Brian loves slides too as he mushed himself and Livie down this slide -

Let’s just say the slide wasn’t made for an adult butt.  After Thanksgiving dinner with Brian’s fam, we brought home the left over turkey carcass so Brian could make his post-Thanksgiving turkey soup.  This is the highlight of every Thanksgiving for him (besides family time of course), it’s about the only time of the year he’s really excited to be in the kitchen.  He even made me a vegetarian batch this year, my sweet husband.

The next day Brian, his brother, and his dad headed to ECU to catch a football game and I hunkered down to avoid anything Black Friday related.  Me and crowds do not equal a fun time.  Instead, I took advantage of the good weather and spent some more outdoor time with Liv.  On our walk I snapped some pics of fall in all it’s glory -

   

    

   

That last picture?  Our grass, BOOM!  And…I may have borrowed some foliage from the park…and it may be on our mantel right now…

They were on the ground, don’t judge.  Finally, we capped the weekend off by picking up our nugget of a Christmas tree -

Oh yes, it easily fit in a shopping cart.  We’re headed to Michigan for Christmas this year so we opted for a Charlie Brown tree.  But of course, Juice was the highlight of my time off.  After 5 days, we had to find new “toys” for her -

She had a couple cases of crazy nap hair -

She spent some quality time with Riley -

And there were even a couple meltdowns -

Not gonna lie, I may have been wishing for Monday at this particular moment.

Filed Under: Family, Holiday, Life

Sneak Peak & Halloween Garland

October 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The last couple weeks have been a little slow in the DIY world for us, I blame it on the amazing fall weather and Brian’s love of bachelor parties.  On the bright side, we’re almost done with a little makeover of our first floor bathroom.  As we work on the finishing touches, here’s a little sneak peak -

Hope to be back soon with the whole shabang!  In the meantime, we put up the Halloween garland that I made last year (inspired by this pin)-

And I’m frantically brainstorming for ideas on what Juice can be for Halloween this year.  Time…is…running…out…

Filed Under: Decor, Holiday, House
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