Monogram Wreath

It's good to be back to posting projects again...

 I toyed with the idea of giving up the blog for Lent, then it was Facebook, but now, I've decided on giving up the radio. I will not listen to the radio in the car. I will use that time to just be in the quiet & have conversations with God. I am in my car alone every weekday- on my way to work, to lunch & back again, then on my way home. Why not use this extra time for that, instead of listening to mindless babble and music??

This is just a quick project that I threw together a few weeks ago. I had seen some ideas on Pinterest (gotta' love Pinterest)...some examples are here, here, and here.

I had to have a replacement for our Christmas greenery wreath, and I thought it was way too early for the Spring wreath. This is more of a transitional look from Winter to Spring, I guess.

My momma got me this gorgeous wooden monogram for Christmas. I had picked it out a while back, and she got it for me. :) I have since discovered that my granddad could actually make these suckers! (I hope to post on some projects soon that he created & I painted. We have 3 "creations" already done, and two waiting to be painted by me! I am loving the partnership we've started, and we hope to eventually sell some of these "creations". It's a fun hobby for us to do in our spare time, and we're really enjoying it so far. If it makes us a little extra spending money,
it would be even more enjoyable!)

I had purchased the base grapevine wreath at the thrift store a while back, and have already used it once in my framed Fall wreath. I love that it's just a bare wreath & you can add anything to it- makes it very versatile!

The deco mesh bow was from one of my dad's funeral arrangements, and I have used it ever since. It decorated our mailbox all during the Fall.

 

I'm going to enjoy this on the door for a while. I probably won't bust out the flowered Spring wreath until March or so. I will then need to find a home for my wooden monogram. I had thought when I first got it that I would paint it, but I am really loving the natural wood color.

For now, I love the wreath on our front door. To me, you can't go wrong with a cute, classic monogram!

I hope everyone is having a great week & will have a great weekend! I am not looking forward to the cold up ahead, but I'm already planning on spending all day Saturday inside the house, so it won't affect me much. I have some projects I can work on indoors, but I am really itching to get out & work in the basement, painting a piece of furniture that I am super pumped about! It has just been too cold lately to get things done outside or in the basement. That's the only downfall I've found for my little crafting area. Oh well, it gives me something to look forward to for now. :)

Fall Deco Mesh Wreath- So Easy!

Hope you all had a great long weekend! I wasn't as productive as I hoped to be, but I enjoyed myself, and that's what matters. We had a great time watching the Alabama football game with Zach's dad on Saturday, then we had some restful days after church on Sunday & again on Monday. We spent a lot of time moving things around and out of certain rooms, in preparation for our new flooring!! We will hopefully have ceramic tile in our kitchen, laundry room, and two bathrooms within a few weeks!! It's been a lot of decision-making & preparation, but it's almost time for the last (and most important) step- installing. They will start soon!
I'll share pics when it's done!

I got a lot done in the project department over the weekend. A couple of them that I wrapped up are gifts, so I'll have to wait & post pics on those once they are given to the recipient. :)  My sweetie worked his tail off over the weekend, trying to wrap everything up before our anniversary vacay. That's one downfall of owning your own business. I am wrapping things up at work too & trying to clean off my desk, but I do have the comfort of knowing things are taken care of while I'm gone. We're so thankful to have the opportunity to take a break & relax every once in a while! We ended the long weekend with a great family dinner with my family on Monday night.

So, I'm really into wreaths recently. I think it's just the change in seasons coming up that has me wanting to create things with new colors. I just posted my framed Fall wreath a couple weeks ago, and here I am creating another wreath for Fall. I'm going to run out of spaces to put these, I'm sure.

Anyway, I bought some Fall deco mesh at Hob Lob (if you don't already know, I'm in love with this stuff), so I was thinking up ways to use it. I had gathered some inspiration from this pin on Pinterest, and I also knew that I could just copy my same routine for the deco mesh bows I made at Christmas last year to make more pretty bows. Deco mesh is pretty much a foolproof crafting accessory- take it from me, a fool in crafting. :) You basically just gather the mesh & tie it up with a twist tie or some wire, and it turns into a pretty bow. Or, you can use a wire wreath form & it just shapes the wreath for you. This is what I wanted to try!

I scored this wire wreath form at a yard sale a few weekends ago...

I took off the silver branches. (I may find somewhere to put them for Christmas, but if not, the purchase was still worth it for the wire form.) This process was rather messy...

After the quick clean-up, I was left with this...

I looked to Pinterest for the best way to create a deco mesh wreath, and found this awesome pin, originating from this site. (I confess, I first attempted to just wrap & weave the deco mesh throughout the wreath form, but that did not work at all. So, I then decided to look up instructions.) :)

There is a secret ingredient to the mix that I was missing!
Pipe cleaners!!

My local Dollar General had these for $1 a bag, so I grabbed up two. I figured the orange ones would work ok, since the Fall deco mesh has orange thread throughout. Ha- not the case! I ended up spray painting both the wreath form & the pipe cleaners with brown spray paint, so they would not show through.
This worked like magic!

According to the site I used, you basically tie the pipe cleaners at intervals around the wreath form. Then, you start at one end, tie the deco mesh to the pipe cleaner, then bunch the deco mesh & continue tying it to the form with the pipe cleaners. EASY!!

Since my wreath form had two wire levels, I started a second layer on the second wire, making it fuller.

I then took to my first plan & wrapped some deco mesh around the wreath, filling in any gaps. This made it even more full.

I then hung it on the laundry room door to make sure it was even, and fill out any parts that looked sparse. It needed something added- just something! It was way too boring for my taste.

Then comes the idea of some glittery leaves that I actually already had. These leaves were in an arrangement of my dad's, and I used them last Fall on my dining room table. I grabbed up a few, and began hot gluing them to the bottom on one side of the wreath.

Yep- that was exactly what it needed!

Here is the finished product, now bringing a little Fall beauty
to our front door...

A little closer look...



LOVE!

No-Cost Drawer Organization... I Like It!

As promised, here is my post on a little organization project that I did over the weekend. I think I was drawing my inspiration from a pin I pinned on my "Getting Organized" board on Pinterest.

It is such a great idea!

Zach was outside working, and was inside, bored. I went into the bathroom, opened up my top drawer to get something, and was disgusted. The following pic is what I saw...

Beware: I'm going to swallow my pride & show a Before picture that I'm not proud of. (Think back to

my Pantry Organization post back in February.)

This shows my main bathroom drawer BEFORE.

There is was just about everything in it...

I know...yikes...

I immediately started taking things out. Everything.

I then had a clean drawer, with the shelf paper actually visible. God bless the person who shelf-papered all of our bathroom & kitchen cabinets before we ever moved in! It is such an easy way
to keep them clean.

Once everything was out, I wiped the shelf paper down...

I then thought about those little Tupperware-type containers that are taking over my kitchen pantry. We have a carousel full of them, and probably use less than half of them. I grabbed up some of those, and brought them in to tackle the pile of stuff

from the drawer.

I was so happy to knock out two things at once: 

- organizing this mess of a drawer and

- making more room in the kitchen pantry...

All at no cost! Yay!

I even have extra room left in the drawer for more junk to acquire...

So, my Before & After...



BEFORE

AFTER

I hope the original pin inspires someone to take the simple approach to organization. You don't have to spend a lot on nice containers- you can simply use what you already have! It only took me about half an hour to finish this up, but it is already cutting out a lot of time in my mornings. It was totally worth it-

cost-wise & time-wise.

I am excited about our weekend coming up! Our church women's group has a fun Girls' Night Out planned at a murder mystery dinner theater. I can't wait to spend time with some wonderful friends! Hope you all have a great weekend!

$1.50 Kitchen Soap Stand- Thanks, Pinterest!

Well, we had a GREAT weekend! Every day had something planned, which I love! We kicked the weekend off right by me & my mom & some great friends of ours going to a play at our local community college. It was wonderful!! It amazes me each time I see a play there just how much talent we have in our little area!

On Saturday, my mom, grandmother & I went shopping, and all three of us found some awesome bargains! I only bought clothes, and we didn't even step foot in their Hob Lob...it's killing me not getting to go to my favorite store, but I can make it- only one more week to go until August!! On Sunday, church was great as always, and we ended the day by cleaning our front porch, just as we did with our back deck last weekend. The front door, porch railings, columns & spindles are all now sparkling white!

So, for my post (that I am very excited about)...

I guess this little project post will be the first in a series of Pinterest-related posts, entitled Thanks, Pinterest! I have gotten into a habit lately of grabbing up my iPhone right before bed, and ending up wasting an hour (or more) on Pinterest. I go straight to the DIY & Crafts category, and begin drooling at all of the crafty pins. Since the beginning of this little obsession, I have created several new boards, including but not limited to, "Painting", "Mod Podge Love" and "Crafty Ideas".

The pin featured here was one of the first pins that I knew I wanted to re-create...I'm including the original link here. The originating website of the pin is here. Bless this girl for thinking this up, because it is a great idea!

We have always kept our brush, dish soap & hand soap along the rim of our sink. There have been countless times when I have either knocked one or all of these into the sink, and/or come close to making them a victim of the garbage disposal. With this handy-dandy soap stand, I won't have to worry about that anymore. Now they have their own little home, and the sink rim is
now free from clutter!

I actually had this pin in the back of my mind, and while at a thrift store stop one day (before No-Spend July began), I found exactly what I needed for the project...

A tray for $1.00...

...and a candlestick for 50 cents...

 The pin shows to grab up the two items and coat with spray paint (which is the fun part!), then glue them together. I used my E6000 glue for extra strength.

Complete the look with maybe a pretty, colorful dishtowel, and place your dish soap & brush in their new home- you're done!

I can't believe this little handy project only cost $1.50, not including the spray paint & glue I already had. Even if you include those in the cost calculation, it's still totally cheap & totally worth it! No more soap scum build-up on the rim, and no more brushes falling into the sink.

This will be especially handy when we have our new stainless steel sink installed. (I really wanted to wait and post this project until after we installed our new sink, but I couldn't wait any longer!)

A quick Before & After...

BEFORE 

AFTER

I think it looks great with a dishtowel to add color too...

 ...but I like it better without...

Stay tuned (possibly tomorrow), because I have a soup recipe that I tried over the weekend to share, and it's a good one!

"Pinspirations"- Winter Edition

So, I have been hooked on Pinterest for a while now. I love it at any time, but I especially loved it during the Christmas season. I have gathered so many crafty ideas from it. It is such an easy way to share, and I love having a visual on everything. Here, I'm going to share with you three little ideas from Pinterest that I tried.
If you like one, pass it along. It's so fun to share these ideas!

It was a little late at the time I started some of my Christmas crafts, but that's how it is around our house. I don't work on any projects unless 1.) I have the time, and 2.) I'm in the mood. Lately, I had been at a loss for both! Ha! So, I am calling these "Winter" crafts. It still works.

Once Christmas was over, our choir Christmas concert was over (as well as all the lengthy rehearsals), things in general were back to normal, and the house was clean, I got to work. And, oh how I loved it! There's nothing like a good release, just something else to focus on, that's fun & requires little to no thinking.

These projects made me wish I would have gotten a little craftier before Christmas. I felt like I was making up for lost time though, so it's ok. Zach told me a while back that our guest room looks like Martha Stewart's storage room. Sad, but true. I have been piling up things, but they're all cheap & within reason, so it's not that bad. All I know is that I'm having so much fun with it, and getting to decorate the house with all of my creations. I enjoy looking at them so much, so that's worth it.

This one has to be my favorite so far...

-Iced Branches-


From save-on-crafts.com

I basically went by the instructions. I got the Colorfill diamond vase filler at Michael's. This was the only place I could find it. I went out into the yard & gathered up my sticks & branches,
then brought them inside.

I used Mod Podge as my glue, but you could use just about any kind of craft glue. I brushed it on the branches, then sprinkled the crystals on. I would rather sprinkle than roll it up. I didn't want to break any of the branches.

It did get a little messy...

...but, it was worth it!

Voila!

More detail...

Full table view...

Zach said he thinks I need more branches, so I may create more later. I just love the wintry look of these on our table!

-Glitter Branches-

I have seen these many places, but couldn't really find a Pinterest link for them. I knew that I wanted to try making these myself, since they are insanely expensive at a craft store. So, I started with gathering even more branches from our yard

(Zach probably thought I was an idiot). :)

I then bought both glitter glue & glitter shakers at the Dollar Tree.

I got my branches, laid them out, and brushed Mod Podge on them. Yet again, you could use any kind of glue. I then sprinkled the glitter all over. Instant loveliness!

I also tried the glitter glue, but wasn't as impressed. The sprinkle glitter was a lot brighter than the glitter glue. It was difficult to make a good pic of these, but you get the idea. I only made this one (It took a good bit of time)...

...I think I'll save the rest for next Christmas.

-Glass Apothecary-

I have also seen these on Pinterest, but this lovely pic is from a blog I frequent, In My Own Style.

These are simple, but beautiful, and SO cheap to create. I made my own glass apothecaries a while back, simply using dollar & thrift store vases & candlesticks. You can see that post here.

This Christmas, I used two on my dining room table, holding ornaments, and one in the bathroom for greenery & pinecones.

I added these to my collection this year. They were in my grandmother's house, just sitting there, so lonely. So, I grabbed them up, and am loving them in their new home!

Then after Christmas, I replaced the greenery & pinecones with my new iced branches & diamond filler for the dining table.
That pic is above, but I'll include a smaller version here...



What did we ever do before Pinterest??

Hope everyone is doing well! We will be starting on our packing tonight (woohoo!), so we are pumped to say the least! It's nice that we will only be packing Summer clothes, so we can start packing any time this week. I CANNOT wait to have a full week of relaxation. The only time we'll have to keep up with is when to go out to dinner. No alarm clocks- no work. My only goal for the week is to start & finish my new book, Water for Elephants. Sounds tough, huh?

Now, if we can only hang in there until we leave. :)

Scrabble Dabble

I am not only posting one, but TWO posts today. I am coming off of a really productive weekend (well, one day of actual productiveness if you want to get technical), so I'm really excited. Also, our vacay is coming up next week, so that just adds to the excitement!! In my next post, I'm going to share a couple of little Pinterest-inspired projects I finished up this weekend. I also almost finished my biggie project (that I started back in July), and I will post on that hopefully later this week.
I just have the top coat to go!

This is yet another idea from Pinterest that sparked my creativity. I have seen this once before, but when I saw it on Pinterest a while back, I knew I wanted to create one. I had just recently brought home an old, OLD Scrabble game from my grandmother's house. I wanted to keep it, because we used to play together when I would spend the night at her house.
We would always play Scrabble & dominoes. :)

I gathered the letters I needed & played around
with their arrangement...

Zach & I picked our favorite, which was the second one, with a little alteration. I then found a piece of cardboard backing, and started placing them. Easy enough. Next, I grabbed the hot glue gun and glued them all down in place.

I had a thrift store frame that I had spray painted red & distressed once before, and it was the perfect look for this. Here is the finished product & the frame at its new home on a shelf...

It doesn't get much simpler than that!

Pinhead

Hope everyone had a great long weekend!! We had a wonderful one! It was filled with football, food (of course), laying out for that last bit of Summer sun, shopping & resting. Alabama won big, we got to eat at our favorite restaurant Stix, and I got to shop at two different malls over the weekend. It's now back to work for the rest of this week and one more day,
then we are off to Disney!!!

I got a few new things for the house at Kirklands, which I may post on later. I love how just a few new things can really change up a room! Kirklands is a big obsession of mine, and speaking of obsessions, I now have a new one...

Yep, I have jumped on the band wagon. I kept seeing so many posts from people trying out Pinterest & loving it, so I got on one night to see what all the fuss was about. It was ok, but I was having problems "pinning" pictures, so I gave up for a while. Then, I was bored, again one night, and got on my iPhone to see if "there's an app for that" (haha...cheesy...), and lo & behold, there was.
I cannot tell you how much quicker & easier it was too!
I love how the app simplifies it for you.

Basically, Pinterest is a photo cache with a plethora of photos that you can "pin" to your "board" if you like the photo. (That doesn't sound very simplified when I read it back.) You simply see a photo you like, click "Repin", and it pins it to a board. You can have countless boards with different subjects to keep your pinned photos categorized. So far, this is what I've got...

These are just screen shots from my iPhone. I posted them to show you some of the categories I have for my boards. It's so easy once you get the hang of it. What's really neat is to pin a bunch of photos, then go back & look at them all together. You can see the many things you love at once. It's kind of a photographic description of what & who you are, if you will.

I'm going to pick out a few photos that I loved so much
I had to share...

Some inspirational things:


I love, love, love this! And, for the record,
I would be oh-so-proud. :)


LOVE this!

Amen!

One of my favorite verses!

So very true!

Some of our favorite places:

Disney

Maui, Hawaii

I also included two pics of babies that look like our babies:

 

I could squeeze this little baby & never let go!

I couldn't get over how similar this Border Collie looks to Cosmo! Wow!

And things that make me laugh...

And, of course, I couldn't leave this out...

Roll Tide Roll!!!

I'm working on a little Bama door hanger project for Mom & me, so I hope to post on that soon. I would LOVE to wrap up several of the projects I have in the works before we leave out on vacation, but that's a big fat "maybe." We'll see. :)