Updates to our Abode

We've lived in our house almost 3 months now.  Thats long enough to have unpacked the things we really need and to realize that a box of framed pictures that need to be hung to "decorate" isn't really critical to daily life.  Eventually...on a Saturday when I wouldn't rather be cooking or crafting, maybe that kind of thing will happen.

In the meantime, there were a few other things that needed to be done to spruce up the place.

It started with a marathon shopping day and a car full of stuff looking like this:

Ikea!
I assembled some shelves for our laundry room. One shelf is at a bit of a slant...oh well, what can you really expect from $40 at Ikea?  It does the job that is needed.   

Bonus: A full laundry basket of "Hey Zach you should put those away" clothes fits on  the middle shelf!

I also got a microwave cart for the kitchen, opening up coveted counter space for my mixer. (I may or may not have kneaded/made bread using my mixer on the floor prior to this day. I'll never confess.)

And on the left, you can see our new bar-height kitchen table. We have space for a formal dining table in the living area (if we hadn't broken it.) This is doing a great job as homework-spot and table while we avoid dealing with the dining table situation.

Its beginning to feel like home! I won't show you how I've trashed the guest room with craft projects. Its too embarrassing.  But if you come visit, I promise to completely clean it up 100% so you have a place to stay! 

Christmas Mantle!

Due to a trip to Scotland (where I nearly got snowed in) I had a late start on my Christmas decorating this year.

Unpacking our boxes I realized I have a lot of snowmen things...I mean a lot! Don't get me wrong, I love snowmen (and they conveniently provide decoration through at least February!) but I think I'm going to start looking for more nativity themed decor.

Remember my cheap-o Target star and spray painting project? Love it. Oh, and those 2 ceramic snowmen are salt and pepper shakers some gals and I painted at my bachelorette party.

More clearance snowmen from last year...and my "D" letter has gotten a remodel...love spray paint!

Lastly, the wedding centerpieces I never had...Not that I didn't like mine, but I did like the look of cranberries floating in water. Not that this picture and lighting does it any justice, thats for sure. These are sitting on a $.50 floor tile from Home Depot that I spray painted (and a little cork board under that to protect my table.) Loving the floor tile "coaster" and will have to work that into more things in the future. I think I can use it as a trivet, even...maybe?

Christmas Craft: 5 minute Wreath (Ok, 15)

Every year, I see a wreath or Christmas craft idea but it is usually too late. Like last year, I made the ornament wreath, which apparently didn't make the blog but was those fragile circle ornaments hot glued to a hanger. That was fun, but a lot of glue, and very fragile results. So 2 years ago I purchased the ornaments at 90% off, so at least the idea only cost around $3 to make. I trashed it when the season was over.

Then last year I saw this other idea, making a wreath out of cookie cutters. But I already had my other ornamet wreath! Dilemmas. After Christmas I found these again for some ridiculous clearance and boxed them away for this year.

Enter: 5 minute wreath (That really took much longer.)

First of all, take off the price tags right away. Mine were very stuck after a year in the garage. I tried soaking the cutters in water, which just made them rusty. So I settled for carefully arranging them such that the price tags didn't show.

Then I glued.  And it was finished. 

And I decided that I actually DIDN'T want to see those price tags, so I spray painted it red.

*Instant love*

In hindsight, it would have been cool to paint these both red and green before glueing them. The wreath isn't perfect - you can still see the price tags through the paint if you look hard enough - so this wreath is out on the front door where hopefully the lighting will be bad enough no one will notice. The wreath itself is a little thin...not sure how I could have made that better except to jumble the cutters all over, but, then you can't see the shapes.

So what's the verdict...for the $5 that this cost, should I store it a year in the garage, or toss it and hope for new inspiration by December 2012???

Last Ode to Fall

I know, I know - I am finally getting around to the fall blog topics. So I was lazy about uploading my camera pictures! One look at these gorgeous pumpkins and you'll hopefully forgive me.

Zach and I spent a Saturday afternoon in Half Moon Bay. First stop: Farmer John's pumpkin patch.

 I love all the varieties in shape and color they had there.

 Are these squashes? Next year I need to study up a bit more and figure out which of these things I can cook after I use them to decorate.

 More awesome pumpkins. Love the white one on the left. Actually all of them in this picture!

 Here are bunch of mixed breed (?) pumpkins. Kind of cool, in a scientific way. Not what I was looking for today though.

 We weren't doing jack-o-lanterns, but I couldn't get over how gigantic these pumpkins were.

 A couples picture because we have a grand total of 4 of these since getting 1,000 taken on our wedding day...

And lastly...where the pumpkins ended up! On the mantle.

Did you decorate with any pumpkins this year? Come on people...I know you all blog too...show some pictures!!! :)

Home Decor: Collage Wall

In our house, we have a long hallway leading from the living room to the office and bathroom.  Huge white space in a sorta-well lit area that was begging me for some color, especially inspired by variations online of this post. Since the majority of other photos in the house were all wedding related, I aimed to avoid that theme for the wall here. I wanted people to be able to find themselves on the wall when they come to visit. (Side note: We have zero photos of ourselves with many of our local friends. I need to get the camera out more! I just feel awkward and cheesy about it!)

So, what is not shown in these photos, is the mess on the fireplace I made for the probably 4 months that this was in work. I was collecting garage sale frames, painting all my old ones, cleaning the glass, and lastly, waiting to find pictures for them all.  (No problem on my side, but I figured it wouldn't be fair if none of the pictures are Zach's!)

So I painted everything black, then noticed a few of the frames didn't take the black so well. And it was an overwhelming amount of black. And I had this clearance bucket of aqua paint. So I repainted some.  The aqua wasn't glossy. So then I mod-podged those frames for some shine. (I know. Took forever. Hence 4+ months on the fireplace)

FINALLY.  Stocked up on command strips and ordered all the pictures and framed everything and put up the strips...and waited...the mandatory hour before you can hang things with command strips (this was the hardest part of all. And you really have to do it, since a picture, mirror, and mop-hanger have all fallen down after 6+ months because I did not follow that rule.)

So finally (again.) Here is the almost finished product!  I left some gaps in there because I want to put the letter "D" in one spot and I wanted to have room to expand with new photos.

 One of my favorites:

 View from the other side...

 Another favorite!

How do you use your photos to decorate your house?

Crafting with Garage Sale Treasures.

Recently I went to Michael's and wandered around for some inspiration.

Cool mirror, $89, I have a similar one in mind as a craft that should only cost $15.

I love snowmen, and bells. Couldn't resist photographing this ornament so I can try a re-make at home.

What's this? Another bell craft? And I have those exact bells (silver) at home!

 Enter: Garage saling with a favorite friend.  Yielded: One garlic press, one set of flexible flashy bracelets, and...

 and...$.50...A BELL!!!  I can't wait to try that 2nd idea with this guy. (And its huge!)

 And I got these beaded treasures for $1.  I know I mentioned that in my last post. Even if I don't use the beads, I think the jewelry parts are definitely worth $1.

So, with my bell ornament (soon to be, I hope) I'm going to have a problem. I already have enough ornaments to FILL my Christmas tree. (Thanks, Mom!) What will I do with this one? Gasp - get rid of an old one? Maybe incorporate some into my yet-to-be-designed mantle? Hm...any ideas?

Homemade: Fall Burlap Wreath

Hi Gang. Wow am I behind on post topics! This lovely wreath has already been on the door nearly a month.  The previous door hanging, my flag book was inspired by a fellow Christy, but who lives in Texas and has a far more consistent (nearly famous!) blog. Seriously. Go read it for a while then really need to make fancy cupcakes and make a tu-tu.  Christy (the cooler one) posts pretty much every day so I love reading all her stuff.

Burlap is nothing new to the Cooler Christy, but it (and wreath making) was pretty new to me.  Being a newbie, I bought the smallest possible wreath at the store and then Zach (true love here) went with me to JoAnn's to get burlap. (Then I went with him to best buy to but something to enable a new video game. Craft Store / Video Game - I guess we are even then...and sooooo obviously not parents!!)

Anyhow. I was feeling lazy (i.e., didn't want to burn myself with the hot glue gun) so I decided to give the stapler a go.  I cut some strips and successfully got burlap fuzz all over my pants and shirt.

 I folded the burlap strips in half for more wrapped flair and stapled a bit on the back as I went along. Note the bandaid? Yeah...great thing about sharp knives, is, they are great at slicing things. The downside to sharp knives is...well...you take a guess.

 Wow...I did not realize it would be nearly so....messy with the threads.  A couple snips and that was solved.

 Then I took a lok at my fall pretties. Mostly from dollar section of Michaels.  I wasn't sure how I was going to attach the flowers, so I tried some stiff felt, trimmed, and stapled my treasures to that.

 Then I stapled the felt to the wreath.  It worked well enough, with a lot of stapling, that I did not get up and go get the hot glue gun.  But if you come to my house, just don't look TOO hard at it, ok?

 Then, (2nd half of above pic) I tried to tie a bow. Not that it needed a bow, but I tied a PERFECT ONE (in my opinion.) Downside? Completely upside down. I'm certainly no Martha Stewart in the bow department.

 Here is a collage of the final product. Sorry its so small. You can't see all the staples in the back like I thought might show in the picture.  I would have preferred to put the top yellow flower a little more on the front of the wreath, but my patience with the stapler was dwindling.  And the best part? When Christmas comes, I can pull off the fall pieces and re-use the burlap and/or just the wreath!

Oops I baked them again!

I had intended to shrink my apple heads a little at a time, like an hour in the oven (at 100) then sitting in there with the door closed. Then I turned on the oven, went to work, finished work, took a shower, got taken on a lunch date, came home...and noticed the oven.

Shrunken-ness complete!  

Now the dilemma is where / how to put them up. Right now they are chillin' in a jar on the table, held in place by some lemons. Zach wants to hang them outside for trick-or-treaters, but I'm not sure if we can figure out where...we have the world's smallest porch!  Maybe if I put a TV stand outside against the side of the porch...and a pumpkin!! Ooh, inspired! Generally, I don't like to make a big deal out of Halloween, but I think we might have a lot of kids in our neighborhood of apartments, and since we are the ONLY house, I kind of wanted to do something -- at least to NOT be the corner house with all their lights off.  We'll see, I suppose!  

D-E-C-O-R-A-T-I-N-G again.

Hi again.  So are you sick of decorating posts yet? I hope so, so I can switch back to food.  Also on my last trip to Scotland, (all I do there is work and shop. I should work and work out, but that just doesn't happen.) a card shop was going out of business.  Discounts!  I found some socks that say "Grumpy's Socks" (some readers know who will get those!) and a cute name-engraved ornament for my cousin's daughter, Ella. Ella is a more popular name there so I was stoked to find it!

Ok, so while in the store, I saw these ADORABLE decorated letters.  I was in LOVE.  I drooled over them and left the store. (This was on a Monday.)

By Thursday, I couldn't handle it anymore. I had to have the "D."  I went back and got it, and grabbed the X and O while I was at it.  While realizing in line that I only had a few pounds in my pocket, I had to decide between X and O, or lunch.  Tough decision. Ladies and Gents -- let me tell you -- the cafeteria food (which I would have had to eat if I had gone back w/o getting food at the mall) is bad enough that I put X and O back, and just bought D.  But I consoled myself with the fact that I took pictures, and now I can make these myself, preferably in colors that coordinate better with wherever they will go in the house.

Meanwhile, "D" has found itself in our master bathroom.  I have wanted SOMETHING in there for a while, but when I removed the glass from this frame to paint it, I broke it, then I didn't want to put a print into it on account of shower steam...oh my goodness. This was like a craft 4 months in the making. I decided my letter D would be perfect, and water-resistant as well.

So there you have it. Even Zach approves! And because I really, really like this letter, here is an closeup:

I've done some more decorating around the house as well -- wall o' pictures, to be exact, a project that overtook my fireplace for a good 3 months. I will try to photograph that soon and post it!

4th of July Decor

Because this year I was married to a veteran on July 4th, I felt I should do a little somethin' for 4th of July. I got this idea off of one of my favorite blogs, here. I can't find the exact link, so feel free to go over there and read a post, or 20, and then REALLY want to make some themed cupcakes.

The general idea of this door hanging is pretty simple. 1) Buy book at goodwill, or pick one off your shelves.  2) Paint said book with desired decor.  3) Seal paint. (I chose to use mod podge)  4) Hang with ribbon from nail on door.   5) Repeat for other holidays.

So far, its October and this bad boy is still out on the door.  I might try to come up with something new for Christmas, or maybe a fall wreath...if I can get some burlap. I'm just wondering, does anyone else out there do any decorating for the seasons?  I want to get into it - just slightly - not to the point where I have tubs of things dedicated to every season.

Garage Sale Treasures and Decorating for Winter!

I do like fall. I plan to post some pictures of my fall decor (i.e., 1 single wreath...and soon to be some pumpkins, I hope) as soon as I upload them from my camera. But I uploaded these pictures from my phone, and they show that I'm already preparing for Winter decor! (I keep writing "Christmas" and changing it to "Winter" so I can leave everything up into February.) 

The items below have all gotten a nice new shade of vintage white. On the left is a candle holder, given to me by an old roommate (aka left behind by someone else.) In the middle is a tim-like star from the $2.50 section at Target. On the right is a garage saled picture frame, which if you can take a closer look, has a lot of intricate carvings/decor on it.

 Here is a close up of the star. I REALLY like it. I can't wait to use it.

I'm working on ideas for how to incorporate these into my (red brick) mantle. I like my mantle now, (which is not quite like this post had it, I'll have to post a new version).  If you have any ideas, let me know!

Oh, and the frame on the right - I hope to staple some screen mesh to the back and gift it for Christmas as an earring holder!!!!!  (Great idea right?)  Are you gearing up for the holidays?

Food, but not about cooking

The other day I was at a friends' house for an impromptu dinner while our husbands played video games. Turns out, this family has an apple tree in their backyard, so the other wife and I decided to try our hand at shrunken heads this year.  I'm not big on Halloween in general, but this is part decorating, part craft, part food, and I really wanted to try it.   We were inspired by ourbestbites.com, because, lets face it, I get all my ideas from that site.

 Above are Krista's apples. Sorry for the bad quality DROID picture.

Above is my FrankenApple attempt. Well, Frank's hair is spiky and this is more like bangs, so, maybe notsomuch. 

Another side view.

One of mine (again, above) where I tried to give him/her a chin.

I'm not sure I exaggerated all the features enough for them to turn out, but so far I've been treating them to 20 minutes at 100 degrees in the oven every day and then a nice rest in there as the oven cools off.  I will post some updates soon!