Holla-day Wreath

So in typical fashion i am returning to blogging after disappearing for a couple of months to change jobs, take a couple more grad school classes, and travel to Dallas.  In rare form i decided to jump the gun and decorate my house for Christmas.  So much of my life has been crazy out of control, so this was one aspect that i can control, and i controlled it with glitter.

More on the rest of the décor to come later.  Today I just wanted to highlight a wreath that I had made for my front door for the holiday season.

 

 

Right now i am obsessed with natural wreaths, pine cones, burlap and fabric flowers.  The chevron and polka dot red fabric was my pop of color.  To continue with the red i added in some berries for a final touch.  Boom. 

Here's to the beginning of Happy Holidays for everyone!

-xoxoxo-

BS

DIY Heart

 

Nothing makes me happier than when I am creating.

Especially when the end product is for the birds.

 

These cuties are super easy, environment friendly, kid friendly, and an awesome last min craft for the end of summer.

 

I originally got this idea from where everyone every female gets ideas for anything.  PINTEREST.

 

You will need:

 

3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup water

1 envelope unflavored gelatin

3 tbsp. corn syrup

4 cups bird seed

 

 

mix together

 

 

And obviously:

 

A cookie cutter (ideally a heart)

mixing bowl

spoon

stick

parchment paper

non-stick spray or veg. oil

 

 

Grease up the cookie cutter and your hands, because this stuff is sticky.

Mash birdseed mixture inside heart until it is all the way full.

Carefully poke a hole towards the center of the heart to hang it later.

 

 

 

Next carefully slide the cookie cutter away leaving the birdseed heart in place on parchment paper. 

Allow to dry overnight to ensure it is fully dry and will not crumble.

 

 



Once dried, choose string of your choice, creating a loop to hang in the tree.

My attempt resulted in 9 hearts.

We made a second batch using other cookie cutter shapes but honestly most of them weren't recognizable or ended up looking phallic, so I would suggest sticking with the heart.

If you would like to see more craft ideas you can follow me on my Pinterest Boards Here.

Too Heavy to Hang

I wanted to entitle this post as "To the windows"  in honor of a recent karaoke session on my trip to Korea town in New York, but apparently I have already used that title.  (Lil Jon would be so proud.)

So how about:  DIY Message Board Windows. 
Probably appeals more to my followers.
If you have no idea who Lil Jon is then I was correct in my assumption.

Any who, over Christmas break I got thrifty and wanted to up-cycle some old windows a friend had given me.  Like most things in my life they were stacked against a wall in my dining room.  I sort of cleaned them off, removed the wooden cross bars and went to work painting two different windows brown.

After allowing 3 coats of brown paint to dry, I put the crossbars back into the window, used sandpaper to scruff up the painted edges creating a shabby chic look and set out to use the divided sections for a chalkboard, cork board, message board, and dry erase board.  I purchased scrap booking paper from Hobby Lobby to be the 'backdrop' for my dry erase board and used spray adhesive to attach it to the back side of the glass. 

 

Then on the bottom of both window frames I drilled holes and screwed in burlap knobs (also from Hobby Lobby) adding an extra hanging feature to the window message board.  I am not sure what my mom and sister will hang from the knobs, but come on- they're burlap!

Lastly, on my mom's window I added an extra detail by using her initials with painted wooden letters glued on top of a stencil that I painted directly on the front side of the bottom window pane.  I LOVE how her window turned out!  Since these are real windows they weigh a ton!  So we need to make sure that we securely hang them to the wall... minus toggle bolts. I'm trying to cut down on the swearing.

I'm thinking now that I need to use the rest of the windows and make one for my kitchen for grocery lists, menus, and to display all those adorable Happy New Years photos that people are sending out. 



p.s.  I promise I really have tried to live up to my New Years Resolutions... has anyone else been frustrated with not being able to upload pics to blogger??  Ohhh technology- you keep me young!

DIY: Happy Fall Banner

Continuing along with the Fall crafting spree, I added to my a Fall banner created from a vintage map, twine and a little bit of paint. 

Happy Fall!

 

You will need:

Vintage paper of some sort

A laser printer with Orange Ink

Twine

Hot glue gun/sticks

Manila folder (or something to make a triangle stencil with)

Scissors

Using this free font I printed out each individual letter on the glossary of an old book of maps I had left over from this project.  (You can find the Halloween font for the Pumpkin symbol here)

 

I created a triangle template out of a manila folder to trace over each letter after they were printed.

Once cut out, I dry- brushed goldenrod paint along the edges of the triangles keeping the brush dry and paint inconsistent. 

 

 

By the time my glue gun was warmed up my paint was dry and I was ready to glue twine to the back top of the triangles.  Almost instantly I was able to hang up my new Fall Banner onto my mantel.

 

 

 

It is a festive addition to my Fall Feather Wreath and goes perfectly with the handmade pumpkins I will be adding tomorrow!

See you then!

Linking up with WOW US WEDNESDAY!

Fall Feather Wreath

Hello Birdies!   I just wanted to let you know that it is mid-October and I have not done a single thing to decorate my house for Fall.  {Enter gasps and judgment here.}

Don’t get me wrong, I have been busy.  I jogged for 15 minutes last week.

But after seeing all of you Instagram pictures of the autumn trees, post your pumpkin recipes and pin your ideas for the latest and greatest painted pumpkin,  I decided I should put down the bottle (of cough medicine) and get to work.  So I set out to craft as many Fall themed crafts I could possibly manage in one weekend.

So I pushed through my sore throat (I don’t just drink cough syrup for fun people) and went to my local craft store for a couple of feathers and burlap.  As I was checking out the sales girl repeatedly told me how lucky I was that they actually had burlap in stock.  Apparently some Pinterest wreath is causing a burlap shortage everywhere.  I think my wreath is going to cause the same phenomenon.

 

I sewed some fabric and burlap flowers, cut out burlap leaves, gathered a wreath, found coordinating twine, heated up my hot glue gun and set out to work.

 

 

I’m not sure if it was my fever breaking, or me just being dramatic about the gorgeous outcome… but I have chills!

 

 

Join me tomorrow to see how I made a painted Fall banner for my mantel using a vintage map and twine.

 

Linking up with WOW US WEDNESDAY!

Tea Take Two

Yesterday I was drinking some tea.

By yesterday I mean last week because it has been a good minute since I blogged last. 

So today I thought I would carry on with the tea trend and show you a tea cart that I have made over.  Now this is the second tea cart that I have painted; the first was a gem that I purchased for next to nothing at a yard sale:

It’s super cute with its new key lime make up.

The second and most recent tea cart was found on the side of the road about 100 yards from my house.

I stole it from my neighbor.

Just kidding, they were throwing it away.

On it was nothing but, you guessed it, bird poop.

I’m all about the birds people, but that’s disgusting.

So it sat outside of my house on my back stoop for a couple of days until I go the nerve to clean it.

 

Once wiped down, I took an electric sander to the surface to rough it up so the layers of white eggshell paint would adhere nicely.

 

 

Next I took Miniwax's grey wood stain and barely dipped a clean rag into the can. (make sure it is mixed incredibly well, this stuff will settle on the bottom of the can like crazy).

 

Taking my stain dipped rag I then rubbed it across the edges of the tea cart and anywhere where it had detail.  Keep repeating this process until you get the desired look.  For a darker contrast keep applying more stain to your project.

 

 

Well there you have it.  Lesson learned today: If you are my neighbor, I will steal and paint your trash. 

Linking up with Wow Us Wednesday!

Tea Cup Cozy

Its cold, it’s gross out, it’s fall in Tennessee.  Please don’t mistake this as complaining, I am happy about this.  Fall is my favorite time of year (after summer of course).  So there is nothing that I want more on a day like today than to curl up with a blanket and sip on some hot tea.

Luckily for me my cup is cuter than yours.

This isn’t bragging.  Just stating the facts.

 

See.  It's pretty cute.

Last Christmas my roommate Ivy gave me this adorable knitted accessory (that she made) and was clever enough to not only put a button on it… but the button has a bird on it!  Talk about putting birds on things!  She knows me all too well.

She also made our other roommate a coffee cup cozy too.  Which also happens to be super adorable.

 

 

 

Now go pour yourself a cup of hot tea and enjoy the awkward photo shoot that took place this morning in my kitchen before I went to work.  A tea cup is a tough prop people.

 

You're welcome.

hello!

Who says your fish shouldn’t have a custom designed etched fish bowl to call home??

Well, actually I do.  Because that’s ridiculous.

 

Seriously folks, your beloved gilled friend isn’t going to last more than a couple of weeks, months at best.  (Trust me I had to toss my beta fish in college… literally; right over the ledge of my dorm balcony when he, Nemo, became a floater.)

So don’t waste your time making their habitat homey.

 

So now that you all know I’m a fish hater…I actually really just like the simple design and shape of the fishbowl.  I purchased it at Goodwill for a grand total of $1 and then let it sit in my attic for about 3 years. 

I swear I am trying to not be a hoarder.

And then I found the inspiration in the most random of places.  I googled “vintage word art” and browsed images until I stumbled upon this beauty, and then my brain somehow made the connection “this is what you should put on that fishbowl.” 

 

DING DING DING!  Luckily for me (and you) Melissa was nice enough to have an entire post on her instructions on how she did her word art and where to get the free font.  She’s amazing.

I too made a template (mine much smaller than hers).

Taped the template to the inside of the fishbowl and started to trace the image with my electric glass etcher.

About 30 minutes later, voila- etched perfection!

 

And honestly, with a fat cat like cooper, fish don't stand a chance!  So I will be filling my bowl with Halloween candy! :)



Baby Birds

I'm a sucker for birds. 

Want me to go somewhere?  Entice me with a feather. 

Want to buy me something? Make sure it comes with a bird. 

Want me to paint you a custom piece with a bird on it?  You just became my number one priority.

So when I found out that this little one’s nursery was going to be decorated in Pottery Barn’s Penelope bedding I almost flipped my… uhhh flipped out.  Baby birds in greens and pinks!  Too cute for words.  I knew that I wanted to do something different for Everett’s room.  I pretty much have baby/nursery paintings down to a science.  A lot of pink + baby’s name = one very happy hormonal momma.  (You can see Hannah’spainting, Evie’s painting here).  We had already painted initials and name for Everett when she was born so here was my chance to let my bird craze shine.

 

So long story longer… I decided to stamp Jeremiah 29:11 on the back ground with a large E, and then painted the Penelope birds on top of the glass instead of a canvas.  The layering of colors and images is phenomenal and I love the look of the paint on the glass.  It makes the whole design pop.