Make: St. Patrick's Day Wreath

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

February 27th...

Megan: I guess I should take down our Valentine's Wreath, since February's over...but it's so gray and cold now, it seems stupid to put up our springy orchid wreath.

Matthew: You should make a St. Patrick's Day wreath.

Oh, how I love my husband!!

I did not need to hear this suggestion more than once before I hit the ground running with green felt and grapevines.

Basically, I cut out several clover-shapes in different sizes and stacked them together with some thread and buttons. I also used this flower tutorial. Lastly, I sewed little triangles along some ribbon to create a banner.

This was a decidedly not megan style of wreath, since I tend towards overly intricate projects that allow me to channel all of my not-quite-OCD energy. I did enjoy the change of pace and think I managed to pull off the "relaxed look" well enough.

Right now, my slow cooker is full of corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes. There's some beer bread baking too. Needless to say, my house smells very Irish and very good!

A special thanks to my grandmother who gave me an this old grapevine wreath she found in her basement.
It took a bit of elbow grease, but I managed to remove all of the hotglued bows, birds, and bulbs.




 

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(Don't Hate) Valentine's Day...a craft round up!

Growing up, my family celebrated Valentine's Day as, well, a family. My mom was pretty adamant that it was not a day exclusively for romance but rather a day to celebrate all sorts of love. She would make a fancy dinner for whole clan and my dad arrived home with not one but three bouquets. To this very day my grandmother, my mother, my father, my sister, my brother-in-law, my nephew, my husband, and myself all exchange candy gifts--I've even gotten my in-laws in the mix. I think this perspective takes Valentine's Day from a generally lame, pressure-filled day to a really great one. Dean Martin wasn't joking when he said everybody loves somebody sometime. Maybe that somebody is your spouse, partner, parent, friend, cat, whatever. My point is don't be a hater and join in the fun.

As I mentioned, my family has a sweet tooth so candy is the preferred Valentine's Day gift. Over the years, as our numbers have expanded so has the cost of candy! A few years back, Matthew and I began making homemade treats. This not only costs less but also allows us to give more candy to each person!

In years past, we've experimented with more elaborate recipes and combinations of treats. This go-around, however, we got back to our chocolate roots with straightforward candy molds. I bought a small set of heart-shaped molds along with several ounces of semi-sweet chocolate. Then we played around with different "extras" like wafers, sprinkles, crushed-up Whoppers, and the like. It made for a fun evening together. All of the candies were divided among plain boring sandwich bags which were instantly transformed into adorable Valentine's Day bags with these toppers designed by Thirty Handmade Days.

And this centerpiece? Easy as can be. Starting with my apothecary jars, I simply cut three heart shapes out of seasonal scrapbook paper, added smaller red paper hearts, and secured everything with yarn. I threw in some scented red candles for good measure.

I love this argyle wreath. It is wonderfully understated in a world of over-the-top, cheesy Valentine's decorations. Assembly is easy but time consuming. To begin, tie a loop of yarn around a form ring, securing it with a double knot. Then, wrap the yarn around the ring a few times and smoosh it all together so that you can't see any foam behind it. Also pull the yarn taut. Move on to the next section of foam and repeat, repeat, repeat until you have covered the entire ring. Tie one final knot on the back side of the wreath. I opted to add small felt hearts, laying them out flat on the wreath. Then I carefully wove more yarn around the wreath, taking care to make an X over each heart so they won't slip out of place.

Last is my banner. Oh, this was fun! A friend of mine posted this on Facebook January 31st and I knew I wanted to try it. It's sort of like an advent calendar for Valentine's Day, where each envelope has a fun activity for you and your partner (or family, friends, etc). I made a list of easy, low-key activities ranging from a picnic dinner to a martini night. Considering I threw this together at the last minute and I'm terrible at writing in bubble letters, I think it turned out nice enough.

That's it for my Valentine's Day round up; I hope this holiday finds you in good spirits and ready to share some love with those around you!

Make: $2 Centerpiece

This year's Christmas Centerpiece is brought to you by the dollar store. Oh, how I love the dollar store! These warm feelings go all the way back to my childhood. In an effort to teach my sister and me the joy of giving, my mom would take us to the dollar store to buy Christmas or birthday presents for the family. We roamed the aisles, painstakingly deciding between tchotchkes. To this day, my dad still has little ceramic kittens and puppies displayed in his office. I imagine his co-workers are surprised by his apparently juvenile taste in office décor. That's the love of a father for ya...

Where were we? Oh right, my centerpiece. I must admit that I completely stole this concept from my friend Mary, who originally got the idea from Decor Chick. It is so easy!

Simply glue a glass candlestick holder to a (not-too-tall) glass vase. That's it. I spent more time  getting the superglue off my fingers.

I guarantee that you will find these two objects at your local dollar store. Mine were even cheaper because I have approximately 1 million vases leftover from my wedding. While you are at the store, why not look for filler to put in the vases? I made three apothecary jars and filled each with different holiday things: peppermints, colorful ribbon, and ornaments. Other ideas include bells, candy, bows, faux snow, strings of lights, berries, twigs, or pinecones.

The best part? As I explained in my fall décor post, glass containers easily transition between seasons. Before long I'll be brainstorming springtime fillers!

Christmas Time is Here!

I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. At the end of the day, my belly was full and my fridge was stocked with more sweet potatoes than any one person could eat. Anyone, that is, except Matthew. Before the leftovers could even be reheated, I had moved on to the real star: Christmas! I know, I know, Thanksgiving is certainly a special day; one to spend with friends and family, to enjoy good food, and to reflect on blessings. But to me, Thanksgiving is just the opening act, the prologue, the stepping stone to my favorite holiday--nay, season--Christmas Time. By Saturday morning, Matt and I were up to our eyeballs in ornaments while Sufjan Stevens provided the hall-decking soundtrack.
 

When it comes to our Christmas décor, I think we've settled on the word eclectic. It is a somewhat odd mix of kitchy ceramics inherited from grandparents and relics rescued from our childhood homes (all of which we are way too sentimental about to discard), rustic purchases, and the growing collection of my crafts. It might not be everyone's cup of tea but I love it. I get such a warm, happy feeling in our festive family room that I wouldn't trade any of it for a pack of brand-new, shiny store-bought decorations.
 

I made these sheet music trees last Christmas and still love them! If you would like to make your own, check out this tutorial.

 

Matthew's grandmother painted these ceramic Santas; the sleeping fella (on the right) we fill with coconut clusters, her favorite candy—always a nice surprise for curious guests! The middle scene previously decorated my childhood bedside stand; everyone gravitates towards it and rearranges the pieces. I feel that incorporating such objects helps to bring back just a tiny bit of that holiday magic we felt as children.

That's it for now! I'll show you some new projects in the weeks to come. I hope you make your home  as cheery as ours this Christmas season!

 

Make: Reversible Table Runner

I've recently realized how superior table runners are to tablecloths. You get the same pop of color and design as a tablecloth, but we can move it out of the way during meals thereby avoiding spills and stains. In our household, this is a legitimate concern as many once-pretty table linens have bitten the dust.

So the other day, while admiring my store-bought runner I noticed its simple construction. The thought, I bet could I make this! was quickly followed by another, more creative one: Why not make both sides out of cute but different fabrics?? So off I went in search of a fun (but grown-up) holiday fabric and a neutral print that could carry us through post-December winter. I am just so happy with how the runner turned out! So much so that I've decided it will not be displayed at our Christmas Kick-Off Party, because our friends seem to be as bad about spills as we are! This beauty must stay pristine!

An easier version would use bias tape around the edges--I felt like 75% of my time was spent lining up the edges perfectly. Here I wanted a simple design without a border, but in the future I'll probably opt for bias tape.

Materials Needed
2 rectangles of coordinating fabric (mine were 17" x 43")
Scissors
Pins
Thread
Sewing Machine
Iron

The construction is quite easy and straightforward. Begin by hemming the edges of one fabric piece. Before you hem the other, you want to ensure that the two rectangles will line up nicely. I did this by laying the finished piece on top of the unfinished (right sides out), then marking/pinning everything into place. Sew the whole shebang together around the edges (whatever decorative stitch you prefer). To finish, iron.



Easy, right?!

No-Sew Version: simply iron the rough edges back to create faux hems, then use stitch witchery to fuse the two pieces of fabric together.

Make: Easy Fall Décor

I grew up in an enthusiastic home. This enthusiasm could be applied to a wide range of topics and occasions, but particularly holidays and seasons. We celebrated everything in full-force: the front porch wreaths and flags had quarterly rotations, my mother wore timely appliqués, we started planning our next Halloween costumes on November 1st, and even now my sister and I (along with our husbands) get Easter baskets. It was great.

 

Most of that perennial enthusiasm has stayed with me (with the exception of appliqués). I just love having my home reflect the year's changes. Packing away the lemons and apples to be replaced with pine cones and acorns feels like I am drawing a giant orange highlighter over the declaration
"Fall is here!".  I also just get tired of looking at the same stuff year-round!

If you think that seasonal décor is too much hassle, know that you can make just a few small changes that shift the overall feel of your home. You also don't need to spend a fortune. Most of what you see pictured here was either A) made by me or B) bought on the cheap. A festive home just takes a little effort and creativity. It helps if you live near a craft store too.

Front Porch

Let's start with the first thing that everyone sees: the front porch. Matthew and I take advantage of our porch whenever we can. It's not uncommon for us to load up our dinner plates and head for the Adirondacks. With this in mind, I try to make the space inviting for ourselves and guests alike.

In years past, I have lined our porch steps with pumpkins. Before long, however, they would be nibbled on and ruined by a few very pesky squirrels. This year I have a two pronged approach: just one pumpkin and I'm going to spray it with Apple Bitter. Fingers crossed it will last til Thanksgiving! The mums are a new addition that Matthew picked up at a nearby produce stand. The deep orange blooms are a welcome pop of color.

The front door wreath was a very easy and affordable DIY project. Actually, I believe it was the first thing I ever made for our house. I bought a simple grapevine wreath and LOTS of fake leaves from the dollar store. Then I arranged the leaves in a nice layout and hot-glued them into place. Done and done.


Living Room

I put the most effort into the space that we spend the most time: our living room. Our fireplace mantel is part-function, part-form since we keep most of our in-progress books there. Besides that unchanging component, I like to switch things up with staggered glass containers. They are a quick and easy way to transition from season to season. As referenced above, during spring and summer I fill the cylinders with apples, lemons, and limes. Now they are showcasing pine cones and autumnal potpourri. You will have to wait to see what winter looks like! I did a similar arrangement on the coffee table, using some leftover potpourri and three small pumpkins.

After seeing so many adorable word collages online, I decided to use some around the house. I printed a few, threw them in some super cheap frames and voila! Instant cute home décor with minimal effort. Here is a great collection of free printables.

Dining Room

Since I am not one for overkill, the fall decorations end here: the dining room. Naturally, my favorite new craft gets prominent placement on our dining room table. I found these chocolate brown placemats and napkins on clearance at Bed, Bath & Beyond. Wanting some additional color on the table, I then made the napkins rings. Similar to my front door wreath, this was another figure-it-out-as-I-go project. I cut up cardboard paper towel tubes and covered them with some extra-wide ribbon. Then I hot-glued faux leaves here and there until I was happy with the final product.

***

So there you have it! Hopefully this will inspire you to bring some seasonal beauty into your home!

On a related note, I'm excited to say that with the start of autumn begins a fun little "challenge" I'm posing to myself. I will to try one new fall-ish recipe each week! Sometimes I may write about them more extensively, but generally I will just provide a link at the end of my regular posts. Up first are some super easy Pumpkin Chocolate Cookies.

Make: Book-Pumpkin

I sometimes fall into the trap of drafting a crafty to-do list that is so long I end up making nothing at all. In an effort to combat this, a few weeks ago I prioritized which projects deserve the little free time I possess. This exceedingly cute book-pumpkin quickly rose through the ranks.

I adore fall decor (as you will see in a future post) and I love books, so this guy was a no-brainer. Once finished, I kept finding excuses to walk through my dining room and look at it.

I anticipate that house guests will ask me (with shiny hope in their eyes) from what book my darling pumpkin was made. The answer is a very boring United States Code Annotated, 2011. Upon closer inspection, onlookers will find decidedly unsexy text like:

Fees,
     Attorneys, ante
     Dockets and docketing, C4R 15(a)
     Extraordinary writs, prisoners C4R 21(c)
     Transcriptions, filing, sanctions, C4R IOP 11.1

As unromantic as that is, I just could not bring myself to ruin a perfectly good book!

In case you do not know, I work in law library which means that on a weekly basis we recycle volumes of publications that have been superseded. That is to say, if anyone were to use them for legal research they would be up a creak awful fast as the information is inaccurate. I'm just throwing that out there in case someone reading this cries foul, "Oh, how can a library throw away precious books!? For shame!". So I rescued a few of these books from the recycle bin and lugged them home for a bit of a makeover.

Supplies:
Book, cover removed
Cardboard
Pencil
Scissors
Stick (my husband gallantly found me one in the yard)
Ribbon
Broom (to clean up the mess of paper shards this project will leave on your floor)

Begin by creating a cardboard stencil. Think about how large you would like the pumpkin to be and draw the vertical half of that.

Then trace this shape on the first page of your book and cut through as many pages as you can at a time.

Repeat, repeat, repeat until you have made your way through the entire book. Of course, I chose a very thick book so I had to give my little wrists a few breaks along the way.

Glue a small stick to the spine of the book while also gluing together the front and back of the book. Secure it with clothes pins while it is drying, like so:

Once you are sure the glue is dry, you can jazz up the pumpkin with a cute bit of ribbon. The texture of my book's paper was very thin (like a phone book), so it required a lot of fussing over to make it sit nicely. If you use a regular book, I'm confident it will splay out naturally.

And that's it! You can make a single large pumpkin, a set of smaller ones, or a mix of sizes.