Archive for the ‘holiday decor’ Category

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the DIY files: a paint chip easter egg garland

Wednesday, March 27th, 2013

With Easter weekend right around the corner, I thought it would be fun to do a little DIY holiday decorating with some stuff lying around the house. If you are a bit of a craft supplies hoarder like me, you’ll also probably have all of these items on hand!

I didn’t have the energy to do eggs this year (plus it’s more fun painting them when I have some of my nieces and nephews around!), so I went for a little egg garland instead.

First up? Gather paint chips from my “paint chips and paint decks” drawer in the office. I grabbed mostly pinks, mints, and greens, since you can’t really get more Easter-y/Spring-y than that.

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I freehanded an egg shape on the first paint chip, cut it out, and then used it to trace the rest of the eggs. Trace + Cut – Repeat, repeat, repeat, until you get enough eggs.

DSC_0481 I didn’t want to punch any holes in the eggs, so to attach them I just used regular string and taped it along the back of the eggs. I used a couple pieces of tape per egg, just to make sure it was really stuck on there.

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And the result? This sweet little guy.

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I really like the way the different colours on each paint chip make it look like striped eggs.

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And the ombre colouring – so going from dark to light, to dark again – gives it a little extra something, too.

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DSC_0504 If you’re looking for a quick and easy Easter craft to do in front of the TV tonight, or with the kids this weekend, this is it! Not the first of my paint chip projects and I’m sure won’t be my last…!

What about you guys? Doing any easter decorating? Maybe some egg painting? Any recent paint chip projects? 

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the christmas twig “tree”

Wednesday, December 19th, 2012

We haven’t done a Christmas tree this year (I know – grinchy!), so I had to come up with a different idea for some sweet ornaments that I had ready to hang somewhere. The alternative? A twig “tree” in a vase. I was originally going to just grab some twigs from one of our trees outside, but then I came across these faux pussy willow stems at the dollar store. I thought they might turn out to be rather pretty, so I shelled out 3 bones and grabbed a couple.

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First up was to place the stems in a tall vase (sorry for the crappy light time lighting – it gets dark too early these days!).

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Then you just hang your ornaments. This two-step “project” reeeeally doesn’t require much!

I didn’t pull out all of our ornaments (they are stashed away in a tupperware bin in the garage), but these few crafty ones are totally quaint. pussy willow 4

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Just a little splash of christmas for our pad. It’s feeling downright festive now with the decorations we’ve added (without pulling out our huge tupperware) – mason jar snow globes, a rustic chic wreath, and other recycled decorations from years past. It’s a Christmas miracle! Ha.

Doing any last minute decorating at your place? Done all of your holiday prep? Still have anyone left to buy/make a gift for? We just mailed out our Christmas cards (hopefully they make it in time!) and have all the gifts ready. Still some wrapping to do, but we’re getting there! 

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christmas up in the house

Monday, December 10th, 2012

You know that little Christmas party we had last weekend? Well I hadn’t done too much in the way of decorations beforehand, so wanted to throw a few things up to make it look festive. I don’t think we are going to do a tree this year, so I didn’t really want to pull out the big heavy tupperware bins from the garage full of our Christmas stuff if we weren’t going to use most of it (our garage is seriously over capacity… major organizing needed out there!).

So when I was strolling through IKEA a few weeks ago, I stumbled upon these cute vintage Santa Clauses. They are just brown paper bags – probably to be used for little Christmas loot bags – but I had other plans in mind.

I figured a little bunting of these bags would be super sweet. I got out some leftover jute string from an old project, and some clothespins.

About 5 minutes later, this is where we ended up. So easy and just makes me smile. Oh and those paper bags were around $2 if I’m remembering correctly, so this was a seriously low cost project (and one that I’ll be able to re-do every year).

Things like cookies and clementines always make things more festive, right?

I had these Christmas ornaments in a pretty accessible spot of the garage, so I grabbed them and just hung them from our chandelier. Again, so so easy.

Even the living room got a few little additions, like some stockings and greenery on the window and antler pillow on the couch.

Out little party definitely felt pretty cozy and festive – an example that it doesn’t take too much to inject that little magical feeling of the holidays. Okay, am I totally sounding like a cheesy holiday movie? Oh man. Sometimes I just can’t help myself.

What about you guys? Doing any decorating around your place? Have some favourites that you pull out every year? Are you getting a tree? And if so, are you in the fake tree or real tree camp? 

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the DIY files: mason jar faux-snow globes

Wednesday, November 28th, 2012

Okay guys, I have found another use for mason jars. You know how much I love them, right? (check out here, here, and here, if you’re not convinced). I saw some mason jar snow globes floating around on Pinterest and was totally swooning. Love of mason jars + love of christmas + love of all things crafty = a lot of love.

So I thought I would try my hand at these bad boys to amp up the festiveness around here. I decided to take the easy route and nix the real snow-globe with water and all that jazz (I did see tutorials out there for those though), and just decided to do little winter scenes.

First step was to do a trip to the dollar store for supplies. I grabbed some gold mini christmas trees, two different white ‘fillers’ (beads and styrofoam balls), and then some little animals.

I wasn’t really sure if the animals would fit, but grabbed them just in case.

After I had a chance to test everything out, the only things that fit into my mason jars were the christmas trees and the small Bambi. The polar bears and other guys are going to have to be just decorative (unless I find some gigantic mason jars!).

So time to do some assembling. I decided to try doing the mason jars two different ways. First way was to put some hot glue on the bottom of the item (like the Christmas tree below)…

… and then place it in the mason jar, right way up.

My second approach was to hot glue the item onto the bottom of the mason jar lid. This way the jar would be sitting on its top and be more snow globe-y.

Before screwing the lids back on, I poured in some of the vase filler (either the beads or the balls – doesn’t matter which you use) as the snow. And here is how they ended up! Aren’t they sweet?

I think I like the ones that sit wrong side up as they seem more like true snow globes and are easier to see into. I’m totally loving this project. It took all of 15 minutes, cost less than $10 for all 3 (and I have leftover supplies), and adds a little injection of holiday sparkle (in a not-too-over-the-top kind of way).

Have you guys started your holiday decorating yet? Done any fun festive projects? Do you tend to use the same decorations every year, or switch it up?  Got a theme going for this year? 

Linked up on Decor and the Dog, Maybe Matilda, Newly Woodwards, and Two Twenty One!

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a trip down hallowe’en lane

Wednesday, October 31st, 2012

Okay, so I really wanted to show you the “after” of the harvest table today but I didn’t get a chance to photograph it yet. It’s moved in (dude, it was hea-aavy!), but life has just gotten a little in the way the last day or two. So much to do!

In lieu of that, and since today is hallowe’en (booo! –> as in scary, not sad), I thought I would totally embarrass myself and look back at some Oct 31st’s of yore.

I don’t have many kid pictures of myself on my computer, but I did find this little gem. I dressed up as Marilyn Monroe — not sure exactly how old I was.. a “tween” I think. I always put my own costumes together as a kid – some years they turned out okay, and other years I looked reeeeally “crafty”. Haha..

Then came the University years. Ahhh. Parties and some not-so-conservative costumes.

First there were cowgirls (complete with fuzzy pink hats… what?!)…

and then some cougars…

Alana, Denise, Megan, and Helen — don’t kill me for posting those, k?? Love you, girls!!

I had fun in 2008 making my bee costume. The yellow tutu was all hand-made and seriously time consuming, but I loved it. Ms Bee and Mr Bee-Keeper.

Last year we didn’t dress up, but I did get to paint a few pumpkins with my nieces and nephews, and do a little decorating around our pad.

And then there is this year’s decor, complete with ravens and skulls.

So there it is – a little trip down hallowe’en lane. I promise to be back tomorrow with the table pics!

Have a happy and spooky day today, guys!! Any big plans? Trick or treating? We usually get tons of kids in our ‘hood, and I’m so looking forward to seeing all of their costumes tonight and handing out treats! 

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a hallowe’en tablescape

Wednesday, October 24th, 2012

I love the holidays. Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Hallowe’en, whatever. I love ‘em all. I also adore holiday decorating. When I was a kid, I used to scheme about our Christmas lights for weeks (maybe months?) before the season was upon us, and I’m happy to report that our house won “best neighbourhood lights” at least 3 years in a row. We were like the Griswold’s of our ‘hood. I can’t believe the stuff I used to make my Daddio do… love you, Dad!

I wanted to get our pad looking somewhat festive for Halloween, but with everything going on right now (is anyone else having the busiest fall ever? I feel like I haven’t caught my breath in weeks!), I needed it to be quick and easy. Oh, and as per usual in these parts, budget-friendly. So with all of those things in mind, I decided to tackle our dining room table with some natural elements and dollarama finds.

I took two of our placements that happened to have a black underside and put them on the table face down to get things started. Then I grabbed some of those small white pumpkins (I get them every year – they’re so darling!), and some beautiful reddy-orange leaves from my stroll around the neighbourhood.

I took a trip to the dollar store to add a bit of ghoul factor, and came home with this skull and a couple of black ravens. For less than $5, how can you go wrong? Hubby was totally digging the spooky skull.

The tall pillar candle was just something I had hoarded away in our candles drawer, and it added some much-needed height. It would have been better to have 3 of these guys, but like I said, this was a budget-use-what-you-have kind of operation.

And that’s it! It took all of 5 minutes to put together once I had the supplies. It’s fun to glance over and see that skull looking back.. spooky!

What about you guys? Decorating for autumn or hallowe’en lately? Heading to any good parties, or out trick or treating with your kiddos? Any stellar costumes in the works? A few years ago, Dan and I went as a bee and bee-keeper, which was pretty successful. I wonder where that DIY yellow tutu went… 

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the DIY files: bunting love

Monday, February 13th, 2012

To celebrate valentine’s day this week, I thought I would add a little touch of love to our living room with a sweet little bunting (remember this burlap one I made for our wedding?).

I grabbed an old music book from the thrift store for 50 cents and then had the rest of the supplies on hand (scissors, cardboard template, hole punch, coloured paper, glue, and string).

I cut out eight triangles of the sheet music (based on my cardboard template) and hole punched in the two top corners of each. Oh I also cut out eight small hearts (four in pink and four in pistachio green).

Then I just glued the hearts on and strung some jute through each triangle.

..and ta-dah! A sweet little bit of looooove.

Sweet, right?

This took all of 20 minutes… so if you want to add a little festivity for your love day tomorrow, throw one of these together. Instead of sheet music, you could use newspaper or any other decorative paper you have lying around.

 

Oh, and congrats to Jenny who won our stella + dot giveaway. Hope you enjoy those lovely Chantilly Lace earrings, Jenny!

 

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Posted in DIY projects, getting crafty, holiday decor | 2 Comments »

christmas-ing

Monday, December 5th, 2011

I love the holidays. I love to deck the halls, bake like crazy, play in the snow, and just be merry. So when December 1st rolls around (okay, sometimes it may still be November), I get out our big bins from the garage that are labelled CHRISTMAS and go wild. I don’t really have a theme yet, just a mish mash of decorations that I have been given, made, or have bought in the blowout sales after the holidays. Anyway, our pad officially got Christmas-fied last week.

First off: decoration explosion.

Then it all started to come together. Our little tree (it’s about 4 feet) fits perfectly in our little house…

There is something to be said for cozy twinkle lights. A part of me would like to have them there all year round…

Hanging ornaments from your light fixture is super easy and so effective.

Oh and there was baking. Lots of baking. And icing. I just bought an icing kit recently from Michael’s and am kinda hooked.

Oh, hi there. Me (reflected in the Christmas ornament) post-decorating, feeling ultra cheerful.

What about you guys? Have you broken our your holiday decorations? Doing any cool DIY stuff to make your place feel festive? Do tell.

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pinterest challenge: a DIY autumn wreath

Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011

So two of my all-time fave blogging gals, Sherry from Young House Love and her pal Katie from Bower Power, have brought back their super popular pinterest challenge for the fall season. The scoop? Basically we all go and check out the various things we’ve been pinning on pinterest, and quit-pinning-start-doing. A blogging kick in the butt to do one of those projects on your “to do” list. Oh, and if you have no idea what Pinterest is, check it out here… but be warned that you may lose many-an-hour pinning your heart away.

In case you don’t know those two overly excited gals above, that’s Katie and Sherry (pic via Young House Love). Also joining up for this round of the Pinterest Challenge are Erin and Ana.

So I browsed through my pinterest boards and realized that I had pinned more than a few yarn wreaths.

Clockwise from the top, these beauties are from here, here, here, here, and here (found via pinterest).

So I started out with one of those basic wreath forms that you can get from Michael’s. I got one of the green harder foam ones, but white styrofoam (or anything else in wreath shape) would work just fine too.

Luckily I had a bunch of yarn in my craft closet – probably because not-so-luckily my knitting has taken a bit of a backseat of late. Whoops. Anywho, I grabbed a medium gray and golden yellow yarn – one of my favourite colour combo’s and a very fall-appropriate scheme.

I started off with the yellow and simply just hot glued the end of the yarn to the back of the wreath, and then got to wrapping. Warning: this project doesn’t really need any crafty skills. Seriously. Once I decided I would throw in some gray, I cut the yellow, and tied the two ends (gray + yellow) together. I tried to make sure that the knot would lie on the “back” of the wreath (ie. the side where I had originally glued the yellow down) and also tried to carefully wrap the first few layers of gray slightly over the knot so that the transition would look seamless.

Then I wrapped, switched colours, wrapped, and switched colours until I had gotten all the way around. To finish it off, I cut my last piece of string and then hot glued it down. Again, I did this on the back of the wreath so that no one would see my gluey mess.

This is how she looked post-yarning.

I had grabbed an autumn leaf bunch from the clearance bin at Michael’s (with my 25% off coupon it came to a total of 34 cents. Boo-yah). Then I just cut a few individual branches off of the bunch and squeezed the ends through the yarn, poking into the green foam. No muss, no fuss.

And here she is. Ain’t she a beaut? I’m pretty pleased with how it all turned out, and it’s always nice to add a little something new every year to your holiday decorations.

Thanks to Sherry, Katie, Ana and Erin for kicking my butt into gear on this project! Did any of you guys get into the Pinterest Challenge fun? I have been browsing some of the other projects that are linked up and there is some amaaazing stuff out there. I may have knocked one thing off my “to do” list, but I have just added three more! 

 

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halloween tablescape

Tuesday, October 25th, 2011

So I had done our pumpkins for the year (see those here), but when I found some cute ribbon, orange and yellow leaves and other little knick knacks in the sale bin at Michael’s, I couldn’t help myself. I brought home my new little pile of goodies and went to work on our dining room table. I took off the candles we had on there and started with this blank slate…

Which after a few minutes looked more like this.

My favourite purchase was definitely this little white ceramic skull. Love him.

I also added some ribbon to our chandelier. The way it hangs down looks a bit like spider legs.

This is the first time we have really gotten into halloween decorating, and I’m totally digging it. I think I’m now going to have to have storage bins in the garage dedicated to each holiday… oh dear.

What about you guys? Are you getting into the spooky spirit this year? Any good little halloween crafts up your sleeve?

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