Safe Ornaments + Holiday Decorating

Since Blaze is a bit of a terror in terms of destroying things left out, we figured a whole Christmas tree full of handmade (priceless) ornaments would be too irresistible for him to stay away from. It really made me sad to think about having Christmas without seeing all of our (my) favorite ornaments. In order to see them, but keep them safe we came up with a solution.

I bought a few yards of velvet cording, tied knots every few inches, strung the ornaments on the cord and hung it up from the ceiling. 

Now I can see all of our ornaments and they are safe from destructo dog. And in case you were wondering there are 34 ornaments and I made 19 of them. 

Don't let his pretending to be calm in this picture fool you. He chewed a hole in my mitten moments later. Since I wouldn't be Christmas without a tree we do have a small potted Norfolk Pine tree. It has small white lights which is huge for me since I've always had big colored bulbs. The branches on this tree would not hold the big bulbs though, so small lights it is. Please don't call me a traitor Mum. We use my cookie cutter ornaments to decorate the little tree.  Those are not appealing to a dog apparently because he has not messed with the tree once.

Blaze also seems to be afraid of the pellet stove because he has stayed away from the stockings we have hanging up. 

That's pretty much all of our holiday decor. It's been really fun to decorate (although minimally) our first home for the holidays.

What's your favorite holiday decoration?

Lauren

I Made A Wreath!

If you don't know that I am obsessed with milkweed pods then you don't know me very well. Last years project HERE and two years ago's project HERE. This year I went with the same idea as last year and then attached them to a plain wreath we bought at a craft fair.

I really like it.

To make one you'd need milkweed pods, spray paint, a hot glue gun, red berries, a wreath, and wire. Dried flowers optional. I glued the pods together into stars then spray painted both sides gold. Next I glued berries and dried flowers inside. Then we added tons of glue to the back and stuck the middle of a long piece of wire into the glob of glue to dry. After the glob has dried, wrap the sides of the wire around the wreath and tie them off. Then, stick red berries sporadically into the wreath. Lastly, hang and enjoy. Easy. I didn't even burn myself with the hot glue gun, which has never happened to me ever.

And just because I think it's really pretty, here is a kissing ball we bought the other day and hung at the bottom of the driveway.

It has snowed twice since we got it so it has a pretty layer of snow on top.

Lauren

Wooden Log Slice Christmas Sign

That's not a very inventive name. Oh well. I saw this idea on Pinterest and sent the picture to Charlie asking him to cut me some log slices. It was not a problem given all the trees he's been cutting down. It also gave him a chance to use his vice grip and hand saw, and spend more time in the garage with his tools. I don't think this project bent him out of shape like some of my other projects do.

He cut me a bunch of log slices and drilled holes through the slice near the tops. I painted them and left them to dry. In the morning some of the pieces had cracked from drying out so quickly in the kitchen near the pellet stove. I brought the bag of left over log slices inside to dry out. Blaze brought it upon himself to inspect the bag and drag all the wood around the house while we were working. He just wanted to see which ones would withstand his test. The ones that did not crack due to drying or Blaze's gnawing were then used to replace the ones that had cracked.  

After drying for a few days I used lace and some red embroidery floss to hang the slices. Thumb tacks secured them to the window casing in the dining room, and voila!

Not even 4:30pm and it's dark!

Log slice Christmas decor! I am not sure how these will stand the test of time due to all the drying/cracking, but it was a fun project and I like how it looks for now. A co-worker recommended letting the slices dry a little, then putting them in water, then drying again. Since I have little patience I obviously didn't do that. But maybe if you want to make something like this you should do those steps too.

Lauren

Thanksgiving Crafts: Gingerbread Houses

 For the last few years I have been organizing a craft for my cousin to do. I enjoy these activities as much as my cousins do. Last year we made the Cardboard Villages. This year my mom and I decided to decorate gingerbread houses. My mom was nice enough to make three houses before Thanksgiving, we put them together after the Thanksgiving rush was over. I bought all this candy before we went to Maine. Then we went to the movies, and all the candy there inspired me to buy even more. We used each kind of candy I bought, but we did not even come close to using all of the candy, even with all of the eating we all did.

The whole activity took 3+ hours. Speaking for myself, I had a blast and I think my cousins and aunts did too. Here is Macy and Mabel's house. Mabel had to leave before the activity was over.

She made a hot tub with a little guy inside. 

And a pretzel stick bon fire. 

Here is Mia's. She wouldn't let me see the front of the house because she didn't want me to copy her ideas. 

She did such a good job, I was so proud. She even made a window box outside the windows on the sides. 

My aunt Janet said she was just going to watch, then she decided to decorate this little house to look like an outhouse.

This one is mine.

The key is that when you think you're done, keep adding candy.

They looked so good all lined up. Then they all got taken home. I left the one I made with my Mom since I figured Blaze would destroy it in a matter of hours. Speaking of Blaze being naughty he ate three muffins off of the counter today and then pooped all over the house. Good thing he didn't eat three muffins and a whole gingerbread house.

This was a really fun activity. We already know what we're going to do for the craft next year.

Lauren

Sewing Room Floor

Last week I was talking to my friend on the phone. When I finished talking to her I couldn't find Charlie. Turns out he was downstairs tearing up the flooring in the sewing room. He said it was bothering him. It was really nasty, but it was a Tuesday night and we had no plans for what we were going to do to replace it so I was a bit upset about it. As I stated "This isn't very conducive of Holiday sewing." 

Goodbye ugly floor, hello huge mess.

In order to get the room back to normal and keep my head from exploding we bough click flooring from Home Depot to replace the floor. It turned out very well, as long as you don't look too closely. Charlie and I are not the best at cutting or measuring, and my motto has been something along the lines of "That will buff out" or "That will be covered by something."

 Considering that we are not experts by any means it turned out quite well.

Once it was done I spent four hours putting everything back in the room and organizing it.

Whenever either one of us got worked up about the floor being perfect the other would point at the window and make a comment about how the room didn't have to be perfect since the window looks so ghetto. Charlie also said "It's only your sewing room" about twenty times. 

I've been scrapbooking quite a bit so I had a lot of left over pictures that I didn't know what to do with. Extra pictures + washi tape = easiest wall art ever.

I even decided that since we were taking everything out of the room I would try to make this book shelf look better. If you recall from my last post about the sewing room I started painting it then totally ran out of steam and stopped. Now it is totally white, not perfect, but at least it's all the same color. Then I even got crazy and color ordered my fabrics. I showed these pictures to a co-worker and she said "Is that ALL of your fabric?" like it was a lot, I was too embarrassed to tell her there was more in the closet.

Someday I'll pick up those pictures on the floor. They are covering the dents (not really)

Now to get to that holiday sewing!

Lauren

Ruby Tova Hybrid

I sewed another shirt. My dad says these posts are boring, so I'll keep it short. I bought this fabric thinking it would be great for another Tova shirt but I got home I realized I didn't have enough fabric for the Tova. How can one shirt need so much fabric? So instead I made another Ruby Top. But! I use the Tova sleeve pattern piece to make sleeves so that I can wear this top without a cardigan.

I really need to branch out from blues and purples when buying fabrics; but I just can't stop. I don't really like other colors.

This is also the 80th shirt I've sewn that I wear with this little belt. I feel like without the belt it looks too frumpy or like I weight 1 million pounds.

Also, sorry to leave you all hanging. I had LASIK surgery 2 weeks ago! I am now free from the binds of contacts and glasses. Hurray. Due to the procedure I had to wear snazzy goggles when I slept and showered, which made it difficult (impossible) to wash my hair. (I did wash my hair in the sink a few times thought. Dry shampoo was my best friend all week.) I also wasn't allowed to wear makeup for a week. I didn't really want to share pictures of what a hot mess I was, although I seem to post a lot of terrible pictures of myself. Now I am back to normal and my vision is 20/20 in my right eye and 20/15 in my left. I feel like the luckiest person in the world to be able to wake up and see! If you have perfect vision please take a moment to think of how lucky you are. I had been wearing glasses/contact since 6th grade, approximately 16 years. I'd recommend this procedure to anyone who has bad vision. I feel so free! I only wish I had done it sooner. Don't worry though, having perfect eyesight doesn't stop me from taking stupid pictures.

What's something you have done that you wished you did sooner?

Happy Friday!

Lauren