I am really dragging my feet on getting out the Christmas decorations.
I mean, is it really, truly Christmas? So soon?
Instead of facing the thousands of decoration-filled boxes we have in the basement, I did what makes to total sense to no one but me.
I made a new wreath.
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Did the 1st of December sneak up on anyone else this year? Sunday found me scrambling a little to fill the pockets of our advent calendar. READ MORE
A small group of holiday ornaments to “Feather Your Nest” for the holidays will be in my shop soon. I love these scrappy leaves, and added some hand stamped leather strips to them too. Nodding to my love of domesticity. These aren’t meant to be just for the holidays or to adorn a tree, but they can be used anywhere, anytime of year really.
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Maybe it all started with the Day of the Dead quilt, or maybe it’s the gloomy Seattle weather we’ve had, but for whatever reason, I’m into Halloween craft projects way more this year than in year’s past.
There was actually a whole bunch of Halloween decor crafting afternoon last week.
Which around here apparently means lots of spray paint.
Easiest wreath ever. The spray paint a bright fluorescent orange, but a green would be fun too. Our porch is a little dark, so the bright is a nice touch. The grapevine wreath is from Joann’s.
Two coats of spray paint later and I hot glued on every plastic bug, spider, mini skeleton head, and rubber snake I could find in our bin of Halloweens past.
The finishing touch is a cover with spider webs.
I was quite entranced with Spring this past weekend, Seattle truly outdid itself with beautiful weather! We had dinner on the beach (I, of course, brought home more rocks), we walked the neighborhood, dyed Easter eggs, and had Peep jousting wars in the microwave, and made our traditional Easter dinner of ham, carrots, asparagus, etc. I wanted to make the Easter table feel as Springy and came up with this garland after seeing a similar paper version in an old kid’s crafting book from the 1960’s. I love that it creates a really geometric shape and gives a new spin to everyone’s favorite triangular bunting shape. I think these will stay up for a while, I smile every time I pass them.
Here’s how I made them.
I love using sheets of bark to make all kinds of things, and when I got a new wood burnishing tool, I wanted to make some tree carving-inspired Valentine “cards”. Valentine’s Day seems to whizz by, and I liked that this little DIY felt more long-lasting. Maybe your true love with hang it by his desk at our brand design office. Just a idea…
Thanks for the dining room love! We celebrated with a little DIY Thanksgiving in that very dining room last week, and it was so much fun to set the mood in a new space.
The flowers were from the local market (no driving to get anything fancier in snow and ice). I usually go for a tighter, more formal floral arrangement, but this year I went quite loose, all Studio Choo-style. The “vases” are actually tin cans that held tomatoes last week. They are wrapped with bark sheets, cut to size and tied with string (wrap it around several times and knot). Simple. The votives are actually leftovers from a recent wedding my friend Christiane designed the flowers for. Just a little green moss and rafia tied around. So simple and pretty, especially sweet because they were made by a good friend. The kids made place cards from Perler beads, after a rather lazy crafting debaucle spelling out all our initials with pipecleaners (unreadable and well, just weird).
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There was some Flickr talk the other day about using Vanilla Milkshake/white walls with white trim (scroll down the comments), and still creating visual interest, and not a stark, padded cell effect. Choosing paint is never easy for us, so I know the worry well. I wasn’t even sure about the Vanilla Milkshake, but I knew it would contrast well with the wood trim and ceiling beams and nothing else really stood out for me. But use my blog header as a example of how to contrast walls with white trim. That photo was shot at my friend Barb’s house, right on her living room mantle. She chose a white for the tons of beautiful wide trim, crown molding, etc that’s throughout the house, but painted the walls a slight gray shade. I thing the effect is perfect.
Decorating with some favorite Halloween DIY’s for the season!
Thrifted dishes with waterslide decals.
Spray painted ceramics is an easy, very fun DIY project. (Instructions for both of these projects- and more- can be found in my book, Wise Craft: Turning Thrift Store Finds, Fabric Scraps, and Natural Objects into Stuff You Love.)
I surprised even myself when I jumped into decorating for Halloween as soon as the calendar said October, but I did. I guess doing these projects has warmed me up to the whole idea of Halloween. (Plus, its another reason to rearrange things around here, you know?) I’ve been keeping a few of the completed projects in orange bins down in our basement so that I could easily find them. I still need to put up the black ivy and spider web for the front yard…the kids are insisting.
I pulled out a few Nancy Drews with sinister titles for the living room side tables.
I am currently hunkered down and working on Holiday DIY projects and having some fun. I don’t know why I still get surprised at what can be made with humble thrift store items, but I do. The fun is in the transformation!
Little do my kids know, but this weekend I’m taking them to a Christmas tree farm for photoshoot props.
Cause that’s how we roll around here….
Years ago, when I started the job that brought me out here to Seattle, my new coworkers and I had a cookie exchange for the holidays. The cookies I had that day, like these Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies, are still some of my favorites, I still make several of them. READ MORE
