Sunday, December 15, 2013

Christmas home tour, DIY projects to inspire

I'm very happy with my natural Christmas vignette in the dining room. I've used homemade wreaths hung on shutters. 3 Thrift store pitchers filled with cuttings from our own tree. Homemade bowl made of a doilie filled with cuttings and white ornaments.

On the mantle 3 glass containers filled with red and green Christmas ornaments. A vintage flour sieve is filled with fresh clippings and a little birdie and star tucked in there for some color.


The green Christmas tree made out of wood got a layer of white paint. And planted next to the decorated tree it looks really nice. The Christmas tree has LOTS of lights and I used scraps of lace to decorate the tree branches. Simple, natural and rustic.


Still at the forest I laid out my tree shape. Back at the house I used a hot glue gun to glue the logs to the biggest log. I've put it in one of the white pitchers and voila, another Christmas tree is made.



Another simple but effective craft with driftwood was making these stars. I just used a hot glue gun and put the pieces together. I used lace to hang them up on a shutter. The beauty of these is that you don't want them perfectly good looking.
Wood is natural and so is this star shape :)

 




Driftwood Christmas Tree

 
Driftwood trees

This Christmas season I've been busy making lots of decorations with driftwood. It's so easy to make and I just love how it looks. It's rustic and natural and really brings the whole family in the holiday spirit.


I'm so grateful for the times when my little boy naps AND I have the energy and inspiration to make something nice. My daughter is a great person to have around when I'm crafting. She's always watching me and is in awe of everything I make. She will say it's pretty or other nice things to keep me going. I'm very happy she's into crafting too and I hope for her it will last a lifetime since it's a superb gift to have; the ability to craft.

And now the star of this blog post: Making Driftwood Christmas trees.

I'll start this blog post off with a confession: the base was made by my husband. 
Oh the shame... I like to call it teamwork =) Maybe someday I will feel comfortable crafting outside the box.

1. I bought some knitting needles at the thrift store for $0.50. 
2. My husband used a little bit of leftover wood to make the base. Free.
3. Forest wood from South Lake Tahoe. Free.
4. = Priceless Christmas tree.

Whilst the kids were playing on the playground I dragged a big bag around to collect pieces of wood. 
This time around I knew exactly what to make so I looked for enough pieces of different sizes. 
Since it was frosty on the ground when I was collecting I had to let the wood dry for a few days. I put 
it by the heater and after that it was in my garage for another 2 weeks.
This DIY project is done in a few simple steps.
 Letting the wood dry.

1. After my husband made me 2 bases I sorted the wood for similar thickness and color and lengths 
that would add up nicely in a christmas tree shape. I laid it out and measured with my base to see if 
I had enough pieces to fill it all the way up. 
Measuring.
2. After that I started drilling holes. How big the hole should be depends on the size knitting needle 
you're using. Also use a big block of wood on your work surface if you don't want to drill holes in your 
kitchen counter. Yep, the kitchen was my work space for this craft :)
Drilling.
3. After each drill I put the stick on the the base to see if it would work. Even after measuring in the 
beginning on one tree I had to add another stick to make it to the top. This is because sometimes I 
would flip the stick and then everything is slightly off.
All done.
4. Wow, you're done already! 
If you want you can decorate the tree with ribbon or little ornaments.
These trees will be reused again for Valentine's Day. I actually see a lot of use in their 
future.

Letting my girl help me decorate.

 How to make the base.
The base is about a third of the length. Drill a hole in the bottom of both pieces just slightly smaller than the width of the knitting needle. Put a bit of wood glue in the middle and hold the pieces in a 90 degree angle, and glue together. Now one piece of wood is slightly higher than the other so you have to correct this on both ends with a little piece of wood. Glue it underneath so it's not wobbly anymore. You can slide in the knitting needle and since it's slightly smaller it stays put.

Driftwood wreaths






It all started with a sunny afternoon spend at the shore of south Lake Tahoe. I saw a the little pieces of beautiful driftwood and I just knew I had to take some home. At that time I didn't have an idea yet of what to make with it but I knew I would think of something. My daughter helped me pick out the best pieces. She was great at that. 


My collection of driftwood.

The first things I made was wreaths. 3 Different sizes but all the same style.

I started with some longer pieces and laid down a circle shape. After gluing them together with hot glue. (Using my friend's glue gun since I couldn't wait for mine to be found after such a long time of not using it!!!) After that it was easy peasy. I just kept adding layers working my way in. When I was satisfied with how thick my wreath was I added some shorter sticks on top. Especially those with a nice color and some with some sparkly sand on it.

Close up of the homemade wreath.

I still had plenty driftwood left so I made 2 more. For the 2nd one I made I started with making a circle and then working my way outwards. I didn't like working like this as much so I started working inwards again. Hence the smallest wreath.


After that I made one more wreath and I had used up all my driftwood. This one got a special little sheep on it. It's a childhood treasure from my husband. His great grandmother crochet it for him when he was still a small child.





The wreaths got center attention on my wall with with shutters.




Thursday, December 5, 2013

Homemaking

 



                                                                 Shutters

Modern Country, shabby chic, vintage, upcycle; whatever you want to call it, I just love this style of home decorating. And it took me a little while to discover this style. Yes, I've been repainting furniture for many years now and I've rearranged rooms ever since I was a young tween. Yes, my mom let me use her house! But it is since maybe 2 years that I realize that it is this style where I feel most at home in. I've gotten married in 2006 and when we moved to America I became a homemaker. I like that word; homemaker. Because that's exactly what I was doing: “making a home” for us. And of course it is what I'm still doing. With 2 kids and a dog thrown in as well.

But you can say I had a lot of time to decorate the house to my (oops, our) liking. Back then I started off painting furniture in a multitude of colors. I had an orange side table but also a purple one. I had striped colorful curtains, a reddish rug, there was a blue display cabinet and the sofa had a reddish sofa cover on it. I hope that paints the picture for you. Thinking back of that time I can see I went a little bit overboard with the paint. I still love color but not like that anymore. I wanted to post pictures but unfortunately the pictures of that time are on a external hard drive and too much work to get too.

Over the next few posts I'll show you some pictures of my house as it is now. You will see lots of white furniture and new uses for old things.
Something else worth pointing out, except for the sofa, all the living room furniture you'll see are all free curbside goodies, Craigslist ad finds, thrift store treasures and even a coffee table made out of a futon base. Kudos for the husband on that last one :). It makes me very happy to know that I can turn an old dresser that no one wants anymore into a great piece for my house. Painting is a very rewarding hobby in which you'll get to enjoy the end product every day.


The table my husband made from an all wood futon base.


The table got a coat of blue paint and it was good to go all Summer long.


I like the natural distressed look but I wasn't too pleased with blue for a table inside.


So I painted it. Just like that. Now we got a mega big coffee table that fits all our drinks, books and toys.

It gives me great pleasure knowing that I'm not spending a ton of money on a piece of furniture, especially since I like to rearrange and change furniture all the time. An item will usually not stay in the same spot longer than 6 months. That's the beauty of decorating every room in the house in the same style, you can move furniture around with no problem. AND I'm keeping furniture out of the landfill. For me it's a win win.
 

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Advent calendar filled with kid activities



Christmas time is here and it's not leaving anytime soon. And I'm glad it's not because I love Christmas. The cozy little lights and candles, the stylish and festive decorations, hot cocoa and whipped cream, a mountain of blankets to crawl under and most importantly; family time.

For me Christmas time is all about family time and to not loose track of that I made an Advent calendar with family and kid oriented activities. Every day we will be reminded of the fact to do something fun together and to create memories of this special time of year.

My husband went to the local hardware store for some items and brought me back 30 matchboxes on my request. In the meantime I had gathered Christmas themed color coordinated papers, a pencil, scissors, a ruler and double sided sticky tape. That's all it takes. Oh, and a lot of time.

Here's how you can make it too:

1: Trace the matchbox onto your paper, pretty side down. Trace all 4 sides of the matchbox onto the paper. Use your pencil to mark down a dot and use the ruler to get straight lines to get a rectangle shape. Once you have the first measurements you can outline more rectangles.
If you want to be very precise you can measure all sides of the matchbox and then measure this onto the paper. It's not how I work :)
2: Cut out all your rectangle shapes.
3: Cut double sided sticky tape into pieces and stick to a matchbox. Cover all four sides.
4: Stick your paper onto the matchbox.
5: Snip off any excess paper.
6: Start with the next one.
7: Decorate your little advent box any way you like. Use stickers, torn paper, let the kids put stickers on it, whatever you fancy. Don't forget your numbers 1 through 25! Use stickers and or stamps for this. Mix it up.

It will get an extra "pop of special" if you put the numbering on an extra layer of paper (I didn't do this because I wanted to be done with it) and then glue this on the box. Or use double sided sticky tape.

                             

The fun part will be to come up with activities to do with your children. If you need a little hand along the way, here is a link to some of the best ideas:
http://adrielbooker.com/family-advent-activities-christmas-countdown-fun/

                                      

One last tip:
Plan your activities wisely using your monthly planner. Make sure to do elaborate activities or crafts that need some prep on days you know you have the time.
Of course you can alternate between activities and a little chocolate treat too.

Time to open up the first box!!




Christmas is all about making time for family and don't forget to make it easy on yourself in the meantime!