Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Major Milestone!

I don't have much to post today - but I just noticed that yesterday I reached . . .

1000 PAGE VIEWS!!

It may not be a big deal to most, but considering this is my first blog, I am
pretty excited about it!

Now, on to 2,000!!

 

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Fall Mantel

It is officially the first day of fall.  Recently, I've figured out that I enjoy the fall season more than I realized.  I have always considered myself to be a "summer girl".  But in the last couple of weeks, I noticed the beauty of the leaves beginning to drop from the trees, got excited when the pumpkins showed up at the grocery store, and started looking up warm comforting recipes for upcoming dinners.

Not only that - but I have redecorated our house a little early in anticipation of this cozy time of year.  Earlier this week, I picked up a few mini pumpkins from the store, as well as some supplies to create a fun, simple fall wreath.















Also featured on my mantel are the treat dishes that I posted about earlier this week (you can find the tutorial here).

The wreath was super easy to assemble.  I traced out the letters, pasted them to the green background, and pasted that to the leaf-designed squares.  I also used my hot glue gun to attach leaves to the wreath, and tied a piece of twine from one side to the other.  Using some mini clothespins that I had, I hung the letters across the center of the wreath - and was done.  The longest part of this project was cutting out the letters (if you have a Cricut, I envy you!!).


The picture above features just some random pieces that I have accumulated.  I wrote about the twine-covered vase awhile back (another easy repurposing project!).

I didn't really intend on putting out ALL of my decorations the other night.  But it just kind of exploded and everything I had made its way out to the shelves, tables and walls!


I'm off to go curl up under a warm blanket on the couch to watch some movies with my best friend!  I suggest you relish in this season as well!!

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Homemade Treat Jars


Lately I have seen different versions on these on Pinterest.  I have been saving some jars just to have around for projects, and I was inspired to try to find some good, cheap candle holders to complete this one.


I've always had a hard time getting the labels to come off the jars cleanly.  Thankfully, I found Trish at Mom on Time Out!!  Trish suggests a couple of different methods for removing pesky labels.  I started by filling the jars with hot water, and then dropping them into a pot also filled with hot water.  Letting them soak for awhile loosened the adhesive and most of the labels just fell off.  There was still some residue from the adhesive on the jars, though.  Using Trish's second method, I grabbed my nail polish remover and some cotton balls and started scrubbing.  I found that a circular motion worked best

Note: you will want to make sure that you either don't have nail polish on, don't care that it gets messed up if you do, or wear gloves!!

Since I had a few things to drop off at Goodwill last weekend, I decided to run in and see if they had any candle holders that were in decent shape at a good price.  A lot of candle holders that are meant to have the candle sit on top (as opposed to a candlestick that sticks inside the holder) have a needle on the top to help stabilize the candle.  I was thrilled to find some that not only were of varying heights, but didn't have that needle on top, so I didn't have to worry about removing it.  Here is what I got:


The last supply I needed was some spray paint.  I planned to make fall-themed jars, so I went with a burnt orange color of Valspar spray paint from Lowes.  (As much as I love the summer weather and despise having to be out in the rain, fall & winter are the most fun for crafts!!)

I painted both the candle holders and the lids to the jars, while I left the jars alone so that you could see what was inside.  I was a little nervous about this step because I haven't done much with spray paint before.  You want to make sure to do lots of quick, light sprays, and shake the can up often.  I'm not a very patient person, so it was irritating to have to wait for one side to dry before rolling the candle holders over to get the other side.  But....it paid off in the end :)














Now - you could just set the jars on top and be done (it would make them much easier to wash), but I wanted to make sure mine didn't fall off.  Using my hot glue gun, I made a ring around the bottom of each jar and attached them to the tops of the candle holders.

Finally: fill them up!!  You can use them to hold fall candies, or use some sort of "filler" just for decoration.

Not including the fillers, this project cost only $12 - the candle holders were $3 a piece at Goodwill and the spray paint was also $3.  For that price - you probably could get 1 actual candy dish at the store.  I'm always excited when I think about the deals I can get by doing things myself.  Plus, you can design the project yourself and personalize how you want it to look in the end.

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