DIY Sunday: Real {Fake} Garland

Good Afternoon!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! We were quite busy between my husband working/taking call and all the Christmas decorating. My husband is very strict no pre-Thanksgiving Christmas decorating. So, the day after Thankgiving is spent decorating and listening to Christmas music, not Christmas shopping. In fact, I haven't gotten anything bought in way of presents. I've made a handful of items and bought maybe 1 or 2 things. I'll have to get busy in the next couple of weeks with the items I'm making, and the few I'll be purchasing!

One thing I love about Christmas decorating is using natural elements. I love the smell of fresh cut pine; however, a real tree isn't practical right now with two dogs and two kids. But, most of all, I love real garland. Anytime I'm playing around on Pinterest, there is always a beautiful banister or entry that catches my attention, and it always features real garland. Real garland is outside of our budget, and realistically it makes more sense to have artificial so I can continue to use it year after year. So it was time for a little DIY!

This year I was looking at our pre-lit garland (which was sad and fake and only $5.00 after Christmas) and decided I needed to do something to jazz it up. After some searching on Pinterest, I found out places that sell real trees often have a pile of clippings that are free for the taking. There was some very convincing pictures of how much difference it makes to add some real cut needles to a fake garland. Free & Easy?! Sold.

I was at Lowe's buying tile for my back splash and decided to pop over to their Christmas tree shop. I asked the helpful employee about the magical tree clippings location, and she pointed me to a wagon full of branches. I took as much as I could carry while still looking like a sane person and was on my way.

I hung my fake garland on my door and banister. It was wimpy. I grabbed my floral wire, fresh clippings, and some ornaments and went to work. Now I already had the wire since I use it a ton during Christmas time. I had some of the ornaments (Also cheap after Christmas). I did buy some fake berries for $3.00 at Lowe's. I went with two different looks. Inside my house, I decided years ago to stick with traditional red and gold with a rustic feel.

The outside I decided to try something new using my husband's prized pheasant feathers. I decided a couple of years ago that if my husband was going to hunt every weekend, I may as well get something out of it. He had been saving the tail feathers ever since. Those pheasant feathers were added to the garland along with some chocolate brown and gold ornaments.

I'm very happy with the results. I have some left over clippings that I put in a old milk carton I already had with some Christmas lights to complete my look. What do you think? Not too bad for only a couple of dollars and an hour of work!

 

My new Nativity scene. More details to come on that later!

Show & Tell: Time Out Chair

Good Morning!

Hope everyone is having a great week! I get to see the Hunger Games today, so life is pretty awesome. Yes. I'm one of those people. I'm a certified nerd. I stand in line for books or movies. I wouldn't have it any other way. I always have a fun time with my fellow nerds. They are my people.

To switch topics, we have a little militant living in our basement. Our four year old has been on a sassy streak, and it's been trying my husband and I's patience. She throws a fit on everything. The gloves are the wrong shade of pink. Crying. Her brother has a bigger share of breakfast. Crying or attempting to hit him. We decided we needed to be more consistent with punishing her. Especially since she tends to flaunt that her punishment wasn't that bad. She usually stays in time out longer just to spite us. She tells us as much.

I decided that a dedicated unplush time out chair was in order. I had a wooden folding chair from garage saling this summer. I had impulsively picked it up since it was only a dollar. I decided it would make the perfect chair. I could fold it up, put it away and it isn't too soft and plush.

I did some research on Pinterest to come up with a fun saying/decoration for it. I decided on this bible verse since that's really what we're trying to get across to our children. I used this method I've used in the past with graphite paper and a printed out version of the saying. I used a paint marker to fill in the lines, and a custom mixed Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. So far, it's been a bit of a miracle. I'm not sure it's really the chair or the consistency, but she has been so much better now. We do time out for 4 minutes, a minute for each year of her age.

Habitat for Humanity Salvage Art Show

Hello!

This past weekend was the Brookings Area Habitat for Humanity Salvage Art Show. It's a pretty fun idea. You get a $10.00 credit to create something unique from items in the ReStore. I was looking for some projects to keep myself from working on the stuff I should work on. I decided I wanted to try something with some tinted chalkboard paint and a vintage map I had sitting around.

I picked up a table that looked like a small desk and a old schoolhouse chair. The chair had a blueish tint to the metal that I really liked. I also liked the gold tipped legs on the table. My kiddos got to help out with cleaning up each item. The table first got a coat of oil based primer and then chalk paint on the legs and chalkboard on the top of the table. Each corner had a little hole which was perfect for a stick of chalk. Then the chair got the vintage map applied with mod podge, and clamped down to make sure it was smooth. The set was supposed to have a masculine feel. Perfect for a little boy's room.

I was pretty happy with the result, and I hope it brought some money into our local Habitat for Humanity. The best part though was explaining why we were working on the table and chairs with my daughter.

All primed and ready for paint! 

My little helper!