living creatively.
A few weeks ago, some of the girls in my family had a craft day at my house. Despite the fact that I have tons of craft supplies and my garage is filling up with roadside furniture collections I’ve been promising my husband I’ll redo at some point, I was at a bit of a loss trying to find some craft inspiration for that day.
Yesterday morning, I looked out the window while I was getting ready and decided, “You know what? It looks like flip-flop weather!” I’m not quite sure what got into me, but I got dressed and was completely convinced that I would get to work and everyone would be wearing summer attire.
If you’ve been following this blog for any amount of time, you probably know that I am the absolute worst at properly preparing for major holidays. I managed to knock out a few Mini Pumpkin Pies for Thanksgiving and some Wrapped Ball Ornaments for Christmas, but you may have noticed an extreme lack of turkeys and twinkle lights.
In case you haven’t realized it by now, I’m a huge fan of upcycling. If it can be purchased, it can be made — and if it can be made, there’s a chance you already have the tools to do it at home. Of course this isn’t always the case, but in my experience I rarely have to buy more than 1 or 2 things to complete a project. Either DIY-ing really is that resourceful, or I’m a hoarder. Whichever way you look at it, making stuff from what you already have in the house is awesome. As a result of my (possible) hoarder-like tendencies, I have a collection of blank fitted tees that I knew would be perfect candidates for a little design upgrade.
With Christmas right around the corner, there are a million things to do in the way of decorating, list making, gift buying and travel planning. It can be overwhelming, especially if you’ve resolved to have a handmade holiday. Because DIY projects can be a bit of an investment and a little more work, I like to focus on ones that will serve me year round (while staying season-appropriate). It’s easy to get lost in the idea of “doing it yourself” in order to save money and vent some of that creative energy, but the “saving money” part can get tossed out the window fast if a lot of your projects are only useful once or twice a year. On that note, I’d like to introduce Cereal Box Gift Tags!
I’m not one for flashy Christmas decor. It’s a little ironic because when the giant inflatable snow globes and Santas start to pop up all over the neighborhood, I love it! As Christmas nears, I love driving around with Dave while listening to Christmas music and trying to find the houses with the most outrageous lights and props displays. All of this ends the minute I enter my own house. The craziest Christmas decorating I do is probably putting up a tree with colored twinkle lights. Out of control, right? Well that’s why I’ve decided to put a little more effort into my decorating this year. I wanted decorations that were totally Christmas-worthy but could also be used year-round.
These ball ornaments are incredibly cheap and easy to make. All you need are some styrofoam balls, an old catalog (or newspaper, or fabric), a hot glue gun and some string. In the tutorial below, I’ll walk you through how I made one out of the pages of a catalog!
I haven’t had much time lately to tackle the big DIY projects at my house. I have furniture, pallets, burlap, paint and all kinds of other goodies in our garage just waiting to become some wonderful DIY creation. I keep reminding my hubby that I DO have a plan for that pallet and those scraps of wood – and that huge old junky looking window I convinced him I needed.
I’ve finally accepted the fact that I just don’t have time for those big projects right now. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still keeping all those amazing supplies. I just have to be more realistic with my DIY projects at the moment. So this week, instead of stressing about finishing of my big furniture projects, I decided to check some smaller, more realistic projects off the list.
After initially seeing this idea on Pinterest and a host of other blogs, I decided to redo my knife block. It’s one of those boring wood knife blocks that wasn’t really much to look at. I wanted that functional block to become a fun pop of color my kitchen desperately needed.
My mom and I used to make card-buying quite the epic field trip. We’d head out to the Hallmark store and peruse every aisle, laughing at the funny cards and holding back tears when reading the heartfelt sympathy cards. Before we knew it, we had forgotten that we only went in there for one birthday card, and instead came out with enough birthday, baby, sympathy, thank you and congratulations cards to last the entire year.
Last Saturday, Tiffany and I hung out with my brother and sister-in-law at their open house for FreshGround Roasting. We had a blast preparing appetizers, decorating and learning about coffee. One of the things that I loved was how my sister-in-law, Krista, set out the food. We had hearty appetizers, local cheeses, amazing cupcakes from The Sugar Path and fresh fruits and veggies. Krista used vintage and household items to make the spread look as good as it tasted.
About a month ago we were asked to create a fresh DIY wreath tutorial for a Holiday Wreath post on BuzzFeed Shift. We were SO excited and got right on it! We tossed around a few ideas before we landed on the “Minimalist White Wreath” made out of paper plates, old t-shirts, tape and rubber bands.
We love this wreath for 3 reasons: 1.) It’s CHEAP! The only thing we needed to buy was a pack of heavy duty paper plates, which we usually have on hand anyway. 2.) It’s VERSATILE! You can use any t-shirt color(s) you want and you can even add your own flare by pinning on other embellishments like paper flowers, string bows, etc.. sky’s the limit! 3.) It’s QUICK. Including the time it takes to gather your materials, you can have this wreath hanging on the wall within an hour. Does an adorable homemade piece of decor get any easier??
This blog is all about living creatively. We're big fans of DIY-ing, soapmaking, cooking and baking as well as girly stuff like fashion and makeup! Our goal is to inspire and be inspired while we share bits of our homemade lives with you. We'd love you to join us!
