Thursday, December 22, 2011

DIY Christmas update

My goal this year was to make almost everything and have everything wrapped early so I could have a cute pile of presents under my cute tree for awhile. It just feels like a waste to have something wrapped for a few hours before it is opened, but it looks like that is what it is coming down to. At least I can say I tried. I am still making a few presents, but for a lot of them I ran out of time and ended up going to the store the other night to buy presents for a couple of my nieces and nephews and some for our annual white elephant gift exchange my family does every year. If only I wasn't full time at work I would have been able to finish all of my presents and then some. Oh well, there is always next year! And now I know I need to start way earlier. It has actually been rather stressful trying to cram everything in to the few hours I have before or after work this week. I am definitely ready for it all to be over so I can enjoy relaxing without feeling guilty. Ok... 2 days left of working my butt off before, during, and after work.  I can do it. My presents may not look this cute, but at least they will be wrapped.


From For The Love Via Tanya on Pinterest

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Dinning room table #2

As promised, I am actually posting pictures of the table we made for one of my best friends. She moved into her first place this summer and I wanted to do something nice as a little house warming gift, so I told her I would build her a coffee table. Which then turned into a dinning room table as well when she told me her budget for a table was 200 bucks! Probably reasonable, but I just couldn't sit and watch her spend that much when I could make her a table for less than half the price. So we made a deal and she paid for supplies and we built the table. Had I know that it was going to take us 6 months to finish (due entirely to laziness and busy weekends) I probably would have kept my mouth shut, because she would have had a table a long time ago. It also turn out a little smaller than we had planned because we changed the style of the legs and forgot to make new measurements. Eeek, we just keep learning with each project. Eventually we will have a successful building story... at least I really hope so.







It looks so much better than the table we built for ourselves, it was really hard to give it up. We are now planning on stripping the stain off of our own table and trying to do this grayish stain that I am falling in love with.

I am kicking myself right now because I forgot to take a picture of her coffee table after it was finished, but this is what it looked like pre sanding and staining.



And after all this building, I think we decided our next car needs to be a truck or SUV because this...




























... is getting a little old.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

My first Christmas tree! (Updated)



Like I said it my last post I have never had my own Christmas tree, and never really planned to have one. My husband and I didn't really liked Christmas trees growing up, and ever since we were dating we had planned to have some other fun alternative. Our first Christmas was a little over a month after we got married and we didn't really have time to think of anything, so we just didn't have anything at all... except for a pile of presents in the corner of our living room. Our second Christmas we were a little more creative and I made stockings and a wreath, which we hung above an old chest and window panel where we piled our presents.


But, it just never did the trick, never felt quite like Christmas so this year we went out and got ourselves a Christmas tree :) (after a lot of begging on my part). And I love it! I have also spent a lot of time over the past couple of weeks making ornaments for the tree, and am proud to say that I made all except two of our ornaments! We have two cats so we didn't want to bother with the glass ones you can buy, so all of mine are cat friendly. Not that I want my cats playing with my tree ornaments, but if they do (like I know they will) they wont make a giant mess and they wont hurt themselves.



I made the star out of a cracker box we had in the recycling bin. Update: Pretty & Cozy  has a tutorial on how to make these kinds of stars. They used cardstock but I didn't have any in white, so I just used some cracker boxes and painted them. The first attempt I did was with regular paper, and it turned out horrible, so I suggest something sturdy. There is a templet available on that website that you can print out. Since we don't have ink for our printer, I just took a ruler and measured the templet on my computer screen and then made my own templet. It was a little difficult to figure out and would be way easier to just print, but I made due with the resources I had available.


Covered styrofoam balls with coffee filters.


The garlands are painted styrofoam balls strung together with beads. Inspired by something I found at a holiday faire.



I hand crocheted "doilies" and sewed them onto a heart that I made from brown linen I had. I made lots of doilies in different patterns. This was inspired by these ones at Ikea.





And last years stockings that I made from burlap and wood letters.



Update: For those who saw earlier, I got a new picture of the whole tree with decorations on it.

The D.I.Y. Christmas is going great so far, although I think I am a little behind.


I'm linking this post up to my first link party! Check out some other bloggers and their DIY Christmas decor!