Christmas Eve

This Christmas Eve I am spending the whole day in the house.  My own little celebration.  Working in retail has a tendency to burn me out on the holiday rush.  Make a little fudge, watch a movie, finish my 12 days of Christmas reading, wrap a few presents, get crafty, drink hot chocolate, take pictures and blog, and maybe even clean the house a little just to make me feel better about neglecting it for the last month. Have whatever kind of day makes you happy!

Transformation

     You can find sewing cabinets just about anywhere.  I got this one at a thrift store in The Dalles.  There were 5 or 6 there that day.  This one was a little bigger and heavier than most so I got it.  I had something in mind to do with it.

     It has possibilities.  What do you see?

    These handles are a bit outdated.  Old but not vintage.  I thought I could find some others.

     I added casters (well, Gareld did).   You can see here I also painted it white.

     I didn't make it up to Simply Sandy's for new handles so a little black spray paint gave them a new look that matched the new "feet".

    I sanded the old finish off the top and the bare wood looks like a cutting board.  So now I have a handy little kitchen island.  It will be for sale at the open house.

Burlap Ornaments

These are how they turned out.  I can't wait to decorate my tree this Sunday.

My theme is Burlap, Blues and Bling.  I have lot's of blue.  I needed to mass produce some burlap ornaments cheap and easy.

First I tried heat and bond.  I wanted to glue the burlap to cardboard.  This didn't seem to work very well.  I wasn't getting a good hold over the whole piece so I went to plan B.

Good ol' spray adhesive.  I use this for many things and it was just the thing I needed here to pull off this idea.  Spray the burlap and the cardboard for a stronger hold.

For the next step I traced shapes on the cardboard side.  Then I cut them out and punched a hole for an ornament hook.

Stacks and stacks.  I hope it is enough to get the effect I'm looking for on my tree.

Now I just have to figure out what the bling is going to be.

If a tree falls in the woods....

I really love bottle brush trees.  The good old ones.  I try to find them whenever I can.
This season it seems I am obsessed with all kinds of trees.  Here are just a few to enjoy.

This fabric panel I got at Ikea is so realistic looking.  It's beautiful.

These little "tomato cages" make a nice simple tree.  I don't know what their real purpose in life was but as soon as I saw them I saw a tree.  There are 5 stacked up here but I will separate them and I made a star for each one.

I remember these little trees from my childhood and I have always liked them.  I also have Gurley candles for all the holidays.  They are easy to find at antique shows and shops.

A friend gave me a tree similiar to this a few years ago.  I made up quite a few for our bazaar.  The spool trunks go well with the button and lace decorations.

Book pages over craft store cones.  They looked a little plain until I figured out a star for the top.  I bought a star punch and that did the trick.

Last year these were in the christmas department at work.  They look more like the real thing than the cheap ones in the village section.  I bought all of ours and as I went to stores in Pendleton and Wood Village I got all they had too.  We never get in enough of the good things so if you see something you like, snatch it up.

And finally my funnel trees.  I first saw this idea two years ago so my hunt for funnels was on.  Last year I had two sitting on my counter during the holiday.  Mom and I have been collecting funnels so we can both have some of these unusual trees.

Shamelessly Stealing Ideas

I look for new ideas everywhere I go.  I saw these in one of my favorite booths.  I already love old, seasonal postcards.  I have quite a few christmas ones on hand.  As soon as I saw these at the show I started looking for the christmas pins.  I was able to get them for $1 each.  A pin and a postcard...what a good combination.

The hankies tied to a wire tree was an idea I saw at a thrift store in The Dalles.  I have lots of hankies and I put this tree together using red, white and green for our christmas bazaars.  It turned out really cute.  It would also be nice left up as decoration.

This idea was actually my sister's.  She was in the process of making over cheap pins using newsprint.  I never saw any of hers but in hearing the idea it sounded like a good one since these button pins can be found anywhere.  I put the newsprint on then got stumped as to where to go from there.  I finally decided on a holiday theme.   I never know where the next idea will come from so I am always looking.



Whew!

It's been a busy month.  A lot of time was devoted to pulling off our first show.

Shabulous was awesome.  It was so fun planning for it.  I really enjoyed getting my shabby shack ready.  We hadn't had a chance to create and display Halloween decorations so this was fun.  The show was a huge success and a great start for an annual event.  We hope to see it grow next year.  Now that I have had a week or so to recover it's time to get ready for the next big thing.  We have our usual fall show the saturday before Thanksgiving and then we are having a Christmas Open House here on December 8.  I have some new craft projects to work on.  I'll show you later.

Pinterest

Don't you just love Pinterest?  I hope you all have discovered it and are pinning away.  I work with the young women in our church and we made these last night.  I had several colors and styles for them to choose from.  Gareld cut a 2x6 into four inch blocks and we mod podged them on.  Top it off with a cute bow and they each had something new for their room.

We talked about the world's view of beauty and then I asked them to think of words that described what beauty means to them.  What makes someone beautiful?  They came up with words like self-confidence, kindness, honesty, integrity, strong, friendly, virtuous and inclusive.

I had the girls write the words on the back of the block along with this quote:

"Happy girls are the prettiest."  Audrey Hepburn

(also from pinterest)