Super Easy DIY Fall Garland

This weekend I realized that I should probably do something with the grocery bag of pine cones I collected earlier this season. The first thing that came to mind? A fall-themed garland. This was the easiest thing I've ever made.

You need: Pine Cones, Twine, Scissors, Tacks (for hanging)

All you have to do is cut the twine about one and a half times the length of your mantle (or space you want to hang it on), then make a loop with the twine, tie it around the spiny things, leave your desired length between each pine cone, repeat.

Hang it up - I put it on my mantle, but before we moved into this place (and we had no mantle), I would just hang garlands on the wall.

Ps. Wanna know something gross? See the jar of acorns on the mantle? I had them drying out on a tray for a few weeks. When I scooped them up to put in the jar, I noticed some little things left behind on the tray. Larvae (or grubs or some other creepy bug) were left squirming around! They were living IN the acorns. I probably touched them. Barf. Barf barf barf.

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Succulent Terrarium

Last weekend was my mom's birthday, and let me tell you, she's a difficult lady to shop for. So what do you give the woman who has everything? A succulent planter of course. Although I consider myself to have a black thumb, I am pretty crafty, so I figured I could put this together without much knowledge of plants. I consulted the internet quickly to make sure I had the right idea (turns out I did). Here's how.

You need:
A terrarium or dish to plant your succulents (I thought a teacup would be adorable)
A small amount of sand
A small amount of soil
Varying sizes of rocks/stones
Succulent Plants

In your dish/planting vessel, layer your sand, and some rocks for drainage. Next, layer in some of the soil. Now, loosen the roots of each succulent plant, and give it a spot in the dish (I found this to be a little difficult based on the size of the terrarium). Layer in a bit more soil, and then some smaller pebbles/stones to keep the succulents in place. Add a little bit of water and you're done!

Water occasionally, but make sure not to add too much (you don't want to see it pooling at the bottom). Look at me, giving advice on caring for plants. Somewhere, pigs are flying.

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Buddha Bottles

Who doesn't love a Buddha? The smiling guy with his round belly brings good vibes wherever he goes.

So when my friends showed up at our place with Buddha beers for the hockey game, they offered to save me two so that I could make something with them. They also kept the rest to make their own candle holders.

This is probably one of the simplest DIY's ever.

Step one: Wash the bottles
Step two: Remove labels (this required a little soak in warm water)
Step three: Insert candles (I used candles that had been burned down quite a bit. It looks better.)

Et Voila!

Ambiance and good vibes. Now that's a winning combination.

Ps. Although I didn't taste it, the boys said the beer itself is also really good, so it's worth a try!

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Golden P.I.G.

Some time ago, my girlfriends and I acquired this pig. We named him Notorious P.I.G. - get it?

before: pink-metallic-faded-to-silver with creepy, painted on eyes

He was our girls' week mascot while we were staying up north, and after the end of the week, they decided I could have him (because pigs are my favourite animal). So for years, I've had Notorious, dressed for a luau, hanging out in the garden.

Just the other day, I had a brain wave. I've been admiring this golden pig for quite some time. So why not make my own?

All it took was to take off the leis, clean off the dirt, and then coat him with gold spray paint which I already had from doing my pumpkins.

here's notorious, drying on the front patio

Since we don't really have a backyard, I had to paint him in the front of the house. A lot of people walked by and probably thought I was crazy. And to be honest, I must have checked on him about 20 times in the hour that he was drying out there because I was afraid someone would steal him. I think I may be a little bit delusional regarding his desirability.

Here he is, dried and hanging out on our coffee table. Rocky has been very accepting of him so far.

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Baby Shower Sushi

On the weekend, I went to a baby shower for my friends who are expecting a baby boy in March. I had seen this image on Pinterest, and knowing that they love sushi, I couldn't resist. But since a lot of sushi is pink, I had to be a little creative with colours (I figured they probably didn't want a six pack of pink socks for their little guy).

I opted for colours that would make veggie california rolls and a salmon sushi piece.

Here's how I made them.

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Mixed Greens

By Sunday of this past weekend, my desire to do some sort of holiday DIY was at a high point. I had set aside an empty clementine crate for a crafty purpose and after decorating for my mom's 60th birthday party, I have a ton of mason jars, so the natural choice was to turn it into a mini mixed-forest for my coffee table.

This was a super-easy-fit-for-a-lazy-Sunday kind of project. All you need is:
A crate or box, some fabric, jars or other glass containers, cut greenery, ribbon, scissors, and water.

To start (if you haven't already) take the mesh and any labels off the clementine crate. Then arrange as many jars as you can fit in the crate. Next, take your fabric (I just used what I had on hand, but burlap or something more gauzy would also work) and tuck it around the jars, which will hold them in place and make the crate look full.

Now grab your greenery. I have several different ever-green trees/bushes in my yard, which is where I got them from. Trim them to fit nicely in the jars (the height is really based on personal preference).

Put the greenery in the jars. I kept each jar with only one type of plant, but you could also arrange a mix of greenery. To add some sparkle, I tied gold ribbon around each jar.

Place the jars back in the crate, and add water to each jar so that it reaches the bottom of the cut branches.

Et voila! Here it is on my coffee table.

xx E.

Ps. if you choose good ever-greens, it smells really lovely too!

Pumpkins

Since we're about two weeks away from Halloween, I figured we'd better get some pumpkins outside, or else people wouldn't want to trick-or-treat at our run down little house.

So off to the farm we went. As much as I used to love carving pumpkins, cutting them open and spending an hour scraping out the gunk inside really did not appeal to me this year. Luckily, Pinterest to the rescue! We decided to paint them instead.

What you need:

• Pumpkins (cleaned)
• Spray paint
• Thumbtacks 
• Some outdoor space

Clean all the dirt off your pumpkin, and head outside to spray paint. It was so nice and warm on Sunday, which made it a heck of a lot nicer for doing this outside.

Once they are dry - trust me it didn't take long - you have two options:

Option A (aka Type A personality, aka my way) - lightly draw your lettering on with a pen/pencil so that you have a map of where to put the push pins.

Option B (aka Husband's way) - just grab the pumpkin and start putting those pins in.

And Voila! I actually prefer Husband's way (that's one for the record books folks). I think his looks bolder and cooler. I wish I had watched him before starting. 

Happy Pumpkin decorating :)

xx E.

Ps. Thanks to Husband for being the hand model for this DIY

DIY Headboard

As I mentioned here, I really wanted to make an upholstered headboard. I finally got around to making it last weekend.

Supplies:

• piece of particle board (we used 72 x 45 inches)
• a two by four (we used an 8 ft piece cut in two)
• 3 inch foam (cut to fit the portion of the wood that is above the bed)
• sturdy fabric (thick enough that when you pull it tight, it won't rip)
• spray adhesive
• staple gun
• bolts (to secure it to your bed frame)

Start with your desired size of particle board. We had to have it cut in two (to fit in the car), and we secured the pieces together with four small metal plates. 

To make it extra secure, we attached two 2 x 4's to the back to act as support and feet.

Once this was all assembled, we measured it against the bed frame to see where to drill holes for the bolts. Then we (read: Husband) drilled the holes.

Finally, it was my turn. I sprayed the part of the wood (where the foam would be) with spray adhesive. I also sprayed one side of the foam itself. We only used enough foam to cover the top half of the board (so that the mattress would tuck right into the head board).

It sticks pretty quickly, but the instructions say it takes 30 mins to dry. I didn't wait.

I spread out the fabric I had chosen on the floor, and placed the board down on it (foam side down). Word to the wise, I chose a solid colour fabric, which I'd say is a good idea for beginners, because you don't have to worry about a pattern coming out crooked.

Once the fabric was pulled tight, I started stapling (leaving the corners for last). The stapler ran out of staples at one point and it literally took me half an hour just to figure out how to reload it. By this point I was so over making this headboard, but luckily I finally figured it out. For the corners, I just carefully folded them until they looked tailored and stapled them in place.

Final step, secure it to your bed frame and ta da!

you can see the portion that has foam, and where it stops (top left)

I can honestly say I've had enough DIY to last me for awhile.

xx E.

ps. Thank god I decided to go for the straight upholstered look and not the tufted style.

Spring Cleaning

This is the time of year when everyone wants to open the windows, let the fresh air in, and get rid of all the clutter that has been weighing us down all winter.

I was able to donate a ton of clothes, shoes and house ware items to our local charity shop. After I was done purging the old, I decided I should organize what was left.

The mess: our bathroom storage (aka Ikea shelves). The former residents of our house took the bathroom cabinet with them (odd?), so a cheap and cheerful solution was two open shelves. It seemed like a great idea at the time, until they turned into this...

Before

Sadly, this is actually what they looked like, I didn't mess it up to make the 'before' uglier.

I knew that a) this could be improved and b) it wouldn't cost much. I looked around for storage vessels that I could use. I found a small mason jar, and a bunch of square vases left over from my wedding.

I grouped the miscellaneous boxes into a basket (to hide their un-prettiness), and used the various glass containers to hold other bathroom necessities.




The result:

After

Much nicer, no? Total cost of the makeover $6 for the basket, everything else was already here. It just goes to show that it doesn't take much to make your life feel refreshed and organized.

That's one room down, many more to go...

xx E.

ps. the funny (read: not-so-lovely) part is that as I was standing there, admiring my work, the bracket on the top shelf gave out, which ended up taking the bottom shelf down with it, resulting in broken glass, cotton balls and make up brushes everywhere. I was not thrilled. Husband will be re-installing them for me :)