Christmas Wreath for under $10

No, wait, it gets better.  All the items I bought brand new at Spotlight (a haberdashery and craft store here 'down under'), the only items I had at home was my hot glue gun (and glue of course) and a few extra baubles.  I guess Spotlight was having a sale or something 'cause I got everything C.H.E.A.P.

Wreath $7  $3.50
2 metres of ribbon $0.96
16 pc ornament set $2.50  $1.25

Total cost $5.71

I should re-label the heading as Christmas Wreath for a tad over $5.00

I am loving the customised look for much cheaper than mass produced.

This was a project I did with Little Angel.  And when you're three, there is no time to wait, so I didn't get great photos of the during - who am I kidding, I didn't get any.  Here is a rushed before photo.

Little Angel picked the ornaments to glue, I applied the glue to the back of the ornament, and with Little Angel being very careful, she applied the ornament to the wreath (with a little guideance from me).

We measured the ribbon length and tied and glued it to the wreath (the knot is hidden at the back of the wreath). 

We then made a bow, and glued it to the front. 

We installed it to the door using an upside down Command hook on the inside of the door.

By the way I picked up some 12 clear glass baubles for $5.00. I am not sure what to do with them yet, but I love some of the looks that people are coming up with in blog land.

Linking here to these awsome blog parties

Advent Calender

To say that I am not prepared for Christmas is an understatement.  In fact, it has taken me a week to post about it.

Last Wednesday night I decided I would do an advent calender for the kids this year.  Then it dawned on me that I had only several hours to make that idea a reality.

I had to use what I had on hand.  Brown paper bags, jute string, and silver ribbons.

This is what I created.

What did I put in the bags I hear you ask.  Well I wasn't very organised with that and so I didn't have any treats for the kids.  I ended up writing them a letter and each day we do a christmas task.  Because the kiddies are little this is working well - I can space things out.

So far we have:

1. Bought a tree
2. Put up the tree
3. Decorated the tree
4. Visited Santa
5. Hung Candy Cane on the tree
6. Put up the remainder of the decorations (I realised that I don't have that much).

I have about exhuasted every form of decorating the tree hehehe.

We will also be:

• Seeing the Christmas lights in the neighbourhood
• writing Santa a letter
• Catch a train into the city and see the Myer Christmas windows
• Open 1 present
• Pack our bags and catch the ferry to Tasmania (little island state of the mainland)
• See Grandma and Grandpa (after our overnight ferry ride)
• Give a gift to a less fortunate child
• Help with some Christmas cooking
• Help mum with some Christmas craft
• Be read the story of Christmas
• Visit Nan and Pop

Much of this list will be doubled up and adjusted as necessary.  Now I just need to think of a craft or two that a 3 year old could do ... hmmmm any ideas??

Master Bedroom Light

 

A week or so ago, I was walking through Bunnings (a home improvement/hardware store) and was blinded by bling.  Unfortunately I only had my phone with me, and the photos don't do justice as to the amount of sparkle theses light fittings had but let me just say I needed sunglasses!

Although not a bad price at $169, I decided that I could make one cheaper.  So I used the above photos as inspiration.  Walked down the aisle a bit and found myself a drum shade for $25.

Before, I go on I want to show you what I had before.

Yes, there it is the $5 plastic shade from the builders. 

I had upgraded to this shade, which I bought, and loved.  In fact I still love it, it was just too small for the space.  It is now in the main toilet, and looks great there I must add. :-)

And, so onto the drum shade.  It fits in the space beautifully

 And I love the linen texture.

I slept on this for a day or two trying to figure out what I was going to hang chrystal beads off.  Then I remembered I had a perfectly good shade on a disgraceful brass touch lamp (that was broken - the base had come apart).

I dismantled the shade.

and attached the left over rings to my drum shade with wire.

The wire I decided looked ugly.  I ended up buying 1 metre of chain and spray painted the rings and chain white.  I then attached that to the drum shade.  I ended up turning what would have been the top of the dismantled light, upside down.  I don't have any pictures, but I strung my own beads with fishing wire and attached these to the centre ring. 

I bought the beads from Spotlight (a crafting store) (for about $40) and asked assistance from the staff, on how to best string the beads, the were very helpful.  But I am sure if you google stringing beads or jewelry making, you would find some helpful tutorials.

I'm not sure that I liked the look of my light fitting at this point, but I hadn't done anything that couldn't be removed.  I wanted to do something similar to the outside ring, as per my inspiration light fitting, and have lots of chrystals dangling down.  But it was going to cost me a small fortune to buy all the beads, and it would have been cheaper to buy the inspiration light fitting.  Hmmmm

I could buy some necklaces.  As it happened I walked into a charity shop today and found a necklace that had some beads, but not enough for what I wanted.  For $7 I bought the necklace and decided I would just keep my eyes open for more beads.

In the meantime, I got thinking, because the necklace had chain links, then rather than restringing the beads, I could somehow attach the chain to my light.  I draped the necklace over the outer ring, just to see how it would look...

 ... and that is where it stayed.  I think it looks great.

Inspriation Light ($169)

 My Original Version ($72) Which could be done cheaper if you had lots of costume jewelry floating around.

I just hope Hubby likes the bedroom bling 

Linking to these awsome blogs here

My First Award!

Tell 'em, they're dreaming! 

 Or maybe I'm dreaming.  A bit of a background story about me, I am a Nurse in an Emergency Department.   Anyhoo, after a busy and hectic shift (and that is putting it very mildly), I got home feeling wound up and stressed.  I use this time to make myself a hot chocolate (or if your Aussie - a Milo) and check out my emails and spy on the blog world. 

Of course reading everyones comments is very uplifting, but I recieved one from Lori at Mama with a Dash of DIY Drama (love that title by the way) which absolutely made my day, at the very least. Ok lets be realistic, I was ecstatic and completely honoured.  And for those who are familiar with a classic Aussie movie 'The Castle', "This is going straight to the pool room".

"Going straight to the pool room" is a big deal, its where all the major awards go.  And the fact that out of all the blogs in the world, Lori awarded me this, makes me feel so very special.   Please go and check out her blog and the other bloggers she awarded.

So what is this all about.  Liebster is a German word meaning "dearest or favorite", and the award itself is meant to showcase up-and-coming bloggers with fewer than 200 followers.  The acceptance of the award requires a few things of the winner:

• Thank the person that gave you the award and link back to their blog
• Copy and paste the award to your blog
• Reveal 5 blogs you have chosen as worthy to receive the award and notify them by commenting on their blog
• Request that those 5 bloggers will pay it forward by awarding the Liebster to bloggers they would like to honor

Here are my five picks in no particular order.

Kylie at Stylish Settings - Kylie deserves this award, she was one of my earliest followers and comments on most of my projects.  I love reading her blog as she always has great ideas and beautiful pictures.

Cathy at My 1929 charmer - Cathy was the first blogger to invite me to link up to her party.  I felt very proud to be asked to link up to a party.  And want to encourage her to continue with the party.  So link up you projects.

Kristina at ReMadeSimple - Kristina has some great original crafts on her blog, that are beautifully photographed.  I am in the process of checking out her many easy tutorials.

Olga from Stardust - Decor and Style - Have been drawn to her bedroom makeover twice now, so it must be good.  Plus Olga is from blogging Greece, you've got to love having inspiration from the mediterranian.

Karen from Art & Home - Also living 'down under', and also one of my first followers.  Her blog is about art, craft and home decorating.
I hope you'll visit all of these blogs.  While you're there, leave a comment and become a follower.  I know from experience that it will make their day!

Pallets Become Outdoor Furniture

This has been one of my biggest challenges so far... and I have loved it.  First here is a pretty "after" picture of the couch.  Over the last week, you can often find me out here having morning tea with the kids.

This is how I went about it. 

I found these two pallets at an industrial park on Sunday afternoon.  Can you believe that they are giving these things away?!

I left one as is for the base of the couch, and cut the bottom off the second pallet to make the back rest.  To create the back of the couch I removed some planks, and cut the bits of wood underneath, so that the "back" of the couch could fit into the "base" of the couch.  I hope you can follow my technical language.  :-/



I attached the "back" to the base using screws.  The top of the back rest had quite a few issues as seen in the below picture.

The plank I pulled off early was repurposed and I screwed it along the top to hide the mess underneath.

But afterlooking at it for a few days, I just felt that the back rest was a bit top heavy, and the screws holding it in place may not have been able to hold it.  I got out the trusty hand saw and cut the top section off.  I bought a piece of heavy duty foam cut to size, and I literally sat on the project for a week or two, pondering what I was going to cover the foam with. 

Marine grade material, which is weather resistant, was out of the question...too expensive.  But I needed something hardwaring, as it is outside (although protected), it will be exposed to some weather elements.  I have covered a couch using drop sheet material (as seen in this project).  So I was willing to have a go my self, just I lacked this inspiration.  Then one day when I was getting out of the car I noticed the orange and pink cushions ('cause I had them in the garage).  I had bought them for $5 each several months ago at Target - not because I liked the colours, but because they were cheap inserts.  They were in the garage, because I never managed to bring them inside.

Anyhoo, I threw them against the couch, and BINGO they looked great, and then I remembered I had some left over drop cloth, and the colour of the drop sheet looked good as well.  And out came the sewing machine.

I also added some locking castors, so it is easy to move aournd.  And here is some pretty pictures of the finished project.

The flowers are looking good too.

Linking to these awesome blogs here

Girls Bedroom Light Fitting

Below is the original light fitting that the builders put in the house (in all the rooms).  I was saddened to find that they are plastic and sold at the local hardware store for $5 each (no expense spared on the builders behalf!!)  It has since been my mission to replace these light fittings with something original that I love (without paying a fortune).

                       

I was inspired by the below photo on pinterest,

Source: designsponge.com via Sarah on Pinterest

and after tackling this light fitting project, I was keen to give the birdcage a go.

I picked up a fake birdcage at "The Reject Shop" for $10.  Unfortunately, like most of my projects, I didn't get before photos of the cage, because I just wanted to get started, but essentially the birdcage remains the same, just with a hole in the bottom now. I used the old light fitting as a template, to draw a circle in the middle.   And from that moment on, this is what my thought process was like... Can I drill a hole in the bottom of the cage?  Oh, yes I can.  Well how close do I need to drill the second hole to make it easy to cut the metal?  Oh, not that, close.  Better drill another hole, oops too far apart.  Any way seventy billion holes and a pair of wire cutters later, I had a large hole cut out of the bottom of the birdcage.  Its not perfectly round, and it's pretty rough round the edges, but it is a hole.

So then I thought, I will just see if it fits around the light. Yay, do a little happy dance, it does. 

I then added the butterfly by using a stenciling cutter and cutting out 3 butterflys in contrasting scrap paper, and gluing the middle together.  It not that hard, and I will take photos of how I did it when I make more (this one was an experiment).  Anyhoo, little angel has her own pet butterfly.

Today, I have changed up the light globe, as you can see in the above photo it was a spiral energy efficient globe, but I found an energy efficient globe that looks more like the conventional globe shape.  Love the look of this much better.

I have just cottoned onto DIY lightfittings, and I would love to see what you have come up with.  Please share your links, so I can stalk you :-)

Linking this project to these awesome here