Tree making with the girls...

We had girls night a few weeks ago with some of my husband's sisters. We wanted to make some festive holiday trees and so I suggested making trees like this gal did. We decided to do five different trees and gathered up our supplies and met one night for some intense glue gunning and girl time.

 



Man these girls know how to work! They are all crafty and talented and there is never a lull in the conversation with them! We had a great night, talking, eating, getting completely covered in feathers... We started by rolling up our saved cereal boxes and then went to town putting our trees together.

We decided to do a book page, pinecone, feather, twine, and white bean tree. It was a very inexpensive craft to make, which I also love. The cereal boxes worked perfectly for our tree cones.

We worked until about 11:30 PM and then called it a night. I got all of mine done except for the bean tree, and finished that one up the next day.

I have to say I loved this craft! You know how crazy I am about trees anyway... these are just perfect for winter! I'm not taking mine down after Christmas, they are staying up until March as far as I'm concerned. They turned out so cute!!!

And here mine are on my little window seal...

I love all the different textures of the trees. They really turned out super cute. I think that I'm going to make a few more for next year. Thanks for the fun night girls!

Fourth of July wreath...

As crafty as I pretend to be the truth is that I'm really bad at decorating for holidays. I really am. I didn't have any decorations for the fourth of July so I decided to try and be a little festive and make this wreath that I found on pinterest. I think that it turned out pretty good. I'm happy enough with it to hang it on my door and then throw it in a box for next year. It looks lopsided in the picture but it's really not... not sure what happened there.

While I was making it I was thinking about crafts, in particular holiday crafts. What is it that turns me off from them? Really what I think my problem is that there are so many cutesy crafts out there, and I really don't like cutesy. Frills, lots of colors and patterns, bow and buttons, cute saying and quotes. It's just really not my style. I like things to be super simple, and not so cutesy.

This wreath is borderline cutesy for me. The different sized random buttons and denim... cutesy. I think what balances it out for me is the rough unfinished edges and burlap. I love burlap. So it worked out, and I like it. Even though the buttons are questionable for my taste... it's just fine and I'm happy with it.



For a long time I did all sorts of crafts and would usually end up finishing a project and really not liking it. It wasn't my style, but I didn't know what my style was until I had already finished! It was frustrating. But I think that in the past couple years I've really turned a corner and figured out what I like and what I really don't. It makes crafting a lot more enjoyable for me. I've settled into my "crafting style" and that makes me happy.

What is my crafting style? Simple. Only a few different colors and not a lot of different patterns. I like neutral colors like white, brown, yellow, pale green, off white. Very simple color pallet. Straight lines, unfinished edges. Natural elements like wood and rocks. Crafts with not a lot of added frufru going on.

I hope that now that I've figured out what I like I can be a little more festive around here and start decorating more for the holiday's. My boys ask for it, they think it's fun to decorate (my husband being the biggest advocate of this). So hopefully I can get some more fun stuff going on my walls and on my door.

There you have it. There is my confession. I don't like cutesy holiday decorations. Please still be my friend...

Inspiration...

 Sometimes inspiration comes from unexpected places...

Sidewalk at our hotel...

 Windows at Vikingsholm...

Bubbles in my pineapple juice...

I think that it's time for me to start making my hexagon quilt that I've been dreaming of for a long time. I've spent the last couple days gathering up fabric so that I can get started. Butter, honey, sunshiny yellows... I can't wait!

Jewelry holder...

It's about time I worked on something crafty! I've been wanting to re-organize some of my jewelry and glasses, and combined these two ideas...

I just painted an old frame and found two branches that I stapled with my staple gun to the back of the frame (the sit inside where the glass and picture would have gone so that they are flush with the back). It was really easy to put together and I love the way it turned out!

I love being able to see everything right there. I never have to guess where I set my glasses or what necklaces I actually have. Apparently I like green/blue jewelry... I need to find something red! 


image 1, image 2

Alphabet magnets...

I needed some more kitchen magnets. I'm not a fan of collecting all of the local pizza parlors and Realtors magnets that are easy to come by. I thought it would be cute to make some alphabet ones... mainly for a fun, clean look.

I did the ole' clear stone magnet trick. Simple enough. I used the font another typewriter and cut out circles around all the letters. Glued them on, glued the stone on top... voila!!!

You can use them to spell out words....

or not!

Very fun, easy to do project!

Supplies...

- You can get all of the supplies from Michael's craft store. The little bag of rocks has more rocks then you could possibly ever need (you can get these at Walmart too).

- This glue is the best for this project because it can glue glass and is totally clear. It's called Quick Grip.

- I printed the letters onto card stock because if you use regular paper then the glue will show through and make the paper look too thin.