.Geometric Christmas Wreath.

I'm back with another post! 

After sharing my Christmas decorations with you yesterday (in February--I know), I was pretty surprised over a few emails I received. Well, that is if you can count 3 as a few :) Thank you for reading my posts and taking the time to write me. I will slowly be getting back to blogging and sharing my life as a new mommy with you all as well as the updates we have completed on our home. The emails asked for a tutorial on how to make the wreaths that were pictured. Unfortunately, I did not take step by step photos and was not planning on writing a full tutorial..HOWEVER..this craft was easy enough to quickly jot down the process for those special 'few' who asked! 

Geometric Christmas Wreath

I started this craft by purchasing 2, 8 inch foam wreaths from Joanns. I then chose small ornaments and glittery berries (that were part of the winter/Christmas greenery section) in varied sizes and colors of my choice. After my supplies were bought, I spread everything out at home.

Here is a photo I posted on my personal instagram:

Before I began assembling my wreaths, I used wire cutters to snip the berries off of the greenery. The glitter was a little too messy for my liking but the sizes and colors were spot on for the design I had in mind. Next, I detached the metal ornament tops. This left me with lots and lots of Christmas balls to hot glue onto the foam wreaths.

I started with the larger Christmas ornaments and actually used the shape of their top (where the metal top and hooks attach onto) by sticking them into the foam. This allowed me to arrange the ornaments before committing them into place with hot glue. Once my ornaments were laid out, I began hot gluing. I glued the Christmas ornaments first then glued the smaller berries to fill in gaps where the foam wreath was showing. 

This craft was not difficult to complete but it was time consuming. It took me 2 nights to complete the wreaths working about 2-3 hours each night. This does include breaking for snacks and a nursing session with my baby girl so the time can be cut down if you are able to work straight through.

To display the wreaths, I attached 3M hooks upside down to the backs of the white frames and hung the wreaths with red ribbon. I swapped out the art inside the frames with simple silver wrapping paper to ensure the wreaths would pop and be the focal point. 

Overall, this craft was affordable and pretty straight forward to make. I love being able to customize a craft to fit a certain room. Here is a look at the wreaths with the rest of the Christmas decorations: 

 To see more of our living room at Christmas, click here.

Thanks for reading and happy crafting!

.How To Paint Cinder Block.

The blog has been rather quiet this month because Adam and I actually completed a few house projects! Crossing items off our forever to-do list is seriously the greatest.feeling.ever. Well..I'm sure getting a new job, buying a house, getting married, or having a baby is better cause for that term but hey--at our stage of life, completed house projects are reason enough!

Adam and I tackled a big project the other day, I'll let you guess by looking at this image:

Any ugliness jump out at you?

Oh..you noticed some uneven clay stained cinder blocks?--Funny, we saw that too!

The good news for us, that ugly cinder block is now gone :) I'm going to share the process of how we painted it to simply inform those of you who are new to this 'home owner thing' like us and have ugly cinder block around so we can all learn together.

Materials needed:

- Pressure washer (If you do not own one, ask family and friends)

- KILZ 2 Primer and Sealer

- BEHR Premium Plus Ultra Exterior Flat ( We used: Cathedral Gray)

- Scotch Blue Painters Tape

- Paint rollers of your choice (We purchased the biggest/fluffiest roller from Home Depot made for   

  extremely rough/coarse surfaces and it did not work as well as the cheap smaller roller you would use 

  for an interior. We found the smaller one filled in the tiny holes better in the cinder blocks despite the 

  larger one being designed for that very thing. Strange but true!)

- Paint sticks to stir

- Paint trays to roll

- Paint holder for cutting in and for rolling

- Small brush to cut in primer and paint

- Pocket knife/kitchen knife/ or razor blade (I used a sharp little kitchen knife)

- Drop cloths/old sheets/lawn tarps (In our case we used all three!)

(Buy gallons of paint/primer according to the size of your project, not by the links I have shared)

Getting Started:

1. Before beginning any painting, there is prep work to be done. First prepare the outside area by 

     blowing or sweeping loose debris on the ground.

2. Using your pressure washer, clean the existing cinder blocks to remove all dirt and mildew. Allow 

     to dry completely.

    Tip: Depending on the condition of your cinder block, you may

    have to scrape off old chipping paint or use chemical solutions  

    along with your power washer to remove excess mold and

    mildew.

3. Tape along the bottom of your cinder block wall and the ground using Blue Painter's Tape. 

    Tip: I recommend using a dish towel or old t-shirt to help
    reinforce the seal of the tape to the ground. It will not be perfect
    since you are working with bumpy surfaces but do your very 
    best and take your time.

4. Lay a drop cloth down to protect the ground/pavement/concrete. 

5. Using your small brush, begin cutting in with the primer.

    Tip: For your first coat of primer during cutting in, do not apply 

    too heavy or paint will "glop" and may sink under the tape. Do

    two thin coats of primer for your cutting in and then later on you

    can apply a heavier/thicker coat of your actual paint because the 

    primer will act as a sealer and not allow any paint to drip under 

    tape.

6. Begin rolling your primer onto the cinder blocks.

    Tip: Like I mentioned earlier, we preferred using the smaller 

    roller instead of the thicker one designed for painting rough 

    surfaces. We felt the smaller one filled in more of the tiny holes

    in the cinder block. Please use whatever you like best and works 

    well for you.

(I had to include this photo because it made me laugh out loud. This is my face saying to Adam, "Make sure you are only getting the roller and not me!" Bah, he is such a stinker. Enjoy friends!)

7. After completing your first coat of primer, allow walls to dry. 

    Tip: Wait for at least an hour if you are using KILZ and if it is 

    a different brand wait longer and do as the label suggests. We 

    played it extra safe and let it fully dry over night. Apply a 

    second coat if needed. We bought paint and primer in one so we 

    opted not to do a second coat.

8. Repeat steps 5-7 using your paint.

(Notice in the photo above I already cut in along the bottom and in any of the corner/creases before Adam rolled on the first coat of paint.)

9. When the first coat is complete, inspect the job and coverage. Use your small brush from cutting in 

     to fill in any white primer holes bleeding through that were missed.

    Tip: Apply a generous amount of paint onto your brush and 

    "smush/poke/dab" your brush into the holes. Your brush will 

    look like it's dancing with a full twirl included :)

10. Once paint has dried, apply second coat.

      Tip: Remember to cut in with your second coat before rolling.

11. Using your small razor blade or kitchen knife, score a line between your tape and cinder block 

       wall. This will guarantee the paint does not peel off with the tape. Remove your tape.

      Tip: Remove tape on an angle and at a consistent speed.

12. Clean up your painting area and brushes/rollers.

13. Enjoy your hard work!

I adore the picture above because you can see the ugly cinder block in the background plus a little pup's bottom. Great reminder why DIY-ing is worth it! And now you know our next project for this weekend. Oh--in case you were wondering, Colden approves ;)

Ugly cinder block in background and pretty painted cinder block in foreground!

We adore the color Cathedral Gray. At night it is a rich gray and during the day with the sun light reflecting off of our fence and deck, it has a nice warmth to it--almost beige like.

It's perfect!

(linking up to a few parties)

Happy Living--Happy Priming and Painting

and remember

--Little Things Bring Smiles--

.Backyard Improvements.

Adam and I have been making major improvements to our backyard little by little over the past year and you know what--I have not shared any of them with you! Shame on me, bad bad blogger. 

I think deep down inside I wanted to wait until the area was complete to share it with you but where's the fun in that? The last thirty minutes have been spent finding old photos on my computer..easier said than done..my desktop is a nightmare, absolutely no organization. (Getting back on track now.)

Here are a few exterior shots of our back yard we took after our offer was accepted.

 View from our back deck:

 View from bottom of driveway:

View underneath the deck:

Still looks and feels a bit "construction-y," doesn't it? Thankfully, Adam and I were able to look past all of the cinder blocks and visualize the potential. 

The first job we hired was tree removal. Before buying our home, the house inspector informed us the back tree was rotten inside and could be a major concern. So..

We got it removed and had our pine trees trimmed.

Now you see it:

 Now you don't:

I wish our next improvement came quickly after this but sadly this is how our yard sat for an entire year. Yes, crazy big wood piles and all..it was great, just great.

During that year, we saved..and saved..and saved...any guesses what for?

A fence!

Without going into much detail and without sharing photos, I am simply going to say: We needed a privacy fence to hide from "those" neighbors, ya know--the white trashy kind. Oops, too much? My bad.

You may remember reading about our roller coaster ride here regarding the fencing issue(s). The story ended with Adam and I hiring a surveyor to mark our property (what we should have done in the very beginning--live and learn) and had the fencing company start fresh installing our fence. Our mistakes may have cost extra money, a lot in fact, but we learned a valuable lesson: Do not always listen to what your real estate agent and person selling you the house says about where your property lines are, hire someone from the city to tell you. 

Here is one shot of our new big fence! It is 6 feet across the back and extends up to 8 feet on the side to cover up "those" neighbors. I promise we are not being mean, it had to be done!

Our "good" neighbors installed a 4 foot fence themselves and even though a new matching fence would look perfect--using their fence saved us $4000 dollars. My OCD can look the other way on this one. 

Adam and I are not sure who loves the fence more, our dog or the two of us! :) The privacy is fantastic and knowing our little run away dog cannot get out is extremely comforting. Overall, it was worth all of the money and headaches.

The fencing project wrapped up in early Spring of this year and during the beginning of Summer, I completed our deck makeover with the help of experts in the staining and carpeting world. You can read about the makeover here:

Phases 1 and 2

Phases 3 and 4

Reveal: Phase 5

Quick Before and After:

Just as our deck makeover was completed, Adam and I hired our neighbor (who has his own business doing home improvements) to install siding to the back and side of our house where cinder blocks ruled. We also had him install two new windows in the basement.

Take a look:

 Progress:

 View underneath the deck:

 The picture directly above and below shows another deck feature we had installed for FREE! Adam does video for a living and the deck guy needed a commercial..can we say trade of services? Fabulous!

Check out the commercial here.

Zipup in progress:

Now back to the siding.

Here is the awesome Before and After photo:

View underneath deck with our old patio furniture:

Saying,  "We love it," is the understatement of the year! 

The fresh bright white siding adds much needed warmth and life to our house. The back of our home is feeling almost complete and that excites me to no end.

This was our project list just last week:

- Add matching shutters to downstairs window

- Add caulking around door trim and new vinyl

- Paint trim white

- Paint exterior downstairs door yellow

- Prime both cinder block walls

- Paint both cinder block walls

- Touch up acorn wreath for door

And today:

- Add matching shutters to downstairs window

- Touch up acorn wreath

- Prime one cinder block wall

- Paint one cinder block wall

Woohoo for crossing things off! I completed the work on our downstairs door last week and absolutely love the results. Photos coming soon I promise! Adam and I spent the past two days priming and painting one of the large cinder block walls. It looks amazing! Again, photos and tutorial coming soon.

Good things are coming :) 

Thanks for reading about our backyard improvements! As always, I'd love to hear about any similar projects you have completed recently or are planning to tackle soon.

.DIY Subway Art.

Happy Monday everyone! 

I am back with another DIY project for ya but this time it was completed 100% by my hubs, Adam--what a guy ;)

I have seen different subway art and typographies floating around the blog world for quite some time now and to be honest, I was not always a fan.  I did not warm up to idea of having a bold black and white piece in our home until I ordered these prints from CAPow for our gallery wall. I absolutely adore our Minnesota and New Jersey typographies (click link to view prints) they inspired me to incorporate more black and white into our house.

This led to the purchase of new decorative pillows, naturally, as well as a new piece of art. I spotted this subway art on Etsy at Vinyl Wall Decor and More and it was love at first sight..only problem--it was too small for the wall I had in mind. I was bummed out for about a minute until Adam looked at the art and said, "Give me an hour, I'm going to play around in Photoshop."

..hour goes by..

"Hey Kate, come take a look."

Voila. He did it. What a stud.

Adam saved his work to a thumb drive and we headed over to Staples to have it printed. We had it mounted on black foam core and had it laminated. The final look is exactly what I was wanting and was so pleased to have the art hanging on our wall, thanks to four 3M hooks, for $33.00 dollars within 24 hours. The final size of the piece is 18in x 24in and the font used is Novecento found from this site.

The new chevron black and white pillows were ordered from Walmart and are surprisingly very nice! I love how the black and white lead your eyes from the typography prints on our gallery wall (cannot see in photo) to the subway art in the dining room to the pillows in the living room!

Maybe one day soon, when the hubs is not so busy, I will have him write a tutorial for creating your very own subway art in photoshop-- just maybe :)

(linking to some of these great parties!)

Thanks for reading!

.Plastic Spoon Mirror Tutorial.

In my spare time I find myself on a particular website just ready for my inspiration light bulb to turn on.

 Any guesses what that website may be? ;)

Pinterest of course!

Back in April I spotted a pin and I had exactly two thoughts:

1. AMAZING, will definitely be making this!

and

2. DANGIT, why couldn't I have thought of this genius idea!

I have been in a bit of a creative rut lately. It's getting rather difficult to think of something completely new and original in the blogging world and the crazy awesome filled world of Pinterest. I have honestly sat just thinking of things to make, different techniques to play with and nothing--absolutely nothing!

When this happens I simply decide to try my own hand at someone else's craft because "imitation is the best form of flattery." --Truly it is my way of saying thank you to the crafter who came up with the idea and to express how much I adore their project--so much so I needed to have it in my home! So here it goes:

Thank you Kristi, from Addicted to Decorating, for coming up with this beautiful and BRILLIANT craft. 

Here are my Plastic Spoon Mirrors:

Materials needed:

- Large Cardboard box

- Hot Glue Gun

- Hot Glue Sticks

- 5 Sawtooth hooks

- 5 Nails

- Hammer

- Ruler

- Scissors

- Pen or Pencil

- Duct Tape

- String

- 1 Can of Spray Primer

- 4 Cans Spray Paint

- 3 Mirrors: 2 10in Round Mirror, 1 12in Square Mirror

- 1 Rough Piece of Sandpaper and 1 Fine Piece of Sandpaper
- Optional: 4 Command Strips

and of course

- Plastic Spoons: 14 bags of 48 count $1.00 each

The entire project cost me around $50.00--I think that's pretty good for a set of 3 mirrors!

Making your Plastic Spoon Mirror:

1. Check your home for any materials you may already own. Then gather the rest of your supplies during one shopping trip to save yourself from having to run back and forth for more. (I took a few different trips...)

2. Cut your cardboard box so it lays flat on the ground or table. 

3. Decide the diameter for your mirror using a ruler or yard stick. (I made one large, 22 inches, and two small, 13 inches.) 

4. Cut a piece of string and tie one end onto the tip of your pen. Measure the string to the radius you desire and then tie the other end to your scissor.

5. Using your pen, string, and scissor you have created a drawing compass. Hold your scissor point firmly on your cardboard box and draw your circle. 

Hint: Keep your pen and scissor pointing straight up and draw slowly. Also remember to keep the string taut as you are working your way around. You may even have a roommate or spouse hold your scissor in place.

6. Once your circle is drawn, simply cut it out. 

Hint: If you do not own scissors sharp enough, try using a pocket knife or an x-acto blade.

7. Repeat steps 3-6 for your inner circle. 

Hint: If you are creating a 22 inch large circle, draw a 12 inch inner circle, no smaller. (I made the mistake of drawing a smaller inner circle and had to change my plan once the spoons were glued. Will explain more later with photos.)

8. Using your duct tape, tape along any creases on both sides of your cardboard to add stability.

Hint: To create clean, smooth edges on your cardboard, tape around the perimeter of your outer circle and inner circle. I did not do this with my large mirror but with my two smaller mirrors and the smaller ones look polished and complete.

 10. Cut the ends off of your plastic spoons. 

Hint: Shop around for the most inexpensive spoons you can find--the "heavy duty" are impossible to cut through! I found bags of 48 spoons at Family Dollar for a $1.00 each.

11. Begin gluing your spoons onto your cardboard. 

Hint: Practice spacing them out in alternating patterns first.

 12. After 8 rows on your 22 inch cardboard circle, your spoons will appear to have run out of room. 

Hint: This is what I was referring to earlier. I still had more room for spoons before reaching my inner circle but my spoons began to overlap each other and I did not like that. 

 So I cut my inner circle to make a larger, 12 inch circle leaving just enough room for one final row of spoons.

13. For your final inner row of spoons, cut the ends to form a nice oval shape because you will see the bottoms.

14. Use your rough sandpaper first to sand down your inner row spoons and then the finer sandpaper to smooth out your spoons. This step will take the longest but is worth the effort.

15. Glue your inner row of spoons slightly overlapping each other. 

Hint: Take your time and you will be able to line them up just right!

 For your two smaller mirrors, you will not run into the spoon spacing problem as I did with my 22 inch  one and you will complete it so much faster! I highly suggest completing your large one first :)

16. Spend 5-10 minutes removing all of your glue gun "hairs".

Hint: Repeat this step after priming your work, the "hairs" will pop up all over!

17. Take your plastic spoon circle outside and spray with a primer made to cover plastic.

18. Once your primer is dry, spray paint the color of your choice! 

(I used: Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch Multi-Purpose Spray Paint, High Gloss, Apple Red)

Hint: Double check to make sure your spray paint is meant for plastic! This spoon mirror will test your patience. It takes many many light coats to cover every nook and cranny but it's fun and shows instant results!

19. When your spoons are painted and dried, bring them inside to glue your mirrors to them.

Hint: Because of weight purposes, lay your mirror front facing you on your table. Place hot glue along the perimeter of your mirror and then place your cardboard spoon circle on top of mirror. Press firmly (and carefully) with your fingers and let sit.

20. When your mirror is in place, tape a few sections of the mirror onto the cardboard for extra security.

21. Hot glue your sawtooth hook to the back of your cardboard mirror. Again, let sit.

Hint: For my large 22 inch mirror, I used 3 sawtooth hooks and only 1 each for my smaller mirrors.

22. When everything is dry and to your liking, hang and enjoy!
Hint: I reinforced the large mirror to the wall with four command strips along with the three sawtooth hooks and nails to guarantee it would stay in place. The smaller mirrors are extremely light and did not need more help. So far so good friends!

Take a look:

 Final Measurements:

My large mirror with spoons attached is 25 inches across.

My smaller mirrors with spoons attached are 16 inches across.

This project was truly fun to make and surprisingly did not take a lot of time. I suggest breaking it up into 4 days to avoid getting overwhelmed and tired of it. (I know how that happens with some projects..like this one!)

Day 1: Cut your spoons and make your cardboard circles.

Day 2: Hot glue your spoons.

Day 3: Prime and Paint.

Day 4: Attach mirrors and hooks and hang!

I know I wrote out many steps for you--some are no brainers while others have a few helpful tips. I hope you found this tutorial and project inspirational! I know I sure did thanks to Kristi's tute.

Happy Living--Happy Crafting

and remember

--Little Things Bring Smiles--

(linking to some of these awesome parties including the Pinterest Challenge hosted by these lovely ladies)