Home Decor 889: November 2014

Kamis, 27 November 2014

Craft Frenzy Friday #68

Welcome to Craft Frenzy Friday! We hope that everyone has had a great Thanksgiving so far and are so glad that y'all came to join us here!

We love to see your crafts, recipes, DIY projects, and much more! We will pin every link to our Pinterest board every week. The people featured will additionally get pinned onto our featured board! We hope that you will share your blogs with us!

We want to thank everyone for joining us at Craft Frenzy Friday and hope that you will follow our hosts!

Craft Dictator: Blog/Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Bloglovin’/Pinterest/Google+

Busy Being Jennifer: Blog/Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest/Bloglovin'

Pickled Okra by Charlie:Blog/Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest/Bloglovin'/Google+

Wonderland and Company:Blog/Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Pinterest/Google+

Bless'er House: Blog/Facebook/Twitter/Bloglovin'/Google+

Come link us all on Facebook!

The winner of our November Giveaway winner was Crissie! She has already received her gifts.

This month our Giveaway is Two Key Fobs from DeBoop Shop! They have such a fun shop with awesome products! Make sure to check them out here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

1-Turkey Tetrazinni at Spindles Designs by Mary & Mags

2-Luscious Banana Pecan Cake with Caramel Frosting at Bunny's Warm Oven

3-Thanksgiving Doggie Bags with Printable at About A Mom

4-Have Yourself a Very Rustic Christmas at Fynes Designs

5-"Meet Me at the Mistletoe" Calligraphy Sign with Printable at Let's Drink Coffee Darling

6-Pumpkin Spice Tiramisu at Life with the Crust Cut Off

If you were featured be sure to grab our button and spread the word!

Even if you weren't featured make sure to Grab our other Craft Frenzy Friday Button!

An InLinkz Link-up

**Please note: By linking to this blog party, you are giving us permission to use your photos and content as part of the weekly features if selected.**

We also pin all of our features on the Craft Frenzy Friday Featured Pinterest board! All other post will be pinned onto our Craft Frenzy Friday board each week!

If you would like to be on the Craft Frenzy Friday mailing list please sign up below. If you have participated in past weeks you are already included in this mailing list. You will only get emails when CFF goes live!

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Selasa, 25 November 2014

A Junkin' and a Pickin' + Master Bathroom Progress

My mother-in-law and I have a running joke. Every time I go over to my in-laws' house (their lovely yellow country home that was built in 1904), I usually see some "new" vintage/reclaimed piece, and I always end up gushing over it and asking, "Where did you get that?!"

90% of the time her answer is "Oh, I just found it in the barn."

My answer is always, "Jeez. I wish I had a barn that would magically produce cool decor accessories like that."

That magical barn is nestled in the woods behind their house that, truth be told, I'm sure has seen better days. But it has the coolest stuff in it.

Since we were visiting this weekend for the hubby's birthday, they let us raid the place.

That's right. We got down and dirty and went picking in that barn. I have a major snake phobia and Robert isn't too keen on spiders, but we didn't give a hoot about any of the creepy crawlies as we dug through the piles of reclaimed wood and farmhouse remnants. It was that fun!

We found an old wagon with broken but still very cool wheels.

And we found an old panel door. We left the wheels and door but they were neat to see.

There were farmhouse windows galore. These were just a few we pulled out.

And piles of barn wood that made my head spin with possibilities. (Believe it or not, there aren't enough DIY project ideas in my brain to even cover it.)

My father-in-law even pulled out this old sewing table that needed a major cleaning, but the woodwork on it was incredible.

Among all of the barn finds, my absolute favorite was a wooden ladder.

I have had the idea for months now since I started finding inspirations for our master bathroom to build a distressed looking rustic ladder to use as a towel rack.

We have this skinny, bare wall in our bathroom that is absolutely perfect. The wooden ladder find was competely meant to be.

My father-in-law cut this monstrous thing down to 7 feet. From there, I cleaned it up, gave it a coat of matte polyurethane, and that was it. Instant rustic towel rack.

If you've been reading this little blog for a while, then it's no secret that I love pieces that can tell stories. The fact that this ladder came from Robert's house where he grew up makes it so special. (Who knew a ladder could be special? But it is.)

Bless'er House | Reclaimed Ladder Towel Rack

So I guess the magic barn is looking out for me too. It must have known Christmas is around the corner.

Maybe Santa will bring a magic barn for our own backyard that will supply all of our awesome farmhouse finds from now on. A girl can wish. ;)

Blessings,

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Senin, 24 November 2014

Christmas Craft: Burlap Gift Card Holder

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of BIC®. All opinions are 100% mine.

Ever since I was old enough to make a handprint in a patty of salt dough, I have always treasured one type of gift-giving over all of the others- the handmade kind.

Growing up, I loved cooking breakfast for my dad on Father's Day or making a necklace for my mom for her birthday.

Now that I'm living the married life, I always prefer writing a letter to my husband than just signing a store-bought card.

During my teaching days, my students were sweet enough to give me Christmas presents before winter break, and the ones I always cherished the most were the homemade ones. Because, in the end, they all are made up of a lot of love.

Buying presents for loved ones is a tough one for me though, and I like opting for gift cards. But it's difficult to make them feel personal. So I had the idea to personalize a gift card holder instead with a handwritten note.

Even though they didn't take much money or time to make, they still send a loving message. And, hey, who doesn't enjoy a little rustic style Christmas gift with fun money inside?

I used:

1 sheet of craft burlap
1 sheet of white cardstock
Ruler
Craft knife
Scissors
Red ribbon
Ribbon spool
Hole-puncher
Glue stick
BIC Mark-It™ Permanent Marker in #HoneyBrown

The awesome folks at BIC sent me two packs of their Mark-It™ permanent markers: the 36 pack with fine and ultra-fine sizes and an 8 pack of metallics. You better believe I will be doing lots more Christmas-y crafts with them.

First, I used the ruler to mark and cut a 4"x4" square of white cardstock.

Using the cardstock square as a template, I traced it onto the back of the burlap sheet with the BIC Mark-It™ Marker and scored the lines with a craft knife. I wouldn't have even known these were permanent markers because they don't smell like it at all. They are acid free and fade-resistant too.

Using the ribbon spool as a template, I traced lines for the flaps of the gift card holder.

Then, I cut out the flaps, wrote my message on the cardstock square, and used a glue stick to attach it to the inside of the gift card holder. I hole-punched two of the flaps for ribbon.

Just thread the ribbon through the holes, insert the gift card, tie it closed, and you're done!

I think it looks so much cuter than a store-bought card. And it's much more personal. :)

To keep the creative spirit going during BIC's Month of Merry Marking, BIC Mark-It™ has created an entire booklet of inspirational ideas.

I nominate Cara at Craft Dictator, Ashley at 3 Little Greenwoods, and Charlie at Pickled Okra for the #BICMerryMarking challenge.

get the booklet of merry marking and a coupon to start marking

Blessings,

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Kamis, 20 November 2014

Craft Frenzy Friday #67

Welcome to Craft Frenzy Friday!

We want to thank everyone for joining us at Craft Frenzy Friday and hope that you will follow our hosts!

Craft Dictator: Blog/Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Bloglovin’/Pinterest/Google+

Busy Being Jennifer: Blog/Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest/Bloglovin'

Pickled Okra by Charlie:Blog/Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest/Bloglovin'/Google+

Wonderland and Company:Blog/Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Pinterest/Google+

Bless'er House: Blog/Facebook/Twitter/Bloglovin'/Google+

Come link us all on Facebook!

The winner of our November Giveaway winner was Crissie! She has been emailed and has 48 hours to reply or we will pick another winner!

This month our Giveaway is Two Key Fobs from DeBoop Shop! They have such a fun shop with awesome products! Make sure to check them out here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

1-Vintage Floral and Burlap Bunting Tutorial at The Vintage Sheet blog

2-Handmade Advent Calendar Inspiration at Sum of Their Stories

3-Laundry Room Redo at Little Vintage Cottage

4-DIY Christmas Canvas Art at Blooming Homestead

5-DIY Gilded Acorn Napkin Rings at Hello Little Home

If you were featured be sure to grab our button and spread the word!

Even if you weren't featured make sure to Grab our other Craft Frenzy Friday Button!

An InLinkz Link-up

**Please note: By linking to this blog party, you are giving us permission to use your photos and content as part of the weekly features if selected.**

We also pin all of our features on the Craft Frenzy Friday Featured Pinterest board! All other post will be pinned onto our Craft Frenzy Friday board each week!

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Rabu, 19 November 2014

Gallery Wall Reveal and Free Printable

From the time I was 10 years old, I had a keepsake box.

It started out with little things- movie ticket stubs, notes from friends, a few pictures of my family, and even a piece of confetti I'd pocketed from my first concert to see N'Sync. (Maybe Justin Timberlake had touched it!)

As I got older, that box grew. Letters from high school boyfriends were added (and later removed once that phase of life ended).

To this day, it is where I stash my favorite fingerpaint artwork by my daughter and favorite photos of our family. But the world needed to see them. What good did they do hidden in a box only to be seen by me once in a blue moon?

So I framed them on the most visible wall in our house.

Bless'er House | Eclectic Gallery Wall Reveal and Free Printable

It's hard to believe it looked like this six months ago. I'm really glad I didn't do that pallet wall I'd originally planned.

I catch myself staring at it all the time, and I can't help but smile. It's our entire past together: our engagement pictures, photos from our wedding ceremony, Olivia sleeping at just a few days old, a few beach vacations, moments with our parents and siblings, and I wouldn't change a single square inch of it.

I added a map of Ireland a few weeks ago as a nod to our Irish heritage.

And yesterday, I made a silhouette of Olivia on burlap. I whipped up a family definition printable to go along with it. Once these babies were hung up, it was like the cherry on the sundae. It's done!

So now, you can probably guess, I'm staring at it even more. It certainly makes our suburban house feel less like a builder grade shoebox.

The printable I made completely sums up what our little family of three is all about.

If you have a wall needing some lovin' in your house, feel free to snag the download below. For one like mine, you can run a burlap sheet from your local craft store through your computer printer, frame it, and voila!

Family Defined Printable - White

Family Defined Printable - Burlap

Cheap but sentimental. The best things in life are free anyways. :)

What do you think of it now that it's all done? Am I getting anywhere with this crazy quest for an eclectic cottage?

If you liked this post, be sure to check out tips for the most efficient way to create a gallery wall.

Blessings,

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Selasa, 18 November 2014

How to Make a Faux Planked Eclectic Bookcase

I've come to the conclusion that from now on when I find myself struggling to define my style in my home, I'm just going to slap the term "eclectic" on it and call it a day.

Every Friday, I post my Friday Faves because it helps me sort through my Pinterest boards always overflowing with inspirations from a thousand different directions- rugged rustic, glamorous French, modern industrial. And a lot of times I realize I have no clue what I'm doing 99% of the time.

So as I was styling my bookcase from my latest furniture makeover, I decided. My home is in the eclectic category from now on. Because guess what! That term is defined as "deriving ideas or styles from a broad and diverse range or sources." Done. Eclectic it is.

Bless'er House | How to Make a Faux Planked Eclectic Bookcase

I guess you can look at it as a way to say, "This chick just can't make up her mind." Or you can see eclectic as "A style that is never boring because it involves lots of story-telling collections from all sorts of times, places, and cultures." It sounds so much better that way, right?

My little bit of soul-searching all started with this bookcase I found on Craigslist that I knew was destined for our back wall in our living room.

I loved the little bit of detailing at the top and the price wasn't too shabby either. Once I painted it with a few coats of Annie Sloan Pure White, it was like an entirely new piece.

But the back was too plain for me, and I even polled my Facebook followers (thanks y'all) to weigh a few options: painting the back a dark gray or creating a white planking effect. Since I knew most of the items on the shelves were going to be dark, I didn't want them to blend in with a dark background.

The only thing was (and if you haven't figured this out yet, hang around a little longer here and you will) I didn't want to spend any extra money on this thing. Lugging a tempermental toddler to Lowe's to buy wood for planks, attaching them, and painting all over again was not my idea of fun.

So here is what I used to create a faux plank effect:

Level
Paint pen in gray
Tape measure
Pencil

And it didn't cost me a cent or my sanity.

First, I measured each section of the bookcase and marked the widths of each "plank" with a pencil.

I used a level to draw on the lines with the pencil too in case I made any mistakes.

Then, I went back over the penciled lines with the paint pen. I still used the level as a guide to keep the lines straight.

It was so simple and easy. Best of all, it didn't require a single power tool (awesome for napping toddlers who are light sleepers).

I still have some tweaking to do on the shelf styling, but I'm happy considering I mostly used items I've collected over time. And best of all, they have meaning.

That birdcage was a centerpiece from our wedding three years ago. The little bird figurines were hand carved by my father-in-law. That old sewing machine was even passed down to me from my mother's side of the family. And, of course, I always have a slight book obsession.

Now all of my little treasures have a home and don't have to be banished to the depths of a closet. So many of them have a story to tell.

What do you think? Is the eclectic thing working? Let me know in the comments or on Facebook. :)

Blessings,

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