Your Turn To Shine Link Party #12

Howdy, y'all!  I think I still have some Nashville spirit left in me after visiting there all weekend.  We have our holiday road trip for family visiting already wrapped up, and even though it's been slow this week for our to-do list, I'm excited to see what you guys have been up to.

We will be skipping the link party for the next two weeks since we felt like the best time spent on Christmas and New Year's Day is with family.  So we will be featuring this week's picks at our next link party on January 8th.

I'll still be around on the blog sharing a look back at 2014 and preparing for the year ahead though.  Until then, happy linking!


  

Lauren - Bless'er House

Holiday Home Tour | 6 Tips to Decorate for Christmas for Cheap | Easy Folding Chair Makeover

anderson + grant

Christmas Home Tour

Canary Street Crafts

Shabby Chic Garland  ||  Mason Jar Snowman  ||  Framed Burlap JOY Sign

Joy In Our Home

A Cozy and Simple Christmas Home Tour

Meet the Bs

Wood-burned Ornaments || Holiday Home Tour || Feather Boa Ornaments

 We would love to connect with you on social media!  

Vicki & Amy from Canary Street Crafts  ||  Facebook  || Instagram  || Pinterest  ||  Twitter  ||  Google+

Jamie from anderson + grant  ||  Facebook  ||  Instagram  ||  Pinterest  ||  Twitter  

Kendra from Joy In Our Home  ||  Facebook  ||  Instagram  ||  Pinterest 

Nicole from Meet The B's  ||  Facebook  ||  Pinterest  ||  Twitter  ||  Google+

Lauren from Bless'er House  ||  Facebook  ||  Instagram  ||  Pinterest  ||  Twitter   ||  Google+

And don't forget to check out the Your Turn To Shine Pinterest Board, where all our features will be pinned!

Follow Kendra's board Your Turn To Shine on Pinterest.

Kendra's pick:  DIY Sweater Pillow from Simply Beautiful By Angela

Jamie's pick: Christmas Tour 2014 from So Much Better With Age

Lauren's pick: Birch Bark Angel Wings from Chic California

Nicole's pick: Paper Rose Christmas Trees from The Moon And Me

Amy & Vicki's pick: Farmhouse Christmas Vignette from An Extraordinary Day

Adrienne's DIY Birch Bark Angel Wings at Chic California are total show stoppers.  I'm pretty sure I'd want to keep these on display year-round.

Mary at Orphans With Make Up always has the most amazing furniture makeovers.   I'm really loving her Holiday Sideboard and Tablescape.

Jamie whipped up this sweet little Burlap & Drop Cloth Gift Bag.  For real, y'all, her blog So Much Better With Age speaks to my soul.

I'm a total sucker for Suzanne's DIY Laurel Wreath.  It's so simple and pretty and I really really want one.

If you were featured, don't forget to grab a button!  

1. No Etsy stores, giveaways, or link parties.
2. Please link to a specific post on your blog, not your blog's home page.
3. Link back to one of our blogs with a text link or party button.
4. By submitting a link, you're giving us permission to feature your project on our blogs and on social media.  Proper credit and a link back to your post will always be given.  
5. Each week, a few of our favorites will be featured on all four of our blogs.  Features will also be pinned to our Pinterest Party Board  for even more exposure!  If you were featured, be sure to grab a button! 

 Thank you so much for stopping by and for linking up with us!!

An InLinkz Link-up

DIY Weathered Wood Wall Hook Rack- Entryway Progress

Y'all.  Can you even believe that at this time next week, we'll be donning our Christmas jammies and setting out our Santa cookies?  It's 8:30 p.m. here in South Carolina right now and I just tucked Olivia into her bed.  I'm so ready for it to be here that I can hardly stand it.  

(Side note: Our two year-old calls Santa "Pee Pee Claus".  Is that not the grossest nickname ever?)

Anyways...before I started decking our halls with tons upon tons of greenery, I managed to squeeze in one little home improvement project that I just now got around to showing you guys.  And it's so simple that you probably don't even need this tutorial, but hey, what are friends for?  

When we first moved into this house, I knew instantly that I wanted a bench with wall hooks in our downstairs hallway as a makeshift mudroom.  After living with shoes strewn all over the floor and hats and jackets laid anywhere for an entire year, I'd finally resolved to do something about it. (And if you follow me on Facebook, you might have noticed that today marked our official 1 year anniversary of closing on our house! Happy Birthday, Casa de Shaver.)

Once I madeover our Craigslist wagon bench, I got right to work on creating a weathered wood wall hook rack.  It has made a ton of difference for when we have guests and they need to hang up their winter gear.

Here's what I used:

• 1x6 plank cut to 5' (We happened to have a scrap piece in our garage.)
• Minwax Pre-Stain (optional but recommended)
• Minwax Stain in Dark Walnut
• Minwax White Wash Pickling Stain
• 3 sponge brushes
• Rags
• Drill
• Pencil
• Tape measure
• Wall hooks and screws (I found mine in the hardware aisle of Lowe's.)

The best part- I already had all of the materials on hand besides the hooks, so this little project in all cost me less than $20.  

To condition the wood and give it a more even finish, I applied the Minwax Pre-Stain and waited 3 minutes before wiping off the excess.

Once the wood is dry, apply a coat of the Minwax Dark Walnut Stain.  I just followed the instructions on the back of the can.

After the stain was dry about two hours later, I applied the Minwax White Wash Pickling Stain and wiped up the excess after about 3 minutes.  You can water it down if you want more of the darker stain showing through.  I wanted more of a contrast between the wall hooks and the bench, so I didn't water it down.

It's easier to see in person, but the layers of the colors in the wood are perfect and look just like weathered wood.  You can even rough up the wood a little bit by hitting it with hammers, chains, and any other metal pieces that could leave marks to make it look more worn.

Using a tape measure, I marked where I wanted the hooks to be.

I marked where I needed the screws in the hooks and pre-drilled them.

I screwed in the hooks and that was it!  Power tools and I don't really get along, so if I was able to handle this on my own, I promise that you can.

To make sure it was secure to the wall, we drilled through to the studs and anchored the rack.  It's definitely not going anywhere.

It's been so convenient since we put it up a few weeks ago.  My next step is to get some crates for shoes underneath the bench.  Installing board and batten is on my wish list for 2015 too.

I had lots of fun dressing it all up for Christmas too.  

If you like this simple little DIY, you can check out these easy ones too:

DIY Window Ledge Rope Shelf

DIY Industrial Rustic Pendant Light

Blessings,

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Easy Grainsack Style Folding Chair Makeover

We have two states of affairs in our house:

1.  Chaos Mode- Toys strewn all over our floors (that will render you paralyzed when stepping barefoot on little plastic pieces), folded laundry in piles on our sofa, dishes around our sink still with remnants of PB&J

2.  Preparing for Company Mode- All of the above are hurriedly shoved behind closed doors, and we bust out every chair we can get our hands on to accommodate our huge but always entertaining group of friends and family

We love cramming as many loved ones as possible into our home, so when the holidays roll around, we're completely giddy.  

Until these rusty guys appear on the scene.  Then, I just cringe.  

Which I know is completely silly of me but I despise the sight of these chairs.  Not because it means we're nearly out of sitting room but because they always clash with everything else in our home.  

I've been known to give 1970s chairs an overhaul.  These had nowhere to hide.

Truth be told, they're not in the greatest shape either.  But, hey, they do the job.  

So I set out to beautify them with the old faithful method- spray paint.

After cleaning up the dust and spider webs (because they're usually stored in our garage), I sprayed them down with a coat of primer.  I used Rustoleum Ultra Cover.

And I gave them two light coats of Rustoleum Heirloom White spray paint.  I love this shade of white- not too yellowy, not too stark white.  It's the perfect cream.

Once they were completely dry, I use painter's tape to mark the lines of the grainsack style I was going for.  

I happened to have some leftover Valspar paint in my stash in Montpellier Ashlar Gray.  I applied a little with a sponge brush.

I didn't have any of the skinny painter's tape, so I had to do an extra step.  After the middle stripe was dry, I used more tape to create the side stripes.

And painted on more of the Montpellier Ashlar Gray.

I instantly felt better about my unsightly orange chairs.

I'm pretty sure these chairs are older than I am, but they always come in handy.  My parents knew what they were doing when they gave them to us.  

So Christmas, Thanksgiving, 4th of July, Memorial Day, Easter- you name the get together.  We're ready for ya.

My husband is a Clemson fan, but I had to banish the orange for this one.  Sorry babe.  ;)

What do you think?  Is it an improvement?  Have I totally lost it to be this picky about metal folding chairs?  Ya know...don't answer that last one.  Just come on over whenever you feel like it.  We've got a seat for you.

Blessings,

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6 Ways to Decorate for Christmas for Next to Nothing

Greetings from Nashville, Tennessee!  This weekend, we have been visiting my husband's side of the family for an early Christmas, so I'm feeling my usual holiday spirit but on hyperdrive.  

Yep.  I'm blogging from the road, complete with a toddler singing her own version of Jingle Bells from the backseat of our SUV, but since I had given y'all the full Holiday Home Tour of our 1 year-old builder grade house, I felt like I should give you the scoop of how I decorated on a nonexistent budget for this year's escapades.

So if you have hardly enough mulah for presents to put under your tree, let alone enough to deck your halls with lovely decorations, then this is the post for you, my friend.

1.  Check thrift stores year round.  

I visit my neighborhood thrift store fairly regularly, and I would always find the coolest holiday decor at the most odd times of the year.  Our NOEL stocking holders for our mantel were 50 cents each.  I even found a pair of ice skates for $5 in the middle of July.  I can't even tell you how many lovely wreaths I saw this year.  

2.  Find ways to make everday items more festive.  

I love shopping my own home for decorations, so I was really excited to find a way to make our office typewriter more Christmas-y.  Got a pickle jar?  Turn it into a snow globe.  Look around your house and try to think of unique ways to use what you already have.  Most of the time, it won't cost you a penny.

3.  Use greenery and natural elements wherever you can.  

Since we bought a real tree this year, I made sure to use every little sprig of the trimmings.  Even if you don't buy a real tree, many tree lots will give up their cuttings for free or for very cheap if you ask.  Use them on your mantel, on tabletops, in centerpieces, on shelves, wherever you want to add a little holiday spirit.  Use clippings from magnolia trees and holly bushes or collect pine cones to put around your home.

4.  Accept hand-me-downs with open arms.  

This year, probably half of our house was decorated with hand-me-downs thanks to my mom and grandmother who were cleaning out their attics.  My mom wanted a new wreath for her door this year, so I put her old one to good use on my entry mirror.  My grandmother generously gave us an old tree, ornaments, and a snow village she no longer used.  One gal's junk can be a thrifter's treasure.

5.  Believe in the power of paint and Mod Podge.  
We had a few boxes of old, chipped gold ornaments that I wasn't very fond of in the beginning, but once I wrapped them in old sheet music with Mod Podge, they had a whole new life.

6.  Make it personal.  
One of the beautiful things of DIYing decorations is it makes them an expression of your own family.  Make your own ornaments from old photos, build a gingerbread house together, make those cheap plastic decorations become something special.

I guess I could put tip #7 on here and say to shop the after-holiday sales, but really I'm terrible at planning ahead like that.  If I'm out of my food coma on December 26th and somehow get the nerve to set foot in a store, it'll be miraculous.  So have fun early birds!  I'm with you in spirit.  Send me an 80% off Christmas tree, and you'll be my friend forever.  

No matter what though, don't get caught up in making your home magazine-worthy because, in the end, the most beautiful home of all is one full of laughter.  

Be thankful for what you do have.  And remember that a Christmas filled with loved ones is worth a thousand times more than a Christmas with just pretty decorations.  

What ways do you decorate for Christmas for next to nothing?  I'd love to know!  

Blessings,

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