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Sunday, January 3, 2016

Holidays 2015



Hi everyone,

Happy Holidays!

We spent the weekend before Christmas with the boyfriend's family in New Jersey.  I made one Pinterest inspired gift, some cute chalk painted mason jars and a vase with burlap and twine adornments, similar to the ones on these blogs/sites. I also gave someone this chalk paint kit off Amazon - water based for easy clean up, non-toxic for the kiddos, and great colors.  The boyfriend actually rebuilt a guitar for his niece and nephews to use.  It was amazing!

     Chalk Painted Mason Jars:  Detailed Tutorial on How To Paint & Distress Mason Jars:     Hand painted medium 800 ml Ball mason jar painted with antique white chalk paint then distressed. Perfect to use as centerpiece, to hold flowers,:

Of course, I forgot to take my own before and after photos but Green Table Gifts and It all Started with Paint have great tutorials or, if you're not feeling crafty, buy your own on Etsy.

We spent the weekend after Christmas with my dad for his birthday in Hilton Head, SC.  Great weather (thanks, global warming) and beautiful oceanfront views.



That's my dad in the second photo, by the water.

We did decorate the house, of course.  Last year, we bought a used fake Christmas tree which was white and a bit dingy.  This year, we spray painted it a nice bright white and it looks great.  Along with the boyfriend's kitschy fake fireplace (next year I hope we have a real fireplace) and the Peanuts tree, a gift from friends a few years ago (it plays the Peanuts song), the house looked...decent for its first Christmas.  I've got big dreams for next year.


I did manage to fit in one project right before the new year.  We have this unattractive themostat in our upstairs bathroom that was begging for a Pinterest fix.  Cue blissbloomblog...

 

And see my version below.  I wanted to use a picture I already had for the bathroom, so I glued a random piece of wood to the back and then added hinges to the wood and wall. 

A few tips:
1 - Do not try to screw on the hinges with the picture frame attached (broken glass frame incident #1).
2 - Be very careful trying to take pictures out of frames when prepping for this project (broken glass frame incident #2). 

Luckily, Amazon came to the rescue with this frame, that looks even better than the original frame I was going to use.

Before: (artistically blocked by a flower in the listing photo)

Photography credit: Jaime Gervasi & Associates of Long & Foster Real Estate

And here...not artistic at all

  
After:





So there is it.  I am putting all of the tutorials I use on Pinterest, in case you wanted to find them all in one place.  Happy 2016!

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