Make your own serving tray!

This past Fall I went to craft fair with my mom and found a great craft idea! A woman was selling serving trays that were made out of two plates and a candle holder. I decided to try it myself, the first one I made turned out well so I decided to make them as gifts. Now that all of my gifts have been given, I wanted to share the idea with everyone! The pictures below show my final products!

All you need is two plates, the top one being smaller than the bottom one. I bought clear candle holders from AC Moore and used CLEAR gorilla glue to attach them all to each other. I emphasize "clear" because the regular Gorilla glue is a gross brown color and since the candle holders are clear and the glue also expands and grows onto the plate, therefore the clear glue is much better looking! Trust me! I recommend attaching the candle holder to the top plate first, letting it dry and then attaching it to the bottom plate. I tried it different ways and this proved to be the easiest!

My friend Allie has also made candle holders by using tiny plates on top of the candle holders and putting a candle on the plate. It is such a cute look and adds some height to your candle decor! I am making one for myself soon!

My Thrifty Husband's Christmas Surprise

 I hope you all had a great Christmas! We sure did, I always love time with family and friends and most importantly, celebrating the birth of our Savior.

I have been REALLY wanting a standing mirror for a while now. My dear friend Taylor has one and I have always coveted it :) Well, my hubby surprised me by not only finding one for me on Craigslist, but he repainted it himself! I was so impressed! The mirror was originally oak without paint, Gabe started with a brown basecoat and then he used green spray paint to lightly coat it. He then used a stain pen to add an antique look. I love it! We don't have a "before" photo but the pics below show the finished product!

Here I am opening my mirror on Christmas morning!

Here is the mirror in it's new spot in our bedroom!

Thanks Gabe :)

Copy Cat Chic

Today I wanted to share one of my favorite blogs to read. It is by Reichel Broussard, she is a decorator and has a blog with her great finds. She shows popular items that are for sale at high prices, but then shows a cheaper option. Most of the time, the cheaper option is the EXACT same piece, by the same manufacturer, just sold at different places.

If you are like me, sometimes the cheaper find is still too expensive for me but I love her ideas and her style!

You can get to her blog here, I prefer subscribing to it because she posts something new almost everyday of the week and that way I can see it as soon as it comes out! She also has a Facebook Page you should check out!

Hope you all enjoy it!

Blair's Christmas DIY Projects

I asked my amazing Sister-In-law, Blair, who has awesome style, to write a guest blog entry! She is going to share some of her DIY Christmas Decor ideas! I love them all, and will probably be copying them :)

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I’m so excited that Katie asked me to write a post on her blog! Reading about her Christmas decorating really put me in the mood for some DIY decorating this year.  While looking through my Better Homes and Gardens magazine this month I found this neat idea.  All you need is a wreath, ribbon, and a picture frame, and what other accents  you like.  I cut the middle ribbon to the length I wanted and tied another ribbon to the top.  Then I used a hot glue gun to glue the removable backing of the picture frame to the long center ribbon.  All that was left was to tie the top piece of the long ribbon to the wreath and your done. The whole process took about 10 minutes!

 

I absolutely love the smell of a real Christmas tree.  This year Jordan and I decided to get a real tree and while having to cut off many of the lower limbs, I began to think of what I could do with the excess branches.  I already had the plate and just sat some branches on it and added decorative pine cones and left over ornaments to make it pop.  I like this idea because you can really customize it with any decor you have in your house for Christmas, as well as put that “Christmas Tree Smell” in different rooms.

 

The last DIY project I took on this year was my absolute favorite! I bought some ribbon and 5 oversized Christmas ornaments from Wal-Mart.  All I did was thread the ribbon through each ornament and tie it to the lit garland that I hung above the window. 

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Hope you are all staying warm and enjoying our final weeks before Christmas!!!

Another DIY Christmas Decoration Idea

While visiting my in-laws yesterday, I noticed a really cute Christmas Candle that my mother-in-law, Diana, had made. I thought it was a great idea and with her permission, wanted to share with everyone. It is really easy and cheap, she only spent $6 to make it!

Isn't it cute!? She bought a cute vase and a plain white candle from Wal-mart for $2 each. Then she bought a tin of old fashioned Christmas candy (another $2) and, as you can see, she filled the vase with the candy on the sides of the candle. Obviously you can use any candy but I just love the old fashioned candy look. As Diana would say, it reminds me of my Grandmother's house!

Thanks for letting me share your idea Di! I love it!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I am really loving decorating the house for Christmas! I have been using Etsy as a resource for ideas of what I could make or order to decorate with. Today I want to share a few of those things that I liked.

 

One Etsy seller is selling handmade ornaments, they are all pretty funny. The one above is an example of the style of ornaments she has.They are all retro in theme. They are around $5 each, and there are other things for sale on the storefront you can check out as well. You can find them here.

 

 I really love this chalkboard! This would be soo easy to make if you found the right tray! Using some chalkboard paint, this project would be fast and easy. The bonus of using a metal tray would be that you would have a magnetic chalkboard to display. This particular one is only $16 (shipped!) and it is for sale here.

I LOVE these stockings! They are made of burlap and have the cutest prints! They are a little over $30 with shipping. Check them out here.

Today Gabe and I are going to Winston for one of my new favorite Christmas time traditions of going to the Candle Tea in Old Salem! I can't wait! Hope you have a great day!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am normally a stickler for waiting til after Thanksgiving to decorate for Christmas, but since Gabe and I will be in New York then, we decided to go ahead and get started and I am loving it :)

I wanted to write about a few decorating ideas I have and show what I've got so far.

 I really think the simpler the better, and this little bowl of ornaments is extremely simple to do but adds lots of color. I used a small fish bowl like vase and filled it with small ornaments that I bought from Walmart for a few dollars per box.

 While my parents were in town this weekend, my mom and I made wreaths. I guess I should say that we decorated wreaths because we bought the artificial wreaths from Target, and just used ribbon and ornaments to decorate. We attached everything with ornament hooks, so that we can change out the ornaments and ribbon next year.

For my dining table center-piece I decided to use another Target wreath and a candle on a pedestal.

Happy Thanksgiving! Happy Black Friday shopping ! and Happy Decorating! more to come after we return from NYC!

I've done a little shopping of my own...

So I couldn't resist and just had to go buy the Shutter shelving piece that I posted in my last blog! Allie Marie and I went out and got them earlier this evening. As you can tell, I haven't put anything on it yet, seeing as it has only been in the house an hour....but we did find a good place for it! I am pretty excited about it and looking forward to decorating the shelves soon!

 

Although our kitchen table isn't an extremely recent purchase, I still wanted to show it. We found the table with the four chairs at the flea market a month or so ago. The reason we bought a new one was that we wanted seating for 6....this table only came with 4 chairs....so I decided to hunt for a bench. I found the bench on Craigslist a few days later and then recovered all of the chairs and the bench with matching fabric. I'd say its one of my favorite purchases and projects so far. After selling our old table, we ended up breaking even, even after buying fabric and the bench, which added to the excitement of it all!

 Today Blair, Laura and I went to the flea market. Blair has been using Ball Jars as her canisters to hold sugar, flour, etc. So many people were selling them today and we found the kind that had the air tight seals, for $3 and each got one. I haven't decided what to use mine for yet but I just love them, and what a great deal. I love Blair's idea of using them as canisters too!

I don't have any finds to share tonight but hope to have more up soon! Hope everyone had a great weekend and has a great week!

Create your own Kitchen Island...

When we first moved into our house, I decided that we needed an island that would provide more counter top space. You don't have to have a large kitchen to do it, ours isn't all that large but our island works well in it.

 Here is our kitchen, we found this table at Target for $50, it can still be found on their website but it is $90 now because it is no longer on sale. I still think it is worth that much though, not only is it more counter top space but it also provides extra seating if needed, the stools come with it.

This one is a little more industrial looking but I really like it. It is for sale on Craigslist. There are others on there if you search for kitchen carts or islands. This one is $50. Which I think is a great deal!

 I just love these old shutters! They are asking $10 per shutter, and two of them have been made into shelves. They are also on Craigslist. I think it is a great deal and also a great idea of how to incorporate old shutters into your decor. I want one! :)