DIY Tea Cup Candles

If you follow my blog regularly you will now have noticed that this week has been very project oriented and every post has been some sort of DIY. I’ve been feeling very inspired in our new home and I’m just having a lot of fun creating and embracing the new space and really making it feel like our own.

A little while back I made teacup candles which are an inexpensive and fairly easy item to create. I picked up the tea cups I used at the local thrift store for .10 cents a piece and you can buy wax from the craft store or melt down candles from the dollar store or if you save old candles you can melt them down and make something new.

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Making Contemporary Art with Children of All Ages

My daughter loves to do art projects and I love to do art projects with her so I’m always looking for ways to help her make art that can be easily displayed and add to the eclectic charm of our home. We’ve been doing a lot of painting lately and she just loves making hand prints, which is where I got the inspiration for this sophisticated, Contemporary Black, White and Red hand print painting and the best thing about it is it’s a wonderful project for all ages!

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How To: Orange-Clove Pomanders

With the Autumnal Equinox right behind us and the promise of cool crisp days full of showers and the ever changing rainbow of Autumn leaves in our future it was most certainly time to embrace the season and bring a bit of Fall festivity into our home. As a child growing up off the grid we often spend time doing hand crafts and I think my Mom always took advantage of anything that would sit us down at the table and keep us occupied for a long while. I remember making clove oranges every holiday season my entire life. I’d sit down at the table with my brother and sister and we’d spend an afternoon covering every inch of orange with whole cloves. It smelled amazing and by the end of the afternoon we were sticky with citrus juice and rich with the smell of spice.

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Faking Double Exposure

When I was a kid every now and then when you got a roll of film back from the developer you’d find a special surprise, a hidden treasure among your photographs, the rare (what some would call) mistake of the double exposure. It’s like having two photographs on one picture the second lightly layered across the top of the first caused by some camera malfunction, but to me it seemed like pure magic. I remember the first one I ever saw. I was in the 5th grade and I’d been photographing my barbies in jungle attire (outfits made from grass and leaves) and a toy horse. When I was flipping through the pictures I came across one that was perfect, it was a barbie situated gracefully in a rose bush with a horse head lightly veiled across the frame; it was beautiful.

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How to: Papier-mâché Pumpkin

My home was in need of a little something extra for the Halloween/Fall season. I wanted something fun and festive that wouldn’t cost much and that’s when I had the idea to make these cute little papier mache pumpkins. They’re super easy and super low cost! All you need is Paint, Newspaper, Tape and Flour! 

This is a kid friendly Craft!

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Saying Goodbye to Summer and Super Easy Blackberry Jam

Scroll down for… Recipe

After apple picking to welcome fall I realized that we were yet to bid farewell to summer. So we gathered our buckets and with SweetPea on my back we headed out to do some end of summer blackberry picking. A wonderful friend invited us to go along with her and her children and we spend a magnificent hour with the sun caressing down on our skins, the aroma of warm blackberries thick in the air and lingering piles of bear poop it was really best not to step in.

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Birds Nest Pendant

I have been swept up in the incredibly inspiring worlds of Craftgawker and Pinterest, and I find it so exciting that there is this super meticulous way of organizing every single thing you find on the internet into categories or boards as Pinterest calls them. Recently I re-found this great tutorial for a cute and easy little necklace pendant shaped like a birds nest full of eggs. I was so excited since I’d seen the tutorial B.P. (Before Pinterest) and couldn’t wait go give  it a try.  I’m so happy I did because it only took a few minutes and made a beautiful piece of jewelry wonderful for casual wear or really precious family symbolization.

The original Tutorial over at Love Stitched is broken up into easy to follow steps. I used copper wire to give the piece a little personal touch but a birds nest in any color would be beautiful. Just make sure the holes in your beads are bigger than the gauge of your wire.

If you’re a Pinterest fan as well feel free to click the link in the sidebar and follow my boards. I’d also love to follow you so be sure to leave a link to your page in the comments.

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Weekend Reading: Rainbow Crayons and Money Saving Moms

This week I’ve been trying to save some money (Honestly I’m always trying to save some money) and I came across this great site called Money Saving Mom. It’s a wonderful blog that posts daily about coupon deals, free product promotions, and various ways to save money for your family! I love it and I follow them on Facebook which keeps me absolutely up to date.

I’ve always been drawn to crayola crayons. (hahahahahha drawn *face palm) When I was younger I just loved them. I’d arrange all my crayola sets on my bedroom shelf displaying them artfully to the world and letting everyone know how proud I was of their sharp unused tips. Fast forward 10 years to adulthood and recently I unpacked a box full of unused crayons and had absolutely no idea what to do with them until…   I found this great post over at 52 Kitchen Adventures that I just can not wait to try! All you need is crayons, a blow dryer, canvas/cardboard (some sort of artistic surface), and glue! When I finally get around to giving it a shot I shall share it with you all.

I hope everyone has a completely wonderful weekend!

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Wordless Wednesdays: Blured Rainbow Light

f/11 – Exposure 1/100 sec – ISO 200

I find light so extremely beautiful and sometimes when I see a reflection I prefer to view it out of focus instead of in focus, so by finding a photo frame with lots of reflected light and turning the focus nob away from focus and into a blur you catch the beauty of the light without distracting the viewer with focused content. Try it! You’ll be happy you did.

 

And if my Facebook page gets to 100 “likes” this week I’ll give something really fabulous away!

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How To: Marble Plant Stakes & Giveaway

Do your house plants seem a little dull? Maybe they’re just lounging around being lazy producing absolutely no glitz or sparkle. Well that’s not their fault, they are only plants after all and sometimes it takes a little more than water and sunshine to make a girl feel pretty.

But do not fear! A Marble “plant bling” (I’m kicking myself for stooping so low as to use the word “bling”) tutorial is here!!!

And for those of you not into the whole DIY thing you can enter to win your very own 3 piece set by leaving a comment on this page (scroll down for details), and if you don’t like those odds head on over to my Etsy shop and buy some pre-made plant flair all of your own! for only $8 shipped!

This is what you’ll need!

Ruler

Copper Wire (I use 16 gauge but anything small will work)

Marbles (One marble per stake)

Wire Cutters (or funky scissors you don’t care about denting)

Needle Nose Pliers (I like the round ones)

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