Barn Star

Here's an easy (cheap!) way to fill a little extra wall space. I don't remember where this idea came from...let me know if there's someone I should be crediting!

This barn star cost $3.99 at the Christmas Tree Shop, and I added a couple dollars worth of scrapbook paper. I tried applying it with Mod Podge but it didn't seem to adhere to the metal, so I ended up using double-sided tape. Took about 15 minutes:



Here it is in its corner:



What have you been up to lately?

Easy Valentine Door Decor

This is actually a post from last year but since it was way before I had any readers at all here, I thought I'd bump it up and show you what's hanging on my door. These are two plates from Target that I hot-glued to a ribbon.




Easy Peasy!

Beefing Up Crown Molding

Here's a great way to increase architectural character without spending a lot of time or money. Our living room had crown molding already installed, but it was skimpy with a capital S. For a room that was relatively large and with decent ceiling height, the crown that was installed when the house was built in the 60s was plain old wimpy. Here's what I'm talking about:



See what I mean? It's there but it's just not doing anything. Actually, I just found a photo from when we first looked at the house -- here, you can barely even tell it's there:



(let's not even talk about the carpet covering the gorgeous wood floors, the dated curtains, the brass fireplace, or the walls and trim which are painted the same color making the trim fade away even more...I know that all-white rooms are very popular right now, but this one CLEARLY didn't work!)

So, what's a girl to do? DH already installed crown for me in the dining room and family room, and after those endeavors he basically said "never again". (Personally, I say "never say never" - but I didn't want to use up all my favors from him to get this room done). So, I did a little thinking and experimenting, and guess what? LOTS of crown molding is made up of two or more pieces installed together and painted together to give the look of one finished product.

So off to the store I went, where I located a piece of 1.25" molding that would do the trick. I didn't comparison-shop at all (I had a bee in my bonnet that day!) so I ended up spending $63 at Home Depot, which I now know was about $23 more than I would have spent at the lumber yard (oops)...but even at $63, I am THRILLED with the results. Check it out:



Much better, don't you think?

We installed the new piece so that the top of the new piece is about an inch below the bottom of the original crown. Got that? So there's a strip of drywall between the two pieces (I of course failed to take a "during" shot of this) -- and then we just painted everything (both trim pieces and the strip of drywall) in a nice crisp white.

One great tip I picked up somewhere was using a "dummy" piece of wood as a spacer between the old and new moldings -- this made it very easy to get everything evenly spaced. Check out a shot of DH holding it while I nailed the new piece in:



If you stand on a ladder and stick your camera right up into the corner, you can sort of tell what we did:



But for mere mortals standing on the ground, it looks like one seamless piece:






The best part? I can honestly say that in 11 years of renovating and remodeling 6 different homes, this is the ONLY project I can think of that ended up being significantly easier and faster than we expected. As in, we installed it in one afternoon and total time elapsed from buying the molding to cleaning the paintbrush was about a week -- of course, we took this on in mid-December and needed to get it finished before we hosted people for Christmas. Deadlines are a wonderful thing!

More posts about adding character and architectural detail to our 60s-style home can be found here and here.

I am linking this to Sawdust and Paperscraps' Buid(Hers) party.

Winter Coffee Filter Wreath

Hi there! Happy New Year and all that. I've been a little slow to get going in 2011 but have several things to show you, as soon as I can find time to photograph and type it up. Here's a quickie, though.

My Christmas wreath was feeling a little stale (doesn't it seem like Christmas was about 3 months ago?) but I'm not quite fully into Valentine mode yet, so I figured I'd do a little coffee filter "winter" action to tide us over.



Quick, easy and cheap! (What more can you ask for??) Directions here.

PS Have you seen the new blog Knock Off Decor? My girls' mural was featured there last week and I am loving all the great knock-off ideas.

New Years Interviews with kids

I don't have a lot of traditions associated with New Year's Eve and Day...I have given up on resolutions (and on big nights out and staying up until midnight!) However, I do make a point of "interviewing" each of my kids on New Year's Day each year. I type up their answers, print it on cardstock, and they add a self-portrait and signature. Someday I'll put them all into some sort of book for each child - right now, they're just sitting in a folder. But we love looking back at previous years' answers. This one, from Celeste (during a phase where she wanted to be known only as "Big Girl") is one of my favorites:






My interview questions, if anyone would like to "borrow" them, are:

What is your favorite…

Cereal:

Vegetable:

Drink:

Toy:

TV Show:

Thing to do:

Game:

Book:

Restaurant:

Place to go:

If you could change your name, what would you choose?

What is something Mommy says to you?

What do you want to be when you grow up?

What are you going to do different this year than last year?

Who are your friends?

What do you wish for this year?

What do you love about each person in our family?

Do you have any special traditions for kicking off the new year or reflecting on the old?

Linking this to the weekend wrap-up party at Tatertots and Jello

Homemade Irish Cream

Sorry about the photography...my camera broke and I am hoping Santa brings me a new one.

Bad pictures aside, I wanted to share a great recipe for homemade Irish Cream, which we made for some of the neighbors this year. It's delicious!




Homemade Irish Cream

1 cup milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup whiskey (I used Jameson's)
2 tsp. vanilla
2 T instant coffee granuals
2 T chocolate syrup (hot fudge is also good)
- blend above ingredients 1 minute
add 1 cup heavy cream, blend 1 second
add 2 cups heavy cream, blend 1 second

Keeps in fridge approx. one week

Slainte!

Dressing Up a Store-Bought Garland

I'm convinced that you really don't need to buy an expensive garland to get a lush look. In my opinion, the secret is to tuck in a few pieces of (free) real greenery so that you get that awesome smell and that natural, organic look that store-bought versions never seem to completely capture.

In this case, I started with a Hobby Lobby garland - it wasn't even in the Christmas section - it had a little bit of greenery, some pretty white "berries" and a few pinecones. The pricetag says $29.99 but we all know you should never pay full price at a craft store, right? I paid $15. However, it looked a little like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree...lonely and sparse.

I wired in a few dollars worth of Target non-breakable ornaments (just stuck a short length of florist's wire through the top of the bulb and twisted it onto the garland, then hung the garland-plus-ornaments on my railing. (sorry, I didn't take any pictures along the way...I actually did this last year and blogging it was the last thing on my mind).

Once it was in place on the railing, I grabbed a few extra branches that had been cut off the bottom of our tree, snipped off a bunch of pieces about 6" long, and just tucked them in throughout the length. I didn't even bother to wire or attach them - they'll have to come out anyway at the end of the season, and this way it'll be easier to pull them out and replace them next year. Adding the real stuff has the double advantage of making it both more substantial and more real-looking (plus, you can't beat the smell!)




Total cost: $17. Not bad, when you consider that Pottery Barn is selling almost the same thing for $59.



I just need to decide whether to leave it as is or add some beautiful bows. What do you think?