Front Step Decorations

I took advantage of this long holiday weekend and finished the planter for our front steps. I found the planter at the goodwill for $10, gathered branches from our yard, some berry accents from Michaels, fake spruce tips and a couple of decorations from the goodwill. Using white and glitter spray paint I gave the branches a new look. The previous owner left us a couple bags of paver base in the garage so I placed a decent amount in the bottom of the planter to help hold everything in place.

After assembling everything in our utility room, I moved the planter out to the front steps. I'm pretty happy with the final outcome, but think I could use some more 'filler' next year. Either more branches or more spruce tips...but for everything in this planter the cost was about $25 and all I will need to do next year is gather some new branches as I can re-use everything again next year!!

-Amy

Holiday Center Piece - and sister bonding

After living in Colorado for two years, us Jes sisters were long overdue for some quality sister bonding time. So while my husband was out of town - it was our perfect opportunity to have quality bonding time at my new house! We fell asleep just after 10:00 and were up at 6:00 am on Sunday so we made the best of our day together.

After some coffee, coupon clipping, and a trip to Michael's we decided to start on some crafts. I had a couple of projects I wanted to work on and my sister had something in mind as well. So I got started. I've seen a project on pinterest where you put rubber bands on vases and spray paint them white to use as candle holders (http://pinterest.com/pin/177258935303090407/).

Well during a recent trip to the Goodwill, I found three bottles that would work perfect as a centerpiece during the holiday season. There is no room for candles in these bottles so I needed to make them work. At $2 a piece, I couldn't pass them up, I was going to make them work. During a trip to Michael's - I found some berry garland that I figured I could intertwine within the bottles in the center of the table. Below is the final product - total cost is under $15 for bottles and garland (spray paint will be used among multiple projects)!!

Thank you Pinterest for the great idea for a fun, inexpensive, festive centerpiece for the holiday season!

Tu-Tu for a Princess

What does every little princess need besides a crown...a pretty pink tutu of course! After spoiling my nephews for the last 7 years, I was SUPER excited to spoil my little niece. I didn't want to buy her just anything for her first birthday celebration so I decided I would make her a tutu!

After getting introduced to Pintrest by a co-worker and instantly becoming addicted, I found a tutorial on making a tutu that didn't require any sewing! You can find the instructions here http://justwemoms.blogspot.com/2009/06/easy-no-sew-tutu-tutorial.html. I altered the yards of tulle to 6 yards total and it was the perfect amount (I only had a few yards left over). After deciding on the perfect pink colors to use, I gathered up the rest of my supplies and headed home. I read the instructions a few more times and then it was time to get started.

My husband went for a bike ride with his brother and this was my perfect window of opportunity to work on my project. I poured myself a glass of wine and got started cutting tulle. After a couple hours of cutting tulle and folding it over the elastic, I was done! Overall I spent aprox 2 hours making the tutu, but that included cutting the tulle, sewing the elastic together, and folding the tulle to make the tutu.

Attached are a few pictures of the final project - including the cutest 1 year old I know wearing the tutu!!