Pom Pom Flowers

It is no secret that I am obsessed with pom poms poof balls. I usually make mine out of tissue paper, but I decided to create some out of yarn to give them a different feel and texture. I love the yarn because it takes the paper poof and turns it into more than just a party decoration. You can truly use this flower poof as decor in your home and not feel like you have tacky fake flowers in your house. I have really struggled with this in the past, because I love the look of flowers in the home, but hate the price tag that goes with maintaining them weekly. I rarely have plants, because I pretty much kill anything that does not meow to remind me to feed it. I used to do fake flowers from time to time (don’t hate), but I feel like fake flowers suck the energy out of a room, where as real flowers add energy. The yarn poof balls are a happy compromise for the domestic goddess with a glitter thumb rather than a green thumb. 

Supplies

• Yarn
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun
• Wrapped floral wire

Directions

Step 1. Wrap the yarn around your fingers. Use 2 fingers with 75 wraps for a small poof, 3 fingers with 100 wraps for a medium poof, and 4 fingers with 150 wraps for a large poof. Be sure to not wrap too tightly!

Step 2. Carefully slip the yarn off your fingers and tie a piece of yarn (about 6 inches long) around the center of the wrap so it makes a figure 8. Secure the tie as tight as possible.

Step 3. Cut the yarn loops all the way around, creating a shaggy poof. Then trim your poof until the desired look is achieved. 

Step 4. Decide where you want the bottom to be and place a small dab of hot glue deep in the center of your poof, stick in your stem and allow to dry. Trim any remaining uneven areas, and then stick your flower in a vase and call it a day.

Notes: I would recommend using wrapped floral wire. I only had regular floral wire and it was a tad flimsy for my medium poofs. You could also get creative with the stems and use other materials, such as pipe cleaners or even real tree branches.

DIY Outdoor Dining Table

The hubs and I spent the last month putting together a beautiful outdoor dining table for our deck. Isn’t it pretty? It took us about a month, because we mainly worked on weekends with a few weeknights sprinkled in here and there, but is also turned out to be a little more labor intensive than we thought. Cutting some boards and screwing them together always seems like an easy enough process… Skip ahead 4 hours when you only have half a bench done and you realize, ‘Hmm maybe that $799 outdoor furniture at Patio World is totally worth it.’ We ended up spending about $180 on our little labor of love ($130 lumber, $30 stain, $20 screws), which is not too bad when you leave out the cost of the crappy miter saw that died on us.

It’s official, our brand new miter saw the hubs got for his birthday is broken. The blade brake totally stopped working, so after you make your cut it just spins and spins. More annoying than anything else, but I am sure it is dangerous as well. It is too late to return it to Home Depot (you only have 90 days). Since it is under a year old, you can apparently take it to some Rigid service center here in town and they will fix it for free. The only thing that sucks about that, is they are only open 9-5 on the weekday, which means the wifey (me) has to take the hubs’ big heavy miter saw and try to explain what is wrong with it. This probably is not going to go very well.

On a positive note, we were pretty much done with all of our cuts for our table and benches before the brake went caput. After all the cuts were made, we decided to stain our wood individually, since we were using untreated “mixed” wood. We wanted to make sure we were able to cover ever inch of wood, so it would weather well outside. I learned a lot about staining with this project, but mostly that I don’t enjoy it. Staining each individual piece was such a pain in the butt. I am a perfectionist about certain things, which usually gets in my way more than it helps me (I am working on how to use it to my advantage), so when the stain drips on the edges or rubs on the bottom it drives me crazy. It is totally impossible to stain an entire piece of wood at one time, but it is even more impossible to stain a 2×4 without it getting on the edges. In retrospect, I would have loved to be able to put the table together and stain it as one piece of furniture. Staining furniture is wayyyyy easier than staining individual pieces of wood. On the other hand, I have never stained a piece of furniture, but I would imagine my last statement to be true. I will get back to you on that one.

We got the plans for our table from the Ana White Homemaker website. (That is her beautiful table pictured above.) Ana White is a wife/mother/homemaker living in Alaska, who loves building and sharing her creations with the world. Her site is pretty awesome, you should check it out. Anyway, I stumbled on her site when we were looking for woodworking plans for around the house, and the cost of her plans were right up my alley. They were $FREE! We decided on her Simple Outdoor Dining Table, wrote down the cut list and we headed to Home Depot to buy some lumber. We made a couple of mistakes along the way, but we learned from them and now I am here to share our trials, tribulations and successes with you. For the complete plans click on the links above and they will take you to Ana White’s site. She has tons of great ideas that will totally inspire you to pick up a hammer.

Simple Tips:

Tip 1. First off, spend the money and get some good wood. We ended up buying “mixed” wood, which was cheaper, but still looked pretty. It worked ok, except it’s more delicate than real wood and had a tendency to split if we weren’t careful. It also warped when we stained it, but it is my understanding that all wood moves and warps with stain, time and weathering. We will see how this table does overtime, especially with winter just around the corner. Hopefully our Ikea grade wood table will hold up ok.

Tip 2. Sand  the wood splinters off the edge of your wood before you stain. This will help the table look more finished and those pesky slivers won’t end up getting in the way during the staining process. You will notice I was too lazy to sand my pieces prior to staining and those areas soaked up the stain more than the rest of the wood, making it look uneven. Laziness and perfectionism are not a good combo. Rah!

Tip 3. To stain your table, I recommend using a sponge roller… I repeat, use a sponge roller! I started with a paint brush and it was a disaster. It is very hard to control the amount and the movement of the stain with a brush and it ends up being a big ol’ mess. After the paint brush I tried the rag method, but I think that works better when staining an entire piece of furniture, not a flimsy piece of mixed wood lying on top of a tarp. The hubby suggested a roller twice apparently, but I only heard him after I suggested it and he agreed. However we got to the idea, the important part is we got to it and it worked. The sponge roller puts on an even coat and eliminates brush stroke marks. In my opinion, it is the way to go, but like I said I am a staining amateur and I am sure there are better ways to do everything I did. If you have any tips, please share in the comments below. I am always open to learning new ideas. However you do it, be sure to evenly apply your stain from head to toe. Never start or end in the middle of the wood.

Tip 4. When putting the table together getting the correct spacing is very important. No matter how many skew ups you make along the way, if the boards are evenly spaced, nobody will ever notice. To ensure even spaces we purchased tile spacers at Home Depot. They come in many different widths and luckily they had 1/2 inch and 1/4 inch. They worked perfectly and now we are prepared if we ever have to tile a bathroom. (I love how the spacers make it look like a mini graveyard. Morbid, yet kinda cute.)

Tip 5. Have fun and enjoy spending time with the person you are working with. My favorite thing about these projects is that we do them together. Sure there are times when only one of us is working, like while he is at work and I am out in the 90 degree Houston weather staining 50 boards at a time under the hot Texas sun cursing my Hubby’s name, or when I am too annoyed with the mosquitos biting my legs, arms, neck and face that I leave him in the garage to build by himself. ( Iswear I think bug spray attracts mosquitos.) Those times definitely exist, and there are moments where you think, ‘What the F are we doing?’ But at the end of the day, or in this case month, you can say, “We built this together.” I love that.

Notes: If you screw up, don’t give up. Just keep moving forward! Make the adjustments you need to make the table work for you. The slight alterations in the end will make the table unique and special just like you! If you fo’t have a kreg jig and have to screw in from the top, it is not big deal. Just buy some wood filler and cover up your nails. Nobody will ever know. We actually ended up doing both, but I have yet to fill in the holes.

Ikea Stool Makeover

I have tons of furniture makeover projects piling up around the house, so I figured it was time to start one of them to get the ball rolling. I started with a very small project, mainly to see if I liked the design. I’m sort of testing it out for a bigger project I have been mulling over for a while now. Since everything went well, and I really like the finished results, I think it is a go ahead. For this particular project, I took a basic Ikea stool and transformed turned it into a much more attractive Ikea stool. Like I said, we are talking basic stuff here… A little paint, a little Modge Podge and craft paper, and voilà! Now onto bigger and better things. I see a matching filing cabinet and a fabulous desk in my future.

DIY Toilet Paper Roll Wall Flower

Living in Singapore has been fabulous, but it has put a little damper on my creative side. Not having all my wonderful craft tools readily available at my finger tips has been giving me anxiety, but finally I found a project that is simple enough for me to do while overseas without having to spend $$$ on tons of new $upplies. I am serious when I say this project is LOW BUDGET, but it does take a little time collecting the necessary supplies.

DIY Stenciled Pillow

I found this Wit & Whistle project via Pinterest and I’m so happy I did, because it has inspired a whole chain of pillows I am interested in making. It is one of the last accessories my living room, and bedroom for that matter, is craving. Plus I am dying to take a sewing class and pillow pattern would probably be the best thing to learn on. I could start off basic and then add zippers and such as I progress. Another blog I follow, Rustic Living, made these awesome “Where He and She Became We” pillows that I just love. I feel very inspired to start fabric paint penning, but first I have to start sewing. I’ll get there. Eventually.

Supplies

• Blank pillow cover (I purchased a nice linen cover here.)
• Some cardboard
• Pencil
• Letter stencil (I have this one.)
• Fabric marker (My black Sharpie fabric marker worked great!)

Directions

After choosing your quote, stuff your pillow cover with some cardboard to keep the marker from bleeding through and to keep the fabric stretched out smooth.

Use a pencil to stencil your quote onto the pillow cover. If you mess up the spacing you can erase the pencil lines and redo them. You can’t fix mistakes when you’re using the fabric marker, so don’t skip the pencil step.

Once you’ve penciled everything in, go at it with your fabric marker! I found it easiest to use the stencil for the outline of each letter, and then remove the stencil to fill the letters in.

The packaging from the Sharpie fabric marker didn’t say anything about heat setting the ink, but I will probably press my pillow cover before I wash it, just to be safe.

DIY Ottoman

Design Sponge is one of the most amazing websites. They come up with some of the best DIY projects, and this one is no different. Contributing writer, Amanda Brown, took her Boxed Cushions one step further and made an Upholstered Box Ottoman that is absolutely fabulous. I love the sleek lines and geo fabric. While possibly pretty time-consuming, it seems pretty easy for the most part, but I think this will be a post sewing lesson project for sure. I wish I would have found this DIY before I put my shitty Ikea tables out on the deck, where they got completely ruined by the rain. They would have been perfect for this. WARNING: Don’t treat Ikea furniture like it is real wood, because it’s not. It is usually crappy particle board, which totally absorbs water and then distorts itself. Eww, it also gets moldy.

Poof Balls Outside the Box

If you know anything about me you know I love me some tissue pom-poms poof balls. Martha Stewart may call them tissue pom-poms, but I call them poof balls. I can’t help it. It is just want comes out of my mouth when I think of them. I have used poof balls to decorate for parties, dinners, gift wrap and even used them at my wedding rehearsal as my bouquet instead of those horrible shower bow bouquets (I hate those). I made about 50 of them for my wedding shower and could not bare to throw them away, they were just too beautiful. So I ended up storing them in my childhood bedroom at my grandmother’s house. They looked absolutely perfect in there, because the room is covered head to toe with pink flowers. The wallpaper… The bedspread… Everything! Adding piles of pink textured tissue poof balls only added to the ridiculousness and sort of made it all work. So I guess you could say I have used them as home decor as well. I would like to use them in our new home hanging in a room somewhere. I always thought it would look so cool if you covered an entire wall with them. You could do it in a baby’s room or make it for a photo backdrop for a party or wedding. It would definitely make for some interesting a colorful pictures. There are tons of uses for these adorable little buggers, which got me wondering how else I could incorporate them in my life. So to the internet I went in search of fun and unique uses for Martha Stewart Pom-Poms My Poof Balls. Trust me I was not disappointed. Check it out!

These are all so great. I love the little animal poofs for a kids party, or the monogram for a baby or wedding shower. However my favorite has to be the tissue paper wreath. You can use it year round as every day home decor, or you can personalize it for the holidays. So amazing!

Click Below for the How-To

1. Animal Poof Balls // 2. Monogram Poof Balls // 3. Poof Ball Wreath

Inspiration Board – Owl Home Decor

Yesterday I posted some fun DIY owl themed projects in honor of my first Frankie Handbag purchase. I am now the proud owner of my new baby/clutch ‘Stud-Muffin’. I can’t wait until she arrives! Well, today I thought I would keep the party train a movin’ with a choo choo HOOT HOOT! Like I said the other day, I am on the prowl for an owl to put in my home as a fun statement piece. These are some of the ideas I came up with. Some are more subtle that others, but there is definitely something for everyone.

Click Below to Shop Owls:

1. Owl Bookends - Pottery Barn – $30 // 2. Owl Lamp - West Elm – $79 // 3. Glass Owl Vase - HomeGoods // 4. Ceramic Owl Planter - Etsy – $39 // 5. Owl Wall Art - Etsy – $20 // 6. Owl Clock - Etsy – $40 // 7. Owl Umbrella Stand - Amazon.com – $119 // 8. Owl Wallpaper - Abigail Edwards – £75.00

DIY Owl Creations

My girlfriend, Miss Mary ‘Frankie’ Ferris, is an amazing and talented interior designer. She also is super creative and crafty. I swear she could go on one of those Design Star shows. She recently started a new company, Frankie Accessories, where she sells handmade handbags and earrings as of late. I actually just purchased one of her bags and I love it!!! Well I love it from afar right now… (That’s it on the right) When your friend makes bags you don’t have to worry about paying shipping & handling… I score the benefits of hand delivery the next time she is moseying through town. I can’t wait until my new ‘Stud Muffin’ is chilling in my closet.

If you look closely at her logo you will notice that her company “mascot” is an owl, and sometimes she even incorporates them into her design. (The zipper on my new bag is a little owl… I love it, and it was definitely the deal sealer in my purchase) Anyway, with the birth of her new company, I am reminded of how much I really really really like owls. However, I could never display my owl affection in college, because I was a Delta Gamma, and our sorority symbol was an anchor. The Chi Omega’s were the owls. Needless to say I could not be caught dead with an owl anywhere near me, or I would have been considered a traitor. No no, it wasn’t that serious, but it definitely would not have been considered cool. I figured 5 years out of college, I am now far enough removed to proclaim my owl love. Now that I have one in my closet, or will soon enough, I think it is time to get one for the house. Maybe a little ceramic statue or something along those lines? I can replace one of my 5 buddhas I have sprinkled throughout my home. I am Catholic I swear… I just really like buddhas and TJ Maxx/HomeGoods. Anyways, I am now on the owl prowl. I found some absolutely fantastic DIY owl projects that would make for great decor and some fun gifts! Check them out…

Click Below for the How-To

1. DIY Plush Owl Pillow // 2. DIY Owl Pin Cushion // 3. DIY Pillow Box Owls // 4. Owl Sweater

Notes: Be sure to check out Frankie Accessories on Etsy and if you follow her on Facebook you can get inside looks of what she is making next, so you can snag it before it hits the shop!

How-To Weather Wood

Well, yesterday in my Recycled Wood Pallet Table, I promised you a How-To on how to weather wood, and today I bring to you How-To weather wood. I am not one who likes to disappoint, but I do have to warn you, this is a very stinky project. Like serious gagging type smell, but the finished product is so worth it. I stumbled upon this How-To on one of the blogs I frequent, Show & Tell. I absolutely love this blog, because Sausha does everything I want to. She creates, paints, builds and has an amazing DIY filled home that she is constantly changing and upgrading. She also refurbishes furniture and transforms it into gorgeous conversation pieces that will definitely get people talking. She recently just refurbished a piano, that is absolutely amazing. CLICK HERE to check it out!

Supplies

• 1 piece of 0000 steel wool
• Glass bottle
• Vinegar
• Tung Oil (if desired)
• Paint brush

Directions

1. Rip steel wool into small pieces.
2. Put it in the jar and cover with vinegar. After 24 hours most of the steel wool will be dissolved.
3. Brush concoction on wood and let it sit and dry for about a day.
4. After the wood has soaked up all the horrible smelling vinegar you can give it a light sand.
5. If you like a richer look, finish with Tung Oil. (FYI this will take some of the rustic look away)

Notes: I have a couple of pieces I am going to be trying this on this week if the rain ever stops. I will keep you posted with a post