My Black Friday 2014

Hey there!  You may recall this post from last year showing what I got from Target's after Christmas 70% off sale (which I lovingly call my Black Friday).  This year was a little different because there weren't as many items available as last year (possibly because the 70% off sale started earlier this year and I didn't know...sob!), but I still got a good amount of stuff and for $20!

My loot:

1. Three rolls of wrapping paper
2. Seven wine gift bags
3. Five rolls of ribbon
4. A stackable mug set
5. A hot chocolate carafe to match the mug set
6. Two medium sized gift bags
7. One small gift bag
8. One flask

I think I made out pretty well.  Did you go to the sale?

Enjoy the weekend.  I'm especially excited for the two-part season premiere of Girls on HBO this Sunday!

What a Way to Start the New Year!

By saving money :)  January 1st is a great day not only because it's the start of a new year, but also because Target marks all of their Christmas gear down 70%!  I call this my black Friday.  Last year I racked up on $20.  This year I racked up again, but I spent $30 (I also got waaaayyy more than last year).

Here's what I got:

1. One red wreath
2. Two packs of tissue paper
3. Three wine gift bags
4. Two small/medium gift bags
5. One Hand band Pop-Up tape dispenser
6. One pack of silver, gold and black colored pencils
7. Two bottles of nail polish (yes, this was considered a Christmas item...I guess it was in the stocking stuffer area originally and the brand is called E.L.F.)
8. One bag of old fashioned hard candy
9. Three rolls of wrapping paper
10. Three LED ornaments
11. One pack of gold and white striped beverage napkins (Gold and white for Christmas only?!?!!?  Ha!  Not around these parts!)
12. Six gift tag tie-ons
13. One box of pink LED mini lights (again...pink LED lights just for Christmas?!??!  Nope, I have plans of putting these in my office)
14. Seven spools of ribbon
15. One box of light clips

Did any of you know that this is what Target does on the 1st?  It's quickly becoming one of the happiest days of the year for me, ha!  Apparently they have 50% on the day after Christmas, but if you can hold out one week you will be glad you did!

Well that's all!  No more Christmas related posts until December.  This weekend I plan on getting my house back in order and start planning out the next project that I want to work on.  With all of the Lowe's gift cards that I have now, I'm armed and ready!

Enjoy your weekend :)

A Lazy Green Thumb

I trust everyone is winding down the Christmas prep and getting ready to enjoy their time off of work and on with loved ones!  I'm excited to see what Santa is bringing me this year, and I'm excited to see the reactions to the gifts that I'm giving to loved ones!

When I was younger we had a garden in our backyard.  The concept was so neat to me.  Plant a seed, give it a little TLC, watch it grown, then eat it!  Free food...that's probably one of the best parts.  Now that I have a backyard I want a garden.  We have the perfect spot for it, I just have to do some research on gardening.  So in the meantime, as I was browsing pinterest (surprise, surprise) I came across a way to grown green onions indefinitely.  It looked fairly simple, so I wanted to give it a try.

Of course I pinned this about two months ago and I'm just getting around to doing it.  When I made the smoked salmon cream cheese I needed to buy some green onions, so it was the perfect time to try this out.

I cut them down to the white and placed them in water in the afternoon and by the night time they had already started growing!  I tried to take pictures of their progress every day but missed a few days in between.  Even so, you can see how quickly these grow.

12/11 (This was the first day.  I didn't take a picture when I first cut them and they had already started growing within a few hours...so imagine that there is a picture before this one showing the onion at the white cut line)

12/14

12/15 (I added a few more onions)

12/16

12/18

12/19

12/21 (they were growing so much that I had to transfer them to a jar!)

They have almost been growing for two weeks now and I'm amazed at how quickly they grow!

A Wreath Story

Hello!  I hope you all are knee deep in Christmas crafting, shopping and decorating!  I'm just about done with my Christmas shopping (I got started early this year).

If you remember, I mentioned that I got our Christmas tree from a thrift store this year for 20 bucks.  I also snagged a huge wreath for 4 bucks.  I bought some ribbon to accompany it.  I planned to stick with the theme of the tree by using multicolored ribbon and white ornaments.

The first idea that I had didn't work out so well (no pictures of that process), so I thought of a different idea.  It all stemmed from a branch that was pointing off of the wreath.  I decided to do a little "construction" to it.

First I started with a box, cut it so that it lied flat, then cut a triangle out of a flap.  I then cut a curve on the edge of the triangle so that it would naturally curve with the wreath.

Then I hot glued the piece to the wreath and began hot gluing the ribbon to it.

I ended up having to add another piece of cardboard next to the first piece to extend it to the edge of the wreath.

 

Finally I added the white ornaments to a piece of the red ribbon and tied it to the top corner of the wreath.  This is the end result!

Here's a little close-up

Here are a few more pictures of the mantle.  I wanted to keep it clean this year.

Have you worked on a wreath or any other Christmas crafts?  Please share!

p.s. I'm participating in a few Christmas Link Parties, check them out and link up your projects!

1. Ten June Blog
2. Southern Hospitality

Holiday DIY + Christmas Tree Trimming

I have a good old fashioned DIY tutorial for you tonight accompanied by a little treat at the end!

To conclude my busy Thanksgiving weekend, Simon and I decorated our tree.  This was not just any ordinary tree.  This happened to be a steal of a deal from a local thrift store.  Monday's are half off, so I ended up paying twenty bucks for it last month!

When it comes to making decisions, you all know how I am.  Funny enough, I decided on the colors for our tree this year rather quick.  Okay, I changed it a few times before settling, but I settled hard and fast when I did.  I decided to do multi-colored lights and all white ornaments.

I designed a few of my own ornaments with inspiration from this pinterest project in which you draw a design, trace over it with a glue gun then spray it one color.

Source: bedifferentactnormal.com via Myers Maison on Pinterest

So I did just that.

1. Draw onto clear ornaments

2. Hot glue over the drawings.

3. Spray paint over the bulb.

This is how they look on the tree

I wanted a white tree topper but couldn't find one that I liked.  Instead I bought a large decorative ornament from Target for 5 bucks and...you guessed it!  Sprayed it white.

And now, our tree!

And now for an extra special treat...my first video!  It's a time-lapse of us trimming the tree.  I hope you enjoy!

A mini project

As I was loading some images onto my computer, I came across this quickie that I forgot to share.  Simon acquired this picture frame from work, and he only brought it home because he thought that I would appreciate fixing it up.  He was so right, even if it took a couple of months to finally get to.

Nice...um...frame...and um...picture.  Actually the picture could work in the right place.  Just not my house!

Beautiful white spray paint, we meet again.

Been fishing lately?

DIY matte

(the following image is unrelated to the matte, I just felt like including it)

The end result.  I'm thinking about hanging this in my office, but then I just thought about swapping out the image and hanging it in the guest bathroom.  Who knows.

(Print available here!)

So that's my little quickie.  Aren't quickies great?

How to spend $21

Hobby Lobby.  That's how.

Apparently they've decided to get rid of a lot of items because they've had a 80% off sale for the last two weekends!  Yes, I fell for the trap.  I made out good though!

Here are the things that I bought two weekends ago:

I had a vision of a tall, square shaped basket to put into the pantry to hold all of the grocery bags that we reuse.  After all, this looks like pure crap

The next day I found this

Notice the price tag was 10 bucks, down from $49.99!

The pantry corner after

Next, I had been looking for a tray to place alcoholic beverages on on the dining room buffet.  I didn't realize that they can be pricey!  Well not that day!

This baby was $2.00, originally $10!  I'm thinking about spray painting it a different color, but I think I like the Jade.  Thoughts?

I'm on a new cleaning kick, and I realized that I needed ANOTHER basket to place all of my cleaning items in so that I can easily carry them around the house.

On clearance for $2.80, originally $13.99

I'm going to start decorating the master bedroom within the next few weeks, and this also includes the bathroom and closet.  I have so much jewelry (especially from last year when I was making it) and I need more storage options.  Cue new jewelry hooks:

I enjoy the vintage look of it, and I'm probably going to spray paint it some other color.  I like it even more because it was $4.00 (forgot the original price).

Finally, I was looking at the LCY blog and noticed a great storage idea for match books.  I found this little baby for $3.20 (something like that).

So there you have it, $21 for all of this.  I was elated when I left the store.  Stay tuned to see how I am utilizing these items!