Showing posts with label Repurpose. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Repurpose. Show all posts

DIY Weathered Wood Jar Sconces

Yesterday as Mia (our pup) and I took a walk across our property, I glanced at the small stash of scrap wood I set aside for projects.  A few short hours later, these were casting a warm glow above our fireplace ...





Materials:

6 boards 30" long
4 boards 7" long
4 hooks (for hanging mason jars)
1" brad nails
1-1/2" wood screws
8 wood shims (as spacers)
2 D-ring hangers with screws
2 picture hangers with screws
4 jars
Wire
Jute string
Salt
Candles

 Tools Used:

 Ryobi Cordless Mitre Saw
Ryobi Cordless Drill
Ryobi Cordless Brad Nailer
Ryobi Cordless Screwdriver 

What can I say? .. We like Ryobi! 

The weather was gorgeous - sunny and slightly cool - a perfect day for an outdoor project.  



I began by cutting all the boards to length.  Thanks to the cordless mitre saw, this part of the process was quick and easy. 





I laid the boards out to determine spacing and our driveway made a great work surface.





The thickest ends of the wood shims served as spacers.






To help find the correct placement of the shorter 7" horizontal boards,  I placed jars along the sconces and found I liked them best with 11-1/2" spacing between the 7" horizontal boards.





Using the brad nailer, I tacked the 7" horizontal boards to the long vertical boards. This secured them, allowing me to flip the sconce over to install 1-1/2" screws thru the underside with the drill.

But before putting in any screws, I made pilot holes, to prevent the dry and weathered wood from splitting.






At this point I installed D-ring hangers on the back of each sconce.





 
Flipping the sconce back over to the front, I then attached a hook to the center of each horizontal board.






That completed the sconce assembly.

Now for the jars!

You don't really have to rush out to buy brand new canning jars (unless you want to).  Any clear jar from pasta sauce, pickles, salsa, etc. work just as well.  


Wire wrapped tightly around each jar ring formed a loop for hanging.

A length of thick jute string wrapped around the top of the jar and tied in a double knot adds a rustic touch.

Each jar contains a votive candle resting on a layer of regular table salt. Epsom salt, sand or pebbles can also be used if you like.






Battery operated votives or tea lights are a nice alternative to regular candles and the jars can also be used as vases.  Be sure to check out Pinterest for lots of cute variations.


With the sconces built, I enlisted my sweet hubby to hang them above the fireplace.  He used these picture hangers to ensure they stayed securely on the wall - they're a little more heavy duty than was actually necessary, but we already had them on hand:



Picture Hanger
Picture Hanger

 
Nothing beats the fun of brainstorming a project and having it completed all in one day - that doesn't happen all that often (at least in my world).  





Thanks to all the materials we already had on hand, the total cost for this project was only $6.84 for the 4 hooks.  Yay!
Your comments are greatly appreciated and I look forward to your thoughts and ideas!  I try to respond to comments via email as soon as I can. If your email address isn't available, I will comment here. Thanks so much for visiting!


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Stocking Stuffers for Your Pup

Each Christmas morning, we have such a blast watching our pups retrieve and tear into these pet-friendly stocking stuffers.




They are easy to make with items you probably already have:



  • Empty paper towel cardboard centers
  • White tissue paper
  • Brown kraft paper (or plain white paper)
  • Pup treats - Pup-Peroni or Beggin' Strips work well
  • Paw labels (optional)

Cut paper towel roll into three equal pieces, tear tissue paper into half sheets, and cut or break pup treats into appropriate sizes for your pet.  




Wrap a treat in a half sheet of plain white tissue paper and stuff into cardboard roll.  





Wrap the treat filled cardboard roll in plain brown kraft paper, twisting ends to secure (no tape needed).

 



This year I added the round paw labels just for fun.  



I created them in Word for Avery 5293 round labels by copying a free paw graphic online and pasting it into the label template and printing.  There's no risk of our pups consuming the toner - they ignore the center of the stuffers and go right to the ends to pull out the tissue paper.  




The pups have a lot of fun when they pick up the scent of the treat, and rip into the tissue paper to pull it out and find the hidden treasure.



We've also noticed that each pup has their own method for unwrapping --- one will tear thru end of the cardboard roll to quickly get to the tissue paper covered treat.  Another will very carefully and deliberately pull the tissue paper from the roll in small pieces, eventually reaching the treat.

Do your pups open Santa gifts or stocking stuffers on Christmas morning?  What types of treats do they receive?



AFTER CHRISTMAS UPDATE:

Both pups devoured the stocking stuffers again this year and it was so much fun watching them have a great time!

Your comments are greatly appreciated and I look forward to your thoughts and ideas!  I try to respond to comments via email as soon as I can. If your email address isn't available, I will comment here. Thanks so much for visiting!

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Christmas Tablescape

Christmas prep is really not complete for me until I've come up with a plan for our dining room tablescape.  






This year I once again drew from items we have on hand.  

The base placemat is square, woven and gold.  They're no longer available, but a similar style can be found at Distinctive-Decor. 

Resting on the square gold placemat is my favorite charger ever ... they're round rattan with scalloped edges and I found them a few years ago at Pier One.  They appear to also be discontinued, but Pier One carries a really lovely round charger without scalloped edging HERE.



 (Note:  I was not compensated in any way for this post - 
the opinions expressed are my own and reflect personal experience.)

The rattan charger is topped with a red plastic charger to complete a trio of placemats/chargers that provides nice texture.





A creamy white porcelain dinner plate contrasts the red charger.  This dinnerware set has been the perfect foundation for holidays and special occasions.  With basic white, you can add any color combination/design of complimentary salad plates and bowls.  I'm so glad I bought 12 place settings several years ago.  


This set is Red Vanilla Classic from Overstock and you can find it HERE. 





Now for the cutest little holiday plates!  Have you seen the adorable holiday dinnerware collection at Walmart?  I wouldn't have believed it, either!  But, they have an entire set of several different winterscape designs - I chose Santa with his reindeer pulling his sleigh.  Other designs include a Christmas tree, a little deer, the popular red car/truck with Christmas tree, winter landscape and several other designs.  










Each year we enjoy crackers (or do you call them poppers?).  This year's are red with a gold glitter scroll design.



 Napkins are red cloth and napkin rings were a last minute project.

 The cardboard "rings" are twine ball centers that I saved and they're really sturdy and thick cardboard.  One quick coat of my "go to" metallic gold paint was all it took to give them a little gilding.




 The paint is from Target and it's Valspar's Devine Color in Karat.  It comes out beautifully when I've used it on plastic, metal, wood and now, cardboard! 


An added touch of glitz with decorative ribbon and the napkin rings were all set to go.

Our Christmas Day meal will be buffet style and silverware will be in the caddy nearby.  Final touch to the tablescape was water goblets and I called it done.




 The centerpiece is a large, clear glass cloche filled with red and gold ornaments, placed on a tray encircled with red and gold strands of garland.

The tray is one of a set of two from Decor Steals.  They're farmhouse style wood trays with metal handles.



Now that the table is all set, I guess I'd better firm up the menu!  

Are you all set for a holiday meal?  We start out buffet style (using the wonderful Crock-Pot Hook Up connectable entertaining unit), and then favorite dishes seem to find their way to the dining table.

Do you serve buffet style, or family style with serving dishes on the table?  Or, like us ... a mix of both?




 

Your comments are greatly appreciated and I look forward to your thoughts and ideas!  I try to respond to comments via email as soon as I can. If your email address isn't available, I will comment here. Thanks so much for visiting!

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 The Charm of Home
 Stone Cottage Adventures
A Delightsome Life
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 The Dedicated House
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 Joy in Our Home
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2016 Christmas Decor

It's starting to look and feel a lot like Christmas ... the presents are wrapped, the mantel is aglow, and our home is an explosion of glittery gold, bold red and deep green.




This year's mantel is decked out in three layers of garlands ... a base of vertically strung pinecones, and a lighted spruce garland, topped off with a gilded cascading garland.  Instructions for the DIY pinecone garland are HERE.



Above the mantel, a traditional spruce wreath with gold and red ball ornaments is surrounded by a gold open picture frame and a symmetrical arrangement of glittery cutout gold stars and red trees, red felt cone trees, and copper lanterns filled with gold wrapped candles.

A splash of red also warms the hearth area - this darling wood step stool painted with shiny red enamel was built by hubby's grandfather many years ago and is the perfect perch for the vintage red truck and tree.  Surprisingly, our gold painted Thanksgiving pumpkin appears to be alive and well to shine on through Christmas.



On our coffee table, a large clear glass cloche filled with red glass ball ornaments is resting on a gold framed mirror tray.  In reality, it's not a tray at all - it's a wall mirror found at Target.  Nice when items can do double duty.  

Accompanying the cloche is a little red lighted vehicle with Christmas tree.  It was originally green and received a festive makeover with red paint.  Read more about that HERE.



The two slipper chairs in the living room are adorned with red rosette pillows, and my thrifty find of the season ... a dark grey plush throw with super large fluffy pom poms.  I was thrilled to find it at Tuesday Morning for only $14.99!!!  If you're searching for these, they also had them in ivory and a light tan.



In a break from tradition, this year's large living room tree is decorated all in gold, with burlap garland and gold raffia.  It rests in a burlap filled galvanized container.  To see how we set up the tree container, click HERE.



The topper is a gold star with white lights, and glittery gold cascading sprays.  The sprays were found at Lowe's and the star topper at Target.  Tree ornaments were all items we had on hand.


Instructions for making the burlap and book page stocking ornaments can be found HERE.




The foyer decor (adjacent to the large tree) is simple and consists of a lighted tabletop urn centerpiece on the foyer table, and a simple  door wreath.

Our gift wrapping color theme this year is a combination of metallic gold, white and black.  I created and cut the gift tags from black card stock using my Silhouette Cameo, and shiny gold paper fills cutout tree openings in the tags. 




Names were written on the tags with a metallic gold Sharpie (from Lowe's).



In the dining room, a new addition this season is the hot beverage bar on the small antique chest.  The chest is just the right size for all the goodies needed to enjoy a hot cup of coffee, tea, spiced cider or cocoa.  In addition to the Keurig and K-cups, add-ins are ready to go - chocolate chips, marshmallows, flavored coffee creamer, sprinkles, candy cane stirrers and cinnamon.




The dining room table centerpiece is another large glass cloche, filled with red and gold glass ornaments and surrounded by gold and red beaded garland.  This cloche is displayed on a farmhouse style carved round wood tray with metal handles.  The tray was from Decor Steals and came in a set of two.    



A counter height bar separates our kitchen from our dining room and it's a great place for two lighted 4' counter trees in urns.  They're decorated with the handmade cinnamon ornaments from last year (instructions found HERE and HERE). 



 Next to each lighted counter tree are small gold metal ornament stands loaded with red and gold ornaments and "skirted" with red berry candle rings.  The gold metal stands were Goodwill finds this summer.



If you're still with me, have you noticed that pillows move around a lot in our home?  :)

In the kitchen, we continue the explosion of festive red.  Our kitchen is typically very neutral and at Christmas the red really makes it come alive.  



 The light fixture above the island is dressed up a bit with green garland and red and gold tinsel wreaths.  A similar wreath is also centered on the garland at the kitchen sink window.  

 Our framed Christmas countdown is in full swing on the kitchen counter, along with a mug of hot cinnamon flavored candy canes in a holiday mug perched on a white and gold dotted cupcake pedestal.  A trio of glittery gold cone trees add a little sparkle to the top of the fridge.

 The trio of cracked glass lighted orbs on the counter remain year-round because we enjoy them so much.

A white ceramic soup tureen is great for displaying Christmas crackers/poppers (which do you call them?) until Christmas day and a chubby little Santa is keeping them company.



Wrapping up this holiday tour, our master bedroom has a touch of glitz in the form of tinsel trees and matching gold wreath.


How is your holiday decor coming along?  Are you just beginning to decorate, shop for gifts and plan your menu?  Or, have you finished and are now breathing a sigh of relief?

Your comments are greatly appreciated and I look forward to your thoughts and ideas!  I try to respond to comments via email as soon as I can. If your email address isn't available, I will comment here. Thanks so much for visiting!

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