Sadness...

Drew and I sat together and read aloud each and every name of the Newton shooting... Too often after these tradgedies all we recall is the name of the shooter.... Instead I want to remember the twenty six victims... Individuals... Each with a family that mourns them... That will never forget... That hopes we will never forget... Hug your loved ones tight... In honor of Victoria Soto... A hero... Who loved and left behind her black lab... Who wandered around her apartment searching for her.... We hugged our pups and promise we will always remember...

 

For Your Viewing Pleasure...

How amazing are these cookies! I want them all! I found out about them here (via). They are from here...

I think the trailer might be my favorite! I want to order them when we finish out trailer...

 

These would be perfect with my campfire...

I can get behind Pantones color of the year.... I do want to put my hands on it and shout "Oz!"..... Please tell me you watched Return to Oz? Still traumatizing... Those wheelers?.... Terrifying... And the heads? Yikes!

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I would have a whole litter of children right now if I knew this stuff existed... Easy! Except why would I give an infant an energy drink!?... That's the only issue I see here...

And the pups... Yes... This is my pillow... All three of us shared it...

Happy Friday!

Holiday Bunting...

This is our first Christmas in a LooOoNnnGGgg time that have been able to decorate... Most of the stuff we did have was either given away or disappeared into thin air... So I got to crafting... I had leftover drop cloth scraps from the teepee... I cut out some triangles, folded them over a rope nd ran them through a sewing machine... That was cute but I needed more... So I made some of my own butcher twine... I love this twine... But it's pricey and I want all of the colors..... I bought some crochet thread for $2.50 and made my own!

I wrapped the thread around a shim... A flat ruler would work just as well, make sure to not double layer it.

Then I took a sharpie and colored some stripes, making sure to heavily saturate the thread...

Progress... I did three stripes on each side of the shim...

Ta-da!

You can make it in any color you want! Special! Now onto why I needed my butchers twine... I made some Pom poms using the directions that I did here... Then strung my Pom poms on them with a needle....

These Pom poms were pretty big, about 2" diameter... All you have to do is wrap around the yarn more times the bigger you want it...

Pom Pom garland....

I came across some star name card holders at Savers for $0.50..... They had a slit for the card so I used the opening and slipped some twine through it.... Boom... Garland!

And I think take off the Pom poms and you have a Fourth of July garland.... I may just keep it up all year!

Catching My Eye...

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This look keeps catching my eye in cabinet design.... An accent cabinet or piece.... I have seen it done recently and in much older kitchens... I guess I would say I think it might start trending.... But isn't a trend... Does that make sense?

Carrying on.... A piece of cabinetry painted, stained or trimmed out to stand out on its own... I definitely like the look when done well.

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It helps to define a space in a large multipurpose room... The picture above has a darling little media office nook...

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Everything above makes me swoon... The stain, wood grain the hardware! Beautiful! I think it is neat how they trimmed out the top of these cabinets so it looks like a large piece of furniture... The cabinets to the left go all the way to the ceiling where as the piece above sits a few inches lower... Clever...

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I really love the grey accent cabinet above... The large scale header helps it pop... The open face cupboard doors give display space... While still keeping a clean classic look in the kitchen...

 

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Charcoal grey accent around the fridge... Such a subtle detail that makes it that more original.

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This one above looks like a custom armoire was set in place and the cabinets built around it. Love!

 

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I love the look of nooks... Especially that this nook has recessed cabinets and are stain grade.... Lets side track for a moment and look at that "library ladder".... I would definitely roll around on that like Belle in Beauty and the Beast...

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The sneaky little stain grade guy on the left.... Love the corbels.

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A whole wall of stain grade cabinets made flush around a fridge... I had a fridge bulge... And a mix of closed and glass doors.. Always a win in my book!

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Green! The detail work of the glass alone... I would say its a risky move with cabinetry, if done well its amazing!

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And for those who are faint of heart.... Maybe an accent face frame...?

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Just a hint of color.... What do you think? Fan or not?

 

PVC Bow and Arrow DIY

And the last of my DIY Christmas Gift Palooza... For the older kids PVC bow and wooden dowel arrow set.

You will need:

*Nylon string.. Home Depot

*1/2" PVC... Home Depot

* 2, 1/2" PVC caps... Home Depot

* PVC Cement Glue

* Duct tape in any color you like, I chose hot pink and camo...

Arrows:

*wooden dowels... Home Depot

* Felt for the arrow head... Michaels or craft store...

* Hot glue gun...

I found a tutorial here... I cut the PVC at 40"... You can make 3 bows from one PVC pipe... Then I held the PVC while Drew made a slit on each end of the pipe 7/8" deep with his skillsaw.... Talk about bringing a gun to a knife fight... Make sure the cut is facing the same direction in each end so the string lines up.

Then I took the nylon string and make a large knot. Melt the end with a lighter to avoid unraveling... Slip the string though the slits then measure the string and cut it 4" short of the PVC... Around 36".... Tie another knot and melt... Bend the bow and slip it through the other slits... The curve will be really drastic and the line extremely tight... It will relax over time...

I cement glued the end caps to the ends...

Then I wrapped with duct tale to add color and flair...

Then I took two sheets of felt and ran them through the sewing machine and stitched several triangles leaving the bottom open.

I cut the dowels around 15"... Trimmed out the triangle... Put hot glue into the triangle and shoved the dowel in.

I put squares of duct tape on the other end of the arrow and then made cuts to make it look like feathers...

And ta-da! Another cheap unique gift!

Reclaimed Wood Wire Frame...

Last week I showed our reclaimed wood frame DIY...

We made two frames... One for my Santa poster and one for part of my DIY Christmas gift palooza!

We built a frame the same as the other.... Instead of routing the back and installing plexiglass I bought some eyelets from Home Depot and twisted them into the inside of the frame.

Then took some rebar wire (not sure if that's the exact name but it's what Drew called it...) from Home Depot and thread it through the eyelets and twisted with some pliers.

Like so....

Then I printed out pictures from my Instagram account using printstagram... Printstagram was awesome! Super easy to use, super quick delivery and the photos are crisp, clear and printed on thick paper. I highly recommend them!

 

For Your Viewing Pleasure...

My brother and sister-in-law bought the cutest English Bulldog... Drew invited us over to go meet him.... You read that right.... And he's adorbs....

How sweet are puppies especially when you don't have to potty train them?

But if he doesn't do this I will be very disappointed!

Links from my brother:

My nephew might be the next Spielberg... Watch this video he made... Keep in mind he's 4, woke up at 4:30 AM found his moms phone and created this all on his own.... Special FX and all!...

My. Nightmares.... Here...

I need to travel to the Russian forest for this....

And who doesn't need this...

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My sister shared these fabulous shirts...

 

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Happy Friday!