The Best of the Best - a blog party for a New Year!

I've seen several anthology posts lately. Many of my bloggy friends are putting up lists of their favorite projects from the last year.
What a FABULOUS idea!

I'll admit, I'm a sucker for a top 10 list.
I love those VH1 countdowns...I've watched the 100 best songs of the 90's more times than I care to admit.
Or how about when E! does those silly countdowns?
"Hollywoods Hottest Bodies" "Best Celebrity Smackdowns"
They even have one called "the Top 10 Vampires We Love"
These shows are the best thing to have on in the background when hubby is out of town and I'm up crafting 'till after midnight :)

Back to blogging...
These top 10 posts are just perfect. I can't think of a better way to show people what your blog is all about. And I want to see them all in one place!
So I decided to use {The Girl} Creative to host a party!

Grab a button and tell your friends - the party launches a week from today!

<center><a href="http://thegirlcreative.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="The Girl Creative" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEIbcwIOACA47ctpMFndoboQ0-OSlYGSOA-BodkWY5UNyYaqp7pdD_yyaTcIdwyPm9WugfMMyLJ27O-wleXfiZhpGqGcAOJKz5Km4IcmUKb6DEeyDdO3NjyjtpXxCKD8W0PNHbkOEi1kWp/s1600-h/party3.jpg" /></a></center>

<center><a href="http://thegirlcreative.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="The Girl Creative" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5eSI-Q48neXTw0P1JkiX1mmNQ9QwIJOW-rVUKcyQypK_yxCQ6be4sNDIqBeV7MURGa4KBTA8faxiLICjcHr_SVL_aZb12Z9W9dpUM9OZPVM0gSXPJBfixlrZXPzxDqdfCx3t987_zvaRd/s320/party.jpg" /></a></center>

Can't WAIT to see the best of your best!
Just head over to {The Girl} Creative on January 15th and link up!

Wooden Box

I can't remember if I've mentioned this before...

When my Pottery Barn catalog comes it's like an event.  I secret it away until I have an hour to look through it. Then I sit down, armed with a pen and a pad of post-it notes, to pour through it. I usually come away with about 1/2 the pages folded down, items circles and notes written (on the post-it's) on those pages.
To be honest, this is actually a bit embarassing.
People think I'm creative. They have no idea that I'm just a big PB copy cat.  Am I the only one in the state receiving their catalog?

Anyway - this was the picture on one of the pages I marked in the fall catalog.

This is what I saw.

I circled it and wrote a post-it note that said "Love these boxes for beer - Christmas for guys?"

I forgot about them until about a week and a half before Christmas, when I was stressing about what to get for my BIL.  That night, I dreamed about the box.
I kid you not.
In the morning I woke up with the picture in my head. I tore through my winter catalog first, then found it in the fall catalog. I had to see the picture...to verify that this wasn't something I had actually thought up on my own.

Then I got to work building the box.
I made 2 before Christmas.  We filled them both with an assortment of expensive beer. One was for my BIL, the other we took to a friend gift exchange, where (I'm proud to say) it was very popular and was actually fought over.  I know that was probably due to the beer, not my box, but it still made me happy.

I really wanted one for my own coffee table, though, and Whitney and Ashley's "I made it without my hubby" party at Shanty2Chic was the perfect excuse.
I built this box last night, finished it this morning.  Just so I could post about it :)

Here's the how-to...

Materials -
a 1x4 (I bought the shortest length and had some left over)
Plywood (for the first two I used leftover pieces, for this one I bought some luan plywood.)
You'll also need a hammer and nails. Optional items include a distressing tool, stain and glue.

For the first box I laid out my beers and measured around them.
Now I know exactly what to cut the wood to, so I'll share :)
Cut the 1x4 into 3 pieces at 10 3/4 inches and 2 pieces at 8 1/2 inches.
Your plywood should be cut to 12 1/4 x 8 1/2.

You're going to cut a few more small pieces later, but those will have to be measured individually.

I wanted the boxes to have a kind of beat-up, aged appearance, so I distressed them with my hammer and this tool...which I use for all distressing. I don't have any idea what it actually is, though. My husband dug it out of the toolbox in the back of his truck months ago when I told him what I needed. I commandeered it :)

Then I mixed wood stain and paint into my paint glaze until it was an old grey-brown looking color. Wiped on, wiped off (making sure to get extra into all my distressed areas!) and my wood was instantly aged!

I used Quick Grip (my favorite glue) to put the outside of the box together and gave it about an hour to set. Then I attached the bottom with glue, too.

Once it's all dry you can put the center piece in. Make sure to measure so you get it nice and centered.  I glue this in (to the bottom) as well.

For the small divider pieces measure individually. Mine measured between 2 7/8 and 3 3/8.
Those pieces get the glaze treatment, too.

 

Once everything is thoroughly dry I nailed it all together.  First the outside box - 2 at each corner, 1 at each end where the centerpiece attaches, and one on each of the 4 bottom corners.
The little divider pieces go in now - measure to make sure your squares are equal - and nail them in from the sides.

Originally I thought I'd use two longer pieces of 1x4 (notched) to cross the center piece, but that seemed really difficult and is definitely NOT something I could do without my hubby.
That's sort of imperative around here - partially because he works a lot, but mostly because I don't wait well.

Anyway - here's the finished project!

I love it :)
Here it is on my coffee table

and...

I'll be linking up to the "I made it without my hubby" party at Shanty2Chic! Go see what some more independent women have done!
Also linking up to Transformation Thursday at the Shabby Chic Cottage!

Happy Holidays!!!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and is getting ready for a fabulous New Year!

My wonderful husband took the week off work! So far we've spent most of our time playing games - lots of cards and a little guitar hero. When he's home I'm so lazy!!!
He's promised to help me with a new backsplash in the kitchen this week, though...

I'll be back next week with more crafty posts. In the meantime, I hope everyone is taking time to enjoy the season (now that all our Christmas projects are done!)

Doll Clothes Armior

This is Kit.

She's a $100 doll from American Girls.  She's recommended for ages 8 and up.

This is Tessa.

She's my very destructive 7 year old who loves the American Girl books and who is cute, sweet and charming enough to get whatever she wants - despite my better judgement.

Tessa's getting Kit for Christmas.
The doll and her accessories make up the vast majority of her gifts.
I've spent much of the 3 months praying that Tessa will take good care of her doll, as she has sworn to do (should she ever receive one.) Praying that she'll not take her scissors or her markers or God knows what else to her very expensive dolly.  Because if she does, I cannot be responsible for what I might do to her.

I've also spent a good portion of the last 3 months working on a sort of armior for Kit's clothes and shoes - hoping that having a pretty place to put things will inspire my girl to keep things neat. Though it never has before.
I feel like this project took forever - first in the conception, then in the execution, and finally in taking a decent photo of the thing to post here. Ironically, creating the thing took FAR less time than the other two steps did

ANYWAY.
I looked and looked at the thrift stores for a cabinet that would work.  I had measurements, of course, and an idea of how I wanted it to work, but no real inspiration, other than the idea in my head.
I finally ended up with this piece - an old bathroom wall cabinet, solid wood and very heavy.

I removed the doors, sanded her lightly and painted her white, using Rustoleum Primer and Paint, of course.
I flipped her upside down and added a dowel to use as a clothes hanger.

Then I cut a piece of MDF to the width and length I wanted it, and had hubby give the ends a 45 degree angle so I could but them up against each other.  They got a coat of white paint, too.

I painted the doors and the front of the cabinet with butterflies, flowers, polkadots and squiggly lines...
trying to make it whimsical and little-girly...

To be honest, I'm not sure I love how it turned out.  I have very little artistic talent, and though I wanted it to be some gorgeous custom painted creation (a'la Miss Mustard Seed) it's just...not.

At this point I gathered all my pieces together...

And assembled it.

But it still looked a little...flat.
So I decided feet would help.
I picked up some unfinished wood pieces from the craft store. I think they are supposed to be for candlesticks to sit in?
I painted them white.

Then screwed them onto the bottom of the cabinet.

I plan to attach this to the wall in her bedroom - low enough that she can access it, of course - possibly resting on the floor. We'll have to see how it looks best. I just don't want it tipping over constantly.

The space in the top fits the doll perfectly.  It's like a little bed. So, if my darling daughter wants me to, I will make a little pillow to pit in the space and Kit can sleep there.

(the doll in the picture is a Target brand American Girl knock-off that Tessa has had for a few years.  It's the same size as the real deal.)

So - here it is!

I'm fairly happy with it as a storage piece, though I think my decorative painting could be improved upon. I'm just not sure how to do that. Doesn't matter anyway - this is how it will be on Christmas morning!  I am DONE for now!

(P.S. I forgot to paint the inside of the doors! By the time I realized it there was no way I was removing them to paint again, so I covered the insert in contact paper and left the outside the original oak.)

Linking up to DIY Day at ASPTL!

My Christmas House

I might be the very last blogger to post pictures of my Christmas decor...
Still, I thought I'd share. After all, if there's not blog evidence of it, who's to say it even happened? lol

It seems like half of my Christmas decor is very down-home country feeling - pine cones, burlap, wood...
the other half is super glittery, glam and/or metallic.
They never seemed to belong together.
In the past I've always tried to group the like items together - attempting to create cohesive areas, even if the majority of the house didn't "go" together.

This year, I decided my theme would be sort of a country mouse-meets-city mouse thing.  Rustic and elegant, all in the same vignettes.
Not to pat my self on the back, but I totally love the outcome.

Here's my front door.

I went wreath-crazy this Christmas, making a total of 5 from the remnants of old wreaths (and a few new things.) This one is my favorite, I think. I love the tiny gold birdie and the monogram.
I hung it from a strip of burlap straps I tied together.

Above the door I have one of those grapevine arches. Every year I tuck some evergreen branches into it (from the bottom of our Christmas tree) and some fake berries.  Super festive, super easy!
Notice the kissing ball hanging from the arch...I love me some mistletoe!

On the bench we built this summer I put a basket filled with candles and more evergreens. LOVE this <3

This is the entry way.  To the left is this table,

To the right is this dresser.

The wreath was #2 of my wreath projects

My apothecary jars are new, and I love them! One is filled with pine cones and a (fake) sprig of greenery. The other is filled with some glittery ornaments I bought from the Pottery Barn a few years ago. Both are nestled on fake snow :)

I've had the "Believe" sign for a couple of years - I re-glittered it this year, then sprinkled some of the glitter on the table top about it. It feels magical to me :)

And this is one of my chalkboards :)

The front room is where our tree is.

I mentioned this in the post about my banner, but this room is filled with books. It's sort of our "library."
The tree has a NOEL banner on it, made from vintage book pages.

And here are the gingerbread boy and girl ornaments I made earlier this year!

The book shelves have some decor on top, too.

I had to move the bench I normally have in front of the window so the tree would fit there. I put it on this wall.

Above it I put this wreath (#3.)  It was lonely looking, so I spray painted this dollar store bird and added her (and some metallic berries!)

The wall vinyl came from JoAnn's.

The card holder I whipped up with extra fabric, buttons and paperclips.  Cute, huh?

The Dining Room area is my favorite in the whole house, and where I think my "rustic elegance" came together best.

Burlap Placemats with a glittery silver monogram.
Delicate wineglasses and silver snowflake napkin rings...

The centerpiece is a rosemary bush shaped into a Christmas tree that I wrapped in dark brown burlap. I added a couple of burlap flowers, too.  It sits on a silver charger.  Later I ripped some large metallic "berries" from their stems and sprinkled them around it.

 

I hung snowflakes from the fan and from the curtain rod on the window behind.  They are covered in glitter...along with everything else in the area!

The buffet has my candlestick collection, of course!
I wanted something practical there, as well, and since we tend to have lots of people over this time of year, I chose my regular, everyday dishes on a short silver pedestal.
I've had the gold Christmas tree candle forever, but I've never had a place I thought it looked right...love it here!

In the family room we have a mini tree.  My kids decorated this one all by themselves, and every morning my 3 year old rushes to plug it in.  I put this display together thinking "what does it matter if one area's not perfect?" but it turned out that I totally love it!

Above the sliding glass doors I hung a berry wreath (#4) and a garland that I "beefed up" using the Nesters method :)  More mistletoe in the center of that wreath!

Down the hallway I have this shelf

And this mirror, which I added a tiny wreath (#5) to.  The wreath is made from a small piece of leftover garland.

Our bedroom is almost entirely Christmas free...
though I could resist one more kissing ball.
Hanging this was interesting - but necessity is the mother of invention, and I NEEDED this!

So there it is...a day late and a dollar short, but posted just the same!

Linking to It's So Very Cheri!