heart wreath from junk I found at home

When I heard about Nester's

"You made a wreath out of WHAT?!"

party, I had to join in.

Some of you may remember my crazy newspaper, electrical tape, wire, & burlap wreath, but if you're new here, well,

I think it bears repeating...

so...if you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you know how much I love to make wreaths.

(see some examples HERE)

I heart pretty wreaths BIG time, so it was natural to make one just for the big V-day that's around the corner.

I wanted a heart wreath, but the only heart wreath forms I found were too small-

the hob lob had a foam wreath form that was only about 8 inches wide (I didn't want a baby wreath, I wanted a big mama wreath)

and Michael's only had a small twig heart wreath.

So-
I made the actual wreath form on my own.
Out of odds and ends I found at the house.

here's a pic of the finished product-

and here's how I made it-

In my brain, I had this grand scheme all planned for how I would make a larger, thicker heart shape than the forms I'd found in the stores.

Newsprint.

Yep.

Newsprint.

I went home after that fab trip to Michael's and found my newsprint sketchbook from an art class I took in college.

(don't worry- I didn't use any paper that I'd drawn on, but believe me- some of my work from college is, umm, special. Perhaps I'll post pics of what was in that sketchbook later on...)

I started wadding up blank pages like this-

and figured I could secure pieces together with masking tape until I had a heart shape.

Okay...masking tape,

masking tape.

Couldn't find any masking tape, BUT, I found black electrical tape. That works the same, right?

so I crumpled and taped,

crumpled and taped,

(see the heart starting to form? Fascinating, right?)

I had trouble getting the middle to stay dipped, ya know, to make the heart shape at the top.

No worries-

we had picture-hanging wire in the ole' toolbox.

Now it dippity-dips up there and stays put.

After a few more wraps of newsprint to beef it up a little, I had this-

Ready for burlap now!

I cut my burlap (from the remnant section at the hob lob, of course) into strips like this

and just started wrapping...

when I made it all the way around, I secured the end with hot glue

and ta-dah, my friends.

a heart wreath made from newsprint, electrical tape, wire, and burlap that stays together when held up like this and everything.

Now to make it pretty...

I went back to my remnant supply and pulled out some V-day appropriate colors

I was really digging the red fleece and the red/white stripes, so I got to cutting some circles. I always use one of our M coasters that were a wedding gift from my friend Kara when I make felt or fabric flowers and it works great. Of course, if you don't have M coasters, you could always use the peanut butter jar lid. They may or may not me the same size. (trust me though, they are) 

I take each circle, fold it in half, and then fold it in half again until it looks like this. Then I secured the tips to the center of a felt circle until it was covered.

With the fleece circles, I did a lil something different:

I still folded them in half twice, but cut a heart shape in the top like this, so that when opened, it looked like this:

(oooooooooo, aaaahhhhhhhhh)

hot glue the tips of those babies onto another felt circle, and you get this:

B-E-A-utiful, aint it?

next I snagged some red berry twigs from a vase I had sitting on my desk and stuck them into the burlap. No glueing. Just jammed them down in there.

attached some pink tulle and my flowers, and that was all she wrote folks.

Done.

And thar she blows, just a hanging on our Narnia door.

(that door in our foyer leads to a hallway that leads to the back of the house. We've called it the Narnia door since we moved in because, well...because it's cool, ya know?)

So...any one out there make any crafts using slightly unconventional methods with stuff you found lying around?

I'd love to hear about it.

Seriously- it would make me feel less crazy.

Insta-Friday

Couldn't resist another insta-friday post.

Linking up with Jeanett again.

Here's a little look at the past week in the life of the Mathews, via instagram:

Went to Homey D's last Friday night to pick out a faucet.

Sheesh those suckers are 'spensive.

This is what we saw as we stepped out into the parking lot.

Love it when God shows off.

Gawgeous.

Saturday morning Candyland birthday party,

and scrum-dilly-umptious Candyland cake.

Started another project Saturday afternoon and needed to clean out a folder-

these ads were in a 'fashion' notebook I used to keep in college. Still love this Gucci campaign from 1999.

E thought she'd "help" me.

yowza

Our appliances had to take up residence in the dining room while the countertops were installed. Convenient to sit at the table and not even have to get up to remove your food from the oven, yes?

oh wait,

I don't cook.

I do, however, wash clothes.

Here's the lovely, lovely faucet we came home with Friday night,

all nice and installed.

Nevermind that un-trimmed window with the insulation poking out.

Hubs is handy.

super-handy

He re-installed our microwave without a template since we'd thrown that away ages ago.

Cute hiney, honey.

The sweet man that installed our countertops.

Wish I could've been home to plant one on him.

A hug, that is.

My son's class at music this week.

Yes, he's the one about to do a ninja jump off the risers.

Sheesh.

And looky who came to eat lunch with me on Wednesday!

Hubs and E!

Made for a pretty wonderful hump day.

Head to Jeanett's blog to check out the other instagramers!



Happy Birthday Kelly and we apologize for the mess...

Happy Friday friends!

And good golly miss molly am I glad that it's a 3-day weekend.

Can I get an Amen?

Thank you so much for all of your sweet comments yesterday about the kitchen!

We are thrilled to be so close to completion and very much looking forward to being able to enjoy the space with family and friends.

Speaking of friends...

We got to celebrate Kelly's birthday last night at Surin,

which, by the by, has some of the MOST delish Thai food in Tuscaloosa.

I recommend the Surin baskets and the chicken coconut soup,

and of course you MUST get sushi.

I mean, if you eat sushi.

If you don't, then I probably wouldn't order any.

Transformers cake which my kiddos partook of and still went to bed on time!

yay!

Don Siegelman was also eating at Surin last night and I only mention it because it caused us to go back and forth quite a bit on the

"is it or is it not him..."

It was a fun evening out, despite the fact that we probably won't be taking our 3 kiddos out to eat again anytime soon in the near future because MM has taken to screaming. As in, she loves it and thinks it's the best thing since solid foods. She screamed when I tried to feed her with a spoon or a fork, since apparently those are for babies and she thinks she's big now.

To keep her quiet and happy, I let her go at her chicken fried rice on her own...

yes, she made a mess on the floor.

yes, I apologized to our waiter, who told me he was used to it (just to make me feel better)

yes, I think he then cursed us under his breath.

yes, only about 20% of the food she picked up made it to her mouth.

ahhh....kids

Happy Birthday Kelly!

Hope you're having a fabulous day despite being at work!

Hope the rest of you enjoy your Friday as well!

kitchen reno: week 8

my oh my oh my is our kitchen starting to take shape! Today's update is uber-exciting.....are you ready?

here goes...

Last week, on Wednesday to be exact, our floors went from this-

nasty, yucky, dirty concrete.

concrete that little feet liked to run around on.

see?

Cute feet, yes.

Clean feet, not really.

TO THIS-

Pretty, shiny, woodeny floors.

And yes, we put the 2 year old to work immediately.

She's the blur you see above.

The wooden gawgeousness extends to the hallway...

(and that's O looking for something to eat in the fridge that was stashed out of the way in the man cave. We had appliances all OVAH the house while the men were putting the floors down)

and into the laundry room as well.

We have a laundry room now.

Have I mentioned that?

Can't remember...

The washer and dryer spent the day in the dining room.

Glad we're done with the moving of the appliances now.

sheesh.

If you've had hardwoods installed in your home, you're probably familiar with the 'get-down-on-your-hands-and-knees-and-scrub-that-glue-off' that comes with the pretty shinyness. Unless, of course, you have people that do it for you. In which case, you're uppity.

We're not uppity so we did the scrubbing ourselves.

Every square inch.

Forgive the awkward sitting position.

Again,

not uppity.

We scrubbed until the floors shone like the top of the Chrysler Building.

Name that musical.

Ain't they pretty?

The next day,

we received a call from the countertop man.

Oh how we'd been waiting for a call from the countertop man.

Not only because he brings the countertops,

but because he also brings the

sink.

The blessed kitchen sink that we'd been without ever since

 kitchen reno: week 5.

August 7, to be exact, was the day the kitchen sink and the dishwasher were ripped out, so it's been a good solid 3 weeks of washing sippies and dishes in the bathtub, and drinking whatever I could find in the fridge because I was too lazy to walk all the way to the bathroom for a glass of water.

But not anymore...

The lovely countertop man arrived bright and early Tuesday morning and boy howdy is it nice to have water in the kitchen again. I also may or may not have rubbed my face against the countertops.

I mean, we waited so long.

And they're so purty.

Again, may or may not have.

We went with a solid surface top which will never scratch or break and is pretty much all around indestructible. The price was amazing and included installation AND a sink (which we got to pick out). Here's a close-up so you can see the prettiness.

Black with some subtle silvery-grey speckles. The pic really makes them stand out a bit more.

They are truly subtle.

Because isn't that how you'd want your speckles?

Subtle.

I haven't 'styled' the kitchen yet, but that will come.

Soon.

The first thing I actually put on the countertop were the paper towels.

Priorities you know.

Can't wait to play with accessories in there and get it lookin' all pretty.

So, to recap-

in the past week, the floors AND the countertops were installed. While those are two HUGE things we were able to check off of the list, and while it does bring functionality back to the room, there's still quite a bit to do.

For example,

trim for the doors and windows has been purchased (thanks Dad!) but still needs to be painted and installed. Also need to paint the doors (man cave, pantry, hallway, and utility closet) and replace the door knobs. Still have to purchase base boards (or base trim? you know, the stuff at the bottom of the walls...) and quarter round, paint that, and install it. Also have to finish swapping all of the plugs and switches from brown ones to white ones and put new white face plates on all. Already purchased those.

And oh yeah,

we're gonna have to build a banquette.

Since that was my original vision.

Can't give up on my dream ya know.

(Examples of what I've cooked up in my head found HERE)

whew.

So much accomplished though.

We were actually able to cook in our kitchen tonight,

and of course, when I say 'we', I mean 'my hubs'.

I don't really cook-

it's in my bio.

I did, however, have to pack and unpack a plethora (that's the word for the week, by the way) of cookbooks during this process and was inspired to find something I might actually want to make.

We'll see.

I'll let you know how that goes.

Now, just for fun, let's have a quick 'before' and 'after' at this point in the game:

BEFORE

AFTER

Or, really close to being AFTER

la la love it.

Happy Thursday friends!