Category: Making

Why buy another useless item when you can have the lasting satisfaction of making your own? Find true joy in crafting and DIYing with these beginner and intermediate tutorials.

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Easy Harvest or Fall Decorations

One of the easiest ways to create pretty Harvest or Fall themed decorations involves nothing more than 8 ears of Indian corn, wire, and a stick. With these simple items you can create a pretty fall swag like this one:

Step 1:

Gather your materials. No, I wasn’t joking, it really does just require corn, wire, and a stick. I guess if you want to be technical you will need wire cutters (in this case old garden shears) and something to hang the swag with (more wire).

Step 2:

Take one ear of corn and overlap the pulled back husks of the second ear. Wrap wire around the corn at the base and through half the husks of the first ear. I suggest using half the husks so you can fluff the other husks out to fill in between the ears.

Obviously, I didn’t worry to much about the wire showing. I knew this would be hung high over my door and not really visible from a distance. You could easily hide the wire by using brown floral wire or tie with monofilament instead of wire.

Step 3:

I wired 4 ears together facing one way and 4 ears the other direction. Then I wired them to a branch (i.e. the stick) I had laying about the yard. I suggest wiring the corn together first before attaching to the branch. This allows for the corn to hang down freely and look less rigid than when wired directly to the branch.

The corn isn’t all that heavy so you could simply hand the corn attached together however I found a firm base makes it much easier to hang the whole swag on the wall Plus it allows you to arrange the corn attractively while it is on the ground. As you can see from the above picture using a rustic branch, as opposed to a dowel, blends with the harvest theme and doesn’t stand out if it shows between the ears.

Step 4:

There really is no step four because it is that easy.

Usually the grocery stores offer indian corn this time of year but you might also try your local farmers market. While your out, snag a few pumpkins to give an extra harvest touch.

Since Halloween is right around the corner I couldn’t help but add a gargoyle into the mix.

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Old Sweater Rehab: Felting is Fun

I have always wanted to try my hand at felting (also called fulling) an old wool sweater.  I’ve read how easy it was and due to the massive clothing purge I completed this weekend I had a few on hand to try.  I especially wanted to find a good use for a beautiful merino sweater that was a gift for Patrick.  The cable knit was so nice, but it was just too hot and didn’t quite fit right.  Patrick never wore it, but we both hated to just part with it.  Instead I decided to felt it and make it into a cable knit pillow that we can enjoy every day.

As a bonus The Granny was reading one of her home decor magazines today and it was discussing various cable knit decor for the home.  What a lovely coincidence for my super fast and easy project.  Even if you don’t have a sewing machine you could still make this pillow.  On to the tutorial!

Step One: Take an old wool sweater and wash it.

After washing a couple I would suggest putting it in an old pillowcase or lingerie bag (This cuts down on a wicked amount of fuzz in the washer and dryer).  Then wash it on hot.  If you have a front loader it may not felt thickly the first time, so I washed mine a couple of times with various other pieces of laundry.  If the wool is going to felt well it will come out feeling really thick and look like it could fit McClain a chihuahua.

You can thank me for cropping out the ancient bra that was drying in the background. Man, I can really frame a photograph.

Step 2: Cut your sweater along the seams.

I cut out all the seams and the neckline.  I left the bottom ribbing even though it didn’t felt quite as thickly as the cable.  I thought it might make a decorative touch to my pillow.  A man’s medium sweater (though it ran large) gave me a working area of about 18″ X 20″ which I eventually made into a 16″ square pillow.  Why?  Because that was the size of pillow form I had on hand…  Well I stole from the bedroom (it usually has a decorative sham on it, but I had them put away, so, this seemed like a good use until I go buy a new form)

Because I have craft hoarding tendencies (that I’m working on) I am saving the sleeves. I think they would be really good to make a coffee cup sleeve or maybe as part of some slippers.

Step 3:  Sew 3 to 3 1/2 of the edges closed.  Why not 4?  Because you gotta leave a hole for the pillow to go in.

Felting the sweater both makes the fabric firmer (i.e. won’t stretch out of place) and more importantly it will not fray.  This means you have a lot of leeway on how to sew your pillow.  I opted to make a mad dash into my freezing basement and sew three quick seams in what will be the inside of the pillow; retuning upstairs right before I would have frozen to death.  I didn’t want a fancy seam because the pattern of the sweater is pretty busy.  However, if you were using a plain wool sweater then you could leave the edges on the outside to curl back or maybe just finish the outside with a large colorful blanket stitch.  Whichever you choose you can then stuff in the pillow and sew up the remaining side.

I trimmed the seams up a bit before turning inside out, but the nice thing is that the fluffy-thickness of a felted sweater is really forgiving of any sewing/trimming mishaps.

Voila you have a pillow!

Sometime soon I want to reupholster this awesome chair Patrick found at Habitat for Humanity. It came from the Grove Park Inn.

Or do you? I decided to fancy mine up and make it a removable pillow cover.  I can’t imagine that in the middle of summer I am going to want to cuddle up to a merino pillow… Mmmm… Scratchy… Humid… Hot…

I had three buttons laying around and I sewed those on and made HAND-FREAKING-BOUND buttonholes.  The wool was too thick to make a buttonhole on the machine but the decorative ribbed part of the sweater didn’t felt thickly enough that I felt comfortable just cutting a buttonhole with no reinforcement.  Thank goodness there were only three because I forgot how much I dislike hand sewing a buttonhole.  Though, I love the way the pillow reminds me of a great cardigan now that it is complete.

Finally, because I can’t leave well enough alone, I decided to add some color on one side.  Plus the  pillow creation went so swiftly I had time before the baby got up from his nap to mess with it some more.  The color allows me to turn the pillow around for sophisticated or whimsy depending on the mood I’m in.  Adding color is the fun (and most time consuming part).  I have a simple needle felting kit and some colored roving from Moon Dog Farm.  Basically, you just take wool and poke it on wool.  Don’t worry the kit comes with basic instructions.  I decided to make a series of polka dots in the centers of the cables.  If I ever get this part done I’ll share it with you.  Until then I just flip the white side forward and enjoy!

Why must I always make things hard? Yes, now I have to needle felt over 160 dots…

Needle felting aside I can’t wait to try my hand a felting or fulling sweaters again.  I have plans to make some cashmere lined slippers for the house.  Maybe next snow day I’ll get that project done.

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Last Minute Christmas Dish or Gift

Need a last minute snack or hostess gift to bring to a holiday party in the next couple of weeks? Well I’ve got your answer right here. As we know I’m not much for cooking and a lot of times baking is just out of the question. My answer: Chocolate dipped pretzels.

Bonus: If you’re not a douche-canoe like me then you will really only need a measuring cup and spoon to create this dish. Low Cleanup!

Let’s start with some pretties:

Here’s the recipe (Makes around 24 rods):

1 cup chocolate Chips

1 tbsp butter or crisco

1 bag of pretzel rods

1 candy cane

1 glass of wine

The Secret Ingredients (Holiday Style)

Step one:

Get all the pent up family-Christmas frustrations out on the candy cane or 4 small candy canes by beating it into small pieces with a mallet or the back of a spoon. I put mine in a sandwich bag to keep the pieces from flying. At this point if you still feel stressed drink the wine and beat more candy canes with mallets.

Step two:

Open the pretzels and eat any broken ones.

Step three:

Give your baby kitchen tools (non-sharp) and/or a candy cane to entertain them while your being domestic in the kitchen.

Must…Entertain…The baby.

Step four:

Don’t be a douche-canoe when melting your chocolate chips. I was too lazy to read the directions and hadn’t melted chocolate in a awhile so I burned it not once, not twice, but three times both in a double boiler and microwave. Just don’t do that. Burnt chocolate is no fun. Put 1 cup of chocolate chips in a microwave proof cup or bowl with the tbsp of butter or crisco. Put it in the microwave for one, 1, ONE minute. Even if you have a crappy microwave start with one. Take it out and stir the hell out of it. Then if it still needs more try 10 seconds at a time.

Only I can make a one dish recipe take multiple dishes. I didn’t bother taking photos of the third time I burned the chocolate.

Step five:

Dip pretzels in chocolate and lay out on a piece of parchment paper/wax paper/ cookie sheet. I always make half mint by sprinkling on crushed candy cane while the chocolate is still melted. I leave the other half plain in case someone doesn’t like mint. Finally, just let them harden. If you need them completed in a hurry just put them on a cookie sheet and stick in the freezer for 5 minutes.

Just a few notes:

I always bring mine to a party the same or next day so I don’t bother tempering the chocolate. Also, they look really pretty wrapped in a small cellophane bag as a small hostess gift.

Anyone else got a quick and easy holiday recipe/gift they would like to share?

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Oh Christmas Tree

I thought I was done with Christmas and the Canton Christmas Charity Tour of Homes. However, I’ve had a few questions about the Christmas tree. I know, I know, it IS a bit odd to talk so much about Christmas and not discuss the tree. The tree featured mostly store bought items and because of that it was one of the least painful processes I went through (though I did add my own flocking). Maybe that’s why I didn’t give it the star treatment on our blog.

Since you’re interested (Who knew?) let’s go over some of the high points of the Metallic-Frosty Tree. Here she is with the matching mantel:

Oh yeah, here I am with the Babykins, too.

Just like the mantel the tree featured metallics, frosty colors, and pops of cranberry.

The star topper, red glass ornaments, and red glass birds all came from K-mart. I know K-mart isn’t the go-to big box store, but I think year after year they knock the Christmas decorations out of the ball park! Seriously, I could have spent a fortune, but I had a limited budget. Then I blew that limited budget by getting two strands of new LED white, crystal cut lights from Lowe’s. And boy howdy, those suckers are white.

I did splurge on 6 of these glass birds. I have a thing for glass ornaments, which, is proving interesting with a 1 year old.

Because of that limited budget I did use a lot of ornaments I had on hand and cheap glass balls. I just filled that sucker full of gold, silver, and a few glitter glass balls.

You can see some of the light flocking that covered the limbs.

To add some visual interest to the tree I added gingko leaves touched with gold, vintage gold birds (The Granny supplied those), golden bows, pieces of cut up crystal garland, small iridescent glass acorns, the list goes on and on. Basically if it fit my color pallet I stuck that puppy up there.

Top complete the look I wrapped the tree in a white ribbon featuring gold and silver snowflakes, an old silver tree skirt, and gold angel hair. To REALLY complete the look, The Granny, helped out by wrapping “presents” in gold, silver, and metallic cranberry paper to set around the bottom of the tree.

I felt like the tree was rocking, but leave it to the mouth of babes to bring me down a notch. One of the neighborhood children was admiring the tree but fingered some of the gold angel hair, looked over at me and asked, “Why do you have this stuff on here, it looks like knotty hair?”

Right you are!

Best picture I could get of the drain-clog angel hair. Oh, from the mouth of babes.

In conclusion, I had a bit of a snag with the angel hair and I am still not used to the lights.

This shiznit literally glows at night. Land a helicopter? Check! Signal alien spacecraft? Check! Light up your Christmas tree? Check!

BUT I did get an icy-metallic feel for my tree! We’ll call this one a draw.

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Canton Christmas Tour of Homes 2010 – Part II

I wanted to thank everyone that has started following our blog in the last few weeks! Also, thanks to those people that have followed us through the last year; even though we lost all of the gloriousness that was our blog. We have really appreciated all the comments and are planning on revamping and creating some cohesion to our posting… maybe… Well I promise some cohesion in 2011, but I can’t vouch for Patrick. Or McClain. You never know what the menfolk will get into.

“This heres gonna be tha lasta the Tour, younguns.” Just thought I would put that in my WNC mountain-talk for you. I’m ready to move on to newer things. What things exactly? Ask me tomorrow. Until then here are the last few images of the Canton Christmas Tour of Homes 2010. (Insert drumroll here)

Enjoy the details, and feel free to ask any questions your heart may desire or share a link to your own holiday decorating in the comments. I would love to check out your decor.

Living room and Christmas tree details
Dining room and Kitchen details
Bath & Bedrooms