Family Blog & Daily Life Hacks
As pet owners I’ve always wanted a way for our dogs to let themselves in and out of the house. They love to hang out on the deck and soak up the sun or watch the kids play out back. A pet door would be a great solution.
Presented By Door Store America
There was a time recently that I had a little obsession with skeleton keys. Rob got me a really pretty necklace a couple years ago through Etsy and I started collecting them from vintage shops and flea markets. So I had a collection of keys. Now what. I wanted to display them, show them off, admire their tarnished and rusty appearance. So this Skeleton Key Shadow Box was made.
I bought the shadow box frame for a few dollars from Ikea I believe. Everything there is so cheap it definitely wasn’t a wallet buster. The keys were bought over many shopping trips but I would estimate I spent $15 on the all of the keys. The scrapbook paper came as part of a gift from ACMoore so that was free.
I spent more time arranging the keys in than anything else. The shadowbox came together quickly.
Supplies
Shadow Box or Frame without glass
Scrapbook paper, old map or music paper
Skeleton keys
Adhesive ( I used E-6000)
Directions
Start playing with the placement of your keys. I had way to many to fit in the shadowbox but was able to fit a good amount in the small space. Play with sizes and direction to get something that is pleasing to the eye. Then play with different backgrounds. Arranging your keys on the glass and sliding different papers underneath makes this step super simple.
I went with a 6X6 map with a vintage feel. It fit the area that I planned on hanging this and to me felt like the best fit. Wedding music or a favorite poem would be great choices too.
Take a picture of your arrangement then using a quick drying glue start placing your keys in their spot on the paper. Let the keys set for 1 hour then put your frame back together and hang.
I love old thing but I have to find ways to incorporate them into my cookie cutter home. This shadow box can be done with anything you’re collecting.
I’m always on the hunt for inexpensive decor items for my home. It’s only recently that I realized what a huge difference art and sculptures and glassware can do to make a difference on a boring shelf. For a long time I decorated with photos. While I still have tons of photos in my house I’ve starting incorporating more trends like this Painted Ceramic Owl #upcycle.
I spotted him in a thrift store for $3. I hated the color of him but loved the size the shape. He was small enough to fit anywhere and had a good look. 
I took him home and scrubbed him clean and set him on a shelf for a couple days till I decided what I wanted to do. I went with simple. I gave him 3-4 coats of bright white glossy spray paint.
It took most of the day to get all the coats on with a good amount of drying time in-between then another 2 days of him sitting on a shelf to completely cure and then he went on a small shelf along with some picture frames and a simple candle holder with candle.
Sometimes he takes up residence on a shelf in the kitchen. He’s adorable with his new coat of paint. 
If I had decided on moving him to our bedroom he would’ve gotten a coat of Tiffany Blue to match our end tables.
This is an easy and expensive way to add a little something you didn’t know that you needed. See more of my crafty projects and upcycle ventures.
I love love love jewelry. I especially love necklaces. My earrings are diamond studs Rob got me a few years ago that I never take out. My wedding band stays in place with the occasional fashion ring on the other hand. But necklaces get changed often dependent on my mood. I have some favorites like this Lisa Leonard Lots of Love pendant and necklace. I was shopping last week and rummaging through a clearance section in the craft aisle and found a pendant. I knew it was missing something but knew immediately I could rescue it and upcycle it into something adorable.
I had a broken silver necklace at home so I knew I could resurrect it into something pretty.
I started by fixing the necklace with a heavy gauge jump ring and then cutting the chain right in the center. 
Then I added the same heavy gauge jump rings to the pendant and attached it to the necklace. This is an instructional video on how to work with jump rings correctly. Using a heavy/thick ring will lessen the chance of it coming apart while wearing. There is always the soldering option but I’m not there yet.
The empty nest needed eggs. Blue is a my favorite color so I knew a couple Robin’s eggs would look like they belonged. Rolling out the clay into the right shape took the longest time; making sure to tap the ends to get it round but not flat. After getting 2 almost identical eggs I was ready to bake. It just takes 20 minutes in a 225° oven and they are hard like little pebbles.
I have a glaze that gives the clay a shine after baking but clear nail polish would work just fine.
Using a couple dabs of glue I placed the eggs in the nest and let it set for a couple hours. This glue dries completely clear.
Don’t throw away broken jewelry. Give it a new life with the purchase of a $2 pendant or create your own pendant with buttons, clay, earrings or beads.
Way back in the day when we were just a family of 4 I spent a Christmas finding the “perfect” stockings and stocking hangers to display on our mantel. I trudged out in the cold, snipped fresh holly branches and weave tiny twinkling lights through them and flaunted the beautiful design I had come up with. Fast forward to the next 6 years and you’ll see only 3 stockings each Christmas attached to anything that had a flat surface. This year when the note came through that I could pick out new stockings for the whole family from Personal Creations I almost leapt out of my seat. I knew we’d finally have what I’ve been wanting for a long time, these Ribbon Stockings personalized with our names.
Personal Creations carries a HUGE selection for just about everyone. The best part of their choices are most of them can be personalized to reflect a name, initial, special date or even more. With hundreds of gifts to choose from for any occasion Personal Creations can be your shopping destination throughout the year.
I knew our stocking were on their way so I knew I had to come up with a new idea to hang all five of them. this house does not have the fireplace mantel that we used to have so I knew I had to get creative. I scoured our makeshift workshop and found something that would work perfectly with some tweaking.
Using a simple unused wood shelf, existing paint & stain and some bought decorations and hardware I came up this Christmas Stocking Holder. The project was very easy. I painted and stained a plain wood shelf till I achieved a color I like and took an old wrench and a hammer to it to add some distressed details. The words and stickers were less than $10 from the craft store and Rob found these antique brass bolts. I thought there were a unique and better alternative to plain hooks.
The stockings look great hanging up. Even without a mantel they stand out with this special new home. I’m not forgetting about our new ornament. Each year I get new ornaments for the kids or family that mark a significant point in the year or commemorate another wonderful year together. The Family in Bed ornament was adorable and I knew it was a good fit for our family.
This ornament will stay on the family tree but individual ornaments that the kids received are put right on their own trees. When they are grown up and have families of their own they’ll have a great start for the holidays and great stories and memories to share.
Shop today for your own personalized ornaments and stockings to ensure availability and delivery in time for the holidays. Personal Creations is offering you 20% off all of your purchases through the end of December. Click here to start shopping and the 20% will be applied in your shopping cart.
Follow Personal Creations Blogger Board: Christmas Ideas on Pinterest
Festive table-scapes are fun ways to incorporate decoration into the home. Our dining table is the usual catch-all of school papers, sunglasses, the day’s craft leftovers and water glasses so creating something decorative pushes us to clean up our messes. An for some reason I’m obsessed with pumpkins this year!
These decorative pumpkins can be found in favorite shops for hefty price tags. I’ve seen a gorgeous velvet ruby red variety for upwards of $30. I’m not one to spend that kind of money for decorations. I’m the kind of person to make my own. Using scrap fabrics I created some pumpkins of my own to decorate for years to come.
Materials
Instructions
Create a pouch from your fabric. The length and width of your tube will change the shape of your pumpkin so experiment to see what you prefer.
Fully stuff the tube leaving a couple inches at the top. Loosely fold in the top to cover stuffing.
At the top of your pumpkin start wrapping your twine, raffia, thread or ribbon to create the indentations of your pumpkin. Finish by tying your thread tightly at the top. Arrange your threads to achieve the pumpkin look you want, fluff with your fingers and hands.
Add a touch of glue to your stem and shove through the top of your pumpkin into the batting and adjust till it sits how you like it. Arrange on table or shelf to decorate for the holidays.
I love decorating for the holidays, all of the holidays. Fall and Halloween themed decor is something I’m still building because I feel like I don’t have enough. Creating my own decor is always fun.
This spider web was created quickly and easily and CHEAPLY. From start to finish this took 1 hour including glue drying time.
Materials Needed
Instructions
Start with removing the glass and backing from your frame. If you prefer to paint it a different now is the time.
Create your base web by simply crisscrossing from corner to corner and side to side pulling the strings firm but not super tight. Tape them firmly to the back of the frame. I looped my threads around the intersection to give it some strength and bulk.
Once you are happy with your straight webbing the circular webbing can start.Gather a LARGE length of thread/yarn (5-6 ft), double it and start from the outside with a single loop knot. Start going around your web. I looped around every other thread. Continue going around until you run out of thread or you are happy with your web.
To finish the web I used a small piece of tape to secure it in place and glued the spider in place to cover that spot. Using my fingers I pulled the web open to make sure the loops were tight and the web was taut. I pulled the straight webs tighter if they needed to be, retaping and cutting as I needed.
To give it a little more visual interest I haphazardly added glitter glue in various spots on the web.
The kids loved it as soon as they walked in.
Herbs are some of the easiest things to grow in a garden, in a flower box or even on your window sill. For the most part they need little maintenance to thrive. This year was my hardiest crop of herbs ever. I did a tiny bit of research to find out what I had to do to keep my basil going for an entire season and it worked. The trick was to prune back as it flowered up top. Check YouTube, it’s a wealth of information for us common folk.
As the season was coming to an end I hated the thought of losing all the great herbs I’ve been growing. I did a little more research and figured I’d give drying my own herbs a try.
All you need is parchment paper, an oven and some containers to hold your dried herbs.
Trimming off your herbs is the first step. First morning is usually not the best time as they might still be damp. Give it a few hours then go ahead and snip. Cut more than you think you’ll need especially thing like thyme, rosemary, oregano and parsley. Basil is a little trickier. Once a stem has started to flower or the leaves have started to lose their flavor. Try to stay away from these.
I give all of my stems a firm shake and run through my fingers. Since my herbs are in flower pots I don’t have to worry about too much dirt or problem from the dogs. Shaking them vigorously gets rid of not only dirt but bugs and dead leaves. No need to be really gently.
For the Basil pluck each leaf leaving as much stem as possible. Everything else can stay on its stems. Place your herbs (one type at a time) on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Pile it on.
Preheat your oven as low as it will go. Let it come to temperature then place your herb filled cookie sheet in the oven and turn off the heat. Set a timer for 30-40 minutes.
Check your herbs. If they are still pliable give them another round in the oven.
Let them cool then remove the leaves. Run your fingertips along the stems and gently scrape them off. Sometimes you are left with tiny “twigs”, please remove as much of them as possible.
Once your leaves are sorted tranfer them to a tight lidded container for use. Hold onto the sheet of parchment for the next batch and keep reusing. Try stacking multiple cookie sheets in the oven to dry more at one time.
I’ve done several batches of Thyme, Basil and Oregano. These are the herbs I use the most. Don’t let this stop you from drying whatever it is you are growing.
Shae is half girly girl half a miniature Shaun. She spends so much time with her big brother that the line of dainty and sweet is often crossed into to that of a tomboy. But when she wants to hold onto her girliness she slathers on the pink and flowers and sashays through daily life. Her headband collection has been exploding lately. Mainly because I keep making them but I only make them because she wears them. Since headbands don’t fit perfectly on Shae’s DIY hairbow holder I figured it was best to make a headband holder equally as cute.
Supplies Needed
empty Oatmeal canister (small or large)
inner fabric ( i used fleece)
outer prettier fabric
1/2″ wide grosgrain ribbon (contrasting color works best)
Large artificial flowers and leaves, disassembled
hot glue
Start your project by measuring out a base fabric to plump up your oatmeal canister to give the headbands something to grip. I had black fleece on hand, I used that. I measured and cut so the fleece to fit just perfectly around and top to bottom. Glue the fabric to the container pulling firm but not over stretching it. Let the glue dry for a few minutes.
Next measure and cut your outer fabric so that it covers exactly the top and bottom and once all the way around the canister. Apply hot glue in small sections on your starting seam and ending seam. Pull fabric so it’s smooth and free of wrinkles and creases.
Use your grosgrain cover the outer edge of the canister lid. Turn the canister upside down so the ribboned lid is on the bottom.
Using glue proceed to cover the now top of your holder with leaves and flowers.
Allow the entire project to cool and set for a few minutes then go ahead and add headbands.
For some reason we go through a lot of coasters. We either by crappy ones that get moldy or don’t keep the water off the table or they break or we lose them. Over the last 10 years we gone through dozens easily. I made a couple trips to home stores looking for new coasters and couldn’t figure out why they cost over $10 for just a set of 4 ugly ones. NO way was I spending that much just to hold my cup. I knew there was a way to make my own. Off to Pinterest I went. I went over a few different tutorials and come up with these.
Here is how I made them.
4-6 plain white (or cream) glossy tiles found in Home Depot, $.19 each
2 sheets of patterned scrapbook paper, $.40 each
Felt pads or sheets of felt, already owned
Mod Podge, already owned it
Foam brush, already owned it.
Polyurethane spray, $7 from craft store
Cover your work area with a drop cloth or newspaper. Measure and cut your sheets of paper to fit just inside your tiles. I like mine slightly smaller than the tile to give it a border.
Smear light coating of ModPodge on tile and place a cut piece of paper and quickly center it. Gently smooth it out so there are no air bubbles, wrinkles, creases and so that all edges are sticking. Set aside for a few minutes to dry. Repeat this step on your other tiles.
Once the paper is set into place apply another coating of ModPodge ON the paper. I like to cover it completely in one direction then another coating in the other direction. Set aside and continue working on other tiles. After 20-30 minutes apply another coating, this time just paint in one direction and take measures to apply it more smoothly, avoiding lines. Continue with the rest of the tiles.
Apply about 4-6 coats of ModPodge, let completely dry overnight and then finish with a glossy Polyurethane spray. Let dry overnight again, apply felt sheets or pads to the bottom and your coasters are ready to use!
I only made 4 because I doubted they would actually turn out. I was wrong and now I need to make 2 more for me and 6 for my best friend to match her bright new living room.
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