"It's a wall chandelier"

It had been a while since I did anything creative around the house.  I felt that after becoming addicted to Pinterest, most of the stuff I did around the house were knock-off’s of someone else’s creative idea.  It wasn't always that bad, but I felt like I was losing being original when it came to creative décor around the house. 

So I shut off Pinterest for a few days (I know, the horror, right? I’m so addicted to that website!) and decided to look around our house and decide what I felt we needed. 

I didn’t have to go far to look for a lonely wall!  Right in our living room on the right side of one of our windows as a big ol’ empty space!  It was screaming for something to make it look alive.  Now that I had the space, I just needed an idea.  That’s where Dollar Tree comes in.

Last month, they opened a new Dollar Tree right near our house.  The one that I usually shopped at was about half hour away and this one is only about 20 minutes away.  Plus, I don’t have to take an annoying jug handle to get to it.  Here in Jersey if you wanna go somewhere that’s on the opposite side of the road, you need to take a jug handle.  Sometimes I love them, like when I’m lost and need to turn around (which happens often).  But other times I feel like it’s a waste of gas since you need to pass your destination, turn around in the jug handle, then re-trace your steps the other way to get to  your destination.  I think this is why our gas prices are lower since we have to do a little bit more driving in jug handles to get to our destination.

Anyhooo, back to the new Dollar Tree, I checked it out a few days after it opened and found these lovelies.

They are packaged in groups of three and are called “snowflakes.”  I bought four packages of them because I thought they would be cool to make some kind of light fixture out of for the spare room...for whenever we get to turn it into a nursery…if it’s a nursery for a girl.  I figured if the nursery is for a boy then I’ll find another use for these “snowflakes.” 

While I was still allowing myself to troll Pinterest, I found this inspiration room. 

Via here

This picture made me think of doing something like this in our dining room. It doesn't have any regular windows and I figured it would make the room look a little bigger with these mirrors.  I wasn't totally sold on the idea yet, so I figured I’d let it bounce around in my brain for a bit.

While that picture was bouncing around my brain during my Pinterest dry spell, so was the reminder that I had those “snowflakes.”  I got to thinking that if I put the snowflakes in front of a mirror, they might look pretty cool.  Aaaaannnnndddd, it was an idea that came from my own brain! Not a knock off from! Which means, that I can allow myself to drool over Pinterest again!  That makes me Pinterest happy.

So I drove to my closer-to-me-by-10-minutes-Dollar-Tree to get more snowflakes and look for some mirrors.  I’m glad I went when I did since there were only two packages of those snowflakes left. They had others, but they were blue and I wasn’t digging the blue color.  I then went in search of a mirror.  I was hoping to find a big mirror like 8X10, you know, one that you would put candles on or something, but they had nothing like that.  I walked around the frame section and found these bad boys.

Since they were an odd size, I picked up three being sure how big I wanted this chandelier reflection wall piece. When I got home, I cut down some wood from those old shelves I have from this project (bathroom shelf).  In my head I figured two of the mirror stacked on top of each other was about the size I wanted.  I added a few inches to my wood so I could add something to the top to hang the snowflakes, which I’m now calling chandelier pieces, from.

I had some of this paint left over from other projects.  I’m in love with this paint. I love the color and the way it covers. It doesn’t hurt that it’s made by Martha Stewart! I adore her…well, except for the whole insider trading thing.  Just stick to crafting, Martha!!

I added the paint to the top and bottom of my wood and the sides then glued the mirrors onto it. 

 Since I had to take the mirrors out of the frames they were in, I figured I could cut them down so I’d have the longer pieces to attach to the top of my wood. 

I sawed them down so I had four long pieces from the mirror frames that I could work with.

 I then glued the four pieces together and painted them silver as well.

After the frame  pieces dried I added these eye hooks to the underside in order to have something to attach my chandelier pieces to.

After the eye hooks were attached I glued the frame pieces that were attached to each other to the piece of wood.  Then I just played around with the length of string for my chandelier pieces and tied them on.

Here’s the finished piece.  Mr. Pal said it looks like a chandelier for a wall.  I think that description fits, so I’ll stick with that.

It’s really hard to get a picture of something with a mirror without getting yourself in the shot.  I’m very thankful for 10-second timer! I was able to set it and duck down so my reflection wasn’t in the mirror.

It finally adds a little something to the blank wall.  Plus, it was all my idea, which makes me very happy.

I do feel that it’s a bit small for the wall and was thinking of adding something around it, but for now I just want to live with it and see if it grows on me.

I’m just happy to get back into doing creative stuff without the assistance of Pinterest.  Now if you excuse me, I need to see what’s new on Pinterest!! haha

Just a little bathroom addition

When I finished painting the full bathroom, it was pretty much done.  I even had a spot for my perfume bottles. The only thing that was missing was a picture above the perfume bottles.

We had a picture there, but it no longer matched the new bathroom decor.  That meant it was time for me to make a picture! Yay time to be creative!

I knew I wanted a fleur de lis in the picture since the bathroom has a French theme, I wanted to stay with that theme. Plus it would match the great knobs we bought for the cabinet.

I sat and thought about what I wanted and finally was struck with inspiration!  I'll have the fleur de lis in a frame with a French poem.

Lucky for me (and Mr. Pal) this didn't require any drawing on my behalf.  An artist I am not, as you can see from this lovely picture I drew a while back.

Now I need to admit that in high school I took French.  I took it for three years actually.  And, I was fluent in it.  Then I stopped taking the class since I had passed the required three years by the State and took an extra study hall or something.  Anyway, long story short, I'm no longer fluent in French.  I do remember how to say, "hello", "how are you", "good bye" and "thank you."  I am ashamed that I forgot so much of a langue that I find so beautiful.  A few years ago I even rented some learn to speak french CD's from the library hoping to be fluent again.  It didn't work out too well.  The people on the CD spoke too fast for me! 

So, since I no longer spoke French, I needed to turn to the internet for a poem in French. I found one.  I wish I knew what it says.  

I typed up the poem on pretty scrapbooking paper, cut out a fleur de lis out of brown paper and glued it down onto maroon paper, which I then glued on top of my French poem.  I popped it in a frame, and here it is!

I think it looks really nice above my perfume bottles. Yes, I'm a little obsessed with my perfume bottles. I've always wanted them and now I own a few. I'm so happy!

I think the picture fits in nicely with the French themed bathroom. :)

Just hear those sleigh bells ring-aling!!!!

It's that time! Have you been good? Or did you decide to save Santa a trip and be naughty this year?

I decided to decorate slowly this year and really think of the decor for Christmas instead of throwing all the decorations up hastily in an effort to get it done and still have some time to myself.  So, to me I'm enjoying the decor just a little bit more!  Also, this year Mr. Pal and I agreed that we wanted a theme.  I love when we're on the same page! Usually we just use all the decorations we have, which we've accumulated on our own and also as hand-me-downs.

Although we agreed that we should do a theme, we never discussed what it should be. So, as I opened all our decorations, I started to pull out the "nice" stuff, instead of the kitchy, cutesy stuff.  I started just putting stuff up on the mantle and the entry table to see how I liked it.

Pretty soon, I had my theme: red & white! I was so excited that I pulled whatever I could that had red or white on it in our Christmas boxes. That wasn't that hard, since red & white are Christmas colors. I had such a great time decorating and really thinking about how I wanted the mantle to look and making the house festive, but sophisticated, but still comfortable to live in. So, without further ado, I bring you "Christmas with the Pal's!"  Here's my mantle with the stockings hung with care!

Oh, look how decided to stay for Christmas! That's right, our Thankful tree who made it's first appearance at Thanksgiving!  I love when I can carry a decor item through to the next season.  For Christmas, I just added some snowflakes to it's branches.  I got the snowflakes for a buck at the dollar store.  I love the dollar store!

Here's my lantern that was birthday present from Mr. Pal that he got at Pottery Barn. :)  I just added some red & silver Christmas balls to continue with my theme.  I'll let you in on a secret.  I didn't have enough of the red & silver balls to make it look full, so I just lined the bottom of the lantern with wine corks to add some height.  Just don't tell anyone! haha Actually from this angle, you can just make out the wine corks on the bottom!

Here's the entryway table.  I usually try to keep this not too cluttered. Mr. Pal & I have a habit of tossing our keys on top of the table sometimes, along with our phones and receipts, and all that good stuff.

Do you see another Thanksgiving leftover?  That's right, The red charger holding the pine cones.  The chargers fit perfectly with my red & white theme this year.  And, I got to use another one on the dining room table.  I also have my "Cookies for Santa" plate out.  Ok, so one cutesy thing got to stay this year. But I gotta bribe Santa somehow and I heard cookies do the trick!

Here are some other around the house Christmas decor pictures. Just simple and festive.  I know there's a few more colors than just red & white, but somethings are too nice to not display!

I think what really tickled me pink (get it, red & white make pink! haha) was that after decorating, I had to go food shopping and saw all the magazines are showing that red & white is big this year for the holidays! Finally a decor trend I'm following!  I'm off to make my list for Santa! :)

Thanksgiving fun

So this was the first year Mr. Pal and I got to host Thanksgiving! We were so excited to host and couldn't wait for the big day.  First off, let me just explain that we live in a townhouse, it's not small, but it's not large either, so having to fit 14 people at dinner was a bit daunting.  But, on the bright side, 4 of those people were under the age of 14, so they don't really take up that much room! haha

The tables, we had three of them, fit perfectly in our dining room.  There was room for everyone and plenty of space for all the food! I should mention that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday! I love that you get together with family and eat all day long, and the main dish is turkey! I love turkey!

So, back to the tables.  While shopping for Thanksgiving goodies one weekend, Mr. Pal and I came across these red chargers that you can put plates on.  We figured it would add a nice touch since our china is round and it may look fancy.  Well, I am happy to say that they were a hit! Mr. Pal's step-mom complimented them that they made the table to elegant! Between you and me, all that elegance was only $1.50 each! Nice, right?!

As I said, we had 14 people for dinner.  That many people all clamoring at once for the turkey can cause a bit of chaos.  So, I decided to make my a bridezilla and have assigned seating.  Instead of being "that person" who stands at the head of the table and dictates while pointing where you should sit, I decided to make little place cards.  I made an assortment of acorns, pumpkins, turkeys, pilgrim hats and pilgrims all cut out from card stock.  Here's how it looked!  I rolled the silverware into the napkin, tied it with some raffia I had lying around (doesn't everyone have this in their house?) and then added the place card.  Done!  Everyone knew where to sit and I didn't have to yell out, "No, no get up! You sit there!"

And yes, there was a menu! Ok, so maybe I went a bit overboard, but I loved the menu idea!

Of course, it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without a Thankful Tree.  Yep, we had one of those.  I cut out different leaf shapes from cardstock in fall colors, then added string for everyone to hang on our "tree."

I need to say "tree" very loosely.  Yeah, it's just a branch.  Go ahead ask me how long it too me to find it.  Simple, I sent Mr. Pal out into the woods behind our house the morning of Thanksgiving.  You know its love when your husband has no problem searching for tree branches while you're both trying to cook a turkey for 14 people!

I put the Thankful tree on the entry table and placed a pen and explanation so everyone can fill out a leaf.  It went well, the kids all filled out a leaf and some of the adults did too!  Mr. Pal and I had fun at the end of the night reading all the leaves.

All in all, Thanksgiving was a success.  How was the turkey you ask? Well, hold onto your buttons, it was soooooooo good!  Mr. Pal and I brined it beforehand and it really did make a huge difference. I can no longer offer you a piece because it's gone, but here's what it looked like fresh out of the oven.  YUM!  I drool a little when I look at this picture.

  Well,  now it's time to get ready for Christmas!  And no, this time we're not hosting.  We need a break!
:)