Pine Cone Garland

This project doesn't really need any explaining or description as to how I made it, because it's pretty much a no brainer. There's nothing special or exciting about it, but I have always been attracted to simplicity. 

Yesterday was such a nice day. DJ and I took the dogs, the truck, and a yummy fall drink up into the mountains where it was wet and cold and we enjoyed the bumpy, colorful drive. We made a few stops to pick up pinecones and other outdoor goodies. We also made a stop to take a selfie. You gotta do that when out on an adventure.

My husband is so cute.

Back to my project. 

Here's my large pile of pine cones. I didn't wanna be short.

All I did was wrap some silver florist wire around each cone and twist a couple of times. I spaced them out about 3-4 inches.

This amount of pine cones made enough garland for me to go the entire length of my living room, and a few more strands to go over a couple different doorways in my dining room. 

I know it's still way too early, and Halloween still hasn't even come yet. But I am SO ready to tackle my list of Christmas decorations/projects I have =D

Wood Pumpkins

After fall is over, I swear I'm going to have to rent a storage unit to store all the decorations that I made this year! This one was, of course, Pinterest inspired. Although I have seen them all over. The real reason I chose to do this project, other than it's obviously adorable, is because it involved materials that I didn't have to go buy. I had everything at my house, which I bet a lot of you do too! 

The first step was to go pick out my pumpkins! I wandered out to the pile of wood in our shed, and found four lovely, different sizes of 2x4's / 1 2x6. Then my dear husband trimmed them to the right size (I am not allowed to use the saws because I am far too clumsy, and have a tendency to cut myself with non-moving, non-rotating at a million miles an hour, sharp things. You can understand why this is the way it is). I grabbed a roll of wire and some raffia, along with my box of paints and the "pumpkin stems" aka sunflower stalks that I had left over from my last project.

I actually found an acrylic paint called "pumpkin orange" but I didn't want it to bright so I muddied it up with some purple. Waited for it to dry, which was like 2 minutes and hot glued on the cute little stems!

I wrapped the wire around a couple of them, and curled it at the ends using pliers to add a cute factor/safety factor. (I told you I cut myself a lot) Pointy wire is no excuse!

Tada. It seriously took me like 15 minutes total and I love them!

Burlap Pumpkin

I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm obsessed with fall decorations, and love burlap. I originally saw this type of thing at the flower shop I work at. The shop has tons of awesome home decor, and one of the things we got in this fall, was pumpkins and gourds made of burlap. I have also seen burlap pumpkins all over pinterest and at craft fairs... I love the idea of creating things myself, so I wanted to try making my own. Honestly, it was one of the harder DIY crafts I have done, maybe mostly because I didn't go about it the easiest way? I don't know… Anywho, here is my tutorial!

Here are some of the materials I used to make the pumpkin. I have like a million square feet of burlap left over from our aisle runner at our wedding, and it has come in handy, many-a-time!

The decorations i got from … wait for it … the dollar store! I am a tad bit ashamed to admit this… I was surprised at the quality of the silks at the dollar store. Not GOOD by any means, but worth a dollar! At least to me. I also got this really pretty cranberry colored satin ribbon, double sided! I was so impressed with this ribbon, I was thinking of going back and getting a handful of ribbon rolls!

The first step of the project was to make the innards of the pumpkin. I used garbage sacks and rice. I was originally going to use stuffing, but I forgot it at the store, and really didn't want to go back, so I searched my house for something I could use. The garbage sacks worked great, and they were free! I put a small ziplock baggie with about a cup of rice in it, at the bottom of the ball of sacks. 

The next step was to gather the burlap around the sacks, in a pumpkin-esque way… This was the most annoying part. It took me a while to figure out the best way to make it look like a pumpkin. It's just something you're gonna have to play with. After gathering it all around, I tucked the top inside of itself so that there wasn't anything sticking out of the top. Then I took some twine and wrapped it around, vertically, making six different sections. Depending on the size of the pumpkin, you could do more. I probably could've done eight, but six was fine with me. This was meant to emphasize the shape of the pumpkin. At this point, it was still not pretty… It took some playing with, and pulling and tucking of the burlap to get it to look just right.

For the stem, I used a piece of sunflower stem. I was originally going to use a piece of a branch, and I have also seen people use real pumpkin stems, but I didn't have any. As my husband was on his journey outside to find me a branch, he found the sunflower stem and thought that would look better. What a brilliant man. (This is why I keep him around).

Then I added a couple pieces of the fall silks, and a pretty bow, using a magical hot glue gun, and bam! It's beautiful. If you are feeling somewhat discouraged while struggling with your burlap blob, don't worry, it magically becomes a pumpkin when you put the stem on, trust me.

Isn't it adorable?

I have been having a super fun time making all these fall crafts and can't wait to make them a consistent thing that I bring out every year to decorate my house with in the fall. (Can you imagine how much decor crap I'm gonna have in five years?)

Hope you enjoyed! =]

Cork Board Redo

I got tired of looking at my ugly, 8 year old cork board hanging in my kitchen, and decided that it needed a makeover! Almost everything in this project, I already had lying around at my house. It was ridiculously easy, too. If you know how to use scissors, a staple gun, and a hot glue gun, you're good to go.

 I searched for some pretty fabric in my box of scraps and found this lovely brown and white pattern. I laid it on the table with the cork board upside down, on top of it, and stapled the fabric into the back of the wood frame. 

Then I searched for some kind of string, or ribbon to pin to the board, for the purpose of holding things on the board, rather than using push pins. I ended up using twine. I didn't measure where the strings should go, I just kind of eyeballed it (which is my measuring method of choice), making a diamond pattern. I pinned them down on the corners using brown tacks that I got from the hardware store down the street. I used the rest of the tacks to make a border around the cork board. 

The tacks I got were not long enough pierce all the way through two strings, the fabric, and into the cork board, so where they cross, I stapled them to the board and then hot glued the tack on to the top.

Look how cute it looks with stuff tucked into the strings! I was surprised at how well the strings held the cards up there! Goodbye ugly push pins!

One of my favorite things to do to my home is to make practical things look pretty. There is no reason why you can't make something as boring, and functional as a cork board look like a decoration in your home! 

Hope you enjoyed!

Better-Than-Chocolate-Chip Cookies

So I found this recipe online a year or so ago, and I cannot, for the life of me, remember where I found it! I was searching for some recipes that were a little different than the plain ol' chocolate chip (don't get me wrong, chocolate chip cookies are awesome). Anywho, I found this beauty of a recipe and have been in love with it ever since! It's honestly so good, that I would choose to make this over any other cookie recipe, any day. Something about the butteriness and blended oats, makes them seem so home-y and comfortable.I made a batch tonight and had my husband try them. Since he is one who is not a huge fan of nuts in sweets, I was worried they may not be his favorite, but after he tried them, we both made the decision that they are, in fact, better than classic Chocolate Chip Cookies. So that's what I decided to name them.

Don't they look delectable?!

Preheat the oven to 375° F

Cream the butter & both sugars

Add eggs & vanilla

Mix with all other ingredients

Bake on greased pan for 10-12 minutes

Boom, Done.

I thought I would add a side note saying that my nut of choice for these cookies is pecans. You can use any you like, though. I also prefer the Safeway brand of semi-sweet chocolate chips too. 

Who'da Thunk? 

Here is the recipe:

-2 c flour

-1 tsp baking soda

-1 tsp baking powder

-2 ½ c oatmeal (blended in blender)

-12 oz chocolate chips

-1 c chopped nuts

-½ tsp salt

-1 tsp vanilla

-2 eggs

-1 c butter

-1 c sugar

-1 c brown sugar

Please make them. You'll thank me, later.

(Update: After I posted this blog, a lady at my work told me that she recognized the recipe and she was pretty sure that it is the Mrs. Fields not-so-secret cookie recipe. I looked it up, and sure enough it is the same [with a couple minor differences] Never the less, they are the most tasty cookies ever)

x