If You Can't Find It...BUILD It!

I have never, as an adult with my own home, had a coffee table. I know, sounds crazy and I didn't even realize I had gone all these years without one until Christmas Eve while admiring my parents new, beautiful Blue Stone topped coffee table. We've always had ottomans, large and small which serve both functions. And this just seemed more convenient, and safe with small children.

Until the coffee table envy introduced itself on Christmas Eve. I began an exhaustive search in back issues of House Beautiful (finding the end-all-be-all in this month's issue in the home of Pottery Barn/Crate and Barrel designer/product developer) and on Pinterest. Without spending upwards of $500 I could not find anything I fell in love with. 

Enter my DIY inner diva. She said "if you can't find it, make it" so that's what I did. I found a link on Pinterest to a blog with a plumbing pipe and cedar plank table which seemed to be calling my name.  I changed it quite a bit (not only the materials but the size and finish as well) to make it more my style. 

It was rediculously easy and quick and SO affordable.  Here is how we did it:

I found vintage ceramic casters at a local antique store and my husband figured out how to attach them with wine corks inside the lower leg pipes.

We used 12 1/2" black plumbing pipe for the horizontal and vertical pipes, attached them with 6 1/2" T connectors.

My dad cut the plumbing flanges to size for us (we couldn't find black but figured silver was fine as they are on the underside and not visible) and we used these to attach the wood top to the frame.

We used a 36" black plumbing pipe as the center stabilizer. Here is the finished frame with casters:

We used a 48x17x1" pine plank as the top and had it cut to 41" at Home Depot. I stained it with True Gray Minwax wood stain but it was a bit too gray and not warm enough so I added mahogany wood glaze and worked it in until I got the color right. Finally, I sealed it with oil based clear polyeurathane.

I love the finished color and that we can still see the wood grain and lots of knots in the pine.

Thanks for checking it out!

From Vintage to Versatile

A few years ago I started looking for a chalkboard for our kitchen.  I had a picture in my mind of what I wanted it to look like.  I also had a price point in mind.  A few years after that...I was still looking.  Even at ANY price point I couldn't find anything that measured up to the image I had made up in my mind of what I wanted it to look like.  So my hunt changed.  I started looking for a way to make my own chalkboard - and still met a dead end.  Until one day - in Main Street Antiques in Mesa, my mom and I found a vintage frame that was so crusty with all its layers and layers of paint, chips and beautiful details that I knew I'd hit the jackpot.  Amazingly, it was still sturdy, quite a find for a frame marked as circa 1950.  Not only did I love the way it looked, it was the perfect size for the ONLY empty wall in the kitchen.  I snatched it up and set about deciding how to turn it into a chalkboard.  I settled on plywood, cut to size, and spray painted with chalkboard paint.  Strolling down the plywood isle in Home Depot the heavens opened up and I stumbled across pre-made chalkboard!  Who knew?!  Well, you maybe, but I had no idea that it existed.  So I dragged my big, old frame in and they cut a slab of chalkboard to fit it perfectly.  My dad helped out by using finishing nails and wood glue to secure it all together.  24 hours later I had the chalkboard of my dreams for $55.  Quite a steal compared to the several hundred being asked for a pre-made chalkboard of this size from most catalogs and stores.

It was finished just in time for Christmas last year and I used it to make an Advent Calendar for the kids (mentioned in my advent calendar post previously).  I saved toilet paper and paper towel rolls and covered them in faux bois wrapping paper.  I used those, along with white lunch bags, to wrap 24 days of little treats, then hung them with twine and mini clothes pins.

Over the past year, I've used the chalkboard for all kinds of things - fun and inspiring quotes, seasonal messages, passages of scripture and Happy Birthday signs.  I've decorated it with garland, the kids names spelled out in little ceramic discs and glitter letters.  Its turned out to be one of the most complimented items in the house and quite a bit of fun for my family...very versatile indeed! 

Who Needs an Excuse to Kiss?

Browsing Pinterest, looking for new Christmas decor ideas, I came across a "Kissing Ball".  I was intrigued by this Christmas symbol I had never heard of and did some research.

The history of the Kissing Ball, according to ask.com, dates back to the middle ages in England and is the precursor to mistletoe.  It was originally known as a Holy Bough made of evergreen branches and containing a picture of Jesus, the Holy Family or a passage from the Bible and was hung in an entryway as a sign of goodwill.  By the Victorian era it began to be decorated with an apple or potato along with herbs and foliage.  Mistletoe was often added as a symbol of good fortune and fertility.  It was then renamed the Kissing Ball as kissing underneath it was the custom.  Over time the Kissing Ball was seen as a romantic symbol and mistletoe was the most commonly chosen herb.  Even more recently the rest of the "ball" was dropped and we were left with just the mistletoe under which those caught standing are expected to kiss.

The history struck a chord with me because I grew up in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Northern California which are known for their abundance of Oak Trees.  Nothing loves Oak Trees more than Mistletoe - though the feeling isn't mutual as Mistletoe is a parasite that chokes and eventually kills the tree it takes over.  Every Christmas as a child I climbed one of the dozens of Oak Trees on our acreage and plucked a large bunch of Mistletoe that I tied up with a big ribbon and hung in our dinning room entryway.  I knew nothing of the history other than it was a big part of the old tavern scene in the Micky Mouse version of A Christmas Carol when a shy, young Ebeneezer Scrooge is confronted by his love who wants a kiss.  At eleven that seemed like as good a reason as any to hang some myself. 

Since there isn't an oak tree in any part of Arizona I've seen, and I am not likely to run across any Mistletoe, I decided to give this historical symbol a whirl and see if I could make one to match my Christmas decor for this year.

I am going with a sort of glam vintage look mixed with a bit of rustic charm this year and decided that silver and white would work out perfectly.  Not to mention I have an affinity for Mercury glass and decorate with it year round, not just at the holidays.  I found some beautifully affordable large Mercury glass balls at Tuesday Morning along with white wired satin ribbon.

I started by attaching both large glass balls together at staggered heights with the ribbon they came on.

Then I cut two lengths of the satin wired ribbon and strung it through the hanging loops on top of each large ball and left them to drape down the sides.

The smaller balls are shatterproof and came in a set of four, also from Tuesday Morning.  I tied these on at staggered heights, cascading down the sides of the two large balls.  As you can see, I started with twine, thinking I would incorporate the rustic look but it looked terrible by the time I was done - there was too much contrast between the twine and the white ribbon and silver balls.  I cut it all off and used the sheer white ribbon that had been tied around the box of four balls.  Re-purposing at its finest!

Once I had finished the balls, I used a large piece of burlap and woven cotton ribbon from Hobby Lobby to make a huge bow.  I attached this at the top to conceal the conjunction of all the ribbons and knots.

Here is the finished product - pucker up!

It looks a little different hanging in an entryway rather than against the wall because the smaller balls cascade around the back as well.  It was a very inexpensive - under $15 total - and quick project.  It only took me about 10 min. not counting all the time to stop and take photos.  I think it would also make a great hostess gift if you are visiting friends and family this Christmas.

Light a Candle For Me

I have, in recent years, become something of a candle connoisseur.  There are several factors that play into the right candle for me.  First and foremost, the smell is really the essence of a good candle.  It's important that the smell, both when lit and when the wax has hardened, smells natural.  There's nothing worse than synthetic fragrance in a candle.  Even more important is that the fragrance is strong enough to perfume a large area.  I love having a candle lit downstairs and walking upstairs and getting hit with the smell from that far away.

Next, it has to burn well.  The wax should liquefy evenly and as it burns down to the bottom, should be completely used up by the wick.  Speaking of the wick, it should also burn properly and not blossom which, more often than not, leads to miniature explosions that splatter burnt wax all over.  Cotton wicks with no additives seem to be the best.

Finally, but definitely no less important, is the container.  The best candles come in beautiful vessels that, when the wax burns out completely can be used for other things like office supplies on your desk - or as I am about to share - made into new, homemade candles.

Okay, I realize I sound like a total candle snob but as is true with so many things in life, you get what you pay for.  A whole bunch of cheap candles that die before half the wax is gone or even worse, don't smell at all, are not worth even the small amount of money they cost.  A more expensive candle that looks good and does its job well is worth every penny.  Best yet, is one that does its job well that you can make and enjoy, or give as a gift.

When I was in middle school, one of my friends and I used to make candles.  These were not the modern fragranced candles in a jar, but the hippie era candles made in wet sand forms and of course they were not perfumed.  They came out looking like a sandy, mottled blob that got hidden under the kitchen sink because they were so ugly.  I figured if I could do that way back then, I could surely make some container candles that smell good and look better.  I found a link on Pinterest that led me to a materials supplier but quickly realized that my old friend Amazon.com had a better selection, at better prices and, of course, their signature free shipping.  You can't beat that!

I purchased 6 inch cotton wicks, soy wax flakes and 100% pure essential oil.  I found several oils at Sprouts - lemon, tangelo, vanilla, cinnamon and clove.  But I really wanted a pine or balsam oil which was tough to track down so I eventually just ordered that from Amazon as well.

I started with a hodgepodge of containers.  Some old jars with twine, some painted wide-mouth Ball mason jars (which I painted the interior of with homemade chalk paint) and some re-purposed candle containers I had washed and saved.  My first attempt worked out fabulously so I decided homemade candles would make great Christmas gifts for colleagues, the kids' teachers and my mom's friends at her horse ranch.  Of course, in the case of gifts, I wanted much nicer containers and we lucked out finding super cute little porcelain spice jars on clearance at Anthropologie for $4 each.  We bought them all and wished they'd had more.

I started with my trusty glue gun and glued the metal end of the wick to the bottom of the container.  

Next, I melted the soy flakes in the microwave until the melted wax reached the temperature recommended on the package.  I then added the essential oils.  This is the tricky part.  Each oil's strength varies and you will need to experiment with how much oil to add to the melted wax to get the strength of fragrance you want.

You can also experiment with mixing oils to make custom fragrances.  Since these are Christmas gifts I made several seasonal smells.  My favorite is the pine but I also really like cinnamon-vanilla and clove-vanilla.

Last, I poured the wax into the containers and propped the wick in the very center with a pencil.  This keeps it from leaning to the side as the wax hardens which will cause the candle to burn unevenly.

I found tubes of mini Christmas balls in the Target $ section which made great packaging for the completed candles.  

I think this will make a really nice, smelly Christmas for our friends.

For the Man Who Has Everything... a little birthday humor

November is a busy month for us.  Our wedding anniversary and our son's birthday sandwich my husband's birthday and we wrap it all up with Thanksgiving in the same week.  As if that doesn't make birthday parties and gift giving interesting enough - we have Christmas less than a month later.  Now, depending on how you look at it, having a husband that doesn't want to acknowledge his birthday can make this situation either easier or much, much more difficult.  My husband is a fun guy but not one who wants to have a party, get gifts and who especially hates surprises.  We are the quintessential "opposites attract" which means that year after year I try my darnedest to get him to enjoy his birthday and to find a surprise that will change his opinion of them.

This year I *think* I came the closest yet with an Oklahoma State University themed family party (no pesky friends bringing birthday joy for us).  Not living in, or anywhere near, Oklahoma, you can imagine it can be tough to find OSU party supplies.  Enter the genius of Amazon.com and I was set with everything black and orange I could hope for.

Part two was to tackle the gift giving and make that a hit too. I found a Pistol Pete (OSU's mascot) golf head cover that is so ugly in a perfectly mascot-faced way that I couldn't pass it up. I paired it with OSU ball markers and it was a success.

Now that last thing - make him laugh.  I found a great idea on Pinterest that I knew would, at the very least, get a shy smile out of my love - which is a big gesture for my stoic man.  I took the idea I found and put my own twist on it.  "Papi's Stache" - here it is:

I started with a wide mouth Ball jar and hot glued the lid to the ring.  Next, I painted the lid with homemade chalk paint.  

I hot glued on a mustache and used a white chalk pen to write "Papi's Stache".  Finally, I filled it with his favorite candy - Lindor white chocolate truffles.  

Despite it's name, the kids still attacked the "stache" and Papi let them - because that's just the great kind of guy he is.