Recycle/Repurpose

Unfortunately, my Great Aunt passed away early last year.  I was really hoping she'd get to meet Katherine, but their paths were not destined to cross.  In Auntie's honor,  Katherine does share the same middle name, Victoria.

Auntie taught our family a lot of things; how to make Polish kielbasa, our love of a bargain, and our compulsive saving (of everything, money, sheets, toilet rolls, newspaper bags).  In her mind, everything could be reused, repurposed or recycled.  We played 'the game' on birthdays and most of the prizes would be wrapped and disguised in empty toilet paper rolls, newspaper bags, christmas wrapping paper and brown paper bags.  She was 92 when she passed and over those 92 years she collected a lot of stuff.  When we were going through her house to get it ready to sell, we found some pretty cool (and funny and really awkward) things. One of which was this cool wooden box.

I have transformed this wooden box, which our best guess was a old tool box, into a flower vase.  With some sand paper and wide mouth mason jars, it took no time to spruce it up.  It looks great behind my kitchen sink, filled with flowers or fresh herbs!  I may spray it with a coat of waterproofing spray paint, since it's sitting behind my sink.

I am looking forward to repurposing some other things I found and having small reminders of Auntie spread throughout my house. 

UPDATE: I repurposed the box again but this time I am in love with it! I painted it blue and glued a silver painted "Dream" wooden sign (from Michael's) on it.  Added some Green and White Hydrangeas (one of my favs) and moved it to my foyer! I love seeing it when I walk down the stairs now.  While I was painting it outside, the sun was heating up the wood and I could smell Auntie's house again and I knew she'd be proud that I repurposed this into something beautiful.

Crafting Projects: Picture Collage

I've been looking for a nice collage frame for our family room for awhile, but I am so picky! Then one day I came up with this cute idea instead (partially inspired by a similar photo grouping I have in our living room)!  Simple to make, just a few wooden letters from Michaels/AC Moore, paint and assorted frames.  I hung the letters with double sided command tape.

The great thing is it can expand with your family!  I look forward to adding pictures to it!

Nesting? Nursery Door Decor

With Baby Katherine due any day now, my mother-in-law thinks this is a sign that I am starting to nest.  In reality, I annoyed my husband so much in the last week (being off work) that he told me I needed to find a hobby.  So, I decided to try my hand at crafting a project I've had a vision of in my head for awhile: A hanging 'K' for the door of the nursery.  Our nursery theme is Jungle with a gender neutral green and yellow color scheme, you can customize this project to your theme and colors!

Items You Need (Purchased Mine at Michaels):
- Wooden Letter (in the style of your choice, Michaels had a variety of styles to choose from)
- Rhinestones (in coordinating color, mine are a light green)
- Ribbon (Mine is a yellow/green jungle themed ribbon)
- Paint (I used a leftover yellow paint sample we got when trying to decide on what color to paint the nursery)
- Paint Brush
- Hot Glue/Hot Glue Gun

First, I painted the wooden 'K'.  I took me three coats of paint to cover.  No need to paint the back, but make sure to paint the sides. 

Once dried, I played around with the placement of the rhinestones, finally deciding on accenting the swirl and the middle of the K.  Once I decided where I liked the rhinestones, I hot glued them on.  TIP: I like hot glue, because it is easy to remove after applying if you don't get the placement just right.

Lastly, I cut two lengths of ribbon about 15 inches long.  Because of the style of my K, I had to attach the ribbon at an inward angle.  Again, I used hot glue for this because I could easily remove it and try again until I got the angle perfect.  Once I attached the two lengths of ribbon (one to each top part of the K), I tied them together in a simple bow.  Then I cut the ends so that they didn't hang down over the K.  TIP: Once I was happy with the bow, I used a lighter to lightly melt the edges of the ribbon to stop it from fraying (a trick a learned as a ballerina).

And Done!  The whole thing took me maybe 2 hours (with most of it waiting for the paint to dry!).