Crafty Bitch: Daylight Savings Edition

Uh. Daylight Savings Time. The WORST time of the year. We gain an hour, YES, but suddenly it's the time of year that no matter how early I get off work, it's still dark when I get home. Boo.

Oh well, to make the best of this depressing time of year, I decided to craft a little bit. It's been months since I've done anything crafty and we're waiting to get the rest of our bedroom furniture (hopefully in the coming weeks) before I dive in to re-doing our master bedroom.

Since I never really got it together for Halloween, I thought I'd get going with Thanksgiving.

I saw this on Pinterest and thought it was a really cute way to decorate. I also hope to be able to host Thanksgiving in my own home one day so want to start building up my decorations. Plus, my living room mantel needs all the help it can get...

So here's the final product:

So, basically I found some cute-shaped bottles at World Market. (Side note: I think World Market is the best store ever - I could walk around in there for hours).

I even came across this adorable vase that I could totally see living in my new master bedroom.

Back to the bottles - I found these cute bottles that are called Bundaberg Australian Root Beer.

It tastes terrible - the hubby and I both tried it and agreed it was the worst tasting drink ever.

So, then I went to Michael's and picked up 3 packaged of faux wheat ($5.99/each). The original blog that posted this talked about it being a little overpriced and she just borrowed some wheat from a neighbor. Ummm, I may live in the 'burbs but where the eff am I supposed to find wheat?

So I'm driving around Funkytown (or "Frisco" as the locals call it) on a beautiful Saturday singing Wicked's "Defying Gravity" very loudly (isn't that what everyone does on nice days when you're driving around?) and I realize OMG, there is wheat EVERYWHERE. OK, maybe not wheat, but lots of these little wheat-like plants near the entrance of neighborhoods that I think would have worked. But I have my faux wheat and am pretty pleased with it. But if you're looking do this on the cheap, it's a good way!

While tutorials really aren't my thing, (I'm more of a wing-it kind of gal) here's what I did: I dumped out all the nasty "root beer" and took the labels off. Funny how it only took me seconds to type that, yet a solid hour and twenty minutes to execute. Then, all I did was soak the bottles in water, peel off the label, then scrubbed them clean with a Brillo pad. This also took off the expiration date print on the bottle.

Then, I placed these adhesive letters on the bottles (got these at good ole HobLob in the scrapbooking aisle for about $4). Then, I cut the wheat to an even level and shoved as much wheat as I could into each bottle and voila!

While I probably could have done this cheaper, this craft came in a little under $30. Totally worth it for decor I can use again and again each Thanksgiving. I've got some other holiday decorating ideas on my mind so hope to be able to work on those soon, too! In the meantime, is anyone else as down about Daylight Savings as me? Hope you're making the best of that extra hour!

Girl's Got Mantel Issues

That's mantel, not mental.

So, one of the things I loved about my house from the second I saw it was the beautiful chocolate painted fireplace. I also thought that the way the former owners (whose names do not pass our lips in this house – we don’t like them. That’s probably another post, though) did the mantel actually looked really good.

Yes, I’m creepy and took photos of the house during the inspection. Whatever. Judge me.

But now that I look back, I’m not as in love with it. (Though I obviously blatantly copied the metal art in the nook.)

It’s been pretty bare for the past seven months simply because I’m sort of at a loss for what I want to do with it. I have googled “cute fireplace mantels” more times than I can count, but am having a tough time getting some inspiration.

So I bought a picture frame and put a photo of Greg and I from vacay in Ft. Lauderdale last year. We also have this golden “B” that his sweet Grammy gave us as one of our engagement gifts. The final item I ordered from Etsy last month and just arrived today. It’s a family sign that I had customized for our mantle. I ordered it from the amazing “Our Hobby To Your Home” shop. Super cute.

It’s actually more of a sage green, but doesn’t look like it in this picture. Now, I just need to pick up a plaque holder and figure out where exactly I want to place it. But I’m sort of at a loss for what else to place on the mantel.

I’m probably going to shuffle these items around and I know I need something with height, but as my husband pointed out, I’m pretty sure we’ve hit the maximum candle allotment for our living room so candle pillars are out. I’ve thought about doing a vase (or set of vases) with flowers or branches.

So, here’s the mantel now. Wah, wah, wah. I just put these items up there randomly so totally know I need to rework where these are. I’ll call this the “before” photo.

Any ideas? Please?