Project Me: Pick a Personal Word of the Year

When I stopped making New Year’s resolutions for the sake of having one on New Year’s Eve, it became easier for me to keep them. I often make New Year’s resolutions but now I do it at a point in the year when I need it.

It is my way to keep New Year’s resolutions that works.

The same can be said for choosing a personal word for the New Year. I thought about doing it last year when I saw all of the other cool blogger kids were doing it as a way to keep or instead of making a New Year’s Resolution but couldn’t come up with a word with meaning. The only word I came up with at the time was vague and too general. I knew I’d forget about it soon after January so I didn’t do it.

This year, I picked a personal word of the year a few weeks after New Year’s by happy accident.



Learn how to make my New Year’s Memory Jar from a recycled salsa jar on Lazy Budget Chef here!

How to Make Quick and Easy Peppermint Gift Tags

I have one more gift tag tutorial in this year’s series and it couldn’t be easier! We’re using cute printed packing tape to make Christmas gift tags!

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You will need:

Make Minion Gift Wrap!

I will let you in on a little gift wrapping secret. The reason why people rave over my pretty and clever gift wrap is not because I have a grand creative design going into the project, oh no.

It is usually the result of wrapping a present at the 11th hour when the stores are closed and running out of traditional gift wrap supplies.

Blind panic is the Mother of Creativity.

Now you know.

That’s how I came up with this Despicable Me Minion gift wrap idea. I used the last of my wrapping paper to wrap this gift. It looked plain. I didn’t have any stick on bows and since I was going to mail the gift, I didn’t want to make a magazine bow (read the tutorial here) because it might be crushed.

A yellow Twinkie shaped present with twisted puffs reminded me of a Minion. Hey, let’s make Minion gift wrap!

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How to Wrap a Present to Look Like a Minion

Vintage Button Gift Tag Tutorial

I have another craft supply stash bust gift tag tutorial for you. Today we’re making gift tags with fabric ribbon and vintage buttons! Oh heck, let’s throw caution to the wind and use some scrapbook paper too.

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Many of the buttons I have in my grandmother’s button box are plain old shirt buttons. Great for replacing a lost one and better for crafting because there are so many of them. I also have odd lengths of ribbon from sewing projects that are too long to throw away and too small for my recent sewing projects. Inspired by finding  a box of business cards from my old company (may it rest in peace) I figured I could get these kids together and let them make quick, easy, and beautiful recycled gift tags together.

I’m sure you can figure out how I made the gift tags by looking at the picture so I almost don’t have to write a tutorial but since this is the holiday season is all about giving I will.

How to Make Evergreen Window Swags for Free!

We’re bumping up our outdoor Christmas decorations this year. We have a house full of energy efficient disco projector Christmas lights to replace our dead strings of LED Christmas lights.

I saved some Amazon Subscribe and Save boxes and wrapped them as Christmas presents and put them in the barren flower beds. We’ll recycle them after the holiday because storage space for holiday decorations is at a premium.


The front yard still needed a little something and when I saw a pair of dachshund Christmas decorations (learn more about them here.) in a neighbor's yard I had to have them too as a tribute to Lacey. What can I say? We are dog suckers through and through.
 

 The dachshund lights come apart for storage after the holiday. They make make me insanely happy.

How to Decorate a House with Christmas Lights in 15 Minutes or Less!

I like decorating with Christmas lights. I admit my Christmas light obsession may not be very green, but I never promised you a perfect green life, just an honest one.

I honestly like the look of a house full of Christmas lights.

 I also honestly hate standing in the snow and cold putting away a house full of Christmas lights after the holiday. The weather is always colder when the outdoor Christmas decoration have to come down than when they go up. That’s our motivation behind decorating our house with lights only on the porch rails.


 This year, I found a way to decorate a house full of energy saving Christmas lights and it only took 15 minutes! It will take even less time to take them down after the holiday. Woohoo!

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Make Peek a Boo Window Gift Tags

After a two day craft room excavation I had a couple of boxes of old business cards and nice little pile of random paper, ribbon, buttons, and punches on my worktable. The following day and fueled by probably more hot chocolate than one person should drink in an afternoon I started to play.

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Once I got on a creative roll, I upcycled a bunch of old business cards into gift tags I’m not ashamed to tie onto our Christmas gifts this year. I have so many handmade stash buster gift tags, that I’m going to turn this craft project into a blog series. Come craft with me!

 

How to Make Embossed Gift Tags for Hanukkah or Christmas

Star Wars Crafts: Princess Leia Ear Muffs

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is about to open (can’t wait!) winter is coming, and so the Christmas gift season. I can’t think of a better excuse make something that has been on my idea list since the  first time I saw Spaceballs, (affiliate link)  the Star Wars parody movie – Princess Leia Hair Bun Ear Muffs!

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How to Make Princess Leia Ear Muffs

How to Make a Christmas Countdown Calendar Candle

When it comes to Advent calendars, I am more about the Christmas Countdown than the extra treats and trinkets that fill the calendar. I’m not knocking anyone who likes the prizes. It’s hard to find one that isn’t filled with milk chocolate. With a milk allergy, I don’t need the daily reminder that I’m stuck with a relish tray at the Christmas party while everyone else is wolfing down yummy milk chocolate desserts and treats.

But Christmas is the time of year I like to honor my Danish heritage and Danes love their Advent Calendars. Danes also love burning candles. That means Christmas countdown candles are very popular in Denmark.

Instead of opening a little door or pocket, you countdown the days until Christmas by burning the candle to each marked day until Christmas Day.  Unfortunately, Advent calendar candles are hard to find and when I did find some on line they were $30 for a decorated taper candle.

30 bucks a pop? I can make it for less!

So I did.

How to Make an Advent Calendar Candle

Bottle Cap Wreath

Husband and I have have a huge bottle cap collection just waiting for me to reuse them to make awesome bottle cap crafts and DIY projects. Last year Create. Craft. Love. gave me a blank wreath form and challenged me to make a wreath for her blog. The first thing that popped into my mind was - make a bottlecap wreath!

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If you do not have five years worth of bottle caps in coordinating colors you can still do this project if you spray paint your mismatched bottle caps in coordinating colors before you start making this wreath.

10 Garage Storage and Organizing Hacks

Fall is one of those busy DIY transition times in the garage. The summer things need to be cleaned and put away for winter and it’s time to dig out the rakes to deal with all of those leaves falling off the trees that make Fall, well, Fall.


Fall is also a great time to reorganize the storage in your garage. Need some help? I have 10 garage hacks to share with you!

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(Not that I pinned all of these hacks to Pinterest (follow Condo Blues on Pinterest, please?)  because I personally need every single one of them. OK. I’ll be honest. I need to all of these hacks to keep our garage neat and tidy.

Renaissance Festival Handmade Craft Shopping Haul

Through vendor friends and fellow performers, the renaissance festival is where I started learning about essential oils, creating herbal tea blends for both medicinal and yummy purposes, and fell head over heels with handmade health and beauty products.

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It is also where we got the idea of starting our Christmas gift shopping early and somewhat year round. Years ago a fellow performer proudly declared that he finished all of his Christmas shopping at the faire and was chuffed he was finished in September. Naturally being the good friends that we are, we kidded him about it.

Luck of the Irish $1,500 Paypal Cash Giveaway!

I'm always looking for ways to thank you for being The Most Awesome Community on Planet Earth.

Unfortunately, I can't do it in person or by anonymously shoveling your driveway (especially for you Australian readers. You are having as hot a summer as we are having as cold a winter, I'd love to personally visit you to thaw out say hello) but I can thank you with a giveaway of something that always fits - cold, hard, Paypal cash. $500 dolla, dolla bills to be exact!

I'd love it if a Condo Blues reader won this giveaway!

20 Warm Winter DIY Clothes We Love

Trying to buy warm winter clothing and accessories after Christmas is difficult because all of the stores are selling bathing suits!

Which is great if you live somewhere warm enough to wear a bathing suit during the winter.
For the rest of us, if we want warm winter clothes it’s recycling and DIY or die freezing time!

 Save these ideas to your Pinterest boards for later! Share them with your friends!

20 DIY Must Haves to Keep You Warm This Winter

Dog Coats and Boots for Dogs Who Hate Wearing Clothes

Lacey, our snow warrior princess loves to romp and play in the snow. Her dachshund side goes into overdrive. She investigates every little foot print, crack, or hole in the snow when she goes outside and take care of business.

Being part Cavalier King Charles Spaniel means her natural fur dog coat is longer than a barley there dachshund’s but Lacey doesn't last very long in low winter temperatures, nor should she when the temperatures are so dangerously low.

Girlfriend needs a winter dog coat.




Too bad my dog hates to wear a dog coat.

42 Homemade Christmas Gift Tags

I like wrapping a pretty gifts for Christmas. I keep a box of gift boxes and bags I reuse every year and another box of wrapping paper and things like silk flowers, fabric ribbon, and bows I recycle into clever gift toppers for the Christmas gifts I need to ship.

 


For the gifts I deliver in person, I made gift wrapping easier on myself by using the reusable cloth gift bags I sewed from my historical costuming scrap stash. I still get the pretty and fancy look I like but with a time and sanity saving green twist because I reuse my homemade gift bags year after year.

I sewed my cloth gift bags as a post- Christmas cabin fever project and used them the following year. Read my homemade cloth gift bag tutorial here.

With all of the attention I pay to buying meaningful gifts and their fancy wrappings, I’m ashamed to say I have long history of phoning it in when it comes to Christmas gift tags.

Outdoor Christmas Décor: Modern Lighted Tomato Cage Christmas Trees

For as much I enjoy looking at Christmas light displays you’d think I’d do something fancy outside of my own home.


Nope. I keep it simple.

Why?

Because it is always too cold outside to put up and take down elaborate Christmas decorations!

Peace, love, joy, and warmth. That’s what my outdoor Christmas décor is all about.

And by warmth I mean not freezing my legs off while I’m outside or in the garage building new Christmas decorations.

This year I made a few changes in our outdoor Christmas décor and especially in what I used to display them. I wore the right work pants for the job, my Duluth Trading Company Women's Fleece-Lined DuluthFlex Fire Hose Pants.

Did I mention these multi-pocketed wonder pants are lined with warm and soft fleece, one of my favorite cold weather fabrics? Oh yes, my friends. My new fancy pants kept me warm while installing Christmas decorations. They proved their worth later that evening on a walk with Lacey to look at Christmas lights a local park. We left early because Husband wore jeans and got cold. Me? Not cold at all.

The best thing about Duluth Trading Company clothes is they realize women need just as many pockets in their clothing as men.  DuluthFlex Fire Hose Pants have six packets: 2 front pockets, a zippered thigh cargo pocket, 2 back pockets, and a Pokey Things Pocket (their name, not mine) on the right back thigh.

15 Things I am Not Going to Do This Christmas

It amazes me how some folks use Christmas time to make others feel horrible because they have different holiday thoughts, traditions, or celebrate (or not) a different December holiday.

Sadly, I internalize their criticism of the way we do things as not green enough, too generous, too stingy, too religious, not religious enough, too secular, or too fill in the blank.  I always let them make me feel sad, angry, and depressed for several days during my favorite time of the year.

This Christmas, I am going to try not to fall into that trap.  I can’t change others but I can change how I let others make me feel about myself and how we like to celebrate the holidays.






I will also try to keep my attitude about others in check because fair is fair.

15 Things I am Not Going to Do for Christmas 

Christmas Kid Craft: Waterless Mason Jar Snow Globes

Last Christmas my nephews Mr. 5 of 10 and Mr. 9 of 10 surprised Husband and I with a homemade Christmas gift. My sister-in-law said that they wanted to make a Christmas gift for me because I often make gifts for them. Yay!

My sister-in-law tried to hedge things a bit by saying, “it might not be very good…” as I unwrapped our gift but I cut her off with a happy squeal. “Look the boys made us a mason jar snow globe! I love it!”

Because I do. 




With a little adult help, your kids can make waterless mason jar snow globes too. They make fabulous gifts and even better Christmas decorations!

Forget Elf on the Shelf! We Have Yoda on the Soda

People are insane about Elf on the Shelf.

Either they think Elf is a fun tradition and love it or they think Elf is a creepy stalker partying like a student on Spring Break and hate it.


There is no middle ground.

Husband came up with an Elf on the Shelf alternative.

I present:

“You will know (the good from the bad) when you are calm, at peace. Passive. A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack.”

Yoda on the Soda.

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