How to Make a DIY Fall Flower Wreath

I used to design a door wreath by buying all of the cute flower picks I like and then figuring out what to do with them after I got home.  That almost always lead to me making something I wasn't happy with because it often looked like a Hodge Podge of unsymmetrical stuff that didn’t always coordinate in color, size or texture.

Because I bought a Hodge Podge of unsymmetrical stuff that didn’t always coordinate in color, size or texture for the project and didn't think about them beyond, "How pretty! I'm buying it!"

I knew I had to change my ways after reorganized my craft room and finding more wreath making supplies than my small house can hold.

 

How to Make a Wreath

 

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Friday Favorites Linky Party - Week 337

I am taking an online Bead Embroidery (w/Myra Wood) craft class from Craftsy  (I am including affiliate links for your convenience) to learn how to add a little bling with beaded flowers and designs to my hand embroidery projects.  This is something I've wanted to to for awhile.

Funny thing buying the class lead to another craft organizing hack I've been wanting to do for awhile. After spilling beads out of my plastic bead organizer box similar to this one on Amazon while removing it from the storage drawer - again - I told myself I couldn't start the beading class until I  reorganized the  my bead stash.

A big chunk of my beads came from my Grandmother. I've done big beading costume projects with them ever since.

I spent a rip roaring party time evening streaming  movies on Amazon Prime Instant Video and  organizing my craft beads into empty prescription pill bottles I've randomly tossing into my bead drawer along with baby food jars, and film canisters. Remember those?

Under Lacey's watchful gaze of course. Or maybe she just likes to binge watch The Sarah Jane Chronicles too.

I have more loose beads than I realize. Is is rude to ask your family to get sick enough to require prescription medicine so you can repurpose the bottle? I'm asking for a friend.

 

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Friday Favorites Link Party - Week 336

How can it be Labor Day weekend already? Do you have plans? One last BBQ blast? Watching fireworks?  Football, football, and even more football?

I have some DIY projects planned and time set aside to to watch my favorite guilty pleasure and Labor Day tradition streaming the movie Serial Mom on Amazon Prime.  (This is an affiliate link for your convenience)

If you aren't familiar with the movie Serial Mom, Kathleen Turner plays a soccer mom who tries to make the world a better place by murdering people over such trivial  
vile and heinous crimes as wearing white shoes after Labor Day.

Basically it's like if Martha Stewart had a dark side that included bludgeoning the neighbors with a leg of lamb for not sorting their recycling and she got rid of the evidence and murder weapon by having a dinner party featuring an award winning leg of lamb recipe while all of the guests rave over the impressive recipe and think she is kind and wonderful to invite them to impromptu dinner parties.

It is also the reason why I am afraid to where white after Labor Day.

Let's party!

 

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Friday Favorites Linky Party - Week 335

I started sewing when I was 5 years old. I never owned a new sewing machine. I have a 1978 Kenmore that was very fancy pants in its day. It has a monogrammer and dozens of decorative stitch cams. Sure, new machines can now do those things at the touch of a button, but Bessie the sewing machine is as solid as a rock with her all metal parts. She will sew through just about anything. Every time I think her day is done, my sewing machine repair person makes her run like a top again.

Or mostly. At this point, the buttonhole, cams, and monogrammer are DOA. The  things I need to sew a big sewing project.

Meet Eleanor. My first new sewing machine! She is a Brother SE400 Sewing and Embroidery Machine I bought from Amazon (affiliate link for your convenience.)  The upside is it was significantly cheaper to buy the sewing machine from Amazon than from a local store. The downside was waiting three long and agonizing days for it to be delivered!
 

So this just happened. I've been sewing since I was 5 years old and this is my first new sewing machine! I named her Elenor. She embroiders. 😊 #sewing #diyblogger #sew #crafts #blogcreate #brothersewingmachine #happy #embroidery #HappyMail @brothersews

A photo posted by Lisa (@condoblues) on Aug 13, 2016 at 10:30am PDT

Eleanor will be a fantastic addition to my sewing and serger machine fleet. Bessie will stay in service sewing the construction work - especially when I work with upholstery fabrics. Eleanore will do the detail work. The two sergers will pitch in as needed to do things that only sergers can do.

Let's celebrate with a party!

Friday Favorites Linky Party - Week 334

Monday, I was invited to a National College Move In Week blogger event by BSM Media and At Home stores. Maria Bailey showed us examples of this year's dorm room and small space decorating trends as we toured this store.  While the focus of the event is college decor, most of what I saw was appropriate for tween and teens too.

They said social media quote pillows are popular for the dorm but I can totally see the Do More What Makes You Awesome pillow in my studio.

Of course, you can use these tips to update and a little zing to adult and family spaces too.

How to Make Flamingo Wall Hooks

I needed several decorative wall hooks to organize my craft room. I want something fun, yet versatile, since I have a pile of conference lanyards, craft aprons, and race medals in need of some serious organizing.

I headed to my workshop and made the perfect wall organizer using my all time favorite pieces of kitsch – plastic pink lawn flamingos!

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DIY Pink Lawn Flamingo Wall Organizer

 

How to Find Bathroom Storage Space When You Think You Don’t Have It

Disclosure: This post is brought to you by MomSelect  At Home Stores. All opinions are 100% my own. @AtHomeStores #collegemovein  #athomestores

Husband and I need to temporally move into our guest bathroom while we remodel the master bath. The guest bathroom is half the size of the master. I eked out what storage space I could by building shelves  over the door and on the wall over the toilet.

I thought I already maxed out my small bathroom storage space.

Or have I?
 

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Summer $150 IKEA Gift Card Giveaway!

Many, many, many people take on decorating and DIY projects during the summer because you can work in a big outside space of your yard with wild abandon. Let's hear it for spray paint weather! Woo hoo!

Of course, if you want to decorate with, paint, or hack a piece of furniture or five you need a place to start and everyone knows IKEA is the just the place for that.

Besides supplies, time, and warm weather to work outside, you do know what else helps when you want to start a DIY or decorating project?

MONEY.

And I hope to give it TO YOU!

  
I figure why not spread some summer sunshine you by getting together with a group of fabulous bloggers and give away to one lucky reader a $150 IKEA gift card so you can shop your little heart for something to hack, decorate, or DIY for your most fabulous abode!

How to Make Vintage Wall Map Decor

I like big maps and I cannot lie.

I cannot tell you how many times the room I fall for in a decor magazine or on a blog features a big vintage map hanging  on the wall. Swoooooooon!

In my made up fantasy world I would find the perfect old school wall map at a thrift shop for 10 bucks, merrily dance with it all the way home, and after a rousing game of Not It Won't Fit Yes It Will with Husband, hang it on a well deserving wall in our house. Where it fits perfectly, of course.

Photo courtesy of Blesser House

How to Hang an Old Window From the Ceiling

On sunny afternoons, the sun hits the kitchen window just right to make a prism on the ceiling.
Lacey thinks this dazzling array of luck and science is a formidable threat to our house and home. She barks her head off all. afternoon. long. no matter how many times we try and fail to shush her.
Apparently light theory is lost on dogs.

A window treatment will solve the nefarious prism problem. I want something that lets in light, is easy to clean, and won’t wrinkle like my DIY cardboard corner window cornice and curtains I made that brought out the haters on Hometalk.

Call it shabby chic, Fixer Upper, or my own Mid-Century Modern-Bauhaus-Contemporary-Found-and-Funkified-Retro-DaDa-Danish decorating style. I repurposed an old flea market window as a kitchen window treatment.
 

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Here’s how.

DIY Old Window Window Treatment

Recycled Pallet and Pot Planters

A big wood barrel planter is so welcoming at the end of a driveway,  on a front porch, deck, or patio. Unfortunately those expensive buggers start to crack and rot a few years after you buy them.

If only there was a way, to get a lasting  wood barrel planter look for less. Then we can get down to the business of buying and growing pretty plants and not replacing their planters every other year.

There is something to say for a lasting rustic garden like this one.

Photo courtesy of  Make the Best of Things

Felt Peep Easter Bunting

You know it is Easter season when Peeps start peeping their wee little face at you from rows upon rows of packages in the candy aisle. Love them or hate them - their seems to be no in between - it is full on Peep Season.

I like marshmallows but for some reason, eating marshmallow Peeps is not my thing. But decorating with Peeps? That's something I am into.

Photo courtesy of Make

How to Make a Corner Window Cornice

Our Master Bedroom has a windows on each wall in a corner and high ceilings. Installing a corner window cornice will tie the windows together and solve several window decorating problems:

• A window cornice will add visual height to the wall while also visually bringing down the high ceiling.
• I can use small scale curtain rods I already have. I don't need to buy new curtain rods that  meet in the corner or need to have a custom corner window curtain rod made or cut to order.
• I can hang off the shelf curtains lower on the wall and just touching the floor so they look like custom length curtains. The cornice hides the curtain rod and hardware.
• I can make a lightweight custom window corner for practically nothing because I am using cardboard boxes to build it.
• It’s a no sew project. If you can use a stapler, you can make this project!

How to Make a Cardboard Window Valance

 

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20 Rainy Day Weekend Projects

Around here weekends are for building, home improvement, and a big bunch of  DIY projects because I have two uninterrupted days of outdoor work time.

Unless it rains.

  Photo courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens

How to Make a Reversible Valentine’s Day and St Patrick’s Day Garland

I don’t decorate for Valentine's Day or St Patrick’s Day very much, if at all. I’m not hating on either holiday.  I don’t have much room to store extra decorations that will be up for only a few weeks for Valentine's Day only to take them down and put up new decorations that will be up for only a few weeks for Saint Patrick's Day.

I got a flash of inspiration when I saw the servants hall in Downton Abby decorated with colorful cloth pennant garland in a recent episode. I know I’m a little late to the cloth garland party but a Valentine’s Day decoration I can flip over and reuse as a Saint Patrick’s Day decoration will solve my storage and holiday décor problem nicely.

Let’s get our DIY on!

St Patrick’s Day and Valentine’s Day Garland Decor Tutorial

 

 

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(No dog Project Mangers where harmed in the making of this project.)

 

DIY Cigar Box and Wine Cork Storage Box

More often than I want to admit, phone and table cords, earphones, and eyeglasses are strewn about the side tables in my living room.  I put the stuff away. The next evening we need the stuff to read books or watch movies on our tablets and plop it on a table before heading off to bed. I put the stuff away…

It’s a never ending cycle.

A friend found a bunch of empty wood cigar boxes in the basement of her wine shop. I was drooling when I found out. Old cigar boxes are the gold standard of recycled project material just begging for an upcycle!

Needless to say, I made my way over to her shop and came home with a cigar box to make into a decorative storage box with wine cork feet to contain the flotsam and jetsam littering the living room.

 You have no idea how much work it took to to win the eBay auction for these vintage metal frames. I had my optimist fill them with my prescription. I love them!

How to Make a Decorative Cigar Box Storage Box 

DIY Recycled Bottle Cap Zipper Pull. So Easy!

I keep my dance, color guard, and yoga gear organized and ready to go in separate string backpacks. I am extremely fortunate to get the little backpacks from marching band events. That  makes it a zero cost organization system. The downside is all of the bags are from the same sponsor. Is too easy to grab the wrong bag for the wrong class. Whoops!

I can fix this by making a unique handmade zipper pull for each backpack so I can tell them apart.

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This is a quick and easy recycled craft that is fun to do with kids. Sourcing the materials might be the best part of the project because we are reusing bottle caps. Enjoying a soda treat in the name of recycled organizers? Don’t mind if I do!

Our Favorite Condo Blues Craft Projects of 2015

We’re celebrating the New Year by looking back at some of our favorite Condo Blues craft projects and tutorials we published in  2015.

When it comes to crafts, upcycling and recycling materials are the things you crave. 8 out of our most popular craft post tutorials feature reclaimed materials. Woo hoo! Who says green living can’t be cute and creative living too?
 

Our Top 11 Condo Blues Craft Projects in 2015

Make Candle Wax Warmer Melts, Tarts, and Cubes: The Complete DIY Guide!  

 
 
 

How to Make Aluminum Can Coasters 

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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