Condo Blues: decoration
Showing posts with label decoration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label decoration. Show all posts

Monday, November 27, 2023

How to Make a Christmas Dinosaur Decoration

I took part in the best Christmas Gift Exchange where the theme was Handmade, Regifted, or Thrifted. I made my person some lovely chocolates and wanted to tuck a little extra thing into their gift.

Once I spotted a plastic T Rex toy, I found my joy, and went about turning the T Rex toy into Chompy the Christmas Dinosaur decoration. Chompy not only delivers presents to the good little girls and boys, but he also takes care of your enemies and those who give you grief.

Let’s make Christmas Dinosaur Decorations!

DIY T Rex dinosaur Christmas decorations

Pin this Christmas decor tutorial for your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!

 

You will need:

Sunday, December 20, 2020

DIY Glass Candy Cane Swirl Christmas Ornaments

Every Christmas I give my niece and nephew a Christmas ornament. Usually they mark special events (such as the year my niece danced Clara in the Nutcracker,) hobbies, from places my husband and I traveled, or something really cool and unusual. Sometimes I make their Christmas ornament gifts but most years I buy them.

Except last year when I made their glass Christmas ornaments with fire

DIY handmade glass Christmas ornament

Save this Christmas ornament idea to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!

After taking my glass blowing workshop (I made a glass pumpkin,) I’ve been on the lookout for more glass blowing workshops. I like blowing glass in a workshop setting because an instructor is with you every step of the way to make sure you create a glass sculpture in the safest way possible.

Unfortunately I don’t have the space for glass sculptures (especially when Lacey spits a ball at my feet and demands a rousing game of Catch at the end of the workday. I swear that dog can tell time!) so I tend to lean toward the practical yet pretty glass art projects. Luckily blowing glass Christmas ornaments ticks all of those boxes.

With the added bonus of impressing my teenage nephew with photos of me in front of a furnace working with 3000 degree (F ) molten glass! (That is not a typo.)

Thursday, December 17, 2020

Slow Christmas Ideas and Friday Favorites Linky Party Week 560

Christmas is my favorite time of year because there are so many fun places to go, things to see and performances to do before we get the extended family together for a big, happy celebration on Christmas day!  

Except this year. It's a pivot. pivot. Christmas pivot kind of year.

But you know what? I'm enjoying the change. 

Wine Advent Calendar
After opening the last couple of days of our DIY wine Advent calendar, I'm starting to understand the appeal of Advent calendars!

  • No quick, wolf down dinner, we have to book it out the door and to an event.

  • No fighting traffic, crowds, or stores because everything is being picked up or delivered to our door (let's give an extra shout and thank you to all postal and delivery drivers. THANK YOU!)

  • There's the chance to put the holiday things you don't always enjoy aside for something new because it's just the household this year. For us, we're going to start our day with mimosas and end it with either fancy lobster tails or super causal homemade pizza for dinner. We haven't decided yet. Which one would do you think we should have for Christmas dinner?

Monday, November 30, 2020

DIY No Sew Thread Cone Gnomes

I buy sewing machine thread in the colors I use most often in bulk by the serger cone. I  use stand alone bobbin winder like this one to wind the cone thread onto an empty regular size thread spool to use on my sewing machine. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links for your convenience.) This is supposed to keep me from running out of thread but when my historical costuming projects usually take up to 10 yards of fabric I still go through a ton of sewing thread.

Which means I have a nice little stack of empty thread cones on my To Upcycle shelf waiting for a craft project that never comes.

Until today!

I recycled empty thread cones into cute little gnomes. If you don’t have empty thread or serger cones cluttering up your house  waiting to be upcycled you can use paper craft cones like these

how to make recycled thread cone gnomes
Save this post to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!

You will need for each gnome you want to make:

Monday, November 2, 2020

How to Make Outdoor Christmas Tree Decorations

For the last couple of Christmases, I’ve struggled to find something to go with two lighted Christmas dachshunds decorations we display outside because an odd number of decorations grouped together is more pleasing to the eye than an even number. Since I bought those dachunds to celebrate of all things Lacey, why not put our fake dogs where our real dog likes to be - snoozing under the Christmas tree. In fact, we usually keep a spot under the tree clear of presents so Lacey can lounge on the fancy blanket surrounding it (although you may call it a Christmas tree skirt.)

I went with a more modern Christmas tree design because I really wanted to show off what makes my DIY tree different – the ornament windows. Also I can’t draw a traditional Christmas tree shape for beans.

 

quick and easy diy outdoor Christmas tree decor with ornament windows
Save this post to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!

Quick and Easy DIY Outdoor Christmas Tree with Ornament Windows

Monday, March 30, 2020

How to Caulk Around a Toilet

After tiling the guest bathroom and replacing the boring builder molding with something a little more interesting, It is time to make this bathroom look and function like a bathroom by installing a working toilet – a luxury we haven’t had in quite a while since the builder toilet went on strike.


I went with a Watersense rated Delta Faucet Company toilet (you can find similar toilets here.)  (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links in this post for your convenience.) I had such a good experience installing one in my powder room because every single thing you need to install the toilet comes in the box down to a screwdriver and the Watersense rating means it is water efficient (I think of it as the Energy Star rating for plumbing) without the hit or miss of not quite flushing everything that needs to be flushed like a duel flush toilet. 

the easy way to caulk a toilet and bathtub
Save this tutorial to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!


But before I can completely cross Install New Toilet off my punch list, I need to caulk around it (and also along the new tile next to the bathtub. Fortunately, you caulk around a bathtub the same way you caulk a toilet. Let’s do this!

Why Should I Caulk Around the Toilet?

Sunday, January 12, 2020

Spa Bathroom Remodeling Plan

Before you start any type of home improvement update or remodel you should come up with a design plan first. This way, you can decide on what to keep, skimp, or splurge to keep your project on time and on budget.

Do you know the absolute worst time to toss out your original plan and make a new one from scratch?

When your room looks like this.

condo builder bathroom demo
Demo day!

My original guest bathroom design plan had us giving the bathroom sink and vanity a makeover.

On demo day I found black mold growing on the back of the bathroom vanity which made it completely unusable.

And just like that, my beachy remodeling plan got tossed just like the mold ridden vanity.

Sunday, November 24, 2019

How to Make Tomato Cage Christmas Gnome Decorations

I saw a big Christmas gnome decorations on line at IKEA and knew two of them would look perfect decorating both sides of my front door this Christmas. Unfortunately they were already sold out of them by the first few days of November!

I was severely bummed.

It was all the encouragement I needed to shop IKEA for the materials and go with my original plan of making a set of outdoor Christmas gnomes built around tomato cages.  Since storage space is at a premium in my condo, I made my Christmas gnomes (which we Scandinavians call Tomte or Nisser) as a temporary slipcover. That way I can use the cages in my summer garden, clean them, and use them again during the Christmas decorating season.  If you have the storage space you can permanently hot glue the fabric to your tomato cage instead of holding it in place with clothes pins like I did.

how to make outdoor Scandinavian Christmas gnome decorations
Save this tutorial to your Pinterest boards for later! Share this decorating idea with your friends!


How to Make Scandinavian Christmas Gnomes


Sunday, December 9, 2018

How to Make an Outdoor Mod Podge Christmas Sign

I decorated outside my house with two lighted Santa Dachshund decorations similar to these as my crazy dog lady homage to our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Dachshund mix Lacey. (Disclosure; I am including affiliate links in this post for your convenience.)

Lacey Condo Blues
I fell asleep while Lisa was decorating the Christmas tree and woke up in a Christmas collar! 
She's bonkers about decorating for the holidays.

In the décor world, an odd number of decorations is usually more visually pleasing than even numbers which is why my two little Christmas dogs looked a little sad and lonely. I wanted to make a DIY vertical Christmas sign to fill that visual void but I don’t have big stencils to paint it or fancy die cutting machine to use vinyl letters.  Instead I used my crafty BFF Mod Podge to make a weather resistant outdoor decoration.

Yes! You can use Mod Podge on outdoor decorating projects and it will brave the elements – as long as you use the right formula. Keep reading and I’ll tell you how!

Monday, October 22, 2018

How to Make an Easy Hot Glue Embossed Wood Sign

Call me Danger Girl. I have to admit hot glue is one my favorite adhesives even though it has the potential to sear off my fingerprints. I use hot glue to glue stuff together all of the time but using hot glue to make the craft itself? Not so much. 

Which is why I was very interested when a review copy of the book  Hot Glue Hacks and Crafts 50 Fun and Creative Décor, Fashion, Gift and Holiday Project to Make with Your Glue Gun by Angie Holden and Carolina Moore was delivered to my doorstep. I was happy to learn the book does not feature your typical crafts put together with hot glue. Instead Hot Glue Hacks and Crafts teaches you how to make the craft elements almost entirely out of hot glue – including a pair of flip flop shoes!

(I reviewed a copy of the book for review but that has no bearing on giving you my honest review of it. I am including affiliate links for the items I used to make this project in this post for your convenience.)


One of the things I like about craft books like Hot Glue Hacks and Crafts is how it can inspire you to use several techniques from different tutorials in the book to make a totally different hot glue gun craft on your own. In this case, I drew inspiration from the Hot Glue Embossed Vase and Hot Glue Party Cake Topper projects to make an embossed hot glue Love wood wall sign.

DIY hot glue embossed Love sign
Pin this idea to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!

DIY Hot Glue Wall Art Tutorial

Sunday, December 10, 2017

How to Make Wine Cork Gnomes

 Danish nisse are gnomes who secretly live in your attic, or barn if you live on a farm, and help take care of the animals at night when you are asleep. They also protect your family from harm.

All these helpful creatures ask for is respect and a bowl of porridge with a pat of butter on top on Christmas Eve, otherwise they will get even by playing tricks on you. Can’t find your car keys the next day? A group of insulted nisser probably hid them!

Many Danish home decorate for Christmas with nisse (also called tomte) or as we call them in the United States, gnomes.The plural of nisse is nisser and they are pretty darn cute as well as helpful!

Let’s make some Christmas gnome decorations from recycled wine corks! Tomte like it when we recycle.


Reycled Wine Cork Craft Idea: Christmas Gnomes!


Sunday, December 3, 2017

How to Make a Christmas Tree Topper Angel

I like to mix up our Christmas decorations from year to year to get a new look from ornaments and decorations I already have and love. I figure it is time for our Christmas tree angel to grace the top of the tree after several years of big fluffy  bows.


 Here's the BEFORE. Keep reading to see the AFTER!


Girlfriend is in some sad shape! Her wings are chipped and broken, her bust looks weirdly chesty, and she has always been too tall to sit properly on the top of our tree.

I hit the shops to drool over Christmas tree decorations find an elegant angel wearing a sumptuous brocade dress. I must be the Goldilocks of Christmas tree angels because I couldn’t find one that was Just Right.

I noticed that almost every angel in the store has  the same face as the Christmas angel I already own. Since I honed my sewing skills as a kid making doll clothes,  I knew I could satisfy my inner tree topper Goldilocks by repairing and making over our current Christmas tree angel into something elegant and fantastic!

Extreme Makeover Christmas Tree Angel Edition

Sunday, October 29, 2017

DIY Hand Blown Glass Pumpkins

As a kid, my family and I always watched glass blowing demos at living history museums, Cedar Point, etc. when they crossed our path. I always wanted to learn how to blow glass and put it on my Bucket List but the thing is I’m not sure what I’d do with the thing after I made it. (I am including some affiliate links in this post for your convenience.)

I appreciate glass artistry and would dearly love to buy, use, or display hand blown glass creations but condo living isn’t the most spacious when it comes to displaying doo dads (all of our art collection hangs on walls.)  Not to mention, I’m not a fussy doo dad displaying kind of girl except in September when my pumpkin decorations dot the house inside and out.

I like to decorate with pumpkins because you can start displaying them in September for fall harvest, to Halloween and right on through to Thanksgiving at the end of November.  So it makes sense that I am obsessed with browsing handcrafted glass pumpkins at glass blowing shops. That’s when it hit me.

Blow a glass pumpkin and display it for Thanksgiving? That I can do.

I  decided that Today is SOMEDAY and I’m going to learn how to blow glass!

 Keep reading to learn about the process and to see what I made!

Sunday, June 4, 2017

Easy DIY Captain America Wreath

I want a new patriotic wreath to hang on my front door for the Fourth of July. I grabbed various bits and bobs from around the house (I always shop my house first so I don’t potentially buy stuff I end up not using for the project) and started to play with layouts and designs.

The design I kept coming back a floating star in the center of the wreath form which reminded me of Captain America’s shield. I wasn’t quite sure how to make the floating star work and joked it would be easier to hang Cap’s Shield on the front door and call it a Fourth of July wreath.

Then I thought why don’t I?

Sunday, April 2, 2017

How to Make a Farmhouse Industrial Wine Cork Wreath

Many (OK, most) winter weekends husband and I mull a bottle of table quality red wine until it gets too warm outside to drink hot drinks then we switch over to making sangria. So between that and enjoying a bottle of the good stuff from time to time, I have several vases full of wine corks in my craft room.

Quick and Easy DIY Wine Cork Wreath Idea

My wine cork stash is getting high, my door wreath stash is letting low so with my creative powers combined (just like Captain Planet and The Wonder Twins!) I made a quick and easy wine cork wreath and you can too!


 Pin this recycled wine cork craft idea for later!

Sunday, December 4, 2016

How to Make Easy DIY Outdoor Giant Christmas Ornament Decorations

I am obsessed with Christmas ornaments ever since teenage me got my first few handmade Christmas decoration from my grandmother as a present. By the time I struck out into the big wide world, I had a variety of Christmas ornaments to decorate with that was a nice change from the red glass ball ornaments that hung on my parent’s tree.

 I love the variety of ornaments Husband and I have collected over the years but I guess absence makes the heart grow founder. Ever since I saw the gigantic Christmas ball ornaments for sale to commercial spaces (malls, outside a business, etc.) at Bronner’s Christmas Store during our vacation a few years ago, I lust after round ball ornaments – super sized!


I adore everything about this cherry Santa decoration from the happy polka dots and lights to the cartoony Santa. If only I had mile high ceilings and enormous living room….

Taking pictures of the big Christmas ball ornaments in the store and in public places when I came across them has not scratched my itch.  I could use a few more decorations the size of a yoga ball in the front yard to balance the lighted Dachshund Christmas decorations (learn more about them here) we bought last year. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links in this post for your convenience.)

Yoga ball?

 Hey! That gives me an idea!

Keep reading! I'll teach you how to make this fun decorating idea!

Let’s make Big Christmas ornaments from exercise and playground balls!

How to Make Quick and Easy Exercise Ball Christmas Ornaments

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

DIY Solar Snowman Jar Lights

I need to add new lighting to our outdoor Christmas decorations this year because for some inexplicable reason, our lawn service company felt the need to mow our  lawns in December. They ran over and destroyed my lights with a lawn mower despite the fact we are allowed to have holiday decorations in our yard for Christmas.

Uff da.

My HOA didn’t understand it either.

I’m turning an annoying head scratching negative and turning it into a positive. I’m taking the opportunity to change up our outdoor Christmas decorations a little bit this year by going green and making recycled glass jar solar snowman lights!


 Pin this tutorial for later!

I'm also giving my summer solar yard lights a big green reuse and repurpose by making them into energy efficient outdoor Christmas lights.

You can use glass Mason jars to make this project if you don’t have empty glass food  jars. At the time of this writing all of my spare Mason jars are storing and organizing food in my kitchen cupboards because it stays fresher longer and I can stuff more food in the cupboards than if I keep it in the original packaging.

How to Make Quick and Easy Solar Salsa Jar Snowmen

Monday, November 14, 2016

How to Make a Quick and Easy Christmas Pennant Garland

I excavated my craft room and found some cute red and green fabric scraps I’ve been moving from storage place to storage place in my sewing room.  That put me in a sewing mood. I decided then and there to use those quirky fabric scraps to sew a cloth pennant Christmas garland.


Pin this tutorial for later!

This is a quick and easy Christmas decoration project that takes practically no time to make. I streamed a couple of movies on Amazon Prime Video and before I knew it the project was done!

Christmas Garland Décor Tutorial

Thursday, November 3, 2016

Friday Favorites Linky Party - Week 345

Oh friends, I have a confession. I have a new obsession.

Antique crystal glasses.

It started innocently enough. I bought these sweet and versatile Bubble Champagne Coupe glasses  (aff link) as a wedding present last spring and I've been going back and forth about how useful owning coupe glasses would be ever since.   Which is somewhat silly yet somewhat practical given my lack of extra storage space in our condo.

The coupe hunger got worse after seeing a friend's recent antique mid century modern chair purchase followed by seeing cut glass coupes while thrift shopping for Halloween costume pieces. The clouds parted from the sky, a rainbow appeared, a unicorn slide down it and encouraged me to poke around one of my favorite thrift stores instead of just turning around in their parking lot.

And this happened.

If you follow me @condoblues on Instagram you might have seen this in real time! 

I love them and already tested them out. Swoon!

I showed you mine, now you show me yours!



Please support and follow our lovely blog party hostesses:

Jerri at Simply Sweet Home - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Christine at Light and Savvy - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Dawn at LeroyLime - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst | BL
Maisy at Becoming Alice - FB | G+ | Pin
Sheree at Stage Presents - Twitter | FB | Pin | Inst | Inst
Lisa at Condo Blues - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Penny at Penny's Passion - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst
Kelly at Under a Texas Sky - Twitter | FB | G+ | Pin | Inst | BL

If you are featured this week, be sure and grab a featured button for your blog!




You can show your love for this week's favorites by going over and commenting on the posts and by pinning or sharing!

And if you love all of this week's favorites, please pin, share, and invite your friends to this week's link party!


Tuesday, October 25, 2016

New Orleans French Quarter Fall Porch Decor

Decorating the outside of a duplex for holidays is usually more miss than hit since neither side coordinates with the other (at least in my experience.)

What can I say? I like symmetry in my outdoor holiday décor.

That’s why I stopped in my tracks when Husband and I passed this sweet yellow duplex in New Orleans last November and took it all in.


Pin this Fall outdoor porch decorating idea for later!

First of all, even undecorated, it is a lovely double shotgun style home. One of many that fills the French Quarter with architectural charm.