Rope-Wrapped Monogram

...AKA: The Quick Craft That Wasn't.

Here I thought I had a quick and simple gift idea that would be not only cute, but personalized too.
Well, I hit 3 out of 4 by those standards, but speedy it was not.

The results, however, ended up being worth the time and jute-worn fingers. Take a look:

Begin with a hollow cardboard letter (bought at Hobby Lobby).

Add in scissors, glue gun, and jute rope or twine.

Start with the ends that will need to be wrapped separately.

Glue flat, then up sides.

All ends covered? Now time to wrap the body.

Begin wrapping strand and covering rough edges of wrapped ends.

Wrap, wrap, wrap, beginning new piece of jute when necessary.

Finished!

Add texture and personalization anywhere.

Easy? Yes. Fairly mindless? Yes. Quick? NO.

This 'N' took me over an hour, and with a few more letters to churn out this week, it looks like I've got my evening t.v. time activity set up for the next few days. A pretty satisfying result though - I have  a 'J' for our own home that's about twice the size of the 'N' shown here, so that might take some extra gearing up for before it gets done.

No one says you have to start and finish one of these all in one sitting either - I might have griped about the time it took, but mostly that's because this one was on a deadline and I was expecting it to be quick. Highly recommend trying this on your own!

Oh, Christmas Tree!

 Happy 12.12.12 Everyone! If twelve is your lucky number, well, today is your day.

I love all the sentimental tidbits that come along with Christmas. Most of all: The tree ornaments. I always admire the themed trees with their coordinated baubles and matching tree skirt, but it's not for me. Pulling out that eclectic mix of old and new, handmade and store bought, tacky and beautiful, and putting them all in once place... I love that.

So thought I'd share our tree, and a couple of ornaments I especially love this year:

Picked up this one on our Mini-Moon this last April.

Attaches to a light to illuminate the 'window'

Handmade in Kazakhstan (from LBD)

A fave from my Mom - I call it a glass prickly pear.

LOTS of ski theme happening thanks to the hubs.

Our tree skirt, pieced & quilted by my maternal grandma.

Nothing better than a tree lighting up the room.

 There's something so peaceful about the light of a Christmas tree glowing through a room. Take a minute in this crazy crush of holiday activities to soak in that peace - It's a rarity!

Random Round Up: Holiday Spirit

A change of visitor plans left us with some extra time and plenty to fill it with this weekend. Feel like I got a lot checked off my list - Always satisfying!

Christmas cards are out the door. Woohoo!

A trip to the always amazing Frost for their holiday specials (Andes mint & Eggnog)

Whipping up party favor packages.

Live-streaming Mel's performance from nearly a nation away.

Ring cleaning - Always amazed by how sparkly it SHOULD be!

Some holiday gift crafting time (tutorial to come later this week)

Happy Monday!

Quick Craft: Bannister Bows

Now that we're in a house, I've found there's a lot more area to cover when it comes to decorating for Christmas. I'm not going crazy or anything - Haven't branched into multiple tree territory or decorative snowman towels - but sometimes I walk past something and think 'that could use a decoration'.

Take our bannister for instance.

It's the first thing you see when you come in the front door, so why not be greeted with a little Christmas cheer? Here's what I did in about 10 minutes:

I began with a weird hanging decoration from Micheal's Craft store (50% off)

Rope and pinecones: Super cute.

Crazy glitter-clump fake poinsettias: NOT cute.

One quick snip....

...and the pine cones were free!

Next up, getting those pine cones attached to each other and to a bow. To combine the pine cone ropes, I simply tied two together. That's it.

Red velvet bows - $1.50 each at Micheal's

To adhere the bow, I used the twist-tie the bow was attached to it's cardboard hanger with: It was already twisted around the bow, so a little extra hot glue to make sure it was stable was all that needed.
Next I just took the top of my rope, held it into the glue, and gave the twist-tie a secure turn around the rope. That way it was now both glued and wired onto the bow.

Ready for the final result? To attach to the bannister, all I did was twist the remainder of each twist-tie around the knob on each side.

Seriously ten minutes tops (I completed mine start to finish while on the phone), and I spent under $10 for something I can pull out year after year.

Quick, cheap, cute, done.

D.I.Y. DYE

...Perhaps there's a nerdy craft-person tee shirt just waiting to be made there: DIY or DYE....

Only funny to me? Probably.

So moving on to the real topic at hand: Dying garments at home with Rit Dye. It might sound intimidating, but truly: Super easy, and pretty low-impact in terms of involvement. Really.

I hadn't done it in years, but Nate had picked up a slew of new white socks and, being the color-loving dude he is, was itching to make them less vanilla. Enter a trip to JoAnn Fabrics and a bottle of turquoise Rit liquid dye.

Puggle photo bomb!

If you follow the bucket dying process (aka: not using your washing machine, which is the other option), the most you have to do is know how to boil water and measure salt. Can you do that? I'm thinking so.
So step one is to boil a pot of water (it specifies the amount on the bottle - yours truly just eyeballed it). Step two: Pour the water into your bucket and dunk the dry cloth. Have some tongs handy, and once the items are soaked through, pull them out and add your salt (stir to blend) and your dye (I put in the whole bottle). Drop the wet clothes back in, set the timer, and walk away!

Step three: Once the garment(s) have been in for the allotted time, grab your tongs and (I used a dark old towel here to protect my floors) lift your garments out and into the sink. Rinse until the water runs clear.
NOTE: Rit will absolutely stain porcelain. I dumped my dyed goodies in a stainless sink, so didn't have to worry. If you're concerned, have a second rinse bucket handy.

Step four is the last one (told you it was easy!): Pop your rinsed garments into the washing machine and wash per Rit bottle instructions. Dry in the dryer as you normally would and.... done!

Three things of note:

1) It would be a good idea to snag a pair of rubber gloves before starting if you can. I was careful, but think of it like dying your hair: Avoid contact with anything you don't want to end up the color of your dye (hands, clothes, floor, counter, rug... you get the picture). This stuff is permanent and made to last.
2) No matter what color you choose, it's tough to make it vibrant. 100% cotton garments work better than anything else (as you can see from the darker blue stripes on Nate's socks - They took the dye better than the body of the sock with other fibers in it).
3) I threw in two Shout Color Catchers with my wash cycle and they collected quite a bit of dye. Wash a load of old dark towels or run a load empty to make sure your washing machine is free of dye before doing that load of wedding dresses.... or, you know, other light colored garments.

So there you have it! Pretty simple, right? Boil, soak, color, wait, rinse, wash, dry. You can do that.

Getting Lit

Our neighborhood is lighting up. In a good way. It's the first week of December, and there are now 4 houses in our immediate cul-de-sac that have put up lights, and at least 5 more in adjoining parts of the neighborhood. I'm loving it!

As first timers, we put the lights up on our house in a two-part series...

Here we go!

We lucked out with a couple of dry days.

First Draft - "Not Enough!" says Nate

So, more lights purchased, and up he went.

Success!! (click the image to enlarge and see the excitement)

And the end result. Couldn't be happier!

Random Round Up: Elfing Around

Lots of Christmas elf duties this weekend, complete with trimming the tree and making a few gifts from my list.

Some early a.m. sun put up a Christmas tree for us!*

Fake tree = Need a good tree-smelling candle (thanks hubs!!)

Cozy Puppy

Martha Stewart's crafty ways seduce me again... Tree topper!

Proenza Schouler for the Neiman Marcus + Target collab

Gettin' elf-y with it

Happy December!


*This was photo-worthy for a couple reasons: One, it was SUNNY on December 1st, and two, that tree isn't even in front of our window. The slant of the light hit it just right to center it above the window seat and give us a Christmas tree preview!