Pompom & Pinecone Garland DIY

OK so let me start by saying, technically these are NOT pinecones, but they are cones from my daughter's Hugh Jass evergreen tree, which I think is a blue spruce.  They are cones...they work.  Where I live the pines are few are far between, so I subbed in the next best thing! Real pine cones would be FAB!! 

Let's carry on shall we?

Ok so I have been obsessing over all the Pompom things this Christmas and everything is RE.DIC.U.LOUS.LY overpriced for my budget, so when met with a challenge...Martha comes out to play in the sandbox.  

I am feeling over the top creative this holiday season and because we all need a bit more glitter and fuzzy things in our lives, I decided to make this garland.  My kitchen window was looking sad and lonely and this was the perfect accoutrement. 

I bought this yarn a few years ago at Michaels and found it in my stash and throught it was about right for the task.  And Ohhhh, those pompoms are sooooo fluffy!

I didn't resort to rocket science.  I wedged a piece of thin jute between my center fingers to tie the pompom, then wrapped my hand 40 times (It sounded logical in my head) and then tied it off, cut the loops, then gave it a good jhuzzing (aka: fluffing) and trimmed it into a pretty shape.  

Onwards to the bling.  Glitter...the glue that hold my life together.  #notkidding

So I dug in my craft box for glitter I already had and found my Martha stash.  I got this a few years ago, and honestly, I am not even sure it is still in stores.  Since copper is the hot trend right now and the perfect compliment to the teal yarn, the choice was easy.

 *CAWWWW, CAWWWW*

 I simply brushed on some white paint...I had Behr Swiss Coffee for another project so I cracked open the can, brushed paint on the bottom half(ish) of the cones and then while the paint was still wet I sprinkled the magical glitter over the paint.

 I propped the cones up on a little piece of wood I had to dry.  

So here is the deal on assembly:  I made 7 pompoms and 6 pinecones.  I roughly measured the length of garland to my window so it went across the top and down both side. I used a thin jute string.  I spaced out the pompoms evenly on the jute, and simply tied them to the main piece of jute string I cut. I grabbed some thread from my sewing box for the cones, because jute was too heavy to tie around these as they are more delicate.  I tied the thread around the cones, knotted twice, then tied one cone between each pompom.  EASY, PEASY! That's it.  

I hung it above the window, giving it a little bit of a drapey swoop in the centre.  I think it is a fun addition to my holiday decor and it really took no time at all.  Because I had all the materials in my stash, this project cost me nothing, which to me is winning!  :-)

Do you love to create your own holiday decor?  I'd love to see what you are making.  If you have a blog post, drop your link to your creations below in comments.

Stay weird,

Wendy

Front Entry Facelift

Ok, I am not overly proud to say this but my entryway has never really been anything exciting since I moved into this house. It is not my favourite area, simply because it is wonky and doesn't flow, but I am getting out of my own head and I decided I needed to make the most of it (instead of ignoring it).

The floor tiles need to be replaced, but I am holding out for a budget friendly find at ReStore, which I have faith that I will eventually come across. But for now...I am controlling the controllable and taking the dark and uninspiring space and brightening it up and bringing it into this decade.

BEFORE: BLAH tan walls, white doors, and the infamous "boob" light. UGH...I loathe these light fixtures and slowly we are replacing them in this house. And not sure WHY, but I always get so DAMN EXCITED that I forget to take proper BEFORE pics...what the what?? Anyhow....here is a bit of what it looked like after I already had kind of started disassembling and rippping the space apart.

At this point, I just had one side of the closet doors painted black and started working on the other side.  Why the heck did I wait so long to paint them.  They are GORGeous!!  :-)

 

Now the fun begins...cutting in the white paint...which **GASP** I never thought I would be doing because I LOVE color, but I wanted to try white on white somewhere and this seemed like a great place to give it a go.  I chose Behr Chenille Spread as it was a warm white that went perfectly with our trim color.

The first coat ALWAYS looks like crap.  But, onwards and upwards! It took 3 coats to cover the dark tan and thankfully this was a small space.  

I installed the light fixture and my hubby replaced the outlets and switches.  WHAT a change!!  This sweet little cage light came from Canadian Tire and was $40!  How could you not love that? 

Insert hot hubby helping with switch replacement.  <3 <3 

**CUE ANGELS SINGING** How is it that something so small makes such a HUGE difference? 

DONE...now time to get the decorating for the holidays underway.  

Enter some Buffalo Check and some vintage finds.  The little MCM telephone bench I got at our town flea market for $5 this spring.  It was covered in gold vinyl (the seat had a small hole) but I decided because fur is WAY more fun, so it shall be on this bench.  I intended to do white fur, but they were all out at the fabric store.  I have to say I think the black fur works here! I gave the bench a fresh coat of paint too, with my most FAVOURITE GOLD paint ever!! 

 I also got some buffalo check fabric and made a quick envelope cover for one of my existing pillows.

 I bought this swag last year and it seemed like this was a better spot for it.  *SWOON*.  So.  Pretty! Here are a few pics of the rest of the holiday jewelry for the entry.  I wanted it to be fun, simple and the buffalo check is my signature move...haha...and it ws a perfect fit here and contrast to the creamy white paint.  I love the whole space and I'm happy it is complete! It didn't take that long and why the heck didn't I do this before?

This little sign came from the Dollar store, people.  How awesome is this? ;-)

I grabbed a birch branch from my daughter's yard and hung it it the window with thin jute string from Michaels.  I had these little gold, white and silver stars for years and thought they would be a cute and simple addition.  I used sparkly gold string which also came from Michaels and was a great contrast to the natural birch branch.

Do you have a small entryway or space that you struggle with?  I'd love to see pics or hear from you in comments below how you are jhuzzing (yes I say this is a word) up your space.  

Stay weird ;-), 

Wendy