Knockoff Pier 1 Christmas Tree

On Friday I had the honor of posting over at A Little Tipsy while Michelle was here with you all! In case you missed my tutorial on her site, here it is again:

When I saw this cutey-pie Christmas Tree in the Pier 1 adds, I knew I needed it! But $35.00? Really Pier 1? Since we've already established that I'm a cheapo, I'm sure you know what's comin!

I started off with glitter paper (found@HobLob), white paint, wood plaque (49 cents at Michaels), glitter and a foam paintbrush.

I first cut out my random sized circles and then made them into little pacmen.

I then made them into little cones. If you weren't using glitter paper, it'd be really easy to just glue or tape this. But since my paper had so much texture I had to use brads to keep them closed.

Once I did this, I stacked them and taped them on the inside. This is where it gets a bit messy. I painted the base and paintbrush handle white. After it dried I covered it in mod podge and then sprinkled with silver Martha Stewart glitter. I then used gorilla glue to attach the paintbrush to the base. My hands were so messy that I didn't think handling my camera was a good idea. Once they were stacked, I stuck a piece of wire through the top and cut out a star from the paper.

To attach the base and the tree, I cut out a piece of cardboard into a circle and taped it from the inside. I poked a hole through with my paintbrush and stuck it right in.

The next month will be chop full of Christmas projects! I have several done & about 10 more on my to do list so stay tuned! :-)

I'm linking up to these parties this week: The Girl Creative Party Blog, Olivia Renn, Lil Luna, http://danajeanward.blogspot.com/
Let The Creative Juices Flow, The Trendy Treehouse

And as usual, see my "Linky Parties" tab for all of these ladies lovely buttons (and more)!

Blog Swap with Michelle from A Little Tipsy

Hi There! I am so excited to be here on Joy is at Home today! Suzy is adorable and I love her clock re-do and felt flower headbands!

Michelle, from A Little Tipsy here, taking the wheel for the day!

Nope not drunk (what a relief you will not be taking your tour with a drunk driver), I may or may not be a bit clumsy though.

A little about me, I am a SAHM with one crazy 3 year old boy, a 3 week old baby boy, and a big geek for a husband (don't worry, he calls himself a geek). I love keeping busy and sharing all my projects and adventures whether they be Home decor, holiday projects, or discovering how to get permanent marker off granite counter tops.

So, enough about me...here are a few of my favorite projects.

Here is a Cupcake Baby Shower Gift I made for a friend that had her baby on the same day as me three weeks ago!



I am so excited that it is finally time to pull out the Christmas decor and music! Christmas (or should I say December) is my favorite holiday. Here are a few fun things for the holidays.

Christmas Art Project



Easy Neighbor/Teacher/Co-worker gifts

Merry Christmas Martinelli's
or Chocolate Dipped Candy Sticks



I'm kinda sorta known as the treat girl. I am asked to bring dessert to every family gathering and even have a feature on my blog called Cereal Treat Sunday. Here a fun little recipe with a holiday twist.

Chocolate Candy Cane Crunch Cookies



The Christmas season is all about giving and my blog is no exception. I love hosting giveaways and have a lot of really fun ones lined up for December so be sure to check in often!

Well, I guess that about wraps things up. Thanks to Suzy for swappin' it up and thanks to you for letting me be your tour guide today. Watch your step on the way out and don't forget to come visit soon!

**************************

Thanks so much for being our guest, Michelle!! I will definitely be stopping by for those giveaways! I also cannot WAIT to try some of those candy cane cookies... Maybe you can just email me some?! :)

Handmade Thank You Cards

Nothing too overly exciting out of me today. I just thought I'd share a few "thank you" cards I made recently. I'm not a huge cardmaker, mostly because I never have the time. But they're so nice to have on hand and it's a perfect project for a snowy or rainy day!! Hope you grabbed some inspiration today! Have a wonderful day!

I'm linking to:
Young & Crafty
Sassy Sites
Lil Luna
SNS @ Funky Junk Interiors
(Hop over to my Linky Parties page to see my weekly favs!)

enjoy

this sunday evening i am taking time to just "enjoy"...

....this wonderful cup of peppermint mocha hot chocolate

YUM!

 {will post the recipe soon}
**a little hot chocolate with your marshmallows?!**

and this fab book that i got in the mail yesterday...amazing inspiration! 

thank you, ashley {at a blondes DIY life}.

ps. isn't that the cutest blogger name everrrrr?

a pile of accomplished projects. i was finally able to cross something off of the wedding to do list and made my save the dates!

{they're even magnetic!}

our beautifully decorated christmas tree

 {i know, i skipped Thanksgiving.

who cares.

bring it on Christmas}



the love of a hunka man and a sweetie-pie puppy who cuddled next to me all day.
{don't be fooled by the fur. she's a 4 pounder}

and being thankful for all of you wonderful bloggers who take time out of your busy day to stop by and say hello.

 i love each. and. every. comment.

and on that sappy note-
i received a blogger award from a super sweet blogger, Christina at
{Christina's Adventures}
 {who happens to have a cutey cuddly puppy that my lily would love & immediately sniff his butt and hump him give him lots of hugs and kisses}

So the rules for this award are:

1. Thank & link back to the person who awarded you this.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.

1. I was an only child my entire life and thanks to some remarriages, I now have 2 of the cutest, sweetest siblings. Hannah, age 3 and Sean, age 1.

2. I am engaged & am getting married on June 4th of next year {hence the save the dates} :-) We are getting married at a state park next to a waterfall, which I swore I'd never do because of our unpredictable MN weather. But we're trying it and if it rains we'll be cozy in our backup location.

3. My fiance picked out my ring and to be quite honest, it's pretty big. People always comment on it and I just pretend I don't really know how big it is. I just say, "He picked it out.. not me!"  But it's gorgeous & I lurrrrrrrve it.

4. I am a nurse at a clinic and work for a family practice doctor {and love it}. But when I first went to college I told people that I wanted to be a stay at home mom. They didn't appreciate that at my all girls liberal college. whatevs.

5. No one in my family knew about my blog til recently. I'm not embarrassed {ok, maybe a little. just because i never know if my crafts are dorky or not!} But mostly because I like to make a lot of gifts and I was afraid they'd see them all on my blog before they got them as presents!

6. My middle name is Marjalean. I've never known anyone with that name or anyone that can even remember it. I was named after a great aunt that died as an infant. I didn't know how to spell it til I was like 10.

7. This is my first "non-tutorial" blog post... and I'm really worried that you're all going to be so bored & stop following me!

Thanks, Christina, for the award! And also thanks to the other several who have given me these awards. I haven't done them before now {mostly because of #7} :)

Please... ENJOY your day!

Chalkboard Menu

Hello Everyone! Just wanted to share with you a super quick & easy project I did that really spruced up my eating area! I'm almost embarrassed to post the tutorial because it's just that easy! But I'm all about skimming through the pictures so here goes!

First I found this frame at a garage sale for $1.00... I love oval frames!

{The lady who sold it to me had an old handpainting in it that she thought might be worth something. She was so excited that someone wanted to buy it! I felt so guilty about it that I couldn't bare to tell her that I was only getting it for the frame!}

I took out the glass first and set it aside for later. Then I spray primed and painted the frame with the always reliable Krylon.

I used spray chalkboard paint and sprayed it right onto the glass. You'll want to make sure that before you do this, you clean the glass really good with glass cleaner! It took several coats for this part. After it dries, I took chalk and rubbed the side of it all over the surface of the chalk board, wiping it off with a rag or paper towel.

I looped a piece of satin ribbon through the frame and inserted the glass portion back into it. I pulled the ribbon over my pantry door and pressed thumb tacs into the top to hold it.

I love love love it! And it's super easy so it's a perfect craft to start when you don't have a lot of time! It's also nice to let those "non-cooking" members of the fam know what's up for din din.

Side note: Anyone have a clue where to find chalkboard markers? I have checked everywhere... walmart. target. hoblob. michaels. joanns. and struck.out. everytime! I'd love to use them rather than the chalk that my dog loves to steal out of the pantry and eat is messy.

Hope you're having a wonderful day!

Cheap-o Clock Redo

I am sorry it's been ages since my last post! But I PROMISE, I've got lots of things stirring for the next couple of weeks.

I'm sure you all have one of these clocks somewhere. This particular one was $3.00 at Walmart that I bought back when we lived in an apartment and I refused to spend money on anything til we moved into the new house. The plan was to replace it, but I just never found the right one... so of course I just gave it a makeover :)

First, I took apart the original. This is probably not the safest way to do it, but it worked!

The back just pops out and then you can take the hands off of the front. I spray painted mine with some ORB spray paint, but if you do make sure to let it dry for a couple of days or the hands will stick together.

I spray primed the clock before spray painting it. Don't skip this step otherwise the spray paint just runs right off the cheap-o plastic. It took a couple of coats and I added a sealer at the end.

I took off the original face of the clock and attached strips of a post it note that I cut up.
(I know, I'm getting real ghetto here!)

I traced a circle onto my scrapbook paper and cut it out. Then I laid it over my original so I could see where the numbers are supposed to go.

Next, I glued numbers that I cut out from my Cricut (storybook cartridge).

Once I put it all back together I carefully inserted the plastic piece. Some of the edges scraped a bit so I'll have to go back and touch that up later! {impatient me hates that}

This was REALLY hard to take pictures of so I am so sorry about my dark, artificial light filled pictures!

Here our clock is in it's new home!

Decorating my bathroom has been a slow process, so don't judge my sparse wall. However, I am almost done with it and will be doing a reveal soon!!

 I promise to have some good stuff up here again soon..Wanna Hint? We went from 70 degree weather last week and today woke up to our first snowfall... of 8 inches of snow! Yup, you guessed it.. the house is being Christmas-fied! :)

And on an unrelated note, I turned my head for one single second and my little sneaker struck again.

She sure does love her people food! Have a great Sunday!!

Here's where I'm partying this week:
A Little Lovely Blog, Not So Homemade, Cottage Instincts, C.R.A.F.T., Between Naps on the Porch, Take A Look Tuesday

Foam Soap Dispenser

I don't know about you, but I love Bath & Body Works foam soaps! However, the last time I stocked up on them I noticed that the pumps squirt soap everywhere! I thought it was just me & I was crazy...... but everyone who comes to my house & uses the bathroom comes out with soap on their shirt. THEN, I saw this lovely post about another blogger who had the same problem! (Sarah @ The BIrds Papaya). She made some soap dispensers out of mason jars. I decided to make a version similar to hers, but I was determined to get rid of the icky soap launchers dispensers.

Here's what you'll need:

First, I went to Target & found the cheapest soap I could that had a foam dispenser. (I tested them all out in the aisle to make sure they didn't stick too... I'm sure they loved that) My favorite was Dial brand & it was under $1.

Next, I measured the inner part of the pump (the smaller size) and drew a circle on the top of my mason jar lid. I tried to cut out the circle but the man did it because apparently my muscles are too weak he's nice.

Once that was done, I spray painted the lid Krylon white to better match the room.

Then I put gorilla glue on the inside & stuck it to the lid.

But after I did this, I realized that my hole was perfectly snug & the dispenser fit without the glue. The gorilla glue also showed through a little because of how it expands. So once it was dry I pulled it back out and peeled the gorilla glue off. It fit snugly and works perfectly!!

I love it! I meant for this one to go in my {blue} guest bathroom.. but I'll be honest- it really bothered me that the ribbon and soap colors didn't match. So I swapped out the ribbon, put it in the kitchen & will have to make another one for my bathroom... this time with blue soap!

Check out my linky parties page to see where I like to party! Or just click on the links below to see where I'm heading this week:

My Backyard Eden, Crafty Soiree, Fingerprints on the Fridge,