Fuchsia Saturday

This Saturday, April 9th, Fred Meyer in Washington, Idaho and Oregon, is having their annual Fuchsia Saturday. I've gone to this event once before and it was great! You spend a little money, get your hands dirty and have a beautiful fuchsia arrangement for your home!

Here's how it works, you can either purchase containers at Fred Meyer or bring your own from home. There are ten varieties of fuchsias to choose from. The store provides the potting soil and you can make your own arrangement or get some help from a garden associate making the perfect arrangement. All you pay for are the flowers and they're at a special low price for this event.

Like I said I have been to this event once before and ended up with some beautiful hanging baskets for my front porch. I'm not sure I'll make it this year because you know how everything seems to happen at once? Well, it's all happening here this Saturday. My in-laws are in town, it's Fuchsia Saturday, Lowe's is having a Build and Grow workshop and a local high school is holding a craft fair in their gymnasium. Poop! I can't do it all! Around here family is always first so I'll be hanging with my in-laws.

I hope some of you can make it to one of these events. To find a Fred Meyer near you click here and a Lowe's near you, click here. As for in-laws and local high school craft fairs, you're on your own.

Have a happy weekend friends!

Blessings.

Christmas Wreath

I realize it's been a few weeks since I said I was going to start my Christmas wreath and share it with you. Well, I'm not a complete procrastinator, the wreath is done. It has been for a while now, I just haven't taken any pictures to share with you. First I want to share with you my inspiration wreath.

I saw this wreath in a Lowe's Creative Ideas magazine (one of my favorite's.)

I absolutely LOVE this whole front door area. The black doors the wreath trio on either side. The simple garland with burlap wrapped around it. The swag on the door handle. L-O-V-E it!!

I've talked my inspiration up so much you'll probably be disappointed when you see my wreath. I can honestly say I'm a little disappointed too. I failed to get the poinsettia flowers to stick in the wreath. So my version is much more simple than Lowe's but you get the idea. So here she is...

My wreath cost a fraction of what Lowe's cost ($34.97.) I had the green wreath from Michael's, they usually cost around $ 5 and the green ribbon I paid about $2.50. The sparkley sprig was a couple dollars, the glittered R is actually a stocking ornament I picked up from WalMart for $1, the green ornaments were from WalMart also, I picked them up for multiple different projects (coming soon.) And I had the burlap in with my craft material. Not too bad. I'd say about $8 out of pocket for the whole wreath. And I didn't glue anything so I can use the everything again on another project.

Here's one more look.

Christmas blessings friends.

Last Years Christmas Wreath

It's officially Christmas crafting time! Woo hoo! I know you are just as excited as I am, I've seen some of the stuff you've been working on.

Today I went to Michael's and Wal-Mart to get everything I needed for our front door Christmas wreath. However I haven't done anything more than bring the bags inside the house. So I thought I'd share with you our Christmas wreath from last year. I had a feeling a year ago that I wanted to start my own blog so I started snapping pictures of my projects.

Here is what I started with.

• Wreath from Michael's
• Glittery red HOPE (dollar bin at Michael's)
• berry sprigs and garland
• red glitter pine cone sprigs

I didn't use any hot glue on my wreath because I wanted the option to take everything off and use the wreath again. So I strategically... okay randomly stuck everything where I thought it looked pretty and hoped it wouldn't fall off. Guess what? Nothing fell off. It stood up very well if I do say so myself.

I didn't take a lot of pictures of the final product but here she is.

Hopefully I'll be back later this week to share this years Christmas wreath. I'm really excited about it!

Blessings!

Linking to: All Thingz Related, Craft-O-Maniac

Autumn Wreath

You only get one chance to make a first impression when meeting someone new. I feel like the front porch area is the first impression your home gives to everyone who comes knocking. The front door is kind of like a big smile when you meet someone new. I want my front door to be beautiful and something special that people will remember. I already have Welcome written across the middle but with different seasons I want to add a little something more. So I started searching for some inspiration online. Here are a few front doors I found that make me just want to go inside and interrogate, I mean meet and interview the crafty person who lives inside.

After my google work and catching up on some of my favorite blogs I decided to make an autumn wreath for our front door. I unfortunately didn't have any of the materials for the wreath, well I did have the copper glitter and beads so I didn't have to buy everything new.

Luckily Michael's just had a ton of coupons for Labor Day so I was able to save money on almost everything I bought. I picked up a grapevine wreath, Japanese Lanterns, ribbon and spray adhesive.

First I covered my table and counter with newspaper. I used the table to spray the wreath with spray adhesive then quickly moved the wreath to the counter and sprinkled copper glitter over the whole thing. I let it sit for a minute, tapped off the extra glitter and moved it back to the table. This is so the extra glitter doesn't stick to the newspaper. If you need more glitter you can repeat this step as many times as you want until you're happy with it.

While the glitter dried I used wire cutters to cut off the "stems" of Japanese Lanterns. Then strategically stuck the stems in the wreath. I pulled off the green leaves because this is an autumn wreath and I didn't want a lot of green. Where I pulled off the leaves I pushed a small glass bead for just a little more sparkle.

I liked the wreath with just glitter, flowers and beads but decided it needed a little more. Like a giant R in the center. I've had this R for a while now, I got it on clearance from Kohl's last year. It was painted black which was great but for my wreath I decided to spray it with some ORB (Oil Rubbed Bronze.)

I used the wire from my sign and 2x4 projects to secure the R to the wreath, then tried to hide the wire with some orange ribbon. Here is the finished project hanging on my front door.

So, what do you think? Are you putting together anything special for your front porch area this autumn? Do share!

Blessings.

Linking to: Blue Cricket Design, Fall Nesting Party at The Inspired Room, Fall Festival at This Blessed Nest, Little Blue Prints, House of Hepworths, eighteen25

Patriotic Porch

You've seen my new outdoor decorations and a couple of my 2x4 creations for Independence Day so I thought I'd share the rest with you. These are just some pictures from our home.

On either side of the garage door we hung this bunting.

Of course there's an American flag on the porch.

Welcome to our front door.

Just a little wagon out front.

You've seen my front porch crate, but here it is again.

My three helpers.

Blessings.

Homemade Fireworks

Sounds dangerous, doesn't it? Homemade fireworks. I'm a safety first kind of person so this is the only time you'll hear me suggesting homemade fireworks.

A few weeks ago Tall Man and I were cruising through one of my favorite stores and we saw this great little piece with all the Fourth of July decorations.

We both thought these were great enough to buy but my DIY alarm started ringing and I blurted out "I could so make that." Oops! I didn't just think that, I said it, which means I must show I could in fact make this.

Mine aren't exactly like these, which I like. As usual I was on a "use what you have" budget so I did just that, used what I had. I washed out a few different sized soup, spaghetti sauce and corn cans and sprayed them Dover White. After the paint dried I got creative with some foam brushes and acrylic paint. Colors of choice: Navy Blue and Christmas Red.

My sister gave me a bag of odds and ends wooden shapes a while back and among the odds and ends were these cute little wooden button stars. So I painted them red, white and blue. I tapped a little hole into the top of the can (really the bottom, I flipped them over for this project) with a small nail and hammer. Then I cut some wire and twisted it up for the "fuse."

I used just a touch of hot glue to put the star on the wire and the wire on the can and here is the finished product. Mine aren't as tall and skinny as the ones at the store, but like I told Tall Man, "Tall, skinny fireworks are sissy fireworks. These are MAN fireworks! (enter Tim Taylor grunt.)"

Blessings.

Linking to: Centsational Girl, It's a Blog Party, Somewhat Simple, House of Hepworths

Front Porch Crate

The 4th of July is coming up quickly so my family decided to display a little patriotism on our front porch. I had everything we needed on hand, so this project was easy to do on a whim. I've had a plain crate on my front porch since fall (you know, the ones from Michael's.) As soon as the crate came home I put some potted plants on top and called it good. I decided for Independence Day I'd turn the crate around and paint a flag.

I spray painted the back of the crate with Dove White and let it dry for about ten minutes. Next I took some Midnight blue and Christmas Red acrylic paint and painted some stripes and made room for stars. Once that dried I used white acrylic paint and a small foam brush to paint stars.

I really like the way it turned out, not perfect by any means, just kind of worn and weathered... perfect in my book. =o)

Blessings.

Linking to: Lucky Star Lane, Tip Junkie, Centsational Girl, It's a Blog Party, Somewhat Simple, House of Hepworths