Crafts
6 Valentine Card Ideas For Girls or Boys
Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. Ready, set, panic! No, no. Don’t do that! Here are some fun DIY Valentine’s Day cards that I think both boys and girls would like. My kids would be content picking out themed Valentine’s Day cards from the store, but they also like to sit down and craft with mom, so I’ll take that time with them as long as it lasts. Balloon Card It doesn’t get easier than this idea for a balloon card! This idea is via A Pretty Cool Life, which is a pretty cool name for a blog. There is not a balloon in this world that my kids have met…
My Christmas Decor Hacks
I’m not sure if hack is the right word. How about here are three of my favorite Christmas decor work-arounds? ALTERNATIVE TO GARLAND Don’t have the time, patience, space or money for a Christmas garland? No worries. Free greenery clippings from your yard, or the neighbor’s yard, or the park (can you do that??) placed in a shallow bowl can achieve a similar effect. DON’T HAVE STOCKING HANGERS? NO PROBLEM. I do have Christmas stocking hangers, but one of them is broken and I haven’t found anything else I like better for hanging our Christmas stockings. Last year we used hooks screwed into the bottom of the mantel. That won’t work this year and…
Christmas in the Foyer Part 2: The Wall I Never Show You
It’s important to take pictures you see online or in magazines with a grain pound of salt. You only see certain angles at specific times of day. You don’t see what’s 2 inches outside of the cropped photo. In the case of my blog, there’s an entire wall I’m pretty certain I’ve never shown you. Or at least I haven’t shown it to you since we moved in. That’s because it’s not the star of the show. It does work hard though. It holds coats and shoes and sometimes mail. (Or “post” as people in Ireland call mail.) This wall is immediately to the right of the front door. It…
How to Reshape a Flexible Woven Plastic Basket
This is a story about Target…which I just found out ships to Ireland. And my world is complete. Do you hear angels singing? I’m pretty sure the angels are singing. Anyway, this isn’t a story about Target. It is a story about a basket I purchased at Target though. A basket that the movers CRUSHED in a box along with my hopes and dreams. Kidding. Hopes and dreams were intact. I just needed to add that for dramatic effect. I stalked this basket for a good long while at Target. When your daughter’s room is decorated in lavender, gray and navy, you need this basket. However, I’m too cheap to pay $12…
Fall Mantel
If you live in the United States, Thanksgiving is a nice buffer between Halloween and Christmas. No such buffer exists in Ireland. But, old habits die hard and traditions are important. I have no idea if our grocery store will stock whole turkeys in November or if I can find the ingredients to make my grandma’s pumpkin chiffon pie recipe, but I’m curious to find out. Even if I can’t find those things, it’s really the spirit of Thanksgiving that matters. While the leaves are still turning colors here and the temperatures have started to drop dropped, I’m going to savor autumn. Because I get to experience it in Ireland. Because…
Wrapped Wheat
I’m going to tell you this straight away. I am not above shamelessly copying someone else’s awesome idea. Today’s craft was inspired by one of my favorite bloggers, Michael, at Inspired by Charm. It seems he picked an apropos blog name. I’ve wanted to wrap wheat stalks with embroidery thread ever since Michael shared the idea last year. But I guess the wheat stalks just haven’t aligned for me. Until now. Here’s how it went down. Because there’s always a story. A couple of weeks ago I dropped my daughter off at her painting class, which is in a run-down, kind of deplorable-looking building. This really isn’t all that unusual in Dublin. The only…
DIY Palm Leaf Broom
Prepare to have your mind blown. There are palm trees in Ireland. No, not the big, tropical island-type palm trees, but definitely another variety. It’s called the cabbage palm and it is originally from New Zealand. I have two in my backyard (or garden as they call it here). Here’s one of them. The cabbage palm drops its leaves all. the. time. We pick them up weekly. Sometimes when I can’t sleep, I lay in bed thinking of things I want to do around our home. It helps me fall asleep…unless I come up with a really good idea. Then it’s all “who wants to start a project at 3 a.m.?”…
Halloween Bat Mantel
A couple of weeks ago a strange man at the train station offered my kids packages of Starburst candy. I’m sure the man was just trying to be nice and the candy was unopened, but still. In context, it was an uncomfortable situation. It was one of those lessons in “we don’t take candy from strangers.” Except on Halloween, right mom? GAH! My kids are wild about Halloween. They’ve been planning their costumes for months. And they really, really, really like it when we decorate the house for Halloween. Just because one year I went a little crazy with Halloween book covers and such and now they think we should decorate…
How NOT to Make a Book Pumpkin
This is a cautionary tale should you fall down the Pinterest hole of comparison inspiration and decide you too need to join the throngs of DIYers making book pumpkins. As I did. Please heed these warnings. STEP 1: Put one foot on the slippery slope to a moral abyss. To cut a book apart you’re going to have to throw your moral compass out the window. Let’s just be frank about that. It doesn’t matter how bad the book is, one simply does not cut a book apart. To loosen yourself up for the slide down this slippery moral slope, might I suggest doing something equally egregious, like double-dipping your chip in some…
