Ruffled Felt Christmas Tree

This little felt tree was super easy to make, and we will enjoy it for many future Christmases :)

Here's how I made it.

You need:

*A ton of green felt (I used dark and light-get about 8 sheets of each to be safe)
*Scissors
*A styrofoam cone (get it in the garden section-not the craft section-waaay cheaper option), this one is 12" tall
*Pins
*Yellow felt for the top (with optional embroidery floss + stuffing)

1. Cut out a bunch of circles of green felt.



2. Fold a circle in half twice, then pin in whatever pattern you want onto the tree form.

3. Repeat a gazillion times.


This is a fun craft to do while you are watching a movie or something, as it is sort of time consuming.

If you want to make a star for the top, just cut a 2 stars out of some yellow felt. You can use a template if you want, but I just drew it (not as precise, but more charming, I'm sure). Then stitch it together and stuff it with batting if you want to add some volume.

So cute :)



Craft inspired by Family Circle

Weekend Wrap Up and a Rustic Christmas Wreath

Hi all! Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend ;)
Mine was full of good stuff.

Wednesday we celebrated my husband's birthday with tequila and a giant, sequined purple sombrero at our favorite Mexican restaurant (he'd kill me if I posted the pic of him, so just use your imagination).

Thursday, my mom and I did the Turkey Trot, a 4 mile course.



Then we had some turkey and stuff.

Friday we did a super fun crafty get together with my awesome cousins. I'll get to that later in the post.

I ate a bunch of these babies:



So good. But so naughty...

Ok, I also decided I needed a wreath.

So, I thought I'd share that with you:

Here's what I did to make this super easy decor (took about 20 minutes or less).



*Ok, so you need a wreath form (I used pipe insulation from Lowe's that I got for $1.92--awesome idea from The Penny Parlor)

*You also need some burlap. Maybe like a yard, but I'll get to that.

*Some wreath bling. I used frosty cranberries and some decorative potpourri stuff.

*Also, a sewing machine and hot glue gun (not pictured).

1. Get your wreath form ready. Cut it. I didn't really need to do this because I just took the tape of my pipe insulation that I had in a wreath form. This will make it like a hundred times easier to put the burlap on.

2. Lay out your burlap. If you have cats, they will sit on it. Distract them with something shiny and continue on.

3. Ok, so I cut one long strip (3 yards long-but I trimmed off about a foot, so you do the math. It is not my forte). My strip was 10 inches wide.

4. Fold the strip vertically, or "hot dog" style. Sew along the strip. Is this confusing? I'm going to draw a diagram.

Ok, I hope that is helpful.

5. Now you have a long burlap tube. Put it on your wreath form, tape your wreath for back together and scrunch the burlap.

6. Hot glue whatever pretties you want to put on your wreath and hang :)

What? That was too easy.




At our crafty get together, two of my cousin's made some pretty awesome wreaths that I wanted to share with you.



Rachel wrapped burlap strips overlapping around the whole wreath, then hot glued some ornaments and cranberries and added red and gold ribbon. Love it!



Chelsea got super crafty and wrapped the wreath in green and red felt, made some felt ruffles and added some strands of felt Christmas lights.

Both of these wreaths were made using pipe insulation, too.

Ok, this post was really long! I hope it inspired you to make a crafty wreath for your home.

Sesame Chicken and House Updates

We almost never get take out Chinese food anymore. It's too greasy and it makes us feel ill. So I occasionally make a healthier swap like this one so that we get some of those flavors without all the gross add ins and grease.

This recipe is super quick and easy (my favorite way to cook). It might seem like it has alot of ingredients, but you most likely have these in your pantry already (with the exception of the seasoned rice vinegar).

Sesame Chicken
adapted from Hungry Girl

10 oz. Raw chicken breast (I used 5 tenderloins thawed from the freezer)
salt + pepper
1 egg white
squirt of hot sauce (optional* I used sriacha)
Flour

For the sauce:
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup water (I was out of chicken broth, so I used water-it was fine)
2 Tbsp pancake syrup (I used lite)
2 Tbsp seasoned rice vinegar (I used garlic seasoned)
1 Tbsp ketchup
1/2 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
1 tsp sesame seeds
sprinkle of red pepper flakes(optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and either spray pan or line with parchment paper. Cut your chicken into bite sized pieces (But don't bite them. They are still raw.) Put your egg white and squirt of hot sauce in a small bowl and whisk it. Put some flour, salt and pepper in another bowl and stir (I probably put 1/2 cup flour in the bowl). Dip your chicken in the egg, then in the flour and put it on your lined baking sheet. Bake for 15-17 minutes. While it is baking, make your sauce.

To make the sauce, combine water and cornstarch in a sauce pan and stir to dissolve. Heat the burner to medium low heat and add the other sauce ingredients (except for the sesame seeds and red pepper flakes). Let it heat for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, until it thickens up. Once the chicken is done, put it in a bowl and pour the sauce over it along with the sesame seeds and optional red pepper flakes and toss to coat.

We had ours with sticky jasmine rice and roasted zucchini and red pepper. So good!

Ok, so I thought I'd update you on some home stuff we've been doing.
For those of you who do not know, my husband and I bought our first house and have been settling in for the past 3 weeks.

Our first project was the only room with wallpaper-the dining room. Here's the before and after pics:



We took down the dreaded wallpaper, painted the walls light blue and the trim a creamy cotton beige color. I bought some white curtains from Target and painted bold black stripes on them. We also spray painted the brass light fixture with a hammered finish bronze paint, but you can't really tell from this picture.

Another project to show off is the pallet daybed in my craft/guest room. My dad and I made this using 2 pallets that we cleaned up and sanded. We bracketed them together and added caster wheels.



It was a fun and easy project. If anyone has checked out my Pinterest For the Home Board, you know I have a slight obsession with re-purposed pallets. The inspiration for my curtains is also on that board.

Anyways, hope everyone has a great day! Thanks for reading :)

Twine Orbs

Wow, I must be lacking in creativity because I was about to entitle this post "string balls." I think twine orbs is classier, no?

This is a pretty decoration to put in different places around the house. I think I'll spray paint mine blue, black and white and hang them from the ceiling in my craft room. They look good au natural also. You could use colored string or yarn, also, but I felt my craft store was lacking in the colors I had in mind.

You know they sell decorative string orbs in the stores, but this project cost me about 7 bucks. And you can probably make 5 orbs with these supplies. I made 3.

Here's my supplies (sort of)



Ok, this was a trial and error sort of thing. I started by putting the twine in watered down glue and wrapping around the balloon. Not good. The string kept getting tangly and the balloon was slippery.

So I scrapped that and thought of this gem:



So, your supplies should really omit the glue and go for the hair spray. And don't be afraid to spray the heck out of these balls. Spray them like you are styling your hair for a Bon Jovi concert circa 1989.

I wrapped the twine dry around the inflated balloons (I taped the beginning part of the string to the balloon to keep it in place), then sprayed 2 coats of hair spray and popped my balloons after they dried.

What a super quick and easy craft to decorate your home!

How to Make a Gallery Wall

Wow, I have been a blogging slacker for the past week. I have an excuse, though. We moved into our new house this past weekend and our Internet has not been hooked up yet. By the way, love love love the new house. So many awesome things about it.

It's kind of fun, too, to unpack and find things you forgot you had. So far, I have found a pair of shoes I thought I lost on vacation years ago and learned that I have about a gazillion spices. Also, I'm apparently a collector of random art and pictures. None of my pictures go together which poses a problem in a house full of empty walls. In an apartment, we had limited wall space, so I usually just hung one picture per wall or the wall was obstructed by furniture. Well, my point is that I have alot of walls to fill.

Look at this sad wall



I decided to make a gallery wall with some random pieces.

Here's what I used



So, first you kind of arrange your pics on the floor (check that awesome carpet).
Then you lay your pictures on your paper, trace them and cut them out. I used a brown wrapping paper. You can use whatever you have around the house. I even ran out of this and had to use some snowman paper for one picture.



Make your arrangement on the wall with the cut paper and tape them up. I used packing tape because we have a stock pile, but you can use painter's tape or masking tape if you are worried about peeling paint (I did not have a problem with that, though).



Once you are okay with your design, nail right through the paper where your hang-y thingies are (those are technical terms, people). Then rip off the paper and hang your pics.



Yay! Gallery style :)