: Life is hard. God is good. We need each other.
Cinnamon smells like Christmas to me. I first came across this fun and easy craft when I was teaching second grade years ago. I made the dough with my class, and they each brought home an ornament as a gift for their parents. For weeks, while the ornaments dried, our classroom smelled heavenly!
The best part, in my opinion, is that these ornaments maintain their smell for years. Years, I say!
And they are so easy to make! Just two required ingredients…cinnamon and applesauce.
I always have Mason jars around the house. Besides using them for canning, we use the half pint ones for juice glasses, the pint size for storing things like homemade caramel sauce and hot fudge, and all the way up to my beloved half gallon jars.
I haven’t done a lot of crafts with Mason jars, mainly because I need them to actually use. But when these shiny, painted jars caught my eye– I knew I could find a use for them as well. Win – Win.
My dad is kind of a jack-of-all-trades. I’ve written about how he has helped me with various furniture upcycle projects for my home. I have an island, a light fixture, and a headboard thanks to his ingenuity.
He also sews.
I never knew it was weird for dads to sew until I started getting looks when I would mention it. I took mission trips to Mexico in high school and college on which the ladies had to wear dresses, in keeping with the tradition of the village we were going to. Every year, my dad sewed me a few new ones. Boy did that get laughs when I told the Mexican ladies!
I realized a few years ago that as much as I’d like it to be so, my dad isn’t going to be around forever and I didn’t have a clue how to hem, stitch, or sew a thing … aside from buttons. I took the required sewing class in 8th grade home economics and have a pillow to show for it. But without someone standing behind me directing me, I was at a loss.
So Christmas that year became about sewing. I got a machine and learned how to use it. I’m still no expert, but can sew a (relatively) straight line. I’ve made some simple projects with success.
I’ve been thinking about sewing some curtains for a while.
A while back there was a show on HGTV called “Decorating Cents”. Joan Steffend did inexpensive home decorating projects. Every so often she would visit an architectural remnant store in a segment called, “Trash to Treasure”.
It was filmed in Minnesota, where I live.
I knew I wanted to use something that wasn’t a headboard to make a headboard. I thought a door was my best bet. I looked at new doors and old doors. I looked at a lot of doors.
And then I stopped in Art & Architecture, the store that Joan Steffend used to spotlight on her show.
Wow.
I’m an idea person…big picture all the way. My dad is an engineer, and can figure out a way to do just about anything. We make a great team when it comes to my home decorating projects!
The hutch that I made into an island was pretty cut and dry. My husband, who is talented in many ways but not especially handy, and I were able to complete it all on our own.
When I had the brainstorm that a window would make a great light fixture, it was dad who got the call.
I love using things in ways they weren’t intended for. Besides being conversation pieces, it makes your home personal to you. It adds character. And it can save you a lot of money!
You don’t have to be a designer or skilled in construction to create something unique.
I assure you, I am neither.
It does help that I am not a perfectionist, I will admit.
When we moved into our current house, the previous owners had begun a number of remodels that they hadn’t finished. One was tearing out a peninsula counter/cabinets in the kitchen. We loved how open it made the kitchen, but it left me with very little counter and cabinet space, and just one cabinet drawer.
I began looking at islands. Did you know that
Also, I saw that they all kind of look the same, and I wanted something a bit more unique. So I thought about trying to re-purpose something to create my own island. I looked at workbenches, dressers, and other furniture before finding a hutch that would work.
In short, we used the bottom of the hutch as the actual island and turned the shelves that sat on top of the original hutch upside down to use as storage. I’ll walk you through how we did it.