DIY Christmas Tutu

For our Christmas pictures this year, I had really wanted to make a red skirt and put a bunch of bows all over it. Well that didn't really work out, so I opted to make my own tulle skirt! I think it turned out adorable, and although tedious, it was super easy!! I got the spools of tulle from Michael's (about $3.99 for glitter tulle and $2.99 for regular), and I purchased 3/4 inch no-roll elastic. I also had purchased enough elastic to perfectly measure around Stephen's neck, so I made him a bow tie! Here is how I did it...

1. Laid out all my supplies (tulle, elastic, thread to sew elastic, needles, measuring tape).
2. Measured my waist and subtracted 2 inches so it would fit snug
3. Measured how long I would want the skirt to go, I picked mid thigh. 
4. Measure out one piece of tulle (remember to double the measurement to your knee since you will be folding the tulle in half)
5. Cut all your pieces at once using your first piece as a guide
6. Fold tulle in half and loop around elastic and pull through. Make sure when you create the knots, they are all on the same side. 
7. Continue all the way around your elastic
8. Viola!! 

Here is a tutorial I found that has pictures for the step by step process :) 

Crafting Fun

So when Stephen and I re-did our kitchen (pictures below), we painted our dining room too. Before the we painted, we had a shelf above a door going into our sun room that just had our favorite wine bottles lined up in a row. I wanted to do something that looked a little cleaner and something that would give me a chance to craft! With some awesome inspiration from Pinterest (of course), this is what I came up with.

 However, let me tell you, typically I don't post the "don'ts" on my blog, however I think the bottles wrapped in hemp are a don't. To be honest, each one took over an hour to do and they didn't even turn out all that cute. AND the natural hemp one turned out to be almost the same color as my wall so its a camouflage decoration :)  Needless to say, I love the "EAT" but will be looking for more inspiration for the rest of the shelf.

DIY Magnetic Chalkboard

I really wanted to make a chalkboard in my guest room so that I could leave cute little welcome notes for our guests. I found a tutorial for making the exact chalkboard I wanted and here is how I did it!

I first started with an empty frame that I had already painted, tin snips, sheet metal, nails, chalkboard paint, metal primer and an ultra smooth foam roller

Then, I primed the metal and painted with the chalkboard paint. As I was waiting for it to dry I wanted to make my own magnets. I found these little clock pendants in the scrapbooking section at Michaels. I bought some adhesive magnets and attached them to the clocks.

All Done!! I just nailed the sheet metal to the back of the frame and added my magnets!

Hung it in my guest room!