Christmas DIYs and Decor

The day after Thanksgiving I pulled out our Christmas decorations and realized how few decorations I had! And even of the few I had there were a lot that I didn't like anymore. (You know those, $2 decorations that you get for like 90% off after Christmas? I bought them because they were so cheap, not so necessarily because I liked them.)

So any who, I went to Hobby Lobby that night-- after the crazy crowds were gone for the day-- to get a few more decorations. I swear to you, it seems like they are clearing out Christmas decorations already! I went a couple of weeks ago and they had WAY more than they have now. That really bugs me. 

Anyway, anyway, so I didn't see much I liked so I decided to make a few decorations myself. I started with some styrofoam things, spray painted them red, and added some fake berries. 

The ball is done! Took a few hours. Not really cost effective after I added it all up, but I like it :)

Here it is in place. (Sorry for the terrible phone shots.)

I haven't finished decking out the entertainment center yet, but this is a start.

And here is the styrofoam tree after the berries were added. I LOVED the berries on the stems, they were so pretty. They don't look as amazing on the tree, but I still like it so I'll keep it. No, I'll definitely keep it because this thing was a pain in the butt to make! With the smaller ball there were wires that I just stuck into the foam. These balls didn't have wire so I had to glue them on and it took hours for the glue to dry. I had to do it section by section waiting hours in between. 

Here it is in place on the entry table-

I have never blogged about the wreath on my door before but I should. That's how much I love it. I use the same basic boxwood wreath all year round. Most of the year it is just plain - which I like, I'm a simple girl-- but during holidays I change out the berries and decor. I really love it. I wish I would have gotten a shot of the fall version before I switched it out. 

Here is the Christmas-y version of my wreath. 

Just for comparison, here is the Halloween version of my wreath-

Here's the front porch. I hate the wires!! But I don't know what to do with them?? I've got to do something.

By the way, I got these two potted Christmas trees for $43 dollars at Lowes online on black Friday. I got them BOTH for $43. Killer deal!!  ( Trust me, I looked around A LOT!)

I also did one more DIY Christmas tree. This one was MUCH easier and MUCH cheaper than the other two projects. I bought this Christmas tree form at Hobby Lobby for $4 and just Modge Podged scrapbook paper onto it. 

Here it is in place on top of the book shelf.

I have a lot more decorating to do but our house has been plagued with illness so it will just have to wait.

Merry Christmas and happy decorating! :)

Myth Buster

I'm sure you've all seen this image a hundred times on Pinterest right?

I had. And I had heard before of a ceramic pen that you could draw on plates with and bake to customize your own dishes. So when I saw these posts about using basic sharpies I thought, "No way!! Regular sharpies won't do that. You have to have a ceramic pen!" But the post was EVERYWHERE! Multiple posts, multiple people. Everyone was doing it, so I started believing it. (Classic case of peer pressure!)

Still very skeptical, I decided to try it. I really wanted a birthday plate and after looking around on etsy, and not wanting to pay $47.00, I decided to give the sharpie method a try.

I looked on etsy for some inspiration.... 

bought my dollar store white plate and colored sharpies and got to work....

I was really happy with my plate! I SO wanted this whole thing to work. I did my research on many different tutorials. They differed a little in time and temperature but were mostly the same. Bake at 300 for 40 min. (Or something close to that.) I did it. This is the plate before baking.

Here it is after baking-

 You can see the colors faded a little bit and looked more streaky (is that a word?) But still not bad if this was indeed, permanent. 

I didn't want to face the fact that my cute plate might wash away so I didn't even use or wash it for months. But today I was feeling much less attached to it and gave it a try. 

This was a few seconds after LIGHT scrubbing. 

And this was after a minute of good scrubbing. 

MYTH BUSTED. I was a fool to believe.