Easy DIY Christmas Tree Basket Stand

Growing up my uncle had a Christmas tree farm. One of my favorite childhood memories was going up to the farm to pick out two live Christmas trees every year. While my parents were setting up the trees in their various locations around the house, the kids had an artificial flocked Christmas tree we used to set up in the hallway upstairs. We would surround it with our stuffed animals and it was something we could easily decorate on our own, unlike the 12-foot-tall trees we got for the other parts of the house. I loved that we had a tree that was all our own. 

I can't seem to shake the feeling that it isn't Christmas if I don't have more than one tree decorating the house. I picked up a small artificial tree this past summer at a garage sale for $2 and I decided that it was the perfect tree to work some magic on. I loved the idea of our old flocked Christmas tree, so I did a little DIY flocking. {more on that tomorrow! You aren't going to want to miss that tutorial.} All of the supplies were from the dollar store and it was so fun and easy.

Another recent trend that I'm loving is using baskets as a base. I saw a few Christmas tree collars lining the shelves at the store, but I was pretty sure that I could DIY a basket for a similar look. And I did. I just love how it turned out. Read along for the full tutorial on how to create your own Christmas tree stand basket.

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Painted Wooden Hanging Plant Stand with Chalkboard

I love a good hanging basket but I have one problem. Every year I kill the ones I buy. They hang up so high that I usually forget to water them because out of sight, out of mind. Also, I'm never quite sure how much sun or shade a plant gets so it's usually trial and error. But I got to thinking, hanging baskets are so pretty and when they hang you kind of miss like 50% of the flowers and plants inside because you just can't see them. So, why not move them down to a plant stand? I saw one of these wooden hanging plant stands at a home last year while I was going to garage sales and I thought it was genius. So come see how I made it my own and now I have this painted wooden hanging plant stand on my front porch to enjoy all 100% of the plant. Now here's hoping I keep it watered so it stays alive!

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{easy to make} Antler Jewelry Tree Tutorial

{easy to make} Antler Jewelry Tree Tutorial

I have a thing for antlers. They are spread all throughout my house. I love to decorate with them, so when I found a faux antler Christmas tree pick at my local Hobby Lobby, I picked it up. I knew exactly what I wanted to make with it.  I have a lot of small jewelry pieces and sometimes out of sight means out of mind. If I don't have something in front of me, I forget about it. But not now! I can see all my favorite pieces on the DIY faux antler jewelry stand and it's a beautiful art piece too! I'm partnering with HomeRight to share with you how I created this jewelry stand {for under $5!} and how you can too!

I took this faux antler...

and created this DIY faux antler jewelry stand. It's one of my favorite pieces in my master bedroom closet now.  I can't wait to show you how you can make your own too!

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Transformation Tuesday

Welcome back to transformation Tuesday!  It's becoming one of my favorite new series on the blog.

I share with you on Friday my favorite garage sale finds, and then on Tuesday, I follow up with a transformation from the previous week. 

This past week, I bought all the large things.  I bought a rare art deco dresser for $20 that ended up being worth thousands, Ethan Allen pieces and some other large awesome goodies. Any idea what the transformation item will be this week?  

Think I painted some furniture? I did!  Bet you can't guess which item I painted.

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Transformation Tuesday-an updated hamper goes from the 70's to glam with some spray paint

I am so excited about this new summer series called transformation Tuesday, where I take one of the previous weeks garage sale finds from Friday and transform it into something amazing.

This week, all it took was a little spray paint to take a really old 70's looking storage hamper into something really awesome.  Here's a glimpse at what it looked like before.

You won't believe how good the after looks!

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Update your boring office supplies with some gold spray paint!

Am I the only one that wants to gold all of the things? I am loving this gold trend right now and love it even more when I can take some boring office supplies from my junk drawer and update them in a matter of minutes.  This project didn't cost me a dime since I had everything on hand, but now, my office supplies look like a million bucks!  It's so easy!

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Gold painted seashell candles

We live very close to the beaches of the Puget Sound.  In fact, spending time at the beach is one of my favorite things ever!  I'm still a kid at heart and love walking the shore collecting shells and sand dollars.  The big question is, what do you do with them once you get home?  Well, I have a fun craft that didn't cost a lot of money but will help you make your shells a keepsake.

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Patriotically painted mason jars

I am attracted to mason jars like a moth to a flame.

I have quite the collection of jars and needed to start coming up with projects to do with them besides canning.  

I love putting cut flowers in mason jars, so I thought self, how awesome would a painted mason jar with cut flowers be?  Actually, I know I'm not the first person to come up with this idea,

 but in case you live in a cave,

this is my version of the painted flag mason jars.

I started by finding three of the same sized mason jars in my collection.

I spray painted them white and was actually quite impressed with how well the spray paint adhered to the jars.  Keep your eyes peeled, there may be more spray painted mason jar projects.

These are the supplies I used in this project.

I wouldn't recommend the foam star stickers that I used.  They didn't peel off the jars well, though I have read other tutorials where they had great luck with stickers as a stencil.

I used American acrylic paint and frog tape to make shape crisp lines.

Oh, and a brush.

You will need a paint brush for a painting project.

Duh.

If you are using stickers, this is when you put them on.

Again, my garage sale free box stickers did not work for me.

Maybe stay away from the foam kind?

Just a suggestion.

It's self explanatory, but paint your jars.

I used about twenty three coats of blue.

No exaggeration.

I literally left the project out on my counter and came back to it every five minutes between cleaning and errands.  Super fun, right?

Which is why I am thinking there will be more spray painting projects in my near future.

Because the stickers didn't work,

I hand painted stars on my jar.

Fill your jars with half dead flowers from your anniversary a week ago and you are set!

Next time, I will probably put something not quite so dead inside of the jars,

but hey, I used what I had.

I think these would be great at a BBQ holding silverware, or as a table centerpiece with flowers.  Fresh flowers. Be classy...unlike me.

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Bird cage and glittered bird

For the past two months, I have been going to this great Saturday junk show called Second Saturdayz in the Old Post office building in Tacoma.  

My 10 year old daughter loves to go with me {have I created a monster???}, and we share that time {and lots of money} having our best time picking out some great new {to us} things. 

My goal this year, is to re-do the younger two kids bedrooms.

Since our move two years ago, neither one of their rooms has felt like them.

We are sort of in design limbo.

But as I get a better sense of what their style is, I am moving in the right direction with coming up with a good design plan for their rooms.

Like I said, my daughter loves to go junk shopping with me.

So I think we are going to be leaning on an all white design in her room with some really shabby chic vintage items as the focal point.

When she saw this birdcage, she fell in love.

It needed a coat of paint, but I had to agree, it was pretty cool.

Later on in the day, while shopping at my favorite store {The Dollar Store...duh!}, 

I saw them stocking these ugly birds on the shelves.

I figured while I was spray painting the bird cage, I might as well attempt to spray paint the bird as well.

One thing that I have learned over the years is that not all spray paint is created equal.

Krylon is almost always worth the splurge {nope, they didn't pay me to say that, but if you have Krylon connections and you want to pay me, I would be on board!} so I was happy when I found some white in my stash.

It's always best to start out with light coats of spray paint, but to do lots of them.

This is a picture after the first coat.

Five coats and 45 minutes later, this is what we ended up with.

Isn't it so much better?!

I don't know why the Dollar Store doesn't just leave their birds white like this.

It's a huge improvement over the painted green that some poor person had to meticulously paint for less than pennies for their labor.

I couldn't just stop there though.

I broke out my mod podge and some shimmery glitter and glitterfied {yep, it's a word} my bird.

Seems simple enough, but anytime I wonder how something is done, usually it's the "simple" steps that get left out assuming that someone knows how to do something.

So I'm not assuming because you know what happens when you assume? 

Oh, you don't?

Look it up.

Anyway, I started by taking my foam brush and brushing mod podge all over the bird.

Once he was completely covered in mod podge, 

I took my shimmer glitter and sprinkled it all over that little guy.

Make sure you get every nook and cranny.

It's sort of obvious if you miss a spot.

That's it!

Amazing what a coat of paint and some glitter will do.

What's that?

Oh, yeah, that's not the same bird cage that I painted earlier.

Are you trying to say that I have an obsession or something?

I call it a collection.

Whatevs...

Birds watch out.  

I'm coming for your home!

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