An Easter Brunch Carrot Garland

What you will need: 

2  pieces of 9x12 orange felt

4 pieces of 9x12 felt

1 package of small white pom-poms or cotton balls 

 twine

scissors

orange embroidery floss

sharp embroidery needle

crochet hook

Step One:

Make you template. 

The carrot : body is just a simple triangle with a rounded tip, 4.5 inches tall,  3 inches wide at  bottom

  The leaf:  any leaf shape will do, just make sure that it has a little tail! This is needed to tuck leaves into the top of the carrot. You will need to have 14 carrots and 42 leaves  to make a 1 yard garland like mine.

Step Two:

Take the carrot triangles and fold in half the long way.  Do a basic stitch starting at the widest end and working your way towards the tip- leaving about an 1/2 an inch open at the bottom.

Step Three:

Tie a knot and leave a tail of thread.  Take the crotchet  hook up through the inside of the carrot and wrap the thread tail around the hook several times and then pull back through.  This will help pull your carrot right side out.

Step Four:

Stuff with 4 small pom-poms or cotton balls.

Step Five:

Fan the leaves out and do a basic stitch to hold them together. Then attach to the carrot by taking thread back through where you stitch up the carrot body.

Step Six:

Do not cut thread yet! Do a basic stitch along the top of the carrot body and pull taught so that the edges draw together when you pull thread tight, making sure to hide the tails inside the carrot.   Knot.

Step Seven:

Add four slits on each side of the leaves to give it that leafy effect.

Step Eight:

Repeat 13 more times and  then it is time to tie carrots to the twine.

Cut a little more then a yard of twine and tie around the top of the carrot where the top meets the leaves. Pull tight, no need to tie a knot .   I alternated one carrot, then two carrots, then one carrot, ect. for my garland but you can do what you please.

  

Step Nine:

Hang in your home near some little Easter bunnies.  You don't even have to make a garland! Use your sweet little carrots to decorate your Easter table. Stuff with catnip to make a Easter treat for kitty.  The possibilities are endless.  It will make any spring vignette shine!

Happy carroting guys!

: )

DIY ANTHROPOLOGIE RAINBOW TWINE TREE...

This was such a fun, cheery project.

It was pretty simple too.

Anthropologie is trying

to get you to buy theirs for

a whopping

$68.00

for a large tree

&

$48.00

for a small one.

Mine was free

cause I had all the supplies on hand

but if

you wanna make your own

I would put the cost right around

$5.00

                         My Rainbow Rope Tree                                                     Anthropologie's Rainbow Rope Tree

This Rainbow Rope Tree

would look cute all year round.

You could decorate it for

Easter,

or 4th July,

fall,

maybe even make some spooky black ones

for Halloween.

What I am saying 

I guess

is that the possibilities

are kind of endless

sooo-

wanna make your own?

I thought so...

Supplies

Embroidery floss in various bright colors

A tiny terra cotta pot- must have hole in the bottom

A sturdy but small tree twig that will fit into the hole in the bottom of the terra cotta pot

Hot glue gun

Assorted wood stars or hearts

Clear thread

01. Starting at the bottom wrap floss around tree, you will want to secure the end of your string with a few wraps and then begin your way up the twig. You do not need to cover ever inch of the the wood because as you layer in your colors that will happen on its own.

02. As you are wrapping the "branches" make sure to make a few areas more wrapped then others.  This will help your ornaments stay in place. When you are finished with a color simply tie a knot and cut floss as close as possible to the knot.

03. After your tree is finished you are ready to make the ornaments. Cut the clear thread into short strips.  You want the thread to be long enough to hang your stars- but short enough that your stars will hang in place and not fall down the branch.  You may have to play around with the length of the thread until you get it to hang on your particular twig correctly.  

04.  After finding the length that works best for you, you will glue a dot in the center of the star or heart place the the ends of your thread in the glue and then place another star or heart over it to cover your glue and thread ends.

In other words make a glue and tread sandwich-

does that make sense?

05.  Slide the bottom of your tree into the bottom of the terra cotta pot facing bottom up.

07. Glue into place.

08. Decorate with the ornaments {or cobwebs or whatever the season calls for : ) } and display!

Linking up with

Craft-O-Maniac

Door knobs and crockpots {instead of bed knobs and broomsticks}...

This weekend I took off 14 door knobs!  It took me two hours just to get them all off the doors.  They had been painted over many times and the screws were very hard to get out.  But after it was all said and done  I am so happy I did!  What a huge difference in our doors and savings {a little over two hundred dollars for new knobs}....and I think these glass antiquey ones are pretty cute- don't you? 

This was just the little pop of charm I need after a weekend filled with painting, cleaning, moving furniture, and adding more to my to-do list then I seem to get done.  If you have some old door knobs that need some attention this is how I did it:

*I also used some jewelry wipes {like for brass and silver} to shine them up a little bit....

Let there be light {and let it be pretty!}...

A couple of weeks ago I came home from Restore with more vintage suitcases and a brass chandelier.  Ryan gave me the ol' eye roll {which I had been expecting the whole ride home} and said where do you find this junk?!  He then proceeded to tell me that the suitcase looked like something Johnny Depp would use.

I proceeded to say thank you and he gave me a bewildered look.  I told him Johnny Depp was one of the most stylish guys around and if he thought that Johnny Depp would like the suitcase then I was going to take that as a compliment!

Now Ryan likes the suitcase.  Thrifting wins again!  I think a lot of people approach second hand from the wrong mentality.   I don't buy secondhand because I am poor and I can't afford new things.  Or because I like to buy crap.  I buy secondhand because it's green, it's easy on the bank, and I get a lot more stuff and its UNIQUE.  A word that is slipping away in our society I am afraid.  Who wants to dress like everyone else- not me.

I know wearing something that someone else has worn may seem "icky" to some people.  But I invest in very good detergent, dry cleaning, and tailoring.  You have to be able to know good fit, fabric quality, and look for things that are gently worn.  But ok then, maybe clothing is not for you, but there are so many other things to be found!  That's is why my heart really belongs to Restore.  With everything from paint, to tile, to yard furniture,  a crafting section, I could spend hours there.  I do spend hours there.

When I was planning my wedding the same guy would always cash me out and I know what he was thinking - oh great here comes the crazy girl that buys boxes of crap like birds and candle sticks!  But I got my entire wedding there on the cheap!  And all of my money spent went to Habitat for Humanity!  How awesome is that?

So you all are thinking, OK, we get it Ash, you love thrift stores but tell us something we don't know!  The moral of this story is this-  I got this brass chandelier for twenty dollars....

Kind of ugly right?  It's OK Ryan thought so too.  But when you remove the light bulbs and and faux- candle stick thingies like this...

Then wash the brass surface with a damp rag and soapy water, towel dry completely...

Finally tape off all electrical outlets for light bulbs...

Now you are ready to spray paint!  Take a sheet or something that can be thrown away {I used a towel} and spray paint.  You will need to make sure it will adhere to the surface you are working with.  In my case brass, so I made sure this spray paint works for brass.  Luckily I already had some on hand so spray paint was free.  {spray paint in a well ventilated area and I wear a mask cause I am a gomer like that}

I used Krylon Indoor/Outdoor in gloss.  It was different then the one pictured above because that can decided that he was not going to work and be a waste of 5 dollars- grrrrrr!  So I used Celery Green instead and you know what?  I love it, so take that can of spray paint who has it's own mind, I don't need you anyway...Cause now I have this purdy light for my farmhouse chic kitchen now.   I am glad it's green instead of almond like the cabinets.  Gives it a little more pop...

I am a little more then slightly obsessed with it.  And Ryan has already come around and now thinks it's pretty cool as well.  We have a ceiling pendant to go around it but we are unsure whether to paint it the same color as the light or the ceiling {which will be cotton white flat finish}  To bad neither of us knows how to install a light so we are on the mercy of handy friends until then.  Looks like I need to get my cookbook out and see what kind of bribes I can come up with!

*PS-  Wait till you see what else I have been doing in my kitchen!  I am still finishing a few projects up {and recovering from a horrible migraine}  So it might be next week before you get to see the finished results but believe me the wait will be worth it!

**PS-  Also coming tomorrow a brand new series will be featured so you better come back because if you love sneaking peeks inside real peoples homes....well let's just say I have a special treat for you if you do!