DIY: Happy Everything Jar

Most of the time my DIY thought process is like this – see something on Pinterest I must have, can’t afford it, heck, I’ll make it myself!

Example of the day: Happy Everything by Coton Colors.

I just love the idea of it! But I just can’t afford to buy it for myself or all my friends. So it was time to get crafty.

Step one, rush to Michaels to gather supplies:

Large mason jar (I had on hand)

Thin piece of wood

Black paint

White paint

Brushes

Modgepodge (I had on hand)

Scrap book paper

Hot-glue & gun

“Season stuffing” (i.e. for Valentine’s day I got flowers and tinsel hearts)

Paint the inside of the mason jar white.

Paint the wood piece black.

Trim the scrapbook paper to fit the wood piece.

Paint a thin layer of modgepodge on the wood piece to glue the paper.

I designed the text image on the computer and printed on regular old cardstock. (email me and I will send you the pdf!)

Paint another layer on top of the scrapbook paper and glued the “Happy Everything” text down.

Paint another layer of modgepodge on top to seal.

Once everything is dry, hot-glue the wood piece to the jar.

Viola! Switch out your “season stuffing” for the seasons and the holidays of the year!

I have so many ideas for 4th of July (red, white & blue flowers), football season (garnet and gold sunflowers), Christmas (poinsettias) the list can go on and on!!

Weekend Recap - it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Happy Monday friends!

Here's a little weekend recap according to my iPhone!

I made my first pie - a S'mores pie!

After digging through my jewelry box, I found my Ma's high school class ring - it's now rocking right next to my Daddy's ring! 1982 & 1970 :)

 

Boyfriend treated me to some Nuberri - and his looked like alien ice cream. We really do have very different sweet tooths.

Our beautiful tree! Thanks to Boyfriend's meticulous arrangement of the ornaments and ducktaping the treetopper so it stays exactly where I want it...

 Not pictured:

• Daddy's Birthday Dinner @ Chili's! Where I thought I was going to die when I ordered of the 'skinny' menu when all I really wanted was a bite of Boyfriend's burger & fries... But surprisingly, my chicken was quite tasty!
• Some Christmas shopping and a stop in the Beauty Supply store for some new nailpolish - pics tomorrow!
• Mexican Christmas with our friends Jude, Steph, & Ross - Feliz Navidad at the local tequila watering hole!
• NEW FURNITURE! Pics to come soon!
• And our Christmas photos! Also coming soon!

Very truly yours, A. Bean



Weekend recap - Feelin good!

Happy Monday! What? Have I lost it? There's no such thing as a 'happy' Monday!

Well, all things considered, today I'm feeling good.

Woke up early, did a little workout routine, made some eggwhites with cheese & and had coffee from our fancy still-new-to-us Kuerig while watching the Today Show from the kitchen table instead of bed!

Now it's almost 1:00 in the afternoon and I'm still feelin energized and I'm not starving! Maybe there really is something to this exercise & eating right thing....

I hope everyone had a fantabulous weekend! In bullet points, mine looked like this:

• Dinner at On the Border with some girlfriends (looked up the menu beforehand so I knew exactly what low-calorie dish to order and pushed the chips basket as far from me as possible!)


• Went to the movies to see Anna Karenina. Quick review: strange, beautiful, romantic, long

• Woke up early Saturday morning to meet Ma & Da at Market Days - an annual Arts & Crafts show at the fairgrounds. Maaaaybe bought my coworkers their Christmas presents ;)




• Completed a Saw it. Pinned it. Did it! Love it.

 

I took a Dollar Store Santa hat, cut the white parts off, used the red part as a pattern for the burlap, hotglued it all together, & found a brooch (from a jewelry dollar store here in town). After the picture I added a gold ribbon behind the brooch. Viola! Santa Chic.

• Went to the Tallahassee Winter Festival & Parade! The office hosted a little pizza party so the family and I camped out in boss's office and watched the Parade.



• Watched the Noles kick Georgia Tech's butt! We're Bowl bound!

Lola watching/distracting me from the game.

• Sunday was a day of cleaning, the Seminole basketball game, and napping on the couch with my Sweetie.

Happy December! I hope everyone is as excited as I am, its the most wonderful time of the year!

Very truly yours, A. Bean



Its a Christmas Makeover!

Hope ya'll like it!

Very truly yours, A. Bean

DIY: Holiday Advent Calendar

Yesterday, while browsing Pinterest on my lunch break, I came accross some DIY Holiday Advent Calendars... and got totally sucked in. Googling, blog searching, etc. obsessed with the idea of making an advent calendar for boyfriend and I to enjoy this Holiday season.

I remember when I was kid how thrilling it was to pull that little cardboard door open & pop out the peice of chocolate everyday in December, counting down the days til Christmas.

But we're adults now, and I can go buy my own chocolate whenever I want. And I do.

So instead of chocolate in our calendar I came up with 24 activities for boyfriend and I to do together. But sorry, I can't list them for you.

Part of the excitment is the surprise of what is in the envelope - and if I tell you boyfriend might see it! (Tip: just google Holiday activities for ideas!)

To make sure I get in on some of the excitment of the surprise - I rushed out to Michaels yesterday for supplies ($20) and made my advent calendar last night. (On the theory that I will forget what I put in the envelopes by December 1...)

Also, I knew I was going to be up late watching the election results so I needed a project to keep me busy; otherwise, I would have fallen asleep. (Which I immediately did after I finished the calendar...)

 DIY: Holiday Advent Calendar

Supplies:
scissors
glue (I forgot glue!! But I had some modge podge on hand that I painted on like glue - whew!)
hot glue
marker (for the numbers, stickers could work too. I printed the numbers in a pretty font, placed my white circle on top of the numbered paper and used a red paint pen to trace each number)
holiday scrapbook paper (I printed a 2" circle on cardstock to use as a stencil to cut each circle)
envelopes (found these cute 3.3" square ones)
ribbon
white paper (I printed 24 1" circles on cardstock, and cut them out by hand)
any embellishments (Michaels has tons and tons of fancy stickers/glittery stuff)
Holiday activities (I just printed mine out and cute them into strips, folding to put into the envelope)

Directions:

1. Cut all (24) white circles. Trace/write/stick your numbers on.
2. Cut all (24) holiday circles. Glue your numbered white circles into the center of each.
3. Glue a complete circle on each envelope.
4. Stuff an activity in each one.
5. Lay your ribbon out flat. Position the filled envelopes so that they are all equally spaced. Hot glue a front corner to the back of the ribbon. (Otherwise it may be hard to open.)
6. Viola! Finished! My original plan was to hang it off of our mantle but since it was waaaay longer than expected, I'm thinking just along a wall somewhere...

Can't wait til December 1!

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3 & 4

Bad example of Step 5

Very truly yours, A. Bean