Guest Post {Southern Lovely}

Well hello there! I'm Lindsay, and I blog over at Southern Lovely. Being a busy mom of three, crafting is sometimes hard to come by. I love a good DIY, painting or sewing project. I usually do my best work after the kids have gone to bed. :)

  Today I am going to share a fun craft that my little 5 year old helped me out with.

Yarn Wrapped presents

Here is how you can make some for yourself--

.






2x4's--3 pieces of the same length Yarn--more than one color if you are doing stripes paint for the wood Hot glue Ribbon

 

One tradition that I try to do each year with the kids, is some sort of craft. I knew this would be pretty kid-friendly, so I let my 5 year old have at it.


  To start, simply paint the wood your desired color, let dry, then hot glue them together, standing vertically. My special helper did all the painting, and was very precise at it--she is kind of a perfectionist, I wonder where she gets that from. :)


 





Next is wrapping the yarn around the wood. You can do stripes, or just one color, it's totally up to your preference. I started the yarn at the top by adding hot glue, then I let my daughter wrap it over & over again. It wasn't perfect, but that's okay, it gave it character, and I will always remember that she helped with it!

Then embellish it! We added red berries & ribbon, but I'm sure there are so many other options as well!

So there you go, little presents wrapped perfectly for the holiday--and having a very special helper made it even more memorable! Thanks for letting me stop by! Feel free to check out more ideas over at my place!

Pumpkin Topiary {DIY}

This


....is why I am ridiculed for my eating style.

Pictsweet Deluxe Sides baby vegetables, Morningstar Farms black bean burger, brown rice, and Babybel  Sharp Cheddar cheese...all at work...recipe for disaster. 

....is why we have Boston Terriers.

Ok, enough of that. I wanted to share a little DIY project I finished last weekend. Inspired by:

This was a really easy project and I am very happy with the way it turned out. 

Supplies needed:

2 large flower pots (the older the better)

Spray paint (one color to paint your pots with and a clear coat)

Various pumpkins

Coarse or extra course sandpaper

Steel Wool

Here is what I started with, 2 gray pots. Exciting, huh? 

 And of course, the best help you can find.

I chose a metallic, almost bronze color paint. I covered it two coats of spray paint. The coats don't have be perfectly even, as you will be using the sandpaper and steel wool to distress the pots once dry.

I know the can says it dries in 10 minutes or less, but I let mine dry for a few hours (aka I totally forgot about them because our house becomes a circus around dinner time.)

Once dry, I distressed them with really, not a lot of effort. I totally forgot to grab some pictures during the day, but here is how they turned out and what I did with them!

Halloween Dog.

I added these to the front porch with my Fall Wreath.

And Pottery Barn Pumpkins...

And spider welcome mat from Crate and Barrel.

 Please visit my link parties page to see who I linked up with this week! 

Fall Accents

As I mentioned earlier, Fall decorating has begun. Here are a few other decorations that I have around the house. I have so many ideas for additional items,
but I think I'm off to a good start.

Fall garland!

I made it using a few strands of leaf garland.

Added in a few red and yellow votives. I filled them with electronic tealights. Something about the TV and fake leaves made me question real candles. Yikes.   

Along with a few fall "harvest" items. See the glittery corn and pumpkin??

More gourds and some tiny pine cones that I found at Wal-Mart! The came pre-glittered. .

Here is the buffet I have in the breakfast nook. Most of those items are on the buffet year round. 

I added this lantern my mom got me for my birthday last year and filled it with two little pumpkins. The napkin holder is from Crate and Barrel. You can kind of see that pumpkin to the left. It is sitting on the matching tray for the glass votives that are on the mantel.

What are some of your favorite ways to decorate?? 

Crafty!

Happy Labor Day!

I am sadly at work today. Booooooo.

Look what I made!

Pin It

This was my inspiration:

Go here for the tutorial. 

Its a beautiful 70 degree day today and I could not be more thrilled. I really thought summer was never going to end. I got the ball rolling on fall decorating and now I can't stop. I actually really enjoyed working on my wreath and seeing the finished product. Both my husband and mother in-law were impressed, so I call it a success.