2 Easy Things

I saw both of these on Pinterest and I had supplies and they were both things we could finish in no time at all: Twig Star Yeah, this IS as easy as it looks. I have a yard full of sticks, just went out and filled a box full. Laid them out into a star and hot glued the tips together. My 9 year old twin boys even made a few of these. I need to pick up some twine to hang them around the house/tree. I might even make a big one to hang on the wall. I really like the way they look! Next was this. I had seen this really simple way to add a pop of color into your kitchen by spray painting the old boring butcher block. The one I saw on Pinterest was a bright looking lime green. I didn't have lime green spray paint but I did have red so I sprayed it then stenciled the fleur de lis. Took about 5 minutes total, not counting the dry time!

Christmas Decoration Tradition

I wish I had seen this a long time ago! This is a sweet little tradition you can do by cutting off about a half inch or so from the bottom of your Christmas tree. I asked the nice people at Lowes (where we purchased our tree) if they wouldn't mind doing it for me, which they did in a jiffy. Then you just have the kids decorate it along with the year! This is the first year we've done this. Braden and Dalton did finger paint snowmen (painted their index finger white and they did the rest with a sharpie). I still need Ashlyn and Christian to do their snowmen on the back.

The EASIEST Christmas decoration EVER

I saw this on Pinterest and it took me all of 5 minutes to do! Get out a big glass jar or glass bowl and fill with a string of Christmas lights! (Make sure they have plenty of room in there as they will get warm if you have them too crammed in).

Christmas Tree Skirt

I actually didn't see this on Pinterest and I can't remember where I got the idea..probably Family Fun mag or something like that. Anyways, we started this tradition back in 2003. I bought a plain Christmas Tree skirt and each year I paint the kids hands and they leave their handprints on it. I then write their names with the year and now that I am thinking about it, it would have been even a neater idea to have them write their own names to see the changes in their penmanship over the years as well as hand size...dang! The kids love this tradition and so do I. We finally filled up one whole side of the skirt so we had to flip it over this year. A big change this year was that my 14 year old son's handprints are now bigger than my 17 year old daughters'!

Spray Paint Furniture Re-Do

I've always wanted to pick up one of those cheapy tables at Goodwill or wherever and turn it into something spectacular but I never knew where to start...then Pinterest walked into my life and things just haven't been the same since! I immediately saw an easy peasy spray paint table re-do that sounded like something even I could copy. I ran to Goodwill and picked up a small cabinet and 2 night stands that were desperately in need of some fixing up. (my little cabinet BEFORE) Here's the way it went down: 1) Picked up cheapy cabinet from Goodwill for less than $10 2) Ran out to Lowes and got some spray paint. I think I bought 3 cans but only used like 1 and a half. And also I bought some Polyurethane to seal it afterwards. The kind I bought was Minwax and it's located right by the spray paint. 3) Next I sanded down all the exterior surfaces and then cleaned it all up with a damp cloth. 4) I removed all the hardware and gave them a quick spray with black spray paint. 5) After the cabinet was nice and clean and dry, I then started to spray paint it. I tried to just do light coats so it wouldn't drip, but I did have a tiny bit of drip issues when I started to get impatient but that's ok, it wasn't really noticable. It took me about 3 coats of spray paint to get full coverage (let the paint dry in between, which it dries pretty quick). 6) After the paint was all dry, really dry, I started to sand the edges and spots on the cabinet to give it the distressed look I was after. That was really easy. 7) After distressing it, I then wiped it down again and then took a rag and applied my polyurethane. It really doesn't take a lot of this stuff. I only did one coat but I think I will go back and do another just to give it some extra protection. 8) Now just let it all dry and voila! (my little cabinet AFTER) I like the way it turned out if I do say so myself! When I brought it into the room I noticed the mirror that was hanging in there and decided to paint that to match and I used the same steps as above. That was super easy. I do need to go get some magnetic cabinet closure things to help the doors stay shut. When my son and I were hauling this upstairs the door flung way open and now won't shut completely, so that needs a little help!