Jute Growth Chart

This month marks my nephew’s first birthday! Yay! So, doing my job as a good auntie and godmother, I felt like I needed to make him something unique, that he didn’t already have. I knew my sister didn’t have a growth chart (thanks to my stealth visit to New York this summer) and I’ve always wanted to try making one, SO seven feet of jute ribbon later – woo hoo we’ve got one! :)

{Yep, wrote those numbers in myself, by hand. No stencil. #someonePLEASEgivemeasillhouette}

I like that she can hang it up on any wall:




Or roll it up if she needs to save space.




And all it took was about an hour of time and love. {Coke Zero optional.}




Dear sis, please appreciate that I HAND STITCHED that little dowel and twine onto the jute ribbon so you can hang your growth chart. Just for you. {wink}





I think that little dowel was my favorite part – as were these cute little pins and tags I added so she can document his growth throughout the years…




There’s even room on the back of the tags if she wants to write little anecdotes about his milestones and likes/dislikes as he grows.



Happy Birthday sweet nephew! Here’s to many more years of love and growth in your life! Love, Auntie!

Linking up here this week!

Burlap Reindeer

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas over here! I started the season off this year with a little Christmas craft and made these burlap reindeer:



How cute would these reindeer look as a napkin ring on your Christmas table?





Or as a place card older:






These little guys may even end up on my mantle or used to wrap up a Christmas treat!






Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year! We’ll be decorating all weekend in this neck of the woods! When do you start decorating for Christmas? 

Linking up at: tatertots and jello ; Homemaker in Heels; C.R.A.F.T.

Ruffled Burlap Wreath {Tutorial}

Even though I DO NOT want summer to end - we are starting to get ready for fall over here! Which is okay, because it is one of my favorite decorating seasons! {After Christmas & 4th of July of course!} One of my first new projects this fall was this wreath seen below. Can you tell what every-day household item I made this wreath out of?




If you guessed spoons – you’re right! I saw a Pinterest photo {pinned from Tip Junkie I think} of a wreath like this one, only using white spoons. I thought orange would be fun for Fall & Halloween! It’s a little bigger than I thought it would be {a good 18” or so across} so it may end up in my classroom décor, but it was a fun & easy project to make! What do you think?

I also made a ruffled burlap wreath this week. I know, I know, if you’ve been reading my blog, I already made a burlap wreath a few weeks ago. But, if you’re new here, I should tell you I suffer from OCDD, also known as Obsessive Compulsive Decorating Disorder. ; -) I liked my other burlap wreath, but I couldn’t easily add the embellishments I wanted to on it, so I made another one! I was inspired by this photo on Pinterest:




This wreath sells on Etsy.com for $45!! Well, this girl-on-a-budget does not have $45 and I could not find any tutorials that looked like this – SO – I made up my own:




This wreath cost me about $5 to make because I already had the burlap & ribbon! I just bought a foam wreath circle. {Score!}

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN RUFFLED BURLAP WREATH:

You will need:



- a foam circle (or any wreath circle, foam piping from Home Depot, etc.)
- About 150 straight push pins, with flat heads so they don’t go all the way through your burlap.
- Scissors
- burlap (or any fabric of your choice would probably work) CUT into lots of 3-4” strips. (I think I used between 8-10 strips for this wreath.)


1. Wrap your foam circle completely using the burlap strips. Use the push pins along the way to keep the burlap from unraveling. 



2. Take another strip & pin it to the wreath. Then, fold & roll about a 4” section of that burlap strip into your first ruffle:



Keep folding into a ruffle shape; kind of like an S or figure eight fold. Pin each ruffle carefully along the way so it doesn’t unfold!





Keep going & going until the whole front of the wreath is covered! When you’re done, it should look something like this:




Back view:



Side view:



Front view! Here she is all decorated:




Now, I get to dress her up for fall – but I can’t decide how!! Help!! Which fall wreath do you like the best??

Black and White chic…

{Maybe I should add something orange to her?}

Country Fall…




White Pumpkin Love…




Fall Pumpkin Love…



I do know I like the decorating potential for this wreath. But I don’t know which one to put on my front door! What do you think? Thanks for the help! :)  
 
 PS -- here is a version I also did for a friend's wedding gift. :) {Since the original post I also bought a new camera that takes MUCH better - and bigger! - pictures!!}  lol :):)

PPS - If you like this wreath -- I'd love it if you'd "like" my {brand spankin'} new Facebook page too! {See my sidebar for my fancy Facebook box!!} Thanks so much for the love! Blessings! :):)



Thanks for featuring my wreath!!:

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Burlap Wreath {Tutorial}

Have you noticed the burlap wreath craze going on right now? I have!! And I LOVE it!! I have had this burlap sitting around my house for MONTHS and have been wanting to make a wreath with it {then something called my kitchen makeover kinda got in the way!} And, since my kitchen is almost done, I wanted something new to dress up my front door for my newly dressed up house! There is lots of burlap wreath inspiration out there -- here is one more I hope you enjoy!


{STEPS}
1. Gather supplies:

You will need: 

• burlap (about 1 1/2 – 2 yards)
• Floral wire or a wire hanger. (Hangers work better – I just happened to have some extra floral wire I wanted to try. **FYI - if you use floral wire -- be prepared to put some tape "stoppers" on the wreath to keep the burlap from bottoming out; also, for larger/front door wreaths, floral wire can lose it's shape - just slightly, so for a regular wreath, USE THE HANGER!! lol {Live & Learn}
• Scissors & ribbon

2. Cut your burlap into 4” strips. The nice thing about this wreath {and burlap} is that you don’t need to be exact. You can eyeball it & it still looks nice!



3. Form your floral wire or wire hanger into the shape of a circle (I highly recommend the wire hanger):




4. Start threading your burlap onto the wire, accordion style as so:






5. Thread your first couple strips of burlap and than realize you are making your accordion HUGE and it does NOT look good, so take it all off and start over... {sigh}

6. Fix and then keep threading, and threading {and threading}… I recommend having your favorite show on here, or some really good music. {My current ‘pump me up’ craft music is Adele’s “Rollin’ in the  Deep!”} 
Still threading? Okay - I used about 12 strips of that burlap – but I wanted a super full wreath. Your number of strips will depend on the circumference of your wire and how thick you want your wreath. Really, once you get in the groove, the wreath only takes about 30 min. start to finish. When you are done, your wreath should look something like this:



7. As soon as you are happy with how full your wreath is, twist the end of your wire to close off your wreath, tie a ribbon around the top and hang it anywhere you think needs a little extra dressing up!
I was inspired to put some bunting across my wreath when my good friend Laurie at Gallamore West put bunting on her burlap wreath. {So cute!} Although – I think I need a new camera because the word ‘welcome’ on the bunting would not show up to save my life! {No, it wasn’t my camera setting. I DEFINITELY just need a new camera.} ;o) Here is where I got my {FREE} bunting printable - it comes in several colors! I used light blue:







I still have 4 yards of burlap left… what to do, what to do? Pillows? A table runner? What would you make? :)
 



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