Crafts
DIY Embroidered T-Shirt: Nevertheless She Persisted
I don’t usually do step-by-step tutorials because I’m not that detail-oriented, but I’m going to try my best today. My main reason for this is because embroidery thread is right up there with felt on my list of favorite craft supplies! Also, to encourage you to try embellishing a t-shirt with embroidery stitching because it’s not as hard as you might think. I taught myself! If you can do it, the possibilities are endless. Here’s the step-by-step of how I started with a plain white t-shirt and ended up with this result. Step 1: Gather Your Supplies You’ll need a t-shirt you want to embellish, embroidery thread, a sewing needle, backing…
Irish Flag Centerpiece
Our celebration of St. Patrick’s Day would not be complete without showcasing the Irish flag on our dining room table! Isn’t this Irish Flag Centerpiece festive? My flag holders are milk bottles filled with green mung beans, white basmati rice and orange split lentils. My son and I poured the dry ingredients in the milk bottles in color order as it relates to the stripes on the Irish flag. The simple design of the Irish flag was very helpful in this regard. The Irish flag, also known as the Irish tricolour, has been in existence since 1848. However, it didn’t become Ireland’s national flag until the rebels hoisted it over Dublin’s General Post Office during…
Quick and Simple St. Patricks Day Wreath
My kids are counting down the days until they get the day off from school to celebrate Ireland’s biggest holiday – St. Patrick’s Day. Waiting is oh, so hard! Until then, they did help me make a super simple felt wreath to decorate one corner of our home. We traced shamrocks onto green felt, then cut them out and hot glued them on a wreath form. Super simple and not overly obnoxious! Those are my two main criteria when it comes to holiday crafting. I used a wire wreath form like this one so I could easily remove the felt shamrocks if I want to reuse the wreath form in the future.…
St Patrick’s Day Craft: Burlap Pot of Gold
Happy first day of March! Who’s excited? March is a big month on the little island I currently call home. Ireland. I don’t say that every time to rub it in. I only mention it, again, on the off chance someone is joining the blog today for the first time. It could happen! Anyway, there’s this little holiday on the 17th with leprechauns and drinking. Lots of drinking. You might have heard of it. Well, have you heard of island time? Ireland operates on its own sort of island time. I just started to see advertisements go up for St. Patrick’s Day events. The local newspaper is still asking for entries…
Colorful Wall in a Girl’s Room
It was inevitable. Every parent faces it. That moment when your child develops an…it’s hard for me to say…here goes… An OPINION about what his or her room should look like. Cue the dramatic music. A little bit louder, please. Now, cue the wailing and gnashing of teeth. Mine. Yes, it happened. Opinions, opinions galore. Conflicting opinions that changed without rhyme or reason. It was exhausting to keep up with it all. I’d add a “woe is me,” but I don’t want to sound melodramatic. After much discussion, brainstorming and compromise my daughter and I ended up agreeing to a basic framework for a design plan for her bedroom. The design plan was very specific. It…
6 Valentine Card Ideas For Girls or Boys
Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. Ready, set, panic! No, no. Don’t do that! Here are some fun DIY Valentine’s Day cards that I think both boys and girls would like. My kids would be content picking out themed Valentine’s Day cards from the store, but they also like to sit down and craft with mom, so I’ll take that time with them as long as it lasts. Balloon Card It doesn’t get easier than this idea for a balloon card! This idea is via A Pretty Cool Life, which is a pretty cool name for a blog. There is not a balloon in this world that my kids have met…
My Christmas Decor Hacks
I’m not sure if hack is the right word. How about here are three of my favorite Christmas decor work-arounds? ALTERNATIVE TO GARLAND Don’t have the time, patience, space or money for a Christmas garland? No worries. Free greenery clippings from your yard, or the neighbor’s yard, or the park (can you do that??) placed in a shallow bowl can achieve a similar effect. DON’T HAVE STOCKING HANGERS? NO PROBLEM. I do have Christmas stocking hangers, but one of them is broken and I haven’t found anything else I like better for hanging our Christmas stockings. Last year we used hooks screwed into the bottom of the mantel. That won’t work this year and…
Christmas in the Foyer Part 2: The Wall I Never Show You
It’s important to take pictures you see online or in magazines with a grain pound of salt. You only see certain angles at specific times of day. You don’t see what’s 2 inches outside of the cropped photo. In the case of my blog, there’s an entire wall I’m pretty certain I’ve never shown you. Or at least I haven’t shown it to you since we moved in. That’s because it’s not the star of the show. It does work hard though. It holds coats and shoes and sometimes mail. (Or “post” as people in Ireland call mail.) This wall is immediately to the right of the front door. It…
