Cute DIY Christmas Magnets

My sister saw this easy DIY Christmas idea somewhere last year. After Christmas, we got mini ornaments and magnets at like 80% off. Cheap AND Easy...just my style. So while my sister and mom were busy filling adorable Spoonful of Stitches orders, I finished this Christmas magnet project.

Supplies...

EASY!

Out with the old (but probably useful) HVAC repairman magnet at my mom's house(and yes, the guy mispelled "Cell" when leaving his number)...

And in with the cute new Christmas magnets!

I found a bunch of old family Christmas photos and put the rest of these to use....

There were plenty to share! I plan to use mine to display the Christmas cards I get this year!

Acorn Centerpieces

For our Practice Thanksgiving celebration, my roomate and I tried to come up with cute but inexpensive centerpieces. We searched the shelves at TJ Maxx and found matching glass hurricanes for around $7 each. And simple brown pillar candles for $5 each. We also picked up a bundle of wheat to sit between the candles.

We already talked about finding acorns around our house and using them as decoration. Our hunt for acorns deserves a whole other post, but we found the mother load at park down the street. I don't even want to know what people driving by were thinking as two grown women scurried around on the ground picking up acorns. (It reminded me of this acorn post I read on a new favorite blog- Southern in the City.)

It turned out so natural and pretty!

We had a lot of acorns left over, so we put them in a few other places to complete our acorn decoration theme.

Little votive holders on the mantle...

Slightly larger glasses on the coffee table....

And an even larger one on our makeshift bar...

It was definitely all worth pretending to be a squirrel for a little while!

My First Garden

I planted my first vegetable garden! Okay, it's small, so more like a mini-vegetable garden. But it's just me, so I don't need much.

My garden idea started with my absolute love of tomatoes. One of my favorite things in the world are my grandfather's fresh tomatoes. There's something about the ones from his garden that taste so much better than any other tomatoes I've ever had. Now that I'm nurturing my own little tomato plants, I'm going to have to sit down with Papa and get the low down on his gardening secrets.

Originally, I thought I could handle a few tomatoes in containers. As things usually go, when I talked to my mom about this, she had a few other suggestions. And then I got a package in the mail from her that included some other vegetable seeds. (This is because I told her that I had no idea where a seed store would be in this yankeefied place.)

We have a space beside our house where tulips and daffodils bloom each spring. But nothing grows here in the summer, so I thought- why not?

I bought 3 tomato plants, 2 sweet red pepper plants, 2 cucumber plants, a variety of herbs. I planted all of this along with the okra seeds my mom sent me. I have no idea how this will turn out and am slightly concerned with how much sun this space really gets. But here's to hoping!

The basil plant grew FAST!

So here's the progression of my beloved tomato plants. I didn't understand the concept of snapping off the "suckers" until my plant turned into an unruly bush. I think I got them under control though.

I'm patiently waiting for the day I can walk outside, pick a ripe tomato off the vine, and indulge in one of God's great creations- the tomato sandwich.

Trash to Treasure

Allow me to formally introduce my lovely sister, Ashley. She recently expressed that she was bored on her summer break from teaching. (I personally don't know how this is possible, seeing as how she's finishing her master's this summer.) I have little sympathy for her since I would LOVE to have a summer break! So, I'm putting her to work on my blog! Welcome her to Grits and Gossip to what I hope will be regular addition.

Guest Blog by Ashley Anderson:

Recently, my mom came across an old outdoor chimney/fireplace, being the thrifty deal spotter she is, she saw it’s potential and brought it home (for free)! Because she already had one, she offered it to me.

I immediately loved its shape, and was thankful she rescued it from the landfill. It is cast iron and very well made, because it had been kept outside for many years it had rusty spots and some weathering. I brought it home and first hosed it down to get all the dirt and cob webs off, then I washed it with Clorox to make sure I was down to the raw surface.

I went to the hardware store and picked up a bottle of heat resistant black spray paint for $5. I applied three coats of paint to it to give it extra shine. I still had half the bottle left over for future projects!

The key with this project was to get the heat resistant spray paint. Regular paint will crack, melt, and peel under extreme heat. So there you have it an outdoor fireplace for under $5! This same principal can be used for grills that get rusty and dull looking, don’t throw it out, simply freshen it up!

Another helpful hint: Be careful as to where you position your outdoor fireplace, sometimes they have vents in the bottom and sides and can catch decks or ground coverings (such as pine needles) on fire. We are going to put ours in our back yard on a patio constructed of cement or stone tiles, with adirondack chairs as seating. I will keep you posted on this ongoing project!

1st DIY Project

I mentioned that I finished a project over the weekend. I've been trying to brighten up and update my room. I want bright colors and bold, fun prints, and girly flowers. I was originally going for a serene-type of decor with lots of greens and neutral tones.

But I'm bored with that and want some COLOR!

So it starts with the bedding. And before I could get new bedding, I had to update my headboard. My crafty and talented mom and stepdad made me this headboard when I moved to DC. I'm not about to try and build a new one on my own. But I did want to recover and update this one so I can use a different color palette. I decided to go with brown- both of which go well with either pink or blue which I want to use as the accent colors. I found a set of cotton sheets on sale for $10 at TJ Maxx. I had it monogrammed here . And purchased and used my first staple gun! That's all I needed to recover my current headboard.

Ta-Da!




Close up of Before:

Close up of After:

I am so pleased with the outcome and declare my first DIY project a success!

It was also affordable:

$10- Brown Cotton Sheets at TJ Maxx

$50- to have monogrammed

=$60 for a new and improved headboard

I'm still searching for the perfect duvet cover...my mom made the last one, including those stripped pillow shams, so I may be giving her a call soon! :)