Coastal Plains Living

I've been a busy girl!

2009-12-10T22:19:00.000-05:00

I know! It's been a while since I posted, but I swear I have a really good excuse! I've been working like mad to get my list of homemade gifts done! And let me tell ya! It's a LONG list!

Ever since I started reading blogs (about a month or so ago), I have been keeping an idea book of things I'd like to make, or try. It's ridiculous how many things are in there! I've got a whole folder saved in my bookmarks of tutorials and ideas. Well this year, I decided to put some of those ideas to work for me!

I'm sure none of you will be surprised when I tell you that this is a lean year. I'm sure it is for a lot of people. We have pared down the number of gifts we're giving the kids and I'm really excited. We decided to do 4 main gifts for us. Something they want, something the need, something to play with and something to read. Then Santa will come, but he too is bringing less gifts. I've also got a HUGE family, that I feel the need to get something for. I am one of 5 kids, and while that's not that big of a deal, the fact that my youngest siblings are 10 and 5 is. Parker and Lily are 10 months and 1 day shy of a year older than my youngest two, respectively. It's so much fun to find things that I know they'll love and get them for them. I feel like I'm spoiling them! And since I didn't grow up near my sister and my brother and his wife are never having kids, I'm totally in "Auntie" mode with them!

So anyway! I'm rambling! We're doing handmade gifts for Christmas this year. Not all handmade, I'm not there yet! Maybe one day, but today is not that day! In the meantime, I hit the idea book and found a few things that I wanted to make to give as gifts.

I'll start with this one! I found this tutorial on So You Think You're Crafty a few weeks ago. If you're not following this contest you really should be. It's amazing the things these ladies come up with!

This is a Cozy Car Caddy by Jill at Homemade By Jill.

Pardon the horrible cell phone pics! I can't find the card for my camera!

Isn't this adorable!! It unfolds and has it's own little road that Carter will be able to play with and will hopefully keep him occupied during church and in the car!

Here's a photo of it unfolded.

It hold 6 of his matchbox cars! You can find the tutorial here.

Ok for my little sister, Lily, I made this scrap ribbon belt. Ashley over at Lil Blue Boo has such great tutorials that I swear I feel like I can do anything she tells me to! You can find this belt here.

By the way, Ashley is having a great giveaway right now where she is giving away 3LBS, yes you read that right, 3LBS of scrap ribbon from Strano Designs. Oh yeah, I ordered my scrap ribbon from them at 11am last week and at 1:30pm I got an email that it had shipped. It was on my doorstep by 10am the next morning! Absolutely awesome!!!

I got right to work on this for my step mom. It matches the belt that I made for Lily! How cute!

These pics really don't do these justice. And since I can only get so much on my tiny little screen on my phone I didn't snap a pic of the whole thing! But the tutorial, again, is here.

I'll be back later with some more projects I've been working on!

Trash to Treasure Tuesday

2009-11-17T10:34:00.000-05:00

Today is Trash to Treasure Tuesday on Reinvented by Kimm so I thought I would share pics of my little T2T project.

This is a table I got at a yard sale for $2. I had been looking a table for the kids to eat at for a while and couldn't bring myself to spend the $40+ dollars for the ones I'd seen. So needless to say I was super excited to find this little treasure. Unfortunately it was a mess!

It had been sitting outside, exposed and was all yuck mildewed!

It also had a nice little gash and a piece was missing.

So with a little Epoxy wood filler and a whole lotta sanding and painting, it became this.

You can go here:

Trash to Treasure Tuesday, Today's creative blog and Kimba's DIY day for more DIY ideas.

Great Giveaway at V. and Co.

2009-11-17T09:31:00.001-05:00

So earlier this week I showed you guys the wheat pillow project I was working on and last night I showed you the finished product. Well Vanessa over at V. and Co. was who I copied got my inspiration from.

Today through Friday Vanessa is giving away one of the things I have wanted for while now. A handmade, cool, funky, stylishly designed camera strap from Shay [B].

If you haven't been to Shay [B]'s Etsy shop, run, don't walk there right now! She has some of the coolest designs and I have been drooling over them for weeks!

So go! Check out Shay's goodies and check out Vanessa's great ideas! Vanessa is also doing So You Think You're Crafty for the next few weeks. It's a design challenge (sort of like the Project Runway of crafting, I LOVE IT) featuring 10 very talented designers. You can see the challenges and designers and vote for your favorite here.

Wheat Pillow

2009-11-16T21:26:00.001-05:00

This is the pillow finished! This was such a fun project to do! I am thinking of making a twin for the chair!

Just a little preview of what I'm working on for Christmas

2009-11-16T13:25:00.001-05:00

These are glass tiles (about the size of Dominoes) that I will be making into necklaces for Christmas.

Adorable Wheat Pillow

2009-11-15T21:18:00.000-05:00

When Brent and I were looking at wedding bands way back when, we decided on a set that were engraved with wheat on them. I don't know why, but they were nice (read cheap) and ever since then we've tried to incorporate things into our home that also had the wheat pattern. We ended up with a nice area rug from my mom that had wheat on it, and we (this weekend) acquired a very nice oak dining room table with a wheat pattern on the chairs. So when the projects for So You Think You're Crafty for last week were revealed I was super excited! If you look at Craft #5 - V and Co's Wheat Throw Pillows you will see why I HAD to make some!!

I ran to Walmart after church today and picked up 2 yards of Muslin and a roll of freezer paper. I already had the spray paint I wanted to use, and that's all I needed! It was super easy!

I haven't put the pillow together yet, because I'm waiting for the paint to dry completely but so far I am incredibly impressed!

Here is the link to V's tutorial:

http://www.vanessachristenson.com/

And here are some pics of my wheat patterns:

The soon-to-be-throw pillow

My new dining room chairs:

My area rug:

And finally my wedding band:

Inexpensive Holiday Wreath

2009-11-09T23:10:00.001-05:00

In years past, Brent has always been the one singing Christmas carols in July. The thought of crowds and shopping was enough to send my anxiety in a tailspin! So usually around October 31st, I would go out into the back yard and bury my head in the sandbox. Well not this year! I am so getting my craft on and now I can hardly wait for Christmas to come! I already have visions of sugar plums dancing in my head!

So in preparation for this holiday season, I was perusing the ninety or so blogs that I like to follow and I came across this little number.

It was ridiculously easy to make!

I started at Dollar Tree and picked up these. I got 4 sleeves of each color and ended up having about 15 ornaments left over. Each sleeve was $1 and the roll of ribbon was $1.

Grabbed one of these from my mom

Carter helped me cut the strings off

Then I hot glued the tops so they wouldn't come off

Next I strung them on the hanger and Viola!!

Add a pretty ribbon and it's ready to hang!

Final price on Inexpensive Christmas Wreath

Ornaments $16

Ribbon $1

Glue Sticks $2

Total Price $19

First Blog post Evah!

2009-11-07T22:26:00.002-05:00

Yay! I am so excited to set this up! Hopefully I will have some really profound and engaging things to say! If not, I'll apologize in advance!