Homemade Christmas

This is our first Christmas, and considering we are on a tight budget, I've been scavenging the internet for great homemade ideas. I found more than I have time for and some beyond my level of craftiness. I wanted to share two of my favorites. Of course they are both from the website I shared with you just a few blogs earlier, but there are far more out there.

For those of you who can't justify the prices of ornaments, I highly recommend this one. It's super easy and I'm sure you have all the supplies somewhere in your home. Click here for full instructions.

I also needed to jazz up my wrapping tonight and remembered another easy DIY post I saw. I'm sure you shop at Target...

Click here for instructions, and better pictures.

The last was a more time consuming task, but an enjoyable one. My husband helped quite a bit. We were going for an "Anthropologie" look.

Merry Christmas!

Fans

I was actually requested to post these pictures! I feel honored to actually have blog requests, especially since I'm so bad at keeping up with my blog. (Hence, two posts in one day to make up for lost time) Well do you remember this?









All these dirty pieces of stuff turned into this beautiful piece:



It almost works a little too well. If you stuck your finger in there, you wouldn't be getting it back. My husband is so handy, he put a lot of work into this, yet it really look him no time at all to figure it out and fix it! Now we have a beautifully unique fan for our home.

Happy (belated) Halloween from 1114

So, I couldn't help but rhyme in my title, it was just too good! I also realize that I haven't blogged in FOREVER, so I apologize for neglecting all of this. I'm a lazy blogger.
Halloween has already come and gone, but I really have been looking forward to sharing with you all of the festivities. I've always known that Joe was big into Christmas and Thanksgiving, but I was a little shocked when he came home from work about a month before Halloween with a detailed drawing of Halloween decor, all over the house!! As Halloween approached I became more and more hesitant as Joe grew more and more ecstatic. I grew up in a house that never went crazy over Halloween, we didn't buy costumes and we didn't buy decor. We had a pumpkin and a homemade outfit, and that was as good as it got. And I'm OK with that. So, I was a little bothered when Joe turned our yard and living room UPSIDE DOWN for Halloween.

Joe put together a rickety old fence, we pulled a bunch of dead plants that we had cleaned out from our gardens over the months and put them in the "scary old" pumpkin patch, leaned some dead tree branches up against the house to look like dead trees, and of course what is Halloween without some fake spider web? Obviously, you can't really get the full eerie effect since I took the pictures during the daylight, but oh well.

Joe pulled all of our furniture out of our living room, did some electrical work for the "old" chandelier, hung a deer head , pulled out my china and covered it with cob webs, and hung a sheet with pin tacks.

He took an old door from our basement and leaned it in the doorway of our office. Hung that sword, put old looking books in the book case, as well as the outside of his grandfathers radio, and of course MORE cob webs. Behind the door was a fog machine which was smelly.


Joe dressed as an old butler and his brother visited us for the weekend, and dressed as an old man too. We had a really great time, and had to run out for candy twice because we had so many trick-or-treaters, which makes all of it SO worth it to me. Joe would stand in the guest bedroom with a candle looking all scary, and it really was a big hit. Everybody got a real kick out of it.

Yard Sales

You will hear me say, time and time again, just how much I love my neighborhood. I feel like I moved into a community of people who care about us and are watching out for us. Plus, they put on great events!!! This past weekend was their annual Yard Sale Saturday. If Joe and I weren't tight on time we probably would have walked the neighborhood, but instead we jumped in the car and explored the sales. I didn't think we would actually buy anything because we don't normally have extra cash just laying around, but I was proven very wrong. I knew I was in trouble when Joe left the first yard sale with TWO items! We stopped by three or four others and drove past at least 5 because we didn't have much time left. WELL, the last stop Joe bought another item that he "Had to have" in his words.



That's right a SECOND lawn mower. This one also plugs in, so it's environmentally friendly. It also has adjustable height, which is why we really wanted it. The other lawn mower cuts our grass too short, and makes it difficult for it to thrive.
$25.00

What's a house without a latter? $5.00

The final object that Joe "had to have" was an old fan. Joe has been restoring several old objects, including his grandpa's old radio. (he's making amazing progress on that!) So, this morning I went down to the basement to take a quick shot of the old fan and this is what I found. I was too late.



Fan $6.00
I promise it's real cute when it's in one piece.







So, I think Joe felt bad for making all of these purchases, because when we were done with the yard sales I went off to grocery shop and when I returned I found this on my kitchen counter. A love offering.

$3.00
I pointed it out at a yard sale because I thought it was adorable. I was TRYING to save us money, but Joe refused and went back and bought it for me as a surprise. I think this little casserole dish is begging for some yummy brownies. I have the most thoughtful husband!

So, I would say Yard Sale Saturday was a great success. Maybe not for our wallets, but oh well. We got some great deals in my opinion. We also got to meet some new neighbors and catch up with some old ones, so all in all we had a great time!

Sharing the Joy

I mentioned in my first entry that I was really inspired by other blogs to begin my own. I really wanted to share one of my favorite blog discoveries. I check this blog regularly. It has guest bloggers, do it yourself (diy) projects, before and after shots, textiles, all sorts of wonderful resources and things (Only if your into design and homes). It always gets my creative juices flowing. I hope you love it as much as I do. If you ever decide to travel to any major cities, this blogger has lists of unique shops in each major city. YUP, even a list for little ol' Atlanta. So make sure you check it before you go traveling next.

A Superbly Featured Fire Place

One thing I love about our old home is it's fireplace. If only it were still up to today's codes, we would be sitting by that fire every night come winter. But unfortunately it is not up to code, and if we did burn a fire we would probably burn the house down, or fill it with smoke.

I have seen people do a lot of different and creative things with their old/non functioning fireplaces. I think it is a really interesting way to add character to your room. I figured we would throw a few candles in our fireplace like most people do and be done with it. I have been online checking out different ideas. One in particular that I LOVED, that I can't seem to find a picture anywhere, but it was a fireplace filled with old magazines stacked in columns. At added lots of color. Here were a few others I found online that were cool:




Our fireplace was sitting empty for a while and in desperate need of decorating. I was trying to brainstorm as to what we could do, and I really did like the candle idea, but it felt overdone. Us here at 1114 are not about doing things the normal way. Anyway, All of a sudden it dawned on me. And thanks to a wonderful gift card from Christmas to Pottery Barn, I was able to execute my idea. It is not every day that I have new and creative ideas, so I must say that I am really proud. Check out my superbly featured fireplace.

I love the cute little lanterns!

Being Green

There is so much hype around 'going green', sometimes I find it quite irritating honestly. But recently I have realized just how rewarding it can be. It can be a lot of work sometimes, but I've been appreciating how everyone seems to be working together to make it easier. Joe and I garden green. We have a push mower, which some may say is too much work and maintenance, but really it is not. The blades are self sharpening, how cool is that? Joe snagged it for $20 at the same salvage yard he got our hardware.
When we started gardening it didn't take long for us to realize we would also need a weed waker for all of our overgrown hedges...so of course we went for the electrical one which is superb. Why are people so opposed to having a chord to plug in? It is not really an inconvenience.
I know that you find this picture of our weed waker most riveting! And finally, our compost pile. This is the one I struggle with the most. I'm use to throwing everything in the trash. I also hate having a separate container under our sink full of rotting food waiting to get taken out. Yuk! But, it is fun to watch our pile grow and develop and I'm looking forward to getting to use it in our garden. Seems silly to pay for dirt.
That is how we do it. Some times it is inconvenient, and it takes patience, but this is what makes it most rewarding.