DIY-Christmas Style.

Hello my pupcakes! I am linking up with the gorgie Becky on this Tuesday- to bring you one of my DIY's, Christmas Edition. For my new friends who hopped on over here, welcome!

I feel sure that most of my savvy followers are already well aware of the amazing world that is Pinterest? Yes? Good. Well, I had been wanting a new wreath to add to my Christmas mania decor. Though- I did not want to pay high dollar for said wreath...SO, I put on my DIY pants and got busy. At midnight.

What you'll need:
1 wire hanger
1 set of strong fingers
Glue gun
Approx. 60+ ornaments
Ribbon

 1-  Remove tops of ornaments in preparation for a date with a hot glue gun. This is where you need to pay attention- You are NOT going to want to do this. You've probably already said, "Bish, there is no way I am removing every ornament top and hot gluing that shit." Mmm, Yes you are. Trust me- just do it. You will be a sorry son of a gun if you don't.

2- Glue gun time. Glue all tops onto ornaments. Try to avoid hot glue burns. Tho- if you have ever wrangled with a hot glue, you are pretty much aware that this is inevitable.

3- Use a wire hanger and shape into a circle. You may need a manly effort here- it was hard for me to crimp the wire in some places

4- Begin stringing the ornaments into place. I really didn't have a rhyme or reason here.

5- Use shatterproof ornaments. Case in point.

6- Starting to take shape,  yes?

                                                                          Hello gorgeous!

Now, go get busy- you have an wreath to make. Or wine to drink. Whatever.

Move it Monday

Hello my pupcakes! How was your day of Thanks? I am actually doing laps right now trying to rid myself of pumpkin pie. I mean technically, pumpkin is a vegetable right? In any event, we had a great Thanksgiving.

The hub is still recovering from surgery- but he is definitely on the upswing. Surgery took over 2 hours last Tuesday and was a bit overwhelming that night and on Wednesday. I definitely am no stranger to blood coming out of a nose at a rapid rate- lets just put it that way. Sleeping has been on the couch for the past few days- as he has to be elevated and I felt like I had to be nearby in case I was needed. He heads back to the Doctor in the AM to have the stints (that are stitched into his nostrils *shudder*) removed. He is SO looking forward to that.

Needless to say, our Thanksgiving was quiet (as we couldn't travel due to above mentioned business). But it has been nice to be able to spend so much time together, even if it was mostly recovery.

I have no exciting pictures for this post- but don't be too sad. I have an exciting DIY- Christmas Edition headed your way. As over the weekend, I turned this house into Christmas Town. I love nothing more than to walk into my home that smells like a forest, with twinkling lights, glitter and the smell of cinnamon.

Stay tuned...

DIY

Just in case you weren't aware (which if you recently started following, I wouldn't think you would be) me and the hubsy are big DIYers. I wouldn't say because we love to do it or are extremely good at it- insert YoungHouseLove (they litteraly are DIYer extraordinaries). In our 7.5years of maritalness I can't say that we have ever paid a single soul to come into our home and do any kind of remodel work on our home. We have been in our current home for almost 6 years now, and have done several improvements. Namely our Kitchen, fireplace, entryway, powder room, wet bar, office and dining room. So, today I will show you one of my all time fav's. Now this was a game changer- seriously.

Lets meet le kitchen...
                                                                            Before

Jealous much of those turquoise green laminate countertops?

The hubsy and I are huge fans of dark furniture/cabinets/accessories, etc. SO, we went completely opposite with our cabinets and said au revoir to our white cabinets. For the countertops- we would have loved to call up our neighborhood granite man, but we didn't have several thousands to drop on our countertops...besides, didn't you catch the title of this post? So, we took a jaunt (of about 3 for this one job) to Lowe's and found what we wanted to do with our countertops.

Meet our Kitchen in reno-mode...
     Step One: Cabinets

This would be the appropriate time to tell you this was a HUGE pain. Taking off all of the doors, in which there are about 25+ doors and drawers to sand, prime and paint. But never the less we forged ahead and finished it in a weekend.

       Step 2: The countertops

 Here are happy cabinets after painting

 And you'll also notice that we were simultaneously switching out our appliances for stainless steel. Meet our $175 oven. Though he was a bit dirty- he was in awesome shape- and I found him for $175 thanks to Craig and his List. Something else to know about me? I always get things on sale or clearance. Always.

 And who could ignore a tiny fluff who would help if she could?

 For our countertops we used Tavy to prep our laminate. Yep- you got it right, we tiled right over that fugly laminate. Here are the counters with the layer of tavy (that you can't see), a layer of fiberglass paper and a thin layer of mortar. This had to set overnight.

PS- fiberglass paper + bare hands= bad news.

 Hellllloooo, my gorgeous tile!

Are you getting the picture? So lets recap:

Repainted all cabinets and doors
Swapped out our appliances for stainless steel
Replaced all hardware for brushed nickle (shoutout to Ebay for 35knobs for $30. A steal I tell you!)
Tiled our countertops
Replaced sink
Replaced kitchen faucet
Repainted walls with the help of Behr and Eiffel Tower

And here my friends, is Mr. Gorgeous afterwards...

What do ya think?
We are extremely pleased with how it turned out- and I'm so happy to see NO MORE green laminate. Though that will come back to haunt me in one other project- stay tuned!

Have you guys done any recent remodels? Any DIYers out there? I have many more projects to share- so check back soon!

Hugs!
S