I think it’s safe to admit, we’re all a bit done with coronavirus. Because COVID-19  is the worst! So if you find yourself needing a little outlet or to un-rationally smash something, I’ve got just the thing.

Make something to smash, a Coronavirus Piñata! It’s easy, satisfying and perfect for gatherings 6′ away. USA Today could easily add this to their list of 100 things to do while home during COVID-19. Best yet, all items are easily found at home for this paper mache creation.

Materials Needed to Make a Coronavirus Piñata

You will need a balloon, a large bowl the diameter of desired coronavirus circumference, a small cereal bowl for flour and water mixture and newspaper (cut into 2″ strips).

Blow up the balloon until it fits the top rim of your large bowl. Mix equal parts water and flour, about a cup each, in the cereal bowl. Adjust amounts to get a glue-like, paste substance. Dip newspaper strips into flour mixture, wipe most off with your fingers and apply to the balloon.

Continue applying strips of newspaper dipped in mixture in a cross like pattern to create strength, until you have added 4-5 layers.

To create the spiky look we simply took a quarter of a newspaper page, dipped it in the flour mixture and then molded it into kind of a table shape. Then we stuck it onto the ball in a random pattern. My kids, ages 6-12 years, had fun helping make this. Especially since they were looking forward to destroying it later.

How to Create the Piñata Hanger

Cut a small incision in the top, stuff the piñata full of candy and/or toys and insert a hanging system of some sort. I literally took a metal hanger in a “V” shape and placed it inside. Then duct taped the wire on the inside of the piñata as well as the outside of the piñata.

Let your kids paint it, it’s ok if it’s ugly, that’s what it is and we’re going to smash it right?

Let the kids wack it, kick it, smash it and take out all that angst on the coronavirus. It’s therapy really

Stay connected, follow my blog, Facebook, Instagram and continue to get other fun, great ideas! Thanks for stopping by.

If you enjoyed this post you may also enjoy these other crafty ideas.

The post Smash the Coronavirus with This How-to Pinata appeared first on This Homemade Home.

How to Make a Living Wreath

A living wreath is easy to make and keep alive once you know all the tricks. In this post you will learn how to make an inexpensive wreath that looks like a million bucks – figuratively right? I mean a million bucks? Who would sounds that much?

Usually a premade succulent frame will cost you about $30. Here you’ll see how to make one for $6.50 by making a wreath form from dollar tree supplies.

Shopping List for a Summer Succulent Wreath

Just FYI I have affiliate links here for your convenience. I do make a small amount from the proceeds at no cost to you, but clicking and purchasing from the link keeps thishomemadehome.com up and running, thanks for your support.

• 2 wire 12″ wreath forms from the dollar store $2
• Floral Wire from the dollar store $1
• Floral Pins from Amazon .50¢
• Sphagnum Moss from Amazon $3.50
• Succulents from your local nursery or garden

The package of sphagnum moss is $13, but will do about 4 wreaths. The floral pins package will do anywhere from 5-10 wreaths.

1. Making the Dollar Tree Spring Wreath

Use the floral wire to connect each joint of the two wreaths together. Make sure you fold the ends of the wire pointing inside the form to avoid being poked later.

Next, zig zag the wire on the inside of the wreath where you have the largest opening. You can wire the bottom and sides as well, but leave the top two rows open for succulents.

2. Putting Sphagnum Moss in the Frame

Sphagnum moss is important because it holds the succulents in the moss and frame. This special moss also absorbs and holds a lot of water.

Soak the moss in a bucket of water. Then squeeze out the excess water. Be careful for pokey items. The company does a good job preparing the moss, but sometimes there are small sticks. Squeeze with care.

Press the moss into the wire wreath form. You want the moss to be thin and compact so you can’t see light through the bottom and sides when you lift it up.

Leave as much room as possible (by making it compact) that you have room for succulent roots and soil. Imagine you are making a nest. You need it to be strong, but you also need it to be wide enough to hold plants.

3. Assembling Succulents in Moss

Keep as much soil as you can around your succulent roots. Press the roots and soil into the succulent form.

Use floral pins to hold your succulents in the wreath.

Next press more sphagnum moss into the wreath form, covering any exposed soil. This will help hold your succulents in place and help hold in moisture for your plants.

If desired, you may also want to wrap your wreath, moss and succulents with twine. Be careful to go around plants and only touch the moss. This can help further hold the moss and plants in place while they establish themselves in the wreath.

Once the root system is strong they will hold themselves in the wreath. You may wonder how long do succulent wreaths last?

A succulent wreath can last up to 5 years. It will change over time. As it gets over grown you can trim back the succulents and use the succulent starts for more wreaths.

Succulent Wreath Maintenance

If you would like to place your succulent wreath on the door avoid South facing doors as the sun will be too hot. Also if you have a wooden door, place plastic behind the wreath to protect the wood finish.

How to Care For Your Succulent Wreath

• After planting, keep the wreath out of direct sunlight for a week. Gradually increase light levels to full exposure.

• For hot zones protect plants from midday sun. Indoors set your wreath in a south-facing window, greenhouse or garden room.

• Hang your wreath using galvanized hardware to avoid rust.

• If you’ll be displaying your wreath on a wooden surface (such as a door) consider covering the back of your wreath with plastic, using floral pins.

• Water your succulent wreath when it feels dry, every 3-10 weeks depending on temperature and lighting.

• Soak the wreath in a container of water for at least an hour.

Avoid misting the surface with water as this encourages shallow roots and effects the health of the plant.
Enjoy your living wreath!

One last dollar store tip: for easy watering purchase a round dollar store serving tray. It fits the dollar store wire wreath forms perfectly. Place your wreath on the tray. Fill the tray with water until the wreath won’t soak up any more water. Let the wreath dry out a bit, then hang back up.

If you enjoyed learning about succulent wreaths, you may also like Making A Dry River Bed with Succulents.

3 Cool Things to do With Window Blinds

and How to Make A Pinecone Garland

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The post How to Make a Succulent Wreath in 3 Easy Steps appeared first on This Homemade Home.

How to hang hooks and faux wainscoting to increase the use of your space and make your entry feel more welcoming.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small percentage of the sale of items you may purchase at no increased price to you.

The entryway is the first and often only place many people see of your home. By making it welcoming and spacious you give an impression of what you’re whole home looks like.

There are different techniques to use whether you have a small, narrow space or large space that needs focus. Today I am writing about how we gave a larger entry focus. Read here for tips on a smaller space.

The reason for the project

I found that when people arrived at our home they had no convenient place to put their jackets. Though we do have a small coat closet, people usually chose to just lay them on the floor. I wanted there to be an attractive and useful spot to quickly put visitors items and help them feel welcome.

I also hated the orange peel texture, so you can see in my before picture that the project is already underway…And I forgot to take a picture before I had started .

If you would like to see how to change the texture of your walls, check out my YouTube channel.

Patch Walls / Smooth-out Texture

This can be done (as demonstrated on my YouTube channel) with a skim coat of dry wall mud. You can buy this in powder form and mix to the desired consistency or pre mixed.

Tip:

Bumps on the wall are more concerning than dips in the wall. You can always come back and fill in a hole. It’s much harder to scrape off a poorly filled hole that sticks up and is now painted.

Space Vertical Trim

When I first started doing faux wainscoting, someone had suggested to use a computer program to decide where to put each piece of vertical slat. I don’t have the patience for that.

I place the piece where it looks normal up close, then I back up to see if it looks good.

After it visually looks good, I measure between each piece and make slight adjustments. You may have light switches, plugs or door frames to maneuver around.

The slats are pine, 1/4 inch by 2 inches, found in the buy-by-the-foot trim section at the Home Depot. I believe they are lattice slats.

Tape Each Slat in Place

Once I am sure of the location of each slat, I tape it in place with painters tape. It is also a good idea to use a level as you tape them down. It may look perfectly vertical when you are up close, but when you move away the slight slants really stick out.

Secure the slates in place with either finish nails and a hammer or an automatic finish nailer. We bought the Porter – Cable combo pack nailers and upholstery stapler with an air compressor. It had the best price and highest reviews.

Add Boards for a Shelf

Two 6″ X 1″ pine boards make a narrow shelf and a great support to add coat hooks. You can also add a piece of decorative trim where the boards come together, for extra support and detail.

Secure in place with finish nails and a few screws. I used my awesome magnetic stud finder and placed the screws into studs. The shelf isn’t meant to hold much weight, but it will be holding several hooks and weight from coats.

Caulk All Joints

Use paintable caulk along all joints. This is what gives a finished, professional look.

Friends have told me before that they were intimidated by all the caulk choices. See my caulk choosing guide here.

For this project I went with DAP paintable caulk.

Fill in any nail or screw holes with caulk.

Choose Your Paint Color

Paint can dramatically change the feel of a room. I went with a light blue on the upper wall to help soften my crazy horizontal lines along the ceiling.

As you can see in the image below the diagonal wall painted in blue draws less attention to the strange angle, than the brown.

It works because the wall color comes closer to matching the ceiling. It blend in instead of sticking out. In this case I really wanted that effect.

I painted the faux wainscoting the same color as my baseboards and trim. This created continuity and gave the impression of more space.

Add Coat Hooks

I searched everywhere for hooks that looked nice and weren’t too big or expensive. Many were too tall to fit under the shelf and leave enough head room to fit a coat over the hook. Many looked cheap.

Eventually I chose these. They had good shape, good reviews, they held your attention, but didn’t draw away from the rest of the design.

Our home immediately looked elevated. I recieved complements from people who were seeing the home for the first time as well as old friends.

I thought it, “worked! The entry really does speak for the whole home.” It’s worth investing in.

I hope you liked this little tutorial today. What is something you want to upgrade in your home? What do you wish you knew how to do (maybe I’ll make a tutorial ).

Take care,

Have a great day,

Natalie

The post Easy Entryway Makeover appeared first on This Homemade Home.

The only thing worse than a room being small is actually feeling small. Thankfully there are plenty of things to do to not only increase the look, but also the feel by adding attractive, inconspicuous storage, well placed accent walls and choosing color than enhances the space.

I’ve compiled amazing tips for decorating small spaces for the bathroom, bedroom, kitchen and home, that will help you meet your goals.

Small Bathrooms

Sometimes there is just not a cost effective way to increase the size of a bathroom. If you have a small bathroom all is not lost. At Trend4Homey you will find a variety of truly small bathrooms with inspiring decorating ideas.

The following rooms all increase their storage with the use of shelves and make the room feel more homey.

I love this pallet wall, see this and other pallet projects at AllThingsHeartandHome.Com.

If pallet wood is not your style you can also try some white washed faux brick, tongue and groove pine or shiplap.

Small Bedrooms

Small spaces can be great. Less to clean, less to own, but it also has its draw backs, namely storage.
One of the most effective ways to create space in a small bedroom or apartment is to add storage in attractive and efficient ways. Like this storage added under a loft bed. See how to make your own loft bed and immediately have more space.

This bedroom has been given an airy feel by adding curtains around the bed to create a sense of privacy. The curtains, though thin, give the feeling of separate rooms. See it here along with 37 other small bedroom ideas.

Small Kitchens

Check out Architectural Digest for an amazing tour of small kitchens. These are my favorites.

Many kitchens (and homes for that matter) are going all white. With the right decore and texture through fabric, wall covering etc. An all white space can be pulled off well. It also increases the effect of space and is wonderful in small rooms, but check out this kitchen!

I love it so much. Using a light grey paint, they created height and still kept the spacial feeling by painting the walls and cabinets the same color. While this wouldn’t work in all situations it works here because there is a good balance of smooth and lined texture. The shiplap helps break up the monotony and the smooth cabinets help separate them from the wall.

The bright window is set high on the wall which pulls your eyes upward and increases the spacial feeling.

The live plants add interest and also pull your eyes upward, creating an inviting and calm space. Imagine this room without plants – it would feel kind of blah and the grey would likely become overpowering.

And of course these amazing counters and floor. They are the highlight. The final touch. They would easily be “too much” in an otherwise busy kitchen with alot of texture and color, but with the grey throughout and the green plants up high, they have nothing to compete with – they just get to shine.

Beautiful light coming in from a window that can’t even be seen. Technically you could add lighting to mimic natural light and get the same effect. The cabinets go to the ceiling creating both storage and bringing attention to the height of the ceiling. They were even able to squeeze in room for a mini breakfast bar.

The all white kitchen helps it feel larger than it is while the wood counters bring in warmth. White subway tile add to the brightness of the room while also adding subtle texture. Though it doesn’t seem to stick out, this kitchen would look much different if it had plain painted walls.

Small Homes

At designertrapped.Com you’ll find 7 tips for making a room seem larger than it is using furniture and decorating tips.

Among her designer tips – adding curtains that go to the ceiling to make the window feel larger than it is.

Try thishomemadehome.com tips on using paint, color, texture and mirrors to trick the eye. Creating a spatial feeling without knocking down any walls.

That is my quick and simple guide to making a room feel larger. If you have other ideas that have worked for you, please share in the comments below.

If you liked what you read and want to keep up on the latest posts from This Homemade Home, please subscribe.

Best wishes,

Natalie

The post Small Spaces Guide : How to make a room look and feel larger than it is appeared first on This Homemade Home.

There are several situations where a loft bed becomes a great alternative to traditional beds.

Small Apartment Living

This style is simple and looks great for small apartment spaces. Built in a deck like fashion.

You will find free plans here.

College Dorm

This style is simple and can be removed when you leave.

Creating Study or Play Space

We found ourselves trying to build a bedroom in a narrow portion of the basement. With the placement of the hot water heater and window it was impossible to avoid a narrow space.

Building a Wall to Wall Loft Bed

We made up for it with a large walk in closet and a loft bed. Now our daughter is in 7th Heaven and has loved organizing all her stuff on the book shelf and cubby wall.

Bolt Supports Into the Wall

Create a firm bed that won’t creak or move by first building a good support system. I used 1/4″ diameter bolts and ratcheted a bolt into each stud in the wall. With this being a wall-to-wall loft I was able to bolt into the walls on three sides.

Mark where each wall stud is on the wall. Hold a 2×4 up on the wall and mark on the 2×4 where each stud is located. Drill 1/4″ pilot holes where you have marked for the bolt to fit.

To get an truly flat bed, use a level when attaching 2x4s to ensure the support is horizontal.

For the large “doorway” under the bed use 2x4s as shown in the picture below, resting on vertical 2x4s.

Build Shelves Under the Loft Bed

To make the most of the space under the bed you can create deep shelves for cubbies and a book shelf.

Use a level here as well to ensure the shelves are straight. I would hold the shelf level, then measure the vertical support beam.

When finishing the shelves, paint the support boards to match the wall color. As you can see here the supports almost blend into the wall.

Place Supports Under the Bed

Putting supports under the bed also help with making a solid immovable bed. I used one 2×4 length wise and cut notches out for two 2x2s then reinforced each board with metal brackets.

The floor of the bed was made using 3/4 inch plywood.

Build Loft Railing

The railing was a little difficult since the bed was longer. I wanted it to be sturdy and withstand heavy use. First I put a bolt in each rung. I screwed the top railing in place and found it still shook a bit.

I then installed an A frame support on the end of the railing. This worked beautifully and took care of any slight movement.

Smooth Out the Finish

Next I sanded down all the joints. Then I caulked in all the screws, joints and imperfections in the wood. There were still a few problem areas so I mixed up a batch of drywall mud and applied it to the wood, let dry and sanded smooth.

Paint or Stain Loft Bed

My daughter and I decided to use white wash on the bed since the room already had some deep blues and we wanted the bed to stand out.

You can buy whitewash stain or you can make your own whitewash. I used 2 parts water to 1 part paint. The nice thing about making your own is you can use paint you already have on hand. It also made it easy to match our trim since it was the same shade.

At first it looks pretty opaque, but the paint soaks into the wood and quickly gets that beach wood look. You can also wipe part of it away with a rag if you want a lighter effect.

Add a Carpet Landing

We had left over carpet scraps that I used for a comfy loft landing. First put down the padding and secure in place with staples. Then screw the carpet into place on the underside onto the landing. Once you flip the carpet over it gives a nice carpeted edge.

Enjoy Your New Space

You’ve arrived, pull out your organization skills and use those cubbies. I plan on installing some sort of material for privacy between the railing rung. I’m thinking corrugated metal, antique rulers or plain-boring-flat wood.

What would you put in between rungs for more privacy and still have it look nice?

Well until next time, have a great day and keep creating!

Natalie

The post How to Build a Loft Bed appeared first on This Homemade Home.

There are many ways to start out a garland. This version is with inexpensive wire from the dollar store, hot glue and pinecones. It cost about $3 to make two to five good length stands.

Cure your pinecones

If you plan on storing your garland from year to year you will want to cure the pinecones to get rid of the bugs. If you don’t you will have many bugs crawling around your house.

To do this stack your pinecones on a tray and bake @ 300° for 20 minutes. My pinecones began to leave a very unpleasant woodsy smell in my house so I pulled them out and sprinkled with cinnamon and nutmeg. It worked great and my house smelled like Christmas.

Prepare wire for the garland

While they are curing prepare your wire. You will want several feet for the garland length, plus more on each end for wiring onto a fence post etc.

I had 5′ length garlands with an extra 3′ feet on both ends to give me plenty of room to attach to my fence post. My total length was 11 feet.

To handle all that wire roll up the first 3′ and secure with a paperclip. Do the same with the last 3′ as well, this will set up your working wire area.

Next prepare the short wires to be hot glued to the top of the pinecones. As you can see in the picture this takes about 6″ of wire. Bend in half and then give a little foot to sit on top of the pinecone or wrap around the stem if there is one.

Once glued on, place the pinecone in an upward position until the glue has hardened. I used the bag holding all my pinecones to hold the glued cones in place. .

Note: some people prefer to just wrap the wire around the end of the pinecone. Depending on the type of pinecone you have this could work quite well and save you time gluing. Since mine were flat on the bottom and not wanting the wire to show, I opted to glue the wire on.

Build the garland shape

To start off my garland I used three pinecones first then the ribbon. I actually left about 3″of space on the wire to tie the ribbon on and glued the ribbon in place so it wouldn’t slide or turn upside down.

To keep the pinecones from slipping I used the pattern below. The yellow line represents my 11′ wire and the blue lines represent the 6″ wire attached to the pinecone. First twist the blue wire around the yellow wire, like a twistie tie. Then wrap the yellow wire around the blue wire once.

This method allowed me to keep the pinecones exactly where I wanted them.

To get the shape on my garland I built it on a flat surface and placed the pinecones where I wanted them before I began. This mostly consisted of using the larger cones flat against the table and smaller cones on top.

In this illustration the blue circled pinecones are the large cones wired in place first. The yellow circled cones were put on last and were smaller.

This pattern gave me the nice shape. Even after I hung it up, the pinecones stayed where I placed them. The wire also helped as I could bend something to keep a cone where I wanted it.

I used 6″ of wire glued to the pinecone for easy handling. This also meant I had wire left poking out once the cone had been twisted into place.

To solve this I used needle nose plyers to curl each wire against the main wire. This kept the wire from being seen, but also added stability to the cones.

When done, unravel your 3′ wire on either end of your garland and string it up on a fence, mantle etc.

Thanks for stopping by. Please share some of your garland making tips or garlands you’ve wanted to try.

The post How to Make a Pinecone Garland appeared first on This Homemade Home.

Each year my family draws each other’s names for Christmas. While we do have store bought gifts, these particular gifts are supposed to be handmade.

I wanted my kids to know the real spirit of giving and found it was easier to encourage them to give their time in making a present than it was earn money to buy a present.

As the years have gone by our kids (and ourselves) have really gotten into it.

Calendar or photobook

My favorites have been when my husband has made me a personalized calendar from shutterfly.com. They have deals constantly and are worth looking into. If they by chance aren’t having deals, Walgreens and Walmart let you make them for around $12.

Made from Felt

My next go-to for homemade presents is felt. It comes in a variety of colors and doesn’t unravel on the edges, making it easy to work with. You can either go with inexpensive 50¢ felt or get a more luxurious look with wool felt.

My Little Pony Castle

This is my newest homemade gift, the My Little Pony Castle playset. The pony buttons can be found at Walmart, Joanne’s or Amazon. I then attached each pony with rainbow ribbon. It folds up to make a convenient quiet book. Let me know if you’re interested and I can share my pattern.

Trolls Poppy and Branch

Last year I made Poppy and Branch out of felt. Felt is so easy to use and makes cute gifts.

Christmas Pajamas

Another great go-to is creating fun shirt and pj’s gifts (really anything made from cotton will work).

I stumbled across this idea years ago while teaching art at a family camp. A little boy had been using toll paint and unbeknownst to me or his mother, ended up getting some on his shirt. By the time she found it, the paint had dried. She came back to the art room begging for help and we had to tell her once it was dry it was permanent, which up to this point had been a bad thing. But I told her to leave the shirt and I’d see if I could match the colors and paint over it. I was able to fix the shirt and while I painted it I realized I should have been doing this all along.

Masking tape stencil

Here are some of the best examples we’ve done for our homemade Christmas presents. This is the masking tape technique. Use masking tape to create a “stencil”then paint over it

TV show Pysch

This particular gift is a throw back to the TV show Psych. My daughter has been working on this and is going to add the words,” I’ve heard it both ways. ”

Freestyle paint

Despicable Me, Gru and Minions

You can also freestyle paint it, which I used in our Despicable Me theme for the purple minion and masking tape for Gru’s scarf.

Freezer Paper Stencil

Another toll paint method is to cut your design out of freezer paper and iron (wax side down) onto your shirt. This also creates a stencil to paint on.

You can cut it with a Cricut, Shillouett machine or a razer.

At the time our son had been calling himself “the happy kid ” so I made him a smiley face shirt. So far I’ve noticed dark colored cotton shirts don’t absorb the toll paint as well. I’m guessing this is because the fibers already hold alot of pigment. Prewashing new shirts can help a little. Deep red shirts have been the least effective with holding onto paint.

Setting the paint in the shirt

Whichever technique you choose, cover the shirt with an old towel and iron the paint into the shirt. This helps set the paint (after it has dried) and makes it a permanent image. For all of my projects (except red shirts) the painting has become permanent and only fades with natural wear.

Weaving

Our older son learned how to make a bead bracelet. This picture gives an idea of the set up. There was not any DIY for this style on YouTube – which as you can tell is very simple and easy to do. I guess my son needs to make a video.

In the mean time you can check out a different DIY beadloom style here.

PVC Pipe toys

And of course there is PVC pipe. Whether you are making marshmallows shooters or lounging chairs, PVC pipe has endless possibilities. These were made by my boys for each other last year.

Copper wire doll furniture

We also had some creative gifts come from copper wire. My son, twisted it into the shape of lawn furniture for his sister’s house, making a chair and a swing.

Doll house renovation

The house came a few years before. It was a rickety, old doll house from a yard sale. I revived it with support beams along the roof and foundation, cardboard roof shingles and painted siding shingles.

Tic Tac Toe

This Tic Tac Toe game was given by my then two year old. I sewed the bag from plaid and burlap. My daughter painted on paper, which I cut into circles and modge podged to the bottom of glass beads. I liked how it preserved her artwork and let her participate in the giving process.

Seasoned Salts

The last present I will share today is gifting seasoned salts. Bacon salt is easy and a tasty gift for the men in your life (or anyone who really loves bacon). The bacon flavor came out well in the food. We used it on salads, sandwiches, soups etc. This gift needs to be stored in the fridge.

To make, cook a pound of bacon to very crispy. Let cool and crumble into tiny bacon pieces. Add two cups of course salt and two tsp of ground pepper. Mix together and fill up your bottles.

The packaging was made with burlap, doubled over and glued around the neck of the bottle from the dollar store.

Tied with Raffia and a homemade, laminated tag.

The possibilities are endless. I hope this sparks some creative ideas and as always feel free to send questions or comments.

And have a wonderful Christmas holiday.

The post 10 Christmas Presents you can DIY appeared first on This Homemade Home.

I love Halloween because of the excuse to dress up, make rediculously cute treats and eat sugar (though I admit I’m laying off the sugar a little more than I did as a kid) dressing up never affects my health . Here are my top 5 DIY for Halloween.

#1 Homemade Costumes

You may or may not be into dressing up, you may or may not like to make costumes yourself, but seeing the creativity of others never dulls. Here are some of my favorites over the years (stickers used to protect the innocent- not an actual part of the costume)

Star Wars! People will always know who you are and you may even get fan art. Princess Leia’s iconic hair stands out to even the youngest fans.

Oh the scandal! Obi Wan Kenobi and Princess Leia on a date…chaperoned by a little Yoda – so it’s all good.

A little tiger – if you know an awesome face painter, arrange for a cool addition to your costume through face paint.

A family of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with easy shells from the dollar store.

Harry Potter theme was fun (with Peter Pan and Wendy – I couldn’t get them to all agree–I really wanted one of them to be Doby… sigh) . No one actually wanted to be Harry.

The Neville costume was made from thrift store pillow cases and the ties from felt. I let them make their own ties so they are different. Hermione’ s cloak is just a big piece of felt fastened around the neck, we made their house emblems with paint on felt.

Hagrid’s costume was a heavy metal rockers wig and a rug for the beard.

Peter Pan ‘s costume was made from felt and green tights.

Wendy’s costume was a night gown from the thrift store that I took in on the sides and reconstructed the sleeves.

And last, but not least Tron. Simply wear all black and make a few strategic lines with neon tape. I loved it! Easy and fun.

#2 Cute Treats

Why else would I figure out how to make tiny edible candy pumpkins or bat and monster cupcakes than to make a hit at the Halloween party? It was totally worth it.

#3 Hallway Trick – or – Treat

Ok, this tops my list of happy memories. If you have a long hallway and little kids to entertain – you HAVE to try this .

The adults stand in the doorway and the kids come get candy. Seeing everyone’s costumes – and dressing up is an absolute blast and everyone stays warm. I love these people!

#4 “Scary” Decorations

I wasn’t into “Scary” until I had kids. They practically beg for scary which I resist and do moderately scary – which they love. My four year old was crying that she didn’t want to go home, “but why,” I encouraged, “your room is so fancy!” (alluding to Fancy Nancy whom she adores). She cried, “my room IS fancy, but not our house.”

Sigh…

“What would we need to do to make our house fancy? ”

“We need spider webs and rats!”

… Ya, that is what fancy is to a four year old.

I did spider webs last year, they stuck to EVERYTHING! Not again!

This had taken its place. A window cut out is dramatic with no added electricity and minimal cleaning up afterwords.

It’s made from a large cardboard box. The very observant will notice the two pictures are different – that’s because I’ve done this with two houses now. I love it because it’s easy, it doesn’t take additional electricity and people love it. When the holiday is over I fold it up and store it behind our storage shelf in the garage.

#5 Glow in the dark Halloween party.

To start off get a black light. Just a black light bulb in a table lamp. Then we had teams turn people into mummies. The black light made everything glow. We also played balloon volleyball with a glow stick in the balloon and topped it off with pizza.

What is your favorite Halloween DIY?

The post 5 Ways to DIY this Halloween appeared first on This Homemade Home.

You know back when chalk boards were all the rage and they were being painted everywhere?  It looks like the style is starting slow and now ease out of the kitchen, I think because they were often big and black and well…permanent.

It’s hard to commit to something like that. I never painted my wall black (though I did try magnetic paint at one point, that’s another story), deep down inside I kind of wanted to know what it would be like to have a chalkboard that could have cute things drawn on it, still it was so permanent.  My husband had reviewed these awesome chalk markers and I had no place to use them.

until now….

The day came while we were at a city festival and one of the booths was giving away blackboard wall decals – basically removable chalk board walls.  I had to try it and since I am trying it, why not tell you about it.

This removable chalkboard is a plastic like paper applied just like contact paper. It also works just like a chalk board as well except it is easily removable. I used it in the play space in our basement and on my antique Hoosier cabinet. Since it is removes easily, I didn’t have to worry about it changing the look or ruining the surface.

You will need the Blackboard Wall Decals by Colore, a level, tape measure, scissors and a pencil. There are several options from different companies for contact blackboard paper, but as of this post Colore was actually the cheapest and it worked well.

I used the tape measurer to decide how high to place it on the wall. Then I used the level to make sure both my corners would start at the same height. A square edge at the corners made sure I had the chalkboard decal going up at the correct angle.

Start in one corner and smooth it out with your hand as you pull the paper backing off. There are also handy cutting lines on the back to help you get a nice straight edge.

And Voila! You’ve got yourself a temporary chalkboard that works and can be taken down whenever you feel the need.  Be warned that the chalk markers are much harder to get off than traditional chalk.  I really like the look of the chalk markers, but tried to draw things with the chalk marker that I wanted to stay longer and let the kids draw with the regular chalk for easy clean up.

The chalkboard below was made with one and a half of the Colore box sets and I used the left over portions to change up my Hoosier Cabinet a bit. Hope you enjoyed the demo. I’ll keep you posted on my next adventure.

Until then, good afternoon, good evening and

goodnight!

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A few months ago, while visiting my parents, I spent the night in my childhood room. Many things had changed since I was young, but there was one piece of furniture I remembered. A little dresser leaning against the wall. A bit unassuming, it probably wouldn’t stick out to the average person, but as I looked memories came flooding back. Things I had cherished, things I had worried about and friendships I’d made.

The little dresser had gone through many hands since I had last used it and the years were showing. Someone (perhaps me) had colored in the crevices with a green crayon. One wheel had fallen off the bottom and it now sagged on the floor. The sides had been roughed up by (not me, I would never do that ).

Suddenly, I wanted to fix it up and bring it back to where it once was. I asked my mom if I could take it and she said, “yes”!

Family Ancestry and a Water Stand

This dresser (or more accurately the water stand-now-used-as-a dresser) not only belonged to me as a child, it had also belonged to my mother and her mother when they were children. As I began to get it ready for refinishing I couldn’t help but wonder about who built it. With the detailed curved joints and routed edges. This piece, dating back to about 1910, had to have been done by hand, as many electric tools weren’t in mainstream use yet, but how was it done? The whole piece intrigued me.

Life Happened

My grandmother was a hard woman from what I remember as a child, and I never talked to her much growing up.

As an adult I learned more about her life and found she had gone through her share of heartache and pain, enduring a history I likely never would. The wear on this little dresser seemed to be speaking to all it had witnessed during the lives of its owners.

Becoming a US Citizen

My grandmother sailed to America with her parents when she was 7 years old. Her father had wanted to come sooner, but couldn’t convince his wife to travel on the ocean, she felt it wasn’t safe.

Then the Titanic sank.

Titanic Sinking

My great grandfather hid every newspaper he could find, afraid they would never make it to America if his wife heard the devastating news. As much as he tried, she still found out, it was too big of a story to hide. She surprised her husband by saying, “They will be safer now. We can go.” They sailed on the very next ship.

The Big Move

So the great trip began, with packing and buying tickets, preparing for a new life and saying goodbye to family they would leave behind. Within a year after arriving in the states, both of my grandmother’s parents contracted Typhoid Fever. Her father died at the age of 38 leaving his wife a widow at 32, with 6 children, in a new country. My grandmother was 8 years old.

It must have been a taxing life trying to bring in enough to care for a large family. They moved in with my grandmother’s aunt who had also moved to the states and somehow paid the bills. My grandmother quit school as soon as she was able to start bringing in an income and help with the family. At the age of 16 she started working as a switchboard operator for the telephone company. Which I understand to be a pretty prestigious job for the time.

A Relationship Match

The new job must have given her a little freedom. She enjoyed dressing up and spending time with her friends. She loved jewelry and even had a few fashion wigs that were all the rage. She married one of the young men in her group of friends. A local baseball hero who wanted to be with her more than with any other girl.

The Great Depression

The great depression hit two years before they got married. I sometimes wonder if they held off getting married, waiting for things to work out. As the lean times rolled on. Perhaps they decided to make the most of it and start their life together on faith.

The depression left a lasting impression.

When my grandmother died she had boxes of necklaces and earrings most of them shiny, colorful plastic. It was cost effective and added that splash of color to make an outfit complete. More telling were the piles of money stuffed in bureaus and under beds.

A huge storage of food in the basement, mostly expired, gave hope of no hungry days ahead. Never using the food, they always bought new food to eat from their pantry, but the basement was there as security.

The depression hit at such a pivotal time. They never quite recovered.

A Life of Poverty

Poverty does something to you, it changes how you see life and reality. Much like the scars on the dresser, you can fix it up and bring back the color, but some things will never be the same.

A different perspective isn’t necessarily to be mourned. Even though scars remain, that can’t be sanded out, it adds character and history. A meaningful story, that might not have otherwise come.

Alzheimer’s and Sacrifice

My grandmother lived to be 96 years old and spent the last 10 years of her life with Alzheimers and near complete deafness. There were times when I would look down the hall and see my mother helping her to the bathroom or helping her get dressed and wonder why God kept my grandmother here so long. She clearly wasn’t getting anything out of life. Maybe, I wondered, it was to give my mother the opportunity to show how angelic she was, for it took an angel to do the things she did.
As I refinished her dresser and brought back the charm from its early days, I felt like I was reaching back into the beginning of my grandmother’s life.

and I remembered.

I remembered, that as my grandmother’s mind was being ravaged by the affects of Alzheimers and she would be thrown back and forth in time, reliving anywhere from five minutes to 90 years ago. There were times she would laugh and joke with me.

I began to wonder if maybe my grandmother hadn’t always been hardened and grumpy. I began to think maybe life had been hard and resulted in her currently, fleeting, hardened self.

So here I was thinking, as I sanded and glued and nailed pieces back together. Maybe my grandmother had lived that long so that I could also catch a glimpse of who she really had been. In a way, as the dresser began to take shape and show it’s true self, I began to see that my grandmother deserved the same respect.

The respect to regain and be remembered for who she had been.

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