Living Room Christmas Craft - Centrepiece

Here is another centrepiece that is very easy to make.  You can pick what you'd like to have in them - mine is inspired from something I saw on Pinterest.

What you need:

3 Glass jars with lids of varying sizes (mine are from HomeSense)

Metal Tray (or wood, glass, marble)

Pinecones (some of mine are painted with gold paint and glitter)

Small votive candles

Small ornaments

Pine garland

Toy Reindeer to decorate tray

Inside my Three Jars:

(1) Toy polar bear cub (Michael's), Small white brush trees (Dollarama), fake snow (Dollarama)

     - My cub kept sinking, so I glued him to a piece of white cardboard to increase his surface area

(2) Reindeer ornament (The Bay), Gold beads (Mine are cut from a string of beads - Dollarama)

(3) Christmas balls or varying golds and silvers, varying sizes (Dollarama)

Living Room Christmas Craft - Coffee Table Box

This is an extremely easy way to make a nice centrepiece. Collect a few things you have around the house, add a few Christmas items, and Voila! A box that looks very put-together!

In our Box:

A gold glitter Reindeer    (Bought at a Christmas Market)

White candles of varying heights    (Bought at IKEA)

3 Ashland "Christmas Tree" Candles    (These are incredible! When lit, they make the entire house smell like pine. Just be careful when lighting candles around greenery - high fire hazard! Make sure flames are protected.)

Small gold ornaments

Pinecones    (Gathered from our backyard, and at the cabin)

Pine Garland    (You could substitute real branches from your Christmas tree, but ours are from Michaels' craft store)

It also holds our Coasters tucked away in the corner (gray slate squares)

The box itself is a breakfast tray that I flipped upside down, then removed the legs! It was an off-green colour, so I spray painted it with Rust-Oleum Almond paint to give it a more Vintage White feel.

Living Room Christmas Crafts - Gold Soldiers and Christmas Trees

Gold Soliders

These were purchased at Michaels - they are wooden and are made for painting.
I used Krylon Gold Metallic spray paint - but in real life, they look slightly bronze. If you'd prefer a REAL gold, I would suggest Rust-Oleum Gold Metallic spray paint.

                       

Christmas Trees

These were made as all cone christmas trees are made! I used a large cone styrofoam old to get the basic shape, and used left-over cardboard to make the basic structure. Secure the cardboard in place with tape.

Cover the cardboard base with regular white printer paper or newspaper. I did this because white glue does not stick well to tape - makes it runny, and designs seem to slip off. I used White Glue to attach computer paper to the entire cone structure.

Then it's time to decorate!
My gold/silver shiny tree: 
Decor is made by mixing silver and gold sequins, silver and gold glitter and silver and oil foil decals in a bowl, then applying mixture to think white glue layer on cone.

Allow time to dry, then go back and add more sparkle to areas which were not well covered.
Sparkles will get everywhere! Be sure to keep a vacuum nearby so that you don't track them all over the house!

My white ball tree:
This was a time consuming project, but worth it! It was done using a glue gun, as opposed to regular White Glue.

Firstly, I covered the base of the tree in a silver ribbon - just to make the base a little more special.
I then added a small layer of glue to the base, along the top of the ribbon, followed by a few styrofoam balls.
The styrofoam balls were purchased at Dollarama - come in a pack of about 10,000 for 1.25$. They are of varied sizes, which gives depth to the tree!
Keep adding glue-then balls - then glue - then balls, until you have worked your way up the tree! For a 2 foot tree, it took about 2 hours!

Living Room Christmas Crafts - Christmas Blocks

Living Room Crafts - The "Let it Snow Blocks"

These were made from 2" blocks of wood. Luckily I have a handyman in my life, so he simply cut them from a 2x4 of scrap wood he had lying around the house. You can buy similar wooden blocks from Michael's - but they are expensive, 2-3$ per block!

I used fine sandpaper to sand the edges and sides of the blocks, to make for a nicer finish.

I painted them in Vanilla acrylic paint, then tried a Martha Stewart Stencil for the lettering. I would NOT recommend this product. The letters all bled, and the most annoying thing, all of the letters fit on the blocks except the "W" - it hung off the edges. I had to draw a W by hand. Eventually, I traced all the letters myself and did not use the stencils.

I finished off by gluing glitter snowflakes to two of the cubes with regular White Glue. These were purchased at Michael's.

I paired it all with a square vase full of sticks collected from our yard, with 4 added branches of Ashland Christmas Stems (white and red) - from Michael's. Red ribbon makes it complete!

Christmas Crafts - The Living Room

I've been a busy bee lately, working on several Christmas crafts. While I'm not even close to being done my christmas decor, I thought I would share a few pictures and ideas with you today!

I have discovered the secret to successful blogging is to hire a photographer... Unfortunately, I did not.  Here they are anyway!

The Living Room

As we rent, it is difficult to have the house exactly the way I'd like it. Our place has dark floors and dark countertops, whereas I prefer a lighter, whiter feel.  It is an open concept main floor, and this is how we have set up our living room. Our fireplace is in the corner of the room (as it in a centre block town house), which makes it almost impossible to have it as the focus of the room, which I would prefer.

[The decorations in the corner are to go on the tree - which we will be buying tonight!]

DIY Crafts in this room (click on link for How-To's)

(1) The "Let it Snow" Blocks

(2) The Gold Soldiers and Christmas Trees

(3) The Coffee Table Box

(4) The Centrepiece

(5) The Burlap Ruffle Tree Skirt

Other Fun Christmas Finds:

Pottery Barn Christmas Pillow

The Mantlepiece- a work in Progress

Lanterns from IKEA, Garland from Michael's Craft Store

More to Come....

Cara xox

Christmas Transformation has begun!

Officially November - so time to get into the Christmas Spirit!

First on the list - Switch over our Room. So here are the before and after. Still more decorations to come, but even just switching the Duvet and Pillows makes all the difference!

Before (Minus the curtains, they came with the rental)

After: Warm, Cozy plaid flannel!

Duvet Cover and Throw from The Bay.
Pre-lit Tree from The Bay.
Pillows from HomeSense.
Bench, Bedside Tables and Lamp from HomeSense.

We have a headboard on the way too - will update it once we have it installed. It matches the bench at the foot of the bed.

Hope I've inspired some Christmas Spirit!
Much more to come,

Cara xox

A Dublin City Wedding...

I've had a request (albeit from a family member!) to do a post on our beautiful wedding.

Almost 5 months ago, I got to marry the love of my life, in the city that I love, on the hottest day that Ireland had ever had. We were married at the old City Hall, an old building with high ceilings, beautiful acoustics and a very romantic feel. If you have a chance to visit Dublin, this is the kind of place that just takes your breath away.

After an intimate service, Kyle and I were whisked away to Trinity College for photos, while the rest of our guests hit one of the famous Dublin Pubs - The Stag's Head - for a few pints, and a chance to get to know each other better.

We then moved on to Medley, by famous Irish Chef, Andrew Rudd. A modern loft, set up with an open kitchen and gorgeous views into the downtown streets, it is everything we wanted for our modern reception. Our theme was "loft meets winery", which was actually quite difficult to pull off - but in the end, it was absolutely perfect.

I think the photos speak for themselves, all taken by the extremely talented Christina Brosnan (www.brosnanphotographic.com).

PS. Girls - I bought my dress on eBay for 200$ (Ann Taylor). You don't need a 10, 000$ dress to feel like 

a princess. The Jimmy Choo shoes, however, may have helped! 

And these are only a few of the 600+ photos we get to look through! If there is one thing I would recommend to all couples getting married - you will never regret going with a fantastic photographer (even if they cost more), and it really is all about the love and the food!!

At the end of the day, the guests raved about how different our wedding was was [it was intimate, with all cocktail style canapés and small dishes, no sit-down dinner], how amazing the food and the whole food-experience was [they could watch the chef preparing the dishes], and of course, how wonderful it was to walk away with a "take out" box of treats from our Candy Table. [Chocolates made specially for us by Chocolate Barr's in Stratford, Ontario - absolutely AMAZING!]

We had a wedding planner to help coordinate things from 'Across the Pond.' If you are thinking of a 

Dublin Wedding and won't be arriving until the week before the wedding, contact Collette O'Leary 

(at Elegant Events by Collette) - she is absolutely fantastic and knows all the best vendors, etc. 

We couldn't have done it without her!

The day really does go by in the blink of an eye! I'm already looking forward to our 10 year 

anniversary... back to Dublin to renew our vows? I guess we'll have to see!

More photos to follow, as we had a separate photographer for the Dancing Portion of the evening.

But that's it for now, 

Cara xox