Crafty Friday - Topiary Tree

Ever since my trip to Canton a while back I've had this glass dome that I intended to put an ornament stand in with a seasonal ornament....like this.

Unfortunately the dome I bought was too skinny and too short (hasty purchase!). So, it's been sitting empty on my bookshelf ever since. I decided I just wanted a topiary tree to sit inside of it. But have you seen the prices on some of those tiny topiary trees?? And I knew that I'd have to have one that was 'just right' for my dome. What are the odds??? Enter crafty Friday....

I went to Hobby Lobby and bought some materials to help me out with the project. You'll need a boxwood plant, foam floral balls (or shape of your choosing), moss and some sort of container. For the stick...you could buy one - or check your yard for one (which is what I did).
Use floral foam to fill the pot so that your stick has somewhere to 'stick'. I had some of this already on had so no need to buy it again... FREE! :) Push the stick into the ball and you're ready for tedious step #2.
Cut the boxwood plant into tiny sprays like this.
And start sticking them in! Remember this WILL take a while.
Hot glue the moss around the base of your tree and you're finished!
Now the new home for the tree filling up the glass dome just right.
How much did this cost for ONE tree?
Floral foam ball $.80
Terra Cotta pot $.42
Boxwood spray $3.99 (and I have over half left)
Stick: FREE
Moss: FREE (I ended up having some so I can return what I bought)
GRAND TOTAL: $5.21

**to all my local friends. I have 5 balls and 4 pots (one broke!) so if anyone wants to make a tree... let me know.

Home Decorating

**A Break from the Vacation Pictures**
I have recently become a huge fan of home decorating blogs like The Nester, The Inspired Room and The Lettered Cottage.

These women are really good at making their houses feel like "home" for them. I secretly want to be one of them (you know with the thousands and thousands of blog followers). But since only a handful of you read my blog I'll just be content with what I've got. As is my new catch phrase "It is what it is!" Anyway, they have got me hooked on the idea of finding cheap items at Goodwill, garage sales or Craigslist and re-doing them to make them my own. Not to mention they have really great ideas for other home decorating... more on that to come later! :)

Well a few weeks ago I was putting the twins to bed and thought to myself... "I have got to get them some stools to help them get up into their new beds." They aren't that high, but since I moved them along a different wall they don't have the nightstand to leverage their legs against to climb up. Thankfully the next day was a school day for them and I decided to visit our local Goodwill store. I was pleasantly surprised to find a stool that would be perfect against their bed!! It was $4.99 and I just knew it would work just right. Unfortunately I only saw one and figured there was NO way I'd ever find a matching stool so I passed it up and kept searching the other furniture for some other "got to have" piece to re-do. After finding nothing, I ventured back to the stool to take one last parting glance and low and behold there was ANOTHER one!! I could almost hear the decorating angels singing!! I snatched them up and fought of an elderly man for them (well OK, he really only asked where I got them and if there were any more).

The next day I loaded up the kids, went to Walmart and got all the supplies I'd need to refinish them. I would have gone to Home Depot but when I have the kids - I have to find a store to kill all the birds with one stone and unfortunately Home Depot doesn't sell printer ink.

Take a look at my first furniture re-do.

After spending the majority of the time using this sandpaper - I know now that if I am going to make a habit of refinishing furniture I will have to get an orbital sander.

I had to take the paint off because it had crackle paint over the top and I was afraid my coat of black would crackle too.

This is a dark picture I know...but you can at least see where it goes! I also learned that I should have used semi-gloss paint...maybe one day I'll have spare time and energy to repaint it. Until them, the flat paint will have to do.

Please ignore the white spot on the right stool. That came from another home improvement project that we worked on this weekend. Pictures of that to come later...

Wonder how much it all cost?

Stools: $10.80

Paint: $5.96

Sandpaper: $3.27

Grand Total $20.03

Pretty good when this similar stool goes for $38.95 and up! And that's just one stool.

New Bathroom!!

We've had some minor remodeling going on here at the Jacobus house lately. Our hallbath was overdue for some major renovating and was on our list of things to "get to." After a water leak in our kitchen caused destruction to the wood floor we had to tile that and figured we might as well get the bathroom done at the same time. So, now this bathroom has become my new favorite room of the house and I can't wait to have the money saved to do our bathroom too. After that is done literally EVERYTHING in the whole house other than doors/trim and windows would be new!!

BEFORE PICTURES:

(notice there wasn't even a place for a shower head to go -- it was rigged with a weird pipe by the previous owner/renters)

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER: I didn't take before pictures of the light fixture -- but think of the brass vanity lighting with 4 globes - 3 frosted and one clear (it was classy!!) haha