Non-traditional Christmas Tree(s)

I have a non-traditional Christmas tree this year. I mean, I have a REAL tree too of course to fulfill the child in me’s favorite holiday activity of lying by the tree and watching Christmas movies for hours on end. Bonus if there are Christmas cookies involved. But for the fun tree, the one that you see first thing when you walk in my front door, I wanted to do something a little different. I arranged a bunch of branches in a tall clear vase filled with Christmas lights. I left the lights sort of messily wrapped around the end of the branches to add interest. I was forced to use smaller ornaments so that the branches didn’t break, and went with a mix of greens, turquoises and blues which really pop against the dark branches. It sits on my mirrored chest that reflects the light glow into the living room.

I did a quick search for other non-traditional (and wildly creative) trees. Check out some fun ideas below...

{books, stacked}

{pencil shaving}

{books, leaning}

{ladder}

{wall art}

{wine bottles}

{pull apart shelves}

***all "tree" images from the web***

Fabulous Farrah: a DIY t-shirt project

"Once upon a time there were three beautiful girls who went to the police academy, and they were each assigned very hazardous duties. But I took them away from all that and now they work for me. My name is Charlie."

I love Charlie’s Angles. To be very clear, I love the 70’s Charlie’s Angles à la Aaron Spelling…NOT the crappy Cameron Diaz movie Charlie’s Angels. Disgrace.

I love how chic and glamorous the Angles were running in heels with perfect flowing hair and always, always solving the case and catching the bad guys. And they drove such cool cars.

My absolute favorite angel is Jill Munroe played by Farrah Fawcett. My grandpa had the real iconic 70’s red swimsuit wearing Farrah poster hanging in his basement when I was young. It seems to have vanished after he died and my grandma sold that house, but I have faith that it will resurface someday and find a new home on my wall. My dad recalls that he painted black light paint over that poster when he was younger so that she glows. Even more 70’s!!!

I googled the poster a while back just to see how much they were going for these days (a lot for an original), but I came across many other items with the same poster image. One item in particular was an orange t-shirt with the Farrah image screen printed on the front. The seller was asking $65 and I thought, “Well hell, I can make that for next to nothing”. So I did!

I found a pale orange v-neck t-shirt at Old Navy for $5.99. I used a leftover iron on transfer from our Lost finale party. I had purchased the transfers from Michael’s for $9.99 for a pack of 10.

I found a high resolution image online of the poster and then reversed the image in Photoshop (you will need to reverse it so that it prints as a mirror image on the transfer). Print image from a laser printer onto the iron on transfer.

Place transfer on shirt where you want the image to be and press iron down for 20 seconds. Move around the image pressing each section down (do not drag iron back and forth over image like you do when ironing clothes). I went around the edges a second time for an additional 5 seconds. When the transfer is cool enough to touch, slowly peel back the transfer to reveal image. Voila!

{snapshots of t-shirt making}

{modeling Farrah t-shirt next to my friend's Farrah poster}

A Little LOST Love

I love Lost. I mean, I LOOOOOOOOOOOVE Lost. Some friends and I had a pretty spectacular Hawaiian themed Lost finale viewing party this weekend complete with Dharma beer and Mr. Cluck’s fried chicken… “Have a cluckety-cluck-cluck day!”. One of our party activities was to make tshirts using iron on transfers and puff paints. Needless to say, we became a pretty creative bunch, pretty fast!

Geo's "Polar Beer, Maaaaaaaaaaalt Liqour" design

My friend, Pharon, modeling her "Mr. Eko in a Dharma Logo" design

A friend sent me a link to these spectacular gems. Each poster, designed by Ty Mattson, is available on abc.com for $45.95 each. Not only are these retro style posters a great way to immortalize my favorite show on my wall, I’m thinking that they may make an awesome tshirt as well! :)

Finale party pics…just for fun…

good v. evil, balloon form

Dharma beer, a product of the Hanso Foundation

wall of candidates

Dharma Initiative cupcakes

Funky French

I am in my twenties. When I think of twenty-something apartments and homes, I certainly don’t think of Louis XVI Chairs. Ornate Louis chairs seem to scream grandmother dining rooms instead of young bachelorette pad. However, I’ve been seeing (and LOVING) revamped Louis XVI inspired chairs with funky print fabric and brightly painted frames a lot lately.

If you are feeling crafty, you could definitely whip up one of these bad boys yourself. Try typing “French Chair” or “Louis XVI Furniture” into Craigslist or Ebay. You might be able to find an interesting piece at a local thrift store as well. Any piece with a French style wood frame will work well. All you need then is a fun fabric (no sewing required…just use a staple gun!), and some bright or metallic paint. Make sure that you prime the frame prior to painting to avoid chipping (lord only knows what may have been adhered on the frame in the past so don’t skip the primer…you want YOUR paint to stick). Nail head trim can add a little “bling” if you desire that look.

These sassy statement pieces can punch up any living room…belonging to young and old.

{all images from the web}

Repurposing…

At the shop, I used to sell Lofco candles which are the most amazing smelling candles. They are a soy based candle that burns for over 100 hours in a hand-blown glass vessel. I always thought it was such a shame to throw away the beautiful glass after the candle was gone so I decided to try and reuse it as a vase. I chose my two favorite scents as test cases: Penthouse (Champagne scent infused with ginger, raspberry and pink grapefruit) and Powder Room (Duchess Peony combined with camellia with a hint of rain mist and cassis)…each candle in the line is smartly named after a different room the house.

I filled my sink with HOT water and Dawn and let the candles soak over night. It was surprisingly easy to dig the remaining candle wax from the glass as it was so soft from soaking. I hand washed them and let them soak again in cold water for a while before rewashing them and letting them dry. The candle is slightly oily so I wanted to make sure that I got all of the oily residue off the glass before putting flowers in it. I chose to use pink and orange hybrid roses cut short. I think that it turned out quite cute!

{snapshots of soaking, drying and arranging}

voila!