Weird title for an after-Christmas/after-New Year's blog post, right? Well, as I mentioned in my last post, I love after-Christmas bargain shopping. This year I hit up Michael's, and stocked up on some cheap-irific Deco Mesh with the intention on creating a front porch Christmas tree whimsical bonanza. Or something like that. Consider this a tutorial in case you too bought some craft supplies at a deep discount. You'll thank yourself next Christmas, I promise.

[Side note: Sometimes bloggers DIY in their really pretty home studios. Sometimes they edit their pictures. Sometimes they manipulate stuff to create the allure of a highly styled publication. I don't do those things (except add snow to my pictures. Snow makes everything look prettier). All of the following pictures were taken in my post-Christmas-almost-post-apocalyptic dining room. It was and is still a gigantic mess. But I did have a super cute helper!]

Step 2. Jam the tomato cage into your urn, and tie the top pieces together with some twine-ish/wire-ish stuff. ​

 Step 5. Decorate, and voila! (Photo was edited to add snow, 'cause whimsy.)

Step 6. Store the tree in your basement, attic or garage until next year.
​You'll see it, smile and say, "Oh Yeah!" and then feel the merriment seeping into your veins. It'll be legend... wait for it! ... dary! Happy new year friends!

One of the six tenets of good that I like to talk about is good living. My basic premise is that if we make our homes to be our havens, then we'll be prone to do more good in the world. Feng shui practitioners tell us that how we order our homes can enhance our destiny and opportunity prospects. Minimalists and tiny home advocates talk about the value of regaining control over our possessions and space. Folks who study happiness tell us that having sentimental objects in our homes, returning rooms to "ready" state, and cultivating an environment that encourages home-grown experiences can all play big roles in our happiness. 

No matter how we slice it, how our homes look and function matter. 

That said, I'm not here to weigh in on a McMansion versus tiny house debate. I'm merely advocating for doing what you gotta do to make the rooms you find yourself in be your happy places. And since I read a lot of DIY/home decorating blogs, I see how well some people pull that off. 

I'm not one of those people. To start, my budget for any room re-do is about $0. Okay, maybe a little bit more, but still pretty close to nada. Nothing. Zilch. Second, I'm not so great at photographing DIY tutorials. I may remember to take pictures while a project is in progress, but don't hold your breath. Last, I am genetically incapable (that's my story and I'm sticking to it) of finishing a home project from start to finish in a quasi-reasonable amount of time. 

Ahem. I promised in The Good Letter two weeks ago that my bathroom remodel would be done by September 1st. So, last night (August 31st, for those of you without a calendar), I realized I needed to get on the ball. We started the remodel last July, when Mike bought me a pedestal sink as an anniversary gift. A month or two later, we finally got around to ripping out the old vanity, pictured below. 

when I covered the top with fake snow and decorated it with a ceramic snowman. We finally unloaded it onto someone in early spring. (See... genetically incapable of finishing a home project in a timely manner. And to think you doubted me.)

Well, as I said earlier, I took control of the situation last night, and I finished painting the bathroom. It's a beautiful dark gray color. I stepped back to admire my work, picked up the gallon paint can to put the lid on it, and BAM. This happened.

I think I've always had a little bit of hoarder inside me. It took me a long time to overcome my compulsion to stockpile paper - I kept high school and college notebooks, middle school notes from friends signed with LYLAS and outlined with doodles, song lyrics that seemed profound at some point in time, and much more. Even though looking at those things could sometimes summon a memory worth remembering, as time passed that happened less and less. So I decided hanging on didn't always make sense, and the great purge began.

I don't really remember the exact time that the tide turned toward dumping excess, but it did. I flat out had TOO MUCH STUFF, and I let it overrun me. Case in point... here's a gem from times past on this #tbt:

I know I've come a long way, but there are still things that I cling to because they aren't past their useful life or I'm too sentimental to part with them. Just looking at this picture, I see some items I still own 16 years later. The Coca-Cola thermometer hangs in my kitchen. Most of the Beanie Babies on the desk are in a pile of greatly treasured loveys in Emme's room. But at least those things are being used. They aren't just being kept for the sake of keeping, which brings me to the point of my post. 

I'm giving myself a challenge - to use what I've got. 

I'm going to use the stuff I have, or get rid of it. Even if that means powering through my collection of a million pencils (seriously - where do they all come from?) to write an opus, or adorn them with washi paper and give them as gifts to every person I know. I'm gonna be committed y'all. I'm going to get through it all, and be conscious before I add anything more. I know this process will take time, so I won't plan to do it overnight or anything. But I will share the outcomes with you here. 

To be honest, I just looked at the picture and didn't read her step-by-step tutorial. Figuring out how to do this is pretty intuitive. 

1. I laid out the doilies first. Since mine aren't all white, I tried to balance the shapes and the colors. I put the biggest doily in the middle and worked my way out.
2. I got thread and sewed the doilies together using a few simple loop stitches. This won't be the easiest thing to get apart someday if I have a different use for the doilies, but with a seam ripper it surely won't be impossible.

That's it. I like how the shapes suddenly seem much more modern and less precious when made into a runner. And now I have something that I've been hoarding with no practical purpose that I will actually use. Living forward by looking backwards. Good stuff. 

Do you have stuff hanging around your house that is totally meh? Stuff that you could breathe new life into with a few minor tweaks? Then what are you waiting for? 

Above is one of my most recent upcycle projects. I bought a wooden bin at a yard sale for $2. It's about 12 inches long, and 4 inches deep. It's divided into two compartments, so I thought it would be perfect for key storage just inside the front door. 

The original finish was dark brown, and it was chipped and worn. I know you can't tell much about what it looked like initially versus now in the picture. My bad. The after picture is actually painted gray with chalky finish paint, with a white and gray map of Page County, Virginia decoupaged on the front. I had to go with black and white pics here because the after picture on my phone actually looks bright pink. That is NOT the look I was going for. But it's not like I've mounted this thing on the wall yet, so I'll hold off and do the real after picture soon. Trust me, it looks better.

My point is that this upcycle project took all of maybe 30 minutes to do (stretched over a few hours to allow for drying time). It was easy because I had supplies on hand. I'm always a fan of being prepared (aka, craft supply hoarding), so I thought it might be useful to come up with a list of basic craft supplies that are useful to keep in stock. You want to be ready when your creative transformation itch needs to be scratched. 

That wedding was beautiful, and the tulle really served well. But what to do with the leftovers after the "I do's" are proclaimed and rings are exchanged? Of course, I stuffed the tulle in a bag and forgot about it (that's what I do with most wayward things in my house. Perhaps a future post will be about a self-inflicted bag ban). 

If I recall correctly, I had about 5 yards worth of tulle. Of course, my first step was checking out Pinterest to figure out a new use for the netting. I considered making pom poms, but then what would I do with a whole bunch of white fluffy pom poms? Then I thought about a wreath, but it would have to be an inside wreath in order for it not to be filthy in a couple of nanoseconds, and I don't have any interior doors in need of adornment. 

Then I spotted a tulle tutu tutorial (say that three times fast). Disclaimer: I've actually attempted a tulle tutu before, but quickly abandoned the idea once I figured out HOW MUCH it would cost using rolls of tulle. Instead, the one I bought on Amazon cost half as much as one roll of tulle. But I digress... the bottom line is that this is a great project if you buy yards of tulle and make your own strips. If you go the convenient route, expect to pay for the convenience.

Yesterday was a snow day, and I dearly needed it. I feel like my weekends fly by. I still have a mess in my dining room from Christmas (um... wasn't Valentine's Day just the other day?!), and I sorely needed some time to hang out in in my house and do stuff. So yesterday I tackled the chaos of gift bags, wrapping paper, and gift tags still lingering about. I found a wad of tulle that I originally purchased for my mother-in-law's wedding (we hosted at our house, the weekend after Turkey Day). Here was its original purpose:

I'm in the midst of cleaning up, organizing, and making my daughter's playroom prettier. There will be a big reveal at some point, but I'll post little snippets here and there of what I'm doing to make it a happy place to play (and a reasonably uncluttered space to walk through on my way to the kitchen). Project #1 was going to be figuring out a cute way to display her art projects. I spent some time on Pinterest, had my stroke of genius, and headed off to Goodwill to find some supplies. 

Instead, I found some gems from way back when. They are adorable embroidered alphabet and number framed embroidered wall hangings in darling bright yellow frames. They were a steal at $1.95 each, but as you can see, the fabric has seen better days:  

I loved the style of these beauties, but hanging them on the wall as-is would just have looked dingy. Vintage and shabby only goes so far... My solution was super-duper acrylic paint. I got the Martha Stewart kind that binds to everything indoors and outdoors - fabric included. It's about $2 at Michael's. It took over an hour per picture, but I was using a teeny paint brush for better control around the embroidery. Maybe someone with a surer hand could go faster than I did. I am pleased as punch with the result, and I look forward to showcasing these as part of a bigger and better art display installation for the little one! 

The good lesson here is to discount damage in favor of restoration. Every day we do things that damage and hurt (to our bodies, our relationships, our communities, our environment... you name it). But just because something is damaged doesn't make it automatically disposable - put your mind in restoration mode and see what happens. The end result isn't the same as the original, but it can be just as good.