Page 47

White (Paper) Christmas

Published on December 9, 2014December 9, 2014 by Our Humble Abode2 Comments

This year, I took a cue from the traditional first wedding anniversary and went with a paper theme. Using plain white paper and cardstock, I crafted several fun ornaments and decorations. Even better, I didn’t spend a cent this year. Here’s our finished tree:

We already had clear and silver glass balls, so I used some as filler. The green orbs are actually foam vase filler. I just stuck a metal hook in. After Christmas, I can pull the hangers off without damage.

Back to the paper. Origami critters didn’t take long to make, and the boys had fun choosing animals from my book. Reindeer, of course:

Flying owls:

And goldfish are my favorites.

The pheasant looks more like a T rex. We also went old school and made paper snowflakes.

To give a little movement, I also used 3 inch wide strips to make a garland. This couldn’t be easier. Just cut zig zags, leaving a 1/4 inch or so left.

A bokeh tree, just because.

Over in the family room, we hung our stockings and added a small winter scene.

More paper snowflakes, bottle brush trees, and paper houses. I had all the trees, though more would have looked great.

As a kid, I loved my aunt’s ceramic village. Seriously, anything miniature gets my undivided attention. Sticking with the paper theme, I decided to craft a few small buildings. Using this cute design as inspiration, I made my own taller version with more windows.

Three nestled in snug with the trees looks cute.

To help fill in around the stockings, I filled small votives with pine tree clippings. They look like mini potted trees.

Our rail road spikes turned stocking hangers are back, too.

With the other projects we’re planning and prepping, kitchen!, these are the only areas I’ve decorated. Keeping it super simple this year to help balance out the crazy that happens. Are you finished yet? What areas do you decorate?

Leather Gift Crafts

Published on December 5, 2014December 5, 2014 by Our Humble Abode2 Comments

Ben has a crazy pile of leather from his pillow crafting days, which has inspired me to fiddle with leather lately. First, I made a leather bin. Then leather tab top curtains. Now, two quick and cute items that are perfectly giftable. Bonus points if you have leather scraps. First up, this leather catch-all tray.

To make, start with a square or rectangle that is the size of your base plus side height. Pinch one corner and mark where you want to secure together. Using a leather punch, cut a hole. Pinch again to make a second matching hole.

To speed the process, I flipped my punched holes over, marked each dot, then punched again.

After all four corners, you’re ready to assemble. I used screw rivets (because I had them on hand from my curtains) but you can use normal rivets or even snaps. If you’re shipping these, snaps are perfect for flat packaging.

Just align the pinched corners:

And insert the rivet.

That’s it. A simple tray that is perfect in an entry for keys or in the laundry room for pocket items. Mine corrals jewelry, chapstick, hair ties, and the cutest, most useless mini pocket knife. One must have miniatures, if only to make you smile and wonder when/how it could ever be useful.

With even smaller scraps, you can make a chic key chain. Just cut a 1 inch wide by 7 inch long strip. Tip, use a utility knife for the cleanest, straightest cut. Fold in half over a key ring (from the hardware store for about 70 cents each). Pop in a screw rivet, leaving 1/4 inch between it and the ring. Get all fancy and make a design on the end. Go nuts by stamping names or initials to further personalize it.

These are ideal as smaller gifts, especially if you have a large group. Depending on the color, they work for anyone – men and women.

Kitchen Planning

Published on December 2, 2014January 20, 2015 by Our Humble Abode6 Comments

It seems fitting this is our 1,000th post. We’re talking kitchens, which was the only full, real-time remodel we shared from our last house. Living in this kitchen for the past 2 1/2 years has made us realize what we like and dislike about the layout. Using our last kitchen as a guide, we have a better idea of what we’re getting into. We also know more about materials we’d prefer. Here’s a reminder of our current layout and design.

Here’s a scaled layout of the space:

It’s a long room, 29 feet from the family room to the pool house door and 13 feet wide. Big and totally workable, with three different work zones inside. The main kitchen, a breakfast nook, and my office.

From the office, you can go to the pool house. If you do a 180 spin, you’ll see a large bay of cabinets we use as a pantry and large item storage. Small appliances, large dishes, and such.

While the kitchen looks (and is) large, the layout of cabinets aren’t the most functional or well planned. Several cabinets are essentially filler. Like this large corner cabinet that doesn’t do much beside hold Ben’s cheap wine collection:

Or our giant cabinet housing only a trash can.

I like the idea of this vertically divided cabinet, but we could get away with only half like this:

We’re also not in love with the fridge next to the oven combo. Especially with the built-in microwave space above. Our tiny microwave doesn’t help the look either.

The 3 foot space between the island and perimeter is frustrating, too. When the oven and/or dishwasher are open, it’s a maze. Add someone at the sink and it’s really cramped.

Given those dislikes, we’ve come up with a new plan. It includes all drawer lowers, which we greatly miss from our last kitchen. Here’s what we’ve got in mind:

Most appliances are staying in the same location; refrigerator, sink, dishwasher, and cooktop. We’ll swing a double wall oven around the corner, turning the wasted space into a shallow walk-in type pantry. A pocket door means one less door swing to accommodate.

To get more working room, we’re moving the island another foot away from the perimeter cabinets. Across from the island, we’re going to widen the doorway, matching the width of the adjacent dining room. Because we’re losing the big pantry bay, we’ll add in a smaller cabinet to house the microwave and other small appliances. My office will also get a different layout, nixing the L shape to the corner. In place, we’ll widen the pool house door to match the other sliding doors we’ve installed. Our plan is to use the same tile throughout the two spaces, for a seamless flow. I’ll talk more about the design elements when we get more nailed down. We’ve already started building cabinets, so hopefully we can demo before the new year.

Cyber Monday Sale!

Published on December 1, 2014 by Our Humble AbodeLeave a comment

Holy moly, we’re already in December! We were busy with visiting family, but there’s a Cyber Monday sale going on in our shop.

Use the code HAPPYHOLIDAYS40 to get 40% off everything currently in stock. Custom art makes a thoughtful gift for family and friends. Hurry, because the sale ends tomorrow at noon.

Green with Envy

Published on November 28, 2014November 28, 2014 by Our Humble Abode10 Comments

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving yesterday. We ate a lot and I think we laughed even more, so you know it was a good night. And thank you all for your supportive, nice comments about the finished siding, too. I plan to share more pictures and info as the siding rusts. We’re interested to see how long it takes. Come spring (and warmer weather) we may want to speed up or even out the finish. Oh, Beth, you’re the winner of the luxurious Frette robe! Congrats!

Now, to some indoor progress. Before we could hang our new curtains, I had to fill, caulk, prime, and paint the trim around the windows. Following Murphy’s Law, my touch up paint didn’t match the wall color. Mental note: never buy paint at Wal-Mart again. That lead to buying another custom matched gallon (thanks to the talented paint folks at Home Depot) and painting the window walls all over again. Eesh. So much for a quick job.

Anyway, I got it done and then it was curtain time. I measured the length and hemmed all eight panels about three inches.

For the large front window, I use four panels to get enough width to close completely.

The remaining two windows are narrow enough for one panel on each side.

These World Market curtains have a rod pocket as well as back tabs. We like the look of tabs better because it allows the panels to bunch nicely when open.