Winter Wreath. {Say That 5 Times Fast.}

Check me out...I totally just legitimized myself as a blogger.  Okay, not even close...BUT I definitely completed some sort of blogger “rite of passage”.  I made my own wreath!  Woot woot!

I was really trying to get this done as a holiday project...heck, I even bought two wreath forms because I was certain I’d have time to make one for me and one to bring up to my sister’s as a house warming gift.  HA!  It just didn’t happen.  I should have known that if I wanted one done for the holidays, I should have started well in advance.  Oh well, there is always next year, right?

So I was left with two blank forms, and lots of felt.  What was I to do?  Welp, make a wreath for a wintery mantel, of course!   Adding a little something to the mantel could help to combat the inevitable post-holiday-décor-blues!

I wanted a wreath that was grey and white, and well, wintery.  I wasn’t exactly sure what to do until I saw Mallory's wreath. 

It was a total inspiration for me.  So I headed over to Michael's, picked up some varying sized pearls and got to business.

I cut charcoal grey felt {that I already owned} into strips.  I wrapped them around the form in an overlapping pattern, hot gluing things in place as I moved along.



Once the felt was done, I started gluing various sized pearls in a random pattern on the wreath.  I didn’t have a method, I just went with it and tried not to think.  When I formed a big enough cluster, I used a couple of the smaller sized pearls and glued them around the outskirts of the main cluster.

Then it was time to add a ribbon to the top so I could hang it from my mantel mirror.  I tried white ribbon first, but it was just too bleh.  I knew the tiffany blue ribbon I used to DIY a bunch of stuff for our wedding would be perfect, so I dug through some old supplies and found just what I was looking for.  The ribbon may be a little wrinkled, but it’s nothing a little ironing can’t fix.  {Clearly, I have been too lazy to bust out the iron to fix the ribbon...maybe I'll get to it one day.  For now, just ignore it in the picture. ;)}

I really like how my very first wreath turned out, although I'm not sure it stands up to the beauty that Mallory created! :)  Head on over to her and Savannah's blog to see more of the awesome things they do!

PS - In the last picture you can catch a glimpse of the other mirror that I was priming on the back porch.  Hopefully I can share that makeover, along with my winter-ish mantel, very soon!

DIY Mason Jar Soap Dispenser

This is a big week people.  It’s Thanksgiving!  That means I’m allowed to stuff my face until I can’t move and no one can judge me for it!  {That reminds me...I need to make a mental note to give thanks for stretchy, forgiving pants.}  It also means that I crossed some nagging DIY and organizational projects off my to-do list this weekend…mostly because I am preparing to host Thanksgiving for the FIRST TIME EVER.  You should have seen me!  I was a lean, mean, productive queen.  Kitchen cabinets...cleaned out and organized.  Linen closets...cleaned out and organized.  Basement {thanks to hubby}...cleaned out and organized.  Guest {junk} bedroom #2...cleaned out and organized.  Heck, I even managed to do the laundry and get grocery shopping done.  And even more fun than that, I was able to complete a DIY project that I’ve been meaning to do for about ohhhh, probably 9 months.

Since I’ll be spending a whole lot of the holiday in the kitchen, I figured it was high time that I switched out my ugly, plastic soap dispenser for a cute DIY mason jar one.  My method to do so may not have been the smartest or most professional, but it worked.  And in my book, that is pretty much the only thing that counts.  {Aka, don’t judge the stupid way I went about accomplishing this project.  K thanks.}

So I started out with these two things...a cute little mason jar from Michael’s and my ugly, old soap container that was sitting next to my kitchen sink. {FYI...I have many antique mason jars that I originally wanted to use for this project, but because they were much taller than my plastic soap dispensers, the straw piece from the dispensers wouldn't reach the bottom of the jar.  You could probably swap out the straw piece for something longer if you wanted to use an older, larger mason jar, but I actually like the size I used.  It's the perfect size to sit by the sink.}

 



I started by using a sharp knife {reference my comment above...don’t judge...I still have all my fingers in tact people}, and literally just sawed through the top of my soap dispenser.  It didn’t take too long, but I went slow and steady making sure to keep all my fingers away from the knife.

Then I used a tape measure to help me mark off the center point of the mason jar lid.  {I pretty much eyeballed it because I knew it wouldn’t be perfect once I started drilling.}

I got out my Ryobi drill and used the largest drill bit I had in my possession...which was ¾ inch.  While drilling, make sure to hold the jar tight (I used my knees since I was sitting on the ground) and keep your hands steady because it’ll want to kick out at first.

Once the hole was formed, I tried to fit the top of the soap dispenser through...knowing it wouldn’t work yet.  I again eyeballed to see how much more of the lid I still had to remove.  It wasn’t too much more, so I got out hubby’s wire cutters, and clipped pieces of the metal off until I could fit the top of the soap dispenser through.  It’s best to take off little pieces each time and try to fit the dispenser through quite often.  You can always take more off, but you can’t put metal back on {obviously}.

Once I could pop the plastic dispenser through, I thought I was golden!  Butttttt, I was wrong.  Since I left most of the top on when I cut through the dispenser, there was a little bit of an overhang that was getting caught then I tried to close the mason jar. 

Thankfully, this was an easy problem to solve.  I simply took the wire cutters and clipped off the edges of the dispenser.



Once that was done, everything was a perfect fit.  I screwed the pump part of the dispenser onto the part I had been working with...

...and then I screwed the lid onto the jar.  IT WORKED!!

I poured some of my soap refill into the jar and all was finally right in my dispenser world.