holly – A Smith of All Trades

Christmas, Craft Projects, Holiday, Wreath

Christmas Centerpiece

November 26, 2013 Jessica Smith

How many times can I say I have awesome neighbors?

Well, it’s just true and I’m gonna keep shouting that I love them. Because they rock.

Sunday, our neighbor came over to watch football with Brian, so the wives got together and hung out too! But get this, we cleaned! Ye, that is a good friend. Allie and I cleaned the hell out of my craft room, which so desperately
needed it. I threw away a ton of stuff that I wasn’t going to use. I have a pile of crafts to gift this Christmas. And I have a bunch of stuff to donate.

While cleaning, we also found/rediscovered some materials I had bought in the past two years and just never got around to using. For example, a floral ring. Turns out, I had a perfect glass dish (it holds the dip in our now-deceased chip and dip set… thanks, Brian haha) to fit in the center.

So after we cleaned, we headed to Michaels and bought some fake winter foliage to make a Christmas centerpiece.

This project was so easy and would make a great gift. And if you get to Michaels when they are having a sale (50% off of all holiday flowers and an extra 25% off!), it’s not terribly expensive.

I started with the floral ring, and I bought the flowers and the silver charger ($2) at the craft store.

I started by tearing up the floral pieces that I got so each branch, pearl, stem, etc. was separate. Then, I glued the floral ring to the center of the charger.

Starting at the bottom, I started to place large piece of evergreen around the base.

And basically, that’s it. No more gluing — just sticking! I worked my way around and around and around. And when I thought I might be done, I wasn’t. So I added more. Once the greenery had good coverage, I added white and silver pearls. These are also available in the floral section and come on wire. So again, just stick ’em where you want ’em.

An important thing to note — I left the center untouched so my dish would still fit in the center. I did place evergreen along the top edge of the center, but nothing in the actual hole in the center. I will be using a fake candle, so I wasn’t too worried about things catching fire.

So what do you think!? Isn’t it purdy? I don’t think I would have ever thought to do this if it weren’t for Allie. She was going to make it for me, but she was going to use real plants and that would have kicked it after a season so I opted for fake.

She did do another project for my house while I made this centerpiece and hers is even more beautiful.

I ❤ neighbor craft nights!

What Christmas crafts have you all been up to? I have a lot more things I want to make this year. Here’s hoping I have time!

Garden

So much landscaping

August 27, 2012 Jessica Smith

Saturday was a day filled with dirt, dirt, dirt and more dirt. With the awesome help of my dad (he did most of the work), the hubby and I spent all day Saturday landscaping the front of our house. The weather was fantastic — not too hot, a little muggy, and it even rained to cool us off! Thank goodness it wasn’t too hot.

We started bright and early at 8 a.m. and finished mid-afternoon at 3:30 p.m. Then, I went to bed at 8 p.m. because I was too tired to do much of anything else.

It. Was. Exhausting.

But it was all worth it.

Here’s our house before the landscaping overhaul:

These are the goodies we planted:

And, on top of what we bought at Home Depot, we were able to replant the bushes from one side of the house in another location! Because of that, we took out the rose bushes and moves the spaced out bushes on the right side of the house to the left side of the house. We planted them way better than they were before — you’d never know they are the same plants!

After hours of intense manual labor, here’s how the house turned out!

So much nicer than before and so much more well thought out. The black mulch also makes a world of difference!

I love the new plants, especially my liriope and speedwell (thanks, Ann!).

Once all of the excess dirt washes away the whole front of the house will look even better…. Now, we just need some shutters :p

So pretty. It’s nice that you can actually see our house, now that the rose bushes are gone. Our bay window lets in a lot more light now and looks even bigger than before. I’m really glad we put in all of the hard work to make the front of the house look as nice as the inside.

Happy Monday!

Garden

Landscaping our home

August 24, 2012 Jessica Smith

When I got home last night, my plan was to make dinner then run out to a craft store and pick up some supplies for a new project I want to try. So, I threw some chicken in the oven and asked the hubby to pour me a glass of wine, and I relaxed…

… for six minutes.

And then the UPS man came and delivered my package — guess who has a Ravens collar and leash now!!??!!

Totally cheesin’ it.

And then my dad called. We went out to dinner on Monday to discuss the possibility of landscaping our house this weekend and the hubby and I decided to go for it. So my dad called last night to take me to Home Depot so he and I could pick out plants for the front of our house.

Here’s the front of our house now:

It’s not so pretty. We need shutters and a new door, plants to fill the empty-ish bed on the left, and to majorly trim back those crazy rose bushes. I also want to rid the front of our house of the fence that lines our sidewalk and the wood lining out two planter beds– it doesn’t match anything, especially with our new fence. Oh, and our well cap is pretty ugly, too.

So we shopped! Check out our sweet haul: