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Craft Projects, Home Improvement

A year in review

Jessica Smith

Happy New Year, all!

I disappeared there for a bit and took a much-needed vacation from any and all forms of work for the Christmas holiday. It was a blast. I visited with my family and just had an amazing holiday break. Luckily my break isn’t quite over yet — the hubby and I don’t go back to work until Jan. 7! Sweet! But it’s time to get back to blogging, and I’ve got lots of neat things to share.

First, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at 2012 for A Smith of All Trades. My 1-year blogging anniversary is Jan. 16, so I’ve almost been blogging for a whole year now. It’s been a really rewarding experience and I’ve done some really cool projects in 2012. Here are some of my favorites:

Canvas Art: This was one of my most popular posts from the year and is a really simple way to to make decor for any room in your house. All you need is fun fabric, a few canvases and a staple gun. It’s that easy!

DIY Device-Charging Station: I was always super pumped about this project. In a few hours I turned a cheap-o tray from a thrift store into a totally sweet place to charge all of my devices.

Device Charging Station CGOur home improvement projects were definitely some of the highlights of my 2012, particularly our family room and our bathroom makeovers.

We started our family room almost immediately after moving into our house. Remember this beauty of a room?

Before fireplace

Ohhh yeah, it was something else. Welp, after a few weeks we turned that monstrosity into our favorite room in the house.

We seriously live in this room, so it was awesome to get to redo the whole thing before we settled down too much in our house.

And then there was the bathroom attached to the family room. The fixtures, vanity and toilet were way outdated and gnarly, but otherwise the bathroom was in good shape. I painted it and the hubby and my step dad installed a new toilet and vanity. Now it is the prettiest bathroom in the whole house.

Last, but certainly not least, are my pallet projects. I think these are some of my favorite. My bar sign was a huge hit with the hubby and my ottoman is basically the best thing ever. I use it all of the time.

And here’s the ottoman…

OK, that’s it! That’s my year in review. There are a bajillion more things on the blog, so go forth and read your hearts out 🙂

Happy New Year, and a new craft project tomorrow!

Christmas, Craft Projects, Holiday, Life

Hope Ornament: #BloggersforSandyHook

Jessica Smith

A week ago today, 26 lives were cut short by a senseless act of violence at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Today we blog for Sandy Hook.

As part of the #BloggersforSandyHook tribute I wanted to share an ornament I made for our tree this week.

In honor of the grieving community and the 26 people who died at Sandy Hook Elementary School last Friday in Newtown, CT., I made a “hope”ornament for our tree.

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I really like the idea of having this on my tree each year to remind me to hug my loved ones extra tight, especially at Christmas.

If you want to make one too, here is what you’ll need:

  • Gold paint
  • Thin paint brush
  • Crystal beads or gems (26)
  • White ribbon
  • Christmas ball ornament (it can be any color)

Using Martha Stewart gold metallic paint and a thin paint brush, I painted the word “Hope” onto an ordinary glass Christmas ball. I chose to write the word in basic handwriting versus anything fancier — I like that it looks like something a kid could have written, plus I don’t trust my ability to paint in cursive. I then added 26 small dots all around the word “hope” to symbolize those who passed away at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Lastly, I painted one gold star as a tribute the bravery exhibited that day.

After the paint was dry, I carefully went over it all a second time so it really popped on the ornament and on our tree.

Next, I removed the silver top of the ornament and placed 26 crystal beads inside, again, one for each life lost. They are super sparkly and look really pretty inside the ornament. The beads I picked are plastic and sort of chunky, and I’d imagine that little girls would have loved to make necklaces out of them.

As a last step, I put the silver cap back on and tied a white ribbon to the top of the ornament. I added a bow where the ribbon meets the ornament as the final touch.

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I was having a heck of a time taking a decent picture of the ornament and didn’t do the best job. It is beautiful and because of all of the gold paint, crystals and white ribbon it looks rather ethereal — which seems very fitting.

 

To all those grieving in Connecticut: May your lives be filled with hope for a better future and your hearts be filled with the happiest of memories of the loved ones lost. You are in our thoughts this holiday season and inspire us each day to hug our loved ones a little bit tighter. 

I am truly sorry for your loss.

Jess

Christmas, Craft Projects, Holiday

Salt Dough Ornaments

Jessica Smith

Our main craft from last weekend’s craft night was salt dough ornaments. Carrie, Amy and I followed an east recipe for the dough so we could make our own ornaments.

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All you need for the dough is 1 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of salt and 1/2 cup of warm water. I mixed ours together in my KitchenAid using the dough hook attachment, which worked great. When the dough was a little too tacky to roll out, I added a pinch more flour.

Then we set up these awesome SilPat mats and began to roll our dough.

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When the dough was an even thickness, we stamped our shapes into it. Then, we removed the excess dough and put a hole in the top of each one before putting them into the oven.

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I started to bake the ornaments at 200 degrees, but after a while I bumped up the temperature to 250. That worked great and the ornaments hardened in about 2 hours.

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Once they cooled down, I hung them on our tree using silver and red string.

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Here’s one for Remmy!

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And a little tree for our big, fat tree.

I saved a few to paint, but I haven’t gotten around to adding color to any of them yet. I don’t think they need it either. They look very pretty on our tree just as they are.

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