New Use For a Christmas Ornament

I’ve been slowly but surely adding some greenery around the condo to add some life and hopefully freshen up the air a bit. I pinned this little goodie a few months ago because it seemed like a really cool, easy way to bring some plants into our home.

Pinned here

You just stuff some small greenery into a Christmas bulb. Easy enough! And no, there is no sarcasm here, for once. Ok there was your sarcasm but no sarcasm in regards to this project. It really is easy to do.

I had picked up some silver Christmas balls from Wal-Mart for 75% off.

Grand total was $1.25

I bought these in January so I’m still sticking to my Free Project February goal. I just couldn’t buy anything else for this, meaning plants or dirt. I had originally planned on buying some long grass or something like that but, there’s no spending allowed. As it turns out, my forced resourcefulness came out better I think!

I have nice airplane plant on our patio that is still alive, despite my lack of a green thumb.

The great thing about this plant is that it is really hard to kill, which bodes well for me. Airplane plants also get these little off shoots which are perfect for this project.  I snipped off a few of the little baby airplane plants.

I scooped out some dirt from an empty pot on our patio and gathered my balls (heh) and baby plants. I took out the ornament hook so I was left with a cool new vase. Then, I scooped some dirt into the ball with a plastic spoon. Once I had filled the ball about halfway or so with dirt, I added a little bit of water and just slipped the plant into the ball.

Now, I was worried that the round ball would be too rolley (is that a word?) to be considered a good idea. I could just picture one hip bump to the table and I would suddenly have dirt and broken glass all over my floor. Then, of course, Ty and/or True would have to investigate or eat it, get dirt on their paws, and then go take a nap on our cream colored comforter. Yeah, I thought this through. So, I needed a way to keep the ball from rolling around but I wanted to stay true to my no-spend promise. That’s when the light bulb went off.

Hot glue! No, I wasn’t going to hot glue the ball to my table. I change my mind way too much for that kind of commitment. But, the hot glue could make a nice little no slip foot for the ball to rest on. I gobbed some hot glue on the silicone pad that came with my hot glue gun. Then, I quickly stuck my new planter onto the glue at whatever angle tickled my fancy.

Once the glue is completely cool and dry, I carefully peeled the glue off of the silicone pad and made sure it stayed on the bulb. Since the pad is made for this, it was no problem. The rubber like consistency of the dried glue keeps the Christmas balls in place.

I’ve had three of these in various places in our home and not a single one has rolled away! Knock on wood, I hope I didn’t just jinx myself!

From start to finish, these 3 modern plant holders only cost me $1.25 and I still have 5 left to use how I see fit! Total time to make these was about 15-20 minutes for all three. And, I get to pat myself on the back for finishing a project without spending any more cash. Victory!

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Get the Dot!

By scaling back on my To Do's, I've had more time for this. Yeah, this is a silly video of our puppy and a laser pointer. It's 2:33 long, which is actually edited down from 4:14. I figured you could only take so much. There's also this weird audio thing in the beginning but it goes away after a few seconds.



Taking breaks are so worth it.

PS - Sorry for the high pitched squealing from me. It really gets Ty worked up.

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Free Project February

I know we’re halfway through February but I got a bit behind on blogging because one post turned into two and it took me awhile to finish them. Plus, I’ve been suffering from burnout lately. I took on too many projects and my sanity and wallet have suffered for it.

You see, I’ve had materials for several (like 30, no joke) different projects in my possession but no time or energy to finish any of them. I also have a really bad habit of trying to do several projects at one time, and then I never really focus and finish a single one of them. So, I’m left with a clutter-mountain of half-done projects. This also leads to wasted money because I will have inevitably forgotten a key material or run into a speed bump that requires an additional purchase, but I have no budget left for it because that money was spent elsewhere for a different half-done project. Wow that was a long sentence. 

Here’s my big declaration to the Internets: All of that changes this month.

Yes, dear friends, I need you to hold me accountable and help me not spend any money on any project for the entire month of February. NOT A DIME. The idea is to use up materials I have, which will eliminate the clutter-mountains which feel like they are everywhere in our condo and I will recoup my finances and get back to a zero balance on my credit card. Plus, I’ll finally tackle all of those pesky To Do’s and shrink my task list, so I feel like things are more manageable. I’ll be able to focus on one thing at a time because my list won’t be two miles long.

So far, I’ve been doing really well. I’ve been tempted. Oh Internets, I’ve been so tempted. I’ve thought, it’s only a few dollars and it will be an easy project I can knock out in a day. Then, I smack myself straight and remember that that line of thinking is what has gotten me into this mess. Things need to change because I can’t deal with the burnout anymore.

It’s now February 17^th and I’m proud to say I haven’t bought a single item or material all month.  Snaps for CC!

Rest assured that I’ve been keeping busy though. But I haven’t felt overwhelmed. My To Do list is steadily shrinking, my bank account is slowly rising, and my home is beginning to clear. It’s a great feeling. I think I’ll keep this up through March, with the exception of paint. We need to paint a couple of rooms before we list the condo but that may just be it.

So, for the next couple of weeks, I’ll be sharing with you all of the loose ends I’ve been tying up around Casa de Comeaux. Some of the projects may even be free to you if you hoard stuff like I do!

The first project I’ll share with you today is a fun one that helped me use up some long hoarded materials. Is hoarded a word? It sounds funny in my head. Moving on…

Remember this post I did not too long ago about some fun ink blot art I made? I was inspired by this post by Triangle Honeymoon during my Free Project February but I didn’t let that get me down! I made some art with paint and paper I already owned.

Here’s a refresher picture.

After I finished our living room updates with new curtains and wall art, it made some other spots in the living room need some sprucing up to. Gotta love the domino effect that is decorating! Hmm, I wonder if that’s how the magazine Domino came up with its name?

You see our pillows on the couch?

Yeah…they didn’t really jive with the space anymore. I wanted some brighter, more modern pillows; something that would pull from the colors of the art. But, what is a girl on a self-imposed budget freeze to do? Raid her stash, of course!

Well, I loved the cool modern art look of the ink blot paintings and thought it would look great somewhere in the space. Since the photographs still make me happy, I decided to incorporate the ink blots into something else. See where my mind is going?

Yup, I made an ink blot art pillow! And I SWEAR I didn’t buy a thing!

I used some leftover canvas drop cloth from one of the failed canopy attempts I did during our patio makeover. Luckily, I had enough large scraps to cut out 3 pieces of fabric to make a no sew pillow, following the same awesomely easy tutorial I always use.

I took the piece that would make up the front of my pillow and used the same technique that I had used to make the paper art. I folded the fabric in half to make nice crease, which I used as a guide. I applied some acrylic paint in fun swirls and globs to one side. Then, I carefully folded the fabric along the crease.

The colors I used, from left: Mustard Yellow, Burgundy, Dark Orange, Bright Red, and  Metallic Gold.

 You may want to leave more room around the edges for seam allowance. It didn’t make a big difference but I noticed my hem tape didn’t quite stick in the painted areas.

The paint seeped through the bottom a bit, but my desk wipes off clean so I wasn’t bothered. Just a heads up for you though!

If you find you want more paint globs or blots or whatever, I would wait to apply a second coat after your first coat dries. It’s really hard to fold the fabric perfectly and have it lay the same way twice. You may get this ghost effect, like I did.

I waited for the paint to dry and used my third application to mask it a bit. The beauty of abstract art is that mistakes can look intentional. Ha!

After the paint completely dried (I waited a day), you can use hem tape to bring it all together! In case you don’t want to scroll up, here’s that no sew pillow link again.

Once I made the pillow, I threw it in the dryer to soften the painted areas a bit. They can be kind of stiff. This pillow is more for looks than a restful night’s sleep. Although, you could just flip it over if you’re desperate for a pillow. The canvas isn’t too rough, in my opinion. I’ve heard that putting painted fabric in a dryer cycle can help set the paint, but I’m not sure how accurate that is for acrylic. So, I can’t say if this pillow cover is washable. If I wash it at some point, I will definitely let you know how it comes out. It’s not like a spent a fortune on it!

I also switched my placemats pillow, using the blue pillow instead, to coordinate with the blue from the wall art.

What do you think of my free pillow? I’m digging it and its price tag! I may make another one down the line. You know, when I’m allowed to spend money again! Have you ever given yourself a spending time out? Was it actually a relief, like it has been for me?

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