I discovered this little website about a month ago. It's a compilation of pictures, DIY projects, recipes, clothes and pretty much anything else that a person may be interested in. All in one website. You can organize the links much like you would a bulletin board in an office. Since the beginning of my love affair, I have pinned some 350 different projects and whatnot. Last night, however, I lost my pinginity. Get it? Pinginity? Lalalala.
This wreath was the first of many obsessions that I would have with all things burlap.
You see, my house is a cabin and burlap just fits right in. It's like peanut butter and chocolate. Cabin and burlap. See how it flows off the tongue? Anyway, in my quest to blend more creams and whites into the color scheme, I discovered this little beauty.
Isn't she lovely! I love the texture and the rawness of it. I love everything about it! I just died when I learned that I didn't have to sew a darn thing!
So, it is safe to say that I lost my Pinginity to this adorable tree skirt. Not this one, but the one that I made. This is the dirty on how it went down.
I went to the Walmarts yesterday after work to gather supplies to make a burlap dry erase board (which I will share with you tomorrow), and also to get the materials to make my simple little tree skirt. Of course I ran into a friend of mine, Sarah, who went on to tell me how much she loves my blog and made me blush. Then, she followed me to the fabric department where I used expressions like "how in the heck" and "sam hill" while contemplating how to go about making a template for this little tree skirt. (I still don't know how, I just decided to use an old one I had in a container in my closet.)
Two yards of muslin and burlap and a bag of glue sticks later, I was on my way to convert our clean little living room into craft central.
I had romanticized how everything would happen. It was straight out of "Leave it to Beaver"...
A-dub and I would arrive home around the same time and we would exchange hugs and kisses and say how we'd missed each other so. After dinner would be the perfect time to settle in for an episode of Law and Order: SVU followed by Glee and begin on my project. I would simply cut the fabric into 3" wide strips and simoultaneously glue/ruffle (gluffle?) them onto an existing tree skirt that I found in my box of Christmases past. It would take me no longer than 45 minutes to complete this simple task. Then my boyfriend that I married would gaze at me adoringly, telling me how creative and wonderful I am. After that, we would sit on the couch and sip coffee, going over the happenings of the day.
I think Sinatra was playing in the background and there was candle light. Lots of it. I don't know where my mind gets these ideas.
Ha. Ha. Ha. Silly, silly gehl.
This is how it really went down.
A-bomb was late getting home from work so I beat him there. By the time he arrived, I had a hot mess strewn about in the living room. He ate leftovers while I scurried about, trying to find my glue gun and scissors. I settled down in my spot on the loveseat to commence cutting the burlap into strips.
**Word to the wise: that crap isn't straight. If you think that you're going to cut in the direction of the fabric and get a straight line, think again.
I finally just went with it and had crooked strips. I later realized that the curved strips were actually better for ruffling around the skirt and made it look more home made. Score! Once I had all of my strips, I began attaching the first row of burlap to the skirt with molten lava hot glue.
**A word about burlap: it is wild. It will not be tamed and you will not get perfect pleats unless you get an iron after it. So naturally I just let it do its thing. Burlap and I are kindred spirits.
I worked my way from the outside in with a row of burlap ruffled, then two rows of muslin, and repeated until I got into the center. Mine got kind of wonky towards the middle so I had to improvise. It's ok though, no one will see the center once there are gifts under the tree.
Here's how mine turned out. There are some places that the red from the skirt peeks through that will get patched with muslin later. After three hours of burning myself and peeling layers of glue and skin off of my digits, I was ready to hang up the gun. Yeah, you heard me. THREE FRACKING HOURS!
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| The Fruit of My Labor |
All in all, it was a very successful project. Although it's not the most durable tree skirt out there, it was relatively cheap (I figure $10 by the time it was all said and done). If nothing else, I know that Polly loves it. I found her sleeping on it this morning! Although it was a beautiful sight- black standard poodle gracefully curled up on a bed of ruffled muslin and burlap- I shrieked and scared the crap out of her. I have a feeling I'm going to be one of those people with this skirt.
Like, if I could find a plastic cover for it, probably I would buy it.
Anyway, I'm off to re-apply my burn ointment onto my poor digits.
Get ready for a bombardment of DIY posts! I've got 80 glue sticks and I'm not afraid to use them!
Holler.
Swizzle
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