Pinterest and The Amazingness of Tissue Paper Poms

So, I looooove Pinterest. A few years ago when "everyone" started joining Pinterest, I draaaaaged my feet about it. No way did I need another website addiction of the social media variety. But then I discovered what it's all about, and it has been one of my favorite things on the Internet since...well, ever. I love creativity and decorating and of course designing things, and Pinterest is the best place to put all of those wonderful things. And well, recipes. I am not a fan of cooking, so Pinterest helps make it more enjoyable for me.

I have also grown to looooove decorating the space where we live. That space is currently a two-bedroom apartment, and as such, I am limited on space and by the fact that the walls, ceilings, and floors are not actually mine. But I love home decor just the same.

That being said, our second bedroom has gone through some major transitions since we moved in almost exactly three years ago. It started out as strictly an office space with a GINORMOUS desk I bought from IKEA after we were first married. And then we wanted the room to function as a guestroom for family visiting from Michigan and for nieces to take naps in. But we also needed the room to house our printers, scanners, filing cabinet, etc. So in order to make this guestroom function in all of the above capacities, I turned to Pinterest to PIN some inspiration. Novel idea. ;) I found lots of ideas for putting a double bed and a crib and an office in the same space. But to make a long and boring story short, I got rid of the IKEA desk and was able to implement many of the ideas I had pinned. I wound up putting a wardrobe/armoire in one of the corners of the room. Doing so created a nasty dead space/hole, and the artist in me needed to hide and soften that corner to make it look more cozy, and intentional, and pleasing to the eye. I thought of hanging paper poms from the ceiling, searched for the best tutorial I could find, and pinned it to my office decor board for later.

My, oh, my, what a seemingly innocent thing to do. As with most people, I joined Pinterest just to keep personal pinboards and didn't necessarily care if anyone else ever saw what I pinned on this or any other boards. But then when people started liking the things that I found, I thought that was actually pretty cool.

I found this link about one year ago, and it is now my most repinned pin I've ever pinned. ;) I'm sure other people are used to this, but me, not so much. I get notified almost daily about someone else repinning or liking my pin, which is definitely kind of exciting even if it doesn't actually mean anything or say anything about my curating skills.

The lady who wrote the tutorial is to be commended. It really is a good one. I mean, tissue paper poms are NOT rocket science, but if you're like me or the over 400 other people who liked or repinned my pin, you love the visuals and the step-by-step instructions, even if you don't actually NEED to be told how to make something you likely made in grade school. She has tips for the best ways to hang them and a great link for getting nice tissue paper in a wide variety of colors, which I used and was very impressed with as I just did not have any success finding shades of brown tissue paper at my local Party City or Target. As you can imagine, not many people use BROWN tissue paper for gift-wrapping. ;) You can see her tutorial here.

And just for fun, here's how my project turned out.

Four of the poms are four different shades of brown tissue paper and the fifth one is made out of pages from an old book. The last was by far the hardest pom to make as the paper was small and brittle, but I love the effect it created. I actually have a different lamp there now, but the space is filled in exactly the way I wanted it to be. I personally think it is a GREAT look for a room that functions as a pseudo-nursery and as a guestroom with an office in the large closet.

Black, White, & Red All Over - Part 1

Original title, I know. ;o) I couldn't think of anything more fitting, though.

I LOVE my red, black, and white bathroom, but it has been hard to find bathroom decor in those colors. I chose red, black, and white after having seen a collection by Candie's at Kohl's in late 2007/early 2008. I never did actually buy anything from that collection, but I did like it. Since Nate really loves red, it was a perfect choice for us.

Annnnnnnyway. The bathroom has been like 95% done (as far as decorating and tweaking) for a few months now. Most of it has just been moved from our old house. But each room always seems to have a few things in limbo because of craft projects I want to do. I found this link on Pinterest for one of the last two things I wanted to make to finish it. Click [this link] to see the other project I made to finish my bathroom.

It's a mason jar match container. I love the versatility of mason jars in decorating. They just make everything look cooler. This is perfect for our bathroom as we like to use matches for a more natural air freshener. The reason for this is mostly that spray fragrances have bothered my allergies in the past and only seem to attempt to cover an odor rather than do away with it altogether, and besides, matches are cheaper. We all know how much I like cheaper!

It is not my intention to replace the tutorial(s) that already exist by other bloggers, but I did learn some things that I thought were worth sharing.

Mason Jar Match Container

Need: 

Strike Anywhere Matches  

Small Mason Jar with Ring/Seal - clean (8 oz. jar, but any jar large enough for matches is fine.)

Sandpaper - black (I am fairly sure any grit will work, but I used 400. Nope. Find something that's more coarse. After doing this project, I discovered 400 was too fine.)

Hot Glue

Glue Gun

Scissors

Do:

1. Round up your stuff. This is the hardest, and I found it to be the most time-consuming part of the whole project. I already had a jar (with lid) that was formerly the home of a Bath and Body Works candle that had been used up. It is probably a 6 or 8 oz. jar and is a little more squatty than your typical jelly mason jar. So for me, that part was free! The sandpaper was kind of pricey as I limited myself to black to go with my bathroom. I only used a fraction of the package though, so overall, not a bad deal. I also already had the hot glue/glue gun and scissors.

2. Hunt down strike anywhere matches. This was so difficult that it gets its own step. I first checked my local Walmart, Target, Dollar Tree, Hobby Lobby, and Lowe's. Come to find out, they ALL sell matches but NONE of them sell strike anywhere matches, at least not in my area. You must use the strike anywhere variety as the regular strike-on-the-box type does not work. Trust me, I tried it. ;o)

I did a lot of searching online to see if they even still made these matches, and apparently they do. It seems they are common for people who do a lot of camping. Some Walmarts carry them in the grocery section (which is helpful to note which departments to search) as do some Lowe's. If you are looking for matches, the most likely sections are the barbeque/fireplace/grilling section which is probably part of a store's seasonal department, but they are also usually found in the kitchen section and occasionally with candles (though not usually). 

There are all sorts of these matches on eBay for around $4 a box of 300 including shipping, but that was a bit more than I wanted to spend. I found a hint that they were sold at Ace Hardware as well as camping supply stores. So, I found my nearest Ace, asked an employee, and was out the door with them for $2 in under 5 minutes. Great experience, and I would definitely check your local Ace first if you can. They really are "the helpful place." Haha.

3. Remove the seal part of the lid from the jar and trace it on the back of a piece of sandpaper. Cut it out. Hot glue the sandpaper to the ring and then to the seal, making sure to press the sandpaper flat inside. I have found that when I need to replace the used sandpaper, it's pretty easy to pull the hot glue from the seal and ring.

4. Insert matches. You're done! It's that easy.

It's been fun to scrape up cute stuff for our bathroom, but now it is finally DONE. Now that it's finished, I need to take pictures to show the finished product.

My DIY Christmas Wreath

I've been doing so many crafty projects lately that I am dying to share. I love decorating, and so right after Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of the year because that's when we start decorating for Christmas! I want to share one of such projects, but first, the back story.

While going through our boxes of Christmas decorations, I came across the wreath box. I opened it and went, "ughhhhhh." I'm not a DIY blogger, obviously, so I forgot to take a before picture, but I haphazardly put the wreath back together so you'd get the idea. Sorry the picture is not so great.

It's not the ugliest wreath on the block (you should see my neighbor's!), but let's be honest, it looks like something circa 1994. My mom is one of the best bargain shoppers I've ever met, and she knows a find when she sees one. A year or two ago, she knew I didn't have a wreath and found this one for me probably thinking it was better than nothing, as I used to be into collecting bears when I was little (that's a story for another day). So, I paid nothing for this wreath, but I wasn't really feeling it this year. But, since there's no money in the budget for a new wreath, I ended up hanging it up anyway thinking I might find a way to modify it to my liking later. I'm a little ashamed to admit that. As an aside, after hanging it, I discovered the bears covered the little peephole in the front door, which I felt like was kind of a safety-hazard.

I did do some shopping around the next day to see if I could find something I liked better, or at least inspiration to make mine better. Have you seen prices on wreaths? Unless you get the yucky, fake looking ones, they cost anywhere from $20-50 dollars!!!!! Even if I did have money for it, I am wayyyy too cheap to pay that much for a wreath. Well, I might pay $20, but after this project, no way. What I did notice is that grapevine wreaths are still in style (or are again?). I knew there was something I liked about this wreath!!! I also saw that Hobby Lobby was selling plain grapevine wreath bases exactly like mine for $10. Score!

So when I was out shopping yesterday, I picked up two branches/bunches of the cranberry-looking floral embellishments. I'm sorry I don't know what they are called. I have never done this before! They were $1.27 each, but I got them for half price. Score again!

Last night, I sat down with my pliers and ripped the bears and little sign off the wreath. I noticed the twine on it was old, weathered, and had broken and been tied back together in places. Thankfully I already had the heavy duty jute twine to replace it, so I took off the old twine, added the berries and new twine, and ta-da! The result:

A brand new, contemporary, natural, gorgeous-looking wreath that only cost me about $1. :o) And while I am pretty excited about the low cost, what I am even more proud of is that I did it myself. Pinterest actually had nothing to do with this project! I've never done anything like this before, and I had no help. This is so not like me: I didn't even look at any pictures for inspiration or how-tos. *gasp* I just kind of sat down and did it. And bonus, it doesn't cover the peephole anymore! So yay for craftiness. The end.

My DIY Centerpiece

We are hosting Christmas dinner at our house for the first time ever this year, and while I was decorating, I couldn't find anything I liked in my decorations that would work well for a centerpiece. While are only hosting my brother, his wife, and their daughter on Christmas day, Nate and I both wanted something festive on our table that we could enjoy all season. So, along came Pinterest. I love that site for so many reasons, not the least of which is for decorating ideas. I found this picture and thought it would be perfect!

Link credit here.

I was so excited and had everything I needed except for the vase, but I showed this picture to Nate. He was less than impressed. "It doesn't look very Christmas-y," he said. Granted, I knew he looks at a picture and sees...exactly what is in the picture. I look at it and see the possibilities or how I would do it differently. I am the artsy-crafty one and can visualize it with our silver platter, our ornaments, and on our table. Nate, not so much. He was obviously reacting to the colors, and since they are not red and green, they are not Christmas-y. ;o)

Anyway, I had already decided that in order to keep our living space in our apartment from looking totally tacky, it was going to have to have a consistent color scheme. I decided to keep the traditional colors red and green (keeps the husband happy), add silver, and use those elements all throughout our living room/dining room area.

If you haven't read or heard much about us lately, you might not know, but we are on a tight budget (which sounds awful, but we love it). This means I don't have much extra to just go out and
buy decorations for Christmas. The only thing I had to buy for this centerpiece was the vase, the silver ribbon, and the green ornaments. Not too shabby! Without further ado, our centerpiece.

My pictures aren't as awesome as the original, probably because I took it right before the sun went down this evening and not earlier in the day, like I should have. Oh well. Hopefully you get the idea.

Elements of the centerpiece:
Green Table Runner - Dollar Tree - $1 (I need to iron it still, obviously. Pretend it's not wrinkled. ;o) )
Silver Platter - already had - I think this is a "Mom Find"
White Pillar Candle - already had - Mom Find (I used homemade mod podge, salt, and fake snow to make it sparkly. It turned out awesomely!)
Square (actually rectangular) Vase - Target - ~$10
Red & Green Ornaments - Dollar Tree - a tube of 12 for $1
Silver Ornaments - IKEA - Mom found them at Goodwill, I think for really cheap. I have two small boxes of them and there are enough to cover our whole tree and then some. I love them, and so does Nate.
Salt & Pepper shakers are just a part of my Pfaltzgraff dishes set
Fake snow (the kind you sprinkle) - Meijer last Christmas - IDK how much it cost
Silver Ribbon - Hobby Lobby - $2.50 (It was half price in the floral section and not in with the Christmas decorations. I have used it A TON. I was going to get more yesterday since I almost ran out; but, the sale had ended, and it was back to full price. Yuck.)

A few extra notes:
• I like that in the original picture, it looks like they used ribbon for the table runner. It looks nice but is so not practical for all month in my house. Plus, you can't really beat a table runner for $1.
• I also found a how-to on making the bow since I've never attempted something like that before. My grandmother is good at things like that, though, and she would be so proud!

My very favorite thing about this centerpiece is that it is pretty to look at but also very low profile, meaning you can actually see the people across the table from you, which is a rare quality in a centerpiece for those of us who are short! Also, Nate loves how it turned out, too. Hope y'all enjoy seeing it!

Gateway Church :: Membership and Volunteering

As I've mentioned many times on this blog, when we moved to Texas, we knew it was where God wanted us to be. Similarly, when we started attending Gateway Church, where my brother and sister-in-law both worked, we felt at home there. We actually didn't do any "church shopping" at all because we felt like God was telling us, "This is it; this is where I want you to be. Stay at Gateway."

Gateway is not what we're used to...at all. (I'd like to write all about the size, the children's ministry, the worship, etc., but that will have to wait for another post.) But from everything we've learned about this church, it is absolutely right where we need to be. We did our homework right from the beginning. We researched the website, and at our first opportunity, attended the first of the three membership classes, which are more like seminars, called Catch the Vision.

I'm going to be really, really descriptive for this part, just because Gateway is such a different church than we've ever attended, and we'd like to dispel any rumors or apprehension any of our family and friends might have after hearing about our involvement with this new church. That being said, if you could care less, please feel free to skip to the end to read about how I'm going to be getting involved by volunteering starting in September, hopefully.

Catch the Vision
This first class was more like a seminar, a totally low-key, informational format that allowed you to make your decision on whether to become a member either immediately or later, at your leisure. I loved that there was no pressure. We watched a video about the history of the church, and it was really awesome to see how they followed God's direction at every turn. I was especially pleased to discover the church was born out of God leading our pastor to start a church rather than a group that started after breaking away from another church after a conflict. The class provided a workbook full of information including the history, vision, mission, statement of faith, and position papers (which could also be seen as their doctrine). I eagerly read it all. We prayerfully considered our decision and became members after attending for less than a month!

The Journey
The second class, called the Journey, is a lot like a class I took in college called Core 300. It focused on your personal spiritual walk, and it explained a lot of basic theology about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. It was a good refresher for us and confirmed again that Gateway teaches what we already believe doctrinally. There was one topic, having to do with the Holy Spirit, that was and still is a struggle for me, but in a good way. Having grown up in the church and having attended a Christian university, it is easy for me to get comfortable that I already know everything I need to know about what I believe. It's foolish to think I know everything there is to know, as I could go my whole lifetime learning and still barely scratch the surface, so I like that there are a few areas, especially, that have come to my attention in this class where I have room to grow.

Discovery
The third class, called Discovery, was also a lot like a class I took in college combined with a seminar I took in college. The first was a required course called Core 400, and the seminar, called Discovering My Design, was a several-day workshop offered to sophomores. I love personality tests and learning more about who I am and how people interact with each other. It fascinates me. Needless to say, I was looking forward to this class with much excitement. Catch the Vision had emphasized the need to get plugged in to a group, a necessity in such a large church, as well as getting involved as a volunteer. I've always believed it is important to minister and to get ministered to equally. Discovery is Gateway's way of helping you get to know yourself better in order to find the best place for you to serve...and to actually enjoy every second of it, rather than doing it out of obligation. I love this concept!

Most of the workbook could not be completed in class as there was just not enough time to cover it all, so I worked on most of it at home. The finished results were to be applied to the Servant Profile. The sections covered were:
1. Life Experiences, where you were given the opportunity to write about experiences you had whether it was something difficult, relational, achievement-related, or ministry-related that might impact where you might choose to serve. One example I used was achieving my art degree, and how I wanted to use my creative skills in some fashion in ministry.
2. Passion and Interests, where you could describe the things that you most enjoyed doing, and my examples included working with kids.
3. Personality, in which I took a version of the DISC test which is also compatible with the Gary Smalley Personality Types: Lion, Otter, Golden Retriever, and Beaver. I scored exactly how I expected: S (Golden Retriever), with an ability to pull out the I (Otter) or C (Beaver) when necessary.
4. Spiritual Gifts. A questionnaire almost identical to one I took in Core 400 in college which helped you know which God-given gifts you had, which for me included Craftsmanship (creativity), Exhortation (encouragement), and Helps/Service/Hospitality (assisting others, serving others, and making others feel comfortable).
5. Strengths/Abilities/Skills. This section dealt with your natural strengths. If you are familiar with the Strength Finder test, that is basically what this was. I scored high on Input (collecting, archiving, and traveling to learn more), Learner (enjoying learning more on a variety of topics), Relator (wanting to know a few people closely), Context (fascinated with learning from the past), and Arranger (organizing complex things).

[If you've skipped to the end, start HERE.]

After completing the Servant Profile, I was connected with someone, called a Ministry Placement Coach, whose job (as a volunteer herself) is to help others find their perfect place to volunteer. I just met with my coach for the first time today after church, and I have to say I'm so excited to get involved. She explained a few ideas where she thought I might be a good fit. She told me about the Event Administration volunteers who help to decorate for events. I'm sure my face lit up when she described it, and I told her that sounded really fun. If you've ever been to Gateway for any event, you know they go all out making it a fun environment for those in attendance. I love decorating, and I'm really excited to get to do this. I'll also probably begin working in Gateway's Amazing Kids, the kids' ministry, which has a more involved application and interview process in order to help keep the kids safe in such a large church. Ideally if I pass that process, I'll begin helping with the kids groups or in the nursery on the weekends.

After meeting with my coach, I don't have to do anything else until the ministries contact me. I love that Gateway has the volunteer ministry organized so well and that it is set up so that I have a contact person. Once I start volunteering, if I'm unhappy with my placement, all I have to do is contact my coach and she'll move me. That simplifies it a lot, and makes it a lot less awkward. (There's no going to a leader of a ministry and trying to come up with excuses for why you don't want to volunteer with them anymore.)

So that's what I have to look forward to in the next few weeks...getting involved. We're also going to get involved in a group, which I will explain more about in another post when I have more information.