Time To Get Ugly

That's right. They used to be fabulous, then they went out of style and now they are ironically back to haunt our dreams of sugar plums. You know what I'm talking about. It's the Ugly Sweater.

Scott and I were invited to our first ugly sweater party this year and I wanted to do it up right. After shopping around a bit, I found that paying for the ugliness I sought would mean paying at least $60. That's quite a bit to spend for a sweater you only get to wear once a year, so I looked into my DIY options.

That's when I found this. (Of course it was on Pinterest)

I sent a picture to Scott and he was sold. He couldn't pass up the opportunity to have a video of fire on his phone attached to his sweater. I figured, "That'd be easy enough to do" and grabbed some supplies.

I got us each a sweatshirt from Walmart. I also grabbed a tan piece of felt, some red puffy t-shirt paint, and a quarter of a yard of clear vinyl (thankfully our Walmart has a fabric section. This downsized the amount of places I had to go).

For my sweater, I got everything at the dollar store, but more about mine later.

I laid out Scott's sweater.

I loosely arranged everything on it, then I began by making the pouch for the phone. I cut out a rectangle of the vinyl that was large enough for my phone when doubled over (we have the same size phone), then sewed it up on two sides. I have a sewing machine, which made this a thousand times easier, but you might be able to accomplish this with hot glue, too.

I then placed my felt on top of it and marked just inside of my newly sewn vinyl seams. This would allow the fireplace to cover up the pouch. Then I just cut an appropriately sized hole.

Here is the dry fit.

I lined it up on the sweater and sewed it on for strength. Make sure not to sew up the top of the fireplace! You need a way to get your phone in!

You can use matching thread if you'd like, but I didn't want to spend any more money than I had to. I also kept thinking, "This doesn't need to be PERFECT. It is an "UGLY" Sweater Party after all!"

I then prepped it to paint on the mortar for the "bricks". Be sure to put something inside the sweater underneath where you are painting so that it doesn't go through.

I waited four hours for my puff paint mortar to dry, then I added on the wreath (with bells!) I found at the dollar store with hot glue above the fire place. It was time for a dry run.

Actually, that's wine, so maybe it wasn't a completely dry run, but you know what I mean.

There were just a few added touches that I thought it needed. I found some red, white, and brown felt pieces in my fabric bin, so I added a mantel and some stockings. I then cut my own stencil and put the obligatory 'sweater pattern' to really give it the traditional ugly sweater look. I was pretty pleased with the final result.

Scott loved it! Everyone at the party called him, "Fireplace guy!" all night, so we really think it was a big hit. He even wants to wear it to work on Friday!

As for my sweater, I went for an easier approach. I had grabbed a green sweater from the men's section at Walmart (because the ladies only had teal). At the dollar store, I grabbed tinsel, some ornaments, and a star. I sewed the tinsel onto the sweater and just looped the ornaments directly into the fabric with their ornament hangers. I was a Christmas tree!

I even got into the tacky spirit by painting my nails with some of the traditional sweater patterns (with my friend Casey's help, of course).

I would have to say that our first Ugly Sweater Party was a success! We had a great time and got to see our friends Alex and Laurie in the process.

For anyone wondering, both of our sweaters cost $25 for all of the materials. In all. That's it. So if you're considering try this out yourself, I absolutely recommend it!

Falling Behind On Posts

Merry Christmas! Too bad this post isn't about Christmas at all. In fact, it's a post I've been meaning to write since Fall. Oops. Better an entire season late then never!

When we last left our living room, it looked a little something like this.

It wasn't bad. Very cozy. But the lack of storage always bothered me. I had posted before that the idea of putting up some shelves had always been on my mind for that corner. See Figure 1.b

This is probably Fig. 1.b...

So last month, I got the DIY Itch and a little tired of the hidden stack of DVDs that we had been hiding behind the couch in the corner. I went to Home Depot and grabbed a 6x10 board and cut it into four equal parts. I did not finish them in any way. I was so indecisive about how they should look, I actually decided to just not do anything at all. Easy McPeasytown.

I found six brackets from some old shelves Scott had in his old apartment in the garage. BAM! FREE! I measured out the height by eyeballing it, making sure to leave enough space for DVDs and books to stand up. I then went back with a level and marked where to mount the brackets. Everything was attached to the wall (in studs) in less than 30 minutes. The whole thing made me feel stupid for putting it off for so long.

It was awesome being able to put our hidden treasures out where we could see them. We haven't watching a DVD in months because we honestly didn't know which ones we even had. Now we can glance, check em out, and start watching.

It also helps balance out the window on the other side of the TV. That was always something that had bothered me when the wall was empty. Overall, I'd say this $16 project paid off. Plus, nothing feels better than scratching something off of a 'To Do' list!

Now back to your regularly scheduled holiday.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Friendsgiving!

Happy Friendsgiving, everyone!

If you aren't familiar with the sentiment, let me give you a quick history. For the last couple of years, Scott and I have loved being able to share a Thanksgiving meal with our friends before the official Thanksgiving. This is usually due to our love of cooking, delicious leftovers, and our friends themselves.

It's a pot luck, keeping it from being stressful or financially burdening for any one person. Scott and I are always in charge of the turkey, using the same recipe that Alton Brown uses, which has never failed us. This year, just to mix it up a bit, we purchased two turkey breasts and roasted one in the oven and smoked the other. They were wonderful!

Since I had some time on my hands the week before the dinner, I decided to make the table a little extra special, too. Since it looks a lot more expensive than what I spent to make it happen, I figured I'd share the rundown of where I got what and how much everything cost.

First, check out the spread!

Let's start from the bottom. The tablecloth (which I couldn't get to un-wrinkle. So frustrating!) is one that we had from last Thanksgiving. Win! Unfortunately, we had to put a card table at the other end of the table, so I had to get a white table cloth from the dollar store to cover just that smaller section. It looked as seamless as a shorter table next to a taller table can look.

The burlap table runner is actually from our wedding, so it was no cost to us. The chargers for the plates are from the dollar store. They only had gold, so that chose the color scheme for the whole table.

The candle holders are from the dollar store. I decided that since it was Fall, floating pine cones in them would be the way to go.

Things I Discovered About Pine Cones:
1. Pine cones smell when you bake them to get them ready for crafts.
2. When pine cones get wet, they close up so they look like poo instead of pine cones.
3. Pine cones seep a red liquid that looks like they are bleeding to death when submerged in water.

Thankfully, we filled our candles with water before anyone showed up, so we were able to cycle out the water. It looked like a pine cone sacrifice without the water change, though.

The gold pumpkins and leaves were a lucky find. I was walking through Home Depot when I spied two clearance carts out near the paint section. They held two larger gold pumpkins and two small bags of foam bright orange smaller pumpkins. All were only $1 each! I grabbed all of them and headed next to Michaels. There, I managed to get my hands on the last fake Fall leaves in ALLLLLLL of Lexington. Thankfully, these were also a dollar. Score!

The larger pumpkins were already gold, so they went directly to the table. The leaves were "natural" Fall colors, though. Reds, oranges, yellow colors with a little bit of gold glitter on them. I ended up laying them out in the garage floor and giving them each a good spray with my favorite gold spray paint (Rustoleum Metallic Gold has the best luster and is more mirrored than the others). They turned out really well for $2 worth of leaves ($1 per package)!

The bright orange little pumpkins got some special treatment. They were each spray painted white. The white spray paint mixed with their original orange color, making them look a little odd. I ended up hand painting them all white with regular craft paint (which is why they are matte and not shiny). I then turned them upside down and sprayed all of the bottoms gold. Once they had dried, I just painted over all of the drips and gold paint that I didn't want to see with more white paint. This whole process makes them look dipped without having to pay for a ton of gold paint or use painters tape (which I was afraid would peel off the paint that had already been applied).

I used just regular paper plates, napkins, and plasticware that we already had. I could have used real plates, but that would have been a lot more clean up that I just didn't want to do. This way, the only things left after dinner were things that could be stashed for my next dinner table arrangement, but no dirty dishes.

My favorite little touch was the little wreath of rosemary that I made for each seat. They were made from the fresh rosemary that you can buy from any Kroger or Publix and were very simple to make. Simply take a sprig, bend it into a circle and use small gauge/ floral wire to keep it together. I designed and printed some cute tags and then just tied them on with some twine that I had. They were an easy way of making it feel like a more personal dinner, especially with there being 14 of us. They also made the tale smell amazing!

Here's a price rundown:

Chargers: $14 (for 14)
Rosemary: $5
Pumpkins: $4 (for all of the large and small ones)
Leaves: $2
Card Table Tablecloth: $1
Tablecloth: $0
Table runner: $0
Plates: $0
Napkins: $0
Silverware: $0
Wreath Tags: $0

Cost: $26 for 14 place settings. Not bad! And it's all reusable! Huzzah!

It turned out so well, I am looking forward to doing more table settings in the future. For right now, though, we are just loving the leftovers from our fun little dinner with friends. Nothing like a large pot of (freezable) gumbo stew made with the leftover turkey to keep you warm!

Nom nom nom. If you're interested, you can find the recipe for this stew here.

Fancy or not, we hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!