Georgia Lakehouse Christmas

Simple- DIY- Frugal Festive Fun! 

Soooo... It's been a looonnnggg time!!! After many requests I have decided to post some of my Georgia Lakehouse Christmas decorations. These are so easy to do!!! I love simple ideas, especially DIY free Decor!!! 

At first I wasn't sure what I thought of the wreaths on the inside, but now I love them! 

There are so many easy low cost Christmas projects that we did this year. Below are a few pictures of some of my moms crafts from this year. Enjoy! 

The orange Garland was made using dried oranges and twine. It was super easy to make. The tree skirt is made out of burlap from Walmart and ruffle.The ruffle and ribbon is glued on using a hot glue gun. It's a no-sew project that is easily found on Pinterest. 

This pillow was made using one of my grandmother sweaters. This is a fantastic way for my momma to bring her mother's memory into the holiday. 

My mama made these beautiful stockings using burlap and the cuffs from the sweater that she used to make the pillow. Great, low cost simple adorable project. 

I hope you enjoy these ideas.

Happy Merry decorating!!! 

DIY 5 minute no sew valance

Now that Christmas is over and all of the decorations are down my house feels so very empty! Bring on the post Christmas blues... Nope! Not happening. DIY to the rescue- again!!! :-) 

For Christmas I made wreaths and hung them from each of the windows in the breakfast room. I never noticed it before Christmas, but the breakfast room looks completely bare without anything on the windows. So tonight I decided I was going to make curtains, well at least I was going to pin up the fabric to see what it would look like and to choose a color. 

Yesterday I bought two fitted queen size sheets from Goodwill (white & grey) that I was going to use to make a ruffle throw. I didn't want to hang the rod yet, so I just used push pins and pushed the fabric into the top of the window frame. I layered the fitted sheet over itself and used Jute to tie it up. Much to my surprise they look great!

 

There is no confusing these curtains for custom curtains, but if you are looking for a quick and easy spice for your windows, this is it! 

It was so easy that now I'm not sure I want to go through the trouble of hanging the rod and making the curtains. ;-) 

Ok, now that I have the curtains out of my mind,  time for some rest! Good night everyone! 

Please let me know if you have any questions. 

Upcycled Grapevine Wreath

Ah... Chevron and burlap. My two favorite things! 

A few weeks ago I found a grey grapevine wreath at Hobby Lobby that I absolutely fell in love with, but I could not bring myself to pay $40 for it - so I decided to make one! 

Unfortunately, I had forgotten how thin the grapevine wreaths have gotten. I had a really hard time finding a thick wreath. Then today at this totally charming local second hand "Scrap Exchange" store I found a wreath in desperate need of a makeover. $5 and a can of spray paint later, I have a super adorable new addition to my kitchen!!! 

First, I stripped all of the old floral decorations off. As you can see from the picture I changed my mind and decided to go with Ocean Blue instead of grey, which I absolutely adore!!! I used Krylon spray paint that, to my surprise, dried in less than ten minutes (I only used one coat as I like the way it looks a little weathered). 

After it was dry I made a little bow using some scrap chevron burlap I had, and it was done! Less than 30 minutes!  

I am so happy with how it turned out!!! Can't help but want to make another one for the front door! :-)

Custom Burlap Chevron Pillow

Hellooooo!!! I know, it's been a very- very long time since my last post. Things have been a little crazy and I've been very crafty lately. But not to worry, I have taken lots of pictures to post. 

First, I want to show you my super adorable chevron pillow case that I made. 

I bought some Chevron Burlap from Hobby Lobby to make a wreath, but since Santa brought my new sewing machine early I decided to make a pillow case instead. ;-)

 

I used about 1.25 rolls of the Burlap. The pillow case took less than 20 minutes to make!!! Super easy pattern. I also had some scrap ruffle that I added as an accent! What's more adorable than ruffle and burlap?!? 

To make the case I cut four strips of burlap the length of my pillow (my pillow was 18"x18"). I left 1.5 inches extra for the inseam. First I sowed the four strips together (4 for the front). This is when I added my ruffle. Be careful to line your chevron pattern up before sowing. 

For the back I cut four strips, but made them 4" longer than the pillow, allowing for me to cut in half horizontally, after I sowed the strips together, making the envelope. Once I cut the four strips in half (that were sown together making the back) I hemed each side. And then sowed the front, back, top and bottom together. This is what it should look like- 

Turn it right side out, stuff and there you have it!!! Super easy and so cute!!! 

This project is really easy for beginners. Please let me know if you have any questions. 

Happy day!!! (:

Wreaths... Wreaths... Wreaths...

HELP! - I am absolutely obsessed with making wreaths. I can't stop!!! Every time I drive by a craft store I have to go in and look at ribbon. 

My favorite thing about making wreaths is how fun it is to watch the wreath change. The finished product almost never looks like how I envision it when I start making it. I love tweaking it as I build it. Each one has its own character. 

The problem with being addicted to making wreaths is that I can only hang so many of them. Today I decided it was time to open the doors to my Etsy store again. Oh how I have missed selling things. 

I started selling custom clothing lots on eBay about 6 years ago, and became addicted to selling things. A few years ago we started going to storage auctions and bought a few storage lockers and that is when I opened my Etsy store. However, since we have moved until recently I have been too busy to sell anything. But today is the day. 

Here are a few of the wreaths that I made  - for ME :) 

This is one of my favorite ones. I bought the burlap by the yard and cut it into strips. I used a straw wreath form and wrapped the burlap around it. Fun and easy to make. I found the pinecones and acorns. 

Burlap Pinecone Wreath 

This is one that I made this week. Love the green and gold together! 

Burlap and Chevron 

This wreath was so fun to make. I found a yard of the Fleur de lis burlap and did not know what I was going to do with it. It turned out great to use on this wreath. 

Ok, so I have to say something about this one. This was the first live magnolia wreath that I ever made. This has to be the most beautiful wreath that I have ever seen, and I am proud to say that it was made by ME!!! :)

For this wreath I collected a lot, I mean A LOT of magnolia leaves off of our magnolia tree. I did not use a wreath form for this, instead I used floral wire and threaded the leaves onto the wire. Once I got the wire as long as I wanted I tied the ends together forming the circle. Very time consuming, but well worth it!!!

Live Magnolia Wreath - Charleston 

And here are a few more of my wreaths...

For the wreath below I used a wire coat hanger. I threaded the burlap onto the coat hanger, tied the ends together and added ribbons. Very easy wreath to make, and super cute! 

Simple burlap wreath made with wire coat hanger

I am sure there are many many more wreath pictures to come. If you have any questions on how to make any of these please let me know! 

... and I am off to find some more burlap. I have been searching for gray burlap. I want to make a gray and white burlap wreath for my door... Wish me luck!  -  TTFN! :) 

Christmas wreath. Decorating with burlap.

Hello -and Happy Halloween! I can't believe that it is Halloween already. Time has been flying by. Geez!

This week has especially flown by. I just realized that I have not blogged all week. Although, I am not sure that I am the blogging type of girl. I sure like to talk, so I thought that I would like blogging (lol), however it takes away from my time Pinteresting, hahaha! I am going to try this for a little longer. I don't have many followers so at least I am not letting anyone down. :)

Anyway, so I was in Albany, NY this week and they have a HOBBY LOBBY! I love Hobby Lobby. So many more fabrics and ribbons there then anywhere else. Especially burlap. I went shopping yesterday and found several of the ribbons that I wanted. I am in love with CHEVRON!!! :) With all of the ribbons purchased I just could not help myself. I had to make the wreath.

Burlap Christmas Wreath

Burlap bow

I am sorry that the picture is a little dark in the first one. I took it in my hotel room and the lighting here is poor. Yes - I said hotel room. And yes, that means that somehow I have to get this wreath on the airplane with me. I am not sure what I was thinking. Lol!

While I was at Hobby Lobby I stumbled across a Christmas decoration tree that I am going to try to make. It doesn't seem very hard to make. Last year I made several of these types of decorations. It was very simple. I saved some cereal boxes and cut them so that I could make a cone shape out of them. What a cost savings, not to mention a good way to recycle!

This is the tree. It looks like they just cut burlap and glued it to the cone. Then some glitter, they also sewed some little bells on, which I think is cute.

Burlap tree - DIY 

Cone Tree's 

I am going to try to make the cone myself, like I did last year. Luckily I did take some pictures last year that I can share. I love bragging about how I saved money by making something myself... lol! :)

Make your own christmas tree cone 

DIY Christmas Tree cone 

Burlap Christmas decoration 

Burlap Christmas Tree

I used several types of fabrics, all that I had left over from making wreaths. I just cut the fabric into strips and used my handy dandy glue gun and glued the fabric to the cardboard. I sprayed them with spray glitter. Everything I make has to sparkle...lol!

I hope you like the ideas. I will post pictures of my burlap tree soon. Now its time for me to try to fit this wreath into my luggage. lol!  TTFN!

My Savior - Our iRobot Roomba 770

Good morning! Finally, it's Saturday!!! Today I thought I would blog about my favorite new helper, and the reason that I actually have time to post a blog today. Hopefully I don't bore the few people that are actually reading this post! But this is too good to not share!!!

Meet "Sweepy"! 

iRobot Roomba 770

 When you are looking at an empty house you imagine that once you get your furniture in the house the space will feel much smaller. Well, this house is a monster.

When J and I first moved in it took about 2 days for me to start complaining about how much time I was spending cleaning the floor. Having a cat and a dog our hardwood floors start looking like carpet after just a few days... :) 

Long story short, recently I started traveling for work (which is temporary). The only thing that I asked my husband to do while I was gone was to keep the floors clean. After my second week of travel I returned home to a super clean house. I was so happy. And then I was introduced to "Sweepy".

Sweepy is an iRobot Roomba 770. There are several different series available, not to mention different brands. I have been thinking about getting a robotic vacuum for several months. A few of our friends have them and love them, which is why I wanted to blog about Sweepy. I was very skeptical about getting a robotic vacuum, even after hearing my friends brag about how well theirs work. I was most hesitant because of how much they cost. The cost range does vary widely, depending on the features. Ours was about $500, but has all of the features that we were looking for (AND WAS WORTH THE MONEY!!!!) You can easily google the features of the 770, but I wanted share some of our personal experiences so far. 

We have programmed Sweepy to run each morning at 9am. He automatically removes himself from his home base (charging station) and goes to work, right after we both go to work which is fantastic.

iRobot Roomba 770

Sweepy came with two "virtual walls" so that we can keep him out of certain rooms or areas if we choose to. In our house we clean the hardwood floors everyday, but we only vacuum the bedroom twice a week. The thing that I love most about that is that the vacuum automatically changes settings when it moves from hardwood to carpet or tile, and has a "Dirt Detect" system so that if it detects dirt it starts going back and forth in a smaller area until it no longer detects dirt. I find that it does this most around the doors leading outside. Sweepy runs for about 1.5 hours before taking himself back to his home base. There is a spinning side brush that cleans along the walls and in corners. This works great in our kitchen and bathrooms for getting the debris from under the cabinets.

iRobot Roomba spinning brush

The one thing that we still have to do each day is to remember to clean the garbage bin (oh and to sweep the stairs so that Sweepy can pick up the hair at the bottom :) . The garbage bin is surprisingly easy to clean. Our manual vacuum is a Dyson Animal (which I still love) but is not even close to being as easy to take care of as our Roomba.

iRobot Roomba brush and cleaning tool 

About every other day we clean the brush, which is super easy to remove. As you can see in the picture, the cleaning tool slides up and down the brush to easily collect the hair (Um, why did it take so long to come up with this super easy cleaning method???)  I am not sure how everyone else cleans the hair out of their vacuum, but usually it takes me forever, a pair of scissors, and maybe a few bandaids...lol!

So, if any of you were thinking about getting a robotic vacuum - DO IT!!!!!! Don't wait another day...lol!  It has been one of the greatest purchases we have made! It saves countless hours vacuuming each week.