Pinterest - Candle Holder, Letter Wreath, and Herb Box

A few months ago I posted some crafts I made.  I have to admit though that a lot of those weren't super crafty.  And I think they were mostly running-related.  But during this round of crafting, I did more decor.  Not even for my own apartment, but for my parent's house.  My mom did actually buy the craft supplies because she was with me at Joann Fabrics, so I guess it makes sense that she can keep the fruits of my labor.

So here's what I made this weekend during the cold weather!  (The polar vortex is back in Chicago.)

Candle Holder

My mom loves the Bath & Body Works 3-wick candles (who doesn't?) and she has a few Christmas themed candle holders. Candles are probably most commonly used around Christmas time, so she doesn't have any regular, non-Christmasy/winter looking candle holders for these large 3-wick candles.

I found a picture on picture on Pinterest (it didn't have a tutorial, but it didn't look super complicated) of a large candle holder using a CD and marbles. It looked easy enough, so I went for it!  Luckily, we have a quite a few of old CDs.  This particular one I made used Weezer and Aaron Carter CDs.  I used 2 CDs hot glued together to make the base a little heavier.

Supplies:

- 2 CDs

- Marbles

- Hot Glue Gun

- Adhesive Felt Circles

The Little Mermaid plate is the official hot glue gun plate.

And it's as simple as hot glueing the marbles around the outer edge of the CD base.  I had to put the first layer on the very edge of the CD just to make sure it could fit the candle and so that this candle could easily be out in and taken out.  The first layer was of course the easiest.  Since I was using all different sizes and shapes of marbles, the subsequent layers were a bit more difficult but nothing too crazy.

You can make it as tall or short as you want! And any colors :)  I used mostly clear and frosted marbles, with blue marbles as accents every so often.  And then attach some little felt adhesives to the bottom.

Here are some either uses for this decorative candle holder:

-Wine bottle holder

-Water/Gatorade bottle holder (sorry, had to get something running-related in here)

-General little jar/tray type thing to hold change, bobby pins, jewelry, whatever you want (in which case I'd recommend filling in the small hole in the center of the CD)

S Shaped Decor

I saw a picture on Pinterest for a wreath made out of a letter and wanted to try to make one for my parent's house.

Supplies:

- Paper Mache Letter (S for Smith!)

- Craft Jute (twine)

- Decorative Flowers

- Hot Glue Gun

This craft was a bit more complicated...and the shape of the letter S did not make it any easier.  The one I saw on Pinterest had all of the twine wrapped in the same direction, but I soon realized that was not going to work on the S.  I hot glued the edge of the twine to the back of the S and started wrapping.  I did the easier directions first, anywhere I could do vertical or horizontal, and then did the corners last.  It took quite a bit of patience, but I'm very pleased with how it turned out!

The decorative flowers were hot glued on as a final touch.  And instead of making it into a door wreath, we simply put it up on the mantle above the fire place.

Herb Box

So this one wasn't even on Pinterest.  I came up with it all on my own!  And I actually did this one a few weeks ago for my own apartment. My roommate, Lauren, loves planting little things and having and urban garden. (We unfortunately do not have a patio or outdoor space.)  Lauren had been using cheap little plastic pots and it was messy, so I made her this cute wooden box and pots.

Supplies:

- Wooden box
- Wooden letters
- 2 ceramic planting pots
- Paint
- Mod Podge

Not very difficult at all.  Paint the box, paint the letters, affix the letters to the box.  I used mod podge because I didn't have hot glue at my apartment when I made this.  And then just put the pots inside and plant something beautiful  :)


Have you made any crafts lately?

What do you primarily use Pinterest for?

I Should Put My Crafts on Pinterest

I probably really shouldn't put them on Pinterest...they aren't anything super creative.  But I wanted to share a few things I've been working on over the past week or so.  Some are running related, but a few non-running related projects too, just for good measure.

Race medal display contraption - This was pretty easy to put together thanks to Ikea, although I'm not sure it's set in the wall as good as I'd like it to be.  This is where I'd like to officially complain about the fact that I don't have a boyfriend to do it for me, but hopefully it's nailed in to the wall good enough.  I don't want to keep adding more bling and have it come crashing down one night while I sleep.  But just to add, I hung my own curtains when we moved in over a year ago and that hasn't fallen yet!  Right now I just have 3 medals from my most recent races, so I'll have to get my others from my parents' house.

Picture frames - Three of my best friends got married over the past year and a half and I had a really good picture with each of them on their wedding day, so I wanted to put those 3 pictures in frame and finally got around to doing that.  I also printed some new pictures for the frames I currently have in my bedroom.

I couldn't get a picture without the reflection of my iPad in the glass.

Fake flowers -  My room is very girly and filled with fake flowers.  Fake flowers are awesome because they never die and they are cheap.  I got the vases at Ikea about a year ago with some fake flowers, but I just added more to the vases this week.

That cute little lantern was a previous Ikea purchase.  And the jar with marbles was a project I did with Katie this summer.  My crafts obviously aren't very advanced - putting fake flowers in a vase, putting marbles in a jar, putting a candle in a lantern.  They are all cheap and look good though.  That little decorative plate type thing to the left is also from Joann Fabrics and is a nice little dish for my hair accessories.  And while we're at it, the Kleenex are from Walgreens.  Just a plug to get my mom's stock up.

Also on display is one of my favorite cards I received from my friend Brigitte.  It says, "When I'm President, I'm gonna settle all disputes with a dance-off" and she informed me that I would be her dancing VP.

A body pillow - We already had a body pillow at my parents' house, but I wanted to cover it in fabric that would match my bedroom in my apartment.  Now it's pretty and purple and comfy.  And, as a full disclaimer, I actually didn't have any part in making this pillow cover at all actually.  I simply picked the fabric and then my mom did the real work.  I am not good at sewing.

Marathon scrapbook display frame - I did this for my first marathon, and decided to do it for the Chicago Marathon (this year's)...now I guess I should make one for the 2011 Chicago Marathon too just to be fair, even though that one wasn't anything special.

Jewelry/scarf holder - I haven't done this yet because I left the other curtain rod at home on accident, but it's essentially going to be the same as the medal holder, except for real jewelry and scarves.

Hopefully I'll make some more crafts this holiday season!  Woohoo for Pinterest!

No run for me yesterday, but I did do my weight lifting at lunchtime!  And unfortunately no workout of any kind on the agenda for today because I'm flying to Denver tonight to visit my friend Anne!!  I haven't seen her since college, so I am super super excited  :)  We have lots of fun adventures planned!

Have you done any good crafts lately?

Real or fake flowers?

How do you display your medals or race bibs?

The Past Few Days - Birthday Celebrating!

I have been so busy the past few days and completely failing to post things here.  So here is my recap of exciting things and running things over the past few days.

On Wednesday, Katie and I had big plans of rollerblading and sitting out at her pool. The weather killed those plans though. Instead, we went to Joann Fabric, looked up some ideas on Pinterest, and had craft time. We made these little rings:

I decided to stick with the Pinterest theme for the day and cook a new recipe for the padres and Kyle. I made these spinach, feta, mozzarella croissants (without olives). Kyle took a look at the mixture before it was done and decided there were not enough red pepper flakes,  dumped way too much in, and made them a little too spicy. They were still good though.

On Thursday, I suffered through terrible traffic and met Mac at the track, but we did a normal run instead of a track workout.  My legs have been really feeling last weekend's long run.  We ended up on a trail in the forest and of course, it wouldn't be a trail run without falling at least once...and hitting a tree with my shoulder on the way down.  I had to take a picture of the scrap on my knee.  It is actually a very small injury and is done hurting now, just 3 days later.  Despite the fall, I'll still call it a good run since it was cool to run on the trails!  We probably did about 5 miles, but who's counting?

After getting all the mud off, we went to a concert!  It was the CMA Songwriter's Concert Series at Joe's bar so it was awesome to hear a bunch of country songs performed by the people who wrote them.

 

Friday wasn't anything too exciting except for some cleaning, some errands, some chatting on the phone, and a 5 mile run on the lake.  But I did get THIS AWESOME PLANT DELIVERED from Grace for my birthday!!!  So that made the day extra good and not boring :)  I will water it and let it bloom and be excited that I now have some real flowers instead of all the fake flower decorations in my ultra girly bedroom.

 

The big day of fun was Saturday!  Angela and I went for an 8 mile run in the morning (I failed to get any pictures.)  We were both just not feeling a long run, and this was nice to just run and chat and enjoy the BEAUTIFUL weather.  Then, to continue enjoying the weather, we went to the pool for a few hours with her sisters and Kevin and then took a walk along the beach.  I got a little burnt.

Saturday night was my birthday party!  I was so glad so many people were able to come!!  Plenty of friends, cousins, and family were all there and then met up with a few more when we went out to the bar.  Even a few UD friends that I haven't seen in forever were able to come over!  We went to Bub City, which is a newer country bar in River North and it was a lot of fun!  The line took forever to get in and I attempted to get the bouncers to let us in early since it is my birthday, but they would not and it was a nice night out so that was OK to stand out there and chat.  Once we got in, we were lucky to get a little table to stand at and there was a live band.  Unfortunately, people were not really dancing and were more just standing watching the band.  But we had an enjoyable time anyway!  Some pictures from the night:

Angela and Christina are now real DOCTORS of Physical Therapy!!

And then today was Grandma's 80th birthday party.  I don't have any pictures from that uploaded yet, so I will paint you a visual picture.  We sat outside, enjoyed a bunch of snacks and appetizers, chatted, sang Sweet Caroline to Grandma because she loves that song (I hope a lot of people will sing Teenage Dream to me tomorrow?), had some lunch including Portillo's salad, and then started the REAL birthday festivities.  And by that I mean we sang a song about Grandma that we made up, read a poem about her, opened gifts, and had dessert (including a cake with 81 candles - one for good luck).

I wish every weekend could be filled with that much excitement  :)  Basically I want it to always be my birthday.  It is the best day (or days leading up to it).  I don't understand people that don't like their birthday or don't want to celebrate it.  So if anyone wants to come to my apartment every weekend bearing gifts and to go out with me, I would love it.  Also, it would be a reason to make sure my apartment is always clean and tidy.

Have you had any bad injuries from falling while running? - My worst was the time I got hit by a biker while I was running.

How do you celebrate your birthday?