It is that time of year again! When I look back and reflect on the year’s projects. This was a HUGE year for the blog, with multi-millions of page views, More than 2 million unique visitors and 140 new posts! And that is just THIS BLOG!
In 2017 I spun off an entirely new blog (posts from that blog are not included here) and a couple of new Facebook and Instagram pages (here, here, here and here) as well as maintained all the social media channels for the original one (here, here, here, here and here.)
I focused a lot more on video (which is a huge learning curve) and tried to stay in regular contact with more than 20,000 emails subscribers. I also started a new Facebook group to keep me in touch with other power tool toting DIY women!
I’m like a duck.. calm on the surface, but underneath I’m paddling my feet for dear life!
Don't Miss the "Best of" Posts from Previous Years:
In the kids’ advent calendars this year they each received 24 new TsumTsum figurines. If you don’t know what they are consider yourself lucky. TsumTsums are made by Disney and feature all their characters from the movies and TV. (The majority of the ones in the photo above came from this set or this one.)
If you haven’t figured it out yet, one of my biggest motivations for writing my blog is to inspire other women to pick up power tools for the first time and tackle DIY and building projects they have always been too intimidated to try. It is definitely empowering to be able to tackle your own “honey do” projects around the house or even build your own furniture.
For a long time women have been treated with condescension on the male dominated DIY fields. I am sure we all have a story of visiting the hardware store only to have the people working their address your spouse instead of you. (When buying a saw recently the sales guy at the store actually told me "This is probably too much saw for you!" WHAT!?!?!)
Or we have had a male builder or woodworker mansplain something on social media, as if female builders were too busy baking cooking or getting their nails done to understand how how a tool worked.
I’m so stoked to be included in this year’s 12 Days of a DIY Christmas hosted by Sarah of The Creative Home. For the first 12 days of December we will be presenting a new building or DIY project every day! That is so much DIY goodness in one place!
All of these projects are coming to you from my fellow Girls With Power Tools (sorry.. no boys this year!) Here is the fabulous line up:
The highlight of Christmas decorating is the tree! I think what I love about it most of all about Christmas trees that they can be any style or aesthetic. From fun and funky, to sleek and modern, to traditional and warm. Your Christmas tree should reflect your personality and the things you love.
I tend to be pretty traditional with my tree decor, but I have lots of blogging friends who are totally different.. and that is what makes decor so fun, there is something for everyone.
So this month the All Things Creative Team is bringing you wreath and tree decorating ideas. There are so many creative ornament and theme ideas as well as some beautiful home tours. You could spend all day just browsing through the links! ENJOY!
I learned to cross stitch when I was a kid. My mom taught me the relatively simple craft and I created some simple samplers featuring Care Bears and Precious Moments dolls. Yeah.. You can tell I was a girl in the 80s. I did evolve to do more complicated pieces, but eventually I lost steam when it came to cross stitch. It just took too dang long to make anything.
If you don’t follow me on Facebook, you may not realize just how much of a sarcastic side I can have. Especially in the world of blogging where everything always APPEARS to be rainbows and sunshine it is so fun to just laugh at the ridiculous things that happen in life.
I mean, Martha Stewart is making her MARSHMALLOWS FROM SCRATCH! What?! Why?! She does know Stay-Puft sells those suckers in a bag right? And you won’t be cleaning up sticky sugar-covered posts in pans for the next two weeks!
With the holidays ahead many of us are getting our shopping lists ready, but this year instead of heading out to the mall, why not make something with your own two hands. Not only are homemade gifts often less expensive and can help you avoid that headache filled trip to the busy store.. they also are often much more meaningful.
What keeps many people from making their own gifts is that they think it will be difficult or it will look bad and the recipient won't want it.. but that doesn't have to be the case at all! I teamed up with members of the All Things Creative Team to bring you dozens of handmade gift ideas (from sewing and crafting, to mall woodworking projects and printables.)
It is always fun to get into the woodshop and create some super fast and easy seasonal projects. For this upcoming halloween I was looking for a project idea that I could use in place of a regular old wreath on the front door.
These oversized plywood candy corn cutouts are a great project since the cut lines are so simple and you can make a whole bunch in no time.
I’m so excited about this project, not only because my kids love it, but also because it is part of this month’s power tool challenge. The theme is REPURPOSE this month.
My entry is this end table repurposed into a LEGO play center. The plastic bin which houses the legos pops out for easy clean up and the little drawer in the table is the perfect place to store building instructions. Everything in arm’s reach for the best experience!
For more inspiration, the ladies of the Power Tool Challenge also have some awesome entries:
So how did my project come together? Well, it started with this 10$ thrift store find.
And turned into this all in one play center.
The lower level features a large 15x15 LEGO plate building area.
While the user level has a smaller play area, perfect for holding mini figures or precious builds, along with a large pull out bin for loose legos. The drawer is the perfect place to keep all the instruction booklet.
Highly functional, self contained and compact. My kind of end table!
To transform it, I first removed the faux leather inserts.
I replaced them with plywood (I used the pieces that came out as a template for perfect fit:)
Next I sanded the entire thing down.
I used my Finish Max Ultra to paint this piece. IT was so fast and easy on all the curves. When the paint was dry I used E6000 to glue the plates down.
And here is the finished piece:
Just add LEGOs and you won’t be able to pull your kids away!
I have seen these cute tassel keychains and cell phone danglers popping up in local stores and online, so I wanted to show you just how easy it is to make your own. Embroidery Floss Tassels can be made in almost ANY color, since there are limitless types and colors of floss. Plus with the metallics and reflective polyester fibers you can get some gorgeous tassels.
You could also hand these tassels off a backpack or on a purse, or even use them in decorating. Make them in holiday colors and turn them into Christmas ornaments. They really are just that versatile.
Plus they come together in about 2 minutes. YES.. they are seriously that fast. I put together a video to show you exactly how quick they come together.
For those of you who prefer the step by steps with photos, keep reading!
Step 1:
Pull out approximately 24 inches of floss from the skein and set aside.
Step 2:
Slide the sleeve of the skein down to one end but don’t remove it completely. Step 3:
Slide the ring over the sleeve on the skein.
Step 4:
Slide the ring off the sleeve and into the center of the skein. You can remove the sleeve at this point. Step 5:
Fold the skein in half on the ring. You want to make sure you have lined up both ends, since that is the bottom of your soon to be tassel. Step 6:
Take the extra 24 inches of floss and wrap it around the very top of the tassel, just below the ring. You want to make it as tight as you can. Step 7:
Tie off with a square knot. Again, you would like this to be as tight as possible so the tassel doesn’t loosen up. Step 8:
Apply a tiny drop of super glue to the knot. This is to keep it from unwrapping, especially once you trim the ends. Allow to dry completely. Step 9:
Trim the ends of the knot. You can use a needle to push the knot up and under the wrapped thread to hide it. Step 10:
Cut the loops apart, making sure you have them as even as possible. Step 11:
Hold the loose ends in a closed fist and cut them off even with a sharp scissors.
This will make a little bit of a mess.
Now you just need to fluff the tassel and separate the floss into it’s individual threads. This gives it fullness and makes it look really expensive.
This is such a fast and easy project, that looks a lot more complicated than it really is. You could make a bunch of tassels in no time!