Crafty Christmas | Driftwood Candleholder

Driftwood candle-holders! Pretty simple to make and a big hit with my mom (who received them). Don’t be intimidated by the number of pictures below…they really are easy!

– 1 –

I collected all of this driftwood the last time I was in Kauai visiting family. I didn’t really have a use for it, I just wanted to make something at some point, and it turns out I’m so glad I got as much as I did. My mom carried all of this home in her carry-on for me, bless her heart.

– 2 –

For this project you’ll need a hot glue gun, a couple of class vases, sandpaper, and driftwood.

– 3 –

Begin by selecting similar heights of driftwood (or different ones if you want more variation), and lay them out in the order you want them on your candleholder. I tried to find ones that fit nicely next to one another, so it’s best to mess around with them a little bit here and find the best match.

– 4 –

Next, wrap your sandpaper around your vase, so that when you do sand down your driftwood, it has a slight bend to it and will lay perfectly on your cylindrical vase.

– 5 –

Sand away! Not too much, just enough to create a flat edge for your hot glue.

– 6 –

This is what my driftwood looked like after sanding.

– 7 –

Run a line of hot glue down the sanded edge (work quickly here), stick it to your vase, and press hard for a few seconds.

– 8 –

Continue steps 5, 6, and 7 until your vase is completely covered!

– 9 –

I took a couple of threads out of a piece of burlap and tied them around to finish the vases, but it looked cute without them too!

– 10 –

Insert your favorite candle, sit back, and enjoy your handy-work!

– I made it first so you can learn…but here’s what I would’ve done differently –

If I were to make some of these candleholders again, I would’ve cut the ends so that they weren’t jagged, but laid flat with whatever surface they were put on. Other than that, they were pretty foolproof and my mom was thrilled with them!

P.S. The folks at World Market totally copied me and are now making their own versions, which look like this…

found | here |

found | here |

Ok World Market, you win.

Crafty Christmas in July | Inspiration

I’m so excited about this week of posts. Mostly because I’ve been waiting 7 months to share them and, let’s be honest, because I’m pretty proud of my handy work.

Last year, my mom, sister, sister-in-law, and I decided to have a crafty Christmas- all our gifts to one another had to be handmade.

(Although there may have been a little cheating involved)

Around the end of October my sister came up with the idea, and I was all for it! After scouring Pinterest for hours on end, I would finally have a use for the 4 million crafty things I’ve pinned.

But who am I kidding? Christmas eve day I was up to my knees in hot glue and driftwood, regardless of the fact that I had 2 months to prepare.

Merry Christmas to me.

Despite my procrastination, crafty Christmas ended up being way fun, we all gave and received gifts made with love that were one-of-a-kind and couldn’t be found at any store.

Here are the projects that inspired Crafty Christmas:

| 1 | | 2 | | this one no longer exists on the Crate & Barrel website, sorry! | | 4 |

Come back each day this week for a total of 4 new DIY projects, that are surprisingly easy!

Off and Running

Arizona via Instagram

So the truth of the matter is, I’m horrible about taking pictures. I always tell myself I’m going to be better about it, but let’s be honest, on day 4 of our 5 day vacation I’d realized I’d taken a total of 3 photos.

Whoops.

Thank goodness for iPhones and Instagram. I quickly tried to redeem myself by making the most of what we had left but when it’s just you and the hubs, there’s only so many photos you can take of yourself. So here’s a taste of what our vacay looked like:

We stayed at the | Hotel Valley Ho | in Scottsdale. It’s a super-fun hotel from the 50’s, now renovated, and in a prime location. Here’s the thing; it was great for the 2 of us, but not somewhere I would take a family. On Saturday’s, they host parties complete with a poolside DJ, and although it was fun for awhile, the drunken-college-student act got a little old after 5 hours, so we ditched our lounge chairs and headed to the mall.

We rocked a Fiat while there, and I think Ian secretly liked it. Tiniest car we’ve ever ridden in? Yes. Super unsafe in an accident? Yes. Totally fun for a quick 5 day vacay? Absolutely.

We witnessed a dust storm (everyone familiar with them was calling them some word we couldn’t quite make out), but it was one of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen. Within 10 seconds the sky was orange and dust was everywhere! The one nice thing about it? It cut the chaotic pool-party short!

We ate In-N-Out like there was no tomorrow.

And I completely drooled over both the design and food of | this | steakhouse. Honestly, if I could have my house look just like this, I would in a heartbeat. Even Ian said he liked it! Say whaaaaat?

But mostly we enjoyed cloudless blue skies, palm trees, temperatures our bodies didn’t even know existed, and a post-anniversary vacation, just the 2 of us.

If You Really Knew Me…

If you really knew me, you’d know that I use the word “simple” way too often…

…you’d know I wish I was better at building things…

…and that I can’t stand getting into an unmade bed. (I will make it 5 minutes before bed if I have to)…

If you really knew me, you’d know that I’m terrified of snakes. Like, absolutely hate them and think they are the sickest thing God ever created…

…and that I brush my teeth in the shower (a habit which Ian thinks is disgusting)…

…you’d know Capri blue candles from Anthropologie are my favorite…

…and that I have way too many unfinished projects…

If you really knew me, you’d know that I’m 99% sure I’m a hypochondriac…

…and that that the Avett Brothers are currently my music of choice on Pandora…

…you’d know I could drink Fresh-squeezed peach lemonade with breakfast, lunch, and dinner…

If you really knew me you’d know that I have an abnormal collection of ‘S’ initials scattered throughout our house…

…and you’d know that never has a sewing project involving clothing turned out well for me. Ever…

If you really knew me, you’d know that I think my brother is, hands down, the funniest person…

…you’d know that the hubs and I were relaxing in Arizona the past couple of days (hence the lack of posts) and missed our dog terribly…

…and you’d know that I think one of the best feelings in the world is going to bed with a clean, sparkling house…

If you really knew me, you’d know that I hate to see elderly people alone…

…and that I’m addicted to my iPhone…

…you’d know that I don’t mind doing chores around the house…

If you really knew me you’d know that I’m terrible about returning phone calls…

…but will reply to a text within seconds…

And that’s all I have to say about that.