Book Page Christmas Tree

I love old books so have been trying to find lots of ways to use them. For fall, I posted how I made a book page pumpkin. This time, it's a Christmas tree! 

 

Here is what you need for this project:

Old book

Small pot

Bamboo skewer

Floral foam

Ribbon

Floral moss

Hot glue gun

1. Tear off the cover of the book. 
2. Cut your pages in various sizes of squares. You will want several more of the largest size square. 

3. Find a small pot, or I found these cute galvanized tubs at a yard sale.  
4. Place a piece of floral foam in the bottom of your pot so it fits snug.
5. Cover the top of the foam with floral moss, hot gluing it around the inside edge of the pot.

6. Place your skewer in the foam and start poking your book pages onto it starting with the larger pieces first.  

7. Add a little something to the top of your tree and that's it! 

Mine turned out to be about a foot tall.

 

DIY Sweater Pillows

I am loving my new sewing machine! Yesterday I tackled some sweater pillows. I ran to the thrift store up town and grabbed several sweaters for a quarter each. I also found a few pillows cheap so snatched those up too to use the stuffing out of them. 

First, I cut a square out of the middle of the sweater and sewed up three sides. 

Next, I stuffed it and sewed up the top.

While browsing through the dollar section at Target, I found these burlap bows. I hand sewed it onto the pillow.

This turned out to be my favorite, so I kept this one. I made several more though that I am selling on my Thrifty 31 facebook page, if you are interested! What shall I sew next?!

The Stockings Were Hung...

In an earlier post, I talked about these burlap stockings I made. They are far from perfect, but I still love how they turned out! 

I had seen on Pinterest where someone hung them on an old wooden ladder. I thought this was the perfect idea for the rustic look I was wanting.

The ribbon on the wreath is red burlap and I found a roll of it in the Christmas section at Dollar General!

Can't wait to fill up those stockings!

Cookies & Milk for Santa

I couldn't wait any longer...the Christmas tree and other decorations are up! I just love the Christmas season and want to enjoy it as long as possible! My hubby likes to wait until after Thanksgiving, but since yesterday was our anniversary, I convinced him otherwise ;)

Speaking of anniversary, yesterday was we celebrated to wonderful years together as husband and wife! I am so blessed by him. 

I decided this year to put a chair next to the Christmas tree for "Santa". I added a plate for cookies, a milk pitcher and glass for milk. You could also add some (fake) salt dough cookies for looks, but I was afraid our dog would want to eat them.

I love these stripped straws I got at Hobby Lobby!

More Christmas decor to come in another post! 

Burlap Christmas Stockings

I've been wanting some burlap stockings for the past couple of years. However, the ones I have seen on Etsy can run anywhere from $10.00 to over $20 a piece! Yikes! Derrick's grandma had an extra sewing machine laying around that she gave me this past week. I knew the first project I wanted to tackle was some DIY burlap stockings!

I found this tutorial and free pattern HERE. I followed the directions pretty closely, but used a plain white sheet I had for the lining instead of interfacing. It worked just fine for me. I put some buttons on the hubby's, lace on mine and a felt bone for the puppy. I used twine to hang them with. They definitely aren't perfect, but I'm pretty proud for it being my first project!

Do you have any holiday projects going on over at your house? Feel free to share your ideas!

Chocolate Chip Cookies for Two

Yesterday was Halloween and we spent a night in eating a yummy dinner and catching up on an episode of Once Upon a Time we had missed. Does anyone else love this show?! It was perfect for a rainy, spooky, Halloween night!

One of the things I made for Halloween was two giant chocolate chip cookies. This recipe only makes two cookies which is great because then you don't have tons of leftovers that are tempting you! 

Cookies for Two
2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs brown sugar
1 Tbs white sugar
Pinch of salt
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1 egg yolk (the yellow part)
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 cup flour
3 Tbs. chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Put butter and microwave for a few seconds to soften. Then cream together with sugars.
3. Add salt, vanilla and egg yolk to sugar mixture and mix well.
4. Add baking soda, flour and chocolate chips to mixture and mix well.
5. Place two cookie mounds onto ungreased baking sheet (far apart so they have room expand while baking).
6. Bake for 8 minutes or until done.
7. I added some eyeballs and spiders to make it more festive.