A Blue & White Christmas

Finally! My Christmas decorating is done and I have gotten around to taking photos :)

As I mentioned earlier in the month, I decided on a blue and white theme, but also included nature inspired elements. I wanted to keep an Aussie feel about it all.

For the front door I made a really simple wreath from sticks and hot glue. I just went down to the 'carefully cultivated to look like true-blue bush' nature reserve near my place and picked up a bag full of sticks off the ground.

I like it, but I think I might go with something a bit more traditional next year.

I decided to put the tree up in the dining room this year. So that ended up being the room that got the most Christmasing (yes that definitely is a word, regardless of what spell check says). Keep in mind though our house is open plan, so really the whole place feels Christmasy :)

I diy'ed a lot of the ornaments and other bits and pieces this year. I'll do a post tomorrow with more details about each of them.

I also made this tiny little Christmas village out of air-dry clay, and it sits on the window sill in the dining room.

In the kitchen I wiped down my chalkboard and then wrote up the words to 'away in a manger', one of my favourite Christmas Carols.

In the main living area I added in a few extra Christmas decorations. A bowl of baubles and my gorgeous Christmas spider (courtesy of Tanya from dans le townhouse). I hung heaps of my diy clay stars on the potted tree next to our picture window, and I added more lights and decorations in our wall cut out.

So there you have it. My decorations for Christmas 2011. Don't forget to check back in tomorrow for some DIYs :)

Another Cheap and Cheerful DIY

Doormats.

I'm generally not a fan. I understand they have a purpose, but they can be so ugly. Generally I don't mind them outside a front door, but just not a fan of them inside the house.

The problem we have at our house is we don't have anywhere to put them outside. No front deck, no back deck and no landscaping in the backyard. One day we'll have all those things, but in the meantime we have lots of dirt constantly being walked into our home.

After much disagreement from me, Sean went out and bought us two doormats. One that sits just inside the front door and another that sits at the sliding door in the laundry. He did his best, and they definitely weren't as ugly as I was expecting. But I still wasn't a fan.

The other day when I was browsing pinterest I saw a couple of tutorials for chevron rugs and picnic blankets. Cue light-bulb moment! Seeing as I didn't like the doormats anyway, I really didn't have much to lose by giving them a coat of paint...

The first mat got painted a really cheerful blue colour and found it's way to the laundry....

 

The second mat I did in a slightly more sensible navy for the front door...

So, what do you think? Have you ever painted a rug, floor mat or picnic blanket?

I'm linking up with the Inspiration Board over at Homework

The Best $16 I've Ever Spent

One of my favourite parts of our home is our beautiful front door. It is definitely a statement piece. I love how big it is, and I love how beautiful it is. What I don't love is how see through it is...

When we chose all the bits and pieces for our house we had the choice of frosted glass panels in the door, but they were all really ugly. Bumpy, or patterned or a funny colour. Which may look nice in other doors, but I always knew I wanted something more modern for our front door.

So, we picked the clear glass panels and said 'we'll just get it frosted ourselves...

We have spent the last three years living like this:

 
It kind of feels like living in a fishbowl. Anyone driving or walking past can see in. There's no hiding from dodgy electricty salespeople and ducking into the bedroom to freshen up (wipe off last nights make-up) before answering the door... not an option.

We did get a quote to get the door frosted. But $160 for a couple of metres of frosted contact is not what I consider a good deal. So the door remained clear and we went on living in our fishbowl.

The other day I had a stroke of (long overdue) genius... I decided to frost the door myself. (Yep, it took me three years to come up with that clever little idea!).

Sean had gone away for a weekend of male bonding with his mates, so I decided to solo the DIY. One trip to Bunnings and $16 later, I had in my hands a roll of frosted window contact.

The info that came with the film had a list of 'essentials' that I needed, but in the interest of saving money I decided to improvise. Here's what they recommended and what I actually used:

1. Spray bottle: almost empty windex bottle ( I tipped the last bit  into another half empty windex bottle)
2. Plastic Scrapper - a plastic card out of my purse (scuba licence if you're really interested!)
3. Baby Shampoo Solution - 1 squirt of baby wash to half a bottle of water
4. Exacto Knife - cheapo razer cutter thingy
5. I also used scissors, sticky tape, a pencil, a cutting mat, a ruler and a permanent marker

The installation itself was a piece of cake. I measured up the glass panels in my door and then cut the contact to size. The instructions recommended cutting the panels with a 2cm allowance around all edges. The beauty of this buffer meant that it was ok for my lines to be a little crooked.

To prep the windows I cleaned them really, really well. Like three times per panel. My Father in Law said that a single tiny speck of dirt could ruin the whole finish, so I was really pedantic about this.

To stick up each panel I sprayed heaps of the baby soap solution on the window panel first. Then I would lay down the contact panel on the floor, peel back the corner of the contact (using the sticky tape), then spray heaps more of the baby soap onto the sticky side of the contact as I peeled off the backing.

Once the film was in the perfect position I would spray the whole panel with more soapy goodness. Then it was time for round one of bubble smoothing. Taking my plastic card, it was as simple as squeegying the whole panel.  After that, using my cheapo razor cutter and a ruler as a guide I went around and trimmed off the excess. Then it was just a matter of smoothing out any more bubbles with my plastic card.

Rinse and repeat for each glass panel.

Simple as that!

The absolute best part? The frosting has seriously changed the feel of our house. It feels private, secluded and a lot more relaxing. Heaven!

As you can see from the photos we still have so much to do (tiling, rendering outside, building a front deck, installing lighting, decorating etc), but hey, baby steps!