We Made A Punny "Mines Of Moria" Bathroom, And We're FLUSHED WITH SUCCESS

Y'all knocked it out of the park with your suggestions for our Doors of Durin, so I thought I'd show you the winning phrase, plus take a tour of our finished guest bath.

The runners up were "Wipe, you fools!" - one of mine - and Julie's actual Gandalf quote, "Have patience. Go where you must go, and hope." Which is hysterical as a bathroom quote, but a bit too long for our door.

Kathy D was the winner with her "excrete, friend, & flush," which made us cackle. We swapped in "exit," though, to better match the original "Speak, friend, and enter."

So yeah, our phrase that pays is "Excrete, friend, and exit."

I'm adding the invisible black light paint here.

And here are our Doors of Durin, all finished!

John and I did one final push to finish the bathroom this week, and we are WIPED, lemme tell ya.

:D

So how 'bout a tour?

And now some photos, to show off the details. We went SUPER dramatic and dim with the lighting, so getting these was a challenge.

Wishing You A Happy Hobbit Holiday!

Happy Friday, friends! It's almost Christmas, WE MADE IT. I do hope you get some time off this weekend and/or next week to recharge and hang with loved ones. I know I'm looking forward to some much-needed down time. And pie. (Mmmm, pie.)

I won't keep you long today; I just have to show you our decorated Hobbit Door!

AAAAAA LOOK HOW PRETTY AND FESTIVE

It's a point of pride with me that we didn't buy anything new for this, other than a bag of cotton batting for "snow." The wreath is scrap Pex tubing from the garage, then two different garland remnants I painstakingly disassembled and zip-tied in place.

Speaking of wreaths, here's another pretty one:

I made the Hobbiton sign for craft night several months ago. It's made of foam with googly eyes for rivets.

K, back to the door:

The garland is the one we use almost every year over this doorway. It has sparkly fruit in it, perfect for Hobbitses.

I spent so long trying to get the "snow" to look right.

The snow in the bottom of the wreath hides the battery pack for the lights. 

So hey, ready to go inside?

"The Beacons Are Lit!" Our DIY Tree of Gondor Menorah

Happy Tuesday and Happy Hanukkah, hobbits and friends! Whether you celebrate or not, I think you'll appreciate this quick Middle Earth DIY:

A White Tree of Gondor Menorah! (Gondorah? :D)

I originally had grand plans of sculpting the tree, but the menorah part stumped me. (Ooooh, unintentional pun! Best kind!) So instead I layered a paper tree over our existing menorah, which is MUCH easier and also turned out rather lovely.

The contrast of the shiny silver and chunky white glitter looks super cool in the light, and I like that the tree is a little more subtle.

SO HEY. Want to make your own?

All you'll need is some white poster board, glitter, and this menorah:

Turning Our Friends' Place Into A Life-Sized Gingerbread House, Final Reveal!

Happy Friday, my festive Festers! Ready to get your gingerbread house on?

This project has had a lot of ups and downs since we last spoke. Or downs and ups, as things kept falling off, hehehe.

That's the slightly unhinged chuckle of a woman who is one more mishap away from renting a flamethrower, btw. BUT WE MADE IT. And so far, knock on gingerbread, the Gingerbread House still stands.

Our battlefield of candy carnage.

So now that we've learned absolutely everything the hard way, let me show you all the things we did wrong last time, and our fixes that seem to be working.

Btw, to the person who so sweetly commented last time that we "make it look so easy!" - this is for you:

First let's jump in with some beauty shots, because I'm a desserts-first kinda gal:

::trumpet fanfare::

Eagle-eyed readers will spot the difference in these shots, but shhhh. We'll get to that.

The house doesn't look too different from my last sneak peeks, but the icing trim on the roof line got a major upgrade.

Originally we made the icing from plastic tablecloths, which was thinner, more translucent, and VERY wind-catchy:

Orlando's Festival Of Trees 2022, Part 2

Happy post-Thanksgiving work week, gang, how ya hanging in?

John and I just sat down to go through all our planned December activities and posts, so I already need a nap, heh. The month fills up fast when you want to do ALL THE THINGS, right?

First things first, though, let's get our holiday sparkle on with the rest of my favorites from Festival of Trees! (Click here if you missed Part 1.)

Beginning with the last thing I expected at this swanky Festival: a Dollar Tree DIY.


A really GOOD Dollar Tree DIY, though.

Look closely; those are all DT plastic bowls stacked and glued together, with fairy lights tucked inside.


SO COOL. They made different designs by switching up the combinations of bowls!

The only parts not from DT are the trees on top, but maybe we could make a cone from clear DT cutting mats? Hmmm. Or really, some of these would made great stands without the tree: you could put candles or greenery on top instead.

Moving on to the slightly more realistic trees with a deliciously over-the-top Elvis theme:

The action figure topper wouldn't be my choice (too small!) but the rest of this "Blue Christmas" is perfection:

Toy guitars, records, gold sunglasses, and even tiny blue suede shoes:

Yesss. I'm not the biggest Elvis fan, but I'm all about committing to a theme.

Which brings me to my favorite Festival tree this year. That's right, you're getting it early this post, no need to scroll to the end!

Now at first glance, this tree isn't the most spectacular... but wait for it.

Orlando's Festival Of Trees 2022, Part 1

Happy Twinkle Light Season, friends! It's time for the Festival of Trees, my annual tradition of taking WAY too many Christmas tree photos, and then foisting them all on you so we can nerd out over design trends together.

Our Festival is held in the Orlando Museum of Art, and for the first time in YEARS (even pre-Covid) I'm thrilled to report the Festival has actually grown. I've been bemoaning the dwindling tree numbers for a good 4-5 years now, but this year they turned it around and filled nearly the entire museum! YASSSS.

Needless to say I have lots to share, so let's dive in.

This year's entry tree had flying cherubs over top, and was filled with iced berries and fluffy white birds:

I love that the tree sits on a giant mirror; reflects all the sparkles! I bet we could get the same look with a little mirrored foil/mylar wrapped around a foam board base. Eh?

See, the brain-storming has already begun.

The main hub has a few larger room vignettes:

I like all the extras like the swagged garland with those firework lights - which I reeeelly want for our Hobbit party. (Plus they make a cool tree topper!)

Here's a pretty woodlands theme, although the top looks a little bare:

Heart eyes for this owl ornament!

This flocked tree would look amazing against a darker wall:

Turning A Friend's Home Into A Giant Gingerbread House, Part 1

This never made it to the blog last year - think I had too many other festive things going on - but last November we surprised our friend Ken by decorating the outside of his house for Christmas. We conspired with his wife Sue, then designed, purchased, and installed a full yard makeover on Ken's birthday:

We had a snowflake projector, motion lights, and color-changing trim on the eaves and pathway. (Sue likes colored lights and Ken likes white, so we got these remote-controlled sets that do both!)

Ken & Sue love Christmas, and have lots of decor inside, but neither are physically able to decorate outside. The most they've ever had was a wreath on the door, so this was really a treat for both of them.

I made simple swags for the exterior lights by turning a Dollar Tree dollar tree (snerk) upside down, adding two plastic bells, and a mesh bow. Again, all from Dollar Tree:

Unfortunately the garage lights were the type that hang down, so the swags didn't work. After a little brainstorming we zip-tied them back-to-back and hung the swags from the porch light instead.

Which turned out pretty cute! Then Sue supplied the banners and door wreath.

To give the yard a focal point we made a light tree around this real tree:

We used zip ties around the trunk to hold the lights up, then plastic yard stakes to anchor them to the ground.

The deer is my favorite, because I it gave a serious glow-up.

Here's the Before:

What Do You Do With Fall Clearance? Make A Pumpkin Christmas Tree!

Last weekend John and I spent a fun afternoon shopping for our local homeless resource center. Walmart has better prices than Dollar Tree on things like individually packed toothbrushes, toothpaste, and certain shampoos, so while we were there stocking up we of course detoured through the Halloween Clearance. We are only human, after all. ;)

Y'all. Y'ALL. Not only was all the Halloween stuff 75% off, so was all the Fall decor.

We were like kids in a candy store, with John whisper-screaming "GET MORE PUMPKINS THEY'RE ONLY $2" and me shoving lanterns at him to scan and cackling gleefully at the prices. We definitely drew a few concerned looks, ha.  

Even exercising extreme constraint, we came home with 9 pumpkins, 6 lanterns of varying styles, 4 boxes of string lights, and a handful of cute woodland ornaments.

I don't want to torture you too much much with our good fortune, but this plastic lantern with a battery candle inside was only $4:

REJOICE WITH ME, BARGAIN SHOPPERS

And this big wooden lantern was $6:

A can of silly string had exploded all over these - probably the reason they were still there - but that scraped off easily.

Now, want to see what we did with all this?


I think you're gonna liiiiike iiiiit.

I Decorated For Spooky Season! COME FALL WITH ME

Happy Tuesday, pumpkins!

Ew, wait, mental note: never call anyone "pumpkin" again. That is surprisingly creepy.

Uh...

Happy Tuesday, fleshy scarecrows!

 Much better.

So needless to say, I'm in a mood. A mood... OF SPOOP.  I blame those blasted, beautiful couch pillows I showed you last week:

John and I love these so much we decided the back room needed MORE Fall leaves. So we went to JoAnn's and bought a garland. 

Then I opened the Halloween craft bin to get my Pumpkin Head Babies, and realized some extra flowers would look great on the coffee table. Oooh, and wouldn't our old steampunk Jack O'Lantern be perfect back here?

Next thing I knew, I was decorating for Fall, y'all.

I refused to buy anything else, though, so lemme show you how I used what we already had to spread some Autumnal energy in our steampunk room, dining room, kitchen, and front sitting room. You're about to see a lot of past DIYs, let's see how many you remember!

Let the tour... BEGIN.

(Steam-punkin post here)

Starting with a rare daytime shot of our steampunk room.

Ah, let's see how many times Eva sneaks into my photos this post:


(Audrey II tutorial here)

"PAY ATTENTION TO MEEEE"

My main tip for seasonal decorating is to add rather than replace. Sprinkle a few pumpkins and florals around your existing decor, and it will automatically start to feel more like Fall.




I literally just added a single pumpkin here, ha. I love all the colors on this shelf, though.



And again, just a single Pumpkin Head Baby for a touch of 'Tumnal.
(Five points if you recognize those wine goblets! Hand sculpted by the amazing Kristi O)



My other two Pumpkin Head Babies are by the velvet chairs:


(I realize that red pillow is adding nothing stylistically, but it's SOFT and I LIKE IT, dangit.)

Then over on the coffee ta... Eva, we can totally see you.

Witchy Chapeaus, Sailor Moon Jewels, & Oh Hell, Fall

YOU MADE IT TO FRIDAY, MY FRIEND.

Excellent job, let's celebrate.

 I even found the perfect party hats, handcrafted by EverCrumblyAndWitch. (Say that name out loud for a chuckle).

Behold!

Can confirm, my grabby hands would like to be-holding this. Heeeeeeeyo.

Or this!

These sweet witchy hats are magical, and come in so many gorgeous styles:

The mushrooms! Eee! Give Ever Crumbly a follow on Instagram to see more, or head to their website to shop.

*****

Speaking of magic, watch THIS:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by OLGA | BROOCHES HANDMADE 💎 (@v.olga_arts)

OooOOOooooh.

Olga makes mostly Sailor Moon designs, but she also mixes in a little Harry Potter and even Star Wars with her beaded brooches:

Does A Wedding Dagger Really Need A Point?

Hiya!

Remember our friends who threw that EPIC Game of Thrones dinner party?

You know, the party where every dish was themed, and dessert was traumatizing?

This was hard to forget... no matter how I tried, bahaha.

WELL, last weekend was these friends' 50th wedding anniversary(!!), so I knew a run-of-the-mill gift just wouldn't do.

Enter, THE INTERNET.

Well, Etsy, to be more precise.

I discovered the Strongblade Etsy shop, which sells personalized daggers and swords. This isn't sponsored, but what they made me turned out so nice I have to show it off.

First here's a look at the engraving, because I really like the saying John and I came up with:

Anna & John, Forged 1972
50 Years Unbroken

Eh? EH?

Listen, part of romance is having the ability to stab each other, but not doing it. (PRO TIP.)

Next we needed a way to display both the dagger and sheath, so we bought this wooden plaque at JoAnn's to modify:

John drilled holes through the plaque to pressure-fit wooden dowels:

... then Dremeled the dowels into shape so they'd cradle the dagger and blade exactly:

This is where the blade slots into place.

After this we spent a couple of days getting the finish right, because staining wood is a pain. First it was too dark, then it was too red, but our third attempt was just right.

Ready for the grand reveal? (EEEEEEE)

Here we go.