Happy Together

A DIY craft blog

A Balloon Bouquet in a Jar

by 1 Comment

Any time I find a way to use party decorations it makes me happy! Last night I received an email stating there would be a birthday celebration for my daughter’s teacher today. My daughter made a cute little card but she asked me to make something special for her as well. I had limited time and this balloon bouquet in a jar idea came to me. I had all the supplies already and we went for it.

I blew up the balloons, which were various sizes that I have gotten from Party City, and miss E taped them onto paper straws for me. We made a few and then I began to place them all together and when I felt like they fit in a good way, I would tape the paper straws together. This made for a good base and then I could stick anything else, whether it be more balloons or other decorations, into the base. (I also taped that paper wheel on a paper straw as well.)

The small honeycomb balls and the paper star (I just created the star in Word and printed it out) were hot glued/taped to bamboo skewers because they needed something thinner than a straw. Those I stuck in at the end.

Tip: The honeycomb balls came off of a garland that I had bought on clearance at a local grocery store after Valentines Day last year. Other parts were also just party decor I randomly pick up when I see it on sale. So if you have the space and can get things when you randomly come upon it you will always be ready to create one of these.

The jar was a mason jar that I had from a previous party. I had spray painted the bottom and it matched the balloons nicely. To fill up space so you couldn’t see the straw/skewer bottoms, I used paper tissue tassels from a garland in the jar. I kind of just played around with placement until I liked it. Then to fill in some space among the balloons I used a piece of the gold tissue paper garland. Another tip is to use sticker glue dots to keep balloons close. It sticks them together and holds really well. Then they don’t move around and it makes it more secure.

Here you can see miss E holding it for a size comparison. She also wanted me to make sure I shared a picture of her holding it hahaha. She’s so sweet. And she was excited to take this to her teacher today. How fun right? It’s like a little mini party for a table or desk and would be nice for someone allergic to flowers. I definitely see more balloon bouquet in a jar projects in our future.

A DIY Art Ledge For Our Living Room

by 2 Comments

Have you ever had a big empty wall and wanted to fill it but didn’t want to hang a lot on it? I had this dilemma when we first moved in. There was one wall in particular that really felt empty, this one behind the sofa. I really wanted to use things I already had to decorate it, but I was not feeling a gallery wall look. Partly because I had a large row of family pictures on one wall already (again, I already had them and wanted to use them) and partly because I wanted to easily change things out. I was inspired mostly by this diy art ledge by Chris Loves Julia, but I have always loved this concept since seeing how Pottery Barn would style picture frames many years ago. Now that I have grown in my diy skills, I was able to make a much more affordable ledge that worked for my home and budget.

When it came to my diy art ledge, I was in a hurry to make it before we were hosting a Christmas family get together. Setting goals can really help me get things done. I went in my garage and found three pieces of wood I already had that would work. They were two pieces of 1″ x 3″ x 8′ and one piece of 1″ x 2″ x 8′ and all were the inexpensive furring strips that can be found at Home Depot or Lowes.

I wasn’t worried about having a super squared cleaned up look so I just let the wood be. I used the two 2.5″ wide pieces for the back and the bottom part. I connected them using wood screws coming from back side of the back piece into the back side of the bottom piece. Then I used wood glue and my nail gun to secure the front piece in place. After it was all put together I stained it with Minwax Dark Walnut.

To secure it on the wall, I decided where I wanted it and found any studs that it would go over. I made sure to screw into the studs and then any other spot I felt needed to hold it in place. I have had this mixture of sentimental and fun art up for a while and haven’t had an itch to change it up yet. I love when I work over time to wait for things I truly love and then can just be happy with them for a long time. That has been something I have strived for with home decor the past few years.

We also haven’t had a problem with hitting our head on it, being that it’s behind the sofa. I did have to use command strips just recently on the big painting because it wasn’t sitting right and I didn’t want it to fall off. (Those strips are a great way to help secure pieces on a ledge like this!) The only time I have lightly hit the ledge with my head was when I really threw myself into a sitting position making my head go back further then normal hahaha. But honestly, it’s position isn’t a problem and I’m loving having it here.

DIY Built-Ins are Complete!

by Leave a Comment

It’s getting really close to Christmas and there were two big home projects I really wanted done before then: built-ins in our front room and a finished guest bathroom. Thankfully I was able to get both done before that and I am proud to share the diy built-ins I made. I was a little intimidated to try this at first and really took my time during the whole process to make sure things were going to turn out great. Having this fantastic tutorial from Young House Love was a tremendous help as well. As with any project, every need is different, every house is different, so there were a few things I had to do differently, but overall I did the same things and I couldn’t have done it without their knowledge.

(Wall sconces are here from Home Depot)

When we moved into our home this room was just a plain yellowish room. It had nothing. No ceiling light, built in’s, etc. It’s a 70’s ranch so I guess it would have been a formal living room during it’s beginnings. We didn’t want to get into the business of tearing down walls so we decided to make this our library/music room/guest room. We have a lot of books and plan to get a piano in here soon to accompany other instruments we already have. This is also where we will keep this sofa which has a pull out bed. Since the sofa was staying, I played around with where it fit best and this wall was best suited for it. Once I determined that I knew I wanted built-ins around it.

(Two vintage prints from England we found at an estate sale in Louisiana)
(This is inspired by how Nesting with Grace added lights to a large vase)

I still want to work on my bookshelf styling, but I used only what we had for now and am happy with it. I’m sure one day the mood will strike and I will be inspired to make it a bit more stylish 🙂 The room feels so much more complete now! Now our list for this room is down to: 1. Get a piano 2. Add sliding doors for privacy when guests are here 3. Get ceiling lights installed.

Here is a picture from when I first started working in here. I had already painted the walls (which helped a lot) and here I was making sure the sofa would fit between the two bookshelves. I only had a small space on each side so I had to use upper cabinets for the bottom. Since they are shallow, I did bump them out like Young House Love did. I also added a base to make them higher. It is two layers of 2″x4″ ‘s.

I popped off the baseboards and the crown molding to try to reuse, but only was able to reuse the crown molding. For the trim on the sides, I used my oscillating tool to just cut through right where the bookshelf sides needed to fit.

For the top of the bookshelves I continued to build it the same as in the Young House Love tutorial.

The difference came for the in-between shelving. My thought process was how to make it as secure as possible which means screwing into wall studs as often as possible. I created a “box” with a wood centered divider piece first. Then I used ladders to help hold it up in place and I screwed in 1″x4″ boards (into studs) underneath the top to hold it into place (you can see they are the white primed pieces of wood). From there I could screw the sides into the sides of the tall bookshelves. After that I also added wood pieces to the inside bottom and screwed those into wall studs. Then I could screw from underneath the shelf into those. Needless to say, this thing is rock solid. It was really difficult to do by myself (can we say big and heavy???), so I would recommend a helper for this part hahaha. But where there is a will there is a way!

Once all of that was done I was able to trim it all out, caulk, and paint it. For me, it ended up not being as difficult as I thought it would. I learned a lot and feel really confident to take on this type of project again. The biggest thing for me was making sure it was super secure and I did that and more.

It feels classy in here now and the diy built-ins feel like they were always meant to be there.

Bead Bar Necklace DIY

by 9 Comments

A few weeks ago for Mother’s Day I wanted to make something special to go with a shirt I made for my mom. I was browsing around at Michael’s and saw the perfect supplies to put together a bead bar necklace. I ended up liking the one I made for her so much that I even made one for myself.

There are only four things you need:

  • Connector Chain Necklaces (Here in Silver; Here in Gold)
  • 2 inch Eye Pins
  • Beads of choice that will fit on eye pin
  • Pliers (jewelry ones are best, but I couldn’t find mine and just used regular ones)

Lay out necklace pieces, eye pin, and beads.

Use the pliers to open up the closed eye pin side and place on the end jump ring of a necklace piece. Use pliers to close it shut.

Add the beads on the eye pin and then use pliers to curve end of eye pin.

Hook the half closed eye pin to the other necklace piece. Then use pliers to completely close the eye pin.

The fun thing with this if you can totally customize it. You could use colors of birthstones representing children/grandchildren or you could bend the wire and curve it instead of leaving it straight. Oh the possibilities! That’s what’s fun with diy. You can make exactly what it is you are wanting. Share your bead bar necklace on social media with #happytogetherbyjess. I would love to see it.

Entryway Update: Before and After

by 2 Comments

These past few months have been full of home projects and at times it has been a little overwhelming. I am no stranger to all of this, so I knew it would take time, but that still doesn’t mean I wish it could go faster (and easier!) at times. Looking back over these entryway update photos helps me realize I really have done a lot and it will all get there before I know it.

This is what our entryway looked like before we moved in. Not horrible, but very plain and really lived in. All the trim and doors were beat up and needed repainting (still need to repaint the doors though hahaha), there were remnants from wallpaper still from a previous removal attempt, and all the outlets/switches were almond colored and really dirty. The previous owner had put in new light fixtures, but they still felt kind of outdated and dark.

As you can see above, I started in the dining room and worked my way to the entryway. I scraped off wallpaper goo, replaced light switches, and then added faux board and batten wainscoting using 1×4’s. I had really wanted to add some wallpaper, but my husband was not on board with that at all so I stuck with paint. The blue color is Valspar Northern Sky (5001-3B) and I used Behr Ultra Pure White on the trim. It works out for now because there would have been so many interesting cuts to make if I did install wallpaper. But, I would love to try it one day. You know, the stick and peel wallpaper that can come back off easily.

I took a while to decide upon a light fixture. At first I was determined to find a vintage style with crystals, but then I decided upon a flush mount style and came upon this pretty light. It is sold on a few different sites, so I looked around and found the best price on Wayfair at the time. This can change, so always look around and find the best deal when buying light fixtures. I love love love the shadows that it casts when the light is on. I feel that adds to the character of this little area even more.

It’s nice to have the first room people see pretty much done. My last two items for here are to paint the doors, like I said before, and then at some point we are getting the floors redone. They are wood and have just taken a lot of abuse over the years and it’s time they got some love too.