Christmas Dog

Until I get a few project complete, here is a few cute (and naughty) pictures of our one year old dog, Jax:

Oh what a nice dog in front of the Christmas tree!:

Wait, what is that?:

Less then 12 hours after putting the tree up, Jax destroyed three ornaments and multiple branches of holly. Within one week, eight ornaments were chewed up, including a glass one. At least he is sorry about it.:

I would be mad at him, but he is so darn cute!:

And really like the snow!:

What a cutie!:

*In case you were nervous, Jax was fine after chewing up the glass ornament. The Christmas tree now gets sprayed with smelly dog deterrent everyday to keep him away from the festive snack. :)

Fabric Christmas Trees

Look how cute these are! I was wanting a few tall Christmas trees to set on the fireplace mantle and couldn't find any that I liked in the stores. They were all too short or too shiny. So, I made my own.

Supplies needed:

• 2 small tomato cages (like this)
• At least 3 poster board sheets (thick paper sheets in the largest size you can get, like this)
• Masking tape
• Hot glue
• Fabric of your choice (I used 2 feet of green fleece, about 1 foot of cream flannel, and 1 foot of textured cream upholstery fabric.)

First, flip the cages upside down so the largest ring is on the bottom. Decide how tall you want the trees. I cut off the bottom ring of one cage to make it shorter that the other. Tape where the wires are connected to the ring; this is to keep the sharp wire edges from scratching wherever you set the trees. Then, tape the three ends together to make a big cone, like this:

Lay the tomato cages down on the poster paper, long side down. Tape down the long wires as you roll the cage across the paper. The paper wrapped better by putting it at an angle, which left some corners hanging off the bottom. Just cut those off and save the trimmings.

Once completely wrapped and taped on the inside, seal the seam by taping along the edge. Use the paper trimmings to patch any gaps left by the paper not being big enough. This is what the inside and outside should look like.

Cut a long strip of fabric (long enough to wrap around the bottom of the tree) and glue the strip to the outside bottom of the tree to hide the paper bottom. Then, start a movie and cut out hundreds of fabric petals. :) I made them about 1 inch wide and 2 inches long. It will go faster if you fold the fabric before cutting, so you can get multiple petals in one swipe.

Once cut out, start hot gluing petals in rows all the way around the tree. I made one tree mostly green with a few cream petals and one mostly cream with a few green petals. The picture below shows the bottom fabric strip, and beginning of gluing. You can also see where I used magazine sheets to fill in tree holes when I ran out of poster board. (I only used two sheets instead of three.)

Keep gluing petals on until the whole tree is filled. Overlap a little bit to hide the straight tops of the petals and hide the paper. Once you get to the top, fold a petal around the tip and glue to make a nice cone top.

This is what you end up with. (The cute trees, not the cute dog.)

This project cost less than $15 total to make two trees, especially since I used discounted fabric from the remnants bin at Walmart and cheap tomato cages, because no one buys tomato cages in November.

Here are the trees on the mantle, next to TJ Maxx reindeer. So cute!

 This, my friends, is a My Neighbor's House original. Yes, I came up with this idea all on my own... and it actually worked! Haha!

Thanksgiving Fireplace Mantle

When touring houses as prospective buyers, one of the first details that caught our eye was the fireplace in our now home. The whole house is covered in icky honey oak trim, which is not my style, but the living room was redeemed with a really nice dark mantle. We will put a TV on the wall some day, but until they go on sale (Black Friday), I had free rein of the entire space.

The ceiling is pretty high, with a long slope, so tall items were needed to balance. I have been trying to find a way to use a few old windows for a while, and this was the perfect opportunity. A Ben Sollee poster and plant also add height. The poster also hides the outlet and cable hook-up you can see in the upper right corner of the photo below.

There are a few fall touches: two pumpkins and a cornucopia. I plan to change the mantle out with each major holiday/season. A long metal candle holder from our wedding and three rectangular peach candle holders from our honeymoon sit in back.

This is my favorite part! Cute little birds sit in an antique bird cage. When I first put the display up, the bird on the perch kept falling over so it looked like a hanging bat or a sad dead bird, which is not cute. A twist-tie solved the issue!

Lastly, a metal G from Anthropologie and one of our engagement pictures in a bike chain frame sit in front of the poster. I originally wanted to put the "G" above our bed, but it is heavy and I am afraid it will fall off in the middle of the night and knock one of us out... The frame was a going away gift to Mike when he had an internship in Indiana for a month last summer. He put it on his bedside table at the hotel. :)

I'm happy with the way the mantle turned out but already excited to decorate it for Christmas!

Hobo Day Soup Buffet

The University I work for has a yearly homecoming celebration called Hobo Days. Yes, slightly insensitive to the plight of the real hobos, but tons of fun! One of the festivities is called "Bum-a-Meal" which consists of a group of students visiting a community member's house for a free meal. Mike and I signed up to provide dinner, so a hobo-chic buffet was set for us and five guests.

The buffet was complete with galvanized steel, cans, newspaper, twine and old lace. We served chili, chicken tortilla soup (did you know real homemade tortilla soup has corn tortillas in it?), condiments, bread sticks (thanks HyVee!), from-scratch vanilla cupcakes (not a fan of this recipe- too dense), and juice. We haven't bought a dining table yet, so the table and chairs were borrowed from Mike's work. Not hobo-y, but better than the floor. 

 

Happy Hobo Day!