I have a favorite little shop here in the San Antonio area that I love to visit called Bless Your Heart. I never leave without something, clothes, gifts, home decor.. You get the idea. They always have the cutest things and I am always inspired in some way when I leave there.
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| Cody Foster House |
Just before the Holidays My Daughter and I went to their Holiday Open House... I should have known better, but I went anyway... They had the most adorable selection of holiday items, but one thing really captured me... reproduction vintage style glitter houses. The one I have pictured here (made by Cody Foster) is one of several I left the store with that day and was the catalyst for making my own. I spent a couple of weeks of cutting, painting, gluing, glittering and otherwise embellishing. My very handy, crafty daughter assisted me.
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| Holiday Box with Father Christmas |
We first set out to make the bottle brush trees, which we made in QUANTITY! I at first thought maybe I had lost my mind, but after setting up all my holiday decor, I didn't exactly have a ton I didn't know what to do with. I didn't take photos of my process. I found several very good tutorials on pinterest on how to do it, so I didn't see the point in taking the time to repeat the information. Essentially they are sisal trees you can get where they sell miniature village stuff at places like Micheal's. I got all mine for 50% off. You can leave them green, or bleach them, then dye them colors with Rit dye. I made pink, red, blue and teal, along with leaving some the bleached color which is kind of a natural color, not really white. They all got new "snow", lots of glitter and some added embellishments of pearls, pine cones, "glass balls" etc. They came out adorable!!!! I plan on making some for Halloween, along with houses of course!
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| Glitter House from pre-made form |
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I made a couple houses from some pre-made house forms you can get from the craft store made out of a pressed cardboard. These turned out quite cute. The rest I made from patterns found on the Internet. Most I found from links on pinterest! I have a whole board on my pinterest dedicated to Glitter Houses and Bottle brush trees. I quickly found I am not the only person currently obsessed with these little beauties!
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| Glitter House from pre-made form |
I had so much fun making them. They really weren't that hard to make. My handy daughter did do most of the cutting for me. She can work wonders with and exacto knife! I did save quite a bit of money in the long run. I still have loads of supplies left for my next round of houses. I absolutely love the ones I bought, but the price tag is pretty high. I will likely acquire another one or two next year to add to my collection, but I will need to buy a bigger house if I add too much more and I doubt my husband will see this as a reasonable excuse to do such a thing.
I will likely be finding glitter in my house for months to come.. NOT that I see this as a bad thing... Thankfully I have a husband who doesn't mind all my crazy, over the top, can't see the kitchen table for months projects...AND he LOVES Christmas decorations... SO I have no one to stop me there!!!!!
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| Handmade house on box with dyed trees |
That's what I did in December... I am moving on and finally after 3 1/2 years of living in this house, doing some decorating. I sold most of the decor I had when we moved. I wasn't attached to most of it, so why keep it. It's taken me awhile to feel "settled"... Now I am ready to make this place more homey. With an endless supply of ideas on pinterest I will be busy for months!
