Seashell Crafting

This summer we went on a family vacation to Holden Beach, NC. The last time we were all able to go as a family was 9 years ago, so I was anxious to get back. We had a great time and collected tons of good shells. My mom and I got together to craft with some of them {we have bags and bags...not kidding when I said a ton!} We made shell garlands and decorated picture frames. I think everything turned out great, and it was fun to reminisce and chat while we worked.

The shell garland is absolutely a $0 Project. Just grab some fishing line and start stringing shells! Keep a loop at the top, or even both ends, for easy hanging. My mom has always loved making these, so we are in the habit of specifically hunting for shells with holes.

For the picture frames... we picked our favorite shells, tiny delicate ones, pieces of coral, drift wood & pretty bits of broken shells. We arranged them in the corners of our frames and secured them in place with my hot glue gun. Now we'll be able to see them on a daily basis and it will remind us of what a fun trip we had. I just need to get around to printing a picture to place inside of mine! 

Thanks for checking in! Keep creating DIYers!

Phase III- Deck Demo

The last portion of our "backyard renovation" is replacing our deck. The current deck measures 12 x 16 feet and has one set of stairs on the side closest to our paver patio. The deck is probably as old as the house, and the previous owners had it painted blue and white. After this past winter, followed by a rainy Spring and Summer, it was showing considerable wear. We're going to replace the boards, add a second staircase, and go with a slightly different style of railing. It will still be 12 x 16.

With the help of Andrew's dad, we tore up the deck on Saturday morning. The underlying frame is still in great condition, and since it doesn't experience weathering like the top, we are choosing to keep it. The guys used crowbars to pry up the boards and I hauled them to the trailer. The process was pretty quick - it only took us 3 hours. The most tedious part was pulling the old nails out of the frame with pliers. We plan to buy lumbar and get building within the next two weeks. Here are some pictures of the old deck:

Bread & Butter Pickles

Ingredients

+ pickling cucumbers

+ 1 small white onion
+ 2 Tbs salt
+ 1 cup white vinegar
+ 2 cups white sugar
+ 1 Tbs mustard seed
+ 1 Tbs celery seed

This recipe doesn't require processing in boiling water like typical canning. As long as you have some containers with lids, you are good to go. Homegrown cucumbers make this a $0 Project. Here's how I did it:

First, I washed and sliced up the cukes.

Next, the cucumbers went into a pot with the sliced onion and salt.

I set that pot aside and combined vinegar, sugar, mustard seed and celery seed to a saucepan. 

This was heated until the sugar was dissolved. 

Then the liquid was poured over the cukes & onions and placed in the fridge for 24 hours.

The following day I divided the mix into mason jars. I sampled a pickle, and it was crisp, tangy goodness! Jars should be stored in the refrigerator.

Everything tastes better homegrown. Thanks for reading!

Garden Update

Hey everyone! 

I haven't posted in July at all yet - it's been a busy month! We enjoyed a 10 day vacation at Holden Beach, NC with my family {such a wonderful time!} and when we came home, we had a little bit of fresh produce to greet us: 3 cukes, a jalapeño, and some beans. We're still eagerly awaiting our tomatoes, and as you can see, they are on their way. 

Hopefully you are all enjoying summer!

PS: The cucumber plant has almost entirely taken over the garden - which is good & bad. It will likely choke out the peppers, so we aren't expecting (m)any of those. But hey, this is our first season and we're learning. Next year we may create a different planting plan, but for now we're rolling with the punches & looking forward to making some bread & butter freezer pickles!

Jelly Jar Citronella Candles

I have been saving Smucker's Orchard's Finest jelly jars {and a few other "cute" jars} for a while to make homemade candles. This month I finally got around to it.

I touched on this project a little in my post about Craft Night, but I wanted to write something more detailed & entirely devoted to the candles. {Detailed... sort of ironic, because making these was anything but!}

You need just a few things to accomplish this:

• melting wax
• citronella essential oil
• wicks
• jars/containers

I bought soy wax shavings from Pat Catan's craft store for $20. The good news to me was the wax is microwaveable. I was dreading buying/using a double boiler. I'm sure it gets the job done just fine. But for whatever reason I had a mental block against it. I hot glued the wicks into my jars. {Regular and wood for fun!} Then microwaved my wax in a liquid measure. I added the drops of citronella oil after the wax came out of the microwave. I thought maybe the wax would try to harden right away, but it stayed liquid-y for a while. In fact, after pouring it into my jars, it took a full 24 hours to totally harden. Voila! Done! I made 6 candles and had plenty of wax chips leftover.

So there you go. A fast, fun project - cheaper than store-bought and in my opinion a lot cuter. I chose to leave my wax it's natural color, but it would also be fun to experiment with different colors.

Thanks for checking in at Operation: Old Elm!
Keep creating!

Outdoor Pallet Bar

The pavers we got for our patio were delivered on two pallets. I recently pinned an idea using two pallets to make a cute little outdoor bar. I told Andrew about it, and he agreed this would be a great & inexpensive project for us - the best part is we feel ok leaving the finished product outside year round.

 

Andrew stood the pallets up and screwed them together for stability, and we bought 4 square pavers to put on the top. I painted the pallets with a durable outdoor paint. I chose the color "Firecracker" by Valspar. {Fun name!} 

To make the top sturdy and level, we did add a few shim boards...but other than that, this project was fast & easy. 

It's a nice addition to our patio, and a good place to set plants or pitchers of iced tea. We love the little pop of color!

Making things out of pallets is such a cool trend, thanks for reading about how I used mine!

Keep creating, DIYers!

Craft Night!

This past Friday I had one of my oldest friends {since birth!} Nicole over for a girl's craft night. We ordered pizza & went to work on several projects - everything turned out pretty great if we do say so ourselves! We worked on some projects together & some separately, and had an overall great time catching up on life and staying up late like the old days! We made a skirt for the utility sink in my bathroom, homemade citronella candles, mod podge magnets, and painted bottles (not pictured). It was super fun & we look forward to doing it again soon!