Upcycled Christmas Decoration: Clear Industrial Tube Light...Thing

All right, Guys...This one isn't necessary a DIY for the masses, but maybe it'll give you an idea!

So, remember when I got those awesome tables and cabinet for my craft room? (Click here if you need a refresher.) Well, I didn't tell you at the time, but I also grabbed this weird, clear industrial cylindrical thing off the trailer as well. It is from Duke Power, so who knows what it is actually used for! (If Shirley Coley reads this, maybe she can ask Eddy what it is actually for!)

Anyways, as soon as I saw it, I knew I could turn it into a Christmas decoration!

The first step was to remove the paper.

Then, I wiped it down to get all the dust off.

Okay, so basically, I was just going to stick Christmas lights into it and call it a day. You really don't have to read any more, because that's exactly what I did! 

Anyways, there is one important step that you shouldn't miss in the off chance you find one of these cylinders and are dying to make one yourself!

So, first of all, I looked at both ends and found that there was a little broken notch on one end. That was perfect. That was where the electrical chord would come out at the bottom.

Then, took a piece of brown foam and put the tube upright onto it. The cylinder's weight created a circular depression, so I put glue just inside that line. Notice, that I didn't glue all the way around. This is because I would need to fish the wall plug through this opening. 

(This foam was to protect the floor from scratches when I put it onto the hardwood in the living room.

Precautions like this one help a person stay married.)

Here you can see that I put the notch in the center of the un-glued part.

Then, I stood it up on a flat surface and let it dry for a few minutes.

Then, I fed the light strand down into the tube, laid the tube on its side and fished the plug out the opening in the circle. When I sat it back upright, I made sure that the chord was resting in the notch. (Incidentally, they are LED lights.)

So then, I carried it to its destination (the living room, beside the fire place) and plugged it in. I fed a few more lights into the tube but kept about 1/3 of the lights hanging out.

With 1/3 of the lights still hanging out, I got a plastic butter knife and hung the remaining 1/3 over it. Then, I fed the 1/3 into the tube. (The butter knife kept the lights from falling all the way into the tube.)

The finished project. Pretty unique and minimalist, wouldn't you say?

Do you like our Charlie Brown tree? This is about as Christmas-y as I get!

What weird household items do you have laying around that you can repurpose?

The End!!!

Sunday School Craft: Lydia the Seller of Purple

Okay, today's is not awe-inspiring or anything. It's pretty straight-forward!

Lydia was a seller of purple. . .So, this is my craft:

For this craft you will need: cardstock, scissors, crayons, glue sticks, and purple fabric (or tissue paper!).

So, I could have just done this as a coloring page (which I found after Googling "Lydia Purple Paul," and then I stuck a verse onto it). But here's the issue with just coloring it: (1) misguided kids will color the cloth whatever color they like and misguided teachers will let them, and (2) the story will be made more concrete if you actually PUT purple cloth into the kids' hands.

So...anyways, because I didn't want to have to buy a bunch of purple cloth, and because the church already had tissue paper in the craft cabinet, I went with tissue paper!

First, I cut the paper into strips.

Then, I cut those strips into rectangles. (This goes faster if you stack the strips and cut through many at once.)

Then, I colored the page.

Then, I glued each rectangle onto the "cloth" in the picture.

So, as you do this craft with the kids, make sure to point out that purple cloth was a huge deal back in Bible times when most people wore brown or grey garments. The color was made from a rare snail that secretes purple ink. (That's why there is a bowl in the picture that says "Shells.") Each snail only produces a very small amount of ink, so in order to dye something, you would have to collect many, many snails. In fact, the darker the purple, the more expensive the cloth because more snails were used. This was a very costly procedure and so Lydia was a very rich and influential woman to be able to afford buying and selling this cloth. The fact that she accepted Christ, was baptized, and housed Paul and Company was a GREAT blessing to them and her community!

Just a word of warning: the picture is really pixel-y, and I couldn't fix the resolution. I wish I could have found a better picture, but. . .beggars can't be choosers!

The End!

Refashioning: Updating and Deleting a Weird Hem-Line Stripe Trend

Remember this stripe trend from the 90s? It was that sort of nautical thing that Tommy Hilfiger made so popular. (This dress is Liz Claiborne if that tells you anything.) Anyways, I found this dress at Goodwill, and I really liked the thicker stripes, but those narrow ones at the bottom hem just looked really dated to me. Also, the length of the dress was about four inches below the knee--not a good length for me.

So, this is what I did to fix it.

I folded the unwanted striped area in half and pinned it.

This is a close up of the pinning. See how I pinned right along the black part?

This is the pin from the other side. I tried to make sure that all my pins followed along the black line on either side of the fold.

Here is a series of the said pins all along the black stripe that I wanted to keep.

As I sewed, I kept just to the left of the pins to make sure that none of the white peeked through on either side.

After sewing, I ironed the fold up.

And then I top-stitched the fold to keep everything from shifting underneath.

Here you can see my sewing and top-stitching from the back.

Then I cut off the excess of the fold.

( I realize that I could have just cut off the entire bottom hem of the dress and created a new hem, but this way I could keep the actual manufacturer's hem. Plus, I didn't want the dress to be too short. Plus, I liked the big, thick black stripe.)

And here is my completed dress! And you'd be none the wiser if I hadn't told you!

To me, it looks a lot more timeless now.

The End!

My Newly Improved Craft Room!....(I Love My In-Laws!)

Okay, so like the crafts that happen within it, my craft room is a constant work in progress. If you have ever read any of my posts prior to this one (especially from the "Fashion" tab), you will see the things I make. However...I never really pictured the room, because this is what it looked like, and I've been sooo embarrassed!!!

Can you even see my sewing machine? (Hint: If you look at the dressform it is directly to the left of it in the background.) Right behind it, on a tiny old computer desk, is my embroidery machine that I barely use because I can barely get to it! I just got a Cricut for my birthday which you can see on the floor just behind that white box. If you look up and to the right, you will see a ton of cardboard boxes. You will notice that just about everything else is piled up or on the floor. I HATE this, but when there is nowhere to put anything, you just have to stack things and move them around when you need them.

This may sound funny to some people, but I'd been praying for a large, sturdy, industrial table that I could put against this big picture window and work on for sewing, embroidering, and Cricut...ing. I saw one at my old job (Blue Ridge Orthopaedics) which would have been perfect. It was about six feet long--perfect dimensions, no one was using it, and it was just cluttering up the hall--but unfortunately, since it is Post Office property, I couldn't take it off their hands. 

Anyways, ever since I'd seen it, I'd been praying for it, or something like it. . .

This is another view of the mess.

Then, a week ago Thursday, out-of-the-blue, my mother-in-law told me about how her brother, Eddy--who works at Duke Power--had a couple large trailers full of old office equipment that he'd rescued because they were throwing it all away. We went to his house to check the situation out, since my father-in-law also wanted to see if there were a few pieces that he could use for some of his projects as well. Ohmigosh, you guys. . .I should have taken a picture of the trailers. They were a crazy, wonderful mess of drafting tables, filing cabinets, shelves, desks, tables of every size, office chairs...You name it, it was there!

Tommy (my father-in-law) and I both tagged a few items and then I went home, okay-ed the prospect with Billy, and then spent my whole last Friday cleaning out the room to make way for my new furniture! I moved most of the mess to the other guest room, and I threw away a TON of cardboard boxes. (I'd been saving them because I sell stuff on eBay, but. . .enough is enough!!!)

So here is the room at that point. You can see that I kept my cube shelves and Rubbermaid drawers.

But everything else was cleared out to make room!

I measured everything to know exactly what dimensions would fit into the room.

Okay, so then the next day, Saturday, Billy and I went to his parents' house and we all drove to Eddy and Shirley's house to load up Tommy's trailer. I decided on not one, but TWO six foot tables! And a six-foot-tall metal shelf cabinet! Thank you to Tommy, Sue, and Billy for helping me get them in here. I DEFINITELY couldn't have done it without them!

So. . .It's not done yet, but I was so excited that I wanted to share what the room looks like so far!

You can see that I kept my cube shelves where they are. . .

Along with crafting, I use this room for exercising. I'm really excited about that part because I can pull the stepper forward and use my yoga mat, and I have all this room now! (In fact, now I can put down an air mattress when we have an abundance of company!)

Also, I like to watch TV shows on my computer while I work out, so I just have to open the doors of my cabinet and set my computer inside, and the computer is at just the right height! (I used to have to use a stack of boxes as a computer rest.)

Here is a closer look at one of the tables. You can see it has a really nice wooden top. I broke the Rubbermaid shelves down and put them under the table. They look so much neater there than when they were stacked on top of each other. Also, my dressform fits nicely there in the corner. The white board on the wall was another Duke Power trailer find. (The dry erase markers were $.25 for two at the thrift store.) You may recognize the ribbon bulletin board from my post here. You can see my embroidery machine and Cricut on this table. That grey thing in the middle is my Bluetooth speaker. (You gotta have a speaker when you're crafting...and exercising!)

This is the corner of the same table. I just wanted to show you my "eBay shipping office." I love this table because it has three file drawers on this end. The top drawer holds all my shipping tape, weight scale, markers, etc. Those Rubbermaid drawers hold all my packing supplies and on top is our printer and my scrap paper that I use for making mailing labels.

This part, I am really excited about! Look at how much sewing space I have now! And it's right next to the window so I get plenty of natural light!

I pulled my sewing machine out to show you. 

The ironing board is still up because we need it on a pretty regular basis, so it needs to stay out all the time. From a sewing perspective, though, having it right next to the sewing machine is ideal, so it works out for everybody!

Here is my cabinet. You can see some of my tools are now hanging from magnets. (I saw that idea on Pinterest, so don't be too impressed!) I love it, though, because I don't have to put any holes in the wall, and my tools are super accessible.

Inside the cabinet again.

And just in case you wondered what was in my closet. . .This is my fall/winter closet. (Yes, I have two closets!)

And when I just feel like relaxing, I can sit on my beanbag and ruminate about how awesome God is and how He not only supplies my needs, but even my desires as well--above all I could ask or think (Ephesians 3:20)!

I hope this gives you some ideas on your own craft room. I know it's not as picturesque as those rooms that cost thousands of dollars with chandeliers and stuff, but it's so much better than what I had! And it was free! If you are on a budget, don't go to the store unless you absolutely have to. First of all, I suggest praying about what you specifically desire and then start looking for answers. I suggest looking at Craig's List, asking around to see if people are getting rid of things, or driving around in neighborhoods to see what people put at their curbs. You don't have to have a lot of money. Feng shui is free! Really. My room was so much smaller when I had a tiny computer desk with a crappy 4'x4' card table in the middle. Now I have three huge pieces of furniture, but my room is so much bigger! The key is to position things at the periphery versus the middle. Anyways. . .that's what worked for me! I hope you were inspired!

The End