Handmade Christmas - Budget Anthropologie Pom Pom Garland!

12/ 17 EDIT: I just realized that Anthropologie currently has a pom pom garland in their shop! So this doubles as an edition for Budget Anthropologie! Yay for happy accidents! To make your garland more like the Anthropologie version, braid or crochet the chain you attach the pom poms to!

***

In preparing my Christmas decor this year, I am obsessed with pompoms! I originally wanted to created a felted wool garland like (this one at West Elm), but we are on a tight budget this year and I didn't have the money for the supplies nor to buy one from West Elm directly. So I settled on the next best thing... pom poms! They have the same feel that I was going for, but as I already had plenty of yarn lying around and a few spare hours to operate as a pom pom factory, they were completely free!

Supplies:

Cardboard, or your hands

Yarn

Sharp Scissors

How-To:

1. Find a small scrap of cardboard, wood, or wrap yarn around your hands or fingers depending on the size you are going for. 

2. Wrap until you have a thickly padded section of yarn.(Here I have wrapped several sections at once to save time!)

3. Cut yarn end, pull the wad of yarn off the cardboard or wherever you have it.

4. Using another piece of yarn securely double knot around the midsection of the yarn wad.

5. Cut open the loops on either side the tie.

6. Trim pom pom ends until it is full and fluffy looking, depending on the look you are going for.

7. Leave the tie ends long to attach to gifts, garlands, wreaths, etc!

8. MAKE MOREEE

Here's what I did with mine:

 

I made a Garland for our tree, and I used the extra yarn trimmings and extra pom poms as snowy vase filler!

Thanks for reading!!

Handmade Christmas - Budget Anthro Mitten Garland

 I saw this adorable mitten garland on Anthropolgie's website last year, but had no idea how to go about making them. I can knit, but I'm not good enough to make up a mitten pattern when I have never made them before!

Anthropologie's Mitten Garland

This year however, I found this ( perfect tiny mitten pattern! ) If you have basic knitting skills, and can crochet a chain (that's about all I can do...) these are very simple, even if you have never made mittens before! They take about 30 minutes each to knit, and I made my garland over a few nights watching TV and knitting a few pairs in a sitting.  They don't even have to all be the same, if you mess up and miss a row or an increase, its okay! They will still look great.

This is a great project to use up leftover yarn, is not a breakable decoration (our precocious kitties make it impossible to use any kind of breakable Christmas decor...) and it is super adorbs.

I made 6 pairs of 3 different yarns, 18 mittens. I crocheted the garland strand and attached the mittens by crocheting little loops on and through the garland strand. You can also just knot yarn through the corner to tie them to the strand!

tiny.... mittens...

Handmade Christmas - Budget Anthro Mason Jar Snowglobes

 Today's edition of Budget Anthropologie is brought to you by water-less Mason Jar Snowglobes!

Anthropologie's Snow Globes

These little guys are sweet as can be, but, having a number of empty glass jars floating around my house, I knew I could recreate a host of these for a fraction of the price!

Materials:

- Mason jars or empty food jars with lids: I used basically every empty jar in my apartment, from empty salsa containers, spaghetti sauce jars, a few mason jars, even emptied and cleaned wax candle mini jars with lids and a tiny hotel jelly jar.

- Fake snow! I got mine at Target for about $1.50, which was as cheap as I could find it. Other ideas include crumpling up bit of foam into tiny pieces, shredded paper bits, glitter etc. 

- Bottle brush mini trees, or other fake mini trees. I found a pack of 2 larger ones at the thrift store for $1.00, and I got a few packs of 7 or 8 bottle brush trees of varying sizes for $2.00 each at Michaels.

- Hot glue and hot glue gun, or adhesive of your choosing.

Project - Book Lamp Deluxe!

I saw this HGTV Book Lamp a while back, and have been itching to try it out for a while. We have a large stack of vintage books that we got as favors from a wedding last year that were perfect for the job. With some help from my handy hubby and the drill press at his work, we made it work!

We had a lamp base very similar to this Ikea one that we got in the As-Is section for a few dollars a long time ago. The base unscrews and Kyle was able to carefully detach the wiring from the socket so we could take it apart and slide the drilled books onto the post (please have someone who knows what they are doing do this part! Exhibit A: My engineer husband!).

Kyle drilled through each book using a drill press at his work, but with the right sized bit you could do this at home with a hand held drill. Just make sure you can clamp the book down tight when you drill! It WILL try to spin off and smack someone in the face!  I recommend using a bit slightly larger than the lamp post to give you a little room to wiggle. Once you've got all your books, simply slide them over the post in the order you like, reattach the wiring (Again, have someone on hand who knows what they are doing!!) and voila! You have your book lamp!

I went one step further and combined this snazzy thing with my Budget Anthropologie DIY Well Defined Lampshade, for a book themed spectacular!  This is a sturdy, nicely dimmed lamp that accents our home beautifully!

My favorite part is that the books are loose, so you can swivel and arrange the stack's appearance whenever you like!

Kitty Cat Appurrroved.

Thanks for reading!