Recycled Candlesticks From an Old Toy!

October 13, 2022 By Erica Deuel Leave a Comment

Do you have a hard time throwing some things away? There are lots of things I don’t think twice about. Clothes, pillows, dishes are few that I don’t blink an eye at. Maybe one of those are the thing that’s hard for you? For me, I definitely have a hard time throwing wood things away.

Wood seems timeless. It can be painted, stained and built onto and is such a sustainable product. Recently, my Jeremiah was cleaning out his closet and found this wood marble run toy. He didn’t want it anymore, and I kept looking at it thinking there has gotta be something I can create with this old toy!

I looked at the size of wood. They were perfect fun, block size pieces.

I looked at the texture. They were smooth, already sanded, sturdy pieces.

As I stared at the pieces, I realized I could turn them into a recycled candlestick holder.

Recycled Candlesticks Make Fun, Quirky Decor!

I found a wood circle in our garage to be a bigger base and gave that a quick sanding. I then added a little superglue to hold the pieces together and let them dry. I had so much fun moving the pieces around to see what size and angle I wanted them to be. The candlesticks looked really pretty just left as wood, but you know me. I love color, so I added some acrylic paint to jazz them up a bit.

After the recycled candlesticks were dry, I was ready to display them and enjoy! I love mixing homemade decor into our home. These added a fun element to our kitchen table.

I love how they look in my office too, so only time will tell on where they officially end up. How fun are they!? I made something new from something that was almost just trashed or donated away.

My favorite ways to get creative are often to use something that is not expected. I like to use things we wouldn’t find in a craft store.

Being creative is just a process of pairing ideas.

The Creative Process Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive.

We all have things we can repurpose and reuse to make something new.

One way to see things in a new way is to make sure our tanks are full. We can’t be operating on fumes, lack of sleep, deprived of things that bring us joy to have eyes to see things differently. It takes space to have energy or margin to think differently than our auto pilot normal.

That is the most expensive part of the creative process. It requires us to be more whole to think creatively.

I am so excited about my new recycled candlesticks. Now, my mind is going trying to think of other things that would make great candlesticks. Fall is a great time to light some candles to bring some warm and comfort inside as the world is getting colder on the outside.

So, do you have something you can look at with new eyes and make something different out of it? If you need help with this, join us in my 30 Day Imaginative Journey. We are practicing small, quick exercises to get us thinking and practicing growing our creative muscles! Download your free calendar here!

Check out what my Reagan made for her Halloween costume out of trash, which was from one of the imaginative prompts!

Cheap lamp to Industrial Beauty

January 21, 2015 By Erica Deuel Leave a Comment

Today, I have a funny little tale about a lamp.

Before I get to the lamp, I must say it started with an empty room. We moved into this house, and we had a blank slate. We’ve been tackling it little by little and rooms are coming together. The living room has been one of the slowest rooms since we left our old couch and loveseat in Georgia. This room needed seating.

So, a couch was added.

A gallery wall was added.

Yet, it was missing something.

This room needed a lamp. One that could sit on the edge of that couch.

It’s no secret one of my favorite things to do is to embroider (especially at night while talking to my boo). I needed a lamp next to the couch to make that possible. There is not much space between the couch and the doorway for a table, so it needed to be a floor lamp.

The only lamp we had on hand was a cheap plastic shade lamp, so I put it there for the time being. It got the job done, but it didn’t look right.

I felt like it was trying to take over my gallery wall or at least be apart of it. The big white shades were distracting. I wanted something that did the job, but maybe a little more aesthetically. This lamp had to go.

Then I fell in love with a lamp in a store front here in our little town. I thought it was a perfect match. After weeks of trying to get to the store, I finally got in only to find out that the lamp was not for sale. So sad.

I left determined to create my own. Why did I not think of that first? I wanted an industrial type lamp. To me, a wire shade was more subtle than a stark white. I found several shades on-line that would work, but ended up buying two from Lowes. Instead of getting rid of my current lamp, I was going to revamp it.

I came home with new shades and light bulbs excited to try the switch.

It was that easy. They were a perfect fit. Immediately I knew it was the right lamp. I didn’t have to get rid of it after all. The recycled lamp gave off light, yet it did not look like an addition to my gallery wall, but if it did-I would be ok with that.

I like the wire look better. I think these two shades and clear light bulbs immediately turned a cheap lamp into a fun piece that will be talked about.

Do you like metal and the industrial look too? If this idea is something you would like to try let me give two fair warnings.

1. Taking the shade off creates a light that is not softened. It may feel harsh because it is so bright. To help offset this, you could get a lower wattage bulb, a vintage yellow bulb, or only use one of the lights at a time.

2. The metal shade is a lot heavier than the plastic shade. So, the lower light kind of stays in the down “reading-light” position you see. My Caleb says it looks like a wilted flower because if you try to reposition it higher-it just falls. This was ok for me, since it is the perfect height to read a book or embroider.

If these two features don’t bother you, you will love the light as much as me!

I think the handmade lamp perfectly compliments my colorful, art filled wall.

As someone who loves to create, why did I not think of making my own lamp from the very beginning? I guess sometimes the slow process allows us to experience some things along the way. I hope you get to imagine and try something new this week!

DIY Fabric Flower Pot

June 12, 2014 By Erica Deuel Leave a Comment

Do you know that moment when your porch turns into a kid jungle? There are kids climbing, doing chalk, looking for bugs and shoes strung all over. In these moments, you wonder if you should use another door to join them outside?

This is often my front stoop. I love it. On any given moment our front door looks like it should be a playground or at the very least, a back door. The chaos is my crazy beautiful life. Each one of those pairs of shoes belongs to a child I love. Each flower-pot was painted by one of those beautiful children (or myself).

The other day there was great excitement over a black beetle maneuvering through our flower pots. As the boys scrambled to catch him, one of my flower pots was broken.

These are the moments as moms we have a choice on how to react. Yes, the kids could look for bugs in better places. It doesn’t matter how many times I encourage it. They want to be where I am, so if I am sitting there…they are close by. It wont be like this always, so I am soaking it up as it is my season to enjoy their presence. After the broken pot, the kids looked at me. They were watching to see how I would respond. It was only a $0.79 pot, but they knew it was mine and that I had asked them to look for bugs in the yard. I chose to practice what I am so desperately trying to teach them…Patience and Grace. Words have power. The power to up lift or the power to bring down. So, I quickly said it was no big deal and we could fix.

This is how we did it.

I started with pulling out my superglue that I call my concrete to keep the kiddos out of it.

I then ripped fabric like I did on my Love Sign till I had a pile of fabric scraps.

I painted a little mod podge onto my pot, and stuck a fabric strip on top. I slowly did this all the way around my pot. When I did a complete circle wrapped around the pot, I slanted my strip to go a little further down the pot till the pot was completely covered.

Next, I added more mod podge on the bottom of the pot and curved my fabric over the sides and let it dry completely. Once it was dry, I painted the whole thing with a coat of mod podge, to protect the fabric. I let it dry. Put my plant back inside it, and it was done!

I actually love how the flower pot looks with my Hello Flower Pot even more now! The kids are actually more careful now around the pots, since I have fixed this one. I wonder if it’s how I responded or just that they finally see why I was asking them to move off the porch to continue their search.

When something breaks, it is often easier to just throw it out and get a new one. I love how in this moment I saved some money by fixing my pot and hopefully demonstrated something powerful to my kids as well. We always have a choice in choosing how we react to our circumstances… Choose love friends!

DIY Christmas Wreath

December 1, 2013 By Erica Deuel 1 Comment

December is here! I am so excited for all the crafts, food, lights, and decorations that come with this month. It is truly a beautiful time of year. We have decked our halls and are ready for the season.

In all our preparation, I am aiming to keep the “stuff” simpler this year. It is easy to get stressed and overwhelmed, and I don’t want that to take over the joy and peace that should come with Christmas. I didn’t put out half of our decor, and the stuff is simpler and sweet. In this quest to stay rooted in being about less this year, I made a simple Christmas wreath for our front door.

One of my sisters lives in Arkansas and has horses, chickens, goats, and cows. It’s the real deal country living. She gave me a few old chicken feeders (when they were cleaning out their barn), and I have been waiting for a way to use them.

I used a chicken feeder as the base of my wreath. I love the rustic, recycled simplicity that this wreath helped create. I bet you could use this same idea with a wire wreath frame.

I took a bunch of Christmas tree trimmings that I gathered when we cut down our tree, and broke off branches so there were smaller, thinner pieces ready to be easily bended in my chicken feeder.

I simply weaved the branches in and out of my frame. When one branch ended, I pushed that branch down towards the base of the chicken feeder and weaved another one on top. I didn’t use any twist-ties, glue, or pins to hold the branches in place. They simply stayed by tucking them behind the metal or previous branches.

Once I had branches all the way to the top of my feeder, I checked to see if there were any bare spots that I needed to tuck in some smaller branches. I then used my clippers to trim my wreath to have a more uniform shape by cutting off some longer pieces.

I didn’t want my wreath to scratch up my front door from the rough metal prongs hitting the door, so I used duck tape to cover the ends on the back. My wreath was then done, and I hung it up!