the space between

upcycle, repurpose and reinvent your space

beach combing {shells, coral and other random finds}

Oh, remember the days of large craft supply stores with after holiday deep discounts, add a coupon and you can buy the next 3 years worth of tissue paper, decor accessories and ribbon for $2.50?

What, you still have that? Right, it’s just me who has moved to a little island where the craft supplies stores are barely bigger than a bread box and if you see something you may just want someday down the road, be sure to buy it now. Because there’s no such thing as a real sale and there are no guarantees it will be restocked when it’s gone. Like ever again.

Instead, I just go for the five finger discounts. No, not at the store! At the shore. 🙂 Where we are lacking the usual shopping conveniences that I once new when living in the states, I am overjoyed at the abundance I have of these.

So, when I decided to take on this little challenge…

Megacraftychristmastreechallenge

I knew exactly where to start looking for supplies.

A couple of hours on a drizzly Saturday morning with these characters…

And here was our take.

Now, what do I do with it all? Is that a light bulb? Will this all become Christmas decor?

So, the Mega Crafty Challenge is to decorate a whole tree, at least 4 feet tall, with homemade ornaments for under $20 (cost of tree and lights not included). The kicker for me is that I actually made my own tree out of driftwood, check out my process here.

Yes, I do realize this picture makes it looks like the tree is just less than 4 feet. But, it’s not, I swear! It was the challenge of doing a one-arm-stretched-out-photo-while-holding-a-tape-measure-trying-to-get-all-relevant-info-into-in-the-picture. It’s just the angle. Really! That’s why I took the close up too.

And, I’m hoping, that the total cost, tree and all, will come in under budget. So, far I’ve spent under $2 for the dowels to put the tree together. All of the driftwood was grabbed on a five finger discount. Everybody who knows me will tell you I am nothing if not thrifty, so this challenge is right up my alley. 🙂

Now, I just need to get some Christmas ornament inspiration a flowin’. Any suggestions???

coral and seashells {picture holder / name card}

TGIF everyone! Do you have anything fun planned? For a couple of old souls we are getting ready to party like thirty somethings rock stars. 3 of my husband’s colleagues are having going away gatherings before they head off to their new adventures. Party starts at bedtime 9 pm tonight, wish us luck.

The first of the 2 part Breaking Dawn movies comes out! Yes, I love the series. No, I wasn’t planning to and don’t have any weird vampire or werewolf fetish. I don’t know exactly how it happened, it just did. And I have very little no shame about it.

The final NASCAR race of the season is Sunday. I do have to recognize the reigning 5 time champion, Jimmie Johnson. He has no chance of six-peating this year so this is the final weekend, after over 200 weekends in a row (Now that is a phenomenal stat!), that he will be referred to as the reigning champ. It’s been a great run 48. Nice job!!

Then, the Patriots play Monday night football. Woo Hoo!! The big downside to MNF here on this little island is that we are Atlantic Time Zone, one hour ahead of EST now that all you woosies have fallen back. Meaning the game starts at … wait for it … 9:30 pm. Are you kidding me?!?!?

But, before all that happens, check this out. When I got back from a recent trip to visit family I came home with these cuties.

The school pics, not the actual people, unfortunately.

Meet 3 of our 5 nieces and nephews. Aren’t they beautiful looking people?!?! I just love them!! They are actually the I, C and O of Mico. M hadn’t had her pictures taken yet. And just for the record, #5 wasn’t around when we got our baby, we didn’t just pick our 4 favorites to use as an acronym. But, now that there’s 5, we could do that next time.

I kid. 🙂

Just to be fair, here’s a pic of M getting ready to hit one out of the park.
And #5 learning some soccer moves. 🙂
Ahhh, remember the days of school pictures? Picking out my favorite outfit My mother making me wear an outfit of her choice, the awkward smile, the braces, the spiral perm! Oh Lord! Let’s just focus on these cuties shall we.

I wanted a simple way to display the photos, and you know me, I didn’t want to spend any money, and I also wanted something that was easy to transition. Before you know it there will be a whole new set of pics next year, or maybe even photo Christmas cards to display.

So, I took some items from my stash 0′ beachness, some wire and teeny little clothes pins (both items I had gotten on super duper discount last year when one of our home improvement stores started liquidating to prepare for a huge remodel) and a pair of needle nose pliers and in just a few minutes I had these.

Cute, huh? And they fit in perfect with the rest of my seaside decor, and are easy to move around as my mood dictates.
In the kitchen on a driftwood shelf with some rice.
Or on a side table with a rock and some more coral maybe. Just so versatile I tell ya.

Here’s what I did and literally took just a few minutes per photo stand, or maybe place card holder even. Wouldn’t these be cute for a nautical inspired dinner party or even Thanksgiving table scape?
Yes, I’m clearly trying to get creative with photo spots. Here’s the deal, we get very little natural light in our house. Which is AWESOME when you live 12 degrees from the equator. But not so awesome for great photos. I’m just getting started here peeps, let’s hope I get this all figured out.

So, this is really all you need.
Note, I didn’t end up using the twine at all and used more pieces of coral. The pieces of coral or shells that had a hole in them to wrap the wire in were the easiest.


Just wrap the wire around a few times until it’s secure and then cut off at the desired length. Depending on the gauge (that’s a fancy word for thickness) of the wire you could make really tall holders if you wanted to. If using the clothes pins, just glue and set and you’re done.

But, if you want to make a little curly cue with the wire just take the needle nose pliers and wrap the wire around the tip of the pliers a few times. Like so.
Then squish the curlies together so they are tight enough to hold a picture or place card. Like so.
Then ta daaaa! You have simple, cute little picture holders, place card holders, maybe even love note holders if you are someone so inclined to write that sort of thing and leave it out for your spouse before they leave for work.

A close up:
And one more pic of I, C and O because there are never enough of those. 🙂
Super easy and super cute, I think. What about you, what do you think?

I am sharing this project here, here and here. Check Ă©m out!

Just for fun, this is a house I pass pretty much every day, it’s in a nothing special part of town but I just love the pride of ownership and curb appeal they maintain at this quaint little Caribbean abode. Enjoy!