Valentine's Decor - Things I'm Loving

We'll folks, I've been hit by Cupid's arrow. I am officially ready for Valentine's Day and another reason to decorate my house. I'm getting out my Valentine's Day decorations this week and have been looking around some other blogs and websites for new inspiration. I'm still loving the decor I used from last year (which I will share once everything is complete), but I think it's fun to add in a new decor or DIY projects each year. 

Here are some things I'm loving...

Front Door

Via

Via

Mantle

Via

You can always find some great ideas on Pinterest. And Lil' Luna also has some great Valentine's ideas!

For recipes I always turn to Bakerella, Picky-Palate and Annies-Eats. 

Where do y'all go for Valentine's ideas? I'm always looking for new blogs to read and find ideas from, so please feel free to share!

Hope everyone is having a great week!

The Doyles

From Blue to Green...A Spur of the Moment Project

Has anyone ever gotten the urge to just do something to your home? You just randomly feel the need to complete a home project right then and there with little to no planning!? I would definitely consider myself a planner, but for some reason last night I was really in the mood for a quick project. 

So, last night after dinner I said to hubby, "I think I want to paint the garage door green". His response? "Yeah, sounds good," because clearly the Ravens vs. Patriots game is way more important than one of my many home project ideas. 

Let me get you up to speed on the door...it was sky blue. It has been sky blue since we bought the house. I do not know the back story on why it was painted (very poorly I might add), but I do know that if you live in North Carolina and are NC State and Duke fans, you do not need a Carolina sky blue door in your house. 

I am all for pops of color, but when it's the wrong color, it was time for it to go. 

So, I headed downstairs, grabbed the green paint can and paint brush from the garage and proceeded to paint the door. I then got the "you're doing this right now?" comment from hubby at which I replied, "I told you I wanted to paint the door green." :)

I wanted to use one of the current colors in the house so it would tie in with the current color scheme. I went with the same green that is in our half bathroom.

What do you think?

Before

After

I'm really happy with it! Has anyone caught the "I need a project now" bug and completed any quick home projects recently?

The Doyles

Christmas Crafts - Holiday Link Party

Today, I'm sharing a few Christmas crafts, my Christmas Candles Craft and DIY Holiday Jars over at Hi Sugarplum and Newly Woodwards. Some lovely blog ladies, are hosting a Christmas Cheer Holiday Link Party and a Dare to Do-It-Yourself Link Party for the next couple of weeks. I will be participating and sharing my Christmas crafts, mantel, tree, recipes and apparel. Be sure to head on over at check it out! Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Decor - DIY Holiday Jars

I have officially gone Christmas decorating crazy! There is no mistaking the holiday at the Doyle house.

The mantle is done, tree is up - just needs a few finishing touches, dining room table is decked out with the Christmas china, AND I made DIY Pinterest inspired holiday jars! I love Christmas! The idea came from Better Homes and Gardens decorating with kitchen items. This decor is really simply, really inexpensive and really pretty!

You will need a few mason jars (as many as you want to up out), a bag of fresh cranberries, some greenery (I used sprigs from the bottom limbs of the tree that were trimmed off) and some tea lights. Since I already had everything but the cranberries, this was a fun and inexpensive way to add some holiday touches to my home!

Place the greenery in the bottom of the mason jars. Add in the cranberries, then fill with water to the top. The cranberries will float. Top with a tea candle and you are done! 

Pretty right? And super pretty lit!

Has anyone tried any Christmas crafts/decor from Pinterest? Don't you just LOVE this time of year!

The Doyles

DIY Christmas Candles

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving! We had a wonderful holiday with family this past week! 

Now that Thanksgiving is behind us, I am ready to get my Christmas decorating on! Okay, so I actually did this Christmas craft before Thanksgiving, oops. I guess its safe to say I've been more than ready to pull out the garland and tinsel this year! At least I showed Thanksgiving a little respect and blogged about it after, right?

I've been seeing a lot of glittery Christmas candles in home decor stores recently, some to the tune of $20 bucks a pop. Yikes! This got me inspired. I decided I could make the same pretty glittery candles for much cheaper and could satisfy my DIY bug at the same time. A win, win!

Let's start with the guests to this DIY glitter candles party. I got a pack of 3 candles for $2.89 at Garden Ridge. Has anyone been there before? It's one of those big you-can-find-just-about-anything warehouse-y kind of places with really good prices. I got the glitter and the spray adhesive at Michaels. The glitter was about $3.00 total for regular gold glitter and some Martha Stewart tinsel glitter that was on clearance. The adhesive was about $6 but can be used again for many more projects. So the whole project was under $12 for 3 candles which is a whole lot better than $20 for one!

From there, the project is pretty straight forward. Spray the candles with the adhesive. I wrapped the wick in tape so it wouldn't get glue and glitter on it. The rolled each candle in the glitter. 

The end result?

Pretty right? Just let it try for a few hours and shake off the excess glitter. 

Here they are in my living room. Gives this table a little more pizzazz and Christmas cheer than the plain white ones that are housed there the rest of the year, don't ya think?

So there you have it, my first but definitely not my last Christmas craft for 2012. Has anyone else done any Christmas crafts yet? Feel free to share if you have!

The Doyles

Are You Pinterested in a Challenge: Clothespin Picture Frame

It's time. Time to share my Fall Pinterest Challenge project! Are you excited?

Some lovely ladies (Sherry and Katie) from a couple of my favorite blogs have been hosting a pinterest challenge each season. As you saw last week, I've finally decided to jump on this wagon. 

So here it is, my pinterest challenge project.

My Doyle Life's Clothespin Picture Frame

You will need:
1 picture frame - size of your choice, bigger will hold more pictures
picture frame wire
mini clothespins

Here is some of my inspirations from Pinterest.

I absolutely love Ten June's.



My walls needed some pizzazz. A little somethin' somethin'. And voila! 

We love it! It's great because the photos are easy to change out. I also thought it would be a cute way to display all of the family Christmas cards we get around the holidays. Great idea, huh?

Has anyone else participated in the pinterest challenge? I am loving going through all the great projects over at Young House Love and Bower Power. 


The Doyles

Are You Pinterested in a Challenge?

Does anyone else get completely lost on Pinterest? You go on for just a few minutes to see what's new and two hours later you come up for air?! I love it ad you can see here). It is so fun to see all the great ideas out there for recipes, crafting, home decorating and much more. I also love it because you get introduced to new blogs to read and I'm always up for adding to my blog list!

Yesterday I saw this post from Sherry at Young House Love, for the Pinterest Challenge, Fall Edition. I have been reading about this challenge that she and Katie Bower do every season for a while now. I've decided its time to stop watching and actually get in the game. 

I'm still shuffling through my pins to determine which project I want to tackle. Isn't this fun!?! I can't wait to get started on my project and share it on Tuesday! 

So is anyone else pinterested in a challenge? Any other Pinterest fans out there that want to join in on the fun?

The Doyles

The Not-So-Stained Staining Project

Happy Monday friends! I hope everyone had a great weekend! We had a fabulous time with my parents this weekend. I'll have more on our weekend activities later. 

I've been working on a photo/picture frame project that I found during my daily blog reading. Is anyone else obsessed with hooked on blogs? I absolutely LOVE reading design, crafting and baking blogs to finding new ideas that I'd like to try out myself. I came across this blog post for a diy vintage wood stain. Her's turned out great. It was beautiful and inspiring. Plus, I wasn't super excited about the original color of the frame I purchased so this would be the perfect solution.

I went out the next day and bought the steel wool and vinegar and used coffee I already had at home. I added these three ingredients to a mason jar and let it sit overnight (actually about a day and a half). 

I used a scrap piece of wood before using it on the actual frame. I brushed it on the frame and....nothing. I rubbed some more on. Nothing. Maybe it needed to soak in and dry. I left it for 30 minutes and came back. Nothing. 

Can a girl admit when she's had a diy flop?? I'm just being real folks. I need some help; some pointers from my friends in the blog world. Has anyone tried this? I'm definitely willing to give this another try in hopes that if I tweak something, it might work for me the second go round. Plus, every story of defeat needs a story of overcoming and victory, right? :) 


The Doyles