Home Decor with Silk Flowers | hip ‘n creative

Disclosure: This product was provided free of charge in exchange for an honest review.  All opinions are genuinely my own.

I love decorating my home, I love to find beautiful items that I can incorporate into my decor that compliment my taste and budget.  This can be quite a challenge when it comes to flowers.  It’s fun to use real flowers and plants but I struggle with keeping them a live. If you follow me on instagram you’ll see that I have a beautiful hibiscus plant.  I am very happy that my plant lives but I struggle with maintaining it.  It’s a lot of work!

So when I was contacted by Commercial Silk Int’l., I thought the timing was perfect.  Ever since I worked on my patio decor I have been on a kick to bring the outdoors in with plants and flowers and like I said they don’t last long but silk plants do.    There are many benefits to having silk plants and flowers, one is that you can decorate your home with them all year long!  Another is that there is no need to water them, which is great!  And  you can move them around and create a whole new look and for me that’s a win!

I received my package of artificial boxwood plants in the mail and was very happy with the quality of the plants.  Not only were they packaged nicely, the plants themselves are beautiful.  My oldest daughter thought they were real and actually touched it to see if they were!  Ha fooled her!  These beauties are perfect, they come in these silver pots with a no scratch base so your surfaces will be safe and the boxwood have a frosted look that gives a softness to them.

Check out more information about Commercial Silk Int’l here.  You can also visit out their Facebook page, follow them on Twitter, Pinterest YouTube and Google+.

Until next time guys, I hope you all have a wonderful day and I’ll see you on the next post!

XO,
Awilda

How to Add Custom Vent Covers to Sliding Doors | Repurposing an old Door

Hi guys!  Today I wanted to share with you our recent re-purposing project.  When we first bought our house, 3 years ago (can you believe it?) we wanted to make some changes to our living room.  One of the changes was to update and add lighting since there was non previously (See my awesome hubby adding lighting in picture below).  We also sanded the floors and shined them all up real purdy like too. We removed wall paper and painted the walls, which looks awesome by the way ;).

I had this idea to change the look of our old doors by removing the old slats and adding some awesome metal vent covers to the doors to give them a modern look.  So after discussing it with the hubs, we figured out a way to do just that.

So here is our step by step tutorial on how to add vent covers to sliding doors:

Materials you will need:

• Metal Vent Covers (I found mine at Home Depot)
• Wood filler
• Window trim
• small square wooden dowels
• paint of your choosing (to paint wood doors) *optional
• Spray paint (to paint vent cover) *optional

What you will need on hand:

• Jigsaw
• flat surface to work with
• time and patience (lots and lots)
• nail gun and finishing nails (Home Depot)
• lots and lots of patience!

First thing we did was remove the sliding doors from the doorway and very carefully cut the slats out leaving the door frame intact.  Next my husband filled the holes where the slats were with wood filler.

While the wood filler was drying, he measured, cut and spray painted the metal vent covers (we used Rustoleum white paint).  After letting the wood filler completely dry (it took about 30 minutes), he carefully sanded all the doors until they were smooth.

Next he framed the front of the door with window trim, this will help the metal vent covers stay in place so it won’t pop out.  Next using a nail gun, we nailed the vent covers to the door.  We also added a small wooden dowels to the back of the doors.  This helped to hide the nails as well as provided extra back support for the metal vent covers not to slip out when opening and closing the doors.

Once we were happy with how the doors looks and works, we primed and painted the door.  We wanted to keep the doors white so priming and painting was pretty easy.  Once the paint dried, we replaced the doors back in it’s frame and done.  I have to admit this project was not an easy project and if your not that skills with air pressured machinery, this project is not for you.  It’s time consuming and you need a lot of patience as well as some carpentry knowledge.

I thank God my hubby is very talented and we were able to get this sucker done.  I really couldn’t have done this without his help.  Until next time my friends!

**UPDATE: A year later and our door is perfect!  Even though it was A LOT of work, it was so worth it!  My husband and I are still  in love with this project and are proud we DIYed this makeover, our first of many projects!

 

SMALL PATIO MAKEOVER on a BUDGET (Pt. 1 ) | Hip ‘n Creative

I’m super excited to be sharing with you my first of TWO Small Patio Makeover on a Budget series! Over the weekend my wonderful husband and I -with the help of our kids- cleaned and dressed our front patio. Getting it one step closer to being a beautiful oasis! One of the things we initially did was power wash our patio.  What a difference that made!  I didn’t think our patio was too bad but once we power washed it there are a huge difference!  The photos don’t do it justice!

Once we were done with cleaning the patio we then planted some very pretty perennials and some awesome hanging baskets as well as some pretty plants around the patio seating area.  It was a very simple project with minimal work (with the exception of planting the flowers).

The patio furniture we have was bought on sale from Wayfair last year – https://goo.gl/at1bth this is the set we got but we bough it at the end of the season and saved a ton! When we got it we used it in our back patio last year but decided move it to our front patio and get a larger set in the future for the back.  

Price Breakdown:

• Hanging Baskets: Calibrachoa $29.98 each
• Patio Garden: Autumn Sage Red 2 for $10.00
• Flowers in baskets: Blanket Flower 2 for $10.00
• Patio Furniture: Wayfair (on sale last year for $240) https://goo.gl/at1bth
• End tables (for plants) $8.00 each Ikea

Here is my youtube video with our process:

I’m happy with the overall look of the patio!   But will be adding some colorful pillows, outdoor rug, lighting and more plants!  Some come back and check out my second part of my patio make over!

Thanks for stopping by and I’ll see you guys on the next episode!

xo,
Awilda

Dollar Tree DIY | Adorable Easter Bunny Pots | Hip ‘n Creative

Hey guys I hope you’re all feeling fabulous today!  So Today I have this adorable DIY Easter Bunny Pot Tutorial for you.  It is another super simple project but this time the project can be time consuming (because of the drying time for the paint)  I think it’s adorable and if you have any school aged kids, they may love making this project with you!

What you will need:

• Terra Cotta Pots (Dollar Tree)
• Plastic Spoons (Dollar Tree)
• Sanding sponge (Dollar Tree)
• Paint Brushes (Dollar Tree)
• Pipe Cleaners (Dollar Tree) *optional
• Easter Grass (Dollar Tree) or anywhere 😉
• Floral Foam (Dollar Tree)
• Paint (Wal-Mart)
• Ribbon (Dollar Tree)
• newspaper or something to protect your surface
• Sharpies

DIRECTIONS:

First thing I did was sand down the spoons to remove the shine.  This will help the paint to adhere to the spoons easier.

Next painted the pots white.  You may need to paint 2 – 3 coats (allow drying time in between).  Next I painted the pot’s rim (again giving it 2 -3 coats).  I also painted some polka dots on the side of the pots.  I also painted the spoons to coordinate with the pots.

Once everything is dry you can draw the faces on the spoons.  I drew dots for eyes and triangles for beak or  bunny nose.  The whiskers are “V” shapes 😉  I decided to make some bunny ears out of pipe cleaners, I cut out the pipe cleaners and shaped them into ears.  Next I hot glued them to the back of the spoons.  I also hot glued some decorative ribbon to the “neck” of the spoons.

Lastly I assembled my pots.  I cut down the floral foam to fit the narrowest part of the pot, then I inserted the foam, my spoons and easter grass.  I also wrote my daughter’s names on a scrap piece of scrapbook paper and taped it onto a toothpick.  and that’s it!

Now as usual, I did make a video for you.  I would love it if you subscribed to my channel, it would truly mean the world to me.  Also sharing is caring, so if you know of someone that would find this tutorial inspiring please share it with them.  Thank you so much and I’ll see you soon!

Dollar Tree Home Decor DIY | Easy Home Decor Projects

I have been wanting to redo my laundry room for some time now.  I think the previous owner didn’t use the room to it’s fullest potential.  The room is a nice size and i cannot wait to revamp it, so when I went to Target recently I knew that some of the Valentine decor would be perfect for my laundry room/ new office. I also made a few Dollar Tree DIY projects that will go perfect with the office decor.  Stay tuned to see the laundry room redo (coming very soon!) but for now I want to show you some DIY room decor I made using products from Target and the Dollar Tree:

Please make sure to head on over to my YouTube channel and subscribe if you haven’t done so yet, and share with your friends!  Have a great day!

xoxo,
Awilda