Category / Crafts

Get Creative: Wintery Ice Skates Wreath

December 13, 2017 by Melissa

This week, I’m sharing my latest craft for DIY Network. I absolutely love shopping for all things vintage. A few weeks ago, I was at a holiday sale run by the talented ladies from Burlap and Buoys. One of my favorite vendors, had a metal bin full of old worn ice skates. I took a peek inside a white pair of ice skates. They were a size eight. A wee too small for my feet, but perfect for a wintery transformation. These ice skates would be the perfect way to add winter New England charm to the garden shed door. I’m so thrilled at how this ice skate wreath came together.

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Christmas Crafts Family Fun Holiday Seasons Winter

Make A Paper Village Advent Calendar

November 18, 2017 by Melissa

For the past six years, I’ve had the pleasure of freelancing regularly for both HGTV and DIY Network, creating crafts, sharing chicken and bee wisdom and gardening galore. This week, my daughter and I were given the task of putting a new twist on the traditional advent calendar. I had considered creating a new calendar. It dawned on me that it would be fun to create a Christmas paper village advent calendar. It could light up as each new evening arrived. As a little girl, some of my fondest memories were of my Mother’s Christmas village.

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Crafts Fall Gardening Plants Projects Seasons

Fall Crafting: Make a Coastal Hydrangea Wreath

October 16, 2017 by Melissa

I love living by the sea and keeping gardens, but living in New England I find my warm days drifting away. One of my favorite things to do on crisp fall days is to collect beautiful inspirational things from the gardens and make wreaths, like this acorn one. This past spring, we planted almost thirty hydrangeas on the property. The hydrangea blooms have now faded to muted greens, browns, pinks and maroons. They are lovely in their own way. I snipped a few from the bushes that were just about dried and brought them inside to create a wonderful coastal hydrangea wreath for the fall season.

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How to Forage a Backyard Flower Bouquet

September 8, 2017 by Melissa

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Crafts Family Fun Summer

Create a Summertime Firefly Filled Mason Jar Lantern

July 14, 2017July 14, 2017 by Melissa

Summer nights make me think of crickets, warm breezes, sleeping with the window open, and of course catching fireflies. One of the things I look forward to come summertime, is spending time with my kids. They’re growing up so quickly. I share lots of memories from when I was a little girls with them and catching fireflies was one of them. Sadly, I’ve been wondering why we don’t have as many fireflies as when I was little, so we changed things up. This past week, I worked with my daughter on creating this firefly lantern from a mason jar and clearance miniature LED lights that I picked up on clearance from the after Christmas sales at one of our local crafting stores. Here’s what we did.

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Crafts Desserts Family Fun Recipes Seasons Summer

Frozen Chocolate Banana Pops: Summer Treat

June 30, 2017 by Melissa

I’m such a lover of frozen fruit. Have you ever tried freezing grapes, melon and bananas? They are a fave around here and this past week, I wanted to create a delicious, healthier, summer treat for the kids. Instead of calorie-filled ice cream, these frozen chocolate banana pops were a breeze to make. When I was little my Mom used to freeze the bananas that were on the edge of tossing. Later, she’d give them to us frozen or use them for banana bread. Nothing ever went to waste in our household. Last week, my daughter had a sleepover with her friend, little did she know that I had popped in some bananas the night before. While they slept the bananas were freezing.

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Crafts Family Fun

Make An Embroidered Pet Silhouette

February 28, 2017 by Melissa

I was on assignment for DIY Network this past week. We’re celebrating Pet Love and what better way to show you care than to create a gorgeous pet silhouette of my editor’s pug. I’ve worked the past 6 years with the same editor at Scripps Network. She is amazing and super fun and has the most darling dog named Oskar. I wanted to surprise her with a keepsake. So, I asked here what were her favorite colors and got to work. Of course, she had to know what I was up to when I asked for a profile photo.

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Christmas Crafts Findings Gardening Holiday Projects Seasons Winter

Noel Lettered Wreath Craft

December 3, 2016 by Melissa

I love Christmas time. It’s one of my favorite times of the year for crafting too. Every year I make wreaths. This year, I wanted one of the wreaths to showcase the beauty of a simple and peaceful Christmas. So I featured a little tin church, some decorative sprigs as well as the Star of Bethlehem. I combined some off the shelf letters and a simple grapevine wreath as a jumping off point. The rest just seemed to come together for this lettered wreath with a little bit of inspiration from the Christmas season displays in town.

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Christmas Crafts Family Fun Gardening Holiday Plants Projects

Growing Paperwhites Indoors for the Holidays

November 27, 2016January 1, 2017 by Melissa

One of my favorite things about the holiday season is growing bulbs indoors. I do this for both Christmas and Easter. There is something about growing flowers indoors during the chilly winter months. During Christmastime, I especially love growing paperwhites. This is a fail-proof project for even those with a brown thumb. If you have grown paper whites in the past, I can bet that one of your biggest pet peeves and mine too is that when they grow tall they often flop over from gravity. Sure, there are ways to add things to the water to stunt their growth, but why harm the bulb? This year, I wanted to show you a simple and easy way to grow paperwhites without them falling over. I love to give these as gifts. They are simple and stunning and I’m going to show you how to make them!

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Crafts Family Fun Halloween Holiday

Halloween Fun: Tricks and Treats

October 24, 2016October 24, 2016 by Melissa

I love celebrating Halloween with my kids. Both of my kids do not enjoy being spooked with scary masks or things that go bump in the night, but rather they enjoy the more whimsical side of Halloween. This year, we were especially lucky that my editor at DIY Network had kid-friendly Halloween crafts in mind and our friends at Shari’s Berries sent along a treat to top off our day of crafting. It was a fun day filled with tricks and treats.

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Crafts Fall Gardening Holiday Plants Projects Seasons Wedding

DIY: Cinderella Succulent Topped Pumpkins

October 7, 2016December 14, 2017 by Melissa

Last fall, I created the most fantastic succulent topped pumpkin for HGTV Gardens. It was so much fun and I loved seeing how it all came together so easily. This month I’ll be at the Country Living Fair doing a live demonstration on Saturday afternoon to share how simple and easy it is for you to create succulent topped pumpkins at home. I love creating each and everyone. No two succulent topped pumpkins are ever alike.

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