Up to the challenge! (Dare to DIY)

Alright, I'm jumping in to my first DIY blog challenge!

Please pay no attention to the fact that I missed the actual first challenge which was to "dare to be thankful". B and I were flying cross country to visit my folks. I considered using the long flight over to craft something, but TSA would likely have confiscated my scissors and glue. So I'm giving myself a pass on the first one, and jumping right into the second challenge.

I am daring to entertain. Doesn't that sound dramatic?

This little series was thought up by the ladies behind Decor and the Dog, Maybe Matilda, Newly Woodwards, and Two Twenty One. Clever folks, they are. But I probably don't have to tell you that, since you likely ended up here via their pages anyway. Ha.

Anyway, once we got home from our trip, I looked at our sad junk mail collector dining room table and decided to get to work.

I don't have a large collection of linens and dishes, so it was a real "work with whatcha got" moment. I has some silver and gold placemats which seemed like a good place to start. I was suddenly kicking myself for not buying these (from Target, but I can't find an actual link) because they would have been perfect for what I was envisioning. So I found some dark grey napkins and began looking for items that would tie gold, silver, and grey together into a Wintery tablescape.

I decided it would be something along the lines of a neutral/rustic/touch of sparkly glam thing.

I grabbed some pinecones from the branches of my neighbor's tree that hang over the fence.

I followed this tutorial to make some really simple twine pears from light bulbs that I had in a box waiting to be properly recycled or disposed of or whatever it is you're supposed to do with old lightbulbs. I did forget the stems, but whatevs.

I covered one paper cone in yarn leftover from a knitting project and another one with rope (which I used in the halloween mantel decorations too).

And then, since there was supposed to be some sort of unique crafty project and my plates were a tad boring, I decided to cut snowflake shapes out of a painter's drop cloth that had been hardly used and needed a new purpose. I would show you how I did it, but chances are you've been to elementary school and so you're familiar with the sophisticated fold-and-cut process I used.

It looked a bit like this.

I cut each one a little differently and then placed them on each plate. To finish everything off, I added some mercury glass votives and gold and silver ornaments to the table.

 

 

I think it turned out pretty well! What do you think?

I'm totally looking forward to starting the next challenge now. In the meantime, I'm off to check out what the other participants created this week!

 

I also linked up to the House of Hepworths party and A Thoughtful Place.