DIY Deer Head: Christmas Decor

Hey friends! How's your December been so far?

I have to admit the hustle & bustle of the Christmas season has kept me busy with shop orders, the renovations have made me feeling dishelved, and the past few weeks I have been suffering

from acute-my-butt-has-no-energy syndrome.

If I was a duchess I suppose this would have made your front page news, but alas I am not.

 

Any who, I think I may have mustered up enough energy to share one of my most recent Christmas projects.

Meet my stud, Stephen.

This guy totally reminds me of a Stephen King made- for- TV movie that the hubz and I wasted 6 hours of our life on about a year ago.

To spare you most of the details, the summary of the movie is the main character speaks to a wall-mounted moosehead and later to a talking tree. I practically peed my pants through the whole movie & it wasn't because of fright.

Anyways, I know Stephen is no moosehead but I totally hope I never catch anyone talking to him.

 

This project was extremely easy.

I stumbled upon this giant, green, sequined reindeer ornament at Garden Ridge over a month ago.

Honestly, I think I saved a Christmas tree's life.

Not sure how an ornament this large wouldn't manage to cause evergreen conifer homicide.

 I picked up a wood plaque from Hobby Lobby, spray painted it red, and then mounted the base of Stephen's neck to the plaque with ALOT of super, duper strong wood glue.

 

Then I went all Hannibal Lecter on his butt. I seriously wish I had a picture of this step.

I needed something to hold pressure down on the ornament until the glue dried so I took a bunch of rope and tied the deer adorned plaque

down on a work table in our garage. He look like he was being held hostage.

The funny part was the hubby had no idea I was working on this project so when he walked out to his car the next morning I am sure he was rather concerned about my mental state of mind.

I think Stephen will look nice & festive above our front door

or perhaps decorated among our new-soon-to-be mantle/fireplace.

 

 

Have you finished your holiday decorating yet?

 

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Antler Decor: I Should Have Been a Forest Ranger

So a few weeks ago I professed my love for all things "antler".  Faux animal decor like owls and deer heads still seem to be having their moment. I admit I first became infatuated with the antler idea after spotting the West Elm candlestick over at Young House Love {which has now claimed a spot in their lovely hallway}. The problemo was West Elm no longer sells the candlestick and I had no luck scouring for it on Ebay either. 

We live near Chicago not Tennessee. Job hunting, shoe hunting......that's about the closest we come to the sport. Since most of the people I know I wouldn't even want near a rifle I decided it was best to continue my "antler" search on-line. I finally found my dream horn over on Etsy!

It was the perfect size for our hallway console table and I loved the addition of the candlestick holder on it.  Of course I wanted to brighten it up a bit,

 ya know give it a little modern kick.

Cue the spray paint.

After a couple coats of white and blue paint {luckily the candle holder can be easily removed with a screw driver; allowing for an easy paint job} it no longer screamed "CABIN!" and was more West Elm-ish looking.  Ahhh...more my style.

I feel like it adds a little "architecture" to the gallery wall area.

Even better, this antler purchase allowed me to bask in a "told you so" moment with the husband that went a little like this..........

 

ME {after showing him my new antler purchase}:

I wonder if this hurts the deer when they lose these?

 

HUSBAND: Are you joking right now? Jennifer, they're dead of course it doesn't hurt them.

 

ME: What are you talking about? They're not dead! They shed their antlers every year.

 

HUSBAND: They don't shed their antlers! Hunters shoot them and take their antlers.

You seriously think they shed them???

 

Ohhhhhh, thank goodness for Google my friends!

And incase any one else needs to brush up on their animal science here's a little reading pleasure for ya next time your on the loo or something.

I tell ya I should have been a forest ranger.

 

 In other news, here's a little update on how the gallery wall is coming along....

I am more than half way done with the wall and you want to know the funny part?

Only weeks after I started working on it did the hubby decide to mention that we were having the thermostat replaced. Luckily, it wasn't much different in size BUT now I have to touch up the wall around it. Ugh....another one of those easy task that will remain on my to-do list FOREVER.
Now that I think about it that wasn't funny at all.

 

Before I take off to go taunt the husband again about that time I proved him wrong on deer science I wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!!

I'll be taking a break from blogging for the rest of the week to enjoy the holiday and to try to recover from this renovation madness we got going on right now.

 

And to end on a really cheesy, sappy note....I am really grateful to all of  you who continue to check in all my crazy happenings around here.  Even if you're laughing at me instead of with me I'll take it.

 

Now go get your stretchy pants on! Gobble, gobble! 

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