Snuggle Your Vases In Sweaters

This is one of the coldest days of the year in many parts 

of the country so it's a good day to share the 2014 version

of how to snuggle your vases in sweaters. 

Even where I live in Alabama it's snowing!

 Well, it's not much snow compared to you folks in the

 North.  The arrows are pointing out our little accumulation

just in case you missed seeing it in the photo.

My vases are glad to be snuggled up in sweaters inside 

and not outside in the garden with the Kopy Kat Krows.

Once you make the sweater covers for your vases you

can bring them back out winter after winter for an easy

cozy update for your cold weather decorating. 

Last year I made some sweater vase covers and 

shared the "how to"s in the blog post

"No Sew Sweaters For Your Vases".

Last year I found four sweaters at the thrift store to

cut the arms off of to use as vase covers.

This year I found a few more sweaters at a thrift store
 to add to the mix.  Also I ran across some new problems

 that I'm going to share how I fixed them in case
 you have some issues too.

The sweaters with some pattern knitted in look more 

interesting on the vases.  Most of the sweaters cost  me about
$2 each.  I plan to make pillows out of the sweater bodies. 

Depending on the height of your vase, you may be able

to cover more than one vase with each arm.

Vases that are a similar diameter of an arm work best.

Just pull the sweater arm over the vase and then

cut off the excess after leaving a little of the 

sweater to tuck up under the vase.

Most sweater arms work fine to just tuck the cut 

edge under the base of the vase.  If you have trouble

with the sweater excess keeping the vase from sitting

level, you can try gathering it neatly and taping it 

down.  Also if the sweater edge does not want to 

stay under the vase, you can tape that also. 

P.S. Your vases don't have to be spanking clean for this project since the vase (or what is floating in it) doesn't show.

You can also use tape to make a grid over the mouth

of the vase to help support the greenery and flowers.

Stick the stems in the openings between the tape.

About the only decent real greenery I could find to gather

 this time of year was variegated pittisporum.  Usually I think

that the greenery on faux flowers is less real-looking than the

flowers so I pull the leaves off of most of the faux flowers I buy.

These are older faux hyacinths from the attic...

don't remember where I got them originally.  

Even though they are fraying a little, they still look pretty

good when used with real greenery.

If you are using real greenery or flowers, be sure to add and keep enough water in the vase.

The three real hyacinths that I found at the grocery store for

only $4 each (pretty good for a bulb AND a vase) to use for

this vignette bloomed out before I got everything together.

The leaves still looked fine so the dead blooms got 

cut off of the bulbs...

...and faux hyacinths were pushed down into the leaves.

A couple more "baby" hyacinth bulbs came home to

join the vignette too.  

Here's how the old and the new sweater vase covers 

and hyacinth bulbs all look together on the kitchen table...

Here are a few of my favorites vase covers...

The "baby" hyacinths have grown since the 

original pictures were taken.

They have blooms that are growing every day!

Keep your eyes open for sweaters to use for vase covers 

at thrift stores or other used clothing places...enjoy the hunt!

I am sharing this post at
Free Pretty Linky Party @ Free Pretty Things
Inspire Me Tuesday @ A Stroll Thru Life
Wow Us Wednesday @ Savvy Southern Style

Favorite Projects of 2013

Looking back on 2013 for the Miss Kopy Kat blog,

here are my favorite projects that were done

(more in chronological order than anything else):

click on highlighted text to go to the actual blog post

For January, one of the coldest months of the year,
 I copied the cute idea of  "Making Sweaters For Your Vases" .
I am looking forward to getting the vase sweaters out again soon.

 My church sponsored a fund-raiser right before Valentine's Day last year.  I made these Soda Can Candy Bouquets for the sale.

 They make fun, inexpensive gifts or even party favors.

The colors can be adapted for certain occasions or holidays too.  

Also around Valentine's Day I made several paper wreaths

that I had been "pinning" the tutorials for.  My favorite one

was the "Pointy Cone Book Page Wreath".

If you want to see the other wreaths that were also made

of aged book pages, click on "Vintage Valentine Mantle".

Also for Valentine's Day decorations, "lollies" were

made of the aged book pages.

In March, I wanted to do a project that featured 

St. Patrick himself.  I try to change out the artwork in the

frames in the living room and dining room seasonally so

this faux stained glass piece was made for the dining room.

 I accidentally left the memory card out of my camera

 while I was taking photos of the actual making of the

 "stained glass window" (it is just craft paints on an
 acrylic sheet) so I couldn't do a tutorial on that part.
 All I was left with was photos of how to enlarge an 

 image using a great website (also good to know).  The
 title of that blog post is "How To Enlarge An Image".

The post does have good close-up photos of the finished
project.  It was WAY more time-consuming

 than I thought it was going to be but I think

 it was my "personal best" project for the year. 

For my first guest post ever ( over at
Amanda Jane Brown's blog), I developed at wreath
that looks similar to a burlap wreath but is made from
a brownish deco mesh (that holds its shape well)
that is a base for seasonal decorations  to be added
 to for a quick and easy "Wreath For All Seasons" .

The wreath has come in SO handy for me during the year to add 
a few decorations on when I needed/wanted a wreath quickly
or for a few days for a minor holiday. 

In June, I posted "How to Make a Custom Color
Chalk-y Paint".   It shows how an Ikea particle board cabinet
that was a "roadside rescue" piece was revived with layers of
paint made with a "recipe" of easily found supplies so that
 you don't have to have multiple cans of expensive paint to 
achieve a multi-colored piece of furniture.

This piece of furnture also maked a turning point in my year
as I took on the responsibility of moving my elderly parents
to my city and assuming the task of providing their care.
It is a very time-consuming but rewarding job.  

Since I already have a full-time job too, there isn't much
time left for blogging.  About the only post I got done in
 July was "How To Make Beach Bottles".

In looking back at the beach bottle post, the actual craft is

not that unique but the post shows pictures of how I used

other summer home decor items (made in the past two 

summers with highlighted links to the tutorials that are

 more creative) in new ways for the summer of 2013. 

In August I finally got around to actually completing an

idea that I had started in the summer of 2012.  I wanted

to see if flattened and dried cedar branches could be 

painted to look like sea coral.  The branches got dried in

2012 but they didn't get finished till August 2013...almost

missed another summer to post "Make Your Own Seafans".

Although I am no expert with deco mesh, I do like to

try using it in new ways.  One day while I was out shopping

I saw a deco mesh wreath that was made in a way I had

never seen before.  Trying not to be too obvious, I studied

the wreath's construction and then tried to copy the store's

wreath technique in "Make a Deco Mesh Ruffle Wreath".

For Fall decorating this year it was pumpkins, pumpkins 

everywhere.  The unique pumpkins that I bought at the

farmer's market provided the main decorations inside the

house for the whole months of October and November.

To see how they were used click on "Fast Fall Decorating".

A couple of ideas that were begun in the above post and then expanded 

upon later on the outside of the house were "Almost Instant Pumpkin Patch"...

...and "Pumpkin Pile Up".

For December my big project was to make new decorations for

 the front of the house.  Departing from tasteful and subdued

 outdoor decor, I went with a fun and whimsical bright green

and red candy theme in "Make Big Candy Decorations".

Other tutorial posts that went into making the new outdoor decorations were

Christmas Deco Mesh Wreath

Make a Deco Mesh Garland

Make A Painted Burlap Christmas Tree

Miss Kopy Kat blog has been a joy to me and a great

creative outlet for the time I can squeeze some projects in.

See the side bar for the most viewed projects (since I 

started the blog).  There are some oldies but goodies there. 

A couple of things that I am looking forward to in 2014 is

the arrival of a new grand baby in April and going to the

 Academy Awards ceremony in March. 

Happy New Year to YOU!!!

I'm sharing this post over at

Inspire Me Tuesday @ A Stroll Thru Life

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday @ Coastal Charm

Your Best Posts of 2013 @ Southern Hospitality