How to Make Clay Tag Christmas Ornaments and Decorations

These little white heart clay tag ornaments are really simple and easy to make and you definitely don’t need to go searching tutorial after tutorial to get it right.

Christmas Decorating {Christmas Tree and Stockings}

Depending on what kind of blog reader you are, you’ll either think I’m super fast or really slow with my Christmas decorating. Well here you have MY first ever Christmas tree in my new home. I have been very excited about getting the tree and made Andi rather unhappy with me by choosing the largest, most expensive tree I could find but I just HAD to!
I’m not a big fan of plastic ornaments so I decorated with burlap ribbon, red and white ribbon and made big red bows out of red satin. I also made little white clay heart tags, there’s a house and a cat to come too and of course a tutorial!

I have always loved the idea of hanging stockings and Andi decided some stockings would look great hanging from the lights either side of our antique green mirror and of course I went full steam ahead with the idea, searching for hours to find the perfect Christmas stockings. I got these beautiful socks from Etsy seller, Ben Loves Birdy. These are Pottery Barn red cable knit stockings that were personalised with our names. I love them!
Linking up with: 504 Main, A Delightsome Life, A Diamond in the Stuff, Alderberry Hill, A Night Owl, A Stroll Thru Life, Be Different, Act Normal, Cheerios & Lattes, Chic on a Shoestring Decorating, Claire Justine oxox, Coastal Charm, Common Ground, Cozy Little House, Crafts a La Mode, Create with Joy, Cupcake ‘n’ Bake, DIY by Design, DIY Dreamer, Domesblissity, Ducks ‘n a Row, Elizabeth & Co, Feeding Big, Green Willow Pond, Happy Go Lucky, Hickory Trail, Home Maker on a Dime, Ivy & Elephants, Katherines Corner, Kathe with an E, Lil Luna, Live Laugh Rowe, Liz Marie, Lolly Jane, Mop it Up, Love Bakes Good Cakes, Milk & Cuddles, Mostly Homemade Mom, No Minimalist Here, Our Delightful Home, Petals to Picots, Pursuit of Functional Home, Salt Tree, Say G’Day Saturday, Savvy Southern Style, Serenity Now, Shabby Creek Cottage, Share Your Cup, Sincerely, Paula, Six Sisters Stuff, Someday Crafts, Southern Lovely, Sugar & Dots, The Best Blog Recipes, The Trendy Treehouse, This Gal Cooks, Too Much Time, Weekly Creative, We Like to Learn as We Go, While he was Napping, Charm of Home, French Country Cottage, House on the Way, Primp Junktion, Romantic Home, Diana Rambles, Dukes & Duchesses, Ginger Snap Crafts, Katie’s Nesting Spot, Life we Live 4, Redoux, Say Not Sweet, Sunday Showcase Party, Tatertots & Jello, Knick of Time

How Do You Stop Cats Fighting?

As most of you already know, this is my little baby Duke, sitting in our bird bath. Isn’t he super cute. He loves it in there. I’m not sure that the birds do though.
I know a lot of my readers have lovely pussy cats too and I want to know how you stop them from fighting with the neighbourhood cats. And here’s where this guy, Harry, comes in:

Harry and Duke fight, a lot. Like.. full on brawls. Duke has heaps of holes in his ears now. You all know I’m vegan and I love all animals but I have mixed feelings for this one! haha I kind of want to kill him for beating up my little boy. Don’t get me wrong, Duke is huge and can definitely hold his own. The problem is Harry has always been king of this neighbourhood and used to be best friends with the cat that used to live here, before we moved in… he even comes inside using the cat flaps.

There are other neighbourhood cats, lots of them in fact. When they come over Duke beats them up and they don’t come back. Harry and Duke however are both massive and too evenly matched meaning both of them keep going back for more and more.

So aside from getting out the hose, which I have done many times, what are your tips for fighting cats. Got any ideas?

Linking up with: 504 Main, A Delightsome Life, A Diamond in the Stuff, Alderberry Hill, A Night Owl, A Stroll Thru Life, Be Different, Act Normal, Cheerios & Lattes, Chic on a Shoestring Decorating, Claire Justine oxox, Coastal Charm, Common Ground, Cozy Little House, Crafts a La Mode, Create with Joy, Cupcake ‘n’ Bake, DIY by Design, DIY Dreamer, Domesblissity, Ducks ‘n a Row, Elizabeth & Co, Feeding Big, Green Willow Pond, Happy Go Lucky, Hickory Trail, Home Maker on a Dime, Ivy & Elephants, Katherines Corner, Kathe with an E, Lil Luna, Live Laugh Rowe, Liz Marie, Lolly Jane, Mop it Up, Love Bakes Good Cakes, Milk & Cuddles, Mostly Homemade Mom, No Minimalist Here, Our Delightful Home, Petals to Picots, Pursuit of Functional Home, Salt Tree, Say G’Day Saturday, Savvy Southern Style, Serenity Now, Shabby Creek Cottage, Share Your Cup, Sincerely, Paula, Six Sisters Stuff, Someday Crafts, Southern Lovely, Sugar & Dots, The Best Blog Recipes, The Trendy Treehouse, This Gal Cooks, Too Much Time, Weekly Creative, We Like to Learn as We Go, While he was Napping, Charm of Home, French Country Cottage, House on the Way, Primp Junktion, Romantic Home, Fishtail Cottage

DIY White Painted Side Table

Andi received this little side table from someone at work for free… score! I had the perfect spot for it in mind. The colour definitely had to change though… to white of course!
I started off by sanding all the edges down to the raw wood so I could sand again after the paint job for that shabby look you know I love!

Duke decided he wanted to help too and I couldn’t stop laughing at him. Eventually he calmed down and decided to have a rest… he did work very hard.

After sanding down the sides and corners the painting began. When we bought the house there were about 10 cans of white paint in the shed… it was fate I tell you! So this whole project didn’t cost me a cent! Woohoo!
I think I ended up applying about 5 coats of paint to get rid of the mahogany colour. If it was plain wood I would have just whitewashed it and it would have been much quicker!

Afterwards I lightly sanded over the edges again for the shabby look which unfortunately you can’t see in the photos, I had to edit these shots a lot as you can see because we have been having some crazy wild weather in Aus lately and there’s no light for good photos!
The perfect spot for my dragonfly lamp and yellowstone bear!

Oh look, you can see a tiny shabby mark there in the corner of the leg!
^{Linking up with: 504 Main, A Delightsome Life, A Diamond in the Stuff, Alderberry Hill, A Night Owl, A Stroll Thru Life, Be Different, Act Normal, Cheerios & Lattes, Chic on a Shoestring Decorating, Claire Justine oxox, Coastal Charm, Common Ground, Cozy Little House, Crafts a La Mode, Create with Joy, Cupcake ‘n’ Bake, DIY by Design, DIY Dreamer, Domesblissity, Ducks ‘n a Row, Elizabeth & Co, Feeding Big, Green Willow Pond, Happy Go Lucky, Hickory Trail, Home Maker on a Dime, Ivy & Elephants, Katherines Corner, Kathe with an E, Lil Luna, Live Laugh Rowe, Liz Marie, Lolly Jane, Mop it Up, Love Bakes Good Cakes, Milk & Cuddles, Mostly Homemade Mom, No Minimalist Here, Our Delightful Home, Petals to Picots, Pursuit of Functional Home, Salt Tree, Say G’Day Saturday, Savvy Southern Style, Serenity Now, Shabby Creek Cottage, Share Your Cup, Sincerely, Paula, Six Sisters Stuff, Someday Crafts, Southern Lovely, Sugar & Dots, The Best Blog Recipes, The Trendy Treehouse, This Gal Cooks, Too Much Time, Weekly Creative, We Like to Learn as We Go, While he was Napping, Charm of Home, French Country Cottage, House on the Way, Primp Junktion, Romantic Home, Diana Rambles, Dukes & Duchesses, Ginger Snap Crafts, Katie’s Nesting Spot, Life we Live 4, Redoux, Say Not Sweet, Sunday Showcase Party, Tatertots & Jello, PoPP, Lilyfield Life, Time Washed.}

Duke’s Green House & Winner Announced for the Uncommon Goods Giveaway!

Duke has thoroughly been enjoying our new green house as you can see! It’s his own little outside home now.

Before I announce the winner of the UnCommon Goods Giveaway featured here: http://kirstygirl7.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/uncommon-goods-50-giveaway.html 

I’d like to say a massive THANK YOU to everyone who participated in my first ever giveaway and for sharing, liking and following! Thank you so much!

And the winner is: Aubrey Laine!

CONGRATULATIONS Aubrey! Enjoy finding your favourite item. I hope you’ll stop over and show us all what you chose.

Hope you’re all having a beautiful day!

UnCommon Goods $50 Giveaway!

Woohoo! Welcome to my very first giveaway courtesy of UnCommon Goods! I have made little collages of my favourite picks from their home decor, garden and dining & entertaining categories because it was way too hard to only make one! They have soo many beautiful things to choose from.

If you’re a follower of this blog you’ll know that I chose these beautiful puppies! Oil and Vinegar Wiener Dogs. They’re so cool! You can view that post here.

Entering the giveaway is super easy! All you have to do is comment on this post! Entries are open to everyone no matter where you are in the world! Yay! Just make sure your comment is connected to your email address so that I can contact you! (If you have recently connected your blogger account to Google+ you’re probably now a no-reply blogger) if you’re not sure whether you’ve left your email just email me telling me you’ve entered the giveaway: kirstygirl7@gmail.com

Entering is super easy. You need to leave a comment and click on this little button here letting me know! Once you’ve done that you can put in additional entries for a better chance of winning! Woo hoo! So get liking and sharing!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Linking up with: The Best Blog Recipe’s, French Country Cottage, The Charm of Home, Someday Crafts

UnCommon Goods Wiener Dog Oil and Vinegar Bottles

A little while ago I was contacted by Rocky from UnCommon Goods who asked me to do a review of one of their products. I got to choose anything I liked and boy was that insanely hard! I think I literally spent about 5 hours or more browsing through the online store. They have so many amazing things! You know when you see really innovative and inspiring products on Pinterest? This shop is full of that kind of stuff.
While browsing the site I got so many great present ideas. I’m the kind of person that likes one of a kind and unique gifts to give people, something special you know! This is definitely a shop I will be heading back to over and over!

Ok enough of how awesome the store is, I think you get it now right? It’s AWESOME! After ages and ages of trying to find the perfect thing, I finally found these puppies! Aren’t they rad!? I love them.

They look totally cool on my shelf, on my table and they actually work really well too! Plus now I can buy my oil in bulk and save a heap! Win Win! Obviously we put some oil in the oil puppy and instead of vinegar Andi and I actually chose to put soy sauce in the other because we figured he’d get used a lot more that way. They’re working out great!

I was thinking of showing you how awesome the shop is by including some more of their products in this post but I can’t bring myself to go back there just yet… not until I have some more money anyway because I will get stuck looking and wanting! But you should definitely stop over there because GUESS WHAT!? I will be hosting an UnCommon Goods Giveaway very shortly and you could win a voucher for their shop!!! So keep watching this space! P.S. The giveaway is open to everyone! Whether you’re in the U.S., U.K., Australia, wherever! You could win!

Tea Chest

Well Winter has officially hit and so with it flu season. Hooray!
The other morning I found this gorgeous bamboo tea chest at my door! Lucky me! Aren’t Nanna’s the best!? Inside there “were” heaps of lovely teas from T2, all different kinds! They all somehow disappeared over only a couple of days. Whoops!

I grabbed a couple of snaps next to my new white vintage scales and favourite mug!

Linking up with: 504 Main, A Delightsome Life, A Diamond in the Stuff, Alderberry Hill, A Night Owl, A Stroll Thru Life, Be Different, Act Normal, Cheerios & Lattes, Chic on a Shoestring Decorating, Claire Justine oxox, Coastal Charm, Common Ground, Cozy Little House, Crafts a La Mode, Create with Joy, Cupcake ‘n’ Bake, DIY by Design, DIY Dreamer, Domesblissity, Ducks ‘n a Row, Elizabeth & Co, Feeding Big, Green Willow Pond, Happy Go Lucky, Hickory Trail, Home Maker on a Dime, Ivy & Elephants, Katherines Corner, Kathe with an E, Lil Luna, Live Laugh Rowe, Liz Marie, Lolly Jane, Mop it Up, Love Bakes Good Cakes, Milk & Cuddles, Mostly Homemade Mom, No Minimalist Here, Our Delightful Home, Petals to Picots, Pursuit of Functional Home, Salt Tree, Say G’Day Saturday, Savvy Southern Style, Serenity Now, Shabby Creek Cottage, Share Your Cup, Sincerely, Paula, Six Sisters Stuff, Someday Crafts, Southern Lovely, Sugar & Dots, The Best Blog Recipes, The Trendy Treehouse, This Gal Cooks, Too Much Time, Weekly Creative, We Like to Learn as We Go, While he was Napping, Charm of Home, French Country Cottage, House on the Way, Primp Junktion, Romantic Home, Knick of Time, Time Washed

Goodbye Google Friend Connect {An Important Post All Bloggers Should Read!}

By now you’ve probably heard that Google Friend Connect and Google Reader will disappear on 1st July. In my own opinion this sucks! Like me, you may have most of your followers on this service and they’ll be cut off from your blog and it will no longer show up in their feed. Look at this beautiful list of friends. If this is the only way they’ve followed along with my blog, which I know most of them have, then they may be lost forever.
I realise Google is doing this to promote Google+ and get everything over there but a lot of us haven’t yet made the switch and it can hardly be considered an acceptable alternative because they do totally different things. Google+ is just another social network, yes a great one at that but it isn’t a blog reader.
Now I have to convince you all to follow me some other way. The new way I am following all of you is through BlogLovin’. I moved over there a while ago and am absolutely loving it. BUT most of you are yet to join me. Notice the difference in numbers? I have 30 followers to date on BlogLovin’ while I have 683 on Google. That is one hell of a difference!!! What is a girl to do?

Because I don’t want to lose you all, please follow me on BlogLovin’ or on any social networks so you’ll at least be notified when I have a new post for you to read. Of course I think a blog reader is definitely the way to go. If you’re a blogger yourself you’ll be happy to know that unlike Google, BlogLovin’ readers actually increase your page views. This was a huge downfall when it came to Google Friend Connect, as reading blogs in that feed did not give bloggers more page views.

Oh yeah! If you’re thinking of making the switch to BlogLovin’ note that you can import your blog lists making the move super simple and easy! Yay!!!

Today I made this gorgeous Follow Kirsty Girl mapped image to list below each post to encourage my readers to follow along. Especially those wonderfully loyal GFC followers. So come on guys get following!

504 Main, A Delightsome Life, A Diamond in the Stuff, Alderberry Hill, A Night Owl, A Stroll Thru Life, Be Different, Act Normal, Cheerios & Lattes, Chic on a Shoestring Decorating, Claire Justine oxox, Coastal Charm, Common Ground, Cozy Little House, Crafts a La Mode, Create with Joy, Cupcake ‘n’ Bake, DIY by Design, DIY Dreamer, Domesblissity, Ducks ‘n a Row, Elizabeth & Co, Feeding Big, Green Willow Pond, Happy Go Lucky, Hickory Trail, Home Maker on a Dime, Ivy & Elephants, Katherines Corner, Kathe with an E, Lil Luna, Live Laugh Rowe, Liz Marie, Lolly Jane, Mop it Up, Love Bakes Good Cakes, Milk & Cuddles, Mostly Homemade Mom, No Minimalist Here, Our Delightful Home, Petals to Picots, Pursuit of Functional Home, Salt Tree, Say G’Day Saturday, Savvy Southern Style, Serenity Now, Shabby Creek Cottage, Share Your Cup, Sincerely, Paula, Six Sisters Stuff, Someday Crafts, Southern Lovely, Sugar & Dots, The Best Blog Recipes, The Trendy Treehouse, This Gal Cooks, Too Much Time, Weekly Creative, We Like to Learn as We Go, While he was Napping