Saltdough Starfish & Glass Knobs

LOVIN' Christmas break, ya'll. 

Delicious sleeping in, morning coffee by the fire, working alongside Mr. Wonderful as we tackle house projects together, long snuggles with my kids, and spending yesterday afternoon with these precious ladies:

The two on the right and left are my sisters, and my brother's wife is in the middle.  My sister Jody in the black and white is visiting with her husband and two-year-old from Washington and we are soaking up every bit of time with them that we can.  We love this girl!

Jody writes an extremely creative, humorous, and often heartfelt blog of her own about family and DIY projects, The Gimlin Family.  What fun we have sharing ideas and talking "blog" together! 

The rest of the family still roll their collective eyes at us.

This fall, one of Jody's home projects was featured in a blog alongside a tutorial for Saltdough Starfish, so yesterday we thought we'd give the starfish a try.

First we mixed 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, and about 3/4 cup water together.  We then took a chunk of dough and rolled it into a ball: 

Next, we flattened the ball onto the well-floured counter and, using a toothpick, marked out the 5 legs of the starfish. 

After removing the dough between each leg, we used the same toothpick to carve lines into each leg and poke holes along each line.  This was our final product:

Isn't that cute?

We baked the starfish in a 200 degree oven for several hours to dry.  In the original post, the ladies poked a single hole in the top of the starfish prior to baking so they could string the starfish on a jute garland.  ADORABLE!  We, however, plan to use ours for propping on counters or shelves so we didn't poke a hole in the top.

Very fun idea, and one that kids easily enjoy as well.  (As a matter of fact, we had a few munchkins join us near the end as playing with dough is pretty hard to resist at any age.)

On Monday, Mr. Wonderful helped me install a custom towel bar in my little girl's bathroom using three glass knobs I purchased last summer at one of my favorite stores, Blackberry Bog, in Homer, AK.

We transformed this section of wall,

...into a pretty towel bar:

I have yet to decide what to do with the lower portion of the wall.  More moulding?  Painted stripes?  Beadboard?  Hmmmmm.

In the meantime, our plan is to install moulding around the contractor-grade mirror.  We were 2" short of our leftover moulding the other night or it would be done already.  Bummer.

We also installed wainscot trim in Amaya's bedroom; I will post pictures of that next time.  We've been experiencing technical difficulties with our camera and may need to take it in for repair this week.  I've come to appreciate how much I rely on our camera.

I'm off to prime and paint some furniture today, so I'm downright giddy.  Here's wishing you many warm memories, much joy and perfect peace over your holiday week :-)

Jaimee