DIY - Decorating to Impress the Fam at Thanksgiving

So I hosted my first Thanksgiving in our tiny house last week.  While it was hectic, it was also, fantastic!  Nate and I own our double and my sister Erin rents out the other side.  We split up the cooking duties and dined al fresco in the back yard.  Nate and I wanted our house looking fabulous for my family so we did a couple of home improvement projects.

I've been saying I wanted to do this for awhile and I finally did it! 

Looks adorable, no?  It took FOREVER with me standing on a ladder to get that done.  I did it all free hand, impressive, I know and I used my favorite paint, One Shot.  This was by no means an easy project as One Shot is a very unforgiving paint but if you're feeling adventurous you could spruce up your facade the same way!  And look at the fun shadow it casts on the inside of the house...

Nate's domain is the backyard and he loves doing art projects together.  So we came up with this great lawn decoration...

Here's how you do it!  First things first you're going to need a piece of wood.  We used plywood which wasn't as great because it's thin pieces of wood glued together.  If you can find a solid piece, power to you!  You're going to want to draw your pelican on said piece of wood:

Next you'll need to get your handy boyfriendo or some one who feels comfortable using a jigsaw to cut her out!

Maybe you're wondering why Nate's fingers are blue.  This is because we wanted to dye our pieces of coral fun colors.  At first we tried clothing dye with not much success.  Then we used tie dye and BAM colorful coral.

You'll also want a Gypsy dog to chew on your pieces of scrap wood as this brings her much joy.  Then Nate will tell you she shouldn't be chewing on it because of the glue in the plywood and you'll have to take it away from her :(

The cutest!  Anyway.  So over the next couple of days you have to get your coral to stick to your pile on.  By the way, the pile on is just something we found on the side of the road.  We can't resist awesome trash.  It was a hard process with the gluing of the coral so we got a thick coat of goo on the back then taped it while it dried.

Have you forgotten about our pelican friend?  I haven't.  You're going to want to make him or her look like more than just pelican shaped wood now.  I used acrylic paint and then sealed it up with a spray lacquer.  And it went from this...

TO THIS!!

And there you have it; wonderfully fun and unique decorations for making your house a home.  Needless to say the fam was impressed and I am now exhausted from a long week of entertaining.  Freret Market is this weekend and I've got a lot of work to do to finish up my inventory for the weekend!  Wish me luck!