Hello sunshine.

You know what goes perfectly with coffee?

A decorating shortcut.

I’m sharing 14 days are full of tips to make your decorating life a little easier.

We’ve discussed the one thing every lamp needs and how to transform a builder-grade door for under $10 and an easy way to makeover furniture and a unique hardware DIY. and budget centerpiece ideas and how to pick paint colors that make your room smile and how to decorate with thrift store finds.

And today?

We are shortcutting it throughout the year.

Here is a 10-minute project for each season.

Fall:  How to Make a Pinecone Acorn

This is an easy way to make a fancy craft.

It’s a little shopping the yard meets creative idea meets easter egg.

My favorite kind of craft.

Here’s how these acorns started out.

Simple wooden eggs from the craft store.  I bought mine at Hobby Lobby where they are about a dollar a piece give or take a 40% off coupon.

You can find them over in the wooden spare parts section.

Then I stained them with my favorite new color of stain called Provincial.

I just added one coat of stain, but if you want it darker, you could always add another coat.

Let dry.

Next, I dissected a pine cone.

I took off the top part with the little stem and then peeled off the individual pieces.

You will need about 20 small pieces and a top per acorn.

Then I hot glued the top of the pine cone onto the top of the egg.

And I filled in the rest of the acorn top with stray pieces of pine cone.

When you glue the top, it creates a small area between the egg and the acorn.

I glued the first layer of pine cone pieces to the bottom.

Next, I added layer after layer until all the layers created the entire acorn top.

Here’s the finished acorn.

When I pulled them out this year to decorate, they held up amazingly well.

Happy fall short cutting.

Winter:  Pinecone Snowflake

Does your house ever get lonely when you take the Christmas tree down?

Can you hear an audible sigh when the mistletoe and holly and wreaths and reindeer are put away?

Mine, too.

That’s why I try to winteristmas decorate.

You know.  When you add a little winter into your Christmas decorating so when all the merry and bright goes away…

….the house still has a few friends.

Some times I find inspiration for projects in the most random of places.

Like a few pine cones that fell out of the tree onto the vintage tool box below.

Don’t they look like a project just waiting to happen?

I made them into a snowflake.

A pine cone snowflake on a vintage gray barn door.

And all it took was about an hour and a little imagination.

Want to make your own?  Here’s the easy DIY and instructions.

You’ll need a surface and about four dozen of these mini pine cones.

If you don’t have a barn door you could use plywood or reclaimed wood or barn wood.

If you don’t have pine cones under your tree you can find them at your local craft store.

Using a ruler, trace a straight vertical pencil line on the wood.

Then trace a horizontal line.

Then trace an X.

You’ll use the pencil lines as a guide to glue the pine cones down.

Then using a hot glue gun (I used Elmer’s Craft Bond), glue down the pine cones to the wood.

Start at the center with the first pine cone.

Then, glue the pine cones along your pencil line.  At the end of each of the pine cone lines, I glued two pine cones on the edge and one on top to create an extra flake.

That’s it!

You’re done.

You can add your snowflake to a hutch or bookcase or sideboard or display it anywhere.

You want to be ready.

Happy winteristmas short cutting.

Spring:  Cabbage Vase

Have you ever noticed that the best ideas are found in the grocery store?

Oh good. Me, too.

This centerpiece is just ready for a party.

To make this easy spring project all you’ll need is 10 minutes and some vegetables.

Start by hollowing out the center of the cabbage.

Make a hole large enough to fit a small vase.

Insert the vase into the center of the cabbage and fill with water.

Then fill your cabbage vase with flowers.

I added a little lettuce around the base of the cabbage vase for the centerpiece.

A party isn’t a party without more than one vegetable.

Happy spring short cutting.

Summer:  Hanging Mason Jar Vase

You can make this DIY mason jar hanging vase for under $5.00 in under 10 minutes.

It’s a fun summer project that goes perfectly with sweet tea.

Here’s the step-by-step.

To make your hanging mason jar vase you will need a hook, a mason jar (at the risk of stating the obvious), a piece of reclaimed wood (you could paint or stain this or just leave it plain), a hanger (I bought mine pre-made in a pack of three at Hobby Lobby, but you could make your own with wire if you wanted) and flowers.

Attach the hook to the board.

I centered it on the bottom of the wood to make sure that my vase had enough room to swing freely.

Next, attach the wood to the post

The size of your piece of wood is determined by the size of your post.  These posts are very narrow so this piece of wood is 2″ wide by 6″ long.

This was a piece of left over pallet wood from another project.

You could use barn wood or a piece of 1 x 2 and paint it—what ever works with your garden.

Attach the mason jar hanger

Place the mason jar hanger around the neck of the mason jar.

Fill mason jar with fresh flowers and water.

Hang it on the hook.

That’s it.

That’s all she wrote.

Under $5.00 (maybe under $3.00 if you make your own wire hanger).

And it only took us 8 minutes and 24 seconds.

Happy summer short cutting.

PS  And now a word from our 14-day shortcut sponsor.

You can read the reviews of my first book, So Close To Amazing, here.

You can pre-order it here.

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