DIY Wallflower Bud Vases

We are finally getting some Spring like weather here in North Carolina. The afternoons are now warm despite the chilly mornings. Getting myself to go out and walk in the mornings have been brutal for me. I’d rather do my walks in the afternoon when its warmer. Now I can as the days are beginning to stay daylight longer.

When I go outside now, I enjoy seeing all the new growth on the trees and the flowers blooming. I am already seeing bees looking for pollen and birds fighting for a mate. I love Spring time.

Speaking of flowers, I found a perfect idea for little bud vases. 

We are always buying air fresheners for our Wallflower plugins by Bath & Body works. I had a few of the empty glass fragrance bottles hanging around in the cabinet so I could remember the fragrances I liked best.

While cleaning out the old bottles the other day, I decided to turn a few of them into tiny bud vases. I am all about recycling things when I have a chance.

With a pair of needle nose pliers, I gently removed the plugged openings and gave them a good wash and rinse. Then I put in some fresh water and a cut flower. So far the flowers have stayed bloomed all week. These vases will give me something to put my little flowers in that I pick along my afternoon walks. Yes, I’m that person. 

These vases would be perfect used for a fine dinner or wedding reception. You can use them for place markers on the tables for guest.

They are also pretty simply sitting on a window seal. 

I plan to use mine in a decorative tray as I decorate for Spring.

What are some other ways you can use bud vases? 

Repurposed Home Keys

Do you have a drawer of keys? Or do you have key rings laying around full of keys that no longer belong anywhere? Well, I do.

Why is it that we keep keys? When we move away or our locks are changed, people tend to keep the keys. I even have old car keys from when I was a teenager. They are no longer any good. 

Or are they?

Nick and I got a little crafty last week when my daughter said she was looking for a small key hanger for her new little 400 sq ft studio apartment. She loves to throw her keys up on a hook when she comes in. She has always shared an apartment with her Kappa Delta sister but has now decided to try things on her own. Her apartment is adorable and we can’t wait to see how she decorates it. 

We looked around for some ideas to make her a key hanger. Hooks can be expensive, so we found a cool way to make some hooks using old keys. Nick carefully bent the keys into hooks. With a little cutting, sanding and painting, we created her the perfect key hanger. This key hanger will also have some sentimental value as each key is from a family home. 

There is a key from both her grandparents homes.

One key is from the first house she grew up in and our first home.

And one key is from our current home she continued to grow up in until she moved out on her own.

The wooden part of the key hanger is a piece of the molding from our house. 

Nick did the sanding and I did the painting and writing. 

We decided to give it a distressed look by sanding down and scuffing some areas. 

We had fun making this together and all it costed us was a dollar paint brush and a Sharpie. 

Now let’s hope the area where she wants to put it will be big enough in that tiny little uptown apartment. 

Do you have old keys laying around? I think one of these days people will no longer need keys as everything is touch or speech activated. 

Even cars nowadays are cranking up by themselves.