I love having plants and flowers in my house, but having cats makes it almost impossible. I saw these floating vases on the blog Cupcakes and Cashmere; the image above is what inspired me to make them. They are very easy and inexpensive to make, and the plants I used added some nice color into my living room. To make them yourself, you only need a few simple, readily-available things.

Materials
Plywood (or any scrap wood you have)
Steel wire (I used 16 gauge picture frame wire)
Paint or stain
Empty jar
Drill
Needle Nose Pliers
Hammer
Screws
Plant or flowers of your choice

Directions

1. If your wood is not already cut to size, determine what size you would like. The one above is 8″ x 10″.

2. Paint or stain your wood.

3. Once the wood has finished drying, place the jar on the piece of wood to determine where you would like it to sit. Drill two small 1/8th”  holes, one on each side of the jar.

4. Cut off about 1 and 1/2 feet of the wire. Now you will take the wire and wrap it under the lip of the jar twice. Make sure that the excess wire is even on both ends.

5.  Next take the wire and insert each end into one of the 1/8″ hole on your piece of wood, with the jar attached. Pull the wire tight and twist the two ends with each other. Making sure that both pieces are twisting so that they stay secure.

6.  Cut the extra wire off with needle nose pliers. The wire should be secure, but you should still be able to slide the jar out from the top, without the wire coming out of place. Then you’ll be able to change the water of your plant or flowers.

7.  Take the hammer and lightly tap on the wire that is on the back of the wood to flatten it against the wood. This will help when you hanging it on the wall, so it won’t to stick out or scratch your wall.

8. Add you plant or flowers to the jar

9. Hang  you floating planter on the wall. I used two screws, one on each of the top corners.

Once Christmas is over and the tree has come down, it’s hard to put away some of those beautiful decorations. Here are some uses for ornaments and Christmas décor that can work all year long!

1. Fill a vase or hurricane with colored glass ornaments. This will instantly add color to any room of the house.
2. If you have a holiday card holder it can be used as a picture tree to display photos.
3. Save all the broken glass ornaments to mosaic a picture frame or candle holder.
4. Use a non-holiday specific ornament as a fan pull.
5. Move the ornaments that are no longer being used on the tree out to your garden as plant markers or just garden décor.
6. Ornaments can be used with gift wrapping instead of a bow.
7. Non-holiday specific ornaments can be used as a charm on wine bottles.