Naomi, Sage – Author at Plaster & Disaster

If you’ve been reading Plaster & Disaster for awhile, you know we are BIG on the holidays. How many grown adults do you know who decorate their dollhouse for Halloween?

Not many, we’d wager.

And of course you remember how we went all out on decorating for the winter holidays in 2015. Here’s Naomi’s festive (and modern) box tree:

So we’re not going to bore you with more of our magical decorating skills. You get it, we’re talented and our homes look amazing.

And we already did a post last year about how we both grew up celebrating the winter Solstice as our main winter holiday, and we gave a long explanation about finding light in the darkness and implored you to shine your light on the world in 2016. That worked super well — we can all agree that 2016 was amazing and light seems to have permanently triumphed over darkness. So really no need to repeat ourselves on that one.

What we haven’t done before is a gift guide, so that’s what we’re doing today. Hurray! Of course we had to put our own nerd spin on this, and so it is a board game gift guide. The added bonus is that you can buy most of these last minute on Amazon, so if you are behind on your shopping like we obviously are, these are easy options (provided you have board game lovers in your life). Just a note, we included links to these on Amazon that are affiliate links (read our policies), but you can also buy these at local game stores which we would highly recommend if you have time to do so! Below are just a few of our favorite board games, presented in order of easiness to learn/play!

Exploding Kittens

A very quick and easy card game, Exploding Kittens (affiliate link) was made by the guy who writes The Oatmeal (you know The Oatmeal, right?!?!?). Basically just try not to get exploded. And don’t be surprised if the person you thought was your faithful blog partner and dear friend STABS YOU IN THE BACK (I will never forgive you, Naomi).

Splendor

Like most really addictive games, Splendor (affiliate link) is based on very simple mechanics. You take coins and use them to to buy cards – there, you already basically know how to play! However, there is real strategy involved as you save up for bigger purchases and track how close you and your competitors are to winning. It’s perfect to buy for or play with a group that includes people who like more complex strategy games and also those who might prefer a simple game of Sorry.

Settlers of Catan

Settlers of Catan (affiliate link) is the quintessential introductory game in the “Eurostyle” (or “German-style”) genre — it’s a strategy game that involves resource accumulation and trade. Settlers is a great game for 4 players (or more if you play on teams) and isn’t that challenging to master. Also you’ll find yourself yelling things at friends/family like “I don’t want your stupid sheep, does anyone have any brick?!?” so that’s a bonus.

Pandemic

Pandemic (affiliate link) is a collaborative game, which means that everyone plays on one team — perfect for those families/groups of friends who have been torn apart by too many contentious games of monopoly. Basically you’re all fighting against the spread of a global pandemic, working together to stop the spreading outbreak and find a cure.

Dominion

Dominion (affiliate link) is a more complicated card game where your strategy changes every time depending on the combination of cards in play in any given round. It’s good for 4 or more players and especially fun if you have expansion packs to combine together (convenient if your friends buy different expansion packs than you have and then you put them all together when you hang out for nerdy game nights). It takes a little more time to master, but because of the endless combinations of cards it’s a game you won’t easily get sick of because it’s a unique experience every time. It’s great for the more gamer-type on your list – especially because you can almost always find an expansion pack that they don’t have yet.

Arkham Horror

Not for the faint of heart, Arkham Horror (affiliate link) is a board game based on author H.G. Lovecraft’s works. It’s quite complex and takes awhile to learn all the rules, but it’s another collaborative game and it’s a lot of fun to band together to fight against a bunch of terrifying monsters (yes Cthulhu, we’re talking about you). Just be sure to set aside a few hours to play!

7 Wonders

7 Wonders (affiliate link) is a great, quick game for anyone on your list who is a fan of strategy board games. Once you know the rules it only takes about 30 minutes to play because everyone plays at once, buying a card and then passing the hand to the left or right. It is is very re-playable because of all the strategy involved, and because each person plays as a different civilization with different abilities.

Dixit

Finally, a game you can buy for the people who don’t like to play board games! Dixit (affiliate link) is more about the artwork, imagination, and storytelling than a strategy game, but it is fun and immersive nonetheless. You put forward the best card from your hand to go along with a single word or phrase, and then vote on which one matches closest. You’ll be surprised at all of the clever associations that come up! Also, the artwork is seriously amazing.

Those are just a few of our favorite games — we have more ideas where those came from, so if you want more just let us know. And we’d love to hear what games you enjoy and would recommend!

P.S. For the holidays we’ll be taking the rest of this week off, and then only posting on Wednesday next week. So best wishes for very happy holidays in the meantime, and here’s to longer days beginning this Thursday!

It’s hard to believe that it has been over a year and a half since the blog police stormed Plaster & Disaster Headquarters and demanded that we make a wall hanging out of yarn or risk being kicked out of the blogosphere. That was a close one!

Fortunately for all of our dedicated, fans, we gave in and have since stayed in good standing in the DIY blog world through adherence to the major trends. We’ve brought you record collections, subway tile backsplashes, navel-gazing about bookshelf styling, wallpaper removal, a DIY chandelier made out of corks painted rose quartz and serenity, and even a surprise purchase of a house.

But through all of these forward-thinking taste-making projects, the yarn hanging idea has stuck with me, and I had to make another one.

When I planned out the first one (which still adorns the wall of my office, one of the few “finished” rooms in the house) I had intended to square off the bottom edge, but ultimately decided that I liked the looser, organic look of leaving it raw.

So stuck in my head was the idea that I could do something fun by cutting the hanging yarn into a pattern. I wanted to try it out.

Supplies for this experiment were extremely cheap. I picked up an 8″ metal hoop on amazon (affiliate link – read our policies) which was only $5 when I bought it and now looks like it is on sale for $2. Otherwise, I used yarn that I already had.

I used blue and yellow because I was considering hanging this piece in my bedroom (even though I’ve now decided not to) and because they look awesome together. (Incidentally, those were also my High School colors, but I can tell you with 100% honesty that didn’t play into my decision making process at all.)

I knew that I wanted the blue to hang down the back from the top of the hoop, and also show below the yellow, so it had to be significantly longer than the yellow yarn since it was both starting from higher up and traveling farther down. Also, because the yarn is strung on the hoop “doubled up” the length difference in the initial cuts needs to be twice as long as you originally think.

To be safe, I measured and tested the lengths before cutting a bunch of them out, ending up with the blue cuts at about 40″ and the yellow at 25″.

I don’t actually have a picture of the piles of yarn cut out (oops) but trust me that it is a lot. It takes more than you think to cover a hoop – especially as I wanted it to feel full and so I was pushing the strands together pretty closely.

I attached them to the hoop by just doubling them over and threading them through. I was also careful to string the two colors from different sides, as they would hand differently in the final product.

Once it was all strung, it looked a mess – which was OK because I was planning to trim it anyway. I probably could have been more careful, but I just eyeballed it, using a ruler to overall guide me to reasonable angles and straight lines. I cut an chevron (+5 blogger points) into the yellow yarn.

Then, I cut a sort-of faceted triangle into the blue yarn by cutting uniform strands at an angle and progressing toward the center. If that makes sense. Which it probably doesn’t. Just look at the final picture and you’ll understand. Seriously, that is why DIY blogs have photos and not just text.

In the end, I think it turned out pretty good!

I tested it in the bedroom, but it didn’t fit there as much as I had hoped. Since I have my tapestry hanging in there, I now feel like the rest of the art should be more formal/framed. With the yarn it was too much fabric type stuff on the walls.

It has landed in our guest room/library for now, and it is great to have some stuff up on the walls in there!