Coconut Flakes, Turkey Feathers and Pink Window Panes

I had so much fun decking my Christmas mantle this year. It was fun to play around with different things I had around the house to make it all come together.

I'm sure you can deduce that coconut flakes mentioned in the title is what I used for the fake snow sprinkles. The letter N came from my picture gallery in the master bedroom and the other "letters" I just gathered from around my house.

Here is my pink window pane. Which started out as white. Then I painted red. Then I painted gold. Then I distressed it. Pink is what became of it.

I was trying to make it like this from PB...
You can't see them in the pictures, but their are strings of twine in between each pane that I nailed in to clip card on. These are just some of my favorite vintage-y ones I've received or collected over the years.

Stockings hung by the chimney with care. The garland came from the cypress trees in my backyard. I made some for the windows too in the living room. They were a cinch to make, but a week later they are crumbling under the slightest touch!

Some bottles I recently numbered from 1-6 with glass paint. The 2 and the 5 were perfect to use as we prepare for the 25th of December. Can you spot my turkey feather in the vase? The other day I looked out my back window to find 5 or 6 wild turkeys in my backyard! I was so excited to find proof of their visit!

Those giant stars are gigantic versions of what my Aunt Ramona taught me how to make while she visited a few weeks ago. I have 7 dangling above my head as I type away in the living room right now. I thought I was making snowflakes, but everyone that sees them talks about how they love my stars. So stars they are.

Maybe one day we'll have our fireplace wired up for gas logs (the chimney is capped off so it can't be wood burning) but in the mean time we can simulate a roasting hot fire with a bunch of tapered candles.

Merry Christmas! I'll be linking up to The Lettered Cottage "Merry Mantle Party" today so if you need any ideas, these girls are the ones to check out!

Free Christmas Cards from Shutterfly!

I agreed to do a little blog write-up in exchange for 50 free Christmas cards from Shutterfly! We are on a super tight budget and I considered forgoing cards this year, but this was a deal I couldn't pass up!

Shutterfly has sooo many options of their christmas cards and holiday cards to choose from. This was the one I liked best!My brother-in-law snapped some family pictures of us in my husband's new (yet old and "distressed") 1969 black Ford pickup so I thought the whole retro look of it all with this card would tie together nicely. Normally, back in the good ol' have hours of time to craft days I used to make all my Christmas cards. Alas, it doesn't really save any money and of course you spend tons of time putting them together. Mind you, I consider it a hobby, so it was a task I enjoyed, I just have too many things now that I want to enjoy! These photo cards are the epitome of easy and thoughtful.

We've also given calendars to grandparents and my parents complete with pictures for each month. They're always a hit!

By the way, if you are a blogger, you can participate too! Check it out here!

Fall Mantle, Sitting Room and PB Wall

Flipping through the Fall Pottery Barn catalog was just the inspiration I needed to fix up our sitting room. Here's the picture that made me swoon...

Okay, and here's mine...

Ha ha. Well, it looks a bitttt different. I promise though, if I had a fancy camera like theirs, it might look a smidge more like PB. I really loved how linear all their pictures were and tried to model that, but I had such a big wall to deal with that I had to spread things out a bit. PS- that tv is only there TEMPORARILY!

Here's another copy-cat attempt...I saw these modular storage crates being sold in the catalog for about 30 bucks a piece! Well, I have a ton of old pine boards left over wall demolition and put those to good use!

Baddabing.


And here's my fall mantle...

With a little close-up...

I still would like to add a little homemade pennant banner that says "Happy Fall" out of burlap fabric that I saw and want to copy from someone's blog and hang it from the mantel.

Here's the piano with my new chair! I'm hoping to find a cheap filing cabinet on Craigslist to put to the right of it so I can get rid of the three plastic filing boxes!

And here's my favorite spot in the house. Love this for my morning quiet times. Would love it more if I had a nearby outlet to plug in the lamp and actually see what I am reading. :) Oh! And I almost forgot to mention my new galvanized metal magazine storage. I got this one and a smaller one (pictured on the other wall) on Craigslist for 25 bucks!

Written About on About.com!

A writer for the website, about.com, contacted me a couple days ago to see if she could write about my Old Fashioned Birthday Party I threw for Greta, specifically the party hats I made. It's kind of cool seeing my picture on a real live website! :) You can see it here! Thanks to Megan Cooley for the shout-out! She has some great ideas for kids parties in general so I would definitely check her out next time I throw a party!

$1.00 Garage Sale Treasure

Last summer, I picked this old wooden folding chair up at a church yard sale.
After a little spray painting in the color "jade" and a little reupholstering with a little acorn fabric curtain I made for my son's nursery in our old house, I have a new and updated chair!

I think it'd be really cool to paint something on the backrest...like a distressed number, chevron stripe, monogram, etc. I haven't quite figured out where to put the chair, but I think I'll wait to personalize it until it's found it's home.

Playroom/Sunroom Before & After

Sorry I've been MIA for a while. It began with a three week trip to AK, broke my camera against a rock while hiking and dove head first into projects once I got back. And one of those projects is "finished". Well a good-enough-for-now-kind-of finished.

Before



After



Before




After

*You can see the chalkboard paint that I used on the longest wall. The other walls that are painted is the same color in the adjoining room, Hazel by Sherwin Williams.


The red at the bottom of the picture shows how we just painted the sunroom and not the entire porch. It's a massive improvement and hopefully my daughter will stop referring it as "the dirty room". Ha ha. :)

Tutorials for an Old-Fashioned Party

I know a lot of that birthday post meant nothing to you seeing a bunch of kids and people you don't know, but I wanted to remember it all. Here are a few notes for those interested about the crafts I made for the party.

Party Hats: I bought the fabric at Hobby Lobby.
kidsparties.about.com

Dress: I didn't do the waistband
Dana-Made-It

Pom-Poms:
Rhonna Designs

Cupcakes:
Darn it, I can't remember what magazine I saw them on...they're supposed to be for 4th of July and look like cherry, blueberry and lemon pies out of M&M's. I didn't follow any recipe, just copied what I saw and used a yellow cake box mix. Once baked, spoon out a little cake to make a concave hole and drop some M&M's in there being sure to flip them over so you don't see any M's. Then, frost a tic tac toe pattern on top and a circle around it and voila...a mini pie. :)

Streamers: No tutorial, I just copied.
Dear Lizzy

Pinwheels:
Create Studio

Old-Fashioned Birthday Party

Our little girl turned 3 and we celebrated her birthday old-fashioned style. We held it outside in our backyard in 95 degree weather and thick humidity with 34 people all together. It was a blast, but definitely more comfortable inside than it was outside!

Most importantly, this girl had a great party with all of her besties. She's standing in front of the gift table we set up out of a great old blue door that was in our outbuilding on top of a couple sawhorses. I put those shutters behind it just for fun.

She's also modeling the dress I made for her out of a men's Polo shirt. I never could quite figure out how to make the sleeves quite right, but she was a champ and wore it anyway even though I knew she didn't like it. When I was in the process of altering, I would have her try it on and she disliked it so much she'd say, "Noooo, I can't because I have to go back to bed." (nowhere near bedtime) In the end, she was asking for it back though, so that made me feel better.

All ready for the party with her Great Aunt Pam. You can see the coffee filter pom poms and streamers that I made in the background. These were a hit with Greta. Before her nap that day, she prayed and thanked God for her flags (streamers) and her coffee pots (pom poms). Just like her mama, she loves the details! That made me feel special that she noticed.

All of the other kids were noticing this little (giant) contraption borrowed from the grandparents. It was a hit.

The dilemma in setting up was were to put it, however. I wanted it so the parents could watch the kids all in one area, near the playset and we're we were all eating in the backyard. The only problem is we don't have grass back there yet and Adam kept insisting it would turn into a mud pit. And it did.

Whoops. The bigger boys would cause tidal waves that created a giant mud hole. Look at CJ's back as he walks away.


I also made these party hats that I thought turned out so cute. Even better, most of the kids left them behind, so you'll probably be seeing these again for my son's birthday. They were an easy concept, but I made 16 just a couple hours before the party and it was a little intense trying to get them done between food prep and trying to get myself ready too.

My mother-in-law was great for watching my little guy while I was tending to all the "big" kids.

Expressing his disgust about the mud on his toes. I know, I know! I already said I'm sorry! ;)

Some of our other great family, Uncle Frank and cousins, Treacy, Grant and Alison.

Steve, Audrey and Dena sitting so cute as a family on the front porch.

Dena diving in past the kids for some candy. ;) She is eating for two though!

So glad our friend Kristen, Aaron and baby Noah got to join us too!

(l-r: Brady holding Grant, Jake, Seth, Greta, CJ, Anna Cate, Avery, Saige, Audrey)

Saige showing me her pinwheel she got to take home as a party favor.

As we were cleaning up after the party, the sun started setting over the back field and I took some pictures of the beautiful sunset.