Big Ole Christmas Eve Post

It’s Christmas Eve! I smacked myself out of the I am done with Christmas mood I was in a couple days ago and I am so loving that everyone else is out there hustling and bustling around and I am all done and in my home decorating and baking! Besides, I should’ve smacked myself sooner for stressing so much over the material things of Christmas and focused on Jesus’ gift – DUH. Next year I might do one gift per person, handmade by me. Forget shopping! Did I just say that?

Anyway, this is what we have been up to (prepare for randomness)…

I was wondering which chicken was laying the eggs, and I eventually came out of my blonde haze and realized it was this girl who was laying the eggs…

{keepin’ it real by not photoshopping out that cowpie even though I want to}

Because this girl’s eggs will be green when she ever starts laying…

I am thankful for that little egg every day, or every other day. They are like little treasures in a treasure chest- er, nest.

These are my girlfriends now. Ty says I only love them now that they give me eggs, and he may be right. Call me shallow, but I was holding a little bitterness toward them until now. And can I just say that the movie Jurassic Park is frightening to me and that every time the girls run toward me I feel a tiny bit of fear because they look like and run like those velociraptors in that stampede scene from Jurassic Park that terrifies me…

You see what I mean? Anybody? I guess that is just me.

This is weird. Yesterday, Mark asked me if he could have a ribbon to tie up Woody. Then later when I was making firestarters, he asked me if he could have a toilet paper tube for Woody. Um, okay… then I saw what he was up to…

Poor Woody! In the picture to the right, he looks like he is saying, “…um, guys? … I’m still in here… is anyone out there?…”

I continued on my merry way, making gifts, wrapping presents, rocking out to Plus One Christmas and Trans Siberian Orchestra, laughing at what the kids do for entertainment when I ignore them and taking holiday tree bokeh pictures that I thought were weird when everyone else took them, now I like them...

I just have to say, Susie’s posture in that picture up there… I wish that was adorable at any age because that is how I feel right now! Any others out their sampling too many baked goods this season!?

And, shall we have a closer look at the gifts under the tree?

Nestled between the jars of homemade goodies… is that some poor soul, tied and bound by a toilet paper roll??? NO. That is my ‘prise Trismas pwesent. I am not allowed to open it until Christmas Day. The suspense is going to kill me! ; )

Anyway, among all the holiday craziness and chaos, take time to remember that God loved the world so much He sent His only Son to live a perfect life, pay for ALL our sins, and give us eternal life with Him in heaven! Halleluiah! Take the free gift.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

stool re-do

I don’t even know how to start this post… there is a story, you see, but it is a little complicated. Then again, everything in my life is a little complicated these days... Being a ‘decorator’, I told my friend she needed to paint a few pieces of her furniture to get the fun and funky vibe she was going for. I organized a couple of our friends and a painting party to help her out with my furniture painting expertise… oh, wait, had I even painted a piece of furniture before? Oh well, full steam ahead! Long story short: I listened to the Paint Counter Guy instead of going with my instincts and the whole thing went horribly wrong. She ended up with a questionable primed stool that looked like it was going to peel, a primed coffee table that sucked and she ended up giving away in the yard with a free sign, and a little side table that we did get painted later, which turned out cute.

Well, Kristel, I did stool makeover take-two, and it worked out this time!

The color looks a little greenish sitting on my slate tile, but it is a straight sunshine yellow in real life, and will compliment her living room quite nicely!

I inspected and scratch-tested that first coat of primer, and it was actually sticking okay so I just hit it with two coats of yellow spray paint.

I'll tell you more about the painting process I like to use when I do my own stools soon and don't listen to the Paint Counter Guy! Has anyone else been messed up by the Paint Counter People!? I have a couple times. I find that they are pretty knowledgeable when it comes to basics like what sheen to use on which room and which roller is the best quality for value. But when it comes to less common things like painting wood furniture, I feel like all 17 Paint Counter People at the big-box stores have their own opinion and if something doesn't work maybe that same person is not there when the customer comes back and says "Your advice ruined my dresser!!!" So they are all spewing out advice without knowing really what gets the best result. So, my humble advice is listen to the big-box store Paint Counter People for the basics but for less common situations, I prefer a good 'ole hometown hardware store. I find the Paint Counter Ladies at our local McDaniel's Do-It Center to be right on every time! Two of the three Ladies are there at any given time and they know their customers and have done most every project in their own home, and if one of the Ladies mess you up, chances are, that Lady will be there or you will rant to the other Ladies and they will tell the Lady who messed you up! But that hasn't happened to me there yet! Rant finished!

Anyway, I let the spray paint dry and then painted the 8 with craft paint…

You know I like adding numbers to things. For this, I printed an 8, the number Kristel requested, on my inkjet printer in Algerian font, and then turned it over (since 8’s are reversible) and scribbled over the paper on the backside of the 8, which transferred the inkjet image lightly onto the stool. Then I just filled it in with paint.

Note: if your inkjet image won’t transfer and/or if you are working with a number that is not reversible: Print out the number. Tape the paper wrong side facing you, onto a window so you can see the image from the other side, and outline it carefully in pencil. Then place the paper right side facing you (pencil side down) on the surface to be numbered and trace the number again, on the right side. The pressure of the pencil on the right side will transfer the underside tracing onto the surface and you will have a non-backwards outline of your number!

For the distressing I wrapped sandpaper around a wood block (helps focus sanding and speed it up because I am impatient) and rubbed it lightly over the flat surfaces and especially focused on areas that would have naturally been worn, like the edges of the seat, corners and bottoms of the legs, and the places on the rails where feet would rest…

Then I coated the whole thing with a matte finish clear coat to protect the distressed finish. Haha. I'm weird like that.

I am happy with it and I hope Kristel is happy she was feeling brave the other day when I said, “Can I take this and paint it for you?” and, in a moment of unclear thinking she said “Sure!”

Speaking of being brave, look at this little Diva standing in the front doorway (afraid to death of crossing the threshold by herself), telling off my horse…

Tra la-la, la-la….

Wha--

WHAT THE---

Ahhhhh!!!!

I told her!

Those expressions! And that sass! She doesn’t get that drama from me!

PS: what you see in the background there is an entry way makeover half-finished! See the ugly first coat on the door jam? I hope to bring you the reveal soon!

thrift store find, pumpkin scones & underage driving

I am super excited about my thrift store find from last week…

I wasn’t sure it was the right size, but at $4.99 I decided to take a chance. That was a gamble that paid off!

It fit my cake stand perfectly! And it is a seriously great deal because I got the cake stand on clearance at Starbucks for like $6.99 a couple years back! Though I do wonder if a layered cake would be too tall to fit under it? A good excuse to make a cake and test it out! This time I used it for Tammy’s pumpkin scones that Leah blogged about.

I made them when all my chores were done because I have priorities. And needs.

See the 6 loads of chores in the background? And the child eating a pumpkin scone for breakfast? Yeah. I have my priorities straight…

Mark got a chunk of cash from one of his Grandmas for his birthday, and he had just gotten so many toys, I figured I would just save the cash for him till later. Then we found this…

I had looked for them a while back and found them for around $99 at Target. I didn’t find one right away on Craigslist and then forgot about them. Until Mark saw this one from across the parking lot at a used toy store. It was $29.00. I had hoped it would be a little cheaper but Mark’s birthday money covered it, so we got it. Susie likes it too…

Mark’s license is frequently suspended for reckless driving when he crashes her into things and uses excessive speed and Susie too, for obstructing the flow of traffic because her feet don’t touch the ground to make it go.

It is my favorite toy in a long time and they are still loving it… when their licenses are not revoked.

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas…

We finally got our tree up a last week! Even though we can barely fit it in our living room, I still love to see it go up every year. Last year we got a potted tree for $35, and planted it in the pasture when the season was over. Unfortunately for the tree, my horse thought it was a great belly scratcher and repeatedly uprooted it over the summer when it should have been taking root. Fortunately for us, we decided to harvest the struggling tree this time and get a second (although last) season out of it – for free this time around!

These are some of my favorite ornaments…

Can you tell every one is my “favorite”?

I have gotten a couple more presents wrapped…

I like that one. Newspaper, baker’s twine and paper doilies… who knew? The tag was part of a download from PW. Then I had to come up with something more masculine for a gift for Ty…

A simple paper bag wrapper, with thick jute twine and a special tree tag cut from scrapbook paper, since husb is an Arborist. It is slowly getting fuller under our tree this season, even though we are only buying for kids in my family and draw names in Ty’s family.

I have been extra crafty this season. I have wanted to do lots of crafts this season and have squeezed in whatever quick ones the kiddos Susie lets me get away with. It has been rough, but Leah invited me over to create a tree from some supplies left over from the six hours of preparation for her ministry’s Christmas celebration craft, so I jumped at the chance…

In farm news, Spider Man would like to announce that one of our chickens has started laying eggs!!!

I was getting worried since ours hadn't started yet and friends have some younger than ours and they were laying! How excited Mark was when we found them! They are so small and so precious! Now I need a big coop and about 10 more chickens so I can take good care of them and sell those extra eggs!