late for chirstmas

 

we have had 4 out of 9 people in our household experiencing the flu this week.  yuck.  I might be a little depressed that our new year’s party had to be called off.  so sad.  but no one has puked since 1 am, so things are looking up.

I have been off work this week, which has been so nice!  I feel like a housewife again!  I have been cleaning, getting rid of the christmas tree (none too soon! it was so dry and poky!), getting a couple projects done… the usual.  We have had friends visiting from out of state which has been awesome. 

I finally made my wreath snowman now that winter is in full force…

 

My house color is nasty and makes my door color look nastier, but hey, at least my hubby’s boots now look cute sitting in front of Mr. Frosty.  He was supposed to have a hat, so I got one from the thrift store but couldn’t figure out how to get it to stay on, then when I looked at my Pinterest inspiration, I realized they made something out of felt (I think), and I was way too lazy.  He’s good enough for me.  =)

I also finally got my coffee table and arranged a display the way I wanted it for the holidays, in time for the new years party, which is now cancelled anyway – all so sad…

I got the Aidan Coffee Table from World Market.  I watched for it to go on sale for a long time and finally used a coupon and my christmas bonus.  Now it is on sale.  Sad but true.  I hate paying (almost) full price.  I have been without forever though and it was troublesome.  Now I have the games out and handy, and also a nice place to arrange things and hubby has his footrest! 

I made a couple winter scenes and layered them in with candles and greenery for the display…

In project news, I finally started painting the chairs from state surplus.  I’m using Annie Sloan’s chalk paint, of course.  Look how it wears off in a fine powder when you sand it…

They are painted with 1.5 coats, sanded/distressed, have one coat of clear wax, and are awaiting me to work up the courage to tackle the dark wax for the first time!  I know it will be great but it looks sooo dark in the can it makes me nervous!

Okay, gonna go running even though it is getting dark!  Gotta put on my neon yellow shirt and get moving!

forever and a day

 

did you all have a merry christmas?  I sure did!  I have an amazing story to share, when I feel like writing…  if any of you witnessed my amazing surprise and have pictures, would you email them to me, please?

for now, …my friend found me this mug at a thrift store…

she gave it to me because she is visiting from out of state and couldn’t take it home.  it says “forever and a day”.  “forever and a day” ______?   we are not really sure, but it is impossible to not smile when drinking my tea out of this cup. 

that my friends is thrift store shopping for you.  keep going back, because sometimes you find nothing, but sometimes you find a “forever and a day” mug with bunting on it.  =)

I’ll be back with some kid projects, house projects and odds and ends this week.  I’m on Christmas vacation from my job!  Yay!  Gotta go get some paint under my nails!

Oh yeah, and my blogiversary is coming up, so stay tuned!  Early next month I will be having a giveaway!  =D

a tip, DIY ornaments & more wrapping

 

I found this while getting out the ornaments to decorate to let the kids go hog wild adorning our already strange-looking redwood tree with every single ornament I own and no strategy whatsoever…

I had forgotten completely about my idea to get Susie an ornament every christmas till she was 18 and give her a little head start to decorating her first tree when she’s 30 and we let her move out (well, that is more “I” than “we”… =)

When I found it I decided to be nostalgic and take a picture of her with it, knowing that she would adore the teeny little “bi-di”…

And actually, I have two tips to share with you…

Tip #1.  This will be TMI for those of you not interested in photography…  One of my top photography tips for you is to avoid multiple types or colors of light.  Fluorescent, incandescent (most household light bulbs), direct sun, shade, overcast… all these situations of light are different temperatures and different colors.  In the above picture, my white balance was set for “incandescent” light – thus the background looks pretty normal for inside a house.  Susie, on the other hand, is neon blue because she is standing in front of the sliding glass door – light is coming in but it is actually “shade” outside that door, which is very blue.  Moral of the story: avoid mixed lighting because the camera can’t adjust for more than one type at a time.  Solution:  I should have turned off the house lights and just used the natural light with my WB set for “shade”, or taken her away from the sliding glass door into the house (bumping up my ISO because it is darker) to avoid the blue light at the window.  “Auto WB” will do a good job usually, but still can’t handle two different colors of light in one image.

Tip #2.  Please don’t be naïve like me and try to photograph your almost two year old with a tiny, extremely fragile and sentimental ornament.  She broke it.  I then gave up getting a good picture, and hung it and her 2 year old ornament safely at the tip top of the tree.  From now on, I will put them away for her until later.  =/

I made some ornaments, inspired by these vintage-looking DIY ones I caught on Pinterest. 

They were easy and I think they turned out lovely!

I wrapped some more packages…

There is another look at the balls.  I love them.  They look so smooth and soft.  I spray-painted the tops antique bronze.  It is a little better than the shiny silver.  I probably won’t get around to it this year, but I would like to add in even more vintage colors, like in the link above.

I love seeing the gifts pile up.  Not only is it plain fun to give gifts (and for me, to wrap them because I’m crazy!), but just think… Jesus Christ Himself has the most special gift, His salvation, wrapped up especially for every single person in the world.  It has their name on it.  If you are a believer, it is your job to tell others there is a gift under the tree they didn’t know about, it has their name on it.  If you aren’t a believer, I’m telling you right now!  There is a heaven, but you can’t get in unless you are blameless.  Are you?  Me neither, but Jesus paid for every one of our sins.  Just go under the tree and pick up your gift.  It says, “To: [your name here], From: God the Father & Jesus Christ”.

gift ideas { memory game }

 

I am back to share a gift idea from Purl bee.  I originally found and re-pinned it on Pinterest.  Can I stop saying “on Pinterest” now?  Do you all know what “pinning” is yet?  If not, please go sign up and find out.  It will help you remember all those neat projects you need to waste time on, or all the fashions those stylish girls are wearing or… you get the picture.

The gift idea is a sweet little felt and fabric memory game.  Here is how mine turned out…

I am super happy with it.  And I can share it here because it is for a sweet little friend who doesn’t yet frequent my blog!  =)  It took about 1-2 hours, but it was really simple.  The pattern/instructions make a game with 40 pieces, I opted for only 20 (10 matching pairs).

Often my favorite part of giving gifts is wrapping them.  Every year I have visions of all-matching wrapped presents under the tree, with matching ribbons and creative tags.  It might be all wrapped in newspaper with red and green bows, or brown paper with bright ribbon or large embellishments, or white with stenciling or anything with baker’s twine… Every year the experimentation never stops and it ends up a smorgasbord, but a cute smorgasbord!  With this one I knew just what I wanted to do.  I gathered some supplies…

And came up with this!

I wish every gift I had this year were small enough to fit into these little berry crates!  I got them at Farm Chicks this year ($3 for 6 of them!) and knew they would come in handy for gift-giving.  So fun! 

What is your preferred wrapping style?

deer decor, jar decor, and cd gift idea

I have been decorating…





I want to make some of the jar scenes people have been pinning on pinterest, but those were my only trees and deer!  I can’t find more good ones of either!  BUT, someone did tell me some good news yesterday, that a Hobby Lobby just opened nearby!!!  All the Midwest blogging ladies always say to go there for things, I am ecstatic to go and check it out today!

A week or two ago I made a cute jar, inspired by Ashley Ann’s…



 

Cute and fun and I don’t know yet what I’m doing with it.

Lastly, before I rush to work, my gift idea is a CD with either photo images or a custom music compilation…



Several years ago a sister in law gave me a compilation Christmas music CD, because that was all they could manage… I LOVE IT - to this day it is the first Christmas CD I pop in.  Whether family photos for grandma, or music for your sister, I recommend wrapping the CD cute.  Here is the Pin I followed to create this little package.  This was a wedding photo package, thus the business cards, but you could customize with whatever embellishment you wanted.

Off to work!  One last full day without my kiddos - my mother took them off my hands this week!  Must work, get coffee table, go to Hobby Lobby, come home and CRAFT like mad to finish some Christmas gifts!!  Peace!