Fall Decor. {Part 1}

I have lost track of my days this week.  It’s all been one big blur.  I pulled out my Fall and Halloween decorations earlier this week.  A week later than I had planned.  Oh well.  It has been spread all over the house since then.  I am finally getting it all wrapped up today.  Yesterday was the first day I was able to dedicate to the house, mostly.  There are always other things to do. :)  I spent a lot of my free time outside in the front.  I am finishing the inside today.  And then the cleaning starts!  Ugghhh.  Cleaning after pulling out holiday decorations is such a to-do.  Why does it always have to make such a mess?   Maybe I am just a messy decorator. 

Anyway, I thought I would dedicate the rest of this week and most of next week to Fall/Halloween decor.  I will share a space each day.  That is the plan…but we all know that plans usually change.  SO, I will post and share when I can.

Here is my front entry.

 

I started out by re-purposing my previous fall wreath.

Here is the wreath I’ve had for a couple of years.

And this is the same wreath this year. 

Such an easy and inexpensive fix.  I wanted to switch it up a bit, but still keep the same general idea.  When I saw this wreath on Pinterest, I knew exactly what I was going to do.

The only thing I bought were the feathers, which is what inspired me when I saw the wreath on Pinterest.  I used my Micheal’s 40% off coupon, so this new wreath cost me $2.00.  I had everything else.

While I had it all pulled apart I spray painted they yellow gourds cream.  It freshened it up so much.  After that was done, I rearranged it all and stuck the picks back in the grapevine wreath.  I added spanish moss, one of my Dollar Tree crows, our monogram and some burlap. 

I cleaned out my planters and added fall color to them. 

I made a glittery 31.  That is my contribution to Halloween on the porch.  My kids would love to carve pumpkins, but I don’t let them.  Mean of me.  I like to save my pumpkins and have them out through Thanksgiving. 

 

Now I feel ready for the fall!

Teacher Appreciation {2011}

I am always doing things in the ninth hour these days.  This post is probably too late to help anybody out, since this was the week for Teacher Appreciation and it is now Friday night.  Sorry about that, but I didn’t actually make these until Thursday.  Either way it’s always fun to share!  Plus I had way too much fun playing with my camera.

We (I) made pens for the kids teachers this year.  I hadn’t ever done this before, but it was so easy.  Think how cute they are going to look on their desk.  I think it will brighten their day!

I started out by wrapping Bic pens with floral tape in a diagonal direction starting from the top and working towards the bottom.  The tape is easy to tear and once you make it to the bottom of the pen just tear it off and seal it by pushing it against the pen.

You can throw away the pen cap because it doesn’t fit anymore once they are wrapped.

I bought two bushels of silk flowers.  Both tulips, one red and one white.  I popped the flower off of the stem and then snipped the left over green stem with wire cutters right underneath the tulip.  That way when I hot glue it on top of the pen it will sit flesh. 

Then I filled the pots up with beans and stuck the pens in.

I wrapped the pots with ribbon and  made a tag from my digital scrapbooking supplies with the teachers monogram.  I was going to punch a hole in the tag and attach it with more ribbon but for times sake, I dug through my office supplies and found the silver clips.  It was the perfect touch!  Lately with my projects, it seems like the things that aren’t planned end up being my favorites.

I got the pots at Hobby Lobby 50% off. 

I stocked up on some brown paper bags the other day.  They are so versatile.  I printed bigger monogrammed tags as well and clipped them onto the bags.

The kids wrote on the back of the tags. 

 

 

Don’t they make you smile?   We love our teachers!

      

Have a wonderful Mothers Day weekend!!  I hope you all get pampered! 

Valentine Decor.

Are you ready for Valentine’s?  I am starting to feel it around here.  I have never decorated for Valentine’s before.  I think it’s kind of cheesy most of the time.  But yesterday I took the plunge and decided “what the heck”!  My entry table seemed so boring and colorless once I took down the Christmas decor, so I spruced things up a bit.

I actually really like it!  Nothing much.  Just simple touches.

The black and red was exactly what I needed.  I really like this pin - stripped ribbon.  I got the red flower at Hobby Lobby (my favorite) and pinned it onto the shade. 

I pulled back out my Christmas garland.  It’s just the right touch.

 

Does this look familiar?  I had extra frames and paper left over from my Christmas gifts (Andrea and I worked on these together over Thanksgiving)  so I put them to use for Valentines.  These frames you can get at Michaels for 1.00.  They are wood frames with a 3x3 opening in the center.  You spray the frame with spray adhesive and then lay your scrapbook paper over the top.  Sand the edges around the frame and in the center and the paper comes right off.  So easy!  You can ink the edges and sand more if you want that kind of look.  I  hot glued some ribbon around it, put black card stalk in the center and hung my valentine heart over the top (that I also got from Hobby Lobby).

Some red hots in my favorite apothecary jar with my glittery winter trees and I was done!

I had some left over ribbon and my wreath was feeling a little naked on my door so I had to fix that.  Since I love ribbon, it was the finishing touch for me. :)

P.S. I really am going to get Jake’s birthday party post up.  I’m just procrastinating for some crazy reason. I will be back soon!

P.P.S I updated my 365 blog.  Check it out to see more of our day to day activities.

Busy, Busy but lots of fun…

I have been spending a lot of time using my creative side lately.  It all started with an activity for Activity Days that I planned a couple of weeks ago.  If you have been around blog land, then you have probably ran across these washer necklaces before.  When I saw this post I knew the girls would have fun doing this.  So I gathered the supplies and ordered the stamping kit.  My husband was nice enough to lend a hand and stamp these washers for me.

   

It was harder than it seemed in the tutorial I read.  That’s why he did it for me. :)  That and he just likes doing those kind of things.  If you do this, I would plan on having at least 5 extra washers to play around with and find a technique that works for you. 

Here is my version of the washer necklace:

 

I let the girls choose between yellow polka dot, green polka dot or white sheer ribbon.  Then they chose a bead.  The beads are just the wooden painted ones from Walmart.  The girls LOVED their necklaces!  I love how adorable they turned out and that each one is a little different since they got to choose their own colors. 

After I got that project all cleared away, I had the opportunity to take newborn photos for one of my friends.  Little Miss Ella made me work hard for some of these sleeping shots which was really kind of funny to me because every time I see her she is sleeping like and angel!!    She pulled through for me though. :)  She is a beautiful baby and now her family has a keepsake of this precious time in Ella’s life. 

You should know by now that I am awful at weeding out photos, so consider yourself warned about picture overload! Meet Ella…

      

       

 

The End…I promise!  Hopefully that was worth all of the scrolling. :)

I have many more posts to do. I should be back soon.  Ady’s birthday is on Wednesday.   I am in the middle of lots of last minute to – do’s for her big day.  It is coming together and I can’t wait!

Random Wednesday…on Thursday night, almost Friday

I thought I would do a quick post on some misc. projects I have been up to. 

Clothespin Magnets.  These were Mother’s Day magnets I had the girls in Activity Days make for their Mothers.  They wrote a nice letter to their moms and then hung them on the fridge with these cute magnets for them to find. 

This was a super easy and fun project.  They look so cute on the fridge!  I have them on mine.  We just wrapped one side of the clothes pin with ribbon, attaching it with a strip of hot glue.  Then cut circles out of 3 different fabrics.  Each circle a different size so you can layer them.  I frayed the edges with my fingertips to give it more of a shabby look and then hot glued a jewel to the center.  When I was done with that I hot glued a magnet to the backside.  I bought good magnets.  I don’t like when you get a home made magnet and you can’t even use it. 

Simple and cute!

 

Armoire Makeover.  When Andrea was here we went crazy re-doing the armoire in my family room.  This has been on my list for a long time.  What a wonderful friend to help me pick out a color and paint while on her vacation!  It turned out great and I so appreciate her help, oh yeah and so does Casey.

Before

and After

 

I love it!  It brightened the family room up so much and added a little bit of fun to it.  I love the unexpected punch of color.

Then there is my Summer Banner.

It is hanging on a mirror in my entryway.

 

Do you see the fabric above the S that says “the joy of”?  I knew I would need a reminder about how much I truly love summer.  It is my favorite time of year.  So I made this banner and put it where we (especially me) will see it often.  I hope it will keep me excited about Summer, even on those days when I’m ready to pull my hair out and dying to see that yellow bus come by!

I have been working my little tail off around here getting all prepared for summer.  I’m going to dedicate the next week to posts about that.  Stay tuned for some summer ideas. 

Mother’s Day Done!

*My two mother’s – Do not look at this post.* 

 

 

 

     These little babies are packaged and in the mail.   

 

  What a great feeling!  A project done AND it will be on time! 

         I made homemade cards inspired from Made.  I sewed  fabric scraps onto cardstalk.  Here are a few of the designs I came up with. 

This was nice for me because I wasn’t following a pattern or stressing out worrying that  I wasn’t doing it just right.  Anything goes with these cards!  I loved them so much that I HAD to make some for me too!

I made coasters inspired from Ruffles and Stuff.  Mine turned out a little different than hers.

I loved the look of the lace, but IT did not love me!  I was ready to seriously pull my hair out and give up.  I really wanted to make these coasters and I already had the muslin part done, so I just grabbed some fabric scraps that were covering my table from the cards and made little squares and sewed those on.  I really like how they turned out.  It was a good mistake for me.  I think they look more like my mom anyway.  I loved these so much that I HAD to make some for me too! 

Happy Mother’s Day to me!!

Besides trying to wrap the lace, this was an easy sewing project for me.  A good one to start with.  I feel a little more confident with that dang machine!  Honestly, it’s the bobbin that freaks me out.  I panic thinking of being in the middle of a project and having something go wrong and I can’t fix it.  So I sew when my husband is home and he’s the fixer! 

Happy Mother’s Day Ladies!!