Little bit of Christmas coziness

I am so excited to have a nice full house to decorate for Christmas. I have been especially excited to decorate our mantle (I am pretty much in love with it)! I've had to let go of going all out this year, but we were able to get a few things up. I think it makes a house feel so much cozier. Dean and Will went out with my family to a little Christmas tree farm down the road from their house, and got us a nice big tree!  Dean strung the lights for me, I was able to help a little with the garland and ribbon and Will was awesome at hanging the ornaments. I thought for sure he would get bored after the first few, but he loved it! Here is a look at our little bit of Christmas coziness.

Leaves, pumpkins and a wooden duck tray

It has been awhile since I have gotten crafty, so I was happy to say yes when asked if I could do the decorations for my church's Women's Ministry, Oasis', Fall kick off meeting last week. It's fun to get my creative juices flowin' every once in a while, and Fall decorations are the prettiest and easiest I think! Take some Fall colored leaves, some candles and throw in some pumpkins and funky gourds and you're done! I went for simple. Life has been pretty busy lately, and only getting busier, so I didn't want to overwhelm myself. Here is what I came up with!

Our theme for this year...

The mini pumpkins had votive candles in them. They turned out so cute, and were pretty once the sun went down.

I'm kind of obsessed with making these paper garlands.

I LOVE how that chalkboard tray came out. If I had thought ahead I would have taken a before picture. It was a light wood tray with a duck painted on it that I got at a garage sale this summer for 50 cents. If you look close you can still see the outline of the duck, but whatevs.

My mom let me borrow some of her mum plants, aaaaand I left them in my garage. They would have been the perfect pop of color here by the fire.

Pretty sister.

Valentine Craftyness

So far in my married life I haven't gotten to crazy when it comes to decorating for holidays. I usually get a few gourds and pumpkins to have around the house for Fall. Christmas we get the tree, put up some lights around the house and hang a wreath on the door. No pilgrims. No Easter eggs. And usually no hearts.

It's not that I don't like decorating for holidays. I actually enjoy it a lot! I think my lack of it is partly because we have a small house, and don't have many places to put decorations or I just don't think about until it's too late. Then of course I didn't always have Pinterest to inspire me!

Valentines Day is one of those holidays that has so many cute decorating options, and I always wish I was able to decorate for. But it always creeps right up on me, and is over before I get the chance!

I was quickly browsing "Valentines Day" on Pinterest the other day to get an idea for Valentines Day cards for Will's preschool class, and came across this cute DIY Valentine's banner. I realized I had everything I needed to make it, so I figured, "Hey! Why not!" I worked on it bit by bit throughout the day, but really if I had been able to just sit and do it with no distractions it wouldn't have taken any longer then 20 minutes to make.

So here is my one and only contribution to Valentines Day this year!

As you can see it is NOT perfect. Burlap is a pain to cut evenly. But that's how homemade things should be; a perfectly imperfect one of a kind!

After looking at this picture I really noticed how colorless my little tan corner is. Maybe I will add some light pink hearts to my branches. Kind of like this:

Source

Here are some other ideas I would love to try someday; Maybe next year!

Source

Source

Source



Pinterest Inspired

If you haven't heard of or joined Pinterest, you should totally check it out. I'm in l o v e. I was that person who had a bookmark list a mile long of recipes, craft ideas, blogs, etc. It wasn't the most organized way of keeping track of things I liked, but it did the job. Until one day our computer crashed. We had to wipe it clean and I lost a l l of my bookmarks. Sad day. But Pinterest, oh how I love thee. It's an online site, so unless there is some crazy internet Armageddon that happens, all my stuff is safe!

Not only is it a great place to easily organize my likes, but more so a place to inspire! I have a ever growing board of DIY ideas, and I finally got around to doing a couple.

This first one is a wreath, inspired by this and this. I am pretty happy with how it came out. The only thing with using the plumbing foam is that it's on the thin side and not very firm. So having flowers on the bottom only kind of drags it down. I think it would be great though if you were doing a wreath like this one or this one.

I used some twine I had around the house from previous projects which I wrapped around the foam tube, and good old 25 cent felt and a glue gun for the flowers. Here's how it turned out!

Hi Will!

I also used straight pins to attach the flowers to the wreath. That way I can change them out with different colors when the season change!

As soon as I saw this next idea on Pinterest, I knew it was just what I needed to organize my earrings. So instead of being all mixed together in a jewelery box, they can hang all pretty on my dresser! Ignore the dark, grainy pictures. The lighting isn't that great in my room.

I used a cheap frame from Savers that I spray painted and lace trimming that I staple gunned onto the back of the frame.

I've also slowly been redecorating my room. I painted the base of those lamps a pretty yellow, and at some point will be adding some ruffles like I did here.

And here's a picture of snuggly Sam, who has been pretty crabby lately. He either has a cold or is teething, but either way all he wants is mommy.