A Little Bit of Christmas

Hey Y'all! It's been a while, hasn't it? We have finally been able to slow down with home school, and now can relax a little and focus on the upcoming holiday season. I have so many fun projects for the kiddos over the next few weeks, and I can't wait to share them with you.

Have you had a chance to put up your tree? I am still in love with the red and turquoise combination on our Christmas tree. Here is a sneak peak of what our décor looks like this year. A little more than last year. I'll be doing a Christmas home tour this next week.

Do you see the fire in the fire place?? We were fortunate enough a few days ago to have the temperature drop, and we got to have a beautiful roaring fire. LOVE!!

 I am now a contributor over at Couponing to Disney. You can swing on over to Kristin's blog to see how I made this cute little Christmas countdown. It was really easy and very inexpensive to make!

Make sure to stop by again soon to see the rest of our Christmas décor!

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Cookie Monster Mug Tutorial

It's crunch time, y'all. Christmas is in 10 days!!! I am working like a crazy person trying to get all of my last minute gifts together. I hadn't planned on it, but most of my gifts are handmade.

Which is really fun!!

One of my gifts I am giving is a Cookie Monster Mug.

This little mug was so much fun to make, and really cute, I think!

I was going to purchase one, but decided I could do it myself.

All of the supplies were purchased from Walmart.

You need:

-One blue mug

-White Oil Based Sharpie

-Black Oil Based Sharpie

-Circle stickers for template

-Scissors

-Rubbing Alcohol

-Paper Towels

Absolutely make sure you have OIL BASED paint pens. The oil based paint sticks better.

Hand wash your mug, dry it, and then wipe it down with rubbing alcohol. 

Then, use two large'ish circle stickers and place them where you want the eyes. (Can you tell we homeschool? Never can have too many stickers!!!)

Trace around the circles with the black paint pen. Remove stickers, and realize that stickers were placed in the wrong spot. Use rubbing alcohol and paper towels to remove said mistake. If you'd like, you can skip this step altogether :-)

Over lap the stickers like the picture below. Trace around the stickers with the black paint pen.

Allow the paint to dry just a few minutes and then remove the stickers. 

You can draw the mouth on next if you'd like.

Fill in the black circles with the white paint pen. It will take several coats of the white, so color in, and then give it a break. Come back in about 10 minutes or so, and reapply the paint. It's sort of like painting your nails. You can't reapply immediately.

Fill in the little pupils, and place in a cold oven on a sheet pan. With mug in the oven, turn it on to 350 degrees and let it bake for 30 minutes. 

Turn the oven off and let it cool to room temperature.

Once it cools, it's ready to gift, or use!

This mug was my inspiration. If you don't have the time to work on a mug of your own, you can click on the photo below and order one for yourself!

***This post contains affiliate links***

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Christmas Decor 2014

This year I decided to do things a little different when it came to decorating for Christmas. Not only did I change the color scheme, but I didn't put nearly as much out.

Mainly because I am lazy. 

I have found that with homeschooling, I just don't have the time to do what I used to do. My priorities have changed drastically, and the things I used to think were important, aren't as important now.

 So we have the main tree in the living room, and the kids have their trees in the bedrooms.

The hubs wanted some color on the Christmas tree this year, and color he got.

This is definitely much different from our tree in the past.

Our Home in 2011

Our Home in 2012

Part 1

Part 2

Our Home in 2013

And now our tree in 2014.

 I really like it. It's fun, and cheerful. 

It sort of reminds me of Thing 1 and Thing 2 from Dr. Seuss. 

We had a little red from last year, so all I needed to do was add a little turquoise.

We have had so many compliments on our tree.

I made this wreath two years ago, and have slowly added more items to it. Last year, I had it on the front door. I didn't want to spend any more money on Christmas decor, but I needed something on the mantel, so I moved the wreath inside. I think it finishes off the whole look. 

I didn't do any greenery on the mantel this year because it felt a little cluttered. 

I did a little decorating to the front entry table, but again, it's very minimal.

 We have been doing a Christmas craft a day in December, and the kids made stained glass ornaments the other day. I found this craft kit in the clearance section at Target after Christmas last year. They had fun making them, and I think they turned out beautiful.

We are focusing on service projects for the month of December. We are going to be sewing and baking, and visiting. 

The kids are really excited about all of it.

In my next post, I'll share what our sneaky elf, Snarf, has been up to.

Thanks for stopping by!

Participating in:

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Snow Envy in Alabama

Are you all frozen solid yet? We sure are. 

Here in Alabama, it doesn't usually get that cold. We may occasionally see temperatures in the 20's, but it's very rare to see temps in the single digits here.

For the past 2 days, we have gone to school 2 hours late. It's been a great way to get back into the swing of things. There hasn't been the morning rush, and everyone seems to be in a fairly good mood when exiting the vehicle in the drop off line.

We got to experience a few flurries on Monday, which resulted in minimal accumulation...can you spot it? 

Oh wait, there it is! You thought our yard had dandruff, didn't you?

 We NEVER see snow, so when there is even the smallest amount, we celebrate.

Yes, we have snow envy.

But being from the deep South, we want snow for a few days, and then we want it to go away. We like the idea of snow...like the "get out of school and roll around and make snow angels for a few days" kind of snow. Not the snow that "shuts everything down kind of snow".

That would be an inconvenience. No one has time for that, now do they? 

So, I sent the kids off to school on Monday, and decided to do some 90% off Target shopping. 

It was quite nice to spend 2 glorious, uninterrupted hours of deal hunting all to myself.

Everything you see below cost $28.50.

I have some great shirts for myself and S.R. for next Christmas, and some awesome crafts as well.

The blue totes were 59 cents each. I have no idea what I will do with them, but I couldn't pass them up. 

I am looking forward to the next few days. I hope to knock out some sewing projects. It's way too cold to do anything but sew.

Stay Warm!

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Bicycle Art

It seems like ages ago I told you that I would have a fun little art project for S.R.'s room. Well, I finally got around to making one.

I just needed the right inspiration!

I wanted to do something with a bike, but just wasn't sure what. I came across this really cute vinyl cruiser on Etsy , and knew it was exactly what I needed.

Source

And this is what I came up with.

FrogTape makes a chevron painter's tape. Crazy! I know!

 It's super easy to use! 

I found some at Lowes the other day, but you can also purchase it from Amazon. 

Click the link below and it will take you directly to Amazon.

                               

The tape isn't recommended for use on textured surfaces...says so right on the box. As you can see below, my canvas is a textured surface. I went with it anyway because sometimes you can bend the rules a bit in the crafting world. 

I used a scrap piece of tape to keep my lines even.

Once all of the tape was down on my canvas board, I smoothed out all of the edges, painted, and promptly removed the tape.

After letting the paint dry for about 30 minutes, I placed the vinyl bike on top of the painting.

You have to be patient with vinyl. It can tear easily, and can stick together if you don't follow the instructions.

Once in place, I smoothed it out to make sure there weren't any bubbles.

I had the large frame on hand. I was actually using the frame as a Christmas card holder. However, last year, the cards never made it to the frame. 

So I figured I would make good use out of it, paint it purple, and hang it in S.R.'s room.

I don't normally do anything with colors this bright or go with things that are this contemporary because it's not my style. I'm more of a classic style kind of girl.

However, it is S.R.'s style...so I'm goin' with it;o)

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Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. By clicking on said links, you help me make money. It wouldn't hurt my feelings a bit if you decided to click and buy;o)

Partying Here:

Craftionary

The Jenny Evolution

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Craft Room Makeover

I have been meaning to share my craft room. I finished it a looong time ago, but I never got around to taking pictures of it and posting about it.

I have barely set foot in here, other than working on a few things for S.R.'s Room at the beginning of the summer. Once the kids go back to school, I will have more time to work in here.

So, let me give you the tour of this walk-in-closet-turned-craft-room.

There isn't a lot of space, but it's perfect for what I am doing. 

The antique sewing machine belonged to an aunt or cousin of my mother's many moons ago...not exactly sure what her connection was. 

When I was a little girl, I used this sewing machine table as a desk to do my home work on. I can't tell you home many hours I popped that pedal up and down while working away on homework.

 The way I had the room set up before made it very difficult to stay organized. To see a before, you can go here.

I ripped out two wire shelves(FYI-they leave ENORMOUS holes in the wall), and gave the walls a fresh coat of paint.

I did a major cleansing of the craft room as well, and donated an entire van load of crafty goodness. 

Now that the clutter is gone, everything has a place, and there's some room to grow.

I needed an "idea board", and loved the look of a crib spring. It's been all over Pinterest, and I had one. Trendy and free...can't beat that!

  My main storage piece has to be my most favorite thing in the room. I had these cube shelving units, but they always ended up looking messy and disorganized. I looked online for storage bins, but they ranged from $6-$12. I needed 18 storage bins...that's a lot of money! So, I went to Target, and low and behold in the dollar section they had storage bins($3 each). I wanted all the same color, but when you're rummaging through the dollar section, one cannot be overly picky.

I found inspiration from the Land of Nod

here

&

here

With 2" wide painter's tape, number stencils, and some white fabric paint, I was able to get a similar look.

All of this for less than $60 versus $108-$216 before taxes and shipping. Not too shabby, eh?

 Another favorite in the room is the diy chalkboard. 

It is an access point into the attic, but with a little chalkboard paint, now it's actually a useful piece...I mean it was useful before..if you needed to get to the backside of the attic..but it's even more useful now, since we'll probably NEVER bust through it to get to that part of the attic:o)

I'm totally digging this new space, and it's so much easier to create in an organized environment...well it will be once I have a few minutes to myself;o)

 What are some ways that you have organized your craft space? I would love to hear!!

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Engagement Party

This past weekend, I had the honor of helping put together an engagement party for a very sweet friend's nephew. It wasn't supposed to be at her house originally, so when I got the call, we had to put all crafty gears into over drive.

I had her email me a few pictures of things she wanted to see at the party and ran with it.

I'll provide some of the details, but I'm going to let the pictures do most of the talking.

This little sign was at the base of the stairs as you walked up to the front porch. It's made of balsa wood. The sign was stained and hand painted with their names and the date of their wedding.

 In the front entrance, there was an heirloom Bible for guests to sign or highlight their favorite verse along with photos of the bride and groom when they were children.

The gift table

Aren't the flower arrangements beautiful? I love hydrangeas and blue mason jars...you can never go wrong with either of those:o)

There was additional seating outside.

 Here are the center pieces for the tables. Battery operated votives and tea lights were life savers for this outdoor affair.

This was the drink station. I thought it was pretty lucky that we share the same last initial...The mother of the groom made the little flags for the paper straws. I wish I had taken a closer shot of them. They were adorable. 

I had a lot of helpers in putting this together, and it wouldn't have happened without all of their help. 

I was so grateful to be apart of making this sweet little couple feel extra special and I wish them great joy and happiness in the years ahead! 

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