garland show and tell

Ta Da!

I had so much fun doing this. I went to Nester's blog and then to Kimba's blog and read up on how to make a wimpy garland into a big, bad, fabulous one...then I got to work.

Every thing I used in my garland was at least half off at Hobby Lobby or Michael's. I think I probably ended up spending $30 at the most, but that was because I didn't have any random garland sprays or extra ornaments hanging around the house that I could re-purpose.

Kimba and Nester have really great, detailed tutorials on their blogs, so be sure to check out their sites for instructions on how to do one for yourself.

Here's my Garland Table Of Contents:
2 wimpy garlands
3 berry sprays
2 large red berry sprays
3 pine cone and pine needle sprays
1 box of small green ornaments
1 box of larger red ornaments
2 larger pine needle sprays
a few branches from our live Christmas tree
3 artificial hydrangea stems
5 gold rattan balls
a glue gun
floral picks (with wire attached)


A little tip I learned for stretching out what you have - I took floral scissors and took every spray apart. After taking them apart, I hot glued the smaller pieces into various places in the garland. If you spread the sprays out, your garland looks less sparse.

Another tip I learned: using real leaves, pine cones, etc. saves a ton of money and adds a realistic look to the garland.

Warning: Once you start filling your garland, it's tough to stop! I kept thinking about more and more things to add to mine.

Check out Nester's blog today to view other garlands. :-)

stocking hanger

We live in an itty bitty old house. I love it. Especially now that we have our new little room addition.

The one thing that I miss, however - especially around the holidays - is a beautiful fireplace mantle to decorate.

This year, I came up with a couple solutions for my non-mantle-having-ness.

My garland is hung on my television armoire, and my stockings will be hung on this:



It's just a board I bought from Home Depot that I cut down according to the wall space I wanted to put it on.
The knobs are drawer pulls from Target.

I debated endlessly about what kind of hanging device I wanted to use for my stocking holder (hooks, antique door knobs, painted drawer pulls, or a random collection of all of them), but finally came up with these little guys. I figure that they were simple enough to use for something different when Christmas is over.

First I stained the board.
Then I painted it Antique White (Farrell-Calhoun).
Then I sanded it with a few different kinds of sandpaper.
Then I drilled holes in the wood and attached the knobs.
Easy and cheap.

I still need to attach little hooks to the back of the board so I can hang it on the wall and then I'm done.

Now if I could just find those stockings... hmmm...

uh oh mommy...

MY SISTER!

That's what I heard Avery saying 2 minutes after I'd left her in the room with her baby brother. All I wanted to do was re-heat my coffee in the microwave. Nothing big... surely Avery would be fine in the room with Charlie for just a minute, right?

For the record, when you hear, "Uh Oh, Mommy! My sister!" from a 2-year old, you should probably hurry to see what's going on.

This is what I found:



Charlie was decorated with pretzels. Lots of them. A whole bag of them, to be precise.

When I asked her why Charlie had pretzels all over him, Avery just said, "Uh Oh... All over him." I'm not exactly sure what that means. It's not exactly an admission of guilt, but not a denial either.

She'd make a great politician, that one.

Lesson learned.

deck the halls

We brought out Christmas tree home last night.
Avery dressed up for the occasion. In a cardigan. And long-sleeved t-shirt. And crocs. Without pants.

'Cause that's how we roll...

Charlie was so excited he could barely contain himself.

Moving the tree because Mommy can't make up her mind.
Dave wasn't surprised.

A little Griswold Action for ya'

Avery was REALLY into the Christmas tree...as you can see.

Time to make cookies!



Yep. Still sleeping.

oooh...wait! He's opening his eyes!!! WOO HOO!

watching the cookies bake - and a wardrobe change...


Merry Chimmas!

nester's garland challenge

Since having my C-Section, I've been home-bound and have had to wait 2 weeks to drive anywhere. By nature, I'm a goer and a doer. NOT a sit-arounder.

My tiny, toddler off-spring is naturally the same way, poor thing.

Needless to say, the last 2 weeks have been kind of tough for me and Avery.

Incidentally, Avery's way of showing her displeasure is to whine and throw fits (huh...mine too...) so that's been really fun.

I'm pretty sure that terrorists would be more likely to spill their guts if you locked them in a house for 2 weeks with a bored toddler and a nursing infant.

That kind of torture would make even the most stoic of all people go absolutely crazy.

Before you go calling Brooke Shields, I'm happy to report that my 2 week stint in toddler-catraz is officially over tomorrow. Driving privileges will be restored, and hopefully, so will my sanity.

Today (my final day of home-boundedness) was David's day off.

It took a little convincing, but because he loves me (and I just gave birth to HIS SON who looks JUST. LIKE. HIM.), he agreed to drive me to the one place on earth that can simultaneously make me completely giddy and him completely depressed.

Hobby Lobby.

There are some really cute Christmas Decorating ideas floating around in the Blogosphere and I'm just itching to copy them. When I saw Nester's little challenge, I thought that it would be the perfect incentive to do my own garland.

The floral stuff was all %50 off at "Lobby Lobby" (as Avery calls it), so I just grabbed a bunch of random items.

Here's a picture of my loot:

I found these pomegranates sitting in a lonely storage tub under my bed just begging to be used. They were from a frou-frou boutique here in town and were WAY over-priced. I bought them back in my pre-kiddo days.

I'm using them.
For sure.
They deserve to be seen and enjoyed.

Honestly, I'm a major rookie at the whole floral crafting thing. My first effort was a fall hanging basket that I have on my front door, so there's no telling how this will turn out. It could potentially be disastrous.

SO - tonight, while watching "Krosty the Towman" for the one MILLIONTH time, I will begin the brainstorming and researching process of the whole garland-making business.

Wish me luck and stay tuned for my garland post on Dec. 10.

almost wordless wednesday

you gotta have friends...

Last Monday (or was that THIS Monday?!? - the days sooo run together right now.) Avery spent the day over at my friend Kris' house. Kris very generously agreed to watch Avery while we were coming home from the hospital with Charlie.

Kris' husband, Kevin took this precious picture of the two cuties playing together. I love this picture and had to share it with you!

happiness and bloggy love

You like me?!?! Oh goodness...

Rachel gave me an award.
Isn't she the sweetest?
I started reading Rachel's blog a couple of months ago.
She's a cutie.
She and her soon-to-be pastor husband are currently in the process of adopting a sweet little baby from South Korea. Check out her blog if you get the chance.

I'm supposed to pass this award on to another Bloggy Buddy, but before I do - I have to tell you 6 things that make me happy.

Thinking about happy things just makes me feel...happy...
and since I'm a bit of an overachiever, I did 8.
I know. Obnoxious.

By the way -
I should totally write down the things that make me happy more often.
I found writing this post to be such a good thing for my crazy, postpartumness (I have no idea how to spell that because I'm pretty sure it's not a word.) .

In a world that seems hyper-focused on negative things, remembering God's grace and goodness is so important.

Maybe that's what God meant when He inspired the apostle Paul to say,
"Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things."
Phil. 4: 4-9

That being said...

1. The Gilmore Girls

(Yep. I thank God for The Gilmore Girls. See how I can ever-so-smoothly transition from the spiritual to the televisional? Talent.)


I love watching The Gilmore Girls. Rory and Lorelei's cute back-and-forth banter, sweet mother/daughter relationship, and the crazy characters on the show make me SOOO happy.

I gotta tell you - The sudden loss of The Gilmore Girls was a tough one for me.
I miss my Rory and Lorelei.
They talked me through morning sickness with Avery, late night feedings, and those early postpartum days.
The final season was terrible. It's like the writers just threw together and ending and called it quits.
Totally sub-par.
Where's my CLOSURE people?
It's just not right.

With the exception of the final season, The Gilmore Girls is definitely a happy thing and deserves a spot on my list.

2. New baby smell and sweet cuddles



3. Glitter and buttons and crafting...oh my.

Misty - here's my stocking I finished last night (I just learned how to make paper rosettes. Fun, huh?):



4. Etsy
Think of something.
Anything.
Type it in the search box.
Lovely things appear on the screen.
Amazing.
It's a beautiful Miracle of Modern Science.

5. Friends
I have wonderful friends.
Yesterday, my friend Maribeth texted me to see how I was doing.
When I told her that I wasn't doing too hot, she got a couple of my other girlfriends together and they all came over to keep me company.

They brought me a Diet Coke from Sonic.
And pizza from the yummiest pizza place in our city.
I LOVE THEM.

Everyone should have ladies like those in their lives.

6. Sugah. In all of it's beautiful forms.
Reunited and it feels so good...

Look what I found: Chocolate SHOES. WHAT???


7. This guy.
Cause he took 9 months of abuse, and still loves me like crazy.


8. Coffee
Mommy needs coffee.
Must. have. coffee.


So now I pass this award on to Maribeth.
Showin' the love for my sweet, sweet friend!

the rumors are true

boys are different than girls.

definitely.

By the way, who's brilliant idea was it to buy a WHITE changing pad cover? Genius.

christmas crafts: inspiration and work in progress

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. We did!

Since we have a newborn, we really couldn't get out this year, so we just took it easy at home. We had a fun morning watching the Macy's Thanksgiving parade and then were visited by our family members (who brought lots of yummy leftovers for us to enjoy).

I would say it had to be the most perfect Thanksgiving ever: no stress, free food, and sweet time with my awesome husband, precious little girl and brand new baby boy. Perfect.

_________________________

The crafting bug hasn't seemed to disappear with the baby hormones and I'm already planning my Christmas projects.

I got on ebay the other day and found these adorable little wooden birds. I ordered 10 of them and can't wait to get to work making them beautiful.

Here are some of the things I'm dying to do with them:
I found some great ideas on the Cherry's Jubilee Blog

And then there are these by Glitter and Bliss



Misty (my new precious bloggy buddy) found the allusive Christmas stockings in her town and sent them to me this week. How awesome is she? It was so fun to get them in the mail! Thanks, Misty! I'm gearing up to make them lovely this week and I can't wait!

I've been working on these Tussie Mussies for awhile now. Here is the inspiration picture taken from an etsy shop

I've seen them a million other places too. I just can't decide how I want to fancy them up.
Here is my WIP (Work in Progress):

I've also been working on these button trees this week. I found the vintage buttons on sale at an antique store down the street, but they only filled like 1/2 of the tree. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to need to buy a million more... Add it to the list...


Emmie Cakes makes this winter banner. If Santa brings me a Cricut, I'm thinking that I can do it myself. Are you listening, Santa?


I'm kinda obsessed with cute little vintage style ornaments lately too.

Here's a cute one you can make-
Sillouette Ornaments by Kimba


Here's a vintage-Style Christmas Ornament that I found on Etsy:

And another one from this shop:

There is lots of crafty fun to be had, my friends. Lots.

Poor Charlie.

I finished my Christmas banner from Emmie Cakes the other night while nursing Charlie. I noticed that he had little tiny pieces of glitter on his forehead when I was finished. Hopefully, the early exposure to glittering doesn't affect his masculinity later in life...

If so - I'm totally blaming Martha.