Wreaths

Last year, for the first time ever, I hung a wreath on my front door.

The wreath wasn't new, I'd hung it in my house before but for some reason never on the front door.

I liked coming home and seeing a bit of Easter on my door.

I think it's safe to say I'm a bit addicted to front door wreaths now.

This year I hung my Easter wreath again but after Easter was over I decided I still needed a touch of spring to welcome all to my home.

So I decided to try my hand at flower arranging and wreath design.

I headed off to my local Hobby Lobby, coupon in hand and found some supplies I thought I could handle.

I don't think I've ever mentioned it but I'm not very good at arranging flowers.

Case in point...

Whenever someone (usually my husband) gives me a bouquet of flowers that you have to put in your own vase I ask my husband to arrange them for me. He does a much better job.

Anyway, regardless of my lack of talent for flower arranging I decided to try to make a spring wreath with flowers for my front door.

As you can see I made a mess.

And here's the finished product.

I think it turned out alright.

I might have gotten a little carried away with the purple flowers sticking out and yes they may have poked my daughter in the face when she tried to open and shut the door and so I just might have had to shorten the ribbon it's hanging from and shortened some of the purple flowers

but over all I think it's better than what I usually am able to do with flowers.

I used a lot of hot glue and some floral wire so here's hoping it stays together.

And this is the first I've worked with painted burlap ribbon.

That stuff is so stiff and unyielding but I like the way it turned out and it wasn't so bad I wouldn't use it again.

And

The really important part is that when I pull in my driveway and see it, it makes me smile

Teacher Appreciation Door

Whew.....it's done. I don't know why it stressed me out so much but it did.

Our school's Teacher Appreciation Week is coming up next week and I was asked to decorate the door of my son's 5th grade teacher. (Cue the ulcers and the frantic Internet searches.)

I even dedicated a board to door and board ideas on Pinterest (Here).

So throw in some Internet inspiration, squeeze a bit of my own twist into it and

Voila!

I was able to cut all of the letters out at the school using their die cut machine ahead of time and glue them on at home. Then all I had to do was hang it up when I got to the school. Ten minutes tops at the school and I was on my way.

I let my 5 year old decide where the stars went and glue them on.

In her opinion the more the better!

I was just happy for the help and now I'm happy it's done!

To celebrate I had a Georgia Mud-Fudge Blizzard.

Yumm!

I'm spoiled

The kids started back to school today and Sweet Cheeks and I are left behind to clean up after the 2 week party.

But that's okay because

I've been spoiled

So I don't mind cleaning up.

Everyone was so good to me this Christmas.

I can't help but feel a little guilty.

It seems that those who love me want my tasks to be a little easier.

I can't help but feel loved.

And grateful.

I received an Ott-Lite.

I am so excited about this one!

Oh the sewing I will do, the eye strain I will avoid, the better lit pictures I will take.

Yep, I'm excited!

Finally,

I  thought you might like to see the fingernails I've been sporting the past few days.

My niece, daughter and I painted our nails the other night.

I tried to use some silver crackle nail polish over "Buffy the Violet Slayer" polish.

The crackle worked but didn't stay silver exactly more just sparkly.

So, for someone who hasn't painted her nails in, oh, 8 years it's a big change.

Very dark nails seem to be a distraction for me.

I can't stop staring at them.

Plus the name of the color, Buffy the Violet Slayer, makes me laugh.

I'll probably say farewell to the violet nails today but I had to share before I did.

I hope everyone had a great holiday and the transition back to real life isn't too traumatic!

Happy Monday Tuesday!

A little of what I'm working on.

Well, I say a little of what I'm working on but really it's what we (as in my dear husband and I (mostly him though)) have been working on. Because I absolutely needed and wanted his help on this project.
Painting.....
Let's be honest.
It's intimidating and I'm scared of it.
and
He's really good at it. (It's one of the jobs he had to help pay for school.)
and
We have vaulted ceilings double scary.
So, because he loves me we painted our front room.

When we moved into this house almost 3 years ago Every. Single. Room. was painted yellow. I am so sick of yellow. During the day it's a really nice soft off-white yellow but at night it is a screaming burn your retinas yellow except for one wall in the front room which is a khaki yellow. I think the previous owners were going for an accent wall sort of a thing but it's really close to the color of the other yellows so in my opinion it doesn't work. However, I've lived with it for almost 3 years......because....well, I don't know what.....maybe refer to what I said above.....intimidating etc.

But now I have a plan.
I even ordered fabric for my plan.
I really hope when it's all put back together it looks as good in real life as it does in my head.

Living Room 

Before (6:30 AM this morning)

Yellow and Khaki extravaganza

After (2:00 pm this afternoon)

Looks a little more blue than I thought it would.

The paint is "Silver Marlin"

I was going for Grayish-Blueish-Greenish. It's more gray in real-life.

 Another Before

Another After

Final Before

 Final After

My favorite part was watching the new paint cover up the old, dingy, dirty, patched yellow. It just looks so fresh and clean! I love it!

And here's a little preview of my budget friendly photo art for this room. I'm really pretty excited about it.

It involves Modge Podge (which I've decided is my craft supply drug of choice) Love the stuff! It's good for so many things.

Hopefully the room will be back in place soon.

A travelling we've been...

All spring and the first half of the summer we joked that somehow our desert home - (Utah) was transported to the Pacific Northwest (Seattle) because it's been so rainy and cloudy.
Then
Just when it starts to warm-up and dry-up in these parts what do we do?
We pack-up and head-up to-------Seattle!
Are we crazy? ----Possibly
Was it rainy? ----- Not really!
Was it beautiful and perfect? ----Absolutely!
My brother-in-law said we weren't supposed to tell anyone how beautiful it was because then everyone would want to live there. I agree it was beautiful but I'm still not sure I could deal with 10 months of rain and clouds for a few weeks in the summer of perfect.
But this past week was absolutely, without a doubt, perfect.
Good friends, good family, good visiting, good sight-seeing, good food, perfect, perfect, perfect.
More pictures later.
and
I never filled in the details on our Monument Valley/Mesa Verde trip.....I guess I'm a little behind.
More soon.....

We've been a bit consumed in this household with a production of The King and I this week.

Two of my children are experiencing the wonderful world of Musical Theatre.

With dress rehearsals Tuesday and Wednesday, then performances Thursday, Friday and Saturday as well as end of level testing in school this week and a Choir concert on Monday our family's nerves are paper thin. But we're hanging in there.

Our church is putting this musical on. Their goal is to provide good family entertainment....and so it's free to attend!

I watched their first performance last night and I was amazed at the level of talent there on that stage. This was not a thrown together production, it was well thought out and well executed.

I have to say that all of that practicing has paid off!

And I'm amazed at the level of dedication shown by everyone involved.

My part has been minimal.

I helped with a few costumes.

But I'm proud to have my children involved with all of these wonderful people.

What a great experience this has been for them.

So, here's my public

Thank You! to all those that have made this possible.

My son: the comedian

Truth or Bear: a popular game at mountain men slumber parties.

Son # the oldest boy, surprised me with this drawing the other day. 

His sense of humor kills me.

So I had to share! of course.

Summer Fun SKIRTS

Approximately once every other year or so I concoct a plan that turns out just as I'd hoped or maybe even better. This week our niece K- spent a few days with us and I thought it would be fun to teach Banana and K- how to sew themselves a skirt.

I took them to the fabric store and they were able to find some fabric they both liked. (Miracle of Miracles because I only had one coupon and I hate to buy fabric at regular price!)

I helped them each make a custom pattern, cut out their skirt and sew them up.

I should have taken pictures of the process....but I didn't....I guess I was a little busy.

Of course Sweet Cheeks wanted a skirt too. Luckily there were some pretty good size chunks of fabric left over so I was able to make her one too.

And some twisted fabric flower pins for her shirt.

Today my girls got to wear their new skirts to church and afterward they obliged me and my need to photograph their cuteness!

What do you think?

Pretty darn cute if I do say so myself.

And of course I had to take a picture because it's going to be at least two years before one of my plans works out this well again.

I'm going to try really hard to come up with a tutorial for the gathered tiered skirt (top pic).

I know I've said that before but this time I really mean it!!!

New Paint --- I love it!

Yet again I've fallen so far behind on my blogging. I've been meaning to post this for forever.

One of the first things I did to this house, before we even moved in, the day after we got the keys, was rip down the awful wallpaper boarders in the bathroom and the kitchen. I didn't even think to take a before picture I just took it down. We (mostly MDH) painted the kitchen over New Years and I said I was going to paint the bathroom.............10 months later it still wasn't done. In stepped my knight in shining armor and got the job done!!!
These photos are the most "before" pictures I can offer!

He replaced the light fixture too. No more Hollywood dressing room light fixture!

She was dad's helper every step of the way!
You can tell it was still warm then, look at those shorts and flip-flops!

Okay so not the best picture but you get the idea. (BTW it is so hard to take a picture of a light fixture!) Blue walls, new fixture, new towel hooks, new shower curtain, new pictures on the wall.
The picture frames were a dollar a piece at the thrift store and then I sanded and spray painted them, the pictures inside are from our trip to England! I'm still planning on getting new bath mats and some more decorations.
I love the blue!

Autumn Spice Table Runner and CraftGawker

Admittedly I'm a little jealous of great photographers (and people who can spell. If you can do both I'm not sure I can have you as a friend anymore---sorry;-)). I've always enjoyed looking at pictures that can portray beauty, emotion, memory and clarity. Somewhere along the line in the past couple of years I've tried to check out a few books from the library and learn a little something about photography. I'm no where close to being good but I feel like I'm a little better......than I used to be. Turns out my few skills are coming in handy with my new business. Yet another reason why although I thought of doing this years ago it wouldn't have ever worked.On my shop blog a few weeks ago I posted about Craftgawker. A web site that features great photography of handmade items that are for sale. I just had my second item accepted!!! You can check it out at the site if you want, http://craftgawker.com/post/2009/08/29/4179/ or just look at it here. It's what I'm calling my 'Autumn Spice table runner'. It's another one of those things that I'm okay if it doesn't sell because that means I can keep it. I've decided that's the way to create things for the shop. Make things I'd love to keep then I won't feel bad if it sells and I won't feel bad if it doesn't sell. Okay, so enough of me bragging on myself. Thanks for looking and being patient with me

By the way, my friend Amy let me borrow her living room and dining room and take these pictures at her house. She has great light, great furniture, and a clean house. Perfect for taking pictures! Thanks Amy!


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