A new 'light' tree

Last yr- after Christmas I decided that I was tired of the same formal tree every yr. Done up in reds and golds. I wanted to do something different for the next Christmas. So while the dollar tree was still having its Christmas clearance last yr, I went and stocked up on half price Christmas ornaments.

Then I decided that I could make Book page garland. I think the whole thing didn't cost me more than $25. And now we have a new light-colored, fresh , clean look to go with the new look of our house!

Hope your holiday season is stunning!

family room transformation.

Okay- so my camera really sucks. I tried to take pics in different light and on different settings and could hardly get a 'good' pic. So you are gonna have to use your imagination to see what it really looks like.

First, the befores: That poor wallpaper had to come down after 5 years. I really liked it when we put it up, but it was time to say 'goodbye'

And now the afters.
I used the same stencil on the wall that I did in the pantry (even though I had planned to do something else- but I REALLY love the way it turned out). I painted the walls gray and the big wall with the windows on it, buttery yellow. The curtains were table clothes. (from our curtain rods to the floor, we have over 80 inches which is the standard curtain length- We would have probably had to special order some curtains) So I found my table cloths at TJ Maxx and went to Joanns and found the blue print fabric that I sewed on top. Easy and cheap. Even thought I only have 4 windows up in these pics, all 5 are up now. It is a BIG room, but whenever some one came in after the redo- they always stated how much BIGGER the room looked-lol

PS- not sure why blogger wanted to underline half of my post, but I can't get it off- so just ignore-lol

Peep Wreath

I got this idea HERE. And thought it would be a cheap and easy addition to my Easter decor. (Plus I just LOVE the way peeps look) I already had an extra dollar store wreath foam. I was gonna wrap it in ribbon when I realized I had to use a lot of ribbon and didn't now if this wreath will even last more than this month (Although I will try to preserve it in an air tight bag) So instead- I had some white felt that I cut with pinking shears and wrapped around the wreath. I bought 2 packages of peeps but only used 1 and 1/4th.

Before

After

Aaaah!.... Organization!

We are getting ready to sell our house (to build one in our backyard-lol....on a lot) Anyway- We have done a lot...A LOT... to this house since we have moved in. New carpet, new countertops and backsplash, painted every room in the house, added curbing and grass to the backyyard ...the list goes on and on. However, there are a handful of projects that we really didn't do a lot to. Our pantry is one of them. Jonny put down linolium tiles soon after we moved in- and primed the wood- but that was as far as we got. I realized (dreaded) that we would have to re-paint the pantry to sell the house.

Here are some befores:

In hiding things fron the kids- I also hide them from myself. I seriously forgot all that was in there.

Then- I was looking at some of my favorite decorating blogs and came across THIS. At first, I just looked at it over and over. Then it became an obsession. I HAD to re do it. I wanted...no needed... a pantry that cute and organized. So we made some changes. I bought the same gray that she did (Flagstone by Olympic) and knowing that I wasn't gonna do vinyl (because of cost and time) I set out to find a stencil. I went to Hobby Lobby and found a cute one. I still liked the design of her vinyl more- but I would get the same look with my stencil. I was excited!


Unfortunetly- I didn't get many "during" pics cuz I lost my camera- (It is still lost- I am using one that I bought to replace my old one the last time I lost it- but I don't like the replacement very much - and neither does my computer, when uploading)

The hard part was when I decided to use a paint pen to trace the stencil on with. It worked tons better than putting the paint on but.....it was SUPER time consuming. I had helpers (heck- even Jack "helped" me trace with the paint pen) but it still took about 10-15 minutes per stencil to trace it on. It took me 2 weeks to complete my project. And in the middle of each self, I would realize that I didn't have enough baskets and organizers. I made many runs to Goodwill, Walmart, Target and Fred Meyer. Some organizers were for show (Fred Meyer)- some were just plainly to get organized (Walmart).

Jonny said..."Did you find things you didn't know you had?" Oh yeah Baby!

It was a neat experience- but I don't wanna do it again for about 10 years please!

I also did the laundry room the same way- but since it is still cluttered- you will have to wait- we are getting there though!

Sweater Refashion.

I found a thrift shop sweater and embelleshed it. I found some old lace from a thrift store in Utah (when we were there at Thanksgiving) and liked it so much- I sewed it on the front. Yeah- here is me (playing with photoshop) and my (new to me) sweater!

I also took off the old flat black buttons and sewed on these vintage pearly ones. I really love how it turned out!

It's So Punny!

I have become a stickler for Valentine's Day. Why? Because of all of the puns. I love puns. How can you not love someone that hands you an apple and tells you that you are the "Apple of their eye?" It is sweet and giggle worthy at the same time. So here are our Valentine's this yr.

Bridgers: (With a stretchy dino toy) Valentine, You are DINO- mite!

Nolan and Carli both chose this one. "Don't ever CHANGE!" (Given with a baggie of chocolate gold coins)

And Teacher Gifts: The kiddos spent an evening dipping fortune cookies and adding sprinkles. Then we put them in Chinese takout style boxes with the punny words of.........

(Do you see where this is going?)

"I am FORTUNATE to have you as my teacher." It was a fun Valentine's year! (Can't remember if I posted this fortune cookie thing before, but we did it last yr too.) I like Fortune cookies even more when they are dipped in chocolate! Mmmmmmmmmmm!

Sweater Refashion.

I have been embellishing a lot of sweaters lately (okay- only 3 so far) but here is one that I wore to church on Sunday. I had this sweater for about 5 years.

I finally took in the sides and added tulle circle that I burned the edges of and put vintage lace trim and Vintage buttons in the center. And hand- stitched it onto the sweater.(I found that a local antique shop has a whole array of vintage buttons- think I am in love)

Bookshelf Bliss!

I had been looking for a skinny bookshelf when I spotted one at Goodwill for $14.50. Okay...So it needed some TLC. (Note: This bookshelf has 3 shelves- I took them out so that I could begin the makeover and was too lazy to put them back jus for the picture.)
I primed it, painted it and had my dear husband cut a sheet of wainscoting for the back. I painted it a green that I poured a lot of black into to make my own color and then stressed it and stained it. I LOVE the way it turned out.I liked it so much that I decided to do something similar with a small bookshelf that I have. (I like to keep this bookshelf on my large bookshelf so that it can house books that I have bought, but not yet read.)
I did the same treatment with paint, stressing an staining and then modge podged book pages to the backing. I like the way it is now snazzy (Yup- I said Snazzy-lol)

Now I just need to do the same thing with my large bookshelf to make my office book corner a lot lighter (and more uniform)