Christmas Decor!

We are big Christmas fans around here :) So welcome to our very festive abode...

Thanks to Sister Morin and Mom Krebs for helping these stockings make it on the mantle this year!

Those stocking hangers came from Goodwill for $3 and the wreath and garland from Michael's at 50% off

Berry sprigs in wine bottles? Don't mind if I do.

Our tree! So happy that Chuck and I agreed to get a real tree this year. I'm in love. Please ignore that the ornaments and ribbon don't reach the bottom of the tree. We have a little man who really loves to "admire" the tree. I'm planning on making a new tree skirt, but haven't quite gotten to that yet.

Yard sale box of ornaments for $2. Makes a great centerpiece for our little dining room table

I LOVE our Nativity we got from BYU Bookstore. Although it was looking a little lonely on that table by itself so I made some felt trees to go with it. However, I'm thinking I'm going to make ivory ones for next year so they match the Nativity a little better.

I used this tutorial.

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I made this sign at a church activity last year.

More yard sale ornaments tied onto ribbon for a simple garland :)

We have other fun things around the house, like lights above our kitchen cupboards, lighted garland with ribbon on the ledge in our living room and of course garland and lights and a wreath outside! I have loved coming up with little things here and there to make our home feel like Christmas. I'm grateful for second hand stores that have allowed me to decorate on a budget!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope that the Christmas spirit may find his way to your home too :)

Advent calendar

Man, I love Christmas. I love the lights. I love the hot chocolate. I love the snow (okay, maybe the Utah snow that actually exists this time of year). I love how the Christmas tree lights up our house at night. I love ornaments and garland and nativities. Mostly, I love how the Christmas spirit lights up faces and hearts. I wanted to make an advent calendar this year that embodies that spirit of Christmas. Tammy, Chuck's oldest sister, emailed the family explaining their idea for a service advent calendar this year. It was perfect! (Thanks, Tam!) So, I made up a list of fun Christmas activities and service opportunities (check this link and this link) for the month of December. I had planned to do this:

Our slightly unconventional advent calendar

I put a scripture in each envelope telling the Christmas story. I wanted to do a "service" each day, but didn't want to confine myself to a certain service opportunity each day. So, next to our advent calendar, I have a jar of our Christmas activities. That way, I can choose which service I want to do each day.

It's been awesome to think about others consciously each day. Plus, I love reading the Christmas story. I'm excited for this new tradition and am anxious for when Jackson can really join in on the fun :)

Our service jar

Some of the "service activities" we came up with

Oh, and it was free :) That's always nice :)

Ruler Growth Chart for little ones.

I've finally started finishing some of the twenty something projects I have going right now! Woot woot. I bought the supplies for a wooden height chart that I saw on pinterest ages ago, but just hadn't started it because there were more pressing projects at hand. But last weekend I started it and finished it all in one day! That rarely happens. Okay, never happens. The work was quick and I had Chuck to help out with Jackson so I just kept on trucking!

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I saw this adorable oversized ruler growth chart floating around pinterest and wanted to try making it on my own.

Time commitment:

around 4-5 hours

Cost: 

approximately $15

Supplies:

1. Rust-oleum's american walnut stain (I got mine at Lowe's for seven dollars and some change)
2. A 1 x 10 x 6 (I also got this at Lowe's for around five dollars)
3. Black acrylic paint (I used some old stuff I had on hand)
4. Printed numbers 1-6 (I printed my favorite font at 200 pt.)
5. Pencil
6. Measuring tape
7. Paint brush
8. Finishing sander with 100, 150 and 220 grit sandpaper
9. Old rag

I started by sanding my 1 x 10. I started with 100 grit sandpaper and worked my way to the finer 220 grit. I sanded the entire board because I'm slightly OCD, but if you know what side you want to use, then you only need to sand that side. I would recommend sanding all the 1 inch edges as well since sometimes those can have sharp edges or splinters. I was so excited to get going on this that I forgot the camera. Sorry : (

Next I whipped out the Rust-oleum stain and started slapping it on. Please ignore the crazy red head in the photo. I have no idea why she started working in the garage in her pajamas. Crazy woman.

I waited for about 5 minutes before I started to wipe off the excess stain with an old t-shirt (Thanks, Dad).

I went inside to check on Jackson and to grab a snack while I waited for the stain to dry. It only took fifteen minutes or so. Next, I set up the measuring tape next to the 1 x 10 and marked out the tick marks with a pencil. In order to hang it, I needed to start the tick marks at 6 inches (so I could hang it 6 inches from the ground).

After all the tick marks were in place I printed out numbers in my favorite font (size 200 pt.), cut them out and laid them out on the board. Once I had them lined up where I wanted them, I traced over top of the number, making indentions in the wood. 

With black acrylic paint, I hand-painted the tick marks and numbers (painting within the indentions I had made in the wood).

Ta-da!

What do you think?

 Sorry for the lame pictures, it's late :) But I wanted to be able to finally have something to show for all of this time I've been "supposedly" working on projects. I'm pretty stoked about it. Check back to see how I plan to mark his height each year :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Pinterest projects, anyone?

Okay, so I have about 47 projects on my to-do list, all pinterest inspired, of course. While I am continually adding new ideas to my ever-constant to-do list, I am significantly lacking in the project completion area. My loving husband carefully pointed this out to me last night as I showed him yet another craft on my list.

 "Are you still going to make a bookshelf out of all that pallet wood I helped you disassemble?" (Don't remember my crazy happy pallet day? Check out this post.)

Whoopsies.

So, in honor of my wonderful husband who supports me in my fanatic love of making to-do lists and my not so fanatic love of finishing the task...here are a few creations that I've come up with in the past few weeks. I promise I've been doing something with my time other than running (yes, running) after my adorably active son.

1. Letters for Jack's nursery

These letters are finished, but the silly command strips didn't work very well. Apparently his name is, "JAC." Chuck thinks he got a little impatient pushing the letters against the wall for them to stick. His name is too long...

2. Jackson's wall decal

Sorry, no photo yet. I never remember to go in there until it's naptime or bedtime!

3. Lamps for the master bedroom

4. Canvas paintings for Jack's nursery

I've done a little bit more on these but haven't been able to take photos yet.

The only problem with each of these projects is that they are all at the "dang, I forgot to get frames-is it supposed to do that?-stupid command strips didn't work-forgot to take pictures-can't find lamp shades to work" stage. Alas, I'm still unable to cross them off the official to-do list. In case you were curious, which I'm sure you were, I will be posting about the completed projects with tutorials :)

So, cheers to all of you half-project doers! May nap time never be long enough!

Sleeping baby.

On Tuesday of this past week I was struggling to get Jack to take his second nap. In fact I had been trying for almost an hour. Finally the whines coming for his bedroom stopped. Sweet relief. I opened up the 4th Harry Potter book to relax. 

And then the doorbell rang...

Seriously? 

A man running for state representative was advertising himself and consequently waking up my son who had JUST fallen asleep. I wanted to cry...and not vote for him in November. Since I didn't want to curse all unknowing citizens that happened to ring the doorbell at the most inopportune time...

I decided to make a sign for our door. So I downloaded a cute font from dafont.com (an awesome site with tons of fonts that you can download for personal use - they also have some for sale as well) and came up with this sign:

Ironically enough, the UPS man rang the doorbell while I was making it. I actually said aloud to myself, "You've got to be kidding me." Fortunately, the little guy was so wiped out he slept right through it. Disaster averted.

Forgive the phone pictures, I'm currently camera-less. 

But, I'm happy to say that the next person to come to the door did, in fact, knock instead of ring the doorbell. Mission accomplished. 

Autumn wreath.

I love Autumn. The fall colors, hot chocolate, apple cider, pumpkins and all the wonderful desserts that come with them, scarves and jackets, everything. The season just makes me happy. It's a perfect pick-me-up for end of summer blues. In honor of this most blessed season, I crafted up an Autumn wreath. To be perfectly honest it will probably remain on our door for all seasons because I love it. And because it took lots of precious "nap time" hours to make.

My inspiration came from pinterest (surprise, surprise) from a cute etsy shop. I loved it so much, I wanted to recreate it.

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So, here's my attempt:

Cost: $20

Tools:

1. Wreath - from Michael's on sale ($5) - use their online 40% off coupon!
2. One yard of natural Burlap - from Hobby Lobby ($4) - they have online coupons as well.
3. 4 cream squares of craft felt - from Walmart ($1)
4. Craft pearls - from Michael's ($4) 
5. Roll of Jute - from Michael's ($5)
6. Scissors
7. Hot glue gun and glue
8. Iron and ironing board

Time commitment: 4-5 hrs

To save bucket loads of time (seriously) check out this link and this link for the flower tutorials that I used. Of course, if you'd like to try out some different flowers, be my guest :) As I'm not a master seamstress, I avoid a needle and thread as much as possible (thank goodness they invented the hot glue gun for the sewing inept!). For most of the burlap and felt rosettes I used the second tutorial. You can also check out my pinterest craft page for more ideas :)

I started by making tons of felt and burlap flowers of different sizes and shapes. Be prepared to scald your fingers with hot glue! Sorry, I totally skipped out on taking any pictures of the process...but fortunately, it's pretty self-explanatory. Next, I arranged them on the wreath the way that I wanted them.

Mistake #1: I didn't take into account the way the wreath naturally hangs in balance. So once I got everything glued on, the wreath was hanging a little lopsided and I had to do some rearranging. So, be sure to check that you are decorating it in a way that it will hang in balance!

This is when you whip out your hot glue gun and go to town. I just started gluing everything and used almost three sticks of glue. There were some spots that seemed a little bare to me so I threw in some extra burlap or felt and glued it down.

You can see those "extra" burlap and felt ruffles in this photo.

Next I glued the pearls into the center of the burlap flowers.

Next, I made the "leaves on either end of the flowers as well as off the middle. I cut out two leaf shapes in the burlap and glued them together. Then glued them onto the wreath in what looked like the best spot.

For the folded leaves, I cut a yard strip of burlap about 2 inches wide. I folded it in half and ironed it to get a crisper edge. I cut the yard in half to get two different strips of fabric (one for the top and one for the bottom). I folded it in the way I thought it would look best and then glued all the ends together. Next, I shoved (literally) the end piece in between flowers the best that I could. I wanted to hide the edges that weren't so neat. Then I added a few extra pearls on those leaves!

Lastly, I added the jute to the other side of the wreath. I tied a knot on the back of the wreath to begin and just started wrapping it around and around and around. When I felt like it looked like enough, I cut the jute and looped the end piece under a few pieces of the wrapped jute on the back of the wreath and tied a knot. I threw some hot glue on there too, just in case.

Then I hung it up on our wreath hanger with a little bit of jute!

What do you guys think?

The next thing on the craft list is: Jackson's nursery bookshelf and wall decor and our hallway pallet bookshelf.

Pallets, pallets, pallets!

As Chuck and I have started to decorate our new place, we have discovered that our 500 dollar decoration budget isn't going to go very far when you need (okay, okay...want) to furnish, paint and decorate. We have only spent about 200 dollars of that budget so far on our photo wall (coming soon!), Jackson's nursery decor and paint, an antique trunk for the entry way and other miscellaneous Michael's and Hobby Lobby purchases. However, my mind is bursting with decorating ideas that our budget just doesn't have room for.

Solution? FREE THINGS. Kind of a no brainer, right? Thanks to my mom, dad and Leah our whole place is pretty much already furnished (super duper blessed). However, we are seriously lacking in the book case/storage area and wall art. 

Solution? FREE THINGS. Duh. So, I've been checking the craiglist "free" section almost daily for wood. Any type of wood. I have been seeing tons of awesome pallet and reclaimed wood projects all over pinterest and wanted to try my hand at some of them. 

So during Jackson's morning nap, I went to peruse craigslist. BAM. There was a post not an hour earlier listing TONS of pallets sitting in a parking lot a whole THREE miles from our house. Joy. So, I gathered all of my things, called my dad to borrow his truck and waited rather impatiently for Jackson to wake up. Eventually we made it and they were still there!

I am now 9 pallets richer. I would have grabbed more if they would have fit. Thank you, craigslist for making my life happier, yet again.

Here are some of my ideas:

An awesome farm table of some kind. I have a few different ideas floating around in my head for this one.

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Bookshelves for Jack's room.

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Bookshelves for the office area or living room.

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An awesome reclaimed wood mirror.

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Storage crates! To replace our ugly tupperware box that is currently holding our blankets.

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More storage/bookshelf ideas.

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Which one is your favorite? Or do you guys have any better ideas? Please share!