decorating for New Year's Eve

What are your plans for tonight? Staying up to welcome the New Year? Crashing early? Celebrating with loved ones, yummy munchies and board games? Snuggling up warm and watching a movie? Doing some online shopping of after Christmas sales (if so, don't forget the coupon code for 15% off of the shop - maybe a good time to pick up the Garland for Every Holiday set?)? If you're online, stop by the temporary landing page for our new website - still can hardly believe it's actually happening! - and sign up for the newsletter so you can stay up to date on sales and things :)

Right now, crashing early sounds really good, but I'm looking forward to a fun evening with extended family, maybe a game or two and some delicious goodies. And enjoying watching it snow. :)

 (one of the lovely bits of living in the midwest is having a snowy mailbox :D)

Have you seen the glittered votives making their way around Pinterest? I made some after seeing them and now think I need to make a few more - maybe in pinks and red for Valentine's Day ... :) These have been adding such a festive touch to our Christmas and New Year's decorations!

The rest of our New Year's decor is centered around our upstairs window. I recently found a small disco ball on Etsy (probably one of my most frivolous purchases yet :D) and combined it with a Snowflake Garland from the shop and a printable Happy New Year banner from theTomKatStudio.

Last year's version of the same window (minus the disco ball) - I made up the twinkle star garland as a last minute way to add a bit of festivity to our house and it ended up going in the shop and becoming quite popular! Kind of fun to see how God uses some of my random ramblings and spurts of creative experimenting :)
I'm thinking that some large balloons (maybe like these) and twinkle lights would round this out nicely - maybe next year!


I've been reflecting back on 2012 for the past few days (and would enjoy making up a year-end round-up post here) and can only come to the conclusion that God is amazing. And, because He doesn't change, that amazingness will continue in 2013.

Here's to a wonder-ful new year!


xo

recipes as art

My dad's mom died in March, and she was an excellent cook as well as a wonderful hostess. She left oodles of handwritten recipes, some that she hadn't made in years, and some that were family classics. As I was looking through them I was inspired by this pin to frame some of them to decorate our kitchen.

{source}

I picked up these frames for $0.33 each from a thrift store, and once I had decided which recipes to use I painted the frames white. The can of paint cost $0.98 at Walmart. Amazing!

Once the frames were dry - after several coats to cover the black and gold finish - I used some natural colored photo corners to mount the recipes onto white cardstock (so that I can switch them out if I want without damaging them). I really love how they turned out! Although after living with them for a while I think I want to go back and add ribbons like the originals. : )

and this last photo shows how they fit in with the decor of most of our downstairs (really the only thing left out is the kitchen, which is behind me!) quite a bit of which is still in progress. Imagine the red turned to a creamy white or very light yellow, for example.

There is something so sentimental about being able to see the handwriting of someone you love, handwriting that will never write you another card, spelling out the recipes from your childhood every day. So, yes, I am very happy with how they turned out!

because we need to remember

 Memorial Day weekend has arrived! Which means school is letting out for the summer - and summer is here!

 There's something special about Memorial Day that I really love - it doesn't hurt that tons of retailers celebrate it with sales! - and that sets it apart from most of our other holidays.
 So many of our other holidays and celebrations center on gifts, "me", and so on, but Memorial Day is about remembering other peoples' sacrifice, celebrating and honoring it and them.
 We gather together, barbeque, eat watermelon, maybe light a few fireworks, watch for the first fireflies, and we remember. 
 They say "freedom is not free", and it is so very true. Pretty much anywhere you look in our nation today, you  see the result of someone's sacrifice, whether it's their blood on a battlefield securing our freedom or their sweat and tears to maintain it. And it's what makes America amazing.

 Kind of sobering when you really think about it, isn't it? And so, we celebrate! Celebrate the people and the miracle that America is.


   (and, in keeping with the spirit of holiday sales, you can use the code "CELEBRATE" for 20% off in the shop until Monday night - enjoy!)


I made the above wreath a few years ago and thought I'd share it again (and maybe make it again for our front door?). It's the simplest thing, really, but still has quite a bit of impact. I took a heart shaped berry wreath and stuck American flag picks in it, letting them "wave" in the breeze, and then hung it on our door. So simple! 



*I'm linking this at Making Monday Marvelous and a few of these fun blogs - check 'em out!

my first Pottery Barn knock-off

I finally did it - I made my own Pottery Barn pillow. I've seen bunches of Pottery Barn inspired things that other people have made, and I've finally joined their ranks. And I'm so glad! A few weeks ago the Christmas version of their catalog came in the mail and I quickly thumbed through it for decor ideas, and, to make sure that I wouldn't get too tempted to buy anything, I even stood by the trash can while I did it so I could just toss it in when I was finished.

And then I saw the photo of the poinsettia pillow. The one that was made of linen and had a white, fleecy looking poinsettia stitched on it. With gold bells. And I knew I could make one. For free. : )
So, I tore out the page and tossed the rest.

I dug through my fabric boxes for the linen and fleece and got the bells out of the Christmas box and got to work (and then got interrupted by small voices letting me know that nap time was over).

Over the next week I cut out 18 petals: 6 large, 6 medium and 6 small. I made up a simple envelope style pillow cover and one evening stitched the petals to it with white embroidery floss while John and I watched a movie. The next day I put the bells on during nap time and voila - it was done!

It was easier than I expected it to be, even though it took longer than I thought it would. (funny how mothering little ones can take up your time :D). I love the result, and am delighted to have added something else to our Christmas things.

lovely limitations

Have any of you read The Nesting Place bog? If not, you might enjoy clicking over. Right now she is finishing up a series of blog posts titled 31 Days of Lovely Limitations. Her series is inspired by this quote from Henri Matisse:

Her version of that quote goes like this:

Now, isn't that true? We (or at least, I) want to make a lovely home for our families, but usually have a rather small (or tiny) budget to bring it to reality. So we improvise with what we have. : )

I've been finally getting pictures hung up around our new house (I didn't tell you that we had moved? Or that I might not be posting for a bit? No? Hmm. ... guess that post must still be in the "drafts" section) and came across this frame that had gotten some red wax splattered on it.
It used to sit next to a red candle that, well, splattered once when I was blowing it out and the stain stuck. The spots weren't too obvious where I had had it in our apartment, but when I hung it in our bedroom in the house the spots stood out to me like a sore thumb.
I thought about taking it down and putting it somewhere else, but it really completed the wall. So .... then I remembered the Nester talking about working within our limitations, almost celebrating them.
And I remembered that I had some lovely old lace that a customer had sent me. (can you see what is about to happen here?)

A bit of glue and a few minutes later and we had a solution!

 Ta da!

The problem was fixed and the frame is lovelier than it was before. Yay!

{I'm linking this up on a few of these blogs}

wall words

Have you seen some of the amazing things that people have been doing with vinyl stickers on their walls? I've been loving them and have so many ideas of ways that I could use them too. But, if you've been reading a while, you know that I am really really cheap  frugal, and would much rather make a knock off than pay for something.

I have been wanting to put a word or phrase in the little empty space in the middle of this picture grouping for a while and finally did it the other day.

I gathered:

• a pencil,
• soft erasure,
• watercolor paints (the really cheap dollar store kind that come with a plastic brush),
• cup of water and white saucer,
• and a moist rag,

all of which I already hand on hand - so this project cost absolutely nothing!

My first step, after determining what I wanted to write (and making sure that Emma was napping so she wouldn't see me writing on the wall), was to pencil in the lettering.
I'm not quite confident enough to just take a paint brush to the wall, even though I would have been able to wipe it clean and start fresh if if didn't turn out just right so the pencil allowed me to adjust the spacing and height of the letters a bit, and stand back and look before I comitted to using the paint. At this point you can erase the letters completely if you decide that it's not the look that you're going for.

The second step was to mix the paint. I used a sepia toned brown that I made by mixing a bit of black and brown in the white saucer. Once I was happy with the color I moved on to the third step which was start painting!
My hand shook a little at the beginning, but I used the damp cloth to ease out any squiggles and just kept moving.
I kept adjusting and adding paint here and there to darken it as I went, and then after a bit stood back to look. It turned out great!

I really love the way it looks, and especially love that it was free! Also, A Little Nick Nack is hostessing a giveaway of some of my things - you might like head on over and enter :)


I'm linking this over on some of these fun blogs - head over and check out what others are posting!