IS IT HERE YET?

The exhaustion has set in. I am counting down to tommorrow at 5. That is when my guests are due to arrive and whatever isn't done by then isn't going to get done and I will just have to accept that. Until then I will be assuming the role of crazed mad woman.
In between wrapping, cleaning, some minor cooking and general craziness I found time to make some tassles for gifts. Thanks to The Nester http://www.thenester.com and her Tassle Ebook.. They were so easy and such fun to make. It is truly addicting. I think I actually dreamed about tassles last night.

I found the Santa ornaments at Crate and Barrel. The other supplies were from Michaels. I am not sure which I am giving and which I am keeping. I'm having a hard time deciding. I hope to make more for a party I have on Monday but that will have to wait until after the big day.

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!!!

I MADE IT MYSELF

I always like to do some sort of crafty project as Christmas presents. This year I decided on these cute embroidery hands. I saw this in the May issue of Country Living and it's from a fellow blogger myplumpudding.blogspot.com I will have to go ck out her site after I'm done posting.
I took the embroidery hoop and painted it the color I wanted. I traced the kids hands with pencil onto what I guess they call embroidery fabric. Then I started stitching and this is how they came out. Def not perfect but very cute.

This one is for my Mom And this one I did for my girlfriend. It's purple, the picture doesn't show the color very good.

Really easy, really inexpensive (got all the supplies from ACMOORE) and I hope a real keepsake.

I hope to do one for myself but that will be a winter project.

CHRISTMAS HOUSE TOUR

I thought I would join in The Nester's House Tour and show some of my decorations. I had hoped to do this earlier but the day got away from me so here I am as the house is getting dark taking pictures. Not the best but they will have to do!



Santa greets you as you walk in the front door. This is my entryway.

I got this large white container at Target over the summer. I think it's a beverage holder. I love changing it up every season. Summer had lemons, Fall had pumpkins. One of my favorite items!

We don't have a fireplace and mantle to hang our stockings so a few years ago I saw something similiar and thought it might work. Found this ladder at a craft fair. It does the job.

Every year Girlie girl sits on Santa's lap. I wanted to display in a nice way so I bought some inexpensive frames and fabric. The fabric is hot glued to the paper that they frame came with and he picture is taped. So simple and I love the results.

This is a secretary that I got from Craigslist over the summer. This is def my favorite piece of furniture. I have found that the more stuff I cram into the shelves the better it looks.

This is my break front in the dining room. I ordered the BELIEVE from a friend who is doing the vinyl words. Still waiting for a few snowflakes to finish it off. The large picture is actually tin and the picture is magnet so I can change them out with the seasons. I have to do a future post on this piece. It's just to cool.

Kitchen shelf that I change up every season/holiday.

Little cabinet in the kitchen. I just got the Santa and Mrs Claus this year. They are kissing salt and pepper shakers from Gooseberry Patch. So cute.

Here's a view from the hallway into the living room. I'm loving my red furniture with Christmas.

I didn't get a good picture of the tree so will have to show that on another post.

Now I am going to attempt to link up to The Nester. Wish me luck, I am completely computer illiterate

BETTER THAN SCRATCH

It's a rainy day here and girlie girl announced she wanted to make Gingerbread cookies. I have never made them from scratch and didn't think today would be the best day to make my first attempt. There is so much still to be done. More shopping, decorating, cooking and at some point some cleaning. Wanted to keep things nice and easy to insure a happy experience.
I found this at the grocery store and figured it was worth a try. So easy!!!
We rolled out the dough and used some cookie cutters we had. She especially liked the mini ones. We had lots of fun decorating with sugar glitter. Let me just tell you that stuff gets everywhere. I'll be cleaning that up still in January.

Yummy right out of the oven

Here's the finished product. They are pretty good tasting.

This week we'll try the sugar cookies!!

Hope everyone is relaxing and gearing up for the last full week before Christmas.

NOTHING LEFT BUT THE COOKING

I'm sitting here relaxing waiting for my inlaws to arrive for the holiday. Everything is done. Food is purchased. Table is set. House is clean. Even the serving dishes are decided on and I went a little crazy and marked each one with a sticky note telling us what goes in what. All that is left is the cooking. Thankfully I won't be doing much of that. My mother-in-law has perfected the turkey cooking so why mess with a good thing

Here are some very poorly taken photo's of my Thanksgiving/Fall decorations.
I got this piece from Craigslist for $50. I had to do some minor tweeking with paint and new molding up top. I love how it turned out and I can't wait to decorate it for Christmas.

Girlie-girl helped me set the table. We counted all the plates, forks, knives etc. Thought it was a good opportunity to do some practice math. She also practiced her writing skills by doing the place cards. I am going to keep them. I know years from now it will be such a joy to pull them out and remember when.

I usually don't go crazy with table decorations. The food is the main event and it requires alot of room. I found these for $3.50 at a produce place. I thought they were nice and would be good to use for both Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Here's the final table, before I put on all the serving pieces. Right now there isn't a clear space on the table. My mouth is watering just thinking of all the good food that will be there in a couple days

Happy Thanksgiving !!!

LITTLE THINGS GETTING DONE

Each year our town has a annual Holiday parade the Sunday before Thanksgiving. This year hopefully will prove to be the best. The forecast is predicting Sunny and 60 degrees. In years past we've had to sit thru rain and frigid temps. Most of the kids never last long enough to see Santa make is appearance. After the parade we have a bunch of friends and family back for a party. Because of the party and also hosting Thanksgiving dinner I like to really decorate for Thanksgiving. I've been collecting things over the years.
I got these boxes a few years back for Halloween. I love them.

I always want to keep them up for Thanksgiving and have thought about painting the other side. I finally took the time to do that. I think it turned out okay. I'm not loving my turkey but it will do.

I have a few more things to finish up on and then hope to show pictures of all the fall/thanksgiving decorations on Thursday.

I feel like I will finally have them all tweeked just in time to take down and start on Christmas. Oh well, really most of the fun is in the actual decorating not the finished product.

SEASONAL CHANGES

Today brought rain, wind and girlie-girl coming home early from school sick. I predict H1N1 has come to visit.
Since we were unexpectantly stuck home for the afternoon I got to work on some of the things on my forever growing TO DO LIST.
Here is a picture of my beloved Ektorp couch from IKEA. We've had it for about 5 months now and I love it. We bought it with the canvas slipcovers and I also got red slip covers which were on sale. I planned on putting them on during the winter months.



It seems winter has arrived!! Here's what the couch now looks like. I love how cozy it makes the room feel. You can't tell from the picture but the fabric is a corduroy, really nice. It was so easy to switch over and just when I get bored with this it will be time to switch back.

Lots more projects to do and if my prediction is right looks like alot of them will get done in the next few days.

Happy Weekend!

THE BEAUTY OF FALL

The best part of raking leaves is the playing in them. Girlie girl and I were out yesterday having some fun. I did the raking and she did the jumping.

We have a huge tree in our front yard. Gives us great shade in the summer and provides us with lots of leaf raking in the fall. I think last year we had at least 13 leaf bags when we were finished. Looks like we will be starting that chore in a few days!

I saw a version of this on the cover of Midwest Living. I loved it so attempted to copy it. Just used a Sharpy marker for the wording. Turned out pretty good. Looks like my pansy's could use a drink.

I DID IT!

I did it. I painted the wall with chalkboard paint. Hubby was in a good mood one night last week so I sprung it on him. Honey, sweety can I paint this wall? He quickly said yes. I was like who are you and what have you done with my husband? Not that he is difficult all the time but we sometimes don't see eye to eye with my decorating ideas. So I took the plunge and I love it. It's fun and whimsical. I'm sure we will have alot of fun with it.

COUNTDOWN CALENDAR

I've heard that Halloween is becoming the next biggest decorating holiday next to Christmas. I believe it, from what I've seen in the stores and on all the wonderful blogs Halloween has gotten big! They even have a halloween version of the advent calendar. I got this at The Christmas Tree Shop. I love it - so cute and Girlie girl loves updating it every morning. I'm sure you could make one of your own but for $6.99 who can beat it! 12 days and a wake up to Dress up day!

Have a great Monday.

NOT BRAVE ENOUGH YET

I love all the blogs I see that have been brave enough to paint a wall or large section with Chalkboard paint. I feel I have the perfect spot but I lack the courage ( and possibly the ability to convice hubby) to go for it. I recently bought Peel and Stick chalkboard from Lillian Vernon. It came with 4 9"x12" panels. The packaging says you can remove and reposition. I was going to use them in the family room for girlie girl but found something else for there so I've had these in my bin to use eventually. Today I thought I would stick them in that perfect place and see how they look. Of course they don't take up near the amount of space but it's still a good for a test run for painting the whole wall. I like it (sorry my picture taking is so poor. We'll see what hubby says when he gets home and maybe I will add chalkboard paint to my list of TO DO's.

IT'S MY PARTY AND I'LL CRY IF I WANT TO

Today marks 2 momentous occasions. Girlie-girl started kindergarten and I celebrate a birthday. A few tears were shed as I waved her good-bye at the bus stop. Nothing to worry about, she loved her first day. She's getting so big. On the other hand I am still trying to love the idea that I am a year older. It's growing on me. Of course the presents, cake and cards helped.

ONE LUCKY GIRL

I am lucky enough to have grown up having a family shore house at the Jersey shore. I've spent almost every summer weekend there since I was a kid. My grandparents bought the house about 40 years ago. It was a great house but it got old so about 7 years ago we (as in my Mom and Dad) knocked it down and built new. We now can use it year round. We've had holidays, family reunions here and it is great.

We have water on both sides of us, a canal on one side with a boat and the inlet on the other. We are all still amazed when we look out and see what our view is. This weekend Hubby took Girlie girl on the waverunner for the first time. My heart was in my throat while I watched them leave the dock. I was waiting on the other side of the house to see them go fast. She loved it. I heard her yell FASTER!! She is definitely her father's daughter.

Here's a few pictures above. I was hoping while my computer cousin was visiting us over the wknd he would help me figure out a easier way to post pictures. He mentioned something about another program but we ran out of time so for now I'll just have to deal with it taking me forever to post and today they are just all over the place. Someday I will be a computer savvy. Either way I am one lucky girl!!

BIRTHDAY PARTY IDEAS

I can't tell you how much all your blogs have helped make my recovery bearable. I am now 3 weeks into it and getting antsy. Only 3 more weeks to go. As I sit on the couch each day I look around the house and think of all the things I want to do. Changes and updates I can't wait to make. For now I will follow doctors orders but look out when I am all better. Paint, fabric, new furniture. Lots of things will be going on!!

So for now I thought it would be a good time to work on some lists and any computer stuff. Girlie-girls birthday is the end of August. She wants a Cowgirl party. There is a great Internet site http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/ Anyone can go on and post there kids parties. Some are awarded 1st/2nd etc place. It's all organized into themes and there are some great ideas. I've found so much already and can't wait to get it all going.
For now I thought I would post some pictures from last years birthday which I did post on that site. The theme was Fairies Tea Party. I had a great time planning it. Everything turned out great and most importantly Girlie girl loved it!!

We set it all up in our front yard under a big tree. I borrowed the
Ikea tables from friends along with a couple tea sets. We made
place cards and bought tea party plates etc from the party store.
I had princess music playing and the girls feasted on PB&J, PB and Fluff, Cream cheese. I used a flower cookie cutter to cut them all
out.
Each guest got a set of pink fluffy fairy wings and a pink butterfly net.





For games we took the game Ellafun and placed it inside this cardboard
tube Hubby found at work. I painted it to look like a tree trunk with a little fairy peeking out. The girls all tried to catch the "fairies" as they came out.








We also played pin the wings on the fairy. I just took some foam core and
painted the fairy (glad to see my college art degree being used) Had some
old fairy dress up wings that I put velcro on.














This is my favorite picture of the day. That is girlie girl on the left with her cousin. So precious with their little fairy wings on.
Hope you enjoyed. I am getting all sentimental about Girlie girl growing so fast. Wish I could stop time but for now I am off to try to find cowboy boots and hats on the Internet.

BEST LAYED PLANS

Oh I had such good plans for my blog, my house, my summer. Well I just needed to get past some minor surgery last Wednesday. Well my minor turned into major. Had one cyst on my ovary that turned out to be more than one and some other fun things. So I am now sitting here with about an 8" incision in my lower abdomen and strick doctors orders to lay low for 6 weeks. UGH! That seems like a lifetime from now.
I am still trying to wrap my head around it but I intend to make lemonade with these lemons. I will soon be more mobile so I plan to do lots of sewing in a new craft room I plan to do (I should say have my brother do) I am going to finally organize all my photo's online which should result in lots of before and after posts on my blog.
I will say that all your blogs have saved me from long days of watching all the truly stupid stuff on TV. Thank god for my computer.
I'll be back soon!

UGH!!

Hubby is back to work thank god but now my computer is sick. It's at the doctors now so I have no way of posting pictures etc. Today I am at a friends to borrow her computer so I can do bills (what fun!)
Of course I am taking some time to browse all my favorite blogs and as usual have seen so many good things.
Hopefully computer will be better by next week and I hope to get some good posts going. First on the list is to update the picture of my house. Need to show how pretty it looks in summer, at least how pretty it will look when I get some time to go out there and plant some things. Just never enough time in the day, week, month.
Hope everyone has a good week. I'll be back soon!

Everyday with Hubby.

So as I am sitting here devouring all my favorite blogs and wishing I could completely redo every inch of my house I remind myself that I to have a blog and gosh darnet I haven't posted in like forever. I have to blame it on my change in routine. Hubby's union went on strike about 3 weeks ago. (they just settled and are back to work Yay!) So there went my normal days. When I got up in the morning he was there and when I went to make lunch he was there. Now I did enjoy him being home and really miss him now but man did it throw me for a loop. I am def someone who likes order and schedules but I didn't realize just how much I need that. Having him home changed everything. We did get a few more major things done but what I found really hard was just finishing my normal everyday stuff.
Right now getting ready for a long weekend at the Jersey shore. It will be fun but I am so looking forward to next week when it's just me and girlie girl doing our thing. Bring on the cleaning supplies, laundry etc. I think I will enjoy it for at least a day!

PROBLEM SOLVED

Problem: The hubby thinks there are too many pillows on the couch when he goes to sit down and watch TV. I sometimes have to agree with him but I like the look when no one is sitting so I won't get rid of them.
Solution : Buy a cute basket from Homegoods that looks great in the room and provides a nice spot to throw pillows in other than the floor (previous solution)
I think we will all be happy now!


PROBLEM


SOLUTION

LIFE IS GOOD

The sun is finally shining here in the northeast. We had 2 days of rain after a not so nice Easter weekend. That rain brings me down but I am motivated today. I got up nice and early this am and got to work. My house is now clean from top to bottom. Okay I took the easy way and feather dusted but at least it's done and the bathrooms are even clean. It's been awhile since the house was all clean at once. Love that feeling. I also took some time to tweak a great find I got recently at TJMaxx. See the cute little birdcage below. It was 6.99 - I couldn't pass it up. I loved the gray patina but it really doesn't go with my scheme so I spray painted it cream. I love it. So as I sit here in my clean kitchen, listening to the last load of wash in the dryer and bite into my peanut butter and jelly sandwich all I can say is LIFE IS GOOD!