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.