Roundup of my 2013 blog favorites!

In May I finally got my project stuff in gear and finished the nursery the day before she came:




Love the whites and brights of my simple Summer decor:


I shared my easy playdough recipe:



I shared some tips and tricks for curling iron curls:


From time to time I showed some chalkboard art on my repurposed DIY chalkboard (fall is my favorite!):


And I just love how this photo turned out of our family favorite Christmas decor:


I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Easy Christmas Treats (With a Shoe theme!)

I was in charge of a Christmas / Shoe themed event for teenage girls at my church. This is what I came up with:

High-heel pull apart cupcakes:

Chocolate dipped nutella shoe decorated cookies:

And they were delicious to "boot"! :) Happy Christmas eating :)

DIY Wood NOEL Letters with Berry Wreath {Quick, No Cost Project}

Last week while I was checking out some Christmas home tours through blogland, I came across these cute NOEL letters and I thought "hey I could do that with some old ones I have!" So this was my inspiration which you can see by going HERE:

Now my letters are small but it was fun to make them "new" again.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I used dark and light burlap and scrapbook paper, white paint, elmers glue and the berry stem all things I had on hand so I spent zero money (woot!)

Have a great week!

December Teacher Appreciation {ORANGE You Glad}

I read somewhere that teachers prefer food to knick knacks. I decided to do oranges this month -- they're "Christmas-y", right? They're in season, delicious, healthy... who can go wrong? 

So I gathered my supplies...

I typed up a little tag:

ORANGE

you glad

it’s almost

winter break?

We hope you have a

Happy Holiday!

And tied it all together. ORANGE you glad I did this?

Have a great weekend! It's only 13 days 'til Christmas!

Easiest Christmas Card Holder Ever!

Decorative duct tape. Got this on clearance at Joann last Christmas. Fold it in half over itself, sticky sides together leaving one side exposed about three inches at the top to stick to the wall, add some clips and BOOM! DONE.

Love it!

Christmas Decor 2013 {Part Three of Three}

I just had to share the view from my kitchen window and the majestic mountains covered in snow. Also, I don't know if I've ever shown our bedroom in this house but thought I'd share a few fun Christmas touches I added. (And if you look closely, you can peek at our new kitty!)

Christmas Decor 2013 {Part Two}

Christmas Decor 2013 {Part One}

Pinned and Tried: Thanksgiving Sugar Cone Cornucopia #PinterestFAIL

Here is a picture of the original "pin" of the sugar cone cornucopia:

I was so excited to do this for my kids and nieces and nephews this Thanksgiving, I pictured our plate settings on the table with this cute little treat on the side....

(Sigh.) It never does quite turn out that way, does it?

I bought the candy and the cones all ready to do it. Aaaannnnddd........ it didn't work.

The first one sort of worked but only because I stuck it in boiling water before I steamed it so it was pliable. It was just luck because I could not for the life of me get the second one to bend at all. Even after I stuck it in water too (which you're not supposed to). Four hours later it is still soggy. So after the second one, I gave up.

I put the candy in a big bowl and put it on the counter while we were getting dinner ready and needless to say, judging by the empty bowl, everyone love the little treat, whether it was in a fancy cornucopia or not :)

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are now digesting in a wonderful way :) We're off to cut down our Christmas tree while tromping through the snow and listening to Christmas carols tomorrow. Have a great weekend.

Burlap Frames and Thanksgiving Art.

This project was inspired by a picture I saw on Craft Warehouse Blog:

I LOVE these barnyard frames, the burlap, and the clips which make it easy to switch things in and out. Very rustic chic looking, don't you think?   

I also considered covering my mats in burlap like these ones from Pottery Barn:

But ultimately the ease of switching out pictures without having to open the frame every time and risk wearing out the tabs in the back won out. I like to change this certain frame with the months and seasons so this just made sense.

For this project I wanted to use only things that I already had. I've had these little clips since I was a kid, it's a miracle they're still around! But super fun being able to use them. I spray painted two black.

Then I just hot glued burlap to the cardboard that came with the frames. I originally had wanted to use the darker color burlap but I was just about an inch too short (bummer!) So I used this lighter color but I ended up loving it and I think it might work better for all year long - the other color looks very "fallish" to me. If you do this, make sure you pull the burlap very tight before gluing so there's no waves and it also takes care of folds/wrinkles.

Then I just placed them in the frames, measured and hot glued the clips and that's it!

I got this print and sillhouette last year on clearance from here and here. The be thankful print is no longer available but she has some other cute ones like this:

I love how they turned out.

Hope you are enjoying this season of Giving Thanks!!!

November Teacher Appreciation

This month for our Teacher Appreciation we are having a "pie buffet" for the teachers. I made a cute little invitation for each teacher using 

this "I am thankful for" free turkey thanksgiving printable:

FROM HERE

(so cute, wish I had a color printer!)

 

and then typed up the invitation in word like this:

L e t  u s

GATHER TOGETHER

GIVE THANKS

a n d

EAT PIE.

Please join us for a slice of pie in appreciation for our wonderful teachers and staff.

Tuesday, November 19^th

                                                in the teacher lounge.

Then I printed up on cute fall scrapbook paper and glued on the thankful printables handwriting each teacher's name on them. They're pretty cute and I hope it will give them something to look forward to before Thanksgiving break!

Country/Farmhouse/Rustic Chic {Inspiration}

My husband and I love to watch HGTV. The thrill to watch ripping out carpets and tearing down walls and of course the big final reveals with fabulous design never gets old. Often I ask him what he does and doesn't like about the space and it's always a happy moment when we both see something we agreeably love. And I make mental notes. I "pin" stuff or tear out magazine pictures and ask if he likes it, keeping the ones we both like. A couple weeks ago I made him sit down with me and look at a Pottery Barn catalogue and tell me which pictures he liked, which ones he could see us living in. (So nice of him to play along.) His love for Pottery Barn is....nonexistent. And we all know how I feel about it :)
We like woodbeams, stone fireplaces, earth tones and neutrals, coziness, small spaces, white kitchen cabinets....
So last week as I was reading one of my favorite blogs, the author used a term that clicked with me and I finally found a way to describe our "style", or what we WISH our decorating style was :)  I'm calling it country/farmhouse/rustic CHIC. Here are some pretty pictures we've collected. You should be able to click on each picture to go to the source. I hope you enjoy looking at them!