Gorgeous Neighbor Goodies

These are so pretty!  I don't have time or the jars to do them this year, but I might do it next year!

Isn't that gorgeous!  Red velvet cake mix and cream cheese "evergreen" frosting!  I love it!  You can find the recipe and instructions here.

Pottery Barn Knock-Off Gone Original

So another craft we made was supposed to be a Pottery Barn knock-off.  But we ended up changing it around and liked it better a different way.  I think if I had gotten really big letters I would have still made it into a knock off.  But the letters we ended up with, because it was tricky to find the ones we needed, were super huge, nor were they as stack-able as I thought they were.

Original idea can be found here.

I  must say I love all things metal.  And it if is metal with glitter then I am just all the more in love.  My Christmas decor theme is "glitter".  I don't have a set color, because I have color issues.  I love them all.  So I pretty much use glitter to make it all mesh.

We started by laying the letters out, and I didn't like the ones I bought when they were stacked like this original.  They were not proportioned the same way.  So we played around with them, and we decided to leave them in a line, and make them a mantle piece.  Then after prepping another set of words, and more playing, we really like them stacked on top of each other.  So here is what we did, and how.

 

So this one is my favorite.  I loved the Renaissance Brown with the silver. (It will look fabulous on a fireplace mantle instead of a chair, too.)

 This was the first one we did, and I like the silver better than the gold.  But, I didn't feel much like sanding it and starting over.  So gold and bronzish it is.

 

We painted them with a few different craft paints.  This one is Gleams Silver, and then we used some tacky glue to "drip" on it and added silver glitter.

This one has gold metallic paint and then gold glitter, done the same way as the silver letters.

To place the letters, we used a straight board to line the bottoms up, then we glued the "NOEL" in place. After it dried I flipped it over and used a staple gun in the back to help them be more sturdy.  (The NOEL letters are actually just chipboard).  The "JOY" letters are wood, and we lined them up the same way, but hot glued them onto the "NOEL".

Pinecone Ornaments

Well, we accomplished a lot.  I am really excited, mostly because I have new ideas for next year!  So here is how it turned out...

The original idea was found here:

I needed to make it a little cheaper, but I loved the look of these pine cones.  So, I bought paper mache' eggs because they are way cheaper than the styrofoam cones.  I also bought cheaper flowers that didn't have the wire in them, and they worked great!  I used a few leftover silk flowers I found in my basement, too.

Supplies:

Paper Mache' eggs

Metallic Spray Paint (we used both caramel latte' and a brushed nickel, but in the end you could hardly tell them apart)

silk flowers with varying petal sizes

hot glue

wire, wire curler or pliers

beads (1/2 inch, one per egg)

ribbon

 

Paper Mache' eggs were cheap.  Small ones (2 inches) were 3/$1, the larger size was 67 cents (about a 5 inch egg)

We spray painted just the end of the egg where it would be showing through.  We left the rest alone.

 We took the flowers apart.  We had a variety of flower types, but found it best to use one type per cone.  The ones with some texture and rounded ends worked best.  We spray painted them and let them dry while we worked on other crafts.  It didn't take too long, even in an unheated basement.

After they were dry we cut them so that each petal was separate.  

 Then we started at the skinny, painted end of the egg, adding one petal at a time, and working around (not top to bottom), we just glued the petals onto the egg.  It took about 3-4 rows for the smaller eggs, and 5-6 for the larger size. 

 After the petals were attached, we finished the larger egg end by just gluing down the petals so they laid flat.  They needed to look nice, but they would be covered up at least partially, by the ribbon and bead.

I cut wire, just heavier craft wire, and bent one end into a "v" shape, about 2 inches from the bottom.  I curled both ends of the wire, one into a cute little curl, the other into the hanger for the ornament.  The "v" bend I pushed through the bead hole, and hot glued it in place.  Then I hot glued that bead to the larger egg end.  After it was set we attached bows to that bead and egg end.

Here is the finished pinecone!

 

Crafting Day!

Oh my goodness!  I have been trying so hard to get my two home schooled kiddos done early so we can enjoy a really long Christmas break.  My son only has one lesson and a test left!  So today is officially crafting day!  I am so excited!

I will take my camera with me and try to get pictures.  But here are linkies to the ideas I was going to use:

Pinecone Craft

I think this pinecone ornament is gorgeous!  I am changing it up a bit to make it cheaper, so we'll see how it goes.

Woven Star

I love this star, and there are a few variations.  I forgot to grab some old books though.  So I will not be making this today unless I get back to DI.  It is on my list of things I plan to do, though.

Snowball

This snowball is so cute and vintage!  I have to make it.  I had quilt batting in my basement waiting for a use!

Winter Branches

I think these are gorgeous!  I had trees needing some pruning, so it the weather will hold off for a bit I will see about getting that done!  I have no idea where I will put them, but I want to make them anyway.

Pottery Barn Noel

And I am going to make a knock off of Pottery Barn's Noel.  I can't resist!

Getting It Together

Well, the big turkey celebration has come and gone.  I still like my turkeys best.  And I should keep it a secret because I've never even been asked to cook one for the big family dinner.  I hope you all had as much fun with the family as I did.  This was a great year.  I think as my kids get older I really do get to enjoy more.  I don't have to spend time (or as much) checking on their every move, changing diapers, racing potty training kids to the potty, you get my drift.  I miss those days in some ways.  But really, I have so much more fun with the kids the older they get!

So, my goal this week is to finish Christmas cards.  I really should have started that a while ago.  I also need to get my youngest some jammie pants made.  She has announced that all of hers give her wedgies.  So, even though I think she is exaggerating, I will practice my sewing skills on some pants before I tackle something more challenging.

I will post pics as I get those cute cards going. I will probably not post sewing pics as they could be full of me looking really frustrated.

Have a great day!

Holy Giveaway Batman!

This is the most incredible giveaway I've ever seen!  You can go over to the site and enter, too!

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

TodaysMama (link to: http://bit.ly/tmwishlist) and GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.


1. What is your holiday wish for your family?

More time as a family, enjoying the time!

2. What is your Christmas morning tradition?

We let the kids sneak into their stockings without us, then they can get us out of bed after 6:30 if we have managed to stay there that long.  We open gifts from Santa, then have the warm, fresh cinnamon rolls that baked while we opened the gifts.  We then open the gifts from the family.  After that we play, and visit relatives.

3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be? 

Actually, I would love a garden tiller for myself.  Or a really big IKEA gift certificate to use in teh basement.

4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money?

 Traditions.  We have special dinners, game nights, seeing lights around the neighborhood, home made hot chocolate and carols or movies.  We enjoy free music concerts and making home made things.

5. What games did you play with your family growing up?

We mostly played sports, and a few card games.  I remember playing "war" for hours.

6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood?

The advent calendar.  I don't do as much as my mom did, I tried and failed.  So I have scaled back this year to a 12 days of Christmas advent calendar.  But I liked the excitement of discovering what we would be doing each day as a family, and I loved those moments together.

7. Where would you go for a Christmas-away-from-home trip?

Hawaii.  No question!  I would LOVE to go to Hawaii, any time of year.

8. Check out GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) and tell us, what are the three top items on your GameStop Wish List this year? 

DSI
Wii
games for either of those

Coupon Share

I love Bath & Body Works, had to share this deal!  I only buy things when they are half off or more, and this is a good one!

The Buy 3, Get 3 Free Special is on again!  Use the $10 off $30 Bath and Body Works Coupon or shop online at Bath and Body Works, use code HOLIDAY30 online to get the $10 off your $30 purchase.

Advent Calendar and Count Down pictures

So I wasn't as quick with the pictures as I planned on.  Home school and meetings will do that to you.  Here are the pictures I took of the advent calendars and the count down calendar.

Advent Calendar 1
(this is on a 12 muffin tin, I plan to put things "to do" in the cups, and I know we won't actually do 24, we've tried that.  So I am doing 12 instead, like the 12 days of Christmas.  This I think I can stick to.)

 I decided to make a few more of these.  I am still deciding whether to use them as gifts or what to do.  But they are really fun to make, and I think they will be a lot of fun for the kids to use!

I made this count down calendar to hang and use for the entire 25 days.  This is a lot more non-committal than the advent calendar!  hahaha  I had a lot of fun making this with all the little doo-dads.  I want to make a few more.  I need to take more pics of the process, but I forgot to do that as I went.  Next time I will put the camera on the table.

Christmas Crafting

I realize I am not the first to make these advent calendars.  But, this is the first creative spree I've had in a couple of years.  I went back to school to work on my art degree, and that pretty much killed any free time I ever hoped to find.  I have been back at home since summer, but I started home schooling my younger two kids.  And finally, after two months of working on making a schedule that stuck, and missing my free time and seriously, maybe desperately, needing my crafting time, I have finally found a way to make it work!

I have invested in another sewing machine.  I swore I never would.  I actually found a huge relief come from my teen causing my other one to need repairs earlier in the spring.  I was so glad when it happened!  But, that is when you realize how much you use the blasted things for little fixes.  And then I made the mistake of walking through the sewing department at Wal-mart, only looking for some safety pins for a Halloween party.  I walked right by the machines, and they were nicer than my old one, and less than I'd spent on it.  So, I decided it would be *wise* to get a functioning machine again.

I have the machine out of the box, on the table.  I bought fabric, washed it, folded it, set it near the table.  and now I have total anxiety!  I will work myself up to the sewing.  For the time being I am making crafts instead.

This week I have worked on some cute little muffin tin advent calendars, that every stay at home mom has made but me.  And I also crafted some cookie sheet count downs.  My kids were so excited to see me making things again!  How sad they've forgotten what my room used to look like!  I have to keep my area more clean this go around as I am doing everything in my bedroom.  But, the crafting is back,and it makes me so happy!

I will be back to post pictures of the little crafts and the "how-to" in case I am not the only stay at home mom that didn't yet have these little beauties!  First, I really have to get the kids up and moving for school.  Priorities...