valentines 2011

We are ready for Valentines Day!

A lot of the same decorations from last year.

I made the "LOVE" banner February '09 but I still really... wait for it... love it!

Same with the puffy heart garland (which I just realized is totally crooked. Ez keeps pulling on it. I'm lucky he hasn't broken it!) The wreath is new this year. As are the apothecary jars holding m&m's (don't expect those to hang around long!) and decorative red balls.

Also new are these cute hearts. Idea from Martha. I thought they would be a fun project with the kids... not so much. There are lots of steps, many of which they can't help with. They got bored quickly and disappeared upstairs to play.

But the kids are quite taken with the finished product.

Honestly, so am I! They look so pretty in the sunshine.

Happy {early} VALENTINES DAY to you!

easy christmas shirts

My kids love having holiday themed shirts. In fact, I was able to get Liam out of bed today, with a smile on his face, by reminding him that he gets to wear his Rudolph shirt to school (he takes after his mom and is NOT a morning person!).

I like to keep the shirts simple, white T's with a one graphic image, for two reasons: I like the way it looks and they are EASY.

Liam requested Rudolph. I did a google image search and found a cute silhouette and made a freezer paper stencil. I didn't feel the need to do a tutorial. This idea has been popular for a while but in case you have never tried it need a tut you can find a good one here.

Liam's shirt is a little small. Rather than buying a new white shirt I decided to use his Mime shirt from Halloween not realizing he had grown so much in less than two months! Oops! Too late now.

Michael was the inspiration for Sutton's shirt. It was the night before her class party and I realized I had forgotten to make her a shirt. Michael suggested tying red ribbon into a bow and gluing it to Sutton's shirt. Then I remembered that I had left over fabric from the ribbon candy pillow and thought it would make a super quick and cute candy cane applique. I just stuck the (untied) ribbon under the applique and ironed and sewed the applique on like normal. Tied a bow, did a couple of stitches by hand into the knot to keep it tied and heat sealed the ends of the ribbon.

Ezra's shirt is a hand-me-down. Sutton wore it last Christmas but I actually made it for Liam when he was in preschool back in December 2007. It was probably one of the first freezer paper stencil T's I ever made. I did touch up the paint because it had faded a bit from being washed so much but it's holding up great considering.

So if you have a kid and a white T laying around whip up a Christmas shirt for him/her. It'll take a small amount of time and it will make their day, I promise!

I love this picture! Liam's belly showing, Sutton and Ez looking at each other... it's one that makes me smile and think about how much I love them. A fact that I occasionally need to be reminded of! :)

christmas pillows

I have been in the kitchen all day. So far I have made pie crusts, two chocolate pudding pies, brined a turkey, roasting another turkey (for the Church Thanksgiving dinner tonight. Thanksgiving dinner two days in a row? Yes, please!), cranberry sauce, homemade pumpkin puree (for the pumpkin cream pies I will be making tomorrow) and washed more dishes than I can count!

BUT, I had to pop in here to show off the Christmas pillows I made. I will be decorating soon, friends! I can't wait much longer!



This pillow reminds me of ribbon candy. I used this tutorial. Does it look familiar? I made one in orange a while back. I changed it up a little this time. Rather then leaving the ruffles raw, I used a decorative finished edge on my serger. I love my serger and use it a lot but it is capable of so much more than I use it for. It was fun to branch out a little even though it did require me to re-thread the machine. Ugh!



My favorite part of this polka dot pillow is the rick rack edging. I adore rick rack.



I love this quilted pillow! I used this tutorial from Sparkle Power. The contrasting red thread was a good idea in theory but boy, it is hard to sew evenly spaced perfectly straight lines! When I make more of these in non-holiday colors (and I definitely will be) I will be using matching thread like Candace did- it gives you a little more room for error.


Now if only I could justify spending $200 on a tree skirt...


It's so pretty, I would almost be tempted to wear it!



To all of you in the United States: Have a joyous Thanksgiving! Get out of the kitchen and have fun with your family. I know I am hoping to! :)

yarn trees

I have not started decorating for Christmas yet but I have been making a few things. Starting with these trees.


I got the idea from the talented Jamie at Pretty Ditty. She has a simple tutorial for the tress. I love them. They are so soft and pretty!

I knew I wanted to make several trees but I knew it could get pricey buying all the materials so I paced myself and bought everything over the course of a few weeks using Hobby Lobby's weekly 40% off coupon. Hobby Lobby is about two minutes from my house so it isn't inconvenient to stop by a couple of times a week.


I used two skeins of yarn. One a variegated green (on sale) and the other a fuzzy white (used a 40% off coupon). The red berry garland was on sale and to make the project even more economical I used the 'vine' the berries came on for the stars rather than buying the floral stem wire.


Even after making five trees I still had lots of yarn left over so I grabbed one of my thrifted wreath forms and when to town. I like the simplicity of it. I am not sure where to put it though. The wreath is very pale and almost all the walls in my house are pale shades of gray or blue (this picture was taken in Liam's room). I like light walls but this wreath needs a contrasting color or it just blends in.

is it too early...

to decorate for Christmas??


I have always followed the rule of "no Christmas before Thanksgiving" but this year I am dying to get out my Christmas bins and infuse my little house with some Christmas cheer! I love the glow of the lights, the smell of goodies baking and the warmth of homes at Christmastime. This time of year I long for a (working) fireplace. Preferably one with a switch! :)

I tend to stick to the classic red and green color scheme and I have a few Christmas decor projects already started. I can't wait to share them with you!

If you celebrate Christmas, when do you start decorating? What is your favorite/most meaningful decoration?

Happy Halloween!

I love Halloween! I don't like the creepy, scary horror movie type Halloween and I don't particularly love trick or treating but I do love dressing up and having fun! I love that I don't have to worry about the over commercialization of Halloween or if my kids understand the "true meaning" of Halloween because there isn't one! Halloween is just for fun. I love letting my kids decide what they want to be and then creating it for them.

This year we dressed up as: A sumo wrestler, a mime, a lion, Strawberry Shortcake, and Nacho Libre.

Michael's Nacho Libre costume was made from ladies pants and jacket from Goodwill, a flesh colored t-shirt from Walmart, an old (but never even worn) swimsuit, a wig and a moustache. The knee pads and the boots were made from parts of the jacket.

Liam chose to be a mime and he took it seriously. He watched 'how to mime' instructional videos on youtube so he could play the part right. The hat, gloves and t-shirt were purchased at wal-mart, pants at Goodwill. I made the suspenders and the scarf.

Sutton loves Strawberry Shortcake and decided weeks ago to be her for Halloween. I was glad because I knew it would be a really easy costume to make. I bought the tights and made the skirt and hat. I appliqued the strawberry and diamonds onto a white-shirt she already had. Sutton's costume was the most expensive because of the tights and the fabric. I justified it though because it looked perfect and now that Halloween is over the skirt can be part of her regular wardrobe.

Ezra was a little lion. Liam and Sutton both wore this costume when they were little. I love it!

I decided to take advantage of my rotund figure and be a sumo wrestler. The shirt and the old lady stretchy pants came from walmart ($3/each on clearance!). I made the mawashi (diaper-y thing) from felt.

And because I have no pride... here is a shot of the back view:

To help you get that image our of your head here is another cute one of the kids:

I hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween!!

halloween decor 2010

At this very moment: I am curled up in bed with a nasty head cold. Not ideal timing. My baby turns two this Friday, I have hardly even started the costumes and there is lots of church stuff to attend/prepare for this week and weekend.

Last weekend was great though. I felt good and got much accomplished and I finally finished putting up the Halloween decorations. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays to decorate for. I think it is because I love the color orange!


Many of the same elements from last year. (Side note: One of the things I love about blogging is having a record. I don't remember exactly what my house looked one year ago. I love being able to see the subtle changes from year to year. I wouldn't have that if it weren't for this blog!)


The mantle. My Halloween tree is now three years old. A lot of the branches have been broken in storage. This might be it's last year. :(


New this year: BATS! These would be so easy to make yourself but I went the lazy route this year and let Martha take care of the cutting for me. Isn't she a dear?


The bats lend just the right amount of creepy to the room.


The dining room got just a touch of Halloween too. My favorite part is the pom-pom and pipe cleaner spiders hanging in the windows.

Only 11 days until Halloween! Are you ready?

heart headband

Today is Sutton's preschool Valentine party. Last night I made her this heart headband to wear. Inspired by Katiedid's headbands she made for her girls. May I brag for a second? I actually know Katie in real life and she is even more cool and talented than she appears on her blog. For reals!

Anyhow, the headband consists of felts circles overlapped and sewn together with a double heart on one side. I added about 1 1/2" length of elastic to the underside. I wish I had made the circles a little smaller but Sutton was excited to wear it.


Although, a little shy when I wanted to take her picture.

I wimped out this year and did store bought valentines. In lieu of candy we bought these adorable pinwheels at the dollar store.

valentines decor

I apologize for the poor quality photos. It is a dark and rainy day here is Charlotte. But since Valentines is only NINE days away I decided to not wait for the weather to clear up.

I am not a huge fan of V-Day. In fact it would annoy me if Michael bought me roses on Valentines Day. Any other day of the year it would be delightful. To me, the gifts and I loves yous don't mean as much if they are given because society dictates. All that being said, there are two things I love about Valentines. Decorating and making it fun for my kids.

puffy heart garland (made this last year) and some faux mercury glass on the mantel.

I had wanted to make a pillow that said "i {heart} you" but after making all the other decor I didn't feel like cutting out and sewing on all those letters so I went with actual heart.

red pom-poms and a puffy 'LOVE" banner also made last year.

framed wrapping paper (this was actually clearanced Christmas paper) and
thrifted and gifted white vases.

I had originally wanted to make these but I couldn't find any baking cups that I liked, not to mention between the styrofoam balls and the hundreds of baking cups needed it was looking like a pricey craft. So I bought red tissue ($0.99) cut out circles and glued them on the same way. Take that Martha!

Faux mercury glass, another Martha Stewart project. I can't find it on the MS website but someone posted the directions here. I love the idea of this project and I am pleased with how it turned out but it was a pain in the butt to do.

felt "heart stings" pillow, inspiration via my friend Meredith.

Left over hearts from the pillow sewn together.

100% stolen idea from this clever girl. the kids love finding notes each morning in their envelopes.

christmas treat boxes

I stayed up late last night assembling the treat boxes. Each baggie has about 4-7 pieces (depending on size) of candy- basically a nice sampling. With as much candy that is consumed this time of year, I thought going with less is a good idea. The plan was to put the fudge, marshmallows, peanut brittle and peppermint bark in each box but the boxes were too small. I could barely squeeze three of the four treats into each box. I have used these take-out boxes for the last five years but this is the first time I have used the pint sized boxes. It worked out well though, I am taking all the left overs to the ward party tonight. Which is good because I am sick of being in the kitchen!


I opted for simple this year. Red box and a Martha Stewart tag tied on with bakers twine.

Now it is time to get out of my pajamas and deliver the treats!

the halls are decked!

(they have been for several days actually but I had to tidy the house enough so I wouldn't be embarrassed to take pictures!)

Don't you just love how the bottom 1/3 of the tree is empty? Ah, life with a toddler.

Normally I rearrange all the ornaments after my kids "decorate" the tree but I couldn't do it this year... they were so proud of their work. Every time I look at the tree I smile and cringe at the same time.

My handmade wreath, circle felt garland, and stockings (from Kohls 4 years ago).

Mini bunting. I had so much fun making this. I LOVE it. It's so cheery. (Inspiration) The art gallery has been cleared to make room for the holiday artwork and to display Christmas cards.

Even the kitchen window gets festive!

The foyer and dining room

More bunting and a table runner made from a hand-me-down maternity dress.

The Santa on the sideboard was painted by my Grandmother in 1986. Not my usual style but I love it because it reminds me of her.

I am linking up to The Nester Tour of Homes, Hooked on Houses House Tour 2009 and The Inspired Room.