I was Featured! (and A Spring Wreath Tutorial)

April 5, 2012 posted by

Happy Tuesday!  I’m so excited to tell you that I was featured on My Favorite Finds this week (for sharing last week’s tutorial on my Upcycled Brown Paper Basket).  It was super easy to make….you should try it!

PhotobucketHere’s something else that is easy to make…

I was challenged about a month ago, by my mother, to make a spring wreath. And because I have nothing better to do, it kind of got pushed to the bottom of my To-Do list.  But then, I remembered that I would much rather craft, than wash windows.  So, it got pushed back up to the top!

I saw lots of cute spring wreaths on pinterest, and decided to keep it simple, with materials I already had.  After all, I didn’t want to blow my new budget already!!!

So, I decided to use some foam (from Lowes) duct-taped together to make my wreath form, and some left over packing paper from our move.  My goal was to use the paper to create some shabby-chic-ish southern inspired (Magnolias, perhaps?) flowers.

I crinkled up the paper and wrapped it around the wreath form to completely cover the grey color.

And then I cut the paper into strips.  I folded the strips accordion style width-wise, so I could cut more circles out at a time.  I cut three sizes of circles.

My circles were a little sloppy and uneven, but it didn’t matter at all in the end. And as I worked, I decided that my mom’s wreath needed a little color.  But I still liked the idea of a white base to the wreath.  So I decided to color just the edges of each of the circles purple (perfect for the Lenten Season!).

After coloring ALL of those circles, I started crinkling.  I actually got Jayna’s help…she crinkled and reopened my flowers, and then I glued the three layers together.  Then I topped it with a little crinkled scrap of paper in the middle to be the flower’s stigma.

I used a hot glue gun to glue each flower onto the wreath form, in close proximity to each other, so they kind of all scrunch together.

And I left a little gap at the top, so that when my mom hangs it, her wreath hanger won’t squish the flowers.  I put a little smiley on the back so it would be easy to find.

But then I decided that I needed a bow to make it look a little more complete (and elegant!).  I had a hard time finding ribbon that I liked, so I bought some thick, crocheted lace instead.  I made a bow and tacked it in place with hot glue.  Perfect….shabby chic!

Here’s where I’m linking up this week!

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Filed Under: Crafts, Tutorials

Paper Mache NOEL

December 29, 2011 posted by

So you may have noticed the NOEL on my mantel.  I was feeling like my mantle needed a little something, and then I saw this on Pinterest.  Perfect!

Too bad I had  no time to actually follow those oh-so crafty directions.  But….I do have a crafty sister.  And I do have newspaper.  And flour.  Hmmm….paper mache anyone?  Here’s what Loo did:

First (I forgot to take a picture, sorry!) she mixed together approximately 1 cup of flour and 2 cups of water.  Tear your newspaper into one inch strips, about three inches long.

Dip each strip into the flour mixture and slide it over the side of the bowl to get off any excess liquid.  Wrap it tightly around each letter, overlapping each strip of paper a little bit.

Feel free to kind of paint the flour mixture over the finished letters, especially around the corners.

Someday, when we have some more time and inspiration (and hopefully before next Christmas!), we’ll end up putting some sort of color or texture on them.

Stay tuned for an updated picture once we finish it!

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Filed Under: Crafts, Tutorials

Pumpkins into Winter Decor!

December 9, 2011 posted by

We went a little overboard on the pumpkins and gourds this fall.  But I just couldn’t help myself!  All of the different colors and textures just really get me into the Fall spirit!  But, now Fall is over.  We ended up only carving two of the pumpkins, and now we have several that are still perfectly good….but just don’t fit in with our Winter decor…..Hmmmm….what to do?

Spray paint!

I bought red, green, white and gold spray paint at Lowes and went to town in the backyard!

After spraying a base coat onto all of the pumpkins, I used round stickers and painters tape to mark off sections of the pumpkin, and then sprayed a darker color over it.  It resulted in some polka-dot and “gift-wrapped” pumpkins!

Now I just need to find a giant gold bow to put on top!  I ended up putting the pumpkins back out on our front porch stairs, where there were for the Fall too.  A couple of the smaller ones now call the mantle home.

Remember my pumpkin entrance?

I loved it. Wished I could keep it all year.  But alas, this didn’t go with our Winter decor either.  But I didn’t want to just toss the perfectly good pumpkins.  Cue the spray paint!

I also sprayed the spanish moss white (it ended up still being a gray-ish color, but that was ok).  So I stacked ‘em back up on my porch. Added a scarf.  Glued on some small black buttons for eyes and some large black buttons for…well, the buttons.  And cut a triangle nose out of orange sticky-backed foam. (Yes, I did try to hot glue an actual carrot onto his face, but the glue wouldn’t stick.)

Here’s how I made the hat.  My top pumpkin (which would be the head) had a long stem, so I wanted a hollow hat that I could fit right over the stem.  I used an old soup container and some more sticky-backed foam.

I wrapped the big piece of foam around the outside of the soup container and trimmed it to fit.  Then, I cut a circle to fit the top.

Since all I had left was two smaller pieces of foam, I cut two semi-circles slightly larger than the circumference of the soup container to be the brim.  If you had a big enough piece of foam, you could definitely just make it a circle.

Then, because my top pumpkin had a stem that I wanted the hat to balance on, I cut the middle out and then glued the two semi-circles together to form one circle with a hole in the middle.

Finally, I positioned the soup container over the hole so the brim was centered and hot glued the container to the foam.

Then I carefully positioned my hat on my pumpkin and viola!  Repurposed pumpkins into a snowman! I also have sticks for arms…but for now, can’t figure out how to attach them without puncturing my pumpkins….plus I think he looks just dandy without them!

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Filed Under: Crafts, Tutorials

DIY Artwork Display

November 1, 2011 posted by

Buggy has been quite the budding artist lately.  She especially has been into painting handprints, creating rainbows, and drawing pumpkin patches.

I love her creations. I love that she loves to draw.  I do not love a ton of paper lying around.  So what’s a mama to do?  Utilize some wall space, of course!  I decided to make a homemade clothesline, but for artwork, in the playroom.  So I went to Michaels and bought some wood blocks and painted them brown.

Then, I attached some picture hangers to the back (they just hammer in).

While I was at Michaels, I also picked up some of these pre-painted cuties.  I used a hot glue gun to attach some jute rope to the back of them, and then glued the whole thing to the front of the wooden blocks.

Then, Linds and I stretched out the rope (almost taught) and centered it on the playroom wall.  Dave hammered in some nails, and we hung the wood blocks on them.  We hung them higher up (by the top of the door frame), so that I will have enough space to add another clothesline underneath if I need to.

I hot glued some ribbon onto clothespins and hung up some of my favorite Jayna-creations for all to see!

Tada!

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Filed Under: Crafts, Our Humble Abode, Tutorials

Halloween at Hundred Oaks

October 30, 2011 posted by

Last night was our Fifth Annual Halloween Party.  Now, if you don’t know much about me and Dave, know this.  We LOVE Halloween.  Well, really all things Fall.  I mean….my birthday, a cool relief from summer in the south, changing leaves, hayrides and bonfires, pumpkin patches, and HALLOWEEN.  What time of year could be better?!?!?

We love Halloween so much, that we have spent a small fortune on our parties….food, costumes and decor.  We’ll start with the costumes.  We spend so much time on decorating and cooking, that we usually kind of forget about our costumes until the last minute, and have to resort to buying your stereotypical couple costume.

Last year we attempted to get a little creative and piggy-back off of the Tiger and Elin scandal.

This year, we wanted to incorporate Loo into our costume….and we couldn’t afford all the face paint again! =)

And every year, we have a costume contest.  All the guests vote for the Funniest, Most Creative and Best Couple Costumes.  Winners get Halloween themed wine courtesy of World Market.  Here are some of our favorites through the years:

And our winners this year…

We always prepare enough food for a small army…and although people seem to eat the entire time, we always have a ton of food left over!  This year I added my zucchini muffins and some mummy and pumpkin cake pops.

Admittedly, we go a little overboard on decorations.  In fact, we get so into them, that we have to specifically put on our invites that children aren’t invited because our house is too scary!  We start on the friendly decor about a week before the party, and then send Jayna to Sue Sue and Papaw’s on the Saturday of our party and spend the entire day outfitting our home with bloody corpses,

Hollywood Horrors,

Ghosts, Gouls and Goblins.

We have a blast rearranging our dining room into a scientist’s lab, and last year, had a haunted maze in our garage that guests were required to walk through to get into the party.

But Hannibal is definately the scariest prop as far as I’m concerned….he is sooooo life-like.

And somehow he manages to pop up in different corners of the house every Halloween and scares the you-know-what out of me!  So Dave decided to capitalize on that this year, and put him in the bathroom!  Guests got a double dose of Hannibal as they saw a glimpse of him in the mirror as they walked into the bathroom, and then were forced to stare at him as they did their business!  What kind of sick-os live here anyway?!?!

But, I am exhausted as we have been planning our shin-dig for the past few weeks and were up late last night and up early this morning attempting to clean up before Buggy arrived home.  So, I’m off to bed for tonight….to dream about tomorrow!  Happy Halloween!

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Filed Under: Life

Tour of the Playroom

October 28, 2011 posted by

This is Jayna and Amelia’s playroom.  It was one of the first rooms to get “finished” (aka, unpacked) and it has been wonderful!  Jayna just loves that she has a room full of toys that she hasn’t seen in almost a year (thanks to storage!).  When holiday crazies are over, I plan to make some curtains….I’m thinking valances or roman shades…

As you can see, despite the fact that it has a huge walk-in closet to store and organize toys and crafts, this room just kind of “stays” messy.

But it’s ok!  Because the best thing about the playroom is….the doors can close and (once I get up some curtains), hide the mess!

Thanks for visiting!

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Filed Under: Life, Our Humble Abode

Ballerina Big Sister

October 11, 2011 posted by

Buggy is officially a ballerina.  She started ballet at the YMCA in our neighborhood and loves it.  She loves a lot of things lately!  We walk to class every Monday, and join the other three ballerinas in butterfly stretches, sashays and tip toes.

They are learning a little dance for a performance of Bibbity Bobbity Boo on the last day of class.  Jayna loves to dance, but is quite often much more interested in comparing tutus, playing with her friends’ hair, swapping her shoes (she finds it fascinating that there is no right or left ballet shoe!  They can fit either foot!), and playing on the kickboxing equipment in the corner of the room.  Oh.  And don’t forget the mirrors.  She loves the mirrors!

But she also loves Ms. Lisa, her teacher (and also a friend from church).  And let me tell you-Ms. Lisa has the patience of a Saint with this crew of active girls!  But she manages to herd them each week and they all love ballet!

Jayna has proved to be an excellent Big Sister.  She loves “babysitting,” which consists of her playing with Amelia while I pee. =)  Amongst other things.  Really, it has been my saving grace, as I am able to do many 1-2 minute activities now that I have this new-found babysitter!

I am actually so fortunate to have had soooooo much help these past few weeks with moving and settling into the new house.  We have even had our first weekend visitors!  My aunts and uncle and cousins came to visit and meet Amelia a couple of weeks ago.  You may remember Julia and Wouter from our trip to Lancaster this summer.

It was their first time to Charleston, so we had to show them the sights.  And indulge in a little fountain playing!

And last week, Mom Mom flew down for a long weekend for her share of Baby Holding.

And she taught Buggy how to drive.

And managed to catch Elly and Tippy hanging out with Amelia!

So, that’s what we have been doing the past couple of weeks.  We are significantly downsizing the box situation, and our rooms are actually starting to look lived in!  It’s amazing how we can move into this big house, but have  somehow manage to have less storage than in our old house.  But I guess it’s really a good thing as we have been forced to declutter and prioritize our “stuff.” We pretty much have downstairs under control and are now concentrating on unpacking clothes and bedrooms.

Remember this masterpiece?Dave allowed me to buy it for the loft (aka “My Craft Room”), to do my crafts and sewing on.  It was beautiful.  Was.  It cost an arm and a leg to buy, store and deliver.  Turns out, there was a reason why it was so expensive.  Apparently it was actually a kitchen island, and was made of one piece of carved wood.  And was extremely large. As in, larger than our doorway…let alone our staircase!  So….we had to return it.  Now I have a store credit to my fav furniture store, but no craft table.  And subsequently, no craft room….as the loft has turned into the dumping ground for all things Wii and sorting place for the massive amount of laundry that has piled up wince we’ve moved in.  So the saga continues….

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Filed Under: Life, Our Humble Abode

Just a quick hello!

October 1, 2011 posted by

Hey y’all!  We are officially in the new house now….send me an email or comment if you need our new address.   Unpacking is slowly happening…thanks to the help of Mom Mom, Sue Sue, Ms. Deb and Loo Loo (aka our honorary Baby Holders and Jayna Entertainers).  We’ll keep plugging as getting back to a normal schedule is my top priority right now (and then I can come back to you more often too!).

Amelia is six weeks old today.  Hard to believe its already been a month and a half!  For those of you who don’t care about baby details, thanks for checking in and I’ll see you soon!  Those who DO care about baby details, all is well….she is starting to sleep for more than 2 hours at a time at night (YAY!), and so Dave and I are slowly catching up on sleep too!  We also got a couple of smiles today….

In other news, its a good day for us breast feeding moms….I’m not sure where this is, but some mom out there got sick of not having a private place to feed her baby, so she created a truck for that very purpose!  Rumor has it that you can call, text or tweet if you are lacking a place to nurse, and the truck will come to your rescue!

You can go to www.themilktruck.org to get more info on it!  What a great idea!…..and I must say, I wouldn’t be the least bit embarrassed entering a giant pink truck with a boob on the top! =)  Have a great weekend and I’ll check back in soon!

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Filed Under: Life

A Moving Poem

September 19, 2011 posted by

‘Twas the night before Closing and all through the house,
Everyone was pooped…even my spouse!
Boxes were stacked in each room with such care,
Awaiting the movers who soon would be there.

The children were snuggled in a basket and mattress,
Lamps were all packed, and the rooms were in blackness.
And mama in her sweatpants, and dad in his shorts,
Had given up on organizing….everything was out of sorts!

Tomorrow we’ll wake and do one more inspection,
Before signing papers and doing key collection.
Jayna is excited, but isn’t quite sure
So we’re choosing what battles we fight with her!

(That’s right….she is eating a pop tart, in the car, after insisting that we go to the carwash!)

Sue-Sue will meet us and take J to dance
where on her first day, she’ll learn how to prance!


And then what to my tired eyes will appear?
Dave’s awesome brother, here to help (and drink beer)!

With some moving guys on Tuesday to carry the brunt,
Chris and Dave can move the smaller stuff with just a grunt.
Their goal for the week is to get everything moved,
And everything that’s left, at a yard sale removed!!

“On the truck: furniture!  Clothes! Toys, and each box!
On, tv’s! On, powertools! And don’t forget Buggy’s Crocs!
To the top of the street! To the end of the road!
Now turn right! And then right again…all the way to our new home!

(as of 9-10)

And then, in a few weeks, as we unpack
A resemblance of order we soon will get back.
As I settle with new babe, and get used to our home,
I’ll finally get on schedule and get some things done!!

So please bear with me these next weeks…
Don’t give up on me!
I promise I’ll be back with more than one story!
But until the boxes aren’t anymore overwhelmingly knee-deep,
“I’ll see you all soon…..now I’ve GOTTA get some sleep!!!!”

*PS- Sorry for the crappy cell-phone pictures….like I said, all of our good cameras are packed and so are the lamps!  Sorry!

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Filed Under: Life, Our Humble Abode

A Visit to the New House

August 19, 2011 posted by

Sorry I’m just getting around to sharing these pictures with y’all!  On the 12th….what was that, last Friday?…we went over to the new house to see the developments.  And we were pleasantly surprised to see siding going up, windows and doors, drywall in all the rooms and cabinets!  It really is starting to look like an actual house!


Dining Room

View from Dining Room into the Playroom….so excited for our French Doors!

the FROG

Guest Bath Upstairs

We’ll probably go again this weekend as the workers have been working on more siding on the front, the stone work and painting this week.  Stay tuned for even more improvements!

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Filed Under: Life, Our Humble Abode
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