gettin' crafty

It seems the craft projects just pile up and up while I can find very little time to actually create some of the crafts I so badly want to make.

However, I've had some time lately to actually create!

My first project was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest from this site. I recreated this with Adeline's sweet little hands and feet! I love that I have her handprints and footprints preserved in such a fun way!

I simply used canvases from Wal-Mart, tempera and acrylic paints, and "googly" eyes from Wal-Mart.

So simple and so fun!

My next project was inspired by the painted burlap signs you see. I LOVE the look of those but just couldn't get myself to spend the $30 or so dollars on one!

I've been wanting to create a fun birthday sign for Adeline's upcoming 1st birthday and to have one to hang on our front door each time we celebrate a birthday in our home!

For this project, I recycled an old burlap bag (or you can just use purchased burlap material).

1.  I sketched the outline of my design (a cupcake with icing) twice, in order to have two sides.

2. I cut my design out and pieced it together to make sure it matched.

3. Next, I used tempera (you can also use acrylic) paint to paint the icing white on top for each side of the cupcake. (Make sure to put the burlap over a lot of paper when painting...it leaks through.)

4.  I then painted stripes on each side (I did each side in different colors to have a more "girlie" side and a "boyish" side.)

5. Let the sides dry - this takes about half a day.

6. Use a Sharpie to write on and decorate as you wish.

7. Use a glue gun to glue the two sides together and secure wire for hanging. You will want to stuff the inside with newspaper.

I'm loving how this turned out too!!

A third project I wanted to accomplish was another idea I found on Pinterest.  I love, love having framed pictures in the house...but with as many pictures as I take of our family now and of Adeline by herself, I don't want to commit to placing a picture in a frame.  I would never get around to changing out the pictures! I loved the idea I found of have a clip within a frame to clip a picture and to easily change it out whenever.  I found a couple frames at Homegoods, used some canvas material I purchased at Wal-Mart (this is a textured fabric that we now have in a lot of places throughout our home!) and hung them above our new living room chair (that I adore!).

  I love the way it pulls the little nook all together!

memory keeping

I am guilty for a few things.

One.  I am a memory hoarder.  Seriously.  I try to hang onto every moment and memory.  Having a baby has taken this to a whole new level! ;)

Two.  I am always looking for ways to change and add/update our home.

Three.  Pinterest is an addiction of mine.  I pin and pin and pin.  And then pin some more.  It's like a drug for creative people.  I have a "memory keeping" folder, an "our home" folder, and a "photo ideas" folder that often get filled up with pin ideas for our home.

So, oh my was I happy when I was recently able to make some of my pinning happen in "real life"!

My first project is a silhouette of Adeline.  I so love the whimsy and charm a silhouette adds to the wall.  Not to mention the beauty of having Adeline's sweet little profile captured at 9 months! 

I found the oval frame at a yard sale for $0.50! A little spray paint was all it needed! I simply used a silhouette tutorial online and am so, so pleased with how it turned out!

The silhouette became one of a few things that I added to our hallway.  I added it to a collage of frames.  One frame to go around the thermostat (Pinterest idea), a newborn photo of Adeline, the silhouette, and then a quote I printed that I found on Pinterest that I love..."i wouldn't trade you for the world".

Another memory keeping project I did recently was actually a gift for Father's Day for Justin.  It's a collage of pictures of Adeline that I finally got it hung in our bedroom.  I so adore it (and so does Justin ;)!

The final project I completed recently was corralling two years of cards.  Yes, I save all the cards we receive for birthdays, holidays, etc.  We have a bunch of cards for 2011, one for 2012, and then I have started a bunch for Adeline of all her cards from her first year.  I grouped them to include the Christmas cards from the December right before (so the 2011 bunch has 2012 Christmas cards) and I plan to start a new bunch at each Christmas and collect as the year goes.  I used an automatic whole punch and binder rings you can get at any store with office supplies.  I love having our cards organized and a plan for where they are going.  (I keep a card display on our foyer table of the current cards.  They will now get moved to the ring of cards once a holiday passes.)

Whew! Feels good to get this accomplished and in our home to enjoy for years to come.

fall fun

Our home has been humbly decked with Fall decor.  I decided that if I didn't do it now, it might not happen before Adeline makes her debut.  Now let's hope we have the energy to take down the Fall decor to put up Christmas. ;)

Happy Fall!!

decking the halls

Today's topic...

Your Christmas Decorations!

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Grab the button and link-up for the fun!

our tree!

my grandma made our pretty tree skirt

the stockings were hung...by the tv with care (we don't have a chimney)

end table

this arrangement was made by some of the ladies at our church

foyer (the runner matches our tree skirt and was also made by my grandma)

this arrangement was also made by some of the ladies at our church; this is the first time we've used the lantern (love how it looks with ornaments inside it!)

kitchen

and another pretty arrangement from church (we have a bazaar each year)

hubby picked this beautiful poinsettia up for me the day after Thanksgiving and the sled was picked up the day after Christmas at a sale...love it!

above our cabinets in the kitchen (pretty plate was given to us from my mother-in-law)

took this pic before December...we change his heart each day in December

arrangement walking into eat-in area of our kitchen

even the bathroom gets decked for the season!

extra bedroom

christmas decor in the master

Can't wait to see your decor!

Tomorrow...we're getting thrifty! Share your money-saving tips for Christmas.

Fall Link-Up...Today!

Welcome to the party and Happy Fall! Grab the button, link-up, and write about anything Fall!

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For a few weeks now, I have been tempted to break out the fall decor. Rationalizing it in my mind...I decided there is really only October and November left before Christmas...and I like to start decorating for Christmas right after Thanksgiving, so I decided it was time.  Time to break out the fall decor! (Does anyone else play mind games like these in their head or is just me?)

I was delighted to be able to walk straight to my "Fall Decorative Items" Rubbermaid tub in our basement.  It's moments like those, where I am so thankful I take the time to try to get organized (by no means is it a perfect system) as I decorate for different seasons and put decor away after each season.

I even keep items like decorative towels for each season in the designated tub so that they're out of our way during the rest of the year, but handy when we need them for the season!

Something else that I find helps me stay organized as I decorate for different seasons and times of the year, is to have a Rubbermaid container that is dedicated to home decor items that I don't have room for during a special holiday or time of year, but plan on bringing them back out once the season is over.  (Another option to this dilemma is to re-purpose items around the house.  For example, I moved a vase that usually is next to our television to another table so that there would be room for this wonderful decoration...one of my favorites that I bought at an arts and crafts fair last fall.)

On with the actual decorating...

Who doesn't love using a wreath to say "Welcome to our home"? I took a long strand of flexible berry garland and wrapped it around a grapevine wreath to create this look.  I've had it for quite a while so it's showing a little bit of wear...but I'm always a sucker for a grapevine wreath.

Another fun idea is to leave the items you normally have out...but decorate around them so that they fit in with the new season or holiday.  One example are our candles that sit on a table next to our entertainment center.  I left them...

But added a little fall color to the table.  (With help from a place mat I found on clearance at Kohl's...I have a thing for circular place mats.)

I also did this with our magazine rack in the living room.  I simply traded out fake moss around the candle....

For a gold candle holder to add an orange-y (yes, I made that word up) glow to the corner of the room.

Of course, I also had to change over the kitchen table decor.  I dispersed the lovely flowers (that I talked about here) around the house in different locations.

The materials:  large vase (from our cabinets), fake leaves (from the fall tub), candle (from another room in the house), two place mats folded in half and layered, our lazy susan, and the canvas table runner I talked about creating here.

I'm loving the layered look with the varying stripe patterns.  Plus, the orange-y (there's that made-up word again) colors are fun and add a pop with the other neutral tones.  Again, here I am using place mats.  They honestly are hardly ever used for their real purpose in our bungalow.

Since we don't have a fireplace or mantle, I tend to use our foyer table as my decorating outlet.  It gets "spruced up" with every new season and holiday.  It recently went from this...

To this...

The materials:  a fall runner, a vase we had, a pumpkin I purchased a couple years ago that I love (it says "Trick-or-Treat" on the other side...so I will turn it around closer to Halloween), some fake fall foliage, and a scarecrow that my grandma gave us (Boone barks at this little man quite frequently).

I simply stuck the fake foliage into the already existing house plant.

And turned this orange-y (I'm sensing a trend) vase upside down to elevate the pumpkin for a little more "pizazz".

Fall decorating is fun for me...and I really don't overdo it, because I feel like our bungalow nestled among so many trees, already lends itself to this time of year.  Our home decor colors are very earth-toned and include pops of yellows, reds, and oranges all year long.  Fall just seems to "fit" our home.

And as us southerners like to say....Happy Fall y'all!