i should be mopping the floor: November 2012
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Friday's Freebie: Oh By Golly

Just a little something to help us get in the Christmas spirit. Would be fun framed on a wall or in a holiday display. I created two sizes...the 11x14 is designed for easier printing on an 11x17 sized paper {available at most printing places}. The 8x10 prints on a letter-sized document. Both are designed to be trimmed, framed and displayed.

To download, simply click on the image below that you'd like:
{Kindly give a follow before downloading any of my free printables. Please and thank you.}





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{Guest Post: Suzanne Winter from Winter Wonderings} Personalized Ornament


Hi, I'm Suzanne Winter- from Winter Wonderings, Wanderings, and Whatnot. I know, that is a mouthful - so you can just say Winter Wonderings, or Winter W3, or that W obsessed lady.  I have three babies - twin boys A&B who are 20 months old and Baby girl who is 6 months old.  Yep, that is 3 babies 14 months apart.  Life is crazy to say the least, but I love it and I love them.  Sewing/Crafting are part of what keep me sane, ang quite often the reason my floors aren't clean - so it is very appropriate that I find myself guest posting here at I should be mopping...

So baby girl has  'unique' name.  I confess, it is a name I made up in high school in a creative writing class.  But I have loved the name ever since, and when I told my hubs(then boyfriend) that Mackabrie was my one and only girl name for future children - his response was 'I LIKE IT'.  Phew, set!  Of course then I had twin boys and really didn't expect more children for a LOOOOOOOOONNNNNNG time (if ever).  Sometimes God has other plans.  At least when we found out it was a girl, the one thing we didn't have to figure out was the name.

But having a unique name - particularly a made up name, means that baby girl will never find customized things with her name at craft shows, pit stops, or anywhere that doesn't do customization.

Thank goodness for craftiness!!!

I saw gorgeous monogrammed ornaments on Etsy and just knew that there had to be an easy way to create something at home.

While perusing the aisles at Micheal's, I saw these glitter letters and KNEW that they would be perfect!!!


So here is quite possibly the EASIEST project you can possibly do all season.

Start with a plain ornament (I used a large satin finish brown glass ornament, but plastic works just as well, and isn't breakable!!!)

I marked the center of my ornament with a piece of scotch tape so that I would have a straight line to line my letters up against.

Attach your letters along the top edge of your tape


Leave any hanging letters with the bottom loose so that you can peel your tape off.

Admire your gorgeous customized ornament.

Now if you want to go a step further... you can make a pretty pearl hanger for your ornament.

Take thread (or thin fishing line), thread it through your needle, double it over an tie a knot at the bottom.

Thread your pearls onto the needle - I used 30 of the medium sized from my assorted pearl crafting beads. (these things are great, you get small, medium and large of both cream and silver pearl beads - I've already made a necklace and have plans for another necklace and a bracelet as part of my Handcrafted Christmas series.)


Thread your pearls through the hanger on your ornament (with the needle still attached)

Run the needle through the two threads at the knotted end.


Loop your needle back through the first pearl above the knot, repeat, tie your threads together and cut the tails.


Hang on your tree!!!



This is such an easy project that you could cover your whole tree with customized ornaments!

Have fun, and most importantly: Have a Merry Christmas!
--

Thanks so much for joining me today, Suzanne! Suzanne's blog is just precious. She is an AMAZING seamstress...I am in awe of all of her projects {especially the sewing ones}. Some of my favorites are:


yes...that jacket started out as a sheet!!


Stop by Winter Wonderings, Wanderings and Whatnot and say hello to Suzanne! 
You'll be VERY inspired!

{Easy Christmas Craft}: Tabletop Trees

A few weeks ago, I introduced you to my craft group: the Hot Glue Hotties.
This was our craft from November. It is super easy and can be customized for any decor.


As you can see, we all did our own style and they each came out great!

You'll need:
  • styrofoam cone base {can use green or white}, the size is up to you...but the larger you get in these cones, the more fragile they are and difficult to work with {and 99% of the time, the tops break off when they are taller}.
  • scrapbook or plain paper {for the larger size that you see pictured above, I used six sheets of paper, for the smaller one, I used four}. You can mix and match or even do all one pattern/color. 
  • floral pins {you can use straight pins, but sometimes the head goes right through the paper...floral pins are available at craft stores...usually with the floral styrofoam}
  • ribbon
  • hot glue


 I used a paper cutter, but it isn't required.

I cut my paper into one inch strips.

And then cut the strips into 2 1/2" lengths.
Your final strips will each be 1x2.5 inches.

Start by hot gluing your ribbon around the bottom of your cone. The hot glue tends to melt the styrofoam, so just a little dab will do ya!

Roll up one end of your paper strip on a pencil to get the curled end.

Then pin into place...just above the ribbon. Continue all around the tree, in a straight{ish} line. Perfection is completely optional here...uniqueness is the way to go.
Crooked lines=character.

After you get the first row done, you can switch patterns if you're using more than one paper design.
Start your next row about 3/4 inch up from the previous row.
Just make sure to cover the pins from the previous row.

The narrow, top part of the cone can be a bit tricky. Try to push your pins in at an angle so they don't poke through to the other side. This was a bit of trial, error and poked fingers for me.

Once you get to the top, use another strip of ribbon to cover the pins. Just hot glue it in place as well.

We finished ours with jingle bells on top.
Several of the ladies did cute bows on top, too. LOVE that!

Happy Holidays!

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Dining Room Makeover {On a Budget}

 
My six-month dining room makeover was complete two days after Thanksgiving. 
Oh the irony.

It was still very usable and worked out great for Turkey Day...I just happened to stumble onto the six most delicious Craigslist chairs the Saturday following the "big" day {and by stumbled onto, I mean I've been stalking four separate Craigslist city lists for them for the entiresix months}. Their purchase brought the never-ending dining room makeover to a close and within budget thanks to my good money management. Amen and hallelujah.

And truthfully, the dining room wasn't even on my makeover list for this year...it sort of just "happened". You may remember the saga from June...

"If you give Kristi new floors, she'll want to paint the walls before they're installed. And if she decides to paint the walls, she'll want to paint stripes. And if she's repainting the walls with stripes, she'll want to redo the window treatments. And if she's redoing the window treatments, she'll want to paint the backs of the hutches blue to match the new window treatments. . ."

I've said it before, but the previous decor was quickly turning into Sunday dinner at Grandma's. And I am more of a Saturday Night Supper Club kind of gal {at least that's how I picture myself in my mind...I suppose technically more of an on-the-couch-sweatpants-wearin'-watching-Downton-Abbey-with-a-diet-soda-in-one-hand-and-laptop-in-the-other kind of gal. Potato-PotAHto}.


I didn't think too much of my old dining room until an older lady from church {and I mean older with all due respect} came by one day. She told me my dining room reminded her of her mother's current dining room...at the nursing home. I about died, y'all. 


So when I realized we were getting the new floors, I turned to David and told him I was going to take on redoing the dining room while we were in the process of redoing the floors. Seemed easy enough. {Insert eyeroll}


Looking back, I'm quite thrilled I was dumb enough to take on the project in the midst of the craziness of installing new floors. My stupidity resulted in something I'm actually kind of proud of. 

Buh-bye, nursing home decor.


 
I've done tutorials and posts over several of the projects in here over the past few months. Here's the breakdown {click on the links to see the full posts}:

The green took quite a bit of primer and paint to get rid of. The beauty of getting the new flooring was skipping the drop cloth ritual. Liberating.


Again, I have a tutorial on how we created the flawless stripes in here.
We did them on the two shorter walls to add more depth to a short & squatty room.


And next came the flooring installation. Oh, sweet Jesus, this was a crazy day.


But soooooo worth it.
Nothing like a nice new palette to work with.


These were inspired by Allison from The House of Hepworths.
These ended up being a necessity after I realized how heavy the drapes were. Gah.



Which also created a lovely blue floor in my garage. 
Funny how drop cloths don't actually absorb paint.


Blue garage floor=fun and funky custom drapes


The Nester inspired me to make my own DIY Starburst Mirror out of posterboard.


Then I poked around in my parents' shed and found a dilly of a project:
my great grandmother's dresser. 


I also pulled off the backs of the china cabinets and painted them with that Oops Blue as well. I painted the "wrong" side of them, so if I ever want to go back to the wood sides, I can just flip them back over.
These belonged to my late uncle, then to my mother, and about seven years ago, were passed on to me when my parents down-sized into their new home. My uncle did all of the leaded glass in the doors himself.


I truly wanted a new drum-shade chandelier in here...but at $500+, it just wasn't in my budget.
Maybe one day...

For now, I bought some sparkly beaded garland, in my favorite shade of blue, on our Salado trip and simply wrapped pieces of the garland on each arm of the chandelier, as well as one strand at the top.


It just adds some extra bling-a-ding-ding up there.


And of course, the night before Thanksgiving, I put together some centerpiece candles to use for our meal...which I'm really pleased with how they came out.
They started out as Dollar Tree candle holders! To see that tutorial, click here.


And the final touch....THE CHAIRS!

I've seriously been looking for Parsons' Style chairs for quite some time for this room. I wanted some that didn't have host/hostess chairs, so I could keep them just on the sides of the table. The table also belonged to my late uncle...and I LOVE the big chunky base legs it sits on. I wanted to nix those end chairs to show off her pretty legs. And I'm completely flabbergasted that I stumbled onto the perfect chairs on Craigslist. What a find! The previous owner was getting rid of them for a few minor reasons {nothing wrong with them...just not right for her home}. I was only too happy to take these off her hands for a bargain.  


I couldn't be happier with the new space. While I know the floors were a huge part of this makeover, we received those at no monetary cost to us. Which brought this makeover to less than $400 for everything...I was kind of excited about that one! Had I bought those chairs new, they would have been over $1,000 {I had been contemplating that purchase for the whole six months}. So happy I waited!!