A touch of love

Put up a few Valentine's Day touches. The mantel is done and I love the pops of red in my mostly neutral white home. 

My son cut out the hearts with me for our love branches. The marquee letters were an Etsy purchase some time ago. I leave them up year round but this time of year they are even cuter. 

Christmas Cheer

Just a few pics for the season.  I'll be decorating the house today with the kids, we're getting in the spirit. :)

 

 

 

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/340092209332272080/

 

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/207306389071016400/

 

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/175147872981909608/

 

 

 

 

http://weheartit.com/entry/43075112/via/Bella_Quotidiano

Bird Nest Treats

Happy Spring everyone!!   In honor of getting through a snowy winter, I made these bird nests for the kids to eat.   So easy and super adorable. 

 

 

All you need is a box of shredded wheat, milk chocolate chips and chocolate Mini Eggs.   Add about 4 cups of shredded wheat to a large ziplock bag and crush it up till it's nice and shredded.  Melt the chocolate (I used a whole 11.5 ounce bag) in the microwave in 20 second intervals, stirring in between each time you take it out.  

 

When your chocolate is good and melted start adding the cereal.  I found it was easier to add the cereal to the chocolate a little at a time and stir until it is all coated and you can't see the cereal color anymore.   Also, my cereal measurement is kind of approximate.  I used the very precise "eyeball it" method on these. 

 

Scoop a tablespoon of your mixture into cupcake liners and use the back of the spoon to make your nest shape. 

 

 

Press a few mini eggs into each nest and let set.  You can pop them in the fridge for a bit to harden faster.   I don't like coconut in my desserts but I'm sure you could add some of the shredded variety in with the cereal if that's your thing.   

 

Easter is almost here, which means warm weather is coming soon I hope!  

Painting with Vaseline

 

 

 

 

Happy Wednesday everyone!  The sun is shining here, I think it finally feels like time to get the Easter decorations out.  I've been a bit of a slacker on that!   I had this unfinished plate that I wanted to make pretty.   Having read about using Vaseline to distress paint, I thought this little plate would be my guinea pig. 

 

 

I started out by brushing on some dark aqua and brown paint randomly around the edge....

 

 

 

Let that dry and glob on a bit of regular old Vaseline.  Depending on what look you want, you can use more or less.  I used more to get the paint to really look chipped and worn.  If you want it to just crackle a bit, use less.

 

Brush on your topcoat....

 

 

 

 

You can see in this picture how the paint isn't adhering as well in the areas of Vaseline...

 

I was bummed when I uploaded pics and this one came blurry.  By the time I realized it I had already passed by this step.   You can make out where the paint is rubbing right off.  Now at this point you can call it good and stop if you like the look.   I opted to do another coat of paint to whitewash over the sanded areas again. 

 

 

 All in all I used about three coats of paint, sanding inbetween to get a layered, worn effect.  

 

 

I love how it looks naturally timeworn unlike the crackle medium which to me just doesn't come out with a truly vintage look.  

 

 

After I was satisfied with my paint I cut a circle of chalkboard vinyl.  Have you used that stuff?   Amazing, love it!  So easy and it washes up beautifully.   And much less work than chalkboard paint...although I still use that too. 

 

 

I've been experimenting with Elmer's glue too.  I'll post about that after I mess around a bit.  So far I'm finding the cheaper glue works better for that method.  More to come....

Sunday

Happy Easter from our family to yours!!

My Blog Got The Memo

That Valentine's Day is really over. I've been wanting to post for spring for a while but just needed a break. I always feel more motivated to blog after stepping back for a bit. Plus, we finally replaced our broken laptop and blogging is a ton easier without trying to edit pictures on a computer that may as well be prehistoric (that's 8 in computer years in case you were wondering).

One thing I love about having a neutral home is how easy it makes it to decorate for holidays. Just a few bits of seasonal color here and there and things start looking festive pretty quickly. Plus having kids makes a huge impact on holiday decor over here. I started off doing very neutral spring and Easter items, white bunnies, neutral colored eggs, vintage postcards.....you know what I mean. But then something crazy happened....the kids started complaining. Yeah, imagine that. They wanted pastels, plastic eggs, spring colors, fun things to look at.

And even though sometimes it makes me cringe, I realized, this is their home too. So now I let them pick out a few things and it isn't much but to see how excited they get when the holidays change around here is worth throwing a few ugly plastic eggs in jar.

White bunnies living in harmony with bright Easter eggs....ahhhhh....it's like a Hallmark card.

*The brown bunny in the top pic came from TJ Maxx, as well as the yellow place mat. White ceramic bunnies from Hobby Lobby (how much do you love that store, seriously?).

An Angry Valentine

An Angry Valentine

If you won't be my Valentine

I'll scream, I'll yell, I'll bite

I'll cry aloud, I'll start to whine

If you won't be my Valentine.

I'll frown and fret, I'll mope and pine, and

It will serve you right---

If you won't be my Valentine

I'll scream, I'll yell, I'll bite!

~Myra Cohn Livingston

(From the book Valentine Poems)

I started putting up some Valentine's Day decorations. Since I don't use much red for Christmas, I love the pop of red this time of year. A perfect excuse to add color to my normally neutral home.

I'd say I love decorating for Valentine's Day but really, I love decorating for any time of year. I love switching out decor, moving things around and bringing a fresh touch to our home. It just makes me smile. Kind of like that silly poem. :)

Holiday House Tour Ready

Source

Or ready as I'll ever be. **Phew** It's been a lot of prepwork but I think I am officially DONE. Done decorating, done cleaning, done washing and done stressing. It is what it is at this point and I hope the people who paid to come through like it......or at least half of them.




Some key points to remember if you will be touring my home on Saturday:

1. I realize my style isn't for everyone but if you don't like it, please lie to my face. If you don't, I might cry.



2. I'm really exhausted so ignore the dark circles under my eyes.



3. I'll make every attempt to have a coherent conversation with you but if I sound like a bumbling idiot, refer to number 2 above.



4. We have 3 kids and 2 dogs. One of them sheds like crazy and I doubt I could possibly get all the hair up. If you see some, kindly ignore it. You know how you had a real Christmas tree last year and then you moved furniture and found needles on the floor in June? Yeah, it's kind of like that. Same goes for Silly Bandz, Legos and assorted tiny superhero figures.



5. Yes my house is always this clean.



6. Do not, I repeat, do not open my closets. You may get injured from things falling on you and I'd be super embarrassed and really, who needs that?



7. Ditto for the basement.



8. I may have lied about number 5.



9. This is how we really live. I didn't really change much except do a whole lot of cleaning and put some excess toys away. I started ironing pillowcases and such and then thought, nah...that's not really us. We are casual, no iron, toss shoes in a basket, it doesn't have to be perfect kind of folks and I wanted to show you the real us.

10. MOST importantly, I am so happy that you are taking time out of your weekend this busy holiday season to tour my home. I'm thrilled to be on the tour this year, so excited to meet everyone and no matter how much work it was getting ready....I would do it again in a heartbeat. I love decorating my home for the season and the fact that I get to show it to you is just icing.



I'll be back soon with lots and lots of pictures! Have a beautiful weekend everyone!

Wish me luck!!

Oh Christmas Tree

On Sunday we went for our Christmas tree, something we look forward to all year long. It was freezing so we didn't get many pictures and the ones we got came out a bit like this.....

I sometimes wonder if we'll ever get a family photo where all five of us look normal. I may need to do like that commercial where the mom switches heads on their holiday photo. Do you know what I'm talking about? It's a computer commercial. Anywho.....

My son was "helping" Daddy cut down the tree. Don't worry, we moved him out of the way before the saw was really in there. A tree falling on one of the kids would have put a bit of a damper on the day.

We finished the day off with dinner and then hot chocolate. Mmmmmm....

So what is it in your house, real or fake?

Valentine's Day Decor

I have to admit, I have a difficult time with Valentine's Day decorating. I don't use much red or pink in my home and, although I make an exception for this particular holiday, it doesn't mesh well with the rest of my decor. I also find that so many commercial decorations for the holiday of love are on the silly side. And not the good kind of silly. I keep a little bit of silly around here for our wee ones but try to keep it to a minimum. Putting out their special school projects is a must but balance is key here.



Here are some Valentine inspirations that would make Cupid proud. I'll show you my own festive touches in another post. All photos courtesy of the wonderful Better Homes and Gardens website.