Picture Ornaments!

Thanks to a blog post by My Sweet Savannah, we made a fun project here this week! She had posted a decoupaged picture of a house and it gave me an idea for ornaments. I made one for my son and one each for the boys I babysit. Their mom loved them! They also decorated their own gift bags to put the ornaments in. It was a big hit. And so easy too. I started with unfinished wooden mittens. First, I painted the side and backs black and did a light distressing. Then, I took pictures on the computer and changed them over to black and white and printed them out on plain paper. Cut to size and decoupaged them to the mittens. I did another bit of distressing on the edges of the paper. There were already holes cut in the wood so I just used a nail to poke through the picture, then added a bit of ribbon.

I used clear decoupage but you could do an antique or sepia finish as well. Or you could use the clear and then rub a bit of antiquing medium over the top. Try your own, they are easy and fun! I may save this idea for gifts next Christmas! Thanks My Sweet Savannah for the great inspiration!

The Little Blue Dresser

Have you ever had a piece of furniture that was so versatile, you used it all over the house? We have something like that. It's a small, blue dresser we found at a junk shop years ago. My husband and I often checked this shop out and sometimes we would leave with a find, sometimes empty handed. I was very upset when it closed a couple years ago. One day we went there looking for something to hold a TV in the playroom of our cape cod home. I had already made a blue floral cushion for the wicker sofa in the room so when I saw this dresser, I knew it would be perfect! We paid $65 for it and took it home. Nothing had to be done to it, the paint was a perfect color and it had an aged look to it. I'm sure it has a few new scratches on it these days but you would never know it.

Here it is in the room:

When we moved, it ended up holding clothes in our son's room. I loved this room, we did light blue stripes on the walls and the dresser was the perfect color for a nursery. The drawers were a little stubborn opening and closing so I rubbed the bottoms of the drawers with the side of a candle. A little wax does wonders!

Then we moved again (I know, we move too much!) and it stayed with him for a little while. We knew another home would have to be found for it because he had a "big boy" dresser waiting for him.....

....so it ended up in the dining room! When we remodeled the dining room, I knew it would work great in there with my blue transferware. Now it holds games and puzzles for the kids. I've been considering relocating the games and using it for my scrapbooking supplies. We'll see! You never know where it will end up next. It is still one of my favorite "junk" finds.

A Little Bit of Christmas

With a three year old and a new puppy running around here, the theme this year is "Simplicity." We haven't gotten our real tree yet but we have our artificial one up in the living room.

Master Bedroom Planning!

I'm so excited to finally have bedding picked out! I've been looking at bedding for a year now trying to find just the right one. Originally I found a blue and brown set I really liked but decided to go a little different with brown and this nice green. It's a little different than I normally would go for, it's good to try new things right?! The bolster pillow above is one I ordered in the green. Crossing fingers it matches in person!

And here is the bedding I chose. My parents are buying it for us as a Christmas gift. I got to pick it out so it will be wrapped up for my husband. I can't wait to see his face when he opens......bedding. Should be funny.

The picture is really small so I put a link to the site where you can view it larger. The green is really fun, definitely a change from the neutral, calm colors I usually pick out.

I'm thinking of doing a chair rail in the bedroom and painting the above a matching green and the bottom an off white. Mouldings would also be white. I was going to do picture moulding but the room is very small so you wouldn't really notice it. Think I can get away with just a chair rail and the bottom painted without the extra moulding? I'm thinking about making euro shams in a green textured fabric, as well as a throw for the bottom of the bed. Hopefully I can bring a pillow to the store and find a coordinating green.

http://www.thebonton.com/product/bed+&+bath/quilts+&+bedspreads/shelley+quilt+livingquarters.do

This is what our bedroom looks like now. Yes, it is really that blue in person! It was painted this way when we moved in and was a teenager's bedroom. This house is a three bedroom home but the master had its own dressing room with closet and bath. We decided to give the girls the "master suite" and we took another bedroom. Hailey has the bedroom and Ella has the dressing/sitting room. It's a great set up for them, their rooms are connected and they share the bathroom. The hall bath is larger so we are happy using that one.

The furniture is hand me downs from my parents. We painted it to make it work and I like the armoire and dresser that goes with it. I'm thinking of getting rid of this headboard and finding an old door to hang behind the bed on its side. And doing a glaze on the furniture to give it more of an aged look. There is carpet in there now we will rip up and refinish the original pine floors underneath.

I haven't decided on curtains yet and will have to do some shopping for accessories (fun!) but having the bedding is half the battle! What do you think of wall mounted lamps for next to the bed instead of lamps? I may do that and opt for smaller tables next to the bed. These nightstands are on the bulky side.

Our master bedroom is small but I'm not going to let that stop me from making it a restful, beautiful place for us. This will most likely be the first project started after the New Year. I can't wait!

Meet Tucker!

Say hello to our new baby boy! He's a Morkie (Maltese/Yorkie mix) and his name is Tucker. The girls already are calling him Tuck for short. We brought him home last night and he is such a sweetie. It's so much fun to watch him romping around! The kids couldn't be more excited (the adults are too). Our Sheltie Sebastian seems to like him, he wants to sniff him all over of course. I have a feeling they will be fast friends! :)


My parents brought home two puppies for me when I was in high school. One was a Yorkie and one was a Maltese, Casey and Josh. We lost our Joshyboy in August to cancer and I know Casey (and my parents) miss him terribly. We saw this mix and knew it was meant to be. His face reminds us so much of Josh, my mom cried when she saw him. Dad tried to put up a macho front but he was completely melting when he held Tucker. How could you not?!


More pictures to come, we'll take lots!!!!

Our Gingerbread Houses Through The Years

A tradition started in 2005 for us, making gingerbread houses with my good friend Lori. Her two boys were getting older and the excitement of things like gingerbread houses was a bit lost on them. Don't let them fool you too much, every year they end up at the table with us, putting icing and candy on the house! My kids have an amazing time with this, they are already asking me when we can make it this year. I'm not sure how much candy gets on the house and how much goes in their bellies. Eating the candy as you make it is all part of the fun!

Here is a backwards look at the ones we've done:


2007 ~ We made a Christmas tree to go with the house last year. It was so cute, I think that was my favorite part. If you look to the right side, that's a little pond and a sled. The little candy ornaments on the tree kept mysteriously disappearing. Hmmmm....still a mystery to this day.

2006 ~ That's my friend Lori, who we make the gingerbread houses with every year. She offers up her kitchen to become a huge, sticky, mess and never has a bad thing to say as we are scrubbing dried confectionary sugar off her floor. Big props to her for that! My favorite thing this year was the Blow Pop walkway. It was near impossible to make those things stand up! The kids loved it though! I really like the little chimney on this one and the grass on the front lawn.

2005 ~ Our first year! My little guy was just a baby so his gingerbread boy is in a diaper! We made a little pond out of tiny blue candies and a Christmas tree in the window. The little snowmen seem to be enjoying it. This house might be my favorite, it was the year a new tradition began. I hope we keep it up and have many more sticky, gooey messes to look forward to.

Stayed tuned for Gingerbread House, 2008 edition coming soon!!!!

The Chipped Tooth

My oldest daughter lost a tooth yesterday. It wasn't the first one she lost but it was special. I've been waiting for this tooth to fall out since she was 18 months old. Let me explain! One day she was in her crib and chattering with my husband. Hailey has always had lots to say. He was playing peekaboo with her and she lost her balance and fell forward, hitting her mouth on the crib rail. She cried and we looked her over and realized her front tooth was chipped. Well, at that point, I started crying too. My husband felt terrible but of course it wasn't his fault. Like so many things with kids, it just happened! Now, remember this was my oldest, so I was pretty upset. Three kids later I have the wisdom to realize I should have been thanking my lucky stars there was no blood and no need for a long wait at the ER! Oh the things you learn with time!

Anyway, the tooth was really sharp because of the way it chipped. We had to find a pediatric dentist to file her tooth down a bit so it would be smooth. Hailey wasn't thinking this was so fun so we had to hold her to do it and she was hysterical. It didn't hurt but she was scared. At this point, my husband cried. It's so hard to watch your kids go through anything that makes them uncomfortable. The dentist warned us the tooth might turn black and die depending on the impact (it didn't, phew!). We were glad when we walked out of there! I remember asking my mom how long she would have this chipped front tooth, when do they fall out?! She told me 5 or 6 and I was very upset. That sounded like SO far in the future for her to keep this now damaged tooth. Well, she is 8 and the tooth came out yesterday. How time flies huh?

I look back on it and think about how silly it was for me to be so upset about it. And how it will always be a story to remember. The Tooth Fairy came and gave her a dollar but left the tooth. I told Hailey the Tooth Fairy probably realized just how special this tooth was and wanted her to hold on to it.

All that time I couldn't wait for her to lose this tooth, worried about her being upset when other kids asked her about it......now her second grade school picture will be extra special to me, it will be the last one with "the tooth."