November 29, 2012

Curtain Trim Project

 I'm posting for my mom today because she sent me these pictures of her curtain redo this week. I think it looks great! While she was here in September visiting, we bought curtains from IKEA for my room, and talked about stenciling on a trim or sewing on a trim or even painting on a trim to jazz them up. I STILL have not touched them. Although, I have worked on other projects. I still have about 3 unfinished. This blog has definitely pushed me to "create" more than I used to which is great but it is also bad because I have so many things I want to do and each one distracts me more than the last.

Anyhow, mom has not embraced the blogging world yet and is a little technically challenged. Yes, mom, I'm sorry, but we all know it's true. I'll have to create a Blogging 101 for you I suppose so you'll post more often! However, you are the greatest encourager I know and thank you for always being excited about everything I tell you, send you, show you, etc. Hope I can encourage/praise my kids as much as you have encouraged us all our lives.

Before

 Trim

After

Great job!

November 27, 2012

Christmas Windows


I love Christmas! And my son Cole loves decorations. We still need to put lights up outside and our tree, but have a bit of Christmas in just about every room. Cole particularly enjoyed having his very own 12 inch tree to decorate in his room. This year, I didn't want to clutter my kitchen space, so I borrowed this idea I saw on Pinterest. I love polka dots and stripes together. And these candy canes and ribbon added just enough touch to the kitchen sink. Now when I'm cleaning dishes, I think about Christmas :)



November 25, 2012

Christmas Tote

What a nice long weekend! Unfortunately  I had to work Friday, but Frank had off with the kids Friday, and after I got off, we all went to Bayreuth to shop and out to dinner. Great night. Then climbing on Saturday and cleaning the house, and today we actually saw the sun. We took a long hike with the kids in our old town around the lakes and river. Cooper rode his bike and then when he wore out, he rode in the new double stroller. Felt so good to get out with the kids. I miss the sun.

As Christmas approaches, each night I am making myself make one gift. Well, almost every night. Depends if I fall asleep while putting the kids to bed mostly. I ordered a couple of tote bags on Amazon, and they have been so fun to decorate! Here is one that I did last night. I sewed on the buttons. It was still a little sparse, so I added felt letters I had on hand from the dollar store. Cooper was jumping on my back, so I am blaming him for why they are not on very perfect. And, I got lazy and hot glue gunned a few of the buttons on at the end. Here are the results. Total cost - $6. 





I'm linking up to some parties!
 

November 23, 2012

Christmas Ornaments

I have been making lots of Christmas gifts the last few nights, but can't post many since I don't want my family to know. Sigh. However, I am doing the ornament exchange organized by One Arsty Mama, and below is the ornament I made for my swap partner. Unfortunately, mine isn't near as cute as the original from elsie marley. I love how she did the thread on the buttons and used rickrack. I couldn't find any rickrack at our craft store on base. And, I couldn't get the sewing machine to work, so I did two of these by hand. I think they are hiliarious. Maybe I have a sick sense of humor though. They only take about 20 mins to make! I love them. And I love elsie's blog.



November 21, 2012

Fall Leaves above the Mantel

A few weekends ago, when I hosted the Fall Woodland themed baby shower, I put these fall leaves up on our mantel in the dining room. I still have them up for Thanksgiving and really have enjoyed them. I think you could pull this off in a lot of ways. I used brown scrapbook paper for the background. If I had wood scraps, I would have used those instead. I also used paper cut outs for the leaves, but real leaves decoupaged on would be really nice.

Only one more day till Thanksgiving! We're going to my friend Veronica's house to celebrate. Tonight I'm making broccoli cheese casserole, corn pudding casserole, and a chocolate pecan pie. Yum. She's taking care of the rest. Hoping to go climbing in the morning to burn some calories, then head over in the afternoon to her place. We'll see. Frank hurt his finger last night pretty bad. He went climbing, came home and showered, and somehow managed to dislocate his finger in the shower when he started slipping and caught himself with one finger. Sure hoping it heals quickly.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

November 16, 2012

It is Well with My Soul

So, I have started the Christmas making gifts frenzy. Last night, I made a sign for my sister Tiffany. I sure hope she doesn't check this blog often. Well, actually I hope she does read the blog often, but I hope she doesn't see this post. If you do, stop reading or it will spoil part of your present!

I have always loved the hymn "It is Well with My Soul" written by Horatio Spafford. If you haven't, you must read the composer bio and it will give a whole new meaning to the hymn. He lost his son, his business, and then all four of his daughters to a ship wreck. Only his wife survived. He managed to pick up the pieces, they had 2 more daughters and moved to Israel and founded a group to serve the poor. I kept thinking of quotes or scriptures to use for her but they were either too long (for me to cut each letter out) or just not perfect. This one just seemed to stick out and felt right, so I made her a sign with "it is well with my soul". Hope she likes it. Hope it also doesn't cost a fortune to ship since it is wood. Might have to send it via ship vs air.
Wishing we weren't so far apart! I have three sisters actually, but the oldest ones, the twins, went to college when I was 11, far from us, then onwards to marry and start their families, and the family gatherings grew fewer and fewer. Don't you hate growing up! Gosh! I knew it from the beginning that I didn't want childhood to pass. I seriously wished that the Peter Pan story could be real and dreaded growing older (or rather dreaded the changes to come). My promise to myself was that I would always remain a carefree child at heart. I have tried, but I have failed. Carefree went out the window a long time ago. But, now having kids of my own, at least I am able to relieve some of life's greatest moments and discoveries and get down on the ground and truly play again. Desperately wishing our family could all be together again for the holidays, but I don't have the leave time/money to make it happen this year. And "coming home" is never the same when you are older. It is wonderful and needed and I crave it, but I always leave with a desire for something that just never comes back. So strange. I'll never understand that. I think the "coming home" desire could have a post all to itself.

Enough babble, on toward the tutorial of how to make a sign without a Silhouette. First, I googled some images of the words and found a sign at 13pumpkins on etsy that inspired my version.  You can buy her sign and lots of other awesome ones at her etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/13pumpkins.

1) First, since I don't have a Silhouette machine, I printed out the words I wanted to use in Microsoft Word at home.  I played with the fonts a little and made the font size 260 and 300. I placed the pages on the sign to make sure I picked the right sizes. Maya, my lab, was trying to help too.


 2. I had scrap wood leftover from making the Power of Tower, so I just nailed the boards to 2 skinny long pieces of wood and painted them all in Annie Sloan Chalk Paint White Linen.

3. Then I cut out each letter/word and the bird picture using scissors and glued them to the sign using a glue stick.

4. Next I painted over the whole sign in Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Duck Egg Blue.


 5. Once the paint was mostly dry, I pulled the paper off. Some stuck a little so I had to scrape it off.


6. I had to do some touch ups with the white paint, wax it, and then sand to make it more vintage looking. I also had to cut off the last two pieces of wood to make it smaller. Below is the finished result.


November 13, 2012

10 Recycled Sweater Gift Ideas

What a wonderful weekend we just had. I love three day weekends. When I worked in Kentucky, I had that every week and it was so awesome.  We were able to go climbing at the gym in Nuremburg with the kids which went great, go to a birthday party with lots of friends/kids for Cooper to play with, visit the Daut family, and play a ton at home/get household chores done.  I feel sore all over from the gym, and that is a good thing. I need it.

At night, I was also able to make a few ornament gifts. Christmas is on my mind. I already want to decorate, but I know I should wait until Thanksgiving is over. We were living in a hotel last year, so I didn't get to decorate then, and I am anxious to see all my stuff that has been in boxes for 2 years!

Last week, when I went to Stuttgart for training, I was noticing how reused sweaters are the big thing. And I LOVE the stuff I am seeing. Sweater Ornaments, Sweater Wreaths, Sweater Chair Coverings, Sweater Rugs... The list goes on and on. Here are 10 awesome gifts/decorative items to make from an old sweater that I found on other amazing blogs. Each has a tutorial. I must get to the thrift store!

1. Wine Bottle Cover by Pocket Change Gourmet 
2.  Sweater Wreath by Camilla Fabbri

Source
3. Recyled Sweater Pillow by Centsational Girl
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4. Pottery Barn Inspired Stocking Burlap Pillow by Confessions of a Plate Addict
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 5. Super Simple Pom Pom Hat by Kojo Designs

6. Woolen Mittens by Martha Stewart

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7.  Leg Warmers by Lex

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 8. Sweater Vases by Thrify Decorating 
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9. Lampshade Cozy by Carla Ackermann



10.  Sweater Bags by Whipup

 
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November 8, 2012

Woodland Theme Baby Shower - Activities

A few weekends ago, we planned a family friendly Coed Woodland Themed Baby shower for a baby girl for my friends Mike and Kumi. That's a mouthful. I split this post into 2 Parts because there was so much to cover! For Part 1, I blogged about the food. Now for the Decorations and Activities.  Since it was fall, the woodland theme worked out perfectly. Now Mike and Kumi have their beautiful baby daughter Arisa at home. Congratulations Mike and Kumi! Most of the beautiful photos were done by Kevin Stover Photography. Thank you guys!

Mike and Kumi

The Guests
Aside from all the food preparations which added greatly to our Decor, we used a lot of owls, tree branches, acorns, leaves, pumpkins, and pink and yellow mums around the living room and dining room and entry way.

I bought woodland themed baby shower napkins, dessert plates, and food plates from Creative Converting on Amazon and a cute 3-Pack Hanging Decoration, but also made an Owl Garland to hang over the window that I made. 


For the backdrop for the food, I traced leaves onto scrapbook paper and cut them out and placed on brown scrap book paper for a woodsy feel to the room. I still have these up. My inspiration for the leaf backdrop was this photo below.


For the Guest book, I made a Canvas Thumb Print Tree Guestbook.  I put a Words of Wisdom tree next to the guestbook where people could hang leaves with their words of wisdom for the couple.



Since we had such a large group of people, including men and kids, I didn't want to struggle with getting people to play games etc. Instead, I set up a room for Crafts! Kids decorated bird houses I bought at the euro store (that they could bring home with them), and adults could decorate onesies. I printed off a ton of stencils with a woodland theme (squirrels, butterflies, owls, dragonflies) and set up paint stations and a freezer paper section. This was a huge hit. The guests enjoyed painting and chatting together in the Craft room. Once the kids finished their birdhouses, they played outside in the sand box and on the Power of Tower which was a huge hit. 







Kevin and Cristina graciously set up a Photo Booth for the guests to use. I made masks (owl and fox) and set out a hat or two, and people could go take funny photos of themselves at their leisure. This too was so much fun! Check out the awesome video they made from the photo booth photos.




Aside from crafting and the Photobooth, we watched the couple open gifts together and sat around talking.





Woodland Theme Baby Shower - The Food

Are you getting ready to host a baby shower with a woodland theme? Below are pictures of the appetizers and lunch menu we served for a family friendly woodland themed baby shower.  Hope some of these inspire you for your own party. For ideas on what activities to do, check this post here.

Starters

Owl Cheeseball with Cracker, Carrots and Apples

Fruit Salad and Fruit Owl

Tomato Mozzarella Toadstools in Pesto Moss

Main Course

We made homemade baked macaroni and cheese, chili,  mini sesame turkey burgers, mini teta and garlic beef burgers, and grilled portobello mushrooms on mini homemade yeast buns. We set out chips,  lettuce, tomatoes, avocados, and pickles for the burgers.


Mini Turkey Sesame Turkey Burgers



Desserts

The Dessert Table

Apple Pie

Birds Nest Cupcakes with M&M eggs and Toasted Coconut nests

Mushroom Cupcakes (Vanilla with butter-cream frosting and chocolate mints for dots)
  

Homemade Marshmallow Kebabs
Party Favors
 
S'Mores Kits
We filled snack baggies with the makings for S'mores (2 marshmallows, 2 Graham Crackers, and 6 pieces of Hershey Milk Chocolate) and tied twine to tags we made and placed in a bowl in the entryway.

Almost all the food was gobbled up and so delicious. If you would like any of the recipes, just let me know, I'd be happy to share.