Countdown to Christmas

Only 13 days and counting until Santa brings a sleigh full of goodies!  Every year I have great intentions of having all of my holiday shopping finished by the first of December, but I usually have 1 or 2 that I'm scrambling to finish the week before Christmas.  I've seen tons of organizing ideas on Pinterest and in blog land that I WILL do next year.

Anyway, on to the real purpose of my post today.  I am so excited about it!  I have been searching for a nice advent or Christmas countdown for awhile.  We are so busy this time of year travelling since our family lives so far away, the reality of getting to do a daily activity are grand, but not practical.  We do the Christmas tradition (2 years now) of reading a Christmas book every night beginning December 1. 

With my kids being 1 and 4, I get the constant question of "When does Santa come?".  So using the powers of Pinterest, I found this really cool countdown and decided to put my own spin on it.

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Unfortunately, I didn't get any in process pictures.  I was just trying to get it done and see if it would turn out anywhere close to what I had in my head. :)
I am very lucky to have a stockpile of old barn wood from my great grandmother's.  So I began with a small piece.  Then I cut the words in vinyl with my Silhoutte and put them directly on the wood.  I was going for an old, worn look.  Then just painted over the words.

Once dry, I removed the words and rubbed Valspar Antiquing Glaze over the entire piece and sanded to further enhance the old, worn look.

For the numbers, I looked everywhere for inexpensive metal numbers like my inspiration piece, but didn't have any luck, so I found a package of numbers used for mailboxes at Wal-Mart for $7.  Of course, the stark white numbers didn't work for me, so I rubbed the Antiquing Glaze over them and added some glitter.
To make the countdown easy for daily updates, I just attached some eye hooks to the back and tied jute to the numbers.  I did add some small washers I had laying around to keep the strings from being pulled through the eye hook.

All done and I absolutely LOVE it!  A holiday countdown for years to come.

Halloween Wreath

Well HELLLLOOOOO!  It has been a very long time since my last post and I apologize, life just sometimes gets in the way of hobbies.  I'm back today to show you my Halloween wreath.  I found the idea of a year round wreath here.  So far I've made one for Easter/Spring, 4th of July, Summer, Late Summer/Early Fall, and Halloween.  I'll try to do better to show you the others next year during their corresponding holiday.  I'm also going to be working on a Thanksgiving/Fall and Christmas wreath over the next couple of weeks.  It's been a lot of fun because D has been my handy dandy helper!

You can use any fabric.  I will either order a fat quarter of the fabric collection I like from The Little Fabric Shop or pick up a package from JoAnn's.  I picked up this Halloween fabric from JoAnn's and I've got plenty left to make some for friends and family (as I have time!).

                                     

For the bow, I used some glittery orange tulle and black tulle I picked up from Hobby Lobby last year.

I highly recommend checking out the tutorial.  It's been a lot of fun making these and changing them out with the holidays.  As an extra bonus, the removable pieces are MUCH easier to store than a full wreath!

Have a great Halloween!

Valentine's Day Art

Hello!  Happy Valentine's Day!  I'm just not that into the holiday personally, but any holiday centered around chocolate can't be that bad.  I usually don't decorate for the holiday, but this year to celebrate our first Valentine's as a family of four, I created this little piece of art with the boys a few weeks ago.

It will be fun to watch how much their hands grow over the years and I like having this to mark the first Valentine's Day for T.  I never thought to do this with D, but I have his prints now.

You'll need a canvas, red craft paint, and burlap for the hanger.  Super easy and fun for the little ones!

Hoping your day is filled with candy and love.

Things I Love

The past couple of weeks have been very hectic with work (with no end in sight).  I have been trying VERY hard to keep family time as family time and not more work time, but I honestly haven't stopped to really enjoy my family time.  I'm there physically, but my mind is thinking about everything else I probably should be doing.

Well, this morning kind of changed me.  My baby got up around 6 and I fed him, then put him in his swing while I showered and got ready.  As I was getting ready he just sat there and smiled at me, cooed and blew raspberries.  It was the sweetest, most adorable sounds I have ever heard.  T is a very happy baby, and he's does this every morning and evening, but I haven't stopped and actually relished the moment for several weeks.

Then, making my morning even more incredible, D came running in the bathroom and about knocked me over with his hugs.  Again, this is something he does most mornings, but for whatever reason, this morning I needed to be reminded just how much these 2 little boys love me and that everything will be okay. 

It's A Wash

I must confess, I've had this laundry room done for about a week, but haven't gotten around to showing you the pictures.

Let's go back to a few weeks ago when the laundry room looked like this:

I was itching to paint and stencil and add a little modern flair to our home that is mostly traditional country.  Sounds a little funny, doesn't it?  Traditional- country.  What is that, you ask?  Well, it's a mish mash of rustic, cabin-y,  and traditional lines and colors.  I do like a lot of straight, clean lines, so you could say it's touch of contemporary, traditional, and country....now if that isn't a contradiction!

Anyway, I wanted this room to be a little different than the rest in our home.  I really despise the size of this room as a laundry room.  It's very difficult to move around in so I wanted to do something that made me like the room a little more....not necessarily "like" doing laundry. :)

So I painted the wall that you see from the kitchen.  I've got 2 of the other walls that you can't really see stenciled, but I haven't painted it yet....I'm going to live with it for a bit and decide if I think it's worth the time to paint the rest.  It's a very time consuming process and I'm afraid I will get tired of the pattern faster than I can paint the entire room.

So here is the after. 

I wanted to add some baskets to help hide some of the visual clutter.  I am thinking about removing the cabinet above the washer and put in open shelving.  I think it will actually provide more storage than what's currently available.  We're trying to save up for some storage for the kids toy room and a really rockin' vacation this summer (we need it), so the shelving is low on the list of priorities.

I made the sign this past weekend.  I found the quote on a sign in Country Sampler magazine, but I didn't really like the style of the sign and it was too expensive for something I could easily recreate.  I used my Silhouette to cut the words out in cardstock, then traced them onto the canvas and painted.  I love the quote, it's so true to my life filled with boys!

I'm linking up with I Heart Organizing.

New Weekly Challenge - A Bowl Full of Lemons

As you know, I completed MOST of the 21 Day challenge from A Bowl Full of Lemons.  I kind of slacked off a bit on posting my accomplishments on the last couple of days because I actually did other areas that what was assigned and just got too busy to post.  But once things calm down again around here, I'll post them.

I'm attempting Toni's next round of challenges.



Go on over and check it out.  Should be fun!  Wish me luck.

New Organization Series

So I know I've been slacking off on posting and completing the challenges from A Bowl Full of Lemons.  I have been doing organization and cleaning, it just hasn't necessarily been what is assigned.  Work has been insanely busy the past week and I've been worn out from the stress and motherly duties.  Enough of the excuses....I've found another series I'm going to attempt. 

Organize Your Life over at House of Grace.

Here's to good intentions!