Is It Too Late?

Too late to post about my Christmas decorations? I wanted to post about the things I made and the decorating I did back in mid-December when everyone was having linky parties, but oh it was so busy with teaching, getting ready for Christmas and life. So I'm doing it now. Hey, it's still December at least!

I started with these wooden letters and spray paint from JoAnn's.

It became this! Our bathroom has a blue color scheme so I wanted to add some Christmas decoration that fit. The blue bells and white ribbon are also from JoAnn's. I hotglued the letters onto the ribbon.

 I started with spray adhesive from Hobby Lobby, styrofoam cones and red/silver/green glitter from Dollar Tree.

And it became three glittery trees! I got this idea from the blog eighteen25. Thanks for the fun idea! I couldn't find any candlesticks to glue them onto like she did and I was running out of time so they are just on a candle holder, candle lid and the top of the piano. Maybe next year I will put them in candlesticks.

I started with white ribbon and ornaments from JoAnn's.

And it became a cute way to fill the awkward "window" on our staircase. I got my inspiration for this idea from Pinterest and it was from the blog Saving Money Living Life. I think hers looks way better though. Next year I want to try it again but with some smaller balls and more variety of lengths like she did. It's hard to see, but I have dark blue, light blue, and silver balls.

I already showed you my Advent Calendar and entryway table decor here, but I thought I would include it with all the decor pictures. The wooden B on the bottom shelf was a wedding decor item and the BELIEVE basket was 60% off at Michael's.

 

 I did have a tall cylinder vase on the left side with a white taper candle in it filled with red and green mints as well. Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures before our Christmas party when I lit the candle and it melted down several inches until the candle was lost in the mints and now it is all a melted stuck mess inside the vase. OOPS! Guess I should have NOT lit that candle but left it alone as un-melting decor. Still have to try and get that hard candy rock out of the vase...it was only $1.00 so if it breaks I won't cry.

 

My "mantel", which is actually the top of my piano.

 I found the mirror at a garage sale (read about it here). I downloaded the triangle banner letters from Shanty 2 Chic and printed it on dark red cardstock (purchased from JoAnn's). I used glue dots to stick it onto the ribbon...but the letters have fallen down dozens of times so next year I will need to go with some heavy-duty glue. The votive holders were a gift from my mom, the chalkboard was from my wedding, the greenery and bird is from JoAnn's, and the glittery trees are the very same from above in this post.

I got this idea from Pinterest, and when I followed the link it took me to House and Home. I do not consider myself a good drawer by any stretch of the imagination. I am actually quite proud of how this turned out.

 My "bay window", which is actually my large kitchen window sill that looks huge, empty, and ugly if I don't decorate it. Darn, huh?

The mini tree, bell ornaments, red birds, ribbon, red berries, pointsettas,and fake snow is all from JoAnn's (on sale or with a coupon!) I had saved the jars from various food items. The metal bucket is from my wedding as are the wood slices. The wooden B is from Hobby Lobby and the stand for it is from Michael's. My mom gave me the Epsom Salt which is in the bottom of the jars as well as the little greenery from trees at her house. The candles I bought at Super 1. Lesson I learned...the votive candles looked really pretty sitting on the Epsom salt inside those jars, but they do not look pretty after they burned for 3 hours and are now a flat mess of wax. Oops. They are probably stuck to the jars too (my mom pinned a tip for getting them out which I will have to try). So next time, I would still put candles in the jars but not light them. I actually plan to leave this window display up for another month or so since it is more wintery than Christmasy.

So forget the fact that it's late...what was your favorite? Is there anything you want to make/do for your own Christmas decor next year?

My Christmas Presents

Well, I meant to post this yesterday. But, I slept in until noon (maybe your jaw dropped, but it was SO nice!) and then had to finish cleaning the house before the in-laws arrived.

Here are my Christmas presents!!!

From my mother and father in-law:

Cross country skis, poles (and boots  but we still need to shop and find ones that fit us)!

 

A Sterilite 3-drawer organizer. My mother-in-law found all sorts of crafting supply goodies and put them in the drawers. I added stuff I already have and now it sits on my desk ready for projects.

Icing Spatula--guess I need to make a cake now :)

Springy whisk (I don't know if that's the technical name but it's different than a normal whisk)

  Reusable canning lids and rings! How cool is that? I can't wait to use them this summer. 

I don't know if I posted about it...but for my birthday, my husband gave me a canning pot and a kit with all the essential tools and my in-laws gave me a food mill so now I will be well-equipped for some canning.

From my brother-in-law:

 

Kurt S. Adler 10 light star tree topper
Can't wait to put it on our tree next year!

From my parents:

 

A Silhouette Cameo!!! Oh my goodness I cannot wait to try this out. Thinking I will watch the instructional DVD and play with it today! It will cut up to 12 inches wide and 10 feet long on paper, vinyl, or fabric! You can also get marker cartridges for it so it can draw! You can put a color print and it will cut it out for you. Wow, this was such a surprise and I am so looking forward to all the crafting and classroom possibilities with it!

All these vinyl sheets! Some transfer paper too. My mom got it from Expressions Vinyl

The $10 download card and the mat on the left came with the Silhouette. Then I also got an extra blade and a longer mat (also from Expressions Vinyl.)

Project Life 12x12 Cobalt Binder

Project Life Cobalt Journaling Cards

I love taking pictures and have always liked the idea of scrapbooking. However, when I took time to sit down and work on it, I just get so overwhelmed by all the little stuff you can put on a page and it took me forever to do one page! My mom heard about Project Life and thought it would be a good fit for me. Slap the pictures in page providers and write about it on journaling cards. I can add embellishments if I want to but not necessary. Fast and easy, but still cute. That's my kinda scrapbooking! I have already started downloading several different cards that I find on Pinterest. So looking forward to getting some pictures printed and working on this.

Project Life Photo Pocket Pages Design A, pack of 60 pages. It hols 4 horizontal 4x6 and 4 vertical 3x4.

Project Life Photo Pocket Pages Design D, pack of 12 pages. It holds 4 vertical 4x6 and 4 horizontal 3x4.

 

Striped t-shirt dress from Shade

Black Jersey maxi skirt from Shade. It is SO comfortable. I love the heavier weight of it and yet it is so comfy too.

 

 Brown Corduroy Jacket by Calvin Klein Jeans from Costco

Head massager--it feels SO good.

Day ski pass! We have some cousins visiting in February and now we can go skiing with them!

From my brother:

 

My brother donated school supplies in my name through World Vision! This is the second year he had done this and I think it is so great. Reading the card makes me tear up!

Naturally Knotty Bamboo Wrap Scarf in Cloud Gray from Costco

From my husband:

 

A corded USB mouse. My wireless one drives me crazy sometimes and I mentioned it a long time ago...and he remembered! 

Pie cutter/server. This OXO utensil has serrated sides to cut the pie. We tried it out that night and it works really well! Very slick.

 

Fiskars paper trimmer! It has a fold-out ruler so that I can work with bigger pieces of paper and yes, it does have the pretty blue and white flowers on it too!

3-hole puncher! As a teacher, it is so great to have a tool like this at home.

What do you think? I was a bit spoiled huh? :) I love how my family thought of things to expand the possibilities of my hobbies! I am so grateful and looking forward to the fun these gifts will provide!

What did you get for Christmas? What was the biggest surprise?

Have I Ever Mentioned...

...that I LOVE Pinterest???
So many great ideas, so many freebies, so many possibilities! Two of my Christmas presents (which I am going to blog about tomorrow) have opened a whole new door to Pinterest potentials! I love finding freebie downloads and have started making a great collection. Can't wait to start using some things very soon and move the Pins into my new board called "Pinned It, Did It!"
 
...that I love buying things on sale???
Mmm, makes me feel so much less guilty for spending money. :)
My mom and I went after-Christmas clearance shopping today. We hit "Bath and Body Works" for their semi-annual sale to stock up on a soap and added a few more fun and wonderful smelling items to our bag. But hey, we got everything on sale and got $10 off! We sniffed so many scents that we both started to get headaches and knew it was time to move to another store. We also went to Hobby Lobby and JoAnn's getting a few more things that were either on sale or purchased with a coupon! Gotta love it.

...that I miss my girlfriends from Seattle?
One of my college roommates was back in the area and I got to go out to lunch and catch up with her today. I hadn't seen her since August and it was so nice to have some girl time and talk about our lives lately. Definitely made me want to try and make a trip over there soon.

...that my husband is wonderful???
He is. :) When I came home from my day of fun shopping, I could tell that he had worked hard around the house to get it cleaned/organized. He tackled several different projects in various places. It is so nice to have his help around the house. This evening he helped me to finish our upstairs so that it is ready for the in-laws. Yes, I still have boxes in various nooks and corners that need to be sorted through eventually. But, it is presentable and nice looking now. Those boxes can wait for later this week, a rainy day, ...or maybe until we move!

Merry Christmas!

True, I'm a day late. And yes, most other bloggers posted their Christmas greetings on Christmas Eve or earlier. However, I was in Montana without Wi-fi from the 22nd-24th visiting my husband's family. From there we went straight to my parents' house for Christmas with my family. Between all the wrapping paper, snow, cookies, presents, warm drinks, dice games, and turkey dinners, there was no time to blog.

On Christmas Eve, my family has an 18-year old tradition that we go out to a movie and a nice dinner. We chose The Guilt Trip. It was really funny and a good story. After the movie, we went to a nice restaurant by the lake in my hometown. We actually had gone there last year but we loved it so much we didn't care about repeating. In fact, we all ordered the exact same thing as last year! I had a grilled Caesar salad and the quail dish. Sooo yummy.

It was great to be able to spend time with both of our families. We are blessed that we don't live too far away from either of them. Both of our brothers came home as well, which was so nice to get to catch up with them. We ate turkey dinners with both families and played Farkle. We definitely enjoyed the little get-away and time to relax and not be reminded of things around the house we need to do.

We got back home today and had our own "Christmas morning", just the two of us. It was kinda fun to get to open presents three times over the past three days. I will be posting about my fun presents in the next couple of days so come back to see what I got!


I am really looking forward to the next 11 days of my vacation. With all that I am hoping to do, I know it will fly by. First task at hand is to clean and organize our upstairs. The in-laws are coming for a one-night stay on Friday and our guest area is terrible...like you can barely walk...eek! I have been storing and piling stuff there for months and now rather than just shove it somewhere else, I want to actually go through it and organize it the right way. Working on that tonight and over the next couple days. Tomorrow, I'm going to lunch with one of my college roommates who is back in the area for Christmas with her family. Also some Christmas clearance and craft shopping with my mom. :)

I really should get back to the mess :S

Beyond Comprehension

Last Friday morning, dozens of parents woke up their children for another day of school in Newtown, Connecticut. They fed them breakfast, made them lunch, zipped up their coats, hugged them, and said they would see them that afternoon.

Last Friday morning, dozens of teacher and staff unlocked their classrooms, wrote objectives on the board, sharpened pencils, and welcomed students for another day of learning before the weekend.

Last Friday morning, a young man changed everyone's lives at Sandy Hook Elementary and even across our nation.

Last Friday morning, teachers, parents, students, family, friends, and complete strangers across the country begged, cried, and screamed, "Why?"

As a teacher, this tragedy has hit me in a way that it hasn't affected many people. Yes, we are all saddened by this, but my position provides an entirely different perspective. I see 48 five and six-year-old faces every day. I answer their questions, tie their shoes, read them stories, help them write, count, and read. I strive to inspire, motivate, encourage, and challenge them. I hear about their hurting tummies, their pets, and their stories. I witness their good and bad behaviors, their friendships, their laughter, and learning successes. I see 48 young faces everyday, but this week, I have really been looking at the faces looking up at me.


As I see their innocent smiles, I can't help but think about the students and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary. It's just there--in the back of my mind. It is so hard to suppress the "what-if's". So hard when we have taken so many extra precautions now. So hard when the media won't allow my mind to rest.

I know we live in a fallen world. I know evil reigns here on earth. I know God is in control. I know He has a plan. I know all things work together for good to them that know Him. I know, I know, I know.

But what I don't know, is how someone could ever take the life of another, of a child, of a stranger. I don't know why.

And I never will. It is beyond comprehension. My heart hurts if I try to wrap my mind around it. And so I don't try. I don't attempt to understand how this could have happened--because I simply will not find an answer that I can accept. Instead, I feel somewhat numb. On the edge of okay and confused. I try to hold on to what I know.

I know we live in a fallen world. I know evil reigns here on earth. I know God is in control. I know He has a plan. I know all things work together for good to them that know Him. I know, I know, I know.

And I know that He holds me in the palm of His hand and I am safe from this world. I know that greater things are still to come. I know that someday, all the tears and hurt will be gone, and only joy, peace, and love will remain.

It's not easy, and the pain isn't gone. To be honest, the anxiety isn't gone either. But I know that I am not in control. I know that I still have a job to do. I know that I still have 48 faces waiting to see me smiling and strong tomorrow. I know that I have the responsibility and the privilege to teach those children. These things I know. I will hold on to what I know, and realize that the rest is simply beyond comprehension.

WTTW #11

I really need to figure out how to get better quality pictures. I am using my DSLR and it's on a high resolution. Maybe using the remote isn't the best option for focusing??? Any tips?

 

Monday

Blue and white striped sweater: birthday present from Shade

Navy bootcut pants: Target

Brown Flats: Target

Tuesday

Olive tie-sweater: birthday present from Shade

White t-shirt: Kohls

Khaki bootcut pants: Hollister

Brown flats: Target

Brown medallion necklace: Christmas present from SamMoon

Crochet headband: Delia's

Wednesday

Light Blue Baby Tee: Shade

Dark Yellow Cardigan: Target

Navy bootcut pants: Target

Gray flats: birthday present from Target

Thursday

Gray sweater dress: made by my mom

Red t-shirt scarf: made by my mom

Black leggings: no clue

Black slouch leather boots: JCPenney

Black belt: WalMart?

Friday

Gray and White striped shirt: American Eagle

Blue infinity scarf: birthday present--no idea

Dark bootcut jeans: American Eagle

Gray flats: birthday present from Target

DIY Entryway Table Part 2

Some of you may remember that back in October I posted about an Entryway Table project that Nate and I started. You can read Part 1 here.

Well, it took us longer than we anticipated to get to Part 2, but two weekends ago we were finally able to do it (and two weeks later I finally have time to blog about it, sheesh!)

I'm not sure I can really describe to you what we did in this segment, or how we put it all together. Like I mentioned in Part 1, this was a table we got from his grandma when she moved it. It was built by someone in the family and so we were attempting to re-configure it. We had some road-bumps and complications (breaking a drill and losing a drill press key) but we were able to get 'er done.

First we attached the legs back onto the top using the original hardware.

And then I stopped taking pictures because well, how do you take pictures of breaking a drill and searching for a lost key. And then by the time we got back into business, I forgot about my camera (I even left it out in the garage that night, oops!) We attempted to use original bottoms of the legs that we had cut off as little risers under the bottom shelf. However, when we tried to drill up through the center to attach it to the bottom shelf, it broke. And so, we decided to go without risers.

Here is the (almost) finished product. We basically cut the table top in half and re-attached one half as a bottom shelf under the legs. Seems simple, but it took so much longer and more work than it sounds like haha. Looks kinda cheesy, I know, but for the time being while we live in this rental, I am okay with free, re-built, no-risers entryway table. I am planning to paint it by the way (that will be Part 3...and I bought the paint yesterday!)

Here it is put to use and spruced up!

Wedding Decor now used as Home Decor

My birthday was just about a month ago, and one of the gifts my parents gave me was the rustic windows I had used as decor at my wedding (see picture below).

I borrowed these wonderful old windows from some friends at church. One of my friends wrote on the panes with a glass marker the significant dates of our love story. After the wedding, these windows along with some other rustic items we borrowed were returned to these friends. I found out on my birthday that a short while after the wedding, he contacted my mom asking if I was interested in having the windows to keep. My mom answered saying that I would love to have them (she was SO right...have you SEEN all the great rustic window decor possibilities on Pinterest???). So my mom got them from him and they gave them to me for my birthday. It was such a great surprise and I am looking forward to all the crafting possibilities with them in the future.

Thankfully, he had not erased the writing off the windows and there were no smudges. We decided for the time being (aka while we are still in our rental) that we will keep the writing on the panes and hang the windows as decor. Later, when we have our own house, I will erase and use the windows in various ways.

So then my husband and I set about to hand them, which included a trip to Home Depot (I love that store!)

We got some rope (rustic look for hanging) and eye-hooks.

Nate measured and screwed 2 holes on the top of each window and then we put the eye hooks in.

He searched for a good while for studs in the wall (this house is crazy...our landlord built it and it has many, umm...special, qualities) and then screwed holes.

Then came the fidgeting and finagling to get the frames the same height and level on the wall.

I love looking up there and remembering those great memories.

I think they fill that huge white space on the wall very nicely!

Have you used any decor from another event (such as a wedding) as decor for your home?