Goodnight!!

We had the most beautiful sunset tonight - so I just had to share.



Enjoy!!!

Now How Did Those Christmas Lights Get So Tangled?

Oh well - at least he had fun!!!

An itty bitty tablescape

Have you seen all the beautiful tablescapes around blogland - wowza!!!  How fun it must be to sit at such a festive table!!

Unfortunately I am still too lazy casual to master the tablescape.  But our table does stay set for the Christmas season.  Just not to any major degree

Yep - that's it!!  But there is some sentimentality to my table.  Youngest daughter bought the silver table runner with her babysitting money one year.  She knew I would love it and drug her dad from store to store all over town until she found just the right one.  I love that memory

The salt and pepper shaker are gifts from a very dear friend.  She knows I love Christopher Radko and every year she buys a piece from his collection.  And the girls get one of his ornaments.

So there you have it - our very simple tablescape!

Hmmm... now I am hungry!!


Until next time!
Susan

The Village People

YMCA....  oh wait - I was not actually talking about the band from the 80's - I was talking about my kiddos.  But I had you for a minute didn't I!

When the girls were little we bought them an ornament each year so that their trees would not be bare when they started their own homes.  Then their adopted grandparents, their real grandparents and various friends started buying them ornaments, too.  Soon our tree was overwhelmed and we knew they would be fine their first Christmas away.

What to do, what to do?

I decided that I would start a village for each of them and add pieces to it each year.  Oldest daughter obviously has all of hers at her home - so today I will share youngest daughter's, which currently resides in our dining room (now what will I do when she moves out!!)

Her village in its entirety - rather hard to get a total picture



Each of the girls received a church as their first piece - going forward from that they were specific to each girl.



A reindeer home -




Santa's toy shop




a second church - for Santa land



The first three years youngest daughter was into the whimsical side of Christmas - so we worked on her Santa land.  I think it is still her favorite part of her village with the bright colors and whimsical trees.

A snowball fight from the year we had way too much snow.

A ski lodge from her first winter snowboarding trip.  That was usually a spring break trip.

Pizza by the Slice was her favorite high school lunch spot

The old train station is the heart of our town's downtown area and she loves to spend time there - downtown, not the train station!!

And a night time shot - tee hee!!

So there you have our version of the village people.

I hope you enjoyed it as it is one of our favorite Christmas decorations!!

Until next time

Susan

Wreath-a-pa-looza

I hope that all of you had a truly blessed Thanksgiving.  It was a whirlwind around here as usual.  For a few years oldest daughter and I have gone to the Black Friday craziness.  Not really for the shopping values, but because it is hilarious. 

This year we took youngest daughter.  Now that was entertainment!!!  She was totally shocked!!  We actually only went in one store, but drove around looking at the ridiculous lines at other stores.  Oh and youngest daughter did find lots of things to buy - but none of them were on sale.  Really??!!??  On Black Friday?

I digress - the girls and I traditionally have a craft day the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  This year it was wreaths.  There is LOTS of inspiration in blogland and on Pinterest.

First we made bunches of ornament wreaths as gifts.  I know there are lots of tutorials out there so I do not know where credit actually goes.  I used Thrifty Decor Chick for the first one I made a while back. 

They are actually round - I do not know why they photographed like this.


Oldest daughter really liked this wreath from Kristen's Creations and there is a great tutorial on her blog!!  So oldest daughter set out to make this for her mom-in-law.

One layer of decomesh on

2 layers of decomesh and beginning of ribbon

Some how she took off before I got a competed picture, so you will have to take my word for it.  It turned out just precious!!  Mom-in-law will love it!!

Both girls looove this wreath that is all over Pinterest.  They love the randomness and the "off-sidedness" of this particular wreath.  So we attempted our own.  Uhm... they were much harder than they look

Here is the original

Source: Pinterest



And here are our attempts

oldest daughter - for his sister-in-law



youngest daughter for a friend



mine-just for fun

Ok - so they are nothing like the original, but we had soooo much fun together working on them!!

However - clean up was a little less fun

yep - messy work!!

Until next time

Happy DIY'ing

Susan

Rudolph the rainbow reindeer

With the Thanksgiving holiday coming up, the girls are out of school for the rest of the week so we were able to have a mid week meal with oldest daughter and her family.  As busy as school keeps her this is becoming rarer and rarer.

Since it is almost Christmas time, grandson and I did a little creative crafting.  I love watching kids this age - their imaginations are great and they are so uninhibited.  A rainbow reindeer - who would have thought it other than a child.



Such creativity takes sooooo much concentration!  Oh and lots of acrylic paint!!

But the results...so worth it!!

Until next time

No matter how young or old

Happy DIY'ing

Susan

Armoire and Excuses

Yes I realize I have been very absent.  I was really feeling terribly guilty until I checked in on a few of the blogs I follow and several bloggers were so overwhelmed with the craziness of this time of year that they are taking time off blogging until after Christmas.

I have been very busy with family, activities and projects.  Woo hoo - projects are getting done!!!  I will post on several of them in the next few days.

The first one is not technically a project... yet.  I have seen several armoire make overs all over blogland.  So many bloggers talked about finding great deals on armoires on Craigslist.  So I began scouring Craiglist looking for a really cheap one for the master bedroom.  Honey likes having a tv in there - yuck!!  So we have had an exposed tv for quite a while.  Since I am slllloooowwwlly working on the bedroom I thought an armoire would be perfect.  I finally found a really good deal on one - woo hoo.  Most people still wanted way too much.

When we went to look at the one I found - I was really disappointed.  It was in sad,sad shape, was not wood or any form of wood, and someone had drilled holes in the sides of it to run cords through.  Bummer. But in the same garage I saw this one

She was just about to list this one too.  Since we had driven over a couple of cities she sold us this one for $100.  Woo hoo!!!!  This is huge and all wood!!  I am not crazy about the color, but I am not doing much about that yet.  Not until I decide what to do about the rest of the furniture.

All I have done is touch up a ton of small scratches and put on/buff off some paste wax.  It looks great!!

This one shows the detail of the inlay on the bottom doors - swoon

These show some of the other details on this monster. 

Oh and since we had to move the majorly heavy dresser that was originally on this spot, my bedroom walls are finally all painted!!

Now I just need one of the furniture gurus on blogland to come be my personal shopper and find the rest of the bedroom furniture!! 

I promise I will try to do better blogging.  Not only is it the crazy holiday time of year, this is the time of year that we are swamped at work.  Some days I barely make it to the couch to collapse!!

Until next time
Happy DIY'ing
Susan



Another Printable!!

Well I guess once I get started with something, I don't stop.  I just hope I do not "over-do" the printables.

I went back to The Blooming Homestead for another fall printable, broke out the last of my dollar tree frames

Unfortunately the dry brushing did not go as well.  This frame was so porous that the paint dried almost immediately and did not blend well.  So I will probably repaint it in the near future.  The way it is now looks a little patchy.  But the printable is gorgeous!!

Pictures totally do not do justice!!!  You should go to The Blooming Homestead and check out the real image.  There is subtle sheet music behind the wording.  Blotchy frame and all it makes me happy.

So again thanks to all the talented people that take the time to make and share these!

Happy DIY'ing
Susan