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

My first printables

I - the non-shopper - have actually spent a good deal of free time this week getting ready for Christmas.  Possibly the earliest ever!!  I do not enjoy shopping as I may have stated a few hundred times, but my girls have been really good about going with me and motivating me this year.  So that is my excuse for not posting much this week.

Tonight after supper before my little "Potter Heads", as we like to tease them, were off to wait in line for the midnight release of Harry Potter, the oldest and I sat down for some mommy crafty time.  Gotta' love it!!

I found some really cute printables atThe Blooming Homestead.  They are super cute.  You can also find awesome free printables at Creative Kristi's blog.  So I printed out 2 copies of her leaf printable and broke out a couple of Dollar Tree frames, some paint, and some dry brushes

The frames were not very autumny.  Just plain black and plain brown.  After about 20 minutes oldest daughter had made this for her house

And I made this for our house

I must say that I did not understand all the printable craze going around blogland.  Uhm... now I may have a new addiction! Love it!! 

And thank you to those of you who know how to make these incredible printables and share them for free!! 

Happy DIY'ing

Susan



Linking here

Shook Me All Night Long

The walls start shaking, earth was quaking
My mind was aching...
And you shook me all night long

OK - I hope there are a few peeps out there who remember AC/DC from the early 80's.

When we moved to Oklahoma we heard quite a bit about the ever changing weather.  One thing we did not expect was a week-end like this one.  As of this afternoon we have had 13 earthquakes.  Really??!!!??  Two of them were large ones - ok, those of you in California are probably laughing at me right now - but we had a 4.9 and a 5.6.  Uhmm....Yowza.  These were our first earthquakes that really felt like, well, earthquakes.  It was very unnerving.  To those of you who live with this often - my hat's off to you.  It is more than a little shaking as I always thought.  It is very difficult to walk during one, they are very loud, and it gives you a horrible vertigo type feeling for a few minutes. It is actually very frightening. Even though we could see and feel the house moving we have not found any damage - woot hoot!!! 

I have taken a mini break these past few days after the 31 days challenge.  That was very time consuming and again I am in awe of those of you that blog every day.  I will have to say that even though it was time consuming it was also very motivational.  I felt like I HAD to work on my unfinished projects because I had said that I would and actually had put it on my blog.  You know - where every one would see. 

Here are the benefits that really scream at me...  I have 2 "project" spots that I toss place unfinished projects that I am going to "get right back to."  One is a chair behind the door in the master bedroom and the other is the folding counter in the laundry room.  With out further ado

BAM!!!!!!!
I do not think these have ever both been totally empty at the same time!

Thank you 31 day challenge!

And you may remember my huge fail on wrapping a lamp with twine here that ended with the exploded glue gun.  I finally made it to Hobby Lobby to get a new glue gun last night and today attempted once again to simply wrap the lamp with jute

Success!!!  I discovered that 1) do not rush!!!  2) my old glue gun must have been getting ready to kick the bucket for quite a bit.  With my old glue gun I could not put just a little dab of glue - there was always a large glob of glue.  That actually made the biggest difference,

I was going to make a lamp shade to go with it because the old shade looked like it belonged in my great-grandmother's house (and not in a cool vintage way).  I found the cover it your self shade on sale for $12.  Not bad.  But then at Wally World I found this BHG shade ready to go for $10 - SCORE

Looove it!!  It goes perfect with what I want to do in the master bedroom.  ( I am just a tad slow getting going with the bedroom).  Oh = and while I was at Hobby Lobby I found this blue pumpkin that is the perfect fall decoration for our bedroom.  And it was half off - woot hoot!!

Until next time

Happy DIY'ing

(and hopefully no shaking)

Susan

Clyde's Photo Shoot

Do your kids read blogs?  Mine have started since I talk about what I have seen on blogs all the time occasionally.  Youngest has picked up quite a bit of blog jargon.  So she took Clyde the clown on a "photo shoot" in several "vignettes" just in case I wanted to put him on my blog.  So with out further ado

In this one you can see the tiny little pumpkins from her birthday bouquet

This just totally cracked me up and I hope it brings you a little joy too!!

Happy Diy'ing

Susan