New Year’s Tree

I was going through albums looking for pictures for my Family Flashback post on our family’s blog and found this…

When we celebrated Y2K New Year for the year 2000 (after all it could have been the very last time we ever had a normal holiday again… LOL) my mom and younger sister decorated their Christmas tree with New Year’s decorations: colored balls, clocks, party hats, noisemakers… They even made a matching tree skirt out of felt!

I’ve always wanted to do this but I take down our Christmas decorations before New Year’s so that they are put away for my middle son’s birthday on the 3rd.

Maybe I’ll do it after he moves out??? ;o)

Santa Skirt

I actually planned to make this skirt way back in August. Plenty of time to have it ready for our big Christmas Kick-Off open house! In reality I got it done at 11:25pm the night before the shindig…

But I got it done all by myself, thanks to some great FB chat instructions from my sister, and it looks great as long as you don’t look too closely! ;o)

Don’t look too close, remember? LOL

Luckily the print is just so darn cute that no one would notice all the flaws anyhow…

Aren’t those Santa’s adorable???

Although the skirt was done, there was still one hitch. Nothing to wear with it! I had searched all summer and fall for the perfect red sweater to no avail. I had become so desperate I had even decided I would settle on a red turtleneck if it was the right shade of red… Nothing! In a last ditch attempt, I made a stop at the Goodwill the day before the party. They there were, TWO sweaters in just the right shade of red and in my size! And all for under $10!!!

I already have my Santa skirt schedule all figured out: next appearance, Family Christmas on Saturday!

In the meantime, maybe I should just leave it hanging by the wet bar in the family room??? It matches the rest of the décor perfectly! ;o)

Pumpkin Penny Rug

I spent Friday night at my parents’ house and at the breakfast table in the morning I noticed my mom had out the penny rug I made her a few years ago. I love the simple look of the black felt and blanket stitch! I may just have to make these again someday…

All the handwork makes it the perfect project to take with you or work on while watching a movie with the fam!

Now I wish I had made myself one, too… ;o)

Thanksgiving Living

I love fall! I know I’ve mentioned it before but I love decorating for the fall, too! November is my favorite fall month because it is Thanksgiving!!!

We should be thankful year round but we put a special emphasis on it in November! Even some of my decorations get in on it…

Love this verse!

Found this handsome bird a few years ago at the Goodwill for $8 and I am still thankful for it! : o)

This tablecloth I made last year incorporates all kinds of my favorite things: brown, fall, pumpkins and farms!

But my Thanksgiving tree is my favorite!

I decorate my tiny tree with leaves and Bible verses on being thankful!

Psalm 100:4 “Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name.”

Fall Decor

I love fall! I love the cooler days, warm cozy drinks, fires in the stove, colorful crisp leaves, caramels, baking and decorations! This year I was inspired by Pinterest to make some new additions to my boxes of autumn décor. Here are some of my favorites…

 

candy corn

I cut up a piece of vintage scrapbook paper, glittered it and made a bunting for the kitchen slider.

more fun with scrapbook papers and cards my sister made

Made this fun square bunting with black tie accents to hang over my stove for the fall season!

I didn’t make this lamp or the pumpkin but it is one of my favorites!

I love birds, owls and trees! So these Dollar Store silhouettes made perfect little accents in the living room!

 

A package of Dollar Tree leaves run through the sewing machine made the ideal bunting for the china hutch!

These luminaries look much prettier outside shining in the dark but don’t hold up too well in the soggy PNW. So they’ll just have to light up the entryway instead…

This felt bunting is so fun hanging on the divider in the entry! Apparently the kitten thought so too… I really miss having it there. : o(

I love the vintage owl & cat bunting made from cupcake toppers I printed on-line from HERE

But this scrappy wreath made from the extra pieces from my bunting is so sweet and so easy!

Then I took all the extra bits and pieces from my other fabric projects and modge-podged them onto old glass jars to make this fun little candle lamps for the woodstove. With the cold weather coming on soon, I think they are going to need to find a new home…

Gray Owl Skirt

I can’t believe how long it took me to finally make this skirt! I bought the materials clear back in the spring when I made my first skirt… My sister helped me while we were vacationing at the beach in September but we didn’t have time to do the hem. Then it took nearly 6 weeks to find the time between harvesting, schooling, cooking, cleaning, laundering, canning, baking and all that other stuff to find the 37 minutes it took me to put in the hem. When I look at that list it’s a wonder I ever found time but on the other hand it was only 37 minutes…

But, it’s done now and I can’t wait to wear it!

Next up is my Christmas skirt! I have to keep in mind that there are only about 6 weeks until December… AHHHH!!!!!

Crafty Organization

There are TONS of great ideas for organizing your home on Pinterest! But this past week or so I’ve learned that if you want to DO any of those great ideas, you can’t spend any time on Pinterest… It’s a real catch 22. ;o)

I did all of my Fall cleaning in the last 8 days! After the craziness of summer I need to get things back in order. This means purging, organizing and cleaning. It also meant implementing a few of the ideas I got off Pinterest… If only there was enough time to do them all!

This is my list of possible meals and snacks for the week. I was inspired by this idea at Make and Takes

I took the same idea of using picture frames as dry erase boards and used it for my prayer lists and for cooking checklists

This idea came from Not on the High Street but I decided to just make one out of felt instead of buying one.

I’ve needed some bookmarks to mark the songs I practice for church each week. So I made these button ones from Bella Dia. But then I got the idea to use them to hold my sheet music together. Unfortunately buttons were too heavy. But ribbon worked very nicely!

saving space with an idea from Infarrantly Creative

This spice drawer is my favorite! Thanks Frugal Décor Mom! It also freed up space in the pantry because I was able to get rid of my spinny spice rack thing from our wedding almost 20 years ago…

I also love having all my dry goods in glass jars so I can see what’s in them!

I got these dry erase wall clings on clearance at Wal Mart. I used a cute plaid binder clip for a pen holder and now I have an easy place to keep track of all the items I need to put on my grocery list!

My recipes were totally out of hand, so I dressed up 3 ugly binders I got for free with some scrapbook paper. Now I have 3 very cute and organized recipe binders. They are also very HUGE and had to find a new home in the kitchen!

I feel much better now that everything is so nice and organized! Now I just need to get back into a routine again…