(decorating blocks)

For sure, the most surprising thing about living in our new house has been how lost I am with how to make it feel ours.

I am so accustomed to a fixer upper mindset where anything I do improves the property.  Here, I'm kind of hesitant because I don't want to wreck anything.

Walls?  Should I hang a  map?  A clock?  I vacillate and hesitate. Before, I thumbtacked up art and clocks and even driftwood and painted with reckless abandon.  I projected verses, quotes, maps onto the walls, penciling the outlines and then carefully filling them in.  I painted my chalkboard wall before it was cool and I painted yucky oak cupboards bright white.  I painted old ceiling fans and used a hammered metal spray paint to redo light fixtures. Once I even painted an ugly linoleum floor a red and tan checkerboard design and coated it generously with wax.  It looked FANTASTIC.  Painting is my go to. And I know I'm biased, but all that stuff really did look nice.  Amazing, even. 

Here, the colors are already chosen and I happen to love them, so there's no reason to paint, but the expansive walls are kind of getting to me and most of my art and pictures are still stored on the floor of the linen closet.  And who has time to stand and squint and stare at their walls to figure out where to hang pictures?

Suddenly I am becoming a decor-challenged person and I have never in my life had that problem. As a tiny child I even rearranged my bedroom furniture one night when I was being babysat.  I was probably five, and I remember pushing the bed across the floor with all of my might.  How I expected this to escape the babysitter's notice, I'm not sure, but when Mom and Dad got home I crept down to the landing to listen to the report.  (I have also never required a lot of sleep.  Who needs sleep?)  "She was really good- except I don't think she went to bed and she made a lot of noise in her room moving things around." I froze.  Busted. 

I have not finished Myquillyn Smith's new book The Nesting Place, but I have bought it twice and and given it away, so maybe the third time I will buy it and keep it to myself.  However, I have browsed it very carefully so as not to crease the pages of my gift and did some speed reading stints.  Also I have given it, and then shamelessly taken it back and pored over the pages.  It is exquisite.  I love it and it is exactly  my philosophy of making a home beautiful.  Well, anyway, maybe I exactly like Myquillyn's philosophy, but anyway. 

Be creative with cheap finds, better yet freeee finds
Use what YOU love
Bring personality to your home
Be brave
Be a little bit reckless
Stop procrastinating
You can always change it
Simplicity is beautiful and life is beautiful and mess is part of both: embrace it

Somehow I feel I've lost this philosophy in the crisp clean spaces of our new house.  I joke that we run a hotel, and we really do, but I don't want it to look like one-- at all.  I want people to feel welcome and at home and have their eyes wander to interesting art and read quotes that point them to Christ and find intriguing books in easy reach.  I want our house to look like our kids live here, too, and like their friends are welcome, because they are.  I want our home to be an extension of who we are, but not what we are and there is a difference!

Tonight after a long day of teaching, house showing, and packing for the weekend, I threw caution to the wind and Cambria and I had fun with our kitchen wall.  IT WAS A BLAST.

Long live electrical tape, chalkboard paint and Myquillyn Smith.

(the $90 rainbow gumball garland for $6)

Now if I could just prop my laptop up in my chalkboard fireplace, I would be good to go! Seriously, this is great ambiance, and after the initial ad, it runs commercial free with beautiful piano music for an hour. The kids love it.



For advent today we made a tree for the birds:

It looks pretty forlorn but it was definitely fun to do and we put it outside on the birdfeeder.

 The kids and I decorated the tree today while Eli was napping.

The tree will provide some unique training opportunities for him.

He drools profusely while he stands and looks at it. 

You almost feel bad for saying "no, Eli, no, just look, don't touch."

Cambria did a "show" for us tonight with her nativity story felts.

 Eli got to "drive" while Daniel was picking up pizza. Ear to ear grin.

I choose a different decor/color theme each year for the Christmas season.  This year my inspirating was this page out of the Land of Nod catalog:

These gumball garlands are a bit out of my price range though:  I checked tonight and they are actually on sale for $25/11 feet.

We bought 2 $3 packages of pompoms at Walmart and strung them on thread today.

I am beyond thrilled with how it turned out.  Super super easy and exactly like the Land of Nod garland.  I estimate that we made $90 worth of garland for $6.  I'm happy with that.  {So is Daniel.}

stockings from sweaters (how-to)

if you're one of those brilliantly gifted people who can just flash your needles together and turn out beautiful scarves and hats and socks, then disregard this bumbling tutorial.

And please don't laugh too hard at my lumpy toes.  I know yours would look nicer.

I can't knit. I can't crochet either. I wish I could do both just so that I could sit in the little downtown yarn shop we have and drink in all the glorious color. (and clack my fingers together to make some pretty stuff, too.)

So a long time ago, I made the kids stockings out of a sweater I had.

The knit was perfectly chunky and my very favorite shade of green. They were ridiculously easy to make and I kept my eyes peeled for the American Eagle green chunky knit sweater so I could make matching ones for the rest of the fam.

I found one at Loren's clothing swap party this summer and then I noticed another one in Cassie's profile picture the other day. The only problem was that the sweater was Cassie's friend, Linda, and I don't know Linda at all. But I jumped out on a limb and told Cassie if her friend ever wanted to get rid of her sweater, I'd happily buy.

Well, on Friday, Cassie showed up on my front porch with the sweater, further proof that living in a small town is the best thing ever. I'm convinced. (Thank you Linda for not being weirded out!)

Anyway, here are some super simple instructions.

You can easily make your own.

You can see here that I didn't even use a pattern, resulting in a short fat toe for the stocking on the left.  But that's okay, they really don't have to be perfect.

By the way, I'm thinking the left over sleeves could make some really cute leg warmers.  (Can't believe those are popular again. . . at least they are in calmer colors than the last time I wore them.)

So I just use the zigzag stitch on my sewing machine and sew along the outside edge of the sweater stocking.   I am a lazy seamstress anyway, but I see no reason not to use the existing seam in the sweater.  It makes for a preeettty quick project.

Then you turn them inside out and hang them up.  I usually thread a ribbon through, whatever the "color of the year" is.  Here I just used wooden thumbtacks.  That worked too.

*** advent today. . . Christmas library books.  I have to bring a crate into our library every three weeks.  I should probably start using a wheelbarrow.

Favorite Christmas Titles:

On Christmas Eve, Margaret Wise Brown

The Little Fir Tree, Margaret Wise Brown

Christmas in the Barn, Margaret Wise Brown

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, Susan Wojciechowski

The Christmas Party, Adrienne Adams

Arthur's Christmas Cookies, Lillian Hoban

Peter Spier's Christmas, Peter Spier

The Doll's Christmas, Tasha Tudor

Erik and the Christmas Horse, Hans Peterson



And the last two. . . well, it is hard for me to say which I like more.  Oh my.  It's like choosing which child is your favorite.  You can't.  You just love them all. 

Which reminds me, JD asked me tonight as I sat on his  bed:  "Mom, which of us is your favorite child?"

I gave the standard reply that any thinking parent would give and then asked. . . "wait. . . who do YOU think is my favorite?"

He said that he thought it was Eli, right away, so then we had a nice chat about how Eli definitely demads the most of my time right now, but that doesn't mean I love him more. And if one was measuring time spent, Eli gets less time from me at 14 months than Jacob did at 14 months.  Hopefully that will give him something to mull over.  UGH, parenting. 

Anyway, the last two on my faves list:

The Twenty-four Days Before Christmas, Madeleine L'Engle

favorite because the story captures the essence of hopes and unrealistic expectations, the beauty of Christmas even when it doesn't turn out the way we had planned. Plus, in true Madeleine L'Engle style, it is fascinating, funny and sweet.

Christmas in Noisy Village, Astrid Lindgren

Because Noisy Village is where my family lives. 

so i painted a fireplace on my wall

I really really did.

And there are about 100,000 other things I should have been doing in place of tootling with chalkboard paint AGAIN.

But I saw this idea last summer and stored it away in my mind.  I remembered the other night when we were out to dinner celebrating my youngest sister's birthday.  We were laughing about the positive spin realtors put on bad houses and my brother said, "yeah. . . a realtor can just wave his hand at a wall and say, you could put in a fireplace there!"

That comment reminded me of the faux fireplace.

before

I penciled the lines for the mantle and . . . mmm. . . firebox?  is that what you call it?  I don't know, I've never had a fireplace.

(best paint cleanup tool ever)

so the outlet stumped me for a while.  I came to the conclusion that I would either put a basket in front of it or somehow incorporate white lights into my fireplace using the outlet.  I briefly considered painting it black as well, but only for a moment, after I remembered that Daniel replaced every single cream/70's yellow outlet with updated bright white- just for me.

So then tonight after Eli was in bed I saw that my phone said I hadn't talked Deeann since October 16. That was definitely something that needed to be taken care of so while I was talking to her THIS beautiful art happened on my fireplace.  Not what I had in mind. You can see the remnants of a big orange chalk fire that my artist drew first. Sigh. 


Later tonight after EVERYBODY was in bed I repainted the firebox. 

 

I kind of like it.  I'm not done yet, it needs some tweaking.  I will add grey lines in the white to make faux crown moulding and I will either draw fire or add some logs.  (Somehow. )

A fireplace my firefighter can approve of.  Except that he didn't really approve. . . he saw it and said. . .
*long pause*

"WELL!  I can see somebody is totally ready to paint things!" 

Of course he is referring to that entire rental house that needs to be painted from top to bottom.  I will be getting started on that very, very soon.  After I finish my coffee by the fire. 

oh such a copycat

Oh, Pinterest. . .

I did this today with the kids.

Not my idea, wagon or house pictured above.

{But it's super super cute and we have one now.}

I've been thinking today about what a shameless copycat I am. . . it's really quite pathetic.

As a new gym member, do I come up with my own exercise routine?  No, I trot after Deeann, panting trying to keep up, and just copy hers.

Do I come up with my own homeschool curriculum ideas?  Nope, just copy my mother in law.  If my kids graduate from college two years early like Daniel's little brothers with degrees in physics engineering and political science. . .I'm good with whatever curriculum got them to that point.

I worry after reading Ann Voskamp that I'm going to blog like her.  *hit return key five times*  deep, thoughtful sentence.  *hit return key five times*

Hmm.  I try to copy my sister in law's unbelievably organized household.

I want to copy my mom's easy, relaxed hospitality.

I wish I could copy my little sisters' crazy-amazing hairstyles.  (How do you backcomb again?)

I think about copying the mommy-bloggers like my friend Michelle who resolve to not spend any money in January.  (I think I just heard my husband laughing his head off ten blocks away at the FD.)

Sigh.

Nothing's original here, folks.  It's all duplicated from some other brilliant soul.

roman shade out of mini blinds (nesting pt. 2)

My friend Rebecca made a roman shade out of her kitchen blinds over a year ago and I still can't believe I waited this long to try it out myself.

So easy.

You need existing blinds.

About two yards of fabric.

And some sort of glue.

I used a glue gun.

Very simply, you cut out all of the blinds except for the "bones" of your roman shade.  I left  6 blinds. . . they were about twelve inches apart.

Then cut your fabric so that it overlaps the stretched out blinds about two inches all the way around. 

I ironed my fabric so it would have nice creases where I wanted to fold it.

Then I laid everything out on the dining room table and started gluing.  I did the "bones" and edges first, then the bottom, and glued the top at the very last when it was actually hanging on the window.  **Note:  beware of gluing the cords.  You want those to move freely.

The detailed directions on Apartment Therapy's site absolutely forbid hot glue.  Call me a rebel, but hot glue works just fine.  But maybe that's because I use my grandpa's super duper industrial florist's glue gun which is a step above most cheapie versions.

The hardest part is carefully cutting a hole for the blind cords.  I cut a tiny, tiny slit.

This took me about an hour. . . it is seriously one of the easiest projects I have ever done.  My total cost was $15 and that was because I bought heavy canvas fabric just because I liked the pattern on it.  $2-$3 per yard cotton should work just as well.

Detailed directions at The Little Green Notebook.  Or google "roman shades out of mini blinds" and see what you find.

Jacob's room is next, but I'm looking for some atlas / world map fabric first. 

white light love x 4

And the week of white lights continues. 

White lights on top of peanut M & M's = difficulty in grabbing any time you wish.

Being totally snowed in is a great reason to organize my perpetually messy pantry closet / cupboard.  Of course I can't resist a makeover.  What fun would order be if it always looked the same?!

It's not done yet. . . I'll keep you posted.

white light love x 2

I bought these white lights on white string to copy an Ikea white light wire wreath, which I planned to hang on our pseudo-headboard.  But I haven't gotten that far, and I actually like it the way it is. 

I could keep up these white light posts for a verrrrry long time! 

white light love

It's a cold snowy day and I am finally taking down our Christmas tree.

I so miss the glow of the white lights in the living room, though, and Gabe's big tissue flowers. . .  so in they went to the top of the laundry cupboards.

Looking at this photo, I am shocked at the drabness of our bathroom wall color.  Huh.  That may change soon.

Few things make me happier than white lights!

shelf makeover

I found this shelf. . .

somewhere. . .

on some street.

{. . .being thrown away. . .}

I painted it and put it on top of an antiqued dresser rescued from Daniel's grandpa.

{It was in his garage. . . being thrown away. . .}

{Thrown away + rescued by me = free home decor.  Love it!}

It needed something on the back, so I cut out fabric that I liked {at that time} and

glued the pieces to the back of the shelf.

It was okay.

Kind of vanilla.

My attention span with my house really lasts about three months per project, so I'm surprised

that the vanilla roses have been here for two years.

Goodbye vanilla roses!!!

Loving my $2.99 wrapping paper {Hallmark} makeover!

january banners

I was not feeling too hot today. . .

{Note to self: when trying to hide pinkeye and a cold by wearing Daniel's Hawkeye stocking hat and dashing into the library *crossing fingers* hoping not to see anyone we personally know. . .

You will see the childcare coordinator from Mops (who defines graciousness, but still. . .)

You will see supermom bloggers who homeschool and cook their own dinners and look super cute and patiently truck their kids to fun programs at the library (hi, Michelle)

and your mother-in-law's college roommate will check out your library books.}

But at any rate, I am comforting my sad appearance and sore throat by making some whole wheat cinnamon rolls and crafting all day. 

I started with this:

This is my stairwell window . . .$5 roman shade from Ikea. . . going three years strong, except for the cord, so I thought it might look cute tied up. I'm really in a funky color mood, and still have tons of orange ribbon, so. . .

. . .then I had this cute green Gap shirt that never fit right. . . (at least that's my excuse - really, the geometric print was just perfect for my little flag banner) plus an orange and pink striped Isaac Mizraih whatshisname- you know, the Target Isaac- tablecloth (or was it a sheet?)

. . . and they became the flag banner.  I just sewed them {without finishing any edges} onto 47 cent 1/4" white ribbon from WalMart. 

The kids love it.  They want to make one go down the stairway railing.  (I just might do that.)



 Then I started thinking I needed little flag banners in my kitchen windows, but I didn't think the size was right, so I cut little circles out and just sewed them onto that same ribbon and thumbtacked them in each of the three windows.

It does brighten the grey January view!

Gumdrop Wreath

{Inspired by Cheryl at A Pretty Cool Life. . .}

I love it!!

24 Days before Christmas

. . . well, actually, its more like 13 or 14 days before Christmas. . .

I put up our advent calendar last night . . . er, this morning, at 2 am. . .

This is my very cheap spin on the advent calendar on Infarrantly Creative.  I went to Dollar Tree to buy the cute little buckets and realized I was going to spend about $10, which I don't mind, but these little white bags in packs of 12/$1 caught my eye.

Then, since I don't own one of those cool cricut machines, I sent a humble request to my friend Pam for numbers 1-24 in green and orange.  She was kind and made them for me. (Thanks, Pam! )

I (shhhhh) hot glued the green ribbon to my chalkboard wall.  I think when I take it down, there will be some sadness, i.e. chipped paint, but no worries, I have tons of chalkboard paint.  I pinned the bags up with green paper clips.

They are filled with little tags that say things like:

Make Peppermint Bark


Read Luke 1


Sing Away in the Manger


Play "hide the Christmas candy kiss"


Put a string of white lights up somewhere


Read a Christmas story


Put together Christmas puzzles


Look at Christmas lights with hot cocoa in Daddy's truck

Go to Fareway and pick out Brach's candy mix

and so on . . .and on. . . 

I'll be honest, I don't have them all filled.  I can think of what to put in there as we go along.  It's the right of the mommy in her mommy kingdom.

And I've always wanted to try this idea. . .

. . .sorting clothing into outfits for each day of the week.  I don't know if it will work, but at least it looks really cute!

I am such a conundrum of beautiful design and absolute chaos. 

Really?  Advent Calendar on the 11th of December at 2 am?

Please, tell me I'm not alone.

$20 Master Bedroom Makeover

I just never get tired of makeovers. . .

. . .ever.

So this is my $20 master bedroom makeover.

There were several components that went into the inspiration for this idea.

1) mess everywhere from hundreds of books that needed shelving

2) the chalkboard headboard wall in the movie 500 Days of Summer {not worth watching except for decorating ideas!}

3) makeovers make me so so happy.  I have been rearranging my spaces since I was a little girl.  One night when I was probably only four, Mom and Dad left me with a sitter who dutifully put me to bed, but I didn't go to sleep.  I pushed my bed against a different wall and toodled around in my room til Mom and Dad got home, then crept down to the landing to listen to the sitter's report.  "I don't think she's asleep, " said the sitter, stating the very duh obvious.  {relating that story sounds an awful lot like Cambria.  Hmm.}

Anyway, on with the remake.

Ceiling Fan : repaint+ clean = free

(the amount of paint used is so minimal and I always have black paint)

free shelving (it was headed for the dumpster, seriously) + more black paint and organization= free

            This was our nice, safe, tan colored headboard wall which is now black.  ( $9 chalkboard paint)

Lamps from Goodwill (matching, even) $6

(I will probably paint these black)

I already had the lampshades, so I'm counting those as free, but originally they were $15 apiece

You may be wondering what Daniel thinks of coming home to black walls.  He's cool with it.  He likes order, and really could care less what color organization looks like, but he happens to like black, so lucky me. My tip for painting wild colors:  Do it, (unless it's woodwork or brick that is going to be forever altered) and then meet him with "Babe, it was $20 and if you don't like it I'll happily change it back."  It works for me every time.  I realize I'm stereotyping here, but guys usually don't have vision for this kind of change and they have a really hard time visualizing the idea; however, they are usually okay with the outcome.

Hey, for $20, why not?