Christmas Review

I am not going to lie, I am still exhausted from putting on Christmas.  It is a big job.  From the tree to the baking to the decorating to the activities.  It is my favorite time of year and so many great memories were make this year.  Here are a few pics.  "Rock n' Roll!"

Sully: "I want spy gear and Star Wars legos and a big crane with candy."  Syd refused to sit on Santa's lap:(

Sully and I can pump out Christmas cutouts like nobody's business.  We are a well-oiled cutout making machine.   No lie.

Christmas morning:

Later Christmas day:

 Darth Vader Yule log.

Day after Christmas in Mosinee:

 And that was Christmas.  Hope yours was just has full:)

More Christmas decor and the machine that will change my crafting life.

I was not quite done with my Christmas decorating until now.  I had a few areas to finish and I will show you what I have been doing...

I am always a bit stumped on what to do with the half wall behind the couch in the living room.  I had this partial pallet in the garage and knew I could do something with it.  So started but hanging it up on the wall.

Then it was time to embellish it.  I have been drooling over DIY JOY signs in Pinterest lately and I knew I wanted to make my own.  It was more difficult than I thought it would be to find the right letters but here is what I came up with...

I honestly cannot get the "dwell" off the wall, may need to paint over it at some point.  Also, these pics are crooked and I am too lazy to adjust them so you are just going to have to deal.  #bloggingnono

I found the J and Y at Michaels and spray painted them red.  I got the pom pom garland in the $3 bin at Target.   I had the wreath and lace trim laying around.  I lighted the wreath with a strand of the Phillips Dew Drop lights (which I cannot find in any of the Targets around here anymore unless you want the multicolored variety.  I already own 8 strands and it is not enough.  People are eating these up.  The secret it out!).

I added a little holiday cheer to the bedrooms in the form of mini tinsel trees and dew drop lights.  But I decided to add a bit more to the master bedroom.

I literally can't stop hanging things from these deer heads.  They are the perfect holders for banners.

I went with gold and green in here, kept it neutral.  I didn't take a pic of the tree on my dresser but it is gold as well.

 I finally hung those windows up on the wall.  I saw them on my way to work one morning on the side of the road.  Felt like I won the lottery:)

Here is the view from the hallway.  I had big plans to change out this light fixture since the day we moved in 10 years ago.  Clearly, that has not happened but I did remove the glass fixtures around the lights and hot glued the shade on there.  I expected it to stay up for a week, tops, until I could get to the hardware store and get the proper screws to keep it up there, but a year later, it is still holding strong (and I still have not gotten the proper hardware for it).

Finally, I have been doing some online christmas shopping (for myself) recently.  I have been eyeing up a Silhouette cutting machine for years now.  There was a black friday sale for 50% off the machines and I decided it was time to get one.  I could not pull the trigger on the more expensive, larger machine so I settled for the Silhouette Portrait machine after reading some reviews and doing some research.  It arrived yesterday.

Cue the chorus...

I set that baby right up.  I didn't have any of the fancy vinyl that Silhouette sells yet so I just used some black contact paper I have and made my first project...

Some antlers I stuck onto a mirror.  You guys, watch out.  The possibilities are endless with this machine and can barely even contain my excitement!  Probably going to start a whole blog series for Silhouette project, stay tuned.

Christmas tour time!!

It is almost Thanksgiving which means it is time to get the Christmas decorations out, right?  I completely agree!  Also, bring on the Christmas crafts!!  I have been crafting and creating all weekend.  I.can't.stop.  Let me show you what has been going on over here.

Here is our dining/sitting room.  

This is the best spot for drinking a pot cup of coffee.

 See that wreath on the window up there?  Coffee filters, foam wreath form and hot glue.  That is all it took.  I LOVE it!  I think I am going to make like 10 more and that is totally doable with my little buddy helper that painstakingly hands me each and every coffee filter while I man the hot glue gun.

I rearranged our gallery wall.  I don't know if you have seen those wooden signs with all the reindeer names on them in those nice barn wood frames but I have and I wanted one SO BAD.  What I had on hand was a giant black canvas and a thrift store gold frame.  The canvas was not a chalkboard but after testing the chalk marker I knew I could make it look like one.

I rubbed the chalk over the canvas, wiped it off, wrote the white names in chalk marker and then used red paint for the Rudolph.  Yeah, my frame was too small for the canvas but that did not stop me putting the two together.

And because I am turning into a grandma, I had to display some doilies on some embroidery hoops and threw those up there too.

 Get to Target's dollar section and get yourself a $3 Noel pillow.  Now.

After moving the fireplace to this wall, it is like a whole new experience decorating this surface because it looks totally different!

 I have big plans for making this fireplace look more permanent and less just bought from the store and placed there, but that is for early 2016.  Dad, what are you doing in early 2016?  Just asking, no reason;)

Now, while you are at Target buying all the $3 pillows they have left, pick up some Phillips Dew Drop string battery lights with self timer.  These are AMAZING!!!  I plan on using them all winter even after the Christmas decor is taken down.

These trees are from the Target dollar bin as well.  I placed them in some tin buckets, strung them with dew drop lights and added "stars" with some little chalk board signs I also got in the Target dollars bins at the start of the school year.

Moving on to the other side of the room...

I tried to keep it pretty simple here and just did some garland I got from Hobby Lobby 2 seasons ago, glass + berries, milk glass, cake stand and chalkboard (of course).

The other side of the buffet I hung some of my vintage bulbs on drop cloth that I pinned over my huge coffee sack art.

I have a few decorations in the kitchen but that room is in such flux still, I am not going to show that room right now.

Lets head to the living room instead...

I FINALLY stopped stringing my lights on my tree like and amateur this year!  I am embarrassed to say I truly did not know that you should string it from "in and out" instead of "side to side".  You have to use a ton more lights but the effect is worth it!  I also added a string of bigger bulb lights.

Yes, we have some strategic placement of items around the tree for some gentle reminders for the blind dog in our house to  STOP and not run into the tree.  She is still getting the hang of this, poor girl.

And for my favorite spot in the house right now, the floating shelf above the TV.  I hung an old metal sled my MIL gave me up on the wall, put up some Craftshop signs, garlands + lights and a few other accessories and this is what I get to stare at when we are watching TV.

All time fav.

This holiday decorating got me taking a close look at some of my walls and I realized I have a lot of patching and re-painting ahead of me this January.  For now, I am just going to ignore the disaster going on behind the decor and enjoy the season by buying my family matching elf pajamas, secretly singing and dancing to Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You" and spiking my egg nog, heavily.

Christmas-izing and house pillows

Phew, it has been crazy around here!  We hosted Thanksgiving and it also happened to be this little man's 4th birthday:)

And this little one's first Thanksgiving...

Getting some loving from Great Grandma:)

It went great and it was awesome to be able to host.  Big thanks to my loving family that traveled several hours to be here and celebrate with us.  You made one little man and his Mama very happy:)

You can bet the next day was mission: Take down fall and Christmas-ize.  Which translates to Christmas/Holiday vignettes on every.single.surface.

 This is by far my favorite vignette this year. Love everything about it (I normally would not even put that nutcracker out but Sul helps me decorate and that is where he put it and threw a fit when I moved it, so that is here is it staying). 

 Kraft paper runners?  Yes please!

 New stockings because now we get to have 4 of them:) Thanks to my MIL for making the cuffs for the stockings.  You may ask why I didn't hang the stockings on our fireplace.  I was freaked out that the kids would pull them down and pull the stocking holders down on their heads.  So this was my solution.  And no, the dog is not dead.

 Above the hutch in the kitchen.

Moving downstairs...

 Those little chalkboard signs are killing me.  Target dollar section for $3 for the pack of 3 of them this year.  Money well spent.  The Ho Ho Ho banner was from the Target dollar section last year.

Also, I could not stop making little Christmas/Winter moments under/in glass objects...

Like on the dining room table....

And downstairs bathroom shelf...

And upstairs bathroom mirror shelf...

Its a sickness.  I have more opportunities to make more of them but Sul won't let me use any more of his cars or houses from his Christmas village.  Sigh.

I know this post is getting ridiculously long but I also wanted to include the homemade gifts I made for the kids so far.  I try to make at least one homemade gift per year for the kids.  Yeah, I guess I am that mom.  This year, pillow houses!!

OMG, they are killing me!  I was not even going to make one for Sul but he saw the one I was making for Syd and he about flipped that he didn't get one.  I made his with a garage door and felt grass.  The fabric of his roof is from one of his dad's old shirts and the windows are from the cuffs of a different shirt.  The fabric on hers is from some of the fabric I used to make her crib skirt.  The upper left window has a lace curtain:)  I still need to stuff them a bit more and sew up the bottoms.  I will probably also add a pocket on the backs, just for fun.

Here are the backs...

I could make these pillows all day.  Too fun!