Mom's 2011 Nativity

 As a kid I started a tradition of giving my mother a nativity every Christmas. After a few Christmases I invited my siblings to join in and we've had great fun deciding what to do each year. Last year we decided we wanted to give her a tree skirt with a nativity on it. We searched the internet, found what we wanted and ordered it in October only to discover when it arrived that it was a kit, not the finished product. Not only was it a kit...it was a huge cross-stitch kit. I was frustrated because I knew I wasn't going to get it done on time. I worked furiously on it and by the time Thanksgiving rolled around I wasn't even 1/3 of the way done with it, so I made her a wood nativity scene. I worked on the cross-stitch until Christmas time, then put it away. I forgot about it until June when I pulled it back and to work on it periodically. I finally started working on it non stop in September and I finished the cross-stitch about a week and a half ago. Two nights ago I sat down and added the backing and sewed and edge on and finished it. I'm not good at waiting, so I went ahead and gave it to Mom (I know...it's way early, but I'm not good at waiting).

I'm "published"

A while back one of the Assistant Editors for Stylelist Home, Huffington Post's new design and DIY site, emailed me and asked permission to post up my idea for monogrammed gourds as place settings. I of course was excited and said yes. Well, it has now been posted on their site!

Check it out!
http://www.stylelist.com/2011/11/11/creative-ideas-for-place-cards_n_1088085.html?ref=stylelist-home#s465275&title=Monogrammed_Gourds

My "Wedding" Bouquet

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 For our 5th Anniversary, my husband and I had wedding style pictures taken. As my flowers from our wedding didn't even last that whole day I didn't have a bouquet to use for the shoots, so I made me a bouquet. It sat decoratively on my piano for a few months until the actual shoots took place. It worked fantastic! I loved the way it accented both dresses (a more modern and trendy dress and a more classic dress) and added a splash of color to the shoot. I LOVE how the bouquet worked out. 

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Check both of our photographers out!

Jacie Ames (Jacie Ames Photography): 

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Karen Orphey (Treehouse Photography): 

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Fall and/or Halloween Wreath

I've never been a huge fan of wreaths, but I do like a simple one every now and then. I bought me a grapevine wreath and a few $1 flower bunches and went to work. It actually wasn't much work. I went to fun. That just sounds silly. Anyway...I cut the flowers into single stalks and then stuck them in the wreath. I didn't hot glue or anything, just stuck them in cracks so that I could pull them out and reuse the wreath for Christmas and other holidays. For Halloween I put a paper bat in the wreath, but now that Halloween is over the bat is gone and it's back to being a Fall/Thanksgiving wreath. 

Halloween Porch Decorations

Okay...I know Halloween is over, but I never got around to posting up our porch decorations. We wanted to decorate the porch for halloween, but we didn't want it to be expensive. Here's what we came up with: a scarecrow, tons of bats, pumpkins and the wicked witch of the east. 

Bats:  I cut out tons of bats from black cardstock, strung yard through the eaves, then tied the bats to the yarn with sewing thread.

Scarecrow: I dug through the closet, found old clothes and stuffed them with pillows and table clothes. I put two sticks in the legs so he'd stay up. It took me a while to come up with a head, but I ended up putting the top band from orange stockings over a bike helmet and then putting the straw hat over the top. It worked out pretty well. I then tied the guy to the porch post so he'd stay standing up. This guys scared me just about every time I walked outside.

Smooshed witch legs: I bought a pair of stockings, cut the legs off and stuffed them with stuffing. For the shoes I dug a pair of black shoes out of the thrift store bag, sprayed them with spray adhesive and dumped red glitter on them. I then glued the stockings into the shoes, used a spatula to tuck the top ends of the legs in the crack between our porch and our house and wah-la! Witch legs. Cameron helped me gather twigs to tie to a stick to make the witch's broom.

Our Cars Halloween Costume

Monday after work we went over to the trunk or treat at our church. We didn't have enough time to put on our costumes, but we did have enough time to give our car a quick little costume. We even got 3rd place in the trunk decorating contest that we didn't know was going on. 

2011 Halloween Costumes

I love coming up with Halloween costumes and helping people make their costumes. This year we had a lot of fun with it. Mine didn't turn out quite like I saw it in my head, but it worked. I was windblown and Cameron was a Scandinavian troll. 

 I was supposed to have newspaper around my leg (like it had blown there and stuck), but it wouldn't stay on. 

Cameron's costume made me chuckle every time I looked at him, we were so tickled at how it turned out. He made the vest 2 years ago and then we put the rest of the costume together this year. We took old pants out of the craft pile and added patches, shredded the bottom and added an awesome tail in the back (I forgot to get pictures of it, I'll do that and post it up...it was great). His shirt was one out of the good-will bag that was way to big on him. We added patches, shredded the edges and literally rubbed it in dirt and ashes. We bought the wig and nose at wally world, and then made the hat and belt out of brown stretchy fabric.