Stress

When I stress out I tend to procrastinate... And eat. Hence, my house is a mess and I've gained 10 lbs since Baby 2 was born. However, much of my crafting is procrastination at its finest. I can sit, craft and pretend that the world is exactly as I wish it to be. This is exactly what happened when I made this Pinecone Wreath.

I was browsing my local Dollar Tree when I saw bags of pinecones for... you guessed it-- a dollar! I intended to make a pinecone garland from them but once home inspiration struck, (that, and I didn't have all the stuff to make the garland), and I came up with this wreath. 

Here's what you need:

-wreath form (I bought mine at Michael's for $4.99 plus a 50% coupon)

-pine cones

-burlap

-your handy dandy glue gun

Yep, that's really it. 

Here's what you do:

1) Lay the wreath form flat

2) Put glue on the bottoms of the pinecones

3) Adhere the pinecones to the wreath form

Yep, that's really it. Easy, peasy... and quick! (And cheap!)

Ok, no more procrastination. In the words of my brother-in-law, "I'm a new [wo]man." At least for the next few hours... I hope... 

Chalkboard Cups Tute

Ok, so when I found out I was hosting Thanksgiving at our hacienda I was tempted to bust out the silo cups and permanent markers to keep from rewashing glass after glass... Then I remembered something I'd seen plastered all over Pinterest. However, with the kiddos and such I knew wine glasses wouldn't be a good idea so I came up with this idea to match the more rustic table setting I was planning. Here it is.... Wait for it.... Ok, I'm impatient... It's mason jars (used as cups) with chalkboard paint.

Here's what you need to make the magic happen:

-Jars

-Chalkboard Paint (which by the way is stinky)

-Paint brush (although I think it would be easier with a sponge brush)

1) Take your jars and paint outline

2) Glob on the paint by dabbing it

(I tried painting layers on each but each layer would come off when I painted the anything on top of it.)

3) Let the paint dry then write the names on them

Just a side note, don't put them in the dishwasher, even on the top shelf. It melts the paint right off.

I hope you all enjoyed your Turkey Day! We had a blast around here spending time with family. I somehow even conned the Hubs and my Father-in-Law to put my Christmas lights up!!

27 Days til Christmas!!

1 Down 986 Million To Go...

...Christmas presents, that is...
We celebrate Christmas with the in laws on Thanksgiving, so all weekend long I've been frantically trying to get it all together. I'm impressed. 3 days to go and I've got it all done (and even wrapped)!! Hooray me!

I think people are going to like gifts from us this year, if I do say so myself. It might just be the energy I've put into homemaking them, but still, I think they're pretty cool. Just a head's up, this blanket tutorial I'm about to give might end up under your Christmas Tree, so just act surprised when you see it. ;)

FLOWER BLANKET TUTE

I took some flowers that I had handy and arranged them.

Then I glued them to a piece of felt.

Here comes the tricky part... (haha totally kidding)... I put glue all over the back of the felt then placed it on the blanket. 

What an easy way to spruce up your average, run of the mill throw blanket, huh?!?

Before                                              After

Handprint Wreath Tute

So much has happened in the forever since I've blogged.

Most importantly, Baby #2 arrived!!

World, meet Evi.

She gorge, isn't she?!?

Well, Christmas is only 36 days away, can you believe it? Since I hate dealing with the crazy shoppers, I make many of our gifts... Especially wreaths (if you hadn't guessed by the name of the blog or my other postings and comments).

Today we debut the Handprint Wreath. 

Here's what you need:

-flour

-salt

-water

-cute, little grubby hands

-oven

-burlap

-scissors

-wreath form

-hot glue gun

-pretty flowers

First, I found the Homemade Grits tutorial on Pinterest and followed her instructions to a T, getting these beautiful handprints of my girlies.

Then, I cut strips of burlap about 4 inches wide, wrapped them around the wreath form, and glued them in place.

  

Next, you take your flowers and your handprints (I try to keep a few pre-made ones handy, although, if you don't have any, here's an easy tute on how to make them) and play around with the placement until you find one you like then glue, glue, glue. 

Well, looky there... The finished product, guaranteed to be uber loved by the Grandmas in your life. 

Hopefully it won't be so long until the next time I post, although, I'm not gonna' lie, it's been wonderful doing nothing but holding Evi. I hope you have a spectacular day!!!

I'm excited for this giveaway where I could win a Silhouette! Can you imagine how crazy crafty I'd be then? But, really, you should check out Little Miss Momma's Blog, it's great-- she has awesome tutorials and stories. 

Bathroom Reveal

Happy Labor Day to you all! Do you like the new layout? I thought I'd try something different. I'm so fickle when it comes to things like this, we'll see how long it stays. I like it-- for now.

We had a WONDERFUL holiday day off together as our little family. It was like my crafting Karma worked for me, not against me... Until we got home. But, we (and by "we" I mean "I" while the hubs and Little Monkey sat in the car) had fun browsing through antique/ junk stores. I have so much to show you about my finds, but unfortunately my Karma stopped at the finds and none of it came together enough to show off yet. 

Instead I'm going to show off what's finished of the girls' bathroom. 

Have I ever mentioned I'm a sucker for geometric designs? I painted stripes on the dining room wall of our first apartment and swore to never paint anything like that again. Then, I painted diamonds on the bedroom wall in our first house. Again, I swore never to do anything like that again. Guess what I painted on the walls of the bathroom?!? CHEVRON STRIPES, which apparently combines stripes and diamonds. Never doing anything like that again. Riiiiiiiiiiight. 

Anyway, I think it turned out pretty cute, despite the fact that I was too lazy to tape off and some of the lines aren't exactly straight.

Har She Blows:

The theme is the song You Are My Sunshine.

The Stripes... AHHHHH!

 I created these by drawing diamonds on the wall and only painting portions. (I know, such an exact science.) 

The hubs calls the wall the Charlie Brown wall because he says it looks like Charlie Brown's shirt.

I painted clouds on the ceiling by using a 97 cent sea sponge from Wally World and twisting my wrist to blend the paint when I was dabbing it on.

Here's a little bit of it all, the stripes reflected in the mirror, the sunshine, and the clouds. 

Little Monkey REALLY, REALLY, REALLY loves bath time and I wanted her to have a fun, cheerful place to be able to fully enjoy her favorite time of day.

Wellp, I hope you had a stupendous Labor Day weekend!!! Here, in Okie-land we had a fall weather teaser all weekend and it's got me gearing up for autumn-- MY FAVORITE SEASON E.V.E.R-- but we'll get into that soon enough. 

BOOOOOOOOOMER!!

Yet again another eventful day in our casa... Little Monkey has some contagious nastiness and couldn't go to the sitter's so Mommy stayed home to take care of her. There wasn't much rest to be had, but when she did take I short nap I decided to take full advantage of the time by getting ready for football season-- which starts tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DID I MENTION THAT FOOTBALL SEASON STARTS TOMORROW?!?!?

Finally, my Saturdays have meaning again. Ok, so that might be a little extreme, but still SOOO EXCITED! 

BOOMER SOONER!!

I get laughed at by most people because I'm a girl, yet I read the Sports Illustrated College Preview from cover to cover, the OU stats are saved to my favorites (although I have most of them memorized), don't miss a game, and wear nothing but OU attire every single Saturday from September to January.  

I   L-O-V-E   OU FOOTBALL.

But I digress... During nap time I made a wreath fit for an awesome season, if I do say so myself. 

Here it is:

And here is how I did it:

1. I cut strips of burlap

2. I wrapped the strips around a wreath

3. With the wreath fully wrapped I started decorating and wound up with this:

Tomorrow, or sometime when my computer is more fully cooperating, I will post how to make the rosettes I used. For now, though, good night world. Sleep tight knowing that SOONER MAGIC will rock your socks tomorrow!!!

Whew!

Let me just say, WHAT A DAY! I don't get how I can be in bed all day long and still be plum tuckered. 

I started off at work today and had some Baby Mama drama and ended up in the hospital hooked up to all sorts of monitors and contraptions.

Several hours and gallons of water later, Baby 2 is still safely tucked away in my belly and we are home. I'm thankful to not be in a hospital bed and to get to spend my evenings with these two loverlies.

Needless to say, I've done nothing crafty so there's no exciting posts today, just a shout out to all of you who kept us in your prayers-- thank you. 

Wakey, Wakey, Eggs and Bakey!!

Good Morning, Sunshine!

I'm feeling quite good (and by "good" I mean accomplished) this morning. The hubs was nice enough to take Little Monkey (Baby 1) to the sitter's this morning so I had time all to myself. *Sound the heavenly chorus!* Although I love them both, the alone time was uh-mazing. You'd think with an hour all to myself I'd have my hair done and some makeup on. Nope, I had the intention, but got side tracked by all the to do's on my list. First, I did laundry (2 loads!), then I put on a pot roast for dinner tonight and make a bedskirt for Little Monkey's crib. Not bad for an hour, if I do say so myself! What did YOU do this morning?

And just a little somethin' somethin' to think about today...

Better to lose count while naming your blessings than to lose your blessings to counting your troubles. 

Maltbie D Babcock

**Here's to you, G, a shout out. I couldn't make it through the day without you. Thanks for being the awesomest!**

We Look Rich... according to the hubs.

Let me show you something ugly.

Here you go:

See, I told you. Ugly.

Nasty contractor grade tiles in my kitchen. Ugly.

I HATE them. Since the day we closed on the house I've been shopping around for something different. I can't stand the tile. It doesn't match the granite nor the floors. We needed a change... Although my hubs disagreed. Leave it to a guy to not care about kitchen tiles.

I found some beautiful glass tiles that would go swimmingly, but unfortunately they're a little out of our price range for now. Like I said, for now. I WILL get those tiles. I will. I will. 

In the meantime I couldn't stand the tiles, so in a surge of nesting energy Baby 1 and I headed to Home Depot this afternoon and came home with this:

For the record, I've loved the idea of having a tin backsplash for years and now seemed like an opportune time. Since my initial days of liking tin, they've come up with handy dandy plastic looking tin. It's relatively inexpensive, easy to cut and to adhere. Lucky for me, I could use double sided tape and it won't be permanent so I can get my glass tiles after all... eventually (as the hubs so quickly reminds me).

This was the kitchen before the super awesome plastic tin:

And this is it after:

(Ok, so the closeups are much prettier... and it looks even more superb in real life.)

This is how I spectacularized our kitchen:

Of course one must start with the necessary tools. (I'm telling you the Sunday School Sing Along CD was a MUST in getting the job done and my partner in crime, Baby 1, most definitely agrees). 

I measured the areas to be covered.

I cut the plastic to size using plain ol' scissors and a box knife.

(For the record, cutting the stupid outlet holes was a PAIN.)

On went the double sided tape.

Peel, stick and wallah! Ain't it purty?

According to the hubs, who you'll remember thought that nothing needed to be done to the kitchen, "It makes us looks rich." Not quite sure how fake (I guess the proper term is faux) tin makes one look rich, but I'll take it! 

Pouf Flower Tutorial

These flowers are easy peasy and I always get tons of compliments on them.

I've put them on headbands, clips, necklaces, hair bands, tshirts, wreaths... You name it and they look cute on everything. Here's how to make them:

Step 1:

cut lots of circles

more circles =  puffier flowers

bigger circles = bigger flowers

Step 2:

fold the circles

in half, then half again, and half again

Step 3:

(although the picture's not very clear... at all)

dab hot glue on the folded end of the circle



Step 4:

adhere the folded circles onto a circle of the same size

(I generally cut one out of felt to make it sturdier)

Step 5:

adhere folded circles on top of folded circles until you get your desired puffiness

Walah! The Finished Product!