Home Decor

I made some new curtains and such for our dining room... I also found this cute little plaque that says "Let it Snow" to hang during the winter months.

 I got this adorable bench after Christmas at a local antique center. I used my sewing skills (ha!) to make a new seat cushion on it that matched the colors in our entry room. 

 Here are the burlap curtains and valance I made using old curtains and an old Christmas wreath with berries on it. It matches the plaque wonderfully and with a burlap bow it will last until spring! 

My Elsie had puppies at Thanksgiving. Here they are snuggling in their pack-n-play!

 My mom found this awesome old ladder for me to hang some quilts on in the living room. 

 This picture is kind of hard to see, but they are some crates that I stained and used to raise the stereo speaker. My mom's bf got me some adorable boxes that fit perfectly, too!

 My older sister and I went to Hobby Lobby (a crafter's paradise!) and I found this cute wall hanging. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it, but for now it's hanging in the living room where a collage once was. 

 I also have been meaning to re-do a lamp we've had since our very first apartment (2006!) and finally got that done over Christmas break. I took off the top and rubbed this gold additive around the plastic in no particular pattern.

Here is another look at it.

I used some rustic broke spray paint to cover the ugly black base/stand, and now it's totally wonderful! (And really hard to tell that I did anything at all, looking at this picture. Ha!) 

Wow.... It's been awhile

So I didn't notice until the other day that I haven't updated my blog in a LONG time. Like going on 4 months. It's not that I haven't been crafting (though it's part of it), I just haven't taken the time to snap pictures of my projects and load them on here.

So, let's play catch up.

May: I made new curtains for my classroom to follow my 2012-2013 theme of black w/ polka dots. Here is a taste of my sewing abilities.

June was a month of "Congratulations" cards, as my little sister and SO many others I knew was graduating from High School! Here is a boyish card I made for the occasion. (And I don't know why the picture didn't rotate, so just turn your head!)

We also had our new roof installed in June (which looks fabulous!) and we also took a last-minute trip on Princess Cruiseline to Europe. We boarded the ship in Greece, and went to several beautiful places I've never been. I love love love pretty things, and picked up the bowl (with fishes) in Turkey, and the tray (with flowers) in Israel. Next time we go back, we are going to hit up Israel again, and then Egypt. We were supposed to go to Egypt on this cruise, but with the election and protesting at the time, they wouldn't let us on shore :-/. It was still a great trip and I have a ton of pictures and memories from it.

July was spent getting everything ready for Vacation Bible School at church. Here is a picture of  me going down the redneck slip-n-slide in the yard. Good times! hahaha. We had a great, dependable turn-out all week, and I was super impressed with how much the kids learned each night.

And that brings me to August. I haven't had a lot going on so far this month. The last week of July I read all 7 Harry Potter books, so I ordered the DVDs on Amazon and got them last week. I watched them all in a row and finished up around 6:30 am on Saturday morning. (Yeah, I'm a little obsessive compulsive about finishing stuff like that). They weren't quite as "magical" as I was expecting, but overall I loved them!  I had promised one of my 2nd graders that over the summer I'd read them, so I'm a little excited to go back to school and let her know that I did indeed keep my word.

I also began making a series of cards that I will share when I've completed the set, and I also got a few kits from NoelMignon.com yesterday. I first pulled out the ingredients from "Something Wicked" to play with last night. Here are 10 Halloween themed cards I came up with. I don't really do Halloween, but the papers are gorgeous and I've I've had a lot of fun playing with spiders and witches and other things that don't normally appeal to me. Maybe it's from all the Harry Potter I've been spending my mind on!

And there's no telling what else I haven't updated about. I start back to work on Monday, so maybe I'll get back into routine soon. I do need to get back into running at the Y. We were on our cruise when my 6 weeks of PT was up, so I should be able to do a little more, now, as long as I stretch appropriately. Anyway, that's all I've got.

Here is a thinking of you card I made, which I think turned out nice. 

I have been super busy preparing for the new year in my 2^nd grade classroom. I made curtains for the windows (partially blocking the playground view- yay!), an alphabet banner to match the nature theme I have got going on, and several other pieces throughout the room. My dear husband assembled and hung my compasses for each wall. I also made paper dolls for each child (they picked out their skin tone, hair, and clothes on Business Day) but haven’t taken pictures of those yet. *Adds that to the ever-growing list of things to do.*

Other than that, I haven’t sat down in weeks, I don’t think. Oh yes, one more thing. My miniature schnauzer, Sophie Grace, had her second litter of pups on Aug 10. We were expecting 3-4, since she was just a little bigger than she was last time with 2, but we ended up with 7 precious babies! 5 girls, 2 boys. 3 of the girls are solid black, the other 4 pups look like they’ll be salt and pepper. I call them the "Martial Arts Puppies" because my DH named them all themed names... except two, which you will get if you've seen the move Talladega Nights. Their names: Blackie Chan, Bruce Flea, and Jet Flea are the black females, the two males are Walker and Texas Ranger, then the other two females are Dr. Quinn and Medicine Woman. *sigh*