Christmas preparation

I've done pretty well in keeping the Christmas preparations low key and low stress, but the rest of life has kept us busy.  Perhaps I'll be able to share my diy mercury glass and sweater pillow tutorials after the holiday.  In the meantime, I wanted to share a couple of videos I came across in the last 24 hours that were great to put me in the right place this Christmas (sorry if you already saw these through my Facebook page):

I wish you a very merry and blessed Christmas!

12 Days of Christmas Crafts: Christmas Morning Shirts

Do I want my family to look like this on Christmas morning?

These adorable pajamas can be found here.

YES!  I want someday for Chris and I to look like this models and for our whole family to be in coordinated Christmas-y goodness.  In the meantime, my children will be wearing cute jammies that their Grammy so generously bought for them and for us...we'll wear these slightly sarcastic homemade (aka free) PJ shirts on Christmas morning.

I apologize that I couldn't bring myself to iron our pajamas for this picture :)

We have a bit of a "Merry & Bright" theme going on with the pegboard canvas I did and our Christmas cards.  I don't know where this idea came from, but as I was driving home today, it just popped into my head.  This was a 15 minute project and cost me $0 (you would need a couple of basic supplies to do this).

1. I rounded up an undershirt for Chris and an old maternity tank for me.
2. I cut out the words "merry" and "bright" on my Cricut on cardstock.  You could easily choose whatever font you like, print it out and cut it yourself or use a pre-made stencil.  I cut my letters to a 2.5" height.
3. I laid out the letters to my liking and then used stencil adhesive to attach them since I don't trust my ability to hold them in place.

4. I placed a little board, but cardboard would do, in between layers.
5. I used a red Sharpie to trace the letters.  I suggest moving continually while the pen is touching the fabric and using light pressure.  This is the first time I've used Sharpies on clothing so there is a lot of room for improvement. 

In case you're curious, Chris did think this was funny, but I'm not banking on any cute photos of us wearing them Christmas morning.

12 Days of Christmas Crafts: Ornaments

Chris and I have always purchased an ornament from vacation spots, etc.each year, but when Deane was born, I felt we needed the cute animal family ornament with our names printed on them.  It's ironic because (although cute) this is not at all my style.  Last year, I saw this fun idea:

Source

I made an ornament for every year we have been married with a black and white version of a photo, either posed family photo or from a significant event before we had kids.  This year's ornament was our most recent family photo session with Shauna Welch Photography.

I'm skipping the store bought ornament this year and love how personalized my main tree looks with photos of my family on it.  No materials were purchased to make these as I had one extra board left from last year so this project was free to me using previous investments.  I have several more photo ornaments ideas on my Christmas Pinterest board.

12 Days of Christmas Crafts: Chandelier Grennery

This little project was inspired by this photo:

Source

I love real greenery, but I don't have a real greenery budget so I have purchased outdoor wreaths and mantle greenery for 50% off at Hobby Lobby.  BUT when I saw the above photo, I thought surely I could add some real greenery in this way.  Home Depot had small greenery bouquets for $4.50 with mixed greenery. 

 I just wove the pieces in the one direction and then laid another layer of greenery the other direction to cover up the stems as much as possible.

I hung a few ornaments sporadically.

 And here's the view from underneath.

I've never been a huge fan of our light fixtures, but am very excited that $4.50 has transformed our chandelier for Christmas. 

12 Days of Christmas Crafts: Pegboard Canvas

For the last few occasions and holidays I have made very minor alterations to my mantle, but I wanted to do something bigger for Christmas.  My challenge was that the art on the mantle and the ceiling above are large, anything I wanted to put up had to be big. 

Thanksgiving mantle

I thought about a large mirror or canvas, but all of the options I came up with were expensive.  The plan was inexpensive and easy.  Then, I saw a piece of pegboard sitting around and started imaging a vintagey, maybe subway art look....and this is what I came up with:

I purchased a sheet of pegboard from Home Depot for $17.  They only come in 4x8 there ( you can get them smaller elsewhere), but I asked them to cut it to 2 - 4x4s.  I chose a red that is a little rustic, but still Christmas-y.

sorry, blurry - Rustoleum American Accents in Colonial Red

I gave the pegboard one good coat.  I let it dry for approximately 24 hours in the garage.

I downloaded some cute fonts from dafont.com (I LOVE this website!).  For this project I used Legend M54 and Riesling.  I'm happy to email the pdf file if anyone wants to use it.  I'm not very confident in my freehand ability so I used a projector to trace it onto the pegboard.

Laying out the spacing from the projector was definitely the hardest part of this project. I used an almond color crayon to trace it as I was using CeramCoat ivory paint to paint the letters.

 I laid an old sheet under the pegboard on the floor instead of painting it upright and risking that the paint would drip down through the holes or the front of the board.

I painted only one coat using a small brush for the edges and a foam brush to fill.  I was able to place it on the mantle within a few hours of completing it.  Since I aready had the paint, the only cost was the pegboard.  Not bad for $8.50!

12 Days of Christmas Crafts: Pointsettia Pillow

Chris and I visited a Pottery Barn while on our overnight to Madison and came across this beautiful pillow:

Here is where I found the listing, but it says it's no longer available

I commented on how much I liked it and my husband said, "You can make that!".  What a guy!  I left confident that I could make it myself and bought another pillow with some very old gift cards (from our wedding 8 years ago!).  By the time I made it home, I saw there were a couple other diy pointsettia pillows on Pinterest.  I still had major motivation to save the money and I had a pillow that had "lost" (aka Deane pulled them off) its buttons (you might remember my use for those buttons).

 I used ivory felt sheets from Jo-Ann's Fabrics.  They are $.34 each and I used 2.5 to make the pillow.  I free drew the leaves of various sizes.

 I laid them out to make sure it looked like a poinsettia before stitching them on.

 I used same color heavy thread.

 I did large visible stiches down the middle to simulate a petal/leaf vein.  I tied off in the middle of the flower and tucked my initial knots under the leaf.

 Here are all of the leaves attached.

 I decided to use a Christmas Red bell.  A package of 8 cost $.89 at Jo-Ann's.  I made sure to wrap each bell several times between stitches in case Deane decides to play football with this pillow.

 And here's the final product.

With the thread, I believe it cost me under $4.50.  With the original being unavailable and previously far more expensive than my cost, this was another quick and thrify Christmas craft.

12 Days of Christmas Crafts: NOEL Sign

You may have seen Tam from Sew Dang Craft's Pottery Barn knockoff at I Heart Naptime.  I very nearly copied her idea.  My only changes were to use gold paint to go with my basement holiday decor and I didn't do the music backdrop.  I would suggest if you want to use jewel tones as I have, there are some great vintage green holiday music sheets found here.  Here's my final product.

I agree with Tam that you need some sort of reinforcer.  I didn't use caulk, but we did use picture hangers along with hot glue to hold mine together.  I also utilized my 40 and 50% off coupons to get a great deal on these letters from Jo-Ann's.  I use Mommy Saves Big Printable Coupons to find coupons for almost anywhere without having to save all of the emails you receive.  Happy, thrifty crafting!

12 Days of Christmas Crafts: Button Garland

12 Days of Christmas Crafts continues with this knockoff button garland.

The original is actual Capiz Shell Garland from Ballard Design:

You can purchase this here

I'm all about making the alternative is it's cheap and easy.  This project cost me less than $1!
I purchased two ivory felt sheets from Jo-Ann Fabrics and traced circles on it using a sippy cup and a yellow marker.

Cut them out

Used a hole punch to add button like holes.  My hole punch wouldn't completely detach them so I trimmed them off with scissors.

I strung them on some twine I had, but you could use ribbon, etc.  I used them on a 4' tree in our bedroom along with some raw burlap just tied sporadically.

It's simple and very DIY.  More easy Christmas crafts to come!

12 Days of Christmas Crafts: Advent Calendar

I've been working on finishing my Christmas decorating.  I thought I would share those ideas in the form of the 12 Days of Christmas Crafts...not consecutive days :)
Today I want to show you an easy-peasy advent calendar.  There are a myriad of adorable advent calendars and you can find some of my favorite on my Pinterest Christmas board.  I know it is November 29th, but it's not too late to pull together this advent calendar.  I'm going to make this as easy as possible.

The first step is to find a place to hang a ribbon, rope, string, etc. 

Next, I cut out tags on my Cricut, but you could use about anything - mini-envelopes, index cards, cardstock (just print these), etc.  I came up with a list of 24 activities/ways we will celebrate Christmas in December, typed them up in Word, printed and cut...wow, couldn't be easier, right?  Feel free to use my ideas (although I'm guessing you'll need to change a few things - like family names - I used Harrington font). 

I used Modge Podge to attach my numbers and activities.

When I see the varities of Modge Podge available, I have a Carrie Bradshaw/Manolo moment -  "Hello Lover"

Attach to the ribbon and you are ready to go.  I hope you'll embrace this chance to organize your holiday fun and have a plan for what you will do each day with your family to celebrate Christmas. 

Overnight Getaway

I mentioned that I was taking Chris on a secret overnight trip a little over a week ago.  I had two objectives - to find a place with a Ruths Chris Steakhouse (Chris's favorite restaurant) and an Apple store (because we needed to take in the cracked iPad).  The winner...Madison, Wisconsin.  I got an excellent deal at a Sheraton through Hotwire.  With the help of my parents watching the kids at home, we were off...

Before we left

My mommy and daddy are so mean!

Part of our mission was to find out what it would cost to fix our cracked iPad which was being protected by packing tape. 

Wow - that was reall icky!

We made an appointment in advance at the Genius Bar at the Madison Apple store.  They offered us a swap program where we received a brand new iPad for $283 (with tax) and they took our old one (which was the 16MB $499 version).  The iPad is used almost exclusively by Deane so we wanted to come back with something in hand.  I should also mention that Kate is quite fond of the iPad and her 5th or 6th word was actually "iPad" - I guess this is a sign of the times!

After our Genius Bar appointment, we traveled to downtown Madison and had lunch at Cooper's Tavern.  The food was good, the service was great, and the beer was Ah-MAZ-ing.  It was nearly Chris's perfect lunch!  Those chalkboards behind Chris were filled with the names of their draught beers, many of which you don't commonly find in the region.

We spent the afternoon walking, shopping (Fromagination was a highlight for me), and taking a nap.  Then we enjoyed our dinner at Ruth's Chris in Middleton.  I had made an online reservation and mentioned we were celebrating Chris's birthday.  Although it's a chain restaurant, it felt very personalized and intimate since they greeted him with a "Happy Birthday"at the host's stand, birthday confetti on the table and a complimentary creme brulee.  It was a perfect dinner.

We checked out the Great Dane Pub & Brewery as well and came home early the next day to see the kiddos.  It was a great, short escape from the day to day. 

Happy Birthday to Chris!

Shoe Quick Fix

I failed to mention that about an hour before my large family Thanksgiving gathering, the flower fell off of my shoe.  Unfortunately it must have fallen off while I was out.  I bought the shoes two weeks before at TJMaxx for $20 and they are super comfy.  Plus, their fall shade was perfect for my outfit, but what to do with this?

Why...hot glue of course!  Just last week the decorative button on either side of one of my throw pillows fell off.  While finishing getting ready, I saw them and immediately went to fire up the glue gun.  About 10 minutes later...voila!

The buttons are still there and the shoes are still comfy and cute.  Easy  enough!  Now I've got to figure out what to do with the remaining leather flower.