December

The house was decorated.

School programs were performed.

Goodies were baked.

Gifts were created.

Presents were wrapped.

Family was visited.

Santa was here.

Lazy pajama days were welcomed.

The sledding hill was sled upon.

The movie theatre was visited.

Friends celebrated together.

Games were played.

School break ended.

And so friends, this was our December.  I thought about blogging so many times ~ and even started a few posts.  Unfortunately, that is as far as I got.  I had intentions of showing you our home all decorated for Christmas.  Giving you recipes for some of the many goodies we made.  Telling you all about the gifts I made (I made one thing for each person in our family this year).  But December slipped by without a word from me.

Anyway, let me show you some of what went on:

The new year brought on a ugly sweater celebration with friends ~ Come back tomorrow for that fun!  Also to come, I will show you the gifts I made for the kids.  And hopefully become a more consistent blogger again.

Stay warm friends.  Our governor cancelled school statewide for tomorrow due to the cold temps (we are looking at a high of -15 with wind chill temps at -55), so we will be having another lazy day staying warm at home!

Can you feel it?

The warm humid air of summer is slowly becoming cooler and crisp.  The evenings that were once full of sunshine until well after the kid's bedtime are becoming darker earlier.  The bright green leaves that grace the neighborhood trees are showing hints of different shades of green, red, yellow, orange and brown. The official first day of fall has come....and gone.

While I love the warmth of summer and the long sunny days spent basking in the sun and playing in the water at the beach, pool or on the boat,  there is so much about fall that brings a smile to my face.

Here are a few of my favorite things about fall:

1.  Getting to celebrate another year of marriage to my honey.

2.  Cool mornings, crisp evenings and warm bonfires to take away the chill.

3.  Mother nature's air conditioning, open windows and fresh air.

4.  Cozy sweaters and tall boots

(pinned in on my "My Style" board on Pinterest, but I can't find the source via the website link)

5.  Lazy Sunday afternoons watching football (and maybe, just maybe the back of my eyelids ~ there is
     something to be said for a good Sunday nap)

(Source)

6.  The slow change into beautiful vibrant colors of reds, oranges, yellows, browns and greens.

7.  The lovely, warm, cozy scent of cinnamon in the form of candles, baked goodies and beverages.

8.  Speaking of beverages ~ spiked apple cider ~ mmmmmm
     Need a recipe for yourself ~ try this one (I don't put the ginger in, I keep it warm in a crock pot and
     yep, for the adults I serve it with a shot....or so of spiced rum)!

9.  Chili, soups, casseroles and other warm comfort foods

10.  Fall-ifying my home ~ switching out the seashell and driftwood decor of summer for rich colored
      leaves, pumpkins, candles, flowers and pictures.

11.  Getting to spend time with family during our annual hunting trip.

12.  While I don't like the early setting of the sun, there is something to be said for the beautiful morning
       sunrises that I am able to witness on a very consistent basis due to the darker mornings.

The seasons, they come and go and while there are definitely some I like more than the others, they are all beautiful and unique.  And fall is, hands down, one of my favorite!

What do you like about fall?

Gallery Wall

I have had this picture pinned forever.  I think it was one of my very first pins.

(VIA ~ Just Be Blogged)

And, Jennifer from Hope Studios recreated it in her space.

(VIA ~ Hope Studios)

I also pinned this wall gallery.

(VIA ~ Love Charla Anne)

As you can see, I like the uniform look of the picture layouts.  

Square pictures.  Equal spacing.

And I finally found some time to redo the wall in our basement.  

When we finished our basement (5 years ago), I quickly found 6 of my favorite pictures, had them printed in black and white and tossed them into some UBER CHEAP Walmart frames 

that I spray painted black.

Here is what I ended up with:

Blah, boring and none of Smiley!

Well, things have changed :) 

I started with a plan.  A plan for 9 new pictures.  

I knew I wanted them to be 12x12's and I didn't want big clunky frames (simple, almost frameless).  

I also didn't want to spend the money to make the into canvas' for two reasons.  One, the $$ and two, 

I like to change things up and wanted to be able to swap out pictures without having to create yet another canvas.

I began frame shopping and ended up finding some at Michaels that I liked.  (This one is not the exact one I purchased, but very similar!)  Luckily I found them during the Christmas shopping season and besides them being on sale , they also had additional 25% off coupons!  Oh yeah...... :)

Anyway, with Hubby's help (more like I assisted the Hubs) we measured and leveled 9 frames.  Put the pictures in them and hung them up.  

~ Voila ~ 

So much better!  

BUT...

I loved it so much, and the wall is so big, and there were so many more pictures I wanted to use, that we ended up purchasing and hanging 9 MORE frames.

That's right 18 pictures in all.

AND I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!

Details:

Frames ~ Michaels (similar to these)

Photos ~ 12x12 printed at Costco

** The only thing I don't like is that Costco only prints 12x12 prints in a glossy finish.  So, there is a bit a glare.  In the future, I may look for a printer that prints 12x12's reasonably in a matte finish.

Get your Craft on

Someday Crafts

Tween Girls Room

As much as I don't want to admit it, Sassy is growing up.  She's no longer the girl she was when we purchased her Pottery Barn Kids Butterfly and Flower quilt when she was probably 4.  And as much as I still love it, it was time to say goodbye (well, actually it's washed and folded nicely in our basement waiting for a new home... at some point).

I showed you her new window treatment last week, but here is the entire room and the story behind it.

Sassy and I decided to work together and redo her room.  We first began looking for a new comforter or duvet.  She was drawn to dark colors, black mainly.  I wasn't so sure about that so we kept looking.  She looked online, in stores and in catalogues.  When she'd find something she liked,  I wouldn't.  When I'd find something I liked, she'd just shake her head.  It went on like that for awhile.  Then finally last November (yes, almost a year ago), I found a comforter, that we both liked.  It had just enough black for her and enough color for me.  We purchased it and began to plan her "new" room around it.

By the time we got the quilt and decided on a new paint color for her room, it was January.  Since then, we've painted and decorated.

And now you can see for yourself.

Her previous quilt (I didn't take any "before" pictures ~ what was I thinking!)

Her walls were a bright, yet pale yellow color.

Those are now a grayish, aqua color (I don't remember the actual name of the color ~ the original color was a Benjamin Moore color, but we had it color matched at Sherwin Williams)

And the window Treatments, of course.  You can see the tutorial for those here.

Here is her "new" room finally finished.  Well, mostly finished.  We need to either purchase a new night stand, or paint the current one.  The pale green just doesn't quite work in the room.  And we would like some artwork for the wall to the right of the bed.

But other than that, we are pleasantly please with how everything turned out.

Room Details:
Shine print ~ wrote about it here, purchased from Studio JRU
Mirror ~ given to Sassy from her Aunt who purchased it at Target years ago and isn't using it in her house anymore
Softball Quote ~ saw on Pinterest, but didn't have store/shop link so we recreated it.  Frame is from Hobby Lobby
Color outside the lines ~ Hobby Lobby
Comforter ~ Pottery Barn Teen (no longer sell this one, but these two are similar ideas: Lilac Boho and Hampton Lola)
Love pillow ~ Pottery Barn Teen (no longer sell it)
Valance ~ Tutorial Here
Calendar White Board ~ Home Goods
Book Shelf Configuration ~ Ikea, Billy corner configuration
Bench ~ Lowes, years ago (was in our mud room before we redid it)

No Sew window treatments for a Tween

Sassy's room redo has been a work in progress.  I can finally say, it is almost finished.  Really, I'm not joking.  I posted this picture on my blog way back in February of me working to put her new Ikea shelves together.

Yes, they are up, they are filled and new decor  is on the walls.  However, I'm not writing today to show you her entire room, but to show you her new window treatment (which we actually finished in April, but I am finally posting about it!)

Right around Christmas last year, we purchased Sassy a new quilt to start the ball rolling on her room makeover.  It took awhile to agree on one, but she ended up falling for one at Pottery Barn Teen (which they no longer carry).  It has a paisley design and lots of fun colors.

Anyway, we took down the pale pink curtains that had been gracing her room, repainted, and put in the new quilt.  The next question was window treatments.  Obviously the pale pink curtains were not going back up, and since here room faces east, she gets lots of morning sun ~ and that can be tough on a tween :)  We ended up purchasing black roman shades, but still couldn't decide on a fun treatment to go with them.

And then, inspiration struck.  We were seeing all of these fun fabric scrap banners all over the internet.  Like these for example:

(VIA)

(VIA)

We decided a valance above the roman shade would be perfect.  We loaded up the quilt, headed to JoAnn Fabrics and Sassy picked out just the "perfect" fabrics to create her one of a kind window treatment.

I measured the fabric out  cut them into random width strips and made sure to cut each strip so doubled up they would fall just below the roman shade when it was fully opened.

Lots of cuts later, we had some pretty piles of fabric strips.

We looped them onto her existing curtain rod ~ no specific pattern ~ just took turns grabbing and looping.

Sassy was (and still is) very happy with the outcome.  The colors and fabrics she picked worked perfectly ~ some cotton fabrics, some sheer.  And the treatment itself adds just the perfect punch of colors/patterns to tie everything together.

An easy and fun project for us to work together on!

Stay tuned ~ I promise I'll post the rest of her room soon :)

I'm here, and find lots of other inspiring projects and yummy food by stopping by these parties:

Hope Studios
Chef in Training
Home Stories A2Z
A bowl full of Lemons