2010 Favorite Projects

I am joining Kim over at Savvy Southern Style to celebrate our most favorite projects from this past year. It was hard to choose but I narrowed it down to just three. 2010 was a busy year transforming our new house into our home and I have enjoyed so much sharing it with y'all! This past year I have met so many wonderful blog friends and just want to say thank you to you all for making this journey of blogging so much fun!

   One of my most recent projects was our laundry room which  really consisted of two redos. Taking it from fab to drab was so much but I needed a folding are something terrible.  I finally  found a wonderful little chest of drawers  to go in there which required much love itself. Our laundry room is actually now one of my most favorite rooms in the house!Ha! You can see more of it here.

Here is another two part project. I finally got around to designing our home office and revamping some old bookshelves. Click here to see more.

Last but not least I have to say another one of my most favorite projects from this past year is our fireplace mantel. You can read all about it here.

Thanx again for always stopping by and saying hi! I love sharing and getting new inspirations from y'all! Now head on over to Kim's Boring to Better Party for even more year in review posts! 

Also heading over to Rhoda's at Southern Hospitality for for her Top Projects of 2010 linky party! Thanx Kim and Rhoda for hosting such wonderful linky parties!

The story of a yard sale find.

Thank you for all the birthday wishes! Sadly The Nana & The Papa had to leave early and we were afraid of how Littliest would take the news so I did not tell him till after he woke yesterday morning. They were already on the road headed home to tend to the boys great grandma. Please if you have a moment send prayers up for her health it will be much appreciated. The Nana & The Papa have never missed one of Littliest's birthdays so it was not quite the same without them but Littliest took the news very well and had a wonderful day. 

Though our visit was cut short we as always loved having The Nana and The Papa with us during Christmas! It just does not feel the same without having them celebrating with us. We did our usual Christmas Eve traditions of Outback for dinner and looking at lights in our pjs and baking Santa cookies. Memories we will always cherish! It is hard to believe it is all said and done and now we are waiting on the New Year to begin. I hope that each and every one of you had a wonderful holiday with your family and friends as well!

Can you guess what this is all about!? The day after Christmas turned into a project that had been a year and half in the making. The Papa was determined to get it finally completed for me. Ya gotta love this man!

It all started with this here light fixture that I purchased back in Sept 09 off the local yard sale site.

For just $25 it was mine. I brought it home and began the process of revamping it. You can not tell but it was an iron color with blue and orange speckles all over it just screaming to be sprayed. The Papa also rewired it and so we debated for a year and half how in the world we were going to place it in its new home.

This here was to be its new home. Our fixture up there nice but a tad small for the space and well it only had one light left working and years of dust built up in it. She was begging to come down.

Here is another pic of her. Sorry the lighting is so bad. I have yet to figure out the camera and flash. After several debates on how we should get the  new fixture up without paying an electrician $350 to do it for us The Papa and The Hubster headed down to HomeDepot to rent a lift for I think $170 but the guy down there talked them out of it saying that it would crush our thresh hold and possibly our wood flooring. They came back with scaffolding instead. 

This is a pic to show you just how large the new fixture is! I can not believe the original owners had it above their dining room table!!

The Nana and The Papa installing the new light. I guess giving them two grandsons has its perks! Ha! 

And here is the new light up. We hung it the same length as the original one so it could be seen from the street through the window. If the window was not there I would have asked for it to be hung lower.

I just love the new look! 

Now to figure out what to do with that stoop there! If anybody has one and has theirs decorated let me know!! I need inspiration!

 The new light makes a snowflake like design on the ceiling and wall which is just beautiful!
Thanx a million Nana and Papa!!!
Total cost for this project was just $50!!! Can you believe it! $25 for the light and then $25 to rent the scaffolding! Now you just can't beat that unless of course the light was free and you already owned scaffolding but you get my joy!:)
Off to do some fabric shopping with a friend instead of grocery shopping! ;) Have a wonderful day y'all! 

P.s Wait till ya see what happened to the old fixture!:)

Linking up to the following weekly linky parties!

Metamorphosis Monday- Between Naps On The Porch
Boring To Better Party- Savvy Southern Style

Happy Birthday Littliest!

Five years ago today my heart grew 100 times larger than I ever knew it could! 

Littliest you were such a good baby and your big brother loved you soo very much! God knew exactly what he was doing when he granted us a second son though in my heart I swore you were going to be a girl.

You have grown into such a wonderful mostly delightful ...HA!:)... and very loving  lil' boy and we could not imagine our lives with out you!

Mommy loves you more than the whole wide world forever and ever and ever! Happy 5th Birthday Littliest! We are sooo very proud of you!

Love, Mommy!

Merry Christmas!

Here is hoping that each and everyone of ya had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends! Slow down and take time to remember the reason for the season and to enjoy the togetherness that you have been blessed with! I know I am thankful for all of my family and my many wonderful friends to include those in blog land!! Very Merry Christmas! Be back in a few days.

Just like a kid again...

Edited on 12/31/2011: Joining Donna over at Funky Junk Interiors for our favorite Christmas Stories! I know this is from 2010 but it will always remain a favorite of mine.

See this jolly man here!? I have to say he is the best ever!! I went to a local toy/candy shop up the road from us on the hunt for The Elf on the Shelf. The boys had been talking about it and thus I decided we should get them one. I was not sure I would be able to find one this late in the game but thankfully the toy shop had one. While I was checking out I noticed Santa was visiting and thought how much the boys would have loved that. I purchased our new Elf friend and got back in the car with Oldest and Littliest who were still sleeping. The Hubster ran into another shop in the same shopping center and by the time he came back out I knew I had to go back to the toy shop and ask Santa to pose with our new Elf friend. I knew the boys would just love to know our new Elf friend came from Santa himself! 

 Let me tell ya y'all this man definitely knows how to warm any body's heart!! Not only did Santa pose in the shop for me he said he wanted to go out to the car and see if the boys had woken up and if not I could take a pic of him peeking in the car!! I must say I was thrilled as could be and felt like a little kid again myself! I was grinning from ear to ear!

The boys never did wake up while Santa was out there but thanx to Santa we have a wonderful story to cherish and remember year after year! Thanx Santa for having such a warm heart full of holiday cheer and thanx for "Elfie" our new friend! 

P.s If there is a little one you would like to send a personalized Santa video to go check out the Portable North Pole site!! I did this last year for the boys and they loved it! Just finished this years. Even better is that it is FREE!

Teachers Gifts

It is hard to believe that Christmas is next week y'all! It is flying by so quickly and as always it slips away from me. Today I spent 98% of my day working on gifts for the kiddos teachers. 

Here is a lil' view of the mess AFTER I tidied up a bit! Ha! Picture it 100 X worse and all over the table. It was so bad that we had a picnic in the living room for dinner!:) I thought I was never going to finish. I had three teachers to make things for and Oldest had put in his request of exactly what he wanted. 

This is a lil' set of two mini frames that I made into magnet frames. Oldest had taken mine in to share while the class was learning abt magnets and said his teacher asked where I had gotten them. So Oldest decided he wanted me to make her some too!:) Easy enough I said. Well then he added that he wanted me to make her a Christmas frame like I made his teacher last year as well as a key fob and to get her something pretty! Wow what a list! I wills how ya the frame for her in a moment.

Here is one of the frames I made for Littliest to give to one of his two teachers.  Last year I just used  dimensional  mini Christmas cards I had found at HomeGoods. I started out with that this year but then mid way changed my mind and decided I wanted to be a tad more elaborate this year. Boy did it engulf most of my day! Once I figured out each frame the actual construction was not bad.

Here is the other frame for Littliest's other teach.  Sorry it is blurry.

Here is an up close look at it. I love the jingle bells! 

Last year I stocked up on Christmas chip board thingys. I fell in love with the vintage feel of them and so I purchased two boxes when they were on sale. I also LOVED the darling little box they came in. While I was pondering design it dawned on me to use one of the lids to make a frame for Oldest's teacher. 

I searched thru all of my chip board pieces and came up with pieces that actually covered up the original wording on the box lid. I cut the sides of the box so that it laid flat. I then took one of those vintage mini Christmas cards from last year and cut it down so it looked like you were peering thru the window.

I LOVE how it turned out!! To cover up the wording at the top and the bottom I just used a white chalk  pen and made it look like two dimensional snow.

And here is the finale! I just love these Grinch bags! I found them in the $1 section at Target a few weeks back and knew I had to use them. Now I am wishing I had bought an extra one!:(
Are you giving any home made gifts this year? If so I would love to hear all about them! If ya wanna see the frames I made last year click here.
Have a good one y'all! It is after 11pm but I still need to clean up my mess on the kitchen table and then fold laundry. I won't even mention the fact that I have yet to finish decorating the dining room nor get our cards ready to sent out! Busy weekend ahead I am afraid. I also have to finish painting the boys room and get their tree out....oh shoot I just need to stop or I will be here all night! Chat soon!:)

Linking up to the following parties:
The Do It Yourself Showoff- DIY Holiday Highlights Party
Southern In My Heart- Inspiration Friday
French Country Cottage- Feathered Nest Friday
Savvy Southern Style-Boring To Better Party
Tatter Tots & Jello- Holly Bloggy Christmas
No Minimalist Here- Holiday Share The Decor
Funky Junk Interiors - Sat Nite Special

Oh Christmas Tree....

Whew! It has been a busy busy week here. It seems it is just one thing after another but that is just par for this time of year. I am still working on the tree area but thought that I would go ahead and share it.

All of these pics were taken on differ days! Ha! This one from today. Yes, I know my star is crooked. It is crooked every year and never stays straight but it is the star we have had since we were first married thus it stays!:) Yes, I now see I have a major ribbon hole that needs adjusting. Funny what ya notice when ya take a pic. I am needing to go to a differ WM to find a 'N' glitter initial for The Nana's stocking. Once I find that both stockings will be set. Yes, there are lots of presents under our tree already. That is thanx to my mom who we lovingly refer to as Ma. They are driving the boys nutso!:)

I have pretty much used the same decorations for years minus a few. The only thing I have changed up really is the ribbon and more lights. Lots more lights! Our light theme is white twinkling and then red white and green. I think there is a total of ten strands on there!:)

 Our topper is a work in progress. I need more picks but I am guessing by the time we get to HobLob they will be all out. That poor star. It's light even went out so I had to wrap a new strand around and thru it. Maybe I will find a replacement in the next few years.

And here the tree is at 12:30 am last Saturday night! Ha! I even let Oldest stay up and help me decorate it which was a big feat for me. I am very particular on where ornaments go and well I kinda had to give that up this year. He was sooooo excited to help for the first time ever!:) That and the fact that he got to stay up till after midnight!:) 

On a differ non holiday related note look what made me HomeGoods Happy!! Our large pillows I purchased last year when we moved in where literally falling apart. Stuffing everywhere. I had been trying to find some replacements for months now and then last weekend the boys and I were in HG and I fell in love! I almost did not get them because they were $30 a piece but I knew I had seen them or very similar ones in Ballard for $65 so that made me feel better. The flowered pillows will be recovered eventually.
So there ya have it. Not sure how much more I will have to share of holiday. Maybe the dining room if I ever finish it. Two weeks and counting! Ekkk. It is all going by sooo quickly. Have wonderful weekend y'all and thanx for stopping by!
If you have not been by already and want to see more holiday cheer click here , and here.

I am joining in on the following linky parties so be sure to stop by and see other beautiful inspirations!

Southern In My Heart- Inspiration Friday
French Country Cottage-Feathered Nest Friday