Oh Christmas “Steve”….oh Christmas “Steve”…

Meet…STEVE! Yes, I know it’s sort of weird to name your tree…much less name it “Steve”. And I’m not really sure why I named it “Steve”. It just sounded right…:)

Anyways, I decided I needed a little live Christmas tree in the house, so I threw the Man in the truck and we made our way over to Lowes. Actually..I had to promise him we would pick up some stuff he needed from the auto parts store as well…so there was no kicking and screaming on his part.

I picked this little guy out…he was 30% off, so I figured he was a pretty good deal at $10…tree stand and all with a water resevoir too…which I promptly spilled all over me when lifting him out from behind his brothers.

I immediately said…”isn’t he CUTE?” …”I think I will call him “Steve” . …Yeah that did get me a weird look from one or two people who may have been hanging around. But I smiled all the way to the register…:)

I loaded him in the back of the truck (to which the man said “Steve is going to shed needles all over the back of my truck…see…I even had HIM calling the tree “Steve”…I’m THAT good!). I told him it wouldn’t be much and to quit whining…not hard for him since the next stop was the auto parts store.

Once I got him home, my daughter and son met us out at the truck. And I handed her “Steve”…no worries…I introduced them first. I said “here’s a litle table top tree…isn’t he cute? His name is Steve.” Love my daughter, she said “Hi Steve, let’s go get you a drink of water:”…heehee…isn’t she great?

So we put Steve on my console table in the diningroom table and I decorated him with some paper mache stars, red lights (the last strand I had of lights), and some dollar store silver balls. VOILA! He was gorgeous. Then my daughter had the brilliant idea of putting some stacking boxes we got last year from the Dollar Tree under him. I think I saw him smile…;) He looked just like a big tree…only small!

So without further delay, here’s…STEVE!

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A Wreath…CHEAP!

I wanted to get at least ONE creative post up this week.

My life has been a living path of chaos lately. I’ve tried..really I have. I had lofty goals of getting things done around the house and proudly showing them to all of blog world. Yeah…EPIC fail! But I’m not going to lose hope. I’m pressing forward and there IS a light at the end of my very long and somewhat yucky tunnel.

And to celebrate that, I am FORCING myself to show you my mantle wreath. I was quickly trying to decorate my mantle for the mantle show off party last weekend. I decided my very large mirror needed something…something red…and raggy…and well, more natural looking than the typical wreath. SO…I gathered a few items I had on hand…burlap, some red and black check fabric I had wanted to make a quilt from,…and a small wreath form. Lots of hot glue gun burns and a movie later…VOILA!…a masterpiece! A small one but one that I am not too embarassed to show off. Please excuse the green on the back…*sigh*…it really is a nice full wreath, but I didn’t put anything on the back so it would lay flat…yeah…and reflect in the mirror. Oh well. Just pretend you don’t see it okay? Thanks…:)

Bad Blogger…BAD!

Okay my bloggie buddies…*sigh*…I’m sorry for the delay. I KNOW I promised you a tutorial on Santa’s Drawers, but it’s just been super crazy around here. I’m working my butt off trying to unpack from moving, decorate for Christmas…and get all the stuff done I need to get done on a daily basis.

SO…if you will just bear with me…this weekend is the weekend I can FINALLY breathe and I WILL get this tutorial out to everyone on Monday…PROMISE!!! Pinky swear even…:)

Thanks for understanding everyone…and I hope you’re not running around like me with different colored socks, unstyled hair, no make-up (okay…don’t do that, don’t go ANYWHERE without my face…lol)…and dirty tshirts. AAAAHHHGG!!! (Picture Kermit the frog running around with his arms flailing..that would be me)

At Last…a Mantle

If you’ve been following my progress here, you’ll know that I just moved into a new house. In November. And. I’m. STILL…not unpacked…*sigh*. It’s how I roll…seriously. I can’t seem to get any motivation. Well. Okay that’s not entirely true. I work 25 miles away from where I live. Therefore, that requires me to drive for 40 minutes in pretty much bumper to bumper traffic to get home.

By the time I GET home, I don’t want to do anything. Nothing. NADA…except relax.

So the unpacking has been put off for weekends. Well, weekends are a flurry of activity. Between getting caught up with laundry, cleaning, and driving the kids places, or getting errands done that can’t get done during the week because my backwards town basically closes at 3pm, and I get home at 6. That’s my life…sound like fun?

ANYWAYS…I did happen to get ONE thing done this weekend that I had planned…MY MANTLE!!!

WOOOT!!!

I can’t tell you how much fun I had decorating this year!! This is the first time in 2 years that I’ve had a mantle…so excited. SO…without further ado, or chatter, here’s my lovely…and a few of her friends…heehee. ( OH…I know, the wood is very 80’s. But the house is FROM the 80’s and we haven’t had the chance to do much updating. It will come, I promise…:) )

I was able to reuse my garland that I have used for years on my staircase at my old house. She’s a little old, but she’s holding up. Just added some pinecones and wooden red beads. And the turquoise snowflakes are from Wally-world…:)

I made this little beauty on the fly…:) I needed something for that large mirror and I didn’t have any more pine wreaths. SO…I found a small wreath form, some burlap, and fabric, and a few hot glue burns later…this was made. Small squares of burlap fabric, pushed into the form and then filled in with the red fabric. It was fairly simple to make,…slightly tedious, but I was able to accomplish it while watching “I am Four”…(which I highly recommend watching…great movie). Then I simply tied a burlap ribbon to the top, and another red one for hanging (that was an after thought…after I saw the nail I needed to hang it on was higher than first thought). I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how it looks all tattered and torn. Truly…simple to make. Love those types of projects.

You might be surprised to learn that THIS…used to be BLUE…:) I got it about 7 years ago from Target on clearance. I think I paid $3 for it. I never really liked the blue so I decided to paint it white. It took a few light coats but the result is fantastic. LOVE it!

And HERE’S the full monty…er…mantle…heehee. I’m not quite finished, still have to add stockings. But for the most part, I’m loving it. OH…going to add lights as well, but I needed a few more for my tree so I had to rob from the garland. I will put a more updated pic up this weekend. As well as a full tour of the house again…decorated for the season.

OK! That’s my mantle…at last. Thanks so much for stopping by and be sure to stop back for the tutorial on my “Santa Drawers” ornament on Friday…:)

Santa’s Drawers…not the Dresser Kind…;)

Last year I featured these cute little Santa Drawers on my Christmas home tour. Well, a few of my followers requested that I feature a tutorial on how to make them. SO…while this is NOT that tutorial,  I thought I’d visit the idea again and let you know that this week, there WILL be a tutorial on them. I am finishing up the pics and directions…and even a printable pattern…:) So…be sure to come back on Friday, as that is when the post will be made! And then YOU can create a pair of these cute little “Santa Drawers” for your own tree…:)

A Rant…You’ve been Warned…;)

Okay…does ANYONE besides me that is, window shop from home…on the internet? Come on! Someone has to do the same crazy logical thing as me before embarking on a shopping trip.

Anyone…Anyone…Anyone…Beuller…hey…is this thing on?

SOOOOoo…okay! I guess I’m the only one.

Anyways, I used to stroll thru the virtual aisles of Tar-jay and Wally world and envision all the cool things I could do with my house if I only had unlimited funds. Yeah, I know…some people do that with PB and Restoration Hardware…I’m the queen of cheap and if someone were to give me a $5000 gift card to Tar-jay…I’m preeeetty sure I could spend that baby with no problem at all. And every room in my house would be STYLIN’…heehee.

Lately though, I’m realllly not liking my usual hangouts. No,…really.

It’s not because the stuff on the sites don’t tickle my fancy anymore, it’s because the stinkin’ sites are sooooooo HARD to navigate! I mean…O M G people!!! WHO thought about changing the Target website anyways? It totally SUCKS now! Takes forever to load, the items you’re looking for are no loger listed logically. Website designers…PLEASE…look at your WORK! WHY…oh WHY…does someone have to scroll three pages down on the home page to see everything that is “available” or “on sale”? Why?

It was sooooo much nicer to click on a menu and have the menu open to several options. And…the site wasn’t TURTLE slow!!!  (Okay, I confess…turtles are not slow animals,…don’t believe me? Next time you see a turtle on the road trying to get accross, and you stop to “help”…tell me if that bad boy don’t zoom like a stinkin’ rabbit away from you. No kidding…pinky swear)
No wonder all the people trying to buy that zig zag stuff (sorry…didn’t see the draw to it…flash back 60’s peeps), had such a hard time.

As far as Walmart…it’s not bad, but for some reason, it keeps loading my location completely wrong. I’m sure it’s just because whatever location my internet is streaming from is giving my “cookies” fits. But it sure is annoying. However, it also is slow, and there’s a bunch of pages that don’t work…wonder why? Hmmm…

DONE!

That’s it…I’m done. I’m not going to online shop at any of the above mentioned stores anymore.

Instead,…I’m going to shop at PB and RH…

 

Okay…

Not really…but *sigh*…a girl has to blow off some steam sometimes.

Cinnamon Buns Anyone?

A few years ago I fell in love with the smell of cinnamon buns. Unfortunately…I am allergic to cinnamon…weird…I know. However, without my aversion to cinnamon buns, I would have never known that! True story!

I started by creating these cinnamon buns by sewing a huge “tube” of muslin together. I stuffed each tube ever so slightly with poly fil, then I stained them with tea…and yup! You guessed it…cinnamon. About 2 min after the first rub…red and ITCHY wrists, fingers, and hands ensued. Well CRUD! That was NO fun…*sigh*

After I stuffed it, I just simply rolled it like you would dough for a real cinnamon bun and then tucked it and gave it a few stitches. Once that was done, I dripped some “icing”…aka fabric puff paint…:)….on the top. Sprinkled some cinnamon on top and VOILA!!! I had me a fabric cinnamon bun. Now…if you have some cinnamon scented spray or some scent oil from candle making, you can spritz that on top for a yummy realistic smell.

I also had some paper mache boxes (love those things) that I painted one up and added a vintage sticker to the front. Plopped my cinnamon buns in there with some brown paper shred and what a cute gifty or decoration! 🙂

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