Friday, November 12, 2010

Cozy Winter Wreath {tutorial}


Yep, you read it right.  Winter.  I'm trying to embrace these colder days as cozy fall days, but when you are elbow deep in Christmas crafts it taking quite a bit of effort,  Especially for a girl that has been known to put up her Christmas decorations on November 1st.  {Its hard not to do when you live up in the snowy mountains of Colorado!} Are you feeling that tug of Christmas too? Here's the perfect cozy day activity.  I highly recommend that Bing Crosby and Hot Chocolate I was talking about earlier.


The first steps is where you are really going to settle in and get cozy. You'll need a wreath form and some yarn.  Any wreath in any size will do.  And if you have yarn all wrapped up in a ball it will be a little bit easier, but not necessary.  I think JoAnn's even has yarn on sale. 


So put on a good movie or watch some football and start wrapping your wreath with the yarn, making sure its tight.  I used a dab of hot glue at the beginning to help hold it in place, and left a little tail, so that I could tie it off when I got all of the way around.  Don't worry about it being perfect!  I even added some extra to make it look even more unperfect. I'll just give you a little warning that this may take awhile.  Especially if you have a larger wreath.  But its a way to feel productive and not so guilty for snuggling up and on a cold fallish night!


Now you can add any embellishments you want.  Felt works really well {and adds to the coziness}for making flowers and thats what I used.  I first cut some wonky stacked circles out of a teal, and then added a little white rose and black button.  Hot glue is your frenemy so watch your fingers!  I had to add red {of course} so I cut some petals and layered them for a poinsetta look.  I then added a bookpage snowflake and a button tied with baker's twine.  I heart the bookpage snowflake.  A lot.  I've been making some garland with them too.  For the garland I've just been using single snowflakes, but I  needed one with some stiffness. 


This will work for any shape, I'm thinking leaves would be fabulous too.  Grab at least 5 torn out book pages and some mod podge and a brush.  


Mod podge the top of your first page and stack the next one on top.   Rub out any air bubbles really well.  Let it dry for a minute, then repeat.  Add however many pages to get the thickness you want. Just make sure to let it dry a little bit between each one, especially if your pages are thin. 


Once your pages are dry go ahead and cut your shape out.  I've talked about my Big Shot before, and if you were curious as to what it was hopefully this gives you an idea.  I had gotten a 70% off coupon at JoAnn's a while back so I used that to get this awesome snowflake.  Of course you can trace out any shape and use your scissors, but I've mentioned before my incompetence with those things.  ;)


It works out perfectly, giving your shape the stiffness of something like chipboard!  

 {on a side note, my walls are not that yellow, but thats what happens when you take pictures at night!}

    I love how my cozy wreath turned out and that it can be a "winter" decoration and can be left up in January.  You know that one winter month that reminds me why I shouldn't rush winter?!


All right peeps.  One last thing.  I've got something very awesome for you for next week.  I've lined up some of my favorite writers to help me out too.  I'm ready for a little peace, and thankfulness and these ladies are going to help us get there. So grab a button, have a fabulous and cozy weekend and we'll see you here next week!

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Wednesday, November 10, 2010

A little of this and a little of that...

Wow!  Can I just say what a whirlwind it has been around here?! Birthdays, Halloween, and last Saturday was our "Relief Society Workshop". Man oh man is it a lot of work putting on a party for that many ladies.  We set up every single table and chair the gym had to offer.  Phew!  And after cutting a couple hundred pieces of wood and cleaning out 3 Walmarts and 2 Home Depots, no wonder I was beat last Saturday


I have had about a day's lull between all of that and my next project.  So I did a little bit of cleaning up around here.  I'm sure you already noticed my new header, but here it is again in case you missed it! Can't hang on to Halloween forever.  {I still have to take down all of the Halloween decorations around my house!}


I also changed up my photo.  We went scouting a new spot last week and Darin took some great photos.  I love this one of Ivy and I.  And FYI, Darin has his lighting class rolling around again on December 4th.  He as a couple spots left so sign up quick if you are interested!  


And I'm finally getting around to answering some of your questions!  Celia of course agreed to share her Proclamation with you all.  I uploaded it to Scribd, so you can click HERE to download it.  And HERE are the directions for making the proclamation blocks if you want to make one. {I also updated that post with the link as well.} 

+++ If you would like to know what the Family Proclamation is you can read it more clearly HERE.+++


I do have more countdown block kits.  I have Christmas ones {lots of fun different paper!} all ready to go so just shoot me an email if you are still interested!  {Yes Anna, I'm shipping yours out this week}  And I've had several people ask me about the numbers for the blocks.  The trick is, your six has to be able to turn upside down to be a nine.  On the first block your numbers will be 0,1,2,3,4,5.  The second block is 0,1,2,6,7,8. 


And last but not least in more Darin news, today is his birthday!  Can I just tell you that I love this man.  He keeps me grounded and I'm lucky because he thinks I'm the prettiest girl around.  He blows me away with his talent.   It is quite possible that he is the most creative one around here. I love him so much that I made him a stack of cookies!  We aren't much for cake around here so it was a big hit.  Happy birthday Babe!

Oh, whoops one last thing.  Thanks for loving Ellayne's slippers!  I would LOVE to do custom orders! I will just need a bit of time since my next project is a Holiday Bazaar next Saturday.  Yep next Saturday and my procrastinating skills are getting the best of me. ;) Yikes!  I've really got to kick it in to high gear!

Talk to you soon!
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Happy Birthday Laney!

Did you know that we bought Greenies off of Craigs List?  Kind of a crazy way to buy a business, and it is all thanks to Darin's sister Ellayne.  She had been campaigning to get us to move to Tri Cities for years.  So when she finally found something that would work for us we took the opportunity and ran.  Ok so there is more to it than that but Ellayne set it all in motion.   She's awesome.  Ellayne's birthday was a couple of weeks ago and as soon as I saw this I knew it would be exactly the perfect for her gift.  She LOVES Christmas, couponing {crazy good at it too} and she has five kids- hence the planning ;).


What better way to spend a cozy evening curled up with your ads, writing your Christmas lists and planning your black friday attack than with a Christmas planner and some cute slippers?! Throw in some hot chocolate and Bing Crosby and its the perfect way to relax at the end of the day.  

Aren't these slippers so cute?  They are flannel lined and have some snowflake traction on the bottom. 


The rosettes just make me smile and almost made me keep them .


These Christmas planners are so fun.  The ribbon ties are key if you have little sneaks around.  Although you might need to padlock the ties if they are a little bit bigger sneaks.  
  

On the inside flaps there is one envelope for coupons and one for receipts.  



The planner has four tabs.  Starting with The List.  


1.  The List  2.  Calender  3.  Menus  4.  Notes


I found an awesome weekly calender and started it on November 1st and it goes all the way through January 1.   She won't miss a beat!  Happy Birthday Laney!

On another note, can you believe that we are already two weeks in to November?!  Does anyone have a good idea to slow down the next 2 months?  
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Sunday, November 7, 2010

Perfect Ending

Thank you Passionista for the perfect ending to a crazy week.  Walking up the the red barn I knew it was going to be exactly what my heart needed.  I only imagine these kind of evenings, and this is one I'll love forever.
 

Thank you Mindy for covering the Cure so that even Darin was hooked.  Oh, and uh, any information about where you got your fabulous boots would be greatly appreciated. 

+++++

Love,
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Monday, November 1, 2010

My Dragon, uh I mean Princess...

My little girl was going to be a dragon for Halloween.   Or more specifically Toothless.   She decided two months ago and hadn't waffled one bit.  She loved telling Grandma's and Grandpas at Costco, and everyone else that she was a dragon. 

Until Friday night. 

We were at her cousins house and Ivy fell in love with a "Belle" dress.  Like gaga.  She wouldn't take it off.  Begged her aunt Laney to borrow it.  She even wanted to wear it to bed.  The next day I tried to talk her in to the dragon costume, with no such luck.  And since I'm learning which battles to pick with this one, I knew it wasn't worth the fight. 


Luckily, I am a good mom {really I am!} and knew that she would pick the princess dress.  So I stayed up  late Friday night and fixed it a little bit.  I added the pick-ups using elastic thread to really get the Belle effect.  I patched a few holes and ironed it so it would be ready for my little princess... 


...who loved it.  And since she had been waiting EVER so patiently for Halloween to come she got to go trick or treating three times on Saturday. 
 


But just like last year she had way more fun handing out the candy. 
In her dragon costume. 
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