Hustle and Bustle

I hope you're all enjoying your holiday as much as we are!

We flew out to Boston on Tuesday and have been running non stop since.

Wednesday my Mom and I went to see the Rockettes.

Awwwwwesome!

It was so much fun to head downtown for a girls day out. Just the two of us.

Later that night we did a gingerbread house with the kids.

My Mom bought the nekkid house at Ginger Betty's.

(Brilliant I tell you. I sweat the worst part of gingerbread houses is 

making the darn thing "structurally sound")

The only rule my Mother gave me was to let my kids do whatever they wanted.

Going for Grandmother of the year I suppose.

Fun and a little traumatizing for a slightly OCD Momma like me.

Thursday was busy with hustle and bustle.

Shopping

Baking

Wrapping

yeah, what everyone else was doing Thursday

Cake Mix Cookies with Eggnog Drizzle

Brownie Covered Oreos from Picky Palate

I hope you're enjoying time off with your loved ones.

Friends, family, friends that are like family.

Someone.

Just remember the reason we celebrate.

Not the hustle and bustle

Or the bomb food.

But the baby.

And the gift we have because of Him.

Christmas Tour of Homes 2010

Its time to link up and share some of our Christmasy decor @

and

And if you like peeking in complete strangers homes as much as I do, 

you should head over to check out some of the other participants?, participators?, playingalongers? people

Some of this stuff you've already seen before in some of my pre-tour projects.

Oh well, whatchagonnado?

Here is our cute little tree. We're trying to stay simple this year because we won't actually be here for Christmas.

 (Bend knee up and pull elbow into body)Yessssssssssssssssssssss

So we used our regular faux tree and just put up the middle and top.

We're cheaters.

But I still wanted something live, so I found a cool little pewter ice bucket at an antique store near my in laws and planted a rosemary plant (from Lowes). Easypeasy.

The "new" door

With my quickie little wreath that I made.

I <3 my hot glue gun.

This has to be the best part. My kids (3 and 4) are convinced this is the key santa needs to get in the house because we don't have a chimney.

I never thought I'd enjoy not having a fireplace.

Ok, good feeling gone.

I think this is my favorite spot. My first (and probably only) chair makeover with pretty much all made over/repurposed stuff:

Chair

End Table

Pillow

My favorite thrifting find as of late...shweet mercury ornaments...for a buck and the 3 tiered wire stand that I may or may not have RUN to when I saw across the aisle. 3 bucks. Hollllllah!

My superfantastic Mom sent me out those two mercury glass trees from Homegoods.

They survived the USPS from Boston to Illinois.

Uninsured, unharmed.

Yeah, she's a ninja.

Looooove them! (The mercury ball(?) orb(?) is also from Homegoods. I picked it up this summer)

I mixed some mini Target glitter ornaments (from the $1 bin) with some misc. beach stuff I've collected from my trips back home. See that sand dollar? Yeah, we found a tide pool FULL of them last summer. Crazy right?! (I should've grabbed more, but I felt bad, them being alive and all. So I only murdered one.)

Yard sale-ed wire basket from this summer .50

Ahhhh, I miss yard saleing already.

And sometimes you have to decorate random things.

Like the menu board.

Looks like we're eating snow this week.

Don't worry Mom, we'll steer clear of the yellow.

Or the bathroom.

Thanks for stopping by!

My Glass vs. Mercury Glass

Anyone else getting the mercury glass itch this year? 

(Maybe it was last year's itch and I'm a little slow?) 

But I'm loving it this year! So I decided that if I could figure out how to DIY some mercury glass ornaments, then I could go wild and mercury everything else in my house! So here was the trial run...

Get some of these...

and a can of this

oh...and a 

full of water. Easy enough.

Ok, well the Looking Glass spray paint by Krylon was a little tough to find. But its worth it! I tried it with their chrome spray paint in a moment of weakness and its not the same. Persevere! Find it! 

I got mine at Hobby Lobby (the second store I checked). And get a coupon. Its 11 bucks a can!

So I started with a trial on one ornament. 

 I started on the inside:

1 spray of the spray paint

1 spray of the water

then swirl and dump whatever excess

let it sit upside down to dry and you end up with this

liked it. Didn't love it. So then I read the directions on the ca. Ha!

It said that one side has the mirror like finish. 

I looked inside the ornament. Yep...the mirror like finish was on the inside. Woops!

No biggie. It was assembly line time anyways.

So I strung up the rest of the ornaments on the frame of the swing set 

(just loop the string around the top of each ornament and they'll stay put without touching each other)

Repeat the same process. 

Spray with spray paint.

Squirt with water.

No swirling and dumping this time...yay!

Lets compare shall we?

A vintage mercury glass ornament I got at the thrift store (more on that later)

Then my glass ornament.

Pretty darned close!

Here's the tree all decked out!

 We're doing a small tree this year because we are leaving for home (Boston) on the 21st! 

*pause for happy dancing*

So there you have it. My glass vs. Mercury glass!

linking up

Random Crafts

Well with Christmas, New Years, a trip to Tennessee for me, a trip to Michigan for Tanya, and me on my 5th day of being sick we haven't had much time for crafting it up.  So in order to keep you interested in our little blog here's some stuff I made using other people's tutorials AND something my ultra crafty sister made me for Christmas!

Stay tuned for some more of our own craftastic adventures once we are able to recoup!

A rice pack, key chain, and some homemade peppermint biscotti!  Mmm Mmmm!

Mom wanted a gum holder for her purse so her gum didn't get icky if/when it fell out of the box.  Used this tutorial but made it a little smaller to fit my needs.

A pre-made wreath with a few ornaments tacked on with floral wire= EASY PEASY GIFT!

My super crafty sister Lindsay made this for me.  She used a glass block from Hobby Lobby, cut out some images on cardstock with her Cricut and Mod Podged them on.  So pretty!

She even did the back of it!

And of course- in ALL it's glory!  Hope you all had a great Christmas!!!

Packaging a GIFT CARD

Anyone else hate giving gift cards for the simple fact that the "gift-ee" doesn't get to actually OPEN anything.  Well a friend of mine called my Mom (who is also creative) and asked for some clever ways to give a gift card to her niece.  I may be biased but she came up with some REALLY great ideas!  Here you go:

Gift card ideas from Debby:

*Buy a package of gum you think they would like, put the gift card inside and then use hot glue to close the container back OR tape the gift card onto the back.  You could also tape the gift card to     a candy bar or move size box of candy

*Buy a cheap stuffed animal at the Dollar Tree and attach the gift card with a ribbon-you could use a hole punch to make a hole in the gift card envelope and then tie the ribbon to the stuffed animal.

*They have really cute plastic glasses for $1 at Wal-Mart.  They’re clear plastic and have red and green polka dots on them-you could fill the glass with candy and stick the gift card in with the candy

*They have tons of cheap, cute little tins and boxes at the Dollar Tree that you could use

*You could buy an inexpensive ornament and attach the gift card to it with ribbon-write the name and the year on the ornament so they can keep it as a momento.  I do this with my kids and grandkids every year

*They have lip gloss for $1 at Wal-Mart-you could attach that to the gift card

*They have those $1 magic gloves just about everywhere-you could put the gift card inside one of the gloves

*Put the gift card in a plastic Ziploc bag-make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and put the giftcard inside.  Put the sandwich and a small bag of chips with a Little Debbie snack and a juice box (so it looks like a lunch).  This is my favorite idea but you would have to make the sandwich that day so it wouldn’t mold or something gross but I think she’d get a kick out of it!!!

OK-I’m out of ideas-you’re on your own. 

Debby

Thanks Mom!!!  Isn't she great?!?!?!  Hope you can use one of these- Happy Gifting!

Be still my heart....

I have a confession to make to my poor husband- I'm in love with another man.  Don't worry though honey- he's gay!  Plus he has no clue as to who I am and probably never will.  My torrid love affair of Eddie Ross began when I saw him on HGTV's Design Star during Season 2.  His style and taste wowed me, his evil little grin made me giggle, and his superb taste and creativity made me swoon!

Recently I found out that he has a BLOG!  Be still my heart....  It is full of picture of his home, his ideas, and projects he has worked on (like Kathie Lee Giffords house!!!!) 

This project has become a STAPLE on craft blogs lately

You won't believe what he did with these shirts from Goodwill...

Holy canoli!!!  How easy-peasy and beautiful at the same time.  Can't get better than that huh?

Head over to Eddie's Blog and see how he used these to decorate Kathie Lee's house.