Oh Christmas Tree! {tutorial}


 

About a year ago my mom found all these amazing ornaments in storage. These ornaments sat there for almost 20 years. 
 
She asked me if I wanted them. Of course being the hoarder I am I jumped on the idea.

I remember her putting up these ornaments when I was a little girl. When we moved to a more modern house she decided to retire these vintage pieces.

Lucky me...I have "new" great vintage ornaments to decorate the tree in our loft.

I decided to make a little tutorial. I have no idea if this is the correct or right way to decorate a tree but this is how I decorated this tree. 

[S T E P 1]   Make sure your lights work on the tree if you have a pre-lit tree. I know this step is pretty simple but trust me it is SO frustrating finishing a tree to find it does not light. It has happened to me!!

[S T E P 2]  Add coordinating ribbon, lace, and even beads to add accent to your tree.

[S T E P 3]  Add bulb type ornaments. I like to call these type of ornaments fillers. They add tons of color to the tree.


[S T E P 4]  Add your fun fancy ornaments

 

[S T E P 5]  Spice up the tree with a couple flowers and twigs in coordinating colors. 

 
Yeah, I got a little happy rushing trying to get my tree decorated while baby #2 slept. He gives me one good hour nap so this 7 foot tree was completed in under an hour!

Finally, let there be light...


This isn't perfect - the Angel on the top is a little tilted. I will need to work on that...or better yet have the husband who is taller (only by a few inches) take care of that.

  

 I probably over decorated the tree but I wanted to showcase all of the pretty ornaments. 
Please share all of your beautiful Christmas trees!


Four years ago...

Four years ago I married my best friend.

It was such a gorgeous September day.

{ september 22, 2007 }

I can't believe it's already been 4 years.

It seems like yesterday we were in college without a care in the world.

{ may 2004 }

Now we are parents to two beautiful children.

{ evelyn 2011 }

{ harrison aka chubbers september 2011 }

I can't wait to share many more years with you!

And maybe have a couple more kids

....in several years!

I love you Daniel, my handyman!

Peace

Today is my oldest niece's birthday.




My baby niece is 8 years old today. It seems like yesterday I held her at the hospital.

Right now peace signs are the "in" thing...well at least for her!

I created custom stationary for her newly designed peaced out bedroom.



I made custom greeting cards



A custom sketch book



and custom notebook paper


I also made her a really cute headband.


I included the notebook paper I created for her as a free download. Well, minus the name of course!


Print this on text weight paper and cut along the dotted line.

As always my downloads are for personal use only. If you would like to share my download with your readers please link them back to here for the download. Thanks for being fair :)

The Refrigerator, Da-Na!

Is there an area of the house you despise cleaning? You know what task I absolutely hate doing? Cleaning the refrigerator. Seriously, I dread thinking about it. My husband has been commenting about the look of ours for the past month.

Hey now, you know you can clean it out too.
 
Well, I finally decided to take matters into my own hands.

Here is before {gross}


 
And the after….
 

The yuckiest thing I found in there - well no, not the salsa that expired in 2009 - a rotten tomato. Yeah, I won’t share that photo!
 
I wanted to give you all a glimpse of the real, unorganized, me.

On a side note, I would like to thank Mickey Mouse Club House and Harrison’s play mat for keeping Evelyn occupied while I cleaned. It is funny how she enjoys baby toys more than her own! Oh, and she is going through a “no pants” phase. Hopefully, this will end soon...
 
 
 
As for that mudroom remodel, here is a sneak peek.
 

Ha, I promise this wasn't staged. I'm that annoying wife in the way taking photos during projects.


Harrison's Room - Americana

I am finally back.

Having two kids is tough (for all you mothers with more than 2 - I don't know how you do it.) It is amazing I find time to shower ehhh every 2 days (don't judge!)

Harrison's room is finished. Actually it was ready several weeks ago. I haven't had a chance to post until now. Both kids are sleeping. Oh, silence how I missed you!

Get ready for photo overload...

Here is a shot of the whole room.

The {red} chair is on back order so they gave us this loaner.

Yes, there are clothes stuffed in his bassinet! I'll get to that eventually...

You can find a tutorial on the book page letters {H E R E}

You can also find a tutorial on making this inexpensive dollar store art {H E R E}


This is my favorite part of his room!

You can find a tutorial on making the yarn flag artwork {H E R E}

Baby H hasn't made it to his room yet. He is still sleeping in his swing right next to our bed. Gasp, little Miss Evelyn Kate slept in the swing next to our bed for 8 months. Whatever works, works!

I'm glad he is giving me a solid 6 hours of sleep at almost 6 weeks. I was up every 1-2 hours up until last week.

Well, I need to get back to the kids!

Have a great Wednesday!



Baby H is here!

Sorry for being so MIA recently.

On Friday July 22 I met this handsome fella.

Meet Harrison Bennett.

{ photo courtesy of Jennifer Driscoll }

He weighed in just under 8lbs (7 lbs 15 oz) and was 21 inches.

He is such a joy. Although the every 2 hour feedings are starting to take a toll on mom.

Dad is very proud of his son.

{ photo courtesy of Jennifer Driscoll }

Big sister even enjoys having her little brother around. Although we are taking "nice hands" one day at a time. She really likes to snuggle him in blankets (ehhh, on his face) so I am watching her constantly.

{ photo courtesy of Jennifer Driscoll }

Everyone said that 2 years apart is the perfect age for siblings. Boy, is it a lot of work.

Do you have any tips with having kids close in age?

I'm trying to spend as much time as possible with my daughter but it is tough balancing feedings and one on one time with Evelyn.

Well, back to my mom duties!






Playroom - Kiddos Retreat

I picked out a bright blue paint color for the play room. I think it is so much fun and perfect for a gender neutral playroom.

Of course Daniel opposed the color because in another 3-4 years we will paint it again for Evelyn's big girl room. I'll let her choose her color at that time.

Daniel started painting the walls two weekends ago... while I enjoyed sitting downstairs.
 
 
I have an excuse! Normally, I would help with these tasks - although he thinks I'm a terrible painter. Is it because I'm left handed?!?


He finished all the painting and then unloaded the closet. Yes, another huge mess to clean up.
 
 

 
See what I mean about the mess??

Finally this last weekend we got everything organized and the playroom is clean!

My parents bought this play table for Evelyn's 2nd birthday and it looks so cute in the room above the striped rug.




Yes...toys are out of the family room downstairs! Daniel moved her toy chest upstairs and her book shelf back in the play room. (I will have pictures later this week of the kids-free family room!)

I'm not going to decorate the playroom until we have all the furniture situated.

We are turning our old foot board from our king size bed into a daybed. That should be an interesting project down the road.

Also, we plan to install a TV up high so this can be the kiddos little comfy retreat.

There are still several toys hiding away in the entertainment center in the family room.
 
 
Don't you love doors on things? I love getting the toys out of sight.

Now, our family room is adult-ish again and that makes me happy.

Ok, I'm posting another photo of the new playroom...





I'm Officially Home!

Oh, it is such a great feeling to know that I am home for the next 21 weeks.

I finally get to start those craft projects I've been dying to do. In order to get to those I need to make every day tasks at home as simple as possible.

Since I'm home for a long time (end of November) I am doing all of the household chores, grocery runs, making meals, taking care of the little ones etc...you know what SAHM's do each and every day.

I've been brainstorming on what additional lists will help me during these weeks.

While planning my grocery shopping for this week something clicked. How about a cute grocery list? I do coupon so I wanted to incorporate coupons in that list as well...

I decided to put together a grocery shopping list to keep that portion of time to a minimum.

I created a generic list as a free printable!


 

If you want a copy of the list I use, it is available in my Etsy shop for $2.
I hope this helps you speed up stay at home tasks! 






Master Closet: Getting Organized

All these unorganized areas in the house are making me go crazy during nesting time.

Take a look at our closet.



I promised my significant other that I would keep this area clean if he installed a custom closet system (he did this 2 years ago.)

I didn't mean to lie, but seriously, I am going through the closet every morning as fast as possible in order to get to work by 8.

I think if I had more time in the morning the closet would be nowhere near the disaster it is today.

Yeah, getting myself ready plus a 2 year old sleeping beauty is not an easy task. Add daycare drop off to that mix ohh the morning gets so much better! Can you tell my sarcasm?

Yesterday I worked on organizing the space.


{ removed the clothes }

{ moved pants over to the other side }

{ finally clean! }


It is such an improvement. I want to put small baskets at the top to hold some of the items we don't use very often...or even store out of season items.

Is it bad that I am loving the chalkboard baskets from Pottery Barn Kids for our master closet??

Sabrina Basket & Chalkboard Labels

I actually just want the labels. I think I can pick up some pretty inexpensive baskets from Target or Walmart.

Hmm...I smell a future project making these chalkboard labels!

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