Christmas Topiary Revamp

I have been snagging Christmas decorations at thrift stores for months now.  Especially before everyone started getting into the spirit, I found a few simple things that just needed minimal adjustments to go from blah to so-stinkin'-cute!

Take these topiaries, for example.  I loved the red berries and the shape, but in person the leaves are a bit too, you know, green.  A fake-looking green that doesn't really match the rest of my decorations.

Luckily, the leaves pulled out easily and there were just a few spots that needed to be patched with-what else?-a glue gun.  Then I stood back and realized that the only thing these babies needed was (you guessed it!) grosgrain ribbon.  I am so happy with the results!

I am not sure where these will go in my house, but I think they will look good almost anywhere!

Speaking of my house, I owe you a little "trying-to-buy-the-house-next-door" update.  We heard from the bank and they have accepted the competing offer on the foreclosed house next door.  No surprise since the competing offer didn't hinge upon the buyers selling their house, while ours did.  However, our real estate agent is still hopeful because the other buyers are attempting to use a type of loan that has a high failure rate (about 30%) so there is a decent chance that it will fall through.  If it does, we will be at the head of the line.  So, amidst being 9 weeks away from having a new baby, and getting ready for the holidays, and switching Nina over to a big girl bed (which, of course, means a whole decorating overhaul in her room...who are we kidding?), our house is also on the market.  We are still hoping and praying that somehow it will work out.  I still believe in miracles, and it would certainly take one in this case!  But we are going to give it all we can.  I will keep you posted!

Vintage Christmas Pillow!

Hello friends!  Just a little Christmas tip for you today:

Get yourself on over to Target!  I was there the other day and found this cute little snowman pillow for $2.50 in the Dollar Spot.  They had so many great ones, too, not just this little guy.  I considered making some felt pillows for Christmas, because I had a lot of fun making these for Halloween, but for $2.50?  Forget it!  I'll just buy them!

He's the perfect little spot of color on my favorite houndstooth chair!

Also, a few little housekeeping items today.  I have been looking for a post in which to thank a few ladies for some awards, but apparently I am very wordy (no surprise to my husband) and this is the first post that wouldn't be a mile long if I added to it.  So here goes:

Thank you to Coco of Ordinary Miracles for this award:

Thanks to Circle of Life for this little beauty:

And a shout out to Jenni of Nest to Keep for this one:

And lastly, thank you to JennyKate at JennyKate'sSpot for this one:

You girls are such great blogging friends and it has been fun to get to know you!  And now...I am off to do some serious Christmas decorating.

Country Holiday Inspiration

Hi everyone!  How was your Thanksgiving?  I hope you all gained five pounds (in a good way, you know what I mean...)!  Me, I am still traveling and won't be back to Colorado until late tomorrow, but I have a few photos from our week in Ohio I wanted to share.

Here is where we spent Thanksgiving:

A little cabin (literally) in the woods!  My dad and his wife live in Ohio's Amish country and it is so picturesque.
I spent a lot of my time curled up in front of this:

But I managed to sneak a few photos of things that inspired me.  Don't you love this simple country wreath and the wooden flag on their front porch?  My dad painted the flag himself!

Even more adorable is this little vignette that greets you when you walk up their front steps.  I love the tree, and the snowman is made of a log from their woods.  If I have enough time this Christmas season (big "if"!) I would love to make one of these myself!

I took a close-up photo in case I decide to copy!

Much more Christmas to come in the following weeks...I can't wait to get home and start breaking out all my decorations!  :)

See You Turkeys Next Week!

This little turkey is leaving the roost!  We are heading back to Ohio for an extended Thanksgiving visit, and will return next week.  I won't have much computer time while I am gone, but in case you do...

...I will leave you with this little tip.  Take yourself over to visit Public Domain Images, a website that has a charming collection of images from days past, like my little turkey above.  A few of the images charge a nominal fee to download, but most that I looked at did not.  The possibilities are endless!  

I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving with lots of crazy relatives and ridiculous amounts of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and pumpkin pie.  See you next Monday when we (officially) get to start the Christmas craftiness!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Table Tips

Thanksgiving is almost here!  This year we are traveling back to Ohio to visit family for Thanksgiving, so I am off the hook for all that cooking and planning.  Last year, however, we hosted a gathering of 12 family members at our house, and I learned a few tricks that might be helpful for those of you who are in the same spot!  (And don't forget you can click on the photos below to enlarge them!)

First, I went to Joann's and bought a few yards of fall-looking material to serve as a table runner.  I did not sew one single stitch.  Instead, I just ironed the edges of the material under so that they would lay flat, and then laid my "runner" right on top of my tablecloth.  No one ever knew the difference, and it was about $10 for the material instead of spending a fortune for a real table runner!

Next, I just bought a few simple mini-pumpkins and gourds for the center of the table, and, along with candles, they made a pretty centerpiece.  I loved the gorgeous floral arrangements that I saw in magazines, but 1) they were super-expensive and 2) people wouldn't have been able to see over the flowers to talk to each other, so it wasn't worth it!

I also didn't have enough of my fancy china (inherited from my husband's side of the family...not sure where all the pieces ended up).  No big deal, we just interspersed some of my everyday white pieces in with the fancy stuff, and I don't think anyone even noticed!

My favorite thing that we did was make little turkey cookies to use as place cards.  These were just simple sugar cookies, and then I took plastic Ziploc bags, snipped the corners off, and used them to pipe each person's name onto the cookies.  Everyone loved it!  

It was so much fun to plan and execute all these little details, but I must admit, I am happy to take a backseat this time around!  Good luck to all of you who are playing the hostess this year!

Have a great weekend!

What Started It All!

One summer during college, I lived with my dad and his wife (my parents are divorced) in northern Ohio.  The house next door to them had an estate sale, and I scored an old, violently green dresser for $20.  The lady even threw in a matching mirror to hang above it which, thankfully, had not been painted the same shade of green!

I spent all summer stripping that dresser of it's green paint, sanding it, repairing the trim that had been damaged, and finally, adding stain and polyurethane.  I can still remember getting finished with the dresser and racing up to the hardware store to pick out new knobs.  (I didn't have any patience, even then!)

This dresser of mine has traveled with me to college, my first apartment with friends, my first apartment that I lived in all by myself, and finally, to the house(s) I have shared with my husband.  It has been 12 years since I refinished it, and it still sits in my bedroom, though now it holds my husband's socks and t-shirts, rather than my girly stuff.  Over the years I have changed it's knobs, treated it with furniture oil and lectured many professional moving men about it's fragility.  I hope it will become a family piece that one of my kids will inherit someday.

To look at this dresser, it's nothing fancy.  But it was my first big "project," and I couldn't wait to transform it from an ugly basement castoff to a pretty little piece complete with scented drawer liner.

So it will always hold a special little place in my heart.  Do you have a first project like that?

WFMW: Inexpensive Fall Topiary

Today's Works-For-Me-Wednesday tip is about how to make an inexpensive fall topiary, but I first have to mention this: I think we need to establish some kind of workers' comp for bloggers!  I have officially sustained my first injury:

(Please ignore my old lady hands!  They have been that wrinkly since I was born, and now, at the ripe old age of 32, they look positively ancient.)  Let's focus on the large glue gun-induced blister on my finger instead.
I sustained this injury while attempting to create my fall topiary.  I bought one of these green cones at Michael's, spray painted it black (so that the green wouldn't show through if I missed any spots)...

...and gathered my glue gun (nasty little thing) and a few pounds of nuts (2 1/2 lb. to be exact) from the grocery store.  Then I turned on a DVR-ed "Desperate Housewives" during Nina's nap, and about an hour later I had this adorable topiary!

I liked it so much that I went back to the store, bought some more supplies, and made a second topiary.  I figured one day I might have a traditional mantle again, and that I would want one for either end.  Each topiary probably cost a total of about $10.  Works for me!

(And if anyone knows of a good insurance plan that covers glue gun burns, I am open to suggestions!)