4 Months of Favorites

It's that time of year that we reflect on our year and how much our lives have changed.  Back in August, I was quite the blog stalker.  I had fallen in love with blogs.  In September, I decided to start a blog, mostly to keep track of the blogs I read (I didn't know about Google Reader).  Today, I can't wait to get up in the morning and post, read your comments, and welcome new followers.  I now have a love for thrifting and crafting that I never had before.  Here is my year, well, 4 months of favorites.  Thanks to Southern Hospitality, Tatertots & Jello, and Its So Very Cheri for such great linky parties. 

It all started that September day, when I had the courage to start my blog.  I decided to redo these chairs which became the catalyst for so many projects. 

In October, I decided to redo my office after making these Cork Boards and redoing this Chandelier.

In November, I started getting crafty.  I made my Book Page Wreath and my Fall Wreath.  I was so inspired by the beautiful blogs I was following.

December has been a busy month.  I decided to take a break from blogging to enjoy my time off from work with my sisters and parents.  I did manage to get in a few crafty projects in before the holiday break.  I even got featured on Tatertots and Jello for my Book Page Christmas Tree.

So thank you for all the support and love.  I hope to have some exciting projects in 2011 and have my little blog grow some more.

And to All a Good Night

My vacation from work started Friday afternoon when the bell rang.  I figured I would keep up with my posts for the two weeks of vacation.  Well, I was wrong, it seems that I am just way to busy to be posting.  Actually, two of my sisters and my mom and dad are all on vacation as well.  We have been hanging and having a blast with my nephew and niece.  Posting has been the last thing on my mind.  Oh, of course, the icing on the cake is that my sister from New York gets here tomorrow and will be here for a week.  I am keeping up with my blog reading, but my posting will be taking a vacation for a couple of weeks. 

I hope you and your family have a very blessed Christmas.  May the spirit of the season bring you joy, love, and cherished time with your families.  Merry Christmas. 

Cute Gift Bags

Christmas is an interesting time of year for me at work.  I work with a bunch of amazing people and I am always welcomed graciously and with much love. The problem is, I work at 2 schools and I have a main regional office.  All things considered, I have 11 secretaries, 4 administrators, 2 counselors, and a program specialist that I work with on a daily basis. We do a monetary collection for school administration and the 3 secretaries at the regional office, one of which works directly with me and my schools.  So that leaves 8 more secretaries, and other staff.  In the past, I have baked a platter of cookies and left it in the office of the school with a note, given Christmas cards with candies, given cookies in individual baggies, and given each a Christmas ornament.  Usually it's just a small token to let them know that I am thinking about them.  Unfortunately, it can't be more than that.  So this year, I am giving them each a bag with some candies, an ornament, and a notepad.  Simple.

I was totally inspired by these Gift Tags at Jones Design Company that I wrote about a few weeks back.  The best part is that they are FREE to download.  I used a simple white lunch bag found at Target, folded it over, punched a hole, and put the ribbon, ornament, and tag through the hole.  They look so cute.

Have you been inspired to do beautiful wrapping?

Christmas Card Album

I love getting Christmas cards in the mail.  It's the only time of the year that I walk out to the curbside mailbox to pick up the mail.  My favorite are the picture cards.  I love seeing our family and friends kids growing through the years.  The problem with this is what to do with them at the end of the season. I used to put them all in a box.  No fun.  A couple of years ago, I thought of putting them all in an album that I could have out year round.  When any kids come over, they love looking through it and seeing themselves in years past.  I am not much of a scrapbooker, but I did get a little creative with my year cover pages. 

The album matches some of my pillows in my family room, so I have it out on one of the side tables throughout the year.  The slot in front is for a picture, that I am in the process of changing out. 

I made a cover sheet for each year that we have been married and receiving picture Christmas cards. I add the new year to the top of the album, most recent pictures first.

 Here are a couple of cards from last year.  I just tape them onto the sheet and slide them in.  Very simple.

 Some more cover sheets.  2004 below was our first Christmas. 

Here is the album as it looks right now. It's so thick.  I love this idea and really love to see how our family and friends families have grown.  The first year, I think we had about 5 picture cards and last year we had almost 40 picture Christmas cards.  Another cute idea comes from my aunt.  She makes an individual album every year using card stock and a binder ring to hold the years pictures together.  Every Christmas she pulls out all the albums and has them out on the coffee table.  How do you keep your Christmas cards?

Office Gallery Wall Mirrors

I am almost done with my office gallery wall. I found these mirrors last week for $.50 each at a garage sale.  

The oval one had two of the 'teeth' cracked off.   

The little old lady who sold it to me, actually tried to convince me to buy it by suggesting I glue something on there.  I took her advice and cut up a piece of cardboard and glued it on.

 I spray painted them black and here they are. 

I ordered this Family Rules Subway Art from Groopdealz a couple of weeks back for $5.00.  I will posting pictures of the final project soon.

Week-End Finds

We just got back from a weekend at Disney World with my parents, sisters, nephew, and niece.  We had such a great time. My nephew got to shake Woody's hand during the parade, take a picture with Buzz Lightyear, and hug Mickey and Minnie, all his favorite characters. Those moments made the whole trip worth while.

Needless to say, my thrifting this past week was very limited.  I did, however, manage to find these 2 cute ceramic vases and was given flowers to fill them.  I'm a lucky girl.  (I think my hubby liked the comments from the last time I got flowers.)  I spent $3.00 on both vases. 

I hope you have a great week.  I will be having a busy one trying to finish my Christmas shopping.

DIY Christmas Cards

 So it seems this whole blog/hobby of mine has resulted in me deciding to make my own Christmas cards.  I think we sent out Christmas cards our first year married, since then, nothing.  I love getting picture cards, but won't do it with just me and my husband (he refuses), and regular cards bought at Target don't excite me. So I decided to get crafty. 

FYI, I am not a scrapbooker, probably never will me, I don't have the patience. I am a very simple, plain, modern type.  When I make a Shutterfly album, my background is black, the cover is black, and the minimal words (maybe 5 in an entire album) are white.  So, the cards had to be same.

I used metallic card stock that I found at OfficeMax. My sister-in-law helped me cut the triangles with her Cricut, while I used a stamp to make the stars.  I printed the wording inside and then took the stack to OfficeMax so they could slice the stack in half. I then folded 80, yes 80 cards.

I kept it simple inside.  I used the Matilde free font thanks to Young House Love. I love the simplicity of it.

Here is the final card.  Only problem...I have to glue 78 more triangles and 78 more stars.  What was I thinking.

I joined a linky party at Centsational Girl

DIY: Tissue Paper Ornament

I had this little bag of tissue paper squares that I picked up in a garage sale and this Styrofoam ball from my love birds project.  I love the colors of the tissue paper.  

First step, wrinkle the tissue paper in small balls/puffs.

 Second step, attach the balls/puffs to the ball with hot glue. 

 Cut a ribbon to size and glue the tip at any point in the ball.  I also used two safety pins for added security.

And here it is. The colors are fun and really cute, even though they don't match any of my other decorations.  My goal is to fill this stand with handmade ornaments.  Oh yeah, I have to paint the stand too. 

Here's a little sneak peak at something I'm working on. Hopefully, I will have this project done by tomorrow.

I joined a linky party at Centsationalgirl

Office Gallery Wall Art

I've been working on a small gallery wall for my office.  Here is one of the projects that I am very excited about.

I bought a frame for $2.00 at Goodwill and spray painted it black.

My friend Gloria, the art teacher from one of the schools that I work for, made this to show the kids a craft project that they could work on during the school fundraiser walk-a-thon. I was in charge of the cookie decorating table. I had frosting in my hair, all over my clothes, and I smelled very sweet. Using metal tooling foil, which is thicker than aluminum foil, she carved/drew into the foil using a pen.  She is so talented and did this in minutes.  I loved it so much, she gave it to me. I was going to try my own, but I knew it would never look like this one.

I hot glued it to a piece of black card stock.

It is so cute and the best part about it, the total cost was $2.00.  Love it!