Total Randomness

Blog Silence- that's where I've been lately. I have an awesome furniture makeover to share but haven't even blogged about it yet! But it's for good reason. When it rains it pours, feast of famine, and all those cliches have been my life lately. 

After a long dry spell I have been fortunate enough to score some design jobs as of late and of course they have tight deadlines. Looking forward to sharing those soon!

Cozy Christmas at Home

I hope everyone has had a happy Holiday Season. We're finally getting back into the swing of things around the house now that New Years has passed. This year for Christmas we did something a little unusual for us- we stayed home!

We have never stayed home for Christmas. We are always traveling to Louisiana where we drive between 3 cities visiting our respective families. This year was going to be no different until the day we were leaving. The Hubs had been sick with a nasty stomach virus (occupational hazard from working with kids...) and I was afraid the Saw-Man had caught it since he had been acting unwell that morning. 

We were still going to stick with our original plans but as we were leaving Friday evening after work an ice storm hit Oklahoma and most of Northern Texas. We drove about 30 minutes and decided if there was one year we were going to stay home this was it. It was to dangerous for us to continue of for another 8 hrs that night.

So home it was!

We had fun doing winter activities and just relaxing.

Our first attempt at Christmas Cookies werent the prettiest but they sure tasted good!

Other than at home Christmas fun we took a trip to the "Big City" (Oklahoma City) did some  Christmas shopping, finally saw Santa, went hiking, and just enjoyed some quality family time.

After waiting almost an hour they informed us that Santa was about to take a 1 hr break. I almost had a heart attack since we had driven 2 hrs and had been waiting forever to see him.

Thank goodness they let us be the last family before his break! The other people behind us were upset...

After Christmas Eve Mass- I think Con was super excited for Santa to come!

I hope everyone has had a good holiday season!! Merry Late Christmas! :)

Christmas Photo Time!

It's that time of year! When I am anxiously awaiting our Christmas cards to come in so I can address them and send them out. In the meantime here are some of the photos we took of the kiddos.

Adorbs!

I am very proud to say that I took these photos myself! (With much advice from my friend who is a photography expert)

I had grand plans of taking some of the Hubs and I but it didn't happen- time was of the essence (and I couldn't figure out how to work the timer on my camera)

Now come on orange envelope!! Show up on my doorstep!

Non-Traditional Christmas Decor

This weekend was our towns' Downtown Christmas Open House. It's a big deal- all the little shops downtown are open on Sunday for shopping. So since I am new to the scene (I have a booth where I sell my goods in one of the shops) I had to decorate my space for the occasion. 

I wanted to do something Christmas-y but not the usual evergreen, ornaments, gift wrap affair. I racked my brain some and came up with an idea- coffee filters! Cheap, disposable, and customizable. 

New Living Room Rug- Merry Christmas to Me!

Hello All! Has everyone gotten their Christmas shopping done? Me neither... oh well. I did get a present for myself though- Hee hee. 


If you follow me on Twitter you might be able to guess what I'm talking about. About 2 weeks ago I got this mystery package in the mail:

I've been searching hi and low for a rug that I liked that was a decent price. Sure there were plenty that I'd love to have but they were all so pricey! Enter Fab.com a website that has deals on high design stuff every day! Well about a month ago they had a deal from Safaveih Rugs. They were 70% off! Score!! 

This one in particular caught me eye. White leather shag- yum! I've been looking for a neutral rug that had some texture to give it interest. I didn't want a patten (call me a chicken) because I was worried I'd get tired of it after a few years. This one fit that description and it was an awesome price. 

It's been down in our living room for a week now and we've been enjoying it. I think it really makes the room feel more cozy. And it gives your feet a mini massage when you walk across it. Con-Man was especially excited when it arrived. He ran all over it and rolled across it and everything.

Here are some overall shots. And please try to ignore the piles of baby toys in the corner; as much as I'd love to have a perfect home I do have a kid. ;)

I will say, though I love the way the rug looks and it's exactly what I wanted I am paying some prices for it. I didn't think Con-Man would get such a kick out of pulling the shag pieces up. I'm hoping this thrill wanes soon.

And I mentioned that the rug gives my feet a nice massage; well our 50 lb black lab thinks so too. She loves to roll all over it and use it to scratch her back. The website said the rug was durable and easy to keep clean- they must not have kids or a huge dog. 

Anyway- I still like it and I think that despite these minor "setbacks" it will last a long time. I'll be sure to keep you updated!

Next up for this room, besides maybe finally reupholstering those orange chairs, is finding some accent pillows and accessories to add some pops of color.

Do you buy your own Christmas presents?

Dowel Star Wreath

I hope everyone had a fan-tabulous weekend! I know I did- Christmas Tree shopping, football game watching, Altus Christmas Parade, good times. Don't forget that tomorrow is the last day to enter my Dremel Trio giveaway!


Have you ever seen the Lowe's Creative Idea Magazine and website? I like to look at it for ideas and inspiration. We've been getting into the Christmas spirit more and more over at our house so I was in the mood for another Christmas-y project and the Lowes magazine had lots of good ones this month.


I saw this project in particular for a Dowel Star Wreath. 

It just so happened that my mom was cleaning out their garage over Thanksgiving and was going to throw a bunch of dowels away. But I snatched them up instead! If you want to try this project out yourself you'll need:

The dowels were 4' long so I needed to cut them down to 18" each. I used my scroll saw for this.

Once my dowels were cut I used Gorilla Wood Glue to attach the dowels together. I started with 2 triangles, opposite ends facing each other and glued them together. 

I set the star under a heavy book and let it dry for a few hours.

After the first set was dry I put another triangle on and glued that, then continued the process until I had used all my dowels.

After everything had dried over night I gave my star wreath a few coats Krylon Metallic Caramel Spray paint. I liked this color because it is two dimensional- from one angle it looks golden and from another it looks silver.

Then it was time to hang! I used some red ribbon and hung it over the mirror we have on the mantle in the living room.

This was a quick, easy, and inexpensive way to decorate for Christmas! 

What sort of Christmas crafts have you been up to?

Bake'n Up Some Christmas Cheer

Every year for Christmas I usually bake up a bunch of goodies to give to friends and neighbors. This year I still baked up some goods but with a different spin. 


I saw this cute project on Prudent Baby and wanted to try it out. She used Salt Dough to make ornaments, garland, and gift tags for their home. 

I thought I would try it out for small gifts this year. I have some of the highlights but for complete instructions check out Prudent Baby.

Start with your ingredients: 1/4 cup of salt

                                                1/4 cup of water

                                                1 cup of flour

Just mix, knead, roll, and use a cookie cutter to cut out your shapes.

Then bake for 5 hours (I know so long!) at 200 degrees. You want to dry out and harden the dough but not brown it. And just a side note- Be sure to warn your husband that these particular cookies are not for eating. Otherwise he'll be sure to take a bite and then ask you how you could even think of giving these to people. (True story)

Then it's time to decorate! I painted some parts then used Elmers glue and glitter to decorate the rest.

I had fun with this project, it's been a long time since I used glitter and glue. And I thought it was nice to give something to my friends that would last a long time, since the stuff I usually bake doesn't!

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Decorating!

As Christmas gets closer I really need to get it in gear with the decorating around the house. I'm such a slacker!

Luckily this week I had the opportunity to go to a wreath making class sponsored by one of our fabulous furniture vendors. It was fun to learn some techniques and mingle with all the gals.

A professional wreath maker was there to give us tips and techniques. They had all the supplies we needed! I had a hard time choosing which ones I wanted to use. (All I had was my camera phone so sorry for the bad picture quality!)

The candy cane striped ornaments really caught my eyeso i decided to go with a candy cane themed wreath.

I was intimidated at first, I've never made a wreath before. But once I got started it went quickly and easily. I began by wrapping ribbon around the wreath.



Putting on some finishing touches:

And the finished product! It's a smaller scale wreath meant to go on a table top. The girl teaching the class said this is the "In" thing this year.

I likes it where it was but wanted to hang it over the mirror on our fireplace instead. I love it!

Everyone there made one and there were so many good ones I wish I had taken pictures of all of them.


I also wanted to share a picture one of my readers shared with me. Elyse made her own sweater pillow cover like the ones I made for her home! Don't you love it? I also love that fleece throw. So comfy!

How is everyone else decorating for Christmas? Have you seen wreaths used as centerpieces instead of being hung on the door?


Linking up the The CSI Project!