So all of the big Christmas trees are up and projects are getting knocked out, but who knew that putting up Christmas this year would also lead to a massive purge of stuff?

Since it has led to this massive purge things are taking a little longer to get put together and back to rights. I promise I'll be back and sharing tons of projects with you guys, but first I need to get my house back to rights.

What do you get when you combine $2 ball garland, a styrofoam ball and some hot glue?

This!!!!
Isn't she pretty?!?! I love how simple and quick she was to make too! I have some more ideas for the wrapping of beaded garland around styrofoam balls, but this is the only one I've made so far!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful thanksgiving.

The table is set, the pie is done and soon we'll be sitting down to a wonderful rack of ribs with the family.

Love you all!

Yesterday, I shared the wood veneer and fabric woven stars - today I'm sharing some more of the paper woven stars.



I was going to leave them like this for a while, but then figured with the crocheted snowflakes, it might just be a little too much snowflake going on on my Christmas tree.

Have you ever had a grand idea?

Has that grand idea not panned out? I have!

I had a wonderful idea that involved wood veneer! Then it didn't pan out.

So I was left with two packages of wood veneer that I didn't know what to do with. Enter the woven snowflakes from House Revivals!

Now I know I made these last year, but this year I'm revisiting them with some red oak wood veneer, iridescent taffeta and maybe some glitter, maybe not. Still haven't decided on that one.

So anyways, if you pop on over to House Revivals you'll see that she does a wonderful job of detailing how to make these pretties. I followed her instructions after some prep  work with the veneer.
So there's the edging. I got it from Lowe's (shocker) and figured that I could adhere it to fabric so that I didn't have to paint the underside of the edging (again. Different story, different post).

I knew I had some left over taffeta and figured what could it hurt to try and iron the veneer to it. Well thank my lucky stars it  worked.

I cut my pieces of veneer into about 12" long strips. Then I cut them all in half lengthwise, and then again and again. Each strip will garner 8 strips of wood and fabric.
After I had my strips, I just followed the instructions for the original paper stars.


 Paper clips are your friends for this step. Also wood glue works better than white glue. It takes longer to dry, but you'll thank me. Trust me.

So here's the finished product. I haven't yet decided if I'm going to add some sparkle to the star, but I probably will. If only to hide some of the overlap. I love the effect though of the woven colors. Just think of all the possibilities, and you could even stain the wood.




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This week is Thanksgiving. What better week to introduce a whole bunch of ornaments I've made!

So while perusing Ms. Martha's site, I found some super cute crocheted snowflakes and really liked them. The problem? I don't  didn't know how to crochet.

Its one of the few crafts that up until recently I really had no desire to learn. But then I had to learn, because I need these little crocheted snowflakes for my Christmas decor. So on a trip with Mom to Walmart, we got my necessary tools. One crochet hook, and a thingy of crochet thread. Thingy is a technical term.

Want to see my first crocheted snowflake?
He reminds me of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. He's not quite right, but there's something endearing about him. So I'm going to keep him.

Here are some of my later (and better) snowflake creations from Ms. Martha's site.

Starching and blocking is still not my favorite thing, but I am able to whip out 2 or so snowflakes in the time it takes me to catch up on two TV shows, so I'm thinking that I should be able to whip up enough of these beauts for the tree and maybe a garland or a stocking embellishment or two.

Anyone have any tips on starching and blocking? I'm all ears.



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I'm getting back into the swing of things here at home, and I'm excited to share my Thanksgiving mantle with all of you guys.

Its more toned down version of what I usually do, but I'm finding myself trending back towards a more uncluttered look.
 I am really loving how simplistic the whole thing is. I am also loving the little touches here and there of color.

 I really love this. I saw the idea on BHG.com and its a Thanksgiving tree (cause you know I'm a sucker for anything tree). We cut out some leaves and each wrote what we're thankful for. Devlin elected himself as Harrison's honorary writer, and here are some of our leaves. Ok, they're all the boys' leaves, but I love this! It was fun taking them out last week after Sandy came through to find the perfect branches.

Here's another change: I brought back these curtains. If you recall I changed these curtains out just after Christmas of last year, and now they're back. I'm so glad I kept them, because they lend a warmer feel to the room than the other curtains.

Here's my little guy again, cheesing it up for the camera. Seriously, I have to stop pulling out the camera when he's awake, because every time he sees it he tries to bogart it and repeatedly says, "cheese!", until I take his picture. Its cute at first. Then its just annoying. He does take a nice picture though. :)