Blessing #222 - B's Dresser

This year for Christmas, we decided to give the boys a room makeover. Their rooms were struggling majorly, and they were both really excited for it.

For the past three weeks since we got back from Georgia, Shad and I have been working in their rooms.  I can't wait to share several projects, but first I will start with Brandon's dresser.

Here's what we started with....

It's a mid-century modern $5 yard sale find! I'm terrible about taking before pictures so Shad snapped this picture for me right before he sanded the drawers.

When we asked Brandon's opinion for his room, he wanted camouflage and hunters. At first, I was really not excited about that style.  I wanted a bold orange and navy combination, however it wasn't my room so camouflage it was.

Shad and I brainstormed for the room, and decided to do rustic camouflage.  When I showed Shad East Coast Creative's Anthropology Knock Off Ordinal Dresser, he loved it, and we decided to try that on B's dresser.

First I painted the shell with black chalk board paint.  I really wasn't sure how this dresser was going to turn out, and the chalkboard paint would give me a solid black look or a different look when it was primed with chalk.

Shad sanded the drawers and I stained them with weathered oak stain.  Weathered oak was gray but not too gray.

I painted the numbers, and finished the drawers with polyurethane.  The hardware was problematic and we debated over what kind of hardware to use for a couple days.  Finally, we found a knob that we both really liked.

Here's the finished product!

This picture is more true to the actual color of the drawers, and I had to put the decoy we got B for Christmas on there!

Until I painted the numbers, I was really unsure about how this dresser was going to look.  I'm so pleased with how my knock off of East Coast Creative's knockoff  looks! It's just perfect for the rustic look we are going for in B's room.

Blessing #221 - Christmas Home Tour 2013

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here! I just love Christmas! I am the designate Christmas Nut in our family! Every family needs a Christmas Nut.

This Christmas, we are going to be in Georgia, and although I've been so excited for Christmas, I just didn't have decorating motivation.  Last Thursday though, I decorated up some mantles.  I decided to just use what I had and go with it.

Here are a few Christmas scenes from our house.

Originally, my Christmas pyrex display was pink flamingo, green, and white, but it became this hodge podgy mix of pieces....AND I LOVE IT!

Normally, I have some chalkboard art in my pantry, but this year with my apron collection, I decided to close the door and add a little tree.

This shelf isn't perfect, but my motto for decorating this Christmas was, "Close enough!" I had to have one of my favorite Buddy the Elf quotes somewhere in my house!

This fall, I found a lot of wooden ornaments, Shad and I both loved them and I love how they are showing up in our Christmas displays.

The nativity is one of my favorites.

In the dining room, I didn't plan on decorating this mantle, but I had some gold sticks, a gold sign, and my nativity. They looked surprising good together.  The green on the bucket kind of messes with your eyes, but I just didn't feel like painting it....Close Enough!

My most favorite addition to our decorations is in the dining room.  Shad and I have been looking for ceramic Christmas trees at yard sales for as long as we've been yard saling. Then one magical day in an over 50 community yard sale...we found three!

Both Shad and I remember our Grandmothers having one of these.  I just love that we have them in our house!

OH! When I bought the white one in the middle, the guy told me, "I used to sell those trees door to door at Christmas time. They were made my prisoners at a local prison, and I worked there."

I just looked at him, "Are you telling me the tree was made by prisoners? That just makes me love it more!!!"

We still have our eyes out for more trees to add to our collection.

On our dining room table, we put a pink poinsettia that our landlord gave us.

In our hallway, I also put another one in an old mop bucket.

On our tree, I changed out the mesh and ribbon.  When we put it up the middle lights were out.  I didn't have time to fix it, and really wanted to get the tree up so....Close Enough! This is our tree before we put all our special ornaments on it.

For our mantle, I planned on doing the same mantle from last year, but then I really wanted to show off my wooden ornaments.

I went nuts when I saw how they looked in the Dr. Pepper crate. I love it!

Here is a full view of our fire place.  We put a little heater in there just to knock off the chill sometimes.  (We can't light a fire in the fire place)

I hope you enjoyed this little tour of my house.  You can find last years tour here. 

I'm sharing this post with A Thoughtful Place. 

Curse #49 - It Could Be Worse

Christmas was rough.  When life gets rough, I always say the same phrase, "It could be worse!"

Monday (the week before Christmas) Shad found out some news at work about changes next year and end of the year bonuses that wasn't great news for us. When Shad told me, I said, "It could be worse!"

Tuesday my throat started hurting.  Wednesday I had a fever.  Thursday the doctor said, it's the flu.  Immediately, I thought, "It could be worse.  At least we caught it quick and it's not in my lungs."  

Friday, I woke up, and struggled to breath.  It had moved to my lungs.  Weakly, I though, "It could be worse (cough cough cough)." 

Saturday, Collin started with a fever, and we knew he had the flu.  I don't think I said, "It could be worse," at this point. 

Sunday, after three phone calls and some begging, I was so excited to get Collin some tamiflu, but my excitement was short lived when the pharmacist told me they were all out of tamiflu.  (Fortunately for me, this Rite Aid pharmacist called six other pharmacies until she found one that had tamiflu for me.)

Sunday night, I wanted to get out.  After dragging myself to the car, I was so excited to drive around and see some Christmas lights with Shad and the boys.  Then as we were in a drive thru, our car started smoking.  At this point, I couldn't be positive anymore. This was the last straw. Shad looked at me and said,  "I'm calling it," and we both said together, "Worst Christmas Ever!"
 
 I want to keep things in perspective, and I don't want to have a bad attitude. I realize having the flu on Christmas is not the end of the world.  I realize we are very blessed with food on the table,  presents under the tree, and boys beside me but why is it that when I say the phrase, "It could be worse," it actually gets worse!

A few years ago, I retired the phrase, "I will never," because I realized God has a sense of humor with me. Now, I will no longer be saying, "It could be worse," because it will always get worse.  

The week before Christmas was rough, but after Sunday though, we really had a sweet Christmas, a completely different Christmas, but a sweet Christmas. We were even able to get out on Christmas day for our Waffle House tradition.  Our Christmas changed when we all decided to make the best of what we had because we have a lot.  Now, instead of saying, "It could be worse," I think I'll just take Bing's advice and calculate my blessings.  

Blessing #165 - Christmas Fantle

I thought I was done with Christmas decorating, but I guess I had one little bit of Christmas left in me.

Yesterday, the fantle (fake mantle) in my dining room looked empty so I decided to work on the look. Most of the time, I work on a mantle for a few days tweaking and working on it as I walk by, but this fantle didn't take long at all.  I really like the way it looks.  

I like that it's not too Christmasey.  Christmas is just a week away, but I just have to change the chalkboard art to make this unChristmasey.

I layered a gold frame on top of a window and hung this greenery in the middle.  I just went outside and cut some greenery off some bushes we have.  Then I bunched the greenery together with a pony tail elastic and wrapped the ribbon around it.

I used to hate gold, but I'm really starting to warm up to it.  Now, I'm not pulling a Donald Trump and guilding everything, but I am starting to use it more.

Here's how it looks with the rest of the dining room.  I just snapped this picture this morning so yes, those are baby crocs in the floor and a Diet Dr. Pepper on the table.

My living room Christmas look is red and green, but the dining room has a blue vintage feel to it.  I really love it.

Blessing #160 - Recognizing the Christmas Spirit

Last year, Shad scored major points by starting a new possible tradition, and he surprised me and did it again this year! It is a fantastic idea so I had to share it on the blog.

For two years, Shad has bought me a small gift at the start of the Christmas season.  Last year, he surprised me with these super cute measuring cups from anthropology.

I use these measuring cups almost everyday, and I can't help but think of Shad every time I use them.

This year, I came home from cleaning and there was a present under the tree just for me.  I opened it up to find two pieces of butterprint pyrex for my collection. (The two round casseroles on the right hand side.)



These gifts are so sweet, but the reason he gives them is even sweeter.  Shad told me that I am our family's Christmas Spirit, and so the Christmas Spirit needs a gift to start the season.  Every family has a Christmas nut, and I just happen to be ours. It was a small statement, but it's one of the sweetest things he's ever said or done for me.

Often, the Christmas Nut is the driving force for Christmas, making sure the tree gets up and memories are made.  The Christmas Nut tries their best to make Christmas fun and special for everyone. Shad found a way to make the Christmas Nut feel special and needed.

If you have a Christmas Nut (a.k.a Christmas spirit) in your family, take a little time to recognize them, you never know what it will mean to them.
 

Blessing #158 - A Tree Full of I Love Yous

A couple of Christmases ago (Yes, I just had to google, "What is the plural form of Christmas?"),  I mentioned our ornaments tradition. Each year, we take a special night out where we hunt for our ornaments.  Each ornament is tied to a memory of a fun night together, but there is another reason that these ornaments are so special to me.

See these boots Brandon got last year.  B loves that we found a boots ornament, but what he hasn't noticed yet is what's underneath.

On every ornament, I write the year he got it, and I always write I <3 U! In case you haven't noticed, I am deeply sentimental, and everyone of their special ornaments has a note and and I <3 U somewhere on it from me.

To most people our tree just looks like a tree full of ornaments, but to me, I see a tree of I love yous.  Someday, my boys are going to leave me, and if all goes as planned they are taking their ornaments with them.  I'm glad they'll have the ornaments, but I'm even more glad they'll have a tree full of I love yous from me.
 

Blessing #157 - Decorating Christmas Trees

In case you haven't caught on, this week is all about Christmas!  Last year, I decorated my tree a little differently than before, and it really works for me. Here is my tree this year....

Before I tried this way, my tree never looked full enough to me, but now I love it.

Here are a few steps to how I got this look.

1. Start from the top and wrap some thick deco mesh or thick ribbon around the tree.  This needs to be thicker than you think to make an visual impact.  It makes the tree look filled up before you ever put on an ornament.

2. Once you have your thick mesh up start from the top and wrap a thin ribbon or garland in between the layers of mesh.

3.  Put on filler ornaments.  These are not the center of attraction ornaments, but they do complement nicely.

4. Stick something on the top of the tree a bow, an angel, a star, or sticky things like I have.

5. Place your main attraction ornaments.

You can see in the step by step pictures that I tie my ornaments on with thin ribbon.  I don't knot the ribbon, I just tie once.  This makes it a little bit harder for little hands to take the ornaments off the tree.

One thing I like about using the deco mesh is that it's forgiving.  When my boys bump into it and mess it up, you can't really tell.

I used that same method on a tree I help put up at the farm where Shad works.

The mesh around the tree is burlap, and the garland is pine coned and berries. Here you can see each step.

When we first had kids, Shad and I dreamed of putting up the tree all together.  I think we tried it one year, and it was not a happy memory at all.  I think we were all frustrated by the end of the ordeal.

For the past few years, I do steps 1 through 4 all by myself, and then we all participate in step 5.  Every year, we get special ornaments for the boys and us.  (You can read about that here.)  When the time is right, we get out the special ornaments and place them on the tree in order one by one. Even though I have worked hard on the tree, I have no say so on where the special ornaments go.  The boys place each ornament right where they want it.  That way they feel like it's their tree too.

The whole thing takes about thirty minutes which is perfect for my short attention span family. We get the feeling of decorating a Christmas tree together without the stress.

The other day, I heard James Dobson say on his radio show, "Traditions give meaning and identity to families. It is a way of saying, 'This is who we are.  This is what we do'." (Quote taken from this episode.)

When my boys look back at Christmas, I want them not to remember, "I got this and I got that."  I want them to remember, "We did this together, and we did that together."

Decorating the tree together is a great tradition. I'm glad we found a way to make it work for us.

Do you have any tips on how you do your tree, or how you decorate with kids.  I would love to hear them.

Blessing #156 - Fireplace Makeover

Yesterday, I promised that my fireplace makeover did not end with just the mantle.  Oh no! There is more.

Here is a before of my fireplace.

It really seemed to scream, "Hello, it's me! Red outdated brick! I'm here!"  I wanted to tone it's look down a bit without doing anything really dramatic.  Last Monday, I updated it using this method from East Coast Creative.    It did not take long, and I love the amazing impact it made.

A little paint made such a difference.  We have never had stockings before, but Shad really wanted some for this year.  I found a good sale at Kirkland's and got them for $7 a piece.  I hung them on the mantel by Scotch Command Hooks.  The white hooks blend in with the mantel, and when Christmas is over they come off clean.

At the end of winter last year, we found the fire place screen for $7.  Although we cannot light a fire in the fireplace, Shad wanted to use candles to get a similar feeling.  We rounded up every candle we had in our house, and we love how they warm up the room.

Now we are really enjoying our fireplace.  The other night, I couldn't help but snap a few pictures as we watched the football game.

I thought about putting our initials on the stockings, but I felt that your eye went right to the initial and not the mantle so I ditched the initial.

This is probably one of my favorite updates to the house.  It has made such a huge difference.

Now I am really enjoying our fireplace.  It has quieted down and is not screaming nearly as loud.


 

Blessing #155 - Christmas Mantle

Before we left for Georgia, I put up the Christmas tree and fixed up the Christmas mantle. Who cares if it was November twenty something? I knew I would be a little down when I got back, and having my Christmas decorations would cheer me up.

Here it is....

I just loOoOoOoOoOove it! When I saw the wreath over the chalkboard on Pinterest, I knew that would be my centerpiece.  I didn't have a wreath, but I knew Goodwill always has wreaths.  I found this one for $2.  I love everything about it!

When Shad found this lantern at a yard sale, I knew it would look great on my Christmas mantle.  I needed some height so I sprayed some poster board with spray adhesive, placed some dollar tree wrapping paper on it, and then made a cone.

Here's one last picture of the mantle....

But wait! Normally, I stop my mantle pictures here, but there is more.  You can see a little sneak peek in this picture. Come back tomorrow, and I'll show you how I made over our entire fireplace!

Note: I'm sharing this host at the Deck the Halls Pinning Party.