Last Years Christmas Wreath

It's officially Christmas crafting time! Woo hoo! I know you are just as excited as I am, I've seen some of the stuff you've been working on.

Today I went to Michael's and Wal-Mart to get everything I needed for our front door Christmas wreath. However I haven't done anything more than bring the bags inside the house. So I thought I'd share with you our Christmas wreath from last year. I had a feeling a year ago that I wanted to start my own blog so I started snapping pictures of my projects.

Here is what I started with.

• Wreath from Michael's
• Glittery red HOPE (dollar bin at Michael's)
• berry sprigs and garland
• red glitter pine cone sprigs

I didn't use any hot glue on my wreath because I wanted the option to take everything off and use the wreath again. So I strategically... okay randomly stuck everything where I thought it looked pretty and hoped it wouldn't fall off. Guess what? Nothing fell off. It stood up very well if I do say so myself.

I didn't take a lot of pictures of the final product but here she is.

Hopefully I'll be back later this week to share this years Christmas wreath. I'm really excited about it!

Blessings!

Linking to: All Thingz Related, Craft-O-Maniac

Happy Thanksgiving

As we gather around crowded tables today, shoulder to shoulder with family and friends we usually say one thing we are thankful for this year. My family is spending Thanksgiving with my sister-in-law and her family, then making a stop at my sister's house for dessert. I'm sure at both stops we'll be talking about everything we're thankful for, even in these tough times.

I am thankful for the freedoms we enjoy in our country, the freedom to openly praise my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I am thankful for my amazing family. In particular my incredible Tall Man who never seizes to amaze me and my amazing little chicks. I am thankful for my warm home and filled cupboards. I have been truly blessed in this life and am thankful for each and every one of those blessings.

Wishing you and your family a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Blessings.

Thankful Banner

We're fifteen days into November and I'm just now making my first Thanksgiving post. I apologize. My life is crazy right now and it's out of my control.

This thankful banner is something my friend Jamie and I made last November after being inspired by the oh so talented Kate at Centsational Girl. She's awesome and I love what she does!

So, on to the "how to"... I used burnt orange card stock and my Cricut to cut the letters out. We picked up some copper colored glitter with a coupon from Michael's and I think three sheets of two different patterned paper. I already had the brown ribbon and leaves so we were set there.

These banners were pretty easy to make but I have to admit my dining room was sparkling when we were done. And I don't mean sparkling clean. ;-)

We brushed Mod Podge on the letters using a foam brush and quickly sprinkled the glitter on top. Using a paper plate under the letters helped a lot. Have two plates handy and you can switch back and forth, pouring the glitter from plate to plate.

We used decorative scissors to cut our patterned paper and double sided tape to attach it to solid burnt orange card stock. Finally we attached brown brads to thread the ribbon through and attach the letters together. We also punched holes in the fabric leaves to give it a little more Autumn touch.

I don't have a mantel so I hung my banner on the curtains in our dining room. I like the way the light paper pops against the chocolate brown curtain. It's also fun because when my Tall Man opens the curtains to go out the slider he sometimes gets a little copper glitter in his hair.

Hope you're off to a better start than I am at Thanksgiving decor.

Harvest Blessings.

Happy Veteran's Day

November 1919 is the year our country began honoring veterans. On November 11, 1918 the "war to end all wars" ended and became a day of recognition. I read through some information over at the US Department of Veteran Affairs and was amazed at how much I didn't know about this very special day.

Today I want to honor a few veterans I have been blessed by.

My Uncle Frank and Dad.

My dad and our oldest chick at her third grade Veterans Day program.

My favorite father-in-law. I couldn't find a single picture of him without our girls crawling all over him. They love their Papa.

So, thank you veterans for putting your life on the line for ours. Happy Veterans Day.

Blessings.

Happy Birthday Tall Man!!

Today is my Tall Man's birthday and I want the whole world, or at least all 44 of my followers, to know what an amazing man he is!

I love my husband because he is an incredible family man. Family comes first to him and that is an admirable quality.

Here he is having Tinkerbell tea with our girls on Christmas morning.

I love him because he makes me laugh! He always has something funny to say or do. And we are a bathroom humor kind of family so it's not always what you might consider appropriate, but it makes me laugh all the same.

Sizing up the pumpkins.

"Sliding into third."

He's also pretty easy on the eyes if I do say so myself.

So, happy birthday Tall Man! You are an amazing man of God. I respect and adore you for your love of faith, family and life in general. Thank you for all you do! I love you more than you'll ever know.

Blessings.

Caramel Popcorn Jars

Seeing that all three of my little chicks are in school this year I wanted to help out as much as possible in their classrooms. Unfortunately it hasn't worked out like I planned. Apparently in fourth grade the students are independent enough that the teacher doesn't require parent volunteers. Because of the anxiety issues we're having with my first grader I have been advised to stay out of the classroom. Then there's my littlest chick, turns out there's more than enough volunteers for preschool. So I'm not spending as much time in the classroom as I would have liked.

I still want our teachers to know just how much our family appreciates them. For the autumn season I decided to make caramel popcorn jars for the teachers. This gift was so easy to put together, I think cutting the fabric took the most time. Either that or picking up the popcorn kernels that spilled over.

I took some medium size canning jars and filled them half way with a mix of white and yellow popcorn. Then filled the rest of the jar with caramel cubes. I picked up a cute autumn print fabric at Hancock on clearance. I think it cost me $1.19. Not bad. I used pinking shears to cut squares for the jar tops.

I can't remember the site I printed the labels from (I'm sorry.) I think I just googled "free autumn printables," clicked on images and picked the ones I liked best. I used raffia and jute to tie the We Love Fall, Give Thanks and owl character tags onto the jar. I did write instructions on how to melt the caramel on the back of the tags, about 8 cubes and a couple tablespoons of milk in the microwave.

I think they turned out pretty cute. I'm wishing I would have picked a different fabric because my fabric, popcorn, caramel, jute and raffia are all pretty... well... yellow. Oh well, now I know.

You could make these for friends, relatives, teachers, pastors, neighbors, etc.. I made a few extra for the other families in our dinner co-op.

Harvest blessings.

Linking to: All Thingz Related

Season of Change

You may have noticed I've been pretty inactive these last couple weeks. Our family is going through a season of change right now and it's been keeping me away from Blogger.

In the last six weeks we've added this adorable family to our household. This is my best friend from high school, her husband and their precious daughter. It's been so much fun having a baby in the house again. Look at that face, can you blame me for being away from my laptop?

My middle daughter has started counseling to try to work through some issues with anxiety at school. Notice her first grade school picture. That is not a happy face.

Most recently we've had a "change of employment status" in our house. For the first time in his life my Tall Man is unemployed. He has been an amazing person through all of this, I can't believe how much my respect, adoration and love for him has increased through this "change of employment status." Now we're on the hunt for new opportunity. Even though this may be a stressful time, we're both very excited to see what God has in store for us.

With all of this going on I missed posting on Halloween. Better late than never. Here are my little chicks. The Magician (costume made by my Mom), the butterfly (made by me) and the black kitty cat.

Harvest Blessings.