Thursday Thoughts

Ten Thoughts This Thursday

1.  I wish...the best to everyone in 2012.

2.  I want...to get to the gym and back to my routine.

3.  I think...my kids totally made out this Christmas.

4.  I look forward to...tackling more DIY projects after the first of the year.

5.  I appreciate...that my kids go to bed without a single fuss.

6.  I enjoy...the beginning of a new year.

7.  I need...to write a bunch of thank you letters.

8.  I feel...exhausted.

9.  I am listening to...my daughter sing songs from Annie, a movie she received from Santa.  Love it!

10.  I hope...we all get a good night's rest now that we're back home.

Happy Holidays

It's that time of year...one where there isn't a lot of free time.  So in other words, I don't think I'll have a new post for another week or so.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a super holiday with your family and friends.

Felt Ornaments

Am I addicted to felt?  Well...no.  Have I been doing a bunch of crafts with felt?  Well...yes.  And because I have been crafting with felt lately, I have quite a supply of left-overs.  While sorting through some Christmas boxes, I came across some old ball ornaments.  Ding!  Felt covered ornaments.  I stuck with what I know best:  Rosettes and Pom Poms.

Thursday Thoughts

Ten Thoughts This Thursday

1.  I wish...the house would clean itself.

2.  I want...a "boyfriend" style blazer.

3.  I think...Facebook has partially killed Christmas cards.

4.  I need...a solid nap.

5.  I appreciate...businesses that gift wrap.

6.  I enjoy...seeing the red Starbucks cups.  It means it's the holidays!

7.  I struggle...with gift wrapping.

8.  I feel...more fit now than when I was training for my first half marathon.

9.  I recommend...sending your child's teacher a hand-written note thanking him/her for what they do.

10.  I hope...all the ski bunnies get some snow soon.

Glittered Bulbs

I stumbled across this picture on Pinterest from themoodyfashionista.blogspot.com and loved the idea.  Glittered bulbs!

A while back I was looking through one of my regular thrift stores and there were bags of bulbs for two bucks.  I didn't buy them originally, so I headed there so see what was available.  Unfortunately, the bags were gone, but I did purchase these bulbs.  And can I just mention how hard it is to find these kinds of bulbs?  Everything, everywhere is LED.  I think my entire purchase was $3.50.  Score!! 

I also have a collection of glitter.

I simply used a paintbrush to paint on some Modge Podge glue and sprinkled the glitter on the bulb.  For better coverage, I tried to match the color of the bulb to the color of the glitter.  In the end, this is what I was left with.

Thursday Thoughts

Ten Thoughts This Thursday

1.  I wish...our yard didn't look so drab this time of year.

2.  I want...a "Skinny Peppermint Hot Chocolate" from Starbucks.

3.  I think...the story of Lauren Scruggs is just heart-breaking.

4.  I laugh...at the joy Rose gets when she wakes up and sees the elf in its new place each morning.

5.  I appreciate...the beauty of our lit Christmas tree.  It's beautiful in the evening.

6.  I enjoy...listening to Christmas Carols in my car using the satellite stations.

7.  I recommend...Victoria's Secret purse-size lotion called, "The Hand Cream."  LOVE!

8.  I feel...fortunate to have a husband that cooks.

9.  I recommend...sweet potatoes cubed up (in small pieces) sauteed in bacon grease, with a pinch of salt and pepper.  

10.  I hope...I can get all of my Christmas shopping completed...and soon!

Winter Wreath

This is going to be a quick little post about a not-so-quick little wreath I made.  If you've been following me, you know that I had some success with my:

Fall Wreath

and my

Christmas Wreath

I had initially thought I would put the poinsettia wreath on the door, but it was so pretty I decided to keep it inside and hang it from our family room mirror.  I didn't want to put my fall wreath back up, so I decided I'd make one for winter and can stay up for a couple of months.

In the past I have chosen to use a textured yarn because it was easier to work with and more forgiving.  I didn't have to be so careful about wrapping the forms because the yarn would mask any mistakes.  Well, Hobby Lobby didn't have any textured gray yarn so I went with the thin yarn and decided to go that route.  By "that route" I mean this style.  See how perfectly the yarn is wrapped?

So the mission began...I wrapped and wrapped and wrapped.  My wrists began to cramp.  It was not fun and I don't think I'd do it again.  A third of the way in I had wished I just wrapped it haphazardly, but I wasn't about to start over!  The other thing that happened was that my yarn began to tilt.  I should have cut the yarn every now and again and restarted my wrapping in order to keep the yarn straight.  Oh well, you live and learn.  After the yarn completely covered the form, I poked in some winter floral and accents.

Anyway, it's done and it's on the door.  End of story.

Thursday Thoughts

Ten Thoughts This Thursday

1.  I wish...the strong wind would disappear after making an appearance two days ago.

2.  I want...to get our Christmas tree up!

3.  I think...this might be Nolan's last year believing in Santa. :(

4.  I laugh(ed)...inside my head today while I was on the phone with customer service and the woman kept referring to "cents" as "cent." She said, "Right now you are paying 20 dollars and 74 cent."

5.  I appreciate...having time off from work in order to get together with girlfriends.

6.  I enjoy...listening to Christmas music--"Sleigh Ride" is one of my favs.

7.  I struggle...with being patient with my daughter who used to be so easy-going.  She is now 6 and a half and constantly challenging me.

8.  I feel...pretty healthy right now.

9.  I recommend...simmering something cinnamon-y to make your house smell festive.

10.  I hope...we can get away with our Elf on the Shelf trick tonight.

Revamped Candlesticks

A few months ago during one of my Goodwill shopping visits I came across a couple of bowls and a couple of candlesticks.  I envisioned them glued together to make larger candlesticks.  I had the pieces tucked away thinking I would paint them red and use them on my Valentine's mantel, but I just couldn't take it anymore.  I wanted to fix them up and use them on my Christmas mantel.  So that's exactly what I did.

Here is what I started with.  The bowls were 49 cents each and the candlesticks were 99 cents each.

Using some E6000 glue I bonded them together.

So what came next was the big question:  What color was I going to spray paint these beauties?  I really thought about going bright red, (because I could still use them for Valentine's Day) but then I thought I should go a little more neutral so that I could use them even more throughout the year.  As I was perusing the spray paint wall at Home Depot, my eyes were brought up to the top shelf where this paint was sitting:

You can't tell from the picture, but the top of the paint can is pearlized.  Hello, a pearlized spray paint?...It's come so far!  I saw that and I was sold!  Plus, it has a built-in primer so I didn't need to buy a can of that.  The can of paint was about $7.00.

I ended up painting the candlesticks a creme color first because when I started in with the pearl color on the brass, it didn't have a lot of pigment in it...it's almost more of a accent finishing color.  So after a few coats of this and that, they turned out beautifully.  I can't wait to use them year round.

And the mirror...our newest purchase and I am in love with the look of it.  We should have done that a long time ago.  We purchased that at Home Goods for $40.00.

Felt Rosette Tree

I would like to begin this post by saying that this project took a lot longer than I had anticipated.  My vision was to have three "trees" each of different sizes.  The "trees" would be covered with green felt rosettes.

The materials I used included:  3 foam cones of differing sizes, 3 different colors of felt, glittery stars, and lots of glue by way of a low temp glue gun.

I began with the smallest cone.  I used a small glass to trace circles on the different colored pieces of felt.  Then I cut them all out and turned them into rosettes.  Here is a link to a rosette tutorial:  http://mrspriss.com/2010/03/12/tutorial-felt-rosettes/.

Once the cone was covered I glued a star on top.  Then I started in on the second and third cones.  I spread this work out over a week.  I'm pleased with the finished product and glad that it's over!

I have a hard time getting good light in our family room.  The colors didn't come out as vibrant as they are in person.  For kicks, I took one picture in "Expressive Mode."  It's truer to the colors.

Poinsettia Wreath

This fall I tried my hand at making a felt flower wreath for our front door.  

I enjoy having it on the door and thought I needed one for Christmas.  Of course, the first place I looked for inspiration was Pinterest and wouldn't you know it, I found a tutorial from PlanetJune for making felt poinsettia flowers. 

I started with my wreath and some yarn.  I chose the same kind of wreath I used before because it's covered in plastic, which makes it easy to manipulate the yarn as it gets covered. 

For the yarn, I chose a creme color that had some texture.

The next thing I did was cut the felt up according to the directions in the tutorial.  Then, using my low-temp glue gun, I tacked my petals together.  I will say that the tutorial uses a needle and thread to attach all of the petals, but I struggled and instead went for what I am comfortable using:  a glue gun.

Once I had 5 red petals glued together I then glued 5 green leaves in between/behind the petals.  Finally, I used some yellow felt to make the center of the flowers.  The tutorial for those can be found here.

After working for a couple of nights I had a nice pile of poinsettias.  I played around with the arrangements of the flowers for a while, and once got them where I wanted them, I used my trusty glue gun to apply them.  I used 7 flowers, because it's best to use an odd number of something that is being grouped together.

After gluing the flowers on, I felt like it needed something to add texture.  While shopping at Hobby Lobby, I came across this garland of pearls.  I wove the pearls around the flowers.  The last touch was a "Merry Christmas" ornament I hung in the middle using some red satin ribbon.

I can't wait to put it up on my door for the holidays!