Sleighjacked!

The elf was up to his old antics again last night. 

He coaxed the reindeer off the fireplace mantel and hooked them up to the sleigh.

Silly Elfie.

Look at the smile on his face.

He's having way to much fun with this.

Christmas Teacher Gifts

This year the teachers are getting survival kits. 

 Cute chevron embroidered survival kits. 

With tags my nine year old made herself.

Filled with all sorts of things you might need in your classroom or your car like vitamins, gum, band-aids, stylish kleenex, drink powder, lint roller, wisp brushes, and of course, a shammy. Everyone needs a shammy.

Gender Reveal Party

New babies are cause for celebration!

The baby quilts in this antique dresser drawer were special because one was Mom's baby quilt and one was Dad's. How sweet is that?? Perfect for the vintage theme of this gender reveal party.

Every party needs a banner.

Rolled tissue flowers on foam core were used for this question mark on the old reclaimed barn wood wall.

I love this old door with the shelf added to make it functional. One basket held tie pins. One held tutus. These were cut out with the Cricut machine. Each guest guessed (ha!) boy or girl by choosing a pin and wearing it.

I don't know why I don't have a picture, but we revealed the gender with tubes of confetti thrown at the couple. 

Merry Door Decor

Sometimes you just don't want a wreath. 

So you make a door-hanging thingy instead.

Get you some burlap, silky ribbon, and wooden letters from Michael's and make this cute Christmas door decor.

Elf Antics

Elfie is a curious little guy. 

This particular elf wants to know what this Easter thing is all about this Christmas season.

Checking out the panoramic sugar Easter egg is what this Elf on the Shelf is into this morning. I got this egg from World Market. But that was in the Spring.

Maybe it's just me, but I find it pretty funny that he is actually an elf on an actual shelf this morning. 

TV Cabinet

Need TV storage? If you are like me, you are not OK with the TV above the fireplace. I like to decorate my mantel and the TV is not exactly pretty. This is the perfect solution for where to put the TV. Especially if you don't have a fireplace.

Why not repurpose a big ugly china cabinet into a TV cabinet? 

Remove some doors. Take out some drawers to make shelves for the Blu-ray player and DVR. Or VCR if you swing that way. 

Perfect for your new flat screen. 

Elfie Selfie

                              Elfie found my Mini Instax camera last night and tried to take a selfie.

He didn't do a very good job.

He didn't even get his face. It's just a blur. 

You may have noticed this is not our usual elf, Sparky. 

I hate to say, I almost forgot that it was time for elves to appear even though Christmas is everywhere. And I thought I knew where our elf was. I know I saw it recently. But now I can't find it. GASP! In my defense, we moved recently. So, Sparky is buried under boxes somewhere and can't get out. Elfie is my mom's elf and I think he is pretty cute.

But he better stay away from my camera.

At least until he learns to take a decent picture. 

What was your elf on the shelf up to last night?

The Rest of the Wedding Story

Sparkly chandeliers with antique armchairs and burlap make me want to describe this wedding as 

Rustic Vintage Luxe.

The bride and groom's table was set with lots of flowers. Two antique chairs were used as seating with wooden plaque signs for Mr. and Mrs.

Jackie's awesome table arrangements. I loved the droopy greenery and wildflower sort of look to them. Because we could not find anything but silver or gold, we spraypainted candelabras oil rubbed bronze.

Guest tables were draped in burlap with moss runners. We continued the vintage look with old Ball jars and glass baby food jars as vases.

 The wedding cake was displayed on my great-grandmother's old table with mason jars. The bridesmaid's put their bouquets in the jars when it was time for pictures. We made a wall with old pallet wood to hang the chalkboard on and spray painted a chandelier that I got for $12, yes $12, from a consignment sale. It was a bright gold color that is not fashionable so Jena ripped out the light bulb sockets and we stuck candles in it.

Fleur-de-lis groom's cake was displayed on a burlap skirted table decorated with enormous fishing lures and ducks. We used a lot of burlap, ya'll.

Every groom should have a cigar bar at his wedding. With a chalkboard to point the way.

At a rustic wedding, you need old doors laid across old wine barrels to display the buffet. What's behind the white curtain? Well, it ain't Oz. That is how we hid the kitchen.

Strings of lights were hung on sheperd's poles (potted plant hangers?) to light the way from the church to the pavilion.

View from afar of the reception pavilion. I love the huge burlap curtains, lights draped from the ceiling, and moss covered monogram.

I loved, loved, loved this drinks table. What could be more fitting at a rustic wedding than extra large mason jar punch, water, lemonade, and tea dispensers? With burlap skirting on the bar, of course. 

  

The wedding took place at Acadian Village, so chalkboard arrows directed guests to the chapel. Instead of the school. Or stables.

Pew decorations were simple greenery tied with-you guessed it-burlap.

You can see more details from this wedding here.

A great time was had by all! Maybe we'll invite you to the next one!

Send Off

Been to a wedding lately? Was there a send off? You know. Back in the day, there was always rice wrapped in tulle tied with ribbon for wedding guests to throw at the bride and groom as they exit the church. Then came wedding bubbles. Because you know birds swell and explode when they eat rice. I've seen it happen. Not really. Has anyone ever proven that or is it an Urban Legend??


Now there are peas in a cone. At least that is what you do if your wedding venue is Acadian Village because the rule is that the send off has to be edible. Huh. Apparently, birds don't explode if they eat split peas.
(It is kinda hard to display cones. They tend to tip over. Aren't they cute displayed with clips on the old crib spring? And in the antique desk that my sister refurbished?)

You can see the rest of the Rustic Vintage Luxe wedding details here.

Gun Cabinet

                                                                Before-sort of:

You've seen these, right? Non-descript gun cabinets that some poor woman has been trying to talk her husband into getting rid of for years. This is a picture of a similar one so you get the idea.

After:

Need storage in a small space? Try refinishing refurbishing repurposing (what is the current buzz word??) a gun cabinet. They tend to be narrow and not as deep as other pieces. Take out the gun racks and add shelves and decorative trim. We used Annie Sloan chalk paint in grey and Briwax in clear and then light brown. By the way, it really helps to use a good wax brush to apply it. In this case, it is true what they say about using the right tools for the job. Hobby Lobby had cute clear glass knobs that look WAY better than the original black ones.

We have it decked out for Halloween with my BOO banner, mini flags, and apothecary jar full of candy, but eventually this will live in the bathroom.

Art Party

This year, the girl birthday party was at Arts on Fire, a pottery painting place. Each guest gets to paint a piece of pottery of their choice and keep it. Love that!

These handmade art party invitations were pretty easy to make, but a little time consuming.  I cut out artist palettes on tan cardstock and let the birthday girl paint the splotches on the invitations. (This party is not about me and my perfectionist tendencies after all!) The paintbrushes were cut with a Cricut electronic cutting machine cartridge that was actually an old fashioned ink pen and we just added the brush tip over the pen nib and drew lines for bristles. My little girl actually thought of that one. Printed labels were added on top with party info. Oh and that perfect circle for the artist's thumb? Used a circle punch. These fit in the card envelopes from Office Depot. Love those too!

The birthday girl painted her own cake stand. Again, OCD was not allowed to creep in. Another pretty cool cake by Andi (my mom.) Inside was rainbow and I can't believe it, but I don't think I got pics of the inside. 

Would you believe the purple icing faded from the sun through the windshield on the twenty minute drive to the party locale?? It was MUCH brighter! Wear sunscreen folks. UV rays are harsh!

Art Party goodie bags had colorful gumballs inside. Remember, they also get to take home pottery.

My newly nine year old wrote "Thank You" on the teeny tiny paint sets from Party City that we tied to the bags with cute ribbon. We used Souffle pens from Michael's to write on the plastic. Those pens are pretty cool. They write on almost anything but you have to be patient and let the ink pool. I think I may have to decorate my cell phone cover...

Monster Mash

Disclaimer: None of this was my work, but it is still cute.

Monster cake.  I love how the cake stand looks like little legs. I wonder if they planned that?  Of course, they did. (They being my mom and sisters.)

That colorful tabletop is nothing more than crepe paper streamers run in a crisscross pattern.

Monster cupcakes. Because who could resist red chevron cupcake holders?? And candy eyeballs?

Treat Station. With baby snacks. This party was for a one-year-old, so these are age appropriate snacks, like Trix and animal crackers (which are not crackers but cookies in case you have never had one, in which case you should have more variety in your foods. Or not. They don't taste that great.)

Treat bags. Say "Thank you for coming" with handmade felt monster bags. And handmade tags. With all sorts of monster goodness inside. 

Treats. Like monster band-aids. And a monster cup. That red thing? Obviously it is used to make homemade popsicles. And a handmade reusable zipper bag WHICH was filled up at the treat station with whatever you like. So if you don't like animal not-crackers then don't put any of those in your own personal baggie. But please wash and reuse as often as you like.

not pictured: unicorn suckers which look monsterish somehow

Spring Door Decor

 I made something new for Spring for my door, but I am not too sure...

This is not exactly how I envisioned it in my head, but you

  know. They don't all work out.

 I wanted the paint finish to look like a robin's egg. They made it sound so easy on Pinterest. All I did was make a mess with paint. The blue is too dark. The original ribbon was white on the back and did not look cute. The monogram is much smaller than I thought it would be. But it is done and it is staying. At least for now.