I Did It, You Can Too!

 See those tabs under my header?  The {I Did It} tab has been under construction since I put those tabs up, however, if you visit there now you will find all of the things I have made and tried to do tutorials on so that you can make it too if you see something you like!  No more searching through previous posts to see where that one project is, it is now all in one spot!  So excited!

Next tab on my to do list is a Supper Club/Food tab!  Stay tuned...and until then, go check out a project or two!

Got 'em in time!

Remember when I posted pictures of just the kiddos, just in case we wouldn't be able to get our family pictures done in time for cards this year?!  Well, we managed to get 'er done and I LOVE how they turned out!  While I wish it wouldn't have been so windy so my little Lola wouldn't have been so freezing {and such a drama queen}, I will say that Rae Lynn revealed a gold mine of a place to shoot and I can't wait to go back for family pictures every year!  I love me some junk and my family too!

Thank you Rae Lynn for taking the time to snap a few pictures for us.  We know how busy you were when we asked!

The Christmas cards have already arrived, now I just have to address them and get them sent out!  Can you guess which picture I ended up using?

On another note, I have been and will be busy creating the next couple of weeks!  I have purchased all the presents I needed to from the store this year and have now switched gears and begun to create the homemade gifts I plan on giving {which to me are so much more meaningful}.  While I am no where near finished, I feel like I am finally getting excited for the holidays!  I can't believe I have to work up to the 23rd this month, and did you know I am making a giant meal that night/next day for Christmas Eve!?  Crazy right!  You can bet I will be using every spare second I have to make a gift here or there!  Unfortunately I won't be sharing what I make until after the holidays {if I even remember to snap pictures while I am making them}, as I have come to discover that so many people that I am making things for really read my blog!  Who knew!?

No Words, Just a BIG smile!

 

Remember how I said in my last post that Kyan sewed for the first time this weekend and helped to make he and his sister those cool pillow mattresses?!  Well, this is what I found in his folder today.  I wanted to cry.  Makes me proud that even at school today he was thinking about doing something so special with me!  And after a long day of work {oh, how hard was it to go back after having 5 wonderful days off}, this was the best thing I could have seen to make my day brighter!

Looking forward to lots more projects in our future!!!

Kyan's First Sewing Project!

Let me just say that I LOVE Pinterest!  So many ideas, all in one place!  Do you pin?  Need an invite?!

A few weeks ago, I pinned a pillow mattress idea from Southern Disposition, but wasn't sure I could pull it off!?  Saturday night Kyan and I thought we would give it a try!  We started by cutting up an old duvet cover that used to be on his bed in our old house.  It is kinda faded, but thought since we were just practicing that it would work out perfect!  He has been dying to use the sewing machine, and since this one was our practice pillow mattress, I figured why not?!    He did great and was so patient in between all of the ironing and me figuring out what to do!  While I got no pictures of our process {bummer, I know...Kyan looked so cute sitting at the machine}, I did follow Southern Disposition's tutorial, as it was the easiest I have seen out there!

Here is our finished product {bad lighting, sorry}.

Testing out the new pillow mattress, so proud of his own work!

I told him he could have it, but not until Christmas and he happily said, "Ok mommy!"  So sweet I tell ya.  Then I told him that because he worked so hard, he could have this one Christmas present early and he was so, so excited!!!

He took it down to let his sister have a try at how comfy it is!  Then, we promised to make her one the next day, we just needed to go get more pillows from the store!  She thought her big brother was so cool and was so excited he was going to help make her one in the morning!

And as promised, we made Lola one today, pink of course!  For hers we used the flat sheet from her bedding that she never uses!

She loves hers as much as Kyan does his!  Both kids have been dragging them all over the house today, laying on them no matter what room they are in!

The only thing that I had to spend money on for this project were for the pillows, the duvet and the sheet we had!   Found the pillows for $3 each at Anna's Linens, but I am sure you could find them cheaper elsewhere and trust me, I'll be hunting!  But for now, they were worth every penny for how much my kids LOVE them!!!

 Partying with a few of my favorite peeps this week! 

Happy Thanksgiving

So much to be grateful for this year.  The most important thing to me is family and nothing was better than being surround by them in our home this year!

 Married for 8 years and we have never hosted the "big" meal.  Can you believe that?  We have bounced back and forth between families ever since we have been together {don't get me wrong, what I wouldn't give to have that back}.  Not this year.  Donna {Chad's mum} asked us if we would host, because we have the big house, she said, that could hold a lot of people and we were so excited!  This morning we found out Grandpa Shipe wasn't feeling very well, so he and grandma were unable to make it, along with a few cousins of Chad's we were expecting too and while we missed them, we had a wonderful dinner!

But before I talk about dinner, lemme just get the decorating part out of the way first!  For me, that is what got me so excited, as the hubs is the real chef of the house!  

The Front Door

This one was really simple to make.  I used burlap to make the flowers, using the same technique I used on my valentine's day wreath!  If you are interested to see what that is, click here and it will take you to the tutorial.  Once I had enough flowers, I hot glued them onto the grapevine wreath.  It is simple, yet so elegant!  I plan on using it for Christmas too, just will add in a few things to make it more festive!

 The Table

Mason Jars + Fresh Flowers = LOVE

 

 I gently {if that is even possible?!} hot glued Chad's great grandma's lace/doilies onto the mason jars.  This stuff is beautiful, vintage, and was handmade.  I have had it all shoved in a two mason jars in my craft room for far too long.  It really is too stunning to not display it and I thought that the mason jars would be a perfect way to showcase it.  I love it with or without the fresh flowers!  For Christmas I think I am going to add fresh greenery and holly!

Banners

Turkey Hand Banner!   Love this idea and when I spied it over at Dear Lillie's blog the other day, I knew I wanted to do this with the kids!  We traced our hands, glued on feathers and buttons for eyes, added wattles, legs, and our names and clipped up to a pieces of jute!  They had a blast making them and loved showing it off today while we ate!

Kids Artwork Banner!  Love, love, love everything they made at school this year and I was running out of room to display everything so I used the same idea from the turkey banner and clipped their artwork up to show off.  My two favorites are the two bigger photos.  Both are hand prints from each kid this year and each holds a very special and different, message.  While I am a sucker for the beautiful banners I have been seeing all over blogland and pinterest, I am so happy that I chose to use things the kids made as our banners!

Alright, so I know that Thanksgiving isn't about decorating...it's about THE FOOD {well, that and being together as a family}!  Below was our delicious menu!

 1.  Deviled eggs

2.  Cheesy Corn Puffs

3.  Funeral Potatoes

4.  Dinner Rolls

5.  Corn and Stuffing

6.  Mashed Potatoes

7.  Green Bean Casserole

8.  Cranberry Meatballs

9.  Turkey

Chad and I have NEVER made a turkey before so we were a lot nervous!  For years though, Chad has been talking about brining it, if we ever made it.  Well, our if came this year and brine the turkey we did!  We used Alton Brown's turkey brine recipe and lemme tell ya that bird was juicy and was cooked in less than two hours, as we cooked it using the convection oven!  The cheesy corn puffs were a new recipe we {mostly me} wanted to try out and they were delicious!  I also made the deviled eggs and the cranberry meatballs {a recipe from our first supper club!}.  Donna was in charge of the mashed potatoes, corn, and stuffing, while Rae Lynn made the funeral potatoes {so yummy and the best potatoes ever in my opinion}, dinner rolls, and strawberry surprise {pictured below}!  Aunt Lori was in charge of one of Chad's favorites; green bean casserole {it was his dad's favorite too} and pumpkin pie {also pictured below}. 

After dinner, the girls scoped out the ads to see if we wanted to brave black Friday, while the cousins played their little hearts out!  During and after all of this, we managed to loosen our pants just enough to enjoy desert!

 Which may or may not have led to a few naps on the couch!  HA!  Caught snoozin'.

We had a wonderful afternoon together and look forward to next year {at someone else's house...heehee, I joke, sort of}!  Love our family, both the ones we spent time with today and those that were far, far away!

 Linking up with a few peeps, here!

Felt Hair Bows

I bought a few felt bows for Lola's hair at the Junk in the Trunk sale a while back for $6 each.  I love the idea of them and just how adorable they look in Lola's hair, but I didn't love the price {only because I knew they could be made for next to nothing}.  I had full intentions of making my own right away, but how most things go, I put it off and put it off, and Lola continued to wear her three that I originally purchased for her!  

Well, with a shopping spree last weekend {or was it two?!} and new clothes for the kids, she needed more colors, so I got to work this past weekend and started cranking them out, because really they are going to make great Christmas gifts or future birthday presents!  

They really do not take long at all.  I referenced both Ruffles and Stuff and Lines Across My Face {both have great tutorials, click on their blog name, who knows, their tutorial might be way easier to understand than mine!} and one of the bows I previously purchase for Lola to help me out!

Grab your favorite colored piece of felt and lets get started!

Start out with an 8.5x11 sheet of felt {so many colors/patterns to chose from these days}.

Oh yeah, I do have a desk in my craft room, but somehow I always end up on the floor!  It is so much more comfortable!

 Then, cut strips approximately 8.5"x1.5" strips.  I just measure once and then laid the cut strip on top of the uncut piece of felt and make the next cut.  I made 5 strips this length {you could probably do one more, but I did make another type of felt bow, so I wanted the extra left over for that!}.  I cut about 2" off of the original strip.  I didn't want the bow that big.  Adjust it as you see fit!

 Using hot glue, I folded the two ends over, creating the bow shape, and sealed.

You will need a piece of felt approximately 8.5"x0.5" to wrap around the pinched bow.  I wrapped it around twice once I had the bow shaped how I liked it and glued it on the backside.

Just slip in an alligator clip and you are all set!  No real need to hot glue the alligator clip in, although you could if you wanted to.  If you don't you can use on clip for all of the different colors that you make!

 And just to show you how cute they really look in the hair, check out Lola!  She loves her bows and was happy to show one off for you!

I want to make so many more colors for her and plan to take full advantage of my 5 day weekend crafting my little heart out and getting some of the homemade Christmas presents on my list checked off!!!

 Linking up with some of my favorite party people this week!

Lucky Day!

It has been less than a year since you got to take a peek into my pantry and view it at its worst (click here in case you forgot what hoarders we were on our way to becoming)!  While it was no where near as messy this time around, with family coming over this year for the holidays, I felt like I needed to get in there and spruce it back to life!

We are very fortunate that our pantry is so big.  Here is a look inside!  I didn't change too much from last time {kept the kids station over on the left and middle, so that the things they eat could be easily reached}, kept the cleaning supplies over on the top right!  A few new things that I did was hang the lunch bags on the inside of the pantry door using command strips and put all of the canned goods into the basket over on the left.  I moved the cookbooks just a smidge and put all of the prescriptions/basic medicines in a little green plastic tray.  I keep a box for each kid that holds all of their school paper work/artwork for the year.  I put it inside the pantry now that there is room instead of on the counter!

Ok, so I know you are thinking, the title of this post is lucky day...how does that even make sense?!

Well, that braided basket that now holds all of the canned foods used to be a place where I kept piles of "stuff"!  While cleaning it out today, and realizing that I needed about 3 of the 25 things that were in it, I discovered these two gift cards!  My husband always wins gift cards at work, worth $25 each and he usually sets them aside or spends them.  Well, two of them must have got mixed into the basket shuffle {sometime last year?!}, so when I pulled them out, I was so excited to have $50 to spend!  EXCEPT, one of the cards wasn't the usual $25 gift card, it was worth a whopping $200! Holla!  I definitely looked at more than once to make sure!  It came just in time for Thanksgiving dinner shopping!  I am so thankful that I took on the cleaning of the pantry before I went to the store today!  I was able to buy everything we needed with the lucky cards!

I feel so much better when my life is cleaner!  And it sure was nice to not have to spend a single penny at the grocery store today too!  I need to get crackin' on the rest of the house, who knows what I'll find!