Craft Day - Deco Mesh Wreaths

Did everyone enjoy their Thanksgiving?  We had a pleasant day of it yesterday with good food and great company.  It was a great way to spend the holiday.  But with Thanksgiving in the rear-view mirror I of course woke up with big plans for Christmas decorating, gifts, and some Elf antics (we do our own version of Elf on a Shelf) swirling in my head - such a fun time of year!  Unless there is something super-fantastic in the Black Friday stuff (Sam did spot a great deal on a TV but was too late to get in on the 4 they had in stock at Walmart last night *sigh*) we usually choose to avoid the crowds and instead spend the day after Thanksgiving at home putting up the Christmas tree.  So that's the plan for today - yay! 
Of course I'm up before the sun once again this morning.  My internal alarm clock seems to be set at 5AM or earlier the last few months.  It's still dark outside and if I start pulling out decoration boxes this early I'll wake the kids up so I thought I'd play a little catch up with the blog.  May I present a fun collection of Christmas wreaths from our nieghborhood/friend crafting session a couple weeks back :)

In October, a friend of mine had run across some great deco mesh wreath ideas and asked I could teach her how to make one.  It quckly turned into fun plans for a craft day with a few friends, including a shopping trip for supplies all together the week before - always so fun to have some time out with the girls.  It was very interesting to watch the creative process and see how the personalities of each individual showed throughout the whole process - how they decided on what kind of wreath to make and the embellisments for it, and the different methods of putting it together and all the different styles of wreaths we ended up with.
I went a slightly different route and tried out the curly version for the first time, making the base for a fall wreath for myself (which I posted about here yesterday).  My MIL had seen part of our planning photos and discussion on Facebook and requested a wreath of her own.  The result is the purple one above - her absolute favorite color is purple and this year she decided to change the decor on one of her Christmas trees (she has three I think :)  It's so great that her enthusiasm for Christmas carried over into my husband because it makes life so much more fun when he's just into all the Christmas fun as I am) to a purple theme.  I love the colors, but have to admit that it threw me for a loop.  Once I got the base done I struggled with how to make it read as a Christmas wreath instead of say, something for Spring or Easter.  Thus the addition of the Merry Christmas sign and the ornaments. 

As with my own fall wreath, I didn't finish the purple one on craft day.  My friends, however, did complete their own wreaths (it was a much longer crafting session than any of us had originally planned but it was worth it) so I was able to snap a few photos of their finished wreaths.

Cute right?  I love the color combination

I love this one too.  Great colors and I found myself wishing I had a use for that fantastic floral pick (above the bow) with the swirls and the glitter - too fun!

Ooooo I can't wait to go pull out the boxes and get my own Christmas decorations out...!

Happy Fall...and Happy Thanksgiving!

I did it again!  Too wrapped up in all the things going on right now that not only did the blog get neglected, but I didn't finish my fall wreath until this week!  Awww....oh well right?

You see a couple weeks ago I got together with a few friends from the neighborhood and we all worked on deco mesh wreaths.  As the one "in charge" of the project I made sure everyone got theirs done, but mine...  Well, I did finish the base! lol  I hung it on the front door to get a good look at it, and it sat there for a couple of weeks, in all its unfinished glory.  Actually I was pretty happy with the base - the colors are so pretty and so very much "fall."  But it was missing a little something.

My mother-in-law had also requested a Christmas wreath which I had also started on craft day and which also sat unfinished in the sun room.  Knowing that she would want to be able to display her wreath soon, and that I would need to use the sunroom to set up the dining table for Thanksgiving I finally took the time to finish them both.  (I will post pictured of her wreath and some of the other wreaths my friends made in a day or two - they turned out so great!)  I took a scrap piece of wood and stenciled the saying "Happy Fall Y'all" on it then wired it onto the wreath base and covered up the wire with a nice bow.  The final touch was this gorgeous floral pic I grabbed along with the wreath supplies because I was totally in love with it.  Still on the fence about if I like the tiny pop of red or if I will take that part out...

For now though, I'm happy.  And my front door will be fully dressed up for the guests that will be joining us this afternoon - Yay!  I'm so happy that today is Thanksgiving.  Happy to have my three favorite people asleep upstairs all warm and safe and happy.  Happy to know that I have so many great friends and family, both near and far away today.  Happy that my life is so full right now.  Happy to have friends coming over to spend Thanksgiving with us (that's always one of the big dilemas when you don't live near family - how to celebrate the holidays and who is available to spend them with??).  Happy to have a good start on the prep for the big meal, and that my husband is taking over the hard parts of the cooking (turkey and home made rolls) so I have no reason to stress or rush around today.  And happy that tomorrow the focus switches to Christmas - my favorite holiday! ;)
Today is going to be a great day!  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I hope you all a fantastic, and thankful day!

Halloween! (31 Days: Day 30)

Happy Halloween!  It's almost time for some Trick or Treating!  (yeah, that sounds so much more fun when you're 6 than when you're 30, right?)  We will be headed out for that shortly, but I wanted to take a quick minute to document some of the fun we've been having with the holiday.

Last night before carving up the pumpkins we had a fun Halloween theme dinner with mummy wrapped hot dogs and spiced apple cider.  It was the perfect thing to set the stage for the main event - the pumpkins.

I suprised the kids with some fun things in their lunchboxes today - mummy wrapped drinks, Halloween jokes, single serve mandarin oranges with pumpkin faces drawn on them, and spider rings in their sandwiches.

And there you see my little cowboy and rodeo queen.  In order to be able to dress up for school they had to pick something that went with the school's dress up day theme for Red Ribbon Week, which was What I Want to Be When I Grow Up.  I was pretty happy when Tyler suggested the cowboy because we already had everything we needed.  And don't they both look adorable in their hats?

Again - Happy Halloween!  Here's hoping they get some good candy for me to steal ;)

Pumpkin Carving (31 Days: Day 30)

(no I didn't forget to write anything - I just figured the photos spoke for themselves.  Happy Halloween Eve!)

Always something to be Thankful for (31 Days: Day 28)

Since I had all the supplies out the other day I decided to go ahead and make one of the Thanksgiving decor ideas I ran across on Pinterest.  Love that saying!  Might be one I need to keep out more often than just the month of November.

Trick or Treat Glass Block (31 Days: Day 27)

Ready for one more candy corn Halloween decoration variation?  Yup, me too! :)  The original inspiration from this one came from here via Pinterest.  Looks pretty simple, right?  Well, you'd be right.  They carry these great glass blocks at most of the big craft stores, complete with a nice little opening in the bottom.  I think mine was $12 before the 40% off coupon.

I used that handy hole in the bottom to stuff some lights and colored tissue paper inside.  I didn't worry too much about the back, but you could cover it up if you wanted to.

I added some vinyl lettering (that Silhouette machine is really earning its keep this month!) and some black tulle.  That it!  Another 5 minute, under $10 project.  I was on such a roll yesterday :)

 

Candy Corn Shadow Box (31 Days: Day 26)

I was on such a roll with this 31 Days thing - until this week!  It's just been go, go, go one day after another.  The blogging had to take a bit of a back seat and I completely ruined the posting streak I had going on.  *sigh*  Oh well.
That isn't to say that I haven't been crafting.  In fact, today I got in a little unexpected craft time.  You see a friend and I were supposed to be doing a craft show tomorrow so a lot of my day was going to be devoted to last minute things for that.  But it looks like some bad weather is headed our way, and with NC being extra catious about that sort of thing they called everyone and rescheduled it.  Kind of a mess actually, as I had other plans for my Saturday next week and will now have to miss the wedding I was going to, plus the husband will be working so I was stressing a bit until a friend stepped in and offered to watch the kids for me.  Once I had my head wrapped around the new plan, (if you know me at all, you'll know that I hate having my plans changed) I was able to then enjoy the fact that I had the rest of the afternoon that didn't have to be spent tagging items and loading up the car.  Woohoo!  I watched or show or two that had been waiting for me on the DVR, then decided to finish up some of the small holiday decorations I hadn't gotten around to yet.  Like this fun little shadow box.

I have two or three holiday shadow box variations, so of course I had intended to add a Halloween one to the collection at some point.  I think the vinyl haunted house is a fun touch.  I love that there are so many great dingbat fonts out there that I don't even have to buy special designs to use for stuff like this.  And since I seem to have found a bit of a candy corn groove lately, why not put them in the shadow box? 

Not bad for a 5 minute, under $10 project.