Tip top

Zach and I just finished putting up our Christmas decorations, including this mini Christmas tree in our bathroom. It was looking a little naked without a tree topper, so I made one out of felt.

First, I cut out two large stars from blue felt and sewed them together around the edges. I made sure to leave the bottom of the star open so that it could fit over the top of the tree. Then I traced out a smaller star on green felt and embroidered around the edges, before cutting it out. This made the embroidery a lot easier. To finish it off, I attached the green star to the front using fabric glue.

Trash to Treasure

S: Another trashy find from my mom's neighborhood, circa college, was a wooden rocking chair. When I found it, it was bare wood, and missing all the caning in the seat and the back. My dad helped me cut out a piece of wood for the seat and screw it in to place. Then the whole chair got a coat of earl gray paint, one of my favorite colors.

I covered the repaired seat with an inexpensive cream colored cushion, but had to be a little more creative with the back of the chair. After pricing caning I decided to use ribbon instead. I weaved it in and out of the holes left from the caning and tied it off in the back. ta da! a brand new look!

Thanks Giving

Image from klove.com

We're looking forward to a delicious Thanksgiving dinner this afternoon, and are thankful for all we've been blessed with...family, friends, our home, and plenty of food!

Hope to the Hungry provides meals to those in need. It cost just $1.96 to feed one person. You can donate to a local mission of your choice, and it can all be done online with just a few clicks.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Photo Collage

We love our open living room, but have a little less love for the very awkward wall near the front door. The main source of awkwardness is the two switch plates, and 6 light switches, that take up half the wall. We had several photographs we'd been meaning to frame and thought awkward wall would benefit from a photo collage. I picked up three matching frames, including mats, at Tuesday Morning for $36. Then we ordered two 8x10 and one 5x7 matte prints from Walgreens.

The tree photos were taken by Zach while camping in Shiner and the lichen photo was taken at Inks Lake State Park. I love the patina green color of lichen...

Thanksgiving, the Middle Child

I know, I know, Thanksgiving isn't even here yet, but I've found I can't possibly make all my Christmas decorations after Thanksgiving and still have time to enjoy them. So last week I got out the wreath that I bought on clearance last year and decorated it. It was pretty simple to make. I used floral wire to attach bird ornaments and added a bow. 

The colors are a little muted in the photo, the ribbon is a light green color and the birds are a glittery gold. Don't worry, despite my obsession with green, we have plenty of red Christmas decorations...Christmas is about the only time of year you'll find red decor in our home...and maybe Valentine's Day.

Etsy Additions

A couple new holiday additions to my Etsy shop:

Snowflake drawstring bags

Felted ornament

Inks Lake State Park

Zach and I went camping this past weekend at Inks Lake State Park. The weather was perfect and we really enjoyed spending time with couples from our sunday school class. On Saturday we took a short hike along the lake up to a small waterfall. Overall it was a great trip, even though our campsite was right next to a playground, where a group of kids decided to play at 6:30 in the morning. I'm glad I brought my earplugs.