Merry Christmas!

He will be called

Wonderful Counselor,

Mighty God,

Everlasting Father,

Prince of Peace.

-Isaiah 9:6

Merry Christmas, from our house to yours!

Christmas Decor

It's Christmas Eve, and I'm just now getting around to posting our Christmas decorations.

The tree in the library:

The main tree in the family room:

We used pictures on the presents instead of name tags.

My Willow Tree nativity scene:

An elf made by my grandmother:

And a Santa made by her, too:

Beautiful stockings by the fire:

Umbrella Girl

When I joined Pinterest a few months ago, one of the first things I pinned was this piece of art. Since I couldn't afford it the yellow in the painting didn't fit with my existing decor, I tried to recreate it using colors I have in my dining room.

The original painting was done with a palette knife, which was beyond intimidating. I asked the art teacher at my work for some help, and this is what was created:

I love it. Since it's semi-abstract, it's very forgiving with my beginner painting skills.

I framed it in a frame identical to the one I used for the doilies, so it matches without being too matchy.

This gives me motivation to stop just pinning and start doing!

Family Silhouettes

I was feeling thrifty and crafty the other day, so I put together this project using things I had around the house:

I started by taking profile shots of the hubs and myself using PhotoBooth on my Mac.

Then I resized them to the size I wanted and printed them out. I cut out the two images and traced them onto the paper I wanted to display. I took creative liberty with my hair and gave myself a hairstyle that was cuter than what it was actually like in real life.

Once they were cut out, I secured them onto a piece of painted cardboard, cut out some vinyl for the bottom, and stuck in a frame. I opted to tape the silhouettes so that we could rearrange the whole thing in the future as our family grows.

Framed Doilies

Years ago, my sweet grandmother gave me a set of three doilies that she had made. They have been stored in my jewelry armoire since then, but I finally figured out what I wanted to do to preserve and display them.

I found a framed poster at the thrift store. After painting the frame and the original print, I used adhesive spray to mount the doilies and keep them from sliding around.

I love seeing her beautiful handiwork being used as art in my house.