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.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Since I love wreaths so much, it made perfect sense for my first craft of the Christmas season to be a wreath.

I just hot glued moss all over the wreath form, then hung it up with a red ribbon. I had a wooden red H to add to the front, but I changed my mind and left it plain.

Wreath form: $0.69

Moss: $4.00

Ribbon: Found in a box

More Fall

Thanks to a busy work schedule, I haven't had the time or energy to write up blog posts. Projects have still been happening, though, so at least I have plenty of material when I finally do sit back down to do some more writing.

This project was super easy. I found a stash of wheat wrapped in a plastic bag at a thrift store for $1. The hubs thought it was strange - "You could just walk out of here with that and people would think it was trash." We just separated them into three groups and stuck them in skinny vases.

Nice and simple, just like Fall decor should be.

Big-Eyed Bird

If you've gone to the Red Elephant Pizza Cafe, you have no doubt noticed their eccentric artwork.

It's all done by a man named Cornbread. One painting in particular caught my eye the few times I visited Red Elephant.

I decided I wanted that painting. Even though I've never ever painted before, I tried to duplicate the bird. It's pitiful.

I just about die laughing every time I walk past it. Between his huge eye and his massive gut, there's no way that poor bird could really stay in flight. The best part about this is its size.

This bird takes up a good chunk of the wall. It even looks large behind my beast of a dog.

I'm not leaving this on our wall forever; I'll eventually find something classier. But until then, I'll get a good kick out of seeing this creature loom over us.

Gallery Wall

We now have a gallery wall. It's only a small collection of photos and prints so far, but over time we will add to it.

We have a small gap on the left side, so I'm looking for something to put there to balance it out.

9/11

Ten years ago today, I was a freshman in high school. I was homeschooled, which meant I witnessed the events unfold on television in my own house with my family near me. At the time I didn't exactly understand the full significance of what a terrorist attack meant, but it forever changed our world.

My church is having a 9/11 memorial service this morning at 10:30. Visit www.fbcjax.com and click on live streaming to watch the message.

Fall Wreath

Although it's not technically fall, I am acting like it is. I'm a teacher, so in my mind, fall begins on the first day of school. I tried to be patient and waited until September came before I started decorating. The first order of business was to create a new wreath for the front door.

The four supplies used (brown yarn, mustard yarn, ribbon, and wreath form) were each purchased at the thrift store for $1.00 each, so the total cost was around $4.00. It took about an hour to wrap the whole thing with two layers of yarn. I tried watching "Less Than Perfect" because Hulu thought I would like it. Hulu doesn't know me. The show was weird.

But it wasn't a complete waste, because now I have this wonderful fall wreath hanging up.

Linked up here.

Pillow Parade

I'm excited. I've been wanting to fill our large sectional with tons of random pillows. It's like having accessories for the couch.

My mom called over the weekend to say she was stopping by to drop something off. She walked in the door and it was like Christmas. Really. She was lugging two huge garbage bags full of stuff. Much to my delight, the bags contained pillows. And it was amazing.

The one with the button is my absolute favorite.

Aren't these awesome?

Even Jake likes looking at them.

Linked up to these parties.