A Homemade Christmas

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

We enjoyed a nice lil' Christmas Eve dinner of spiral ham, roasted carrots, gourmet cheeses & crackers from Whole Foods, olives, and red wine.  It was perfect!

Here are a few things I've made this Christmas....

This was painted at a Wine & Palette I attended at the beginning of December.  I just love these events!  This painting is called "The First Day of Christmas."

These trees were made at an RPSA event.  They were inspired by Pinterest!  

This year I added wreaths to our dining room windows.  I love the cozy country/homemade feel they bring. They're cheap wreaths from HL and I cut strips of burlap and tied the bows myself.  I just used a safety pin to attach them because I didn't want anything permanent.  These could be changed year after year if I desired to change them. 

I made this banner for our mantle.  It's pretty adorable!  

I used burlap and a canvas.  I cut each triangle free-handed and then used my stencils and painted on the letters.  My attempt to sew the triangles to the twine didn't go so well, so I pulled out my trusty glue gun and glued away.  It worked out wonderfully!  

I'm not sure where my idea for this came from, but I wanted a fun wreath I could keep up year round.  I also made an "OSU" wreath for my work dirty santa.  It was fought for!!!  Love it! 

My dear friend, Christi, liked my banner so I made her one too.  Hers is "OU" inspired.  

She'll have an "OU" wreath to go along with this very soon.  

My friend, Christi, made this for me while I was making her banner.  We obviously had a very fun craft day.  She things this tree is sad, but I think it's adorable!  

I didn't make these, but I wanted to share my lovely collection of Starbucks ornaments in case you're wondering how much I love coffee.  Hehee....  I have added 2 ornaments from this years collection since this photo was taken.  

This J-O-Y hangs in the dining room.  I used cheap wooden letters from Hobby Lobby and spray painted them gold.  They are connected by a pretty paisley fabric that I stapled to the back of the letters. 

We needed a stocking upgrade.  The stockings we used for several years were a navy felt and I hated them.  Our beautiful mantle called for some pretty homemade stockings.  

Dave's stocking, my stocking, and Ethan's stocking.  I want Ethan to have a matching stocking, but I want it in a different color so I'll have to wait until HL opens again.  I also plan to paint on a stenciled monogram initial of the first letter of each of our names. 

This photo shows the banner, stockings, trees both on the mantle and next to the fireplace, and the gold "M" were all homemade. I've had so much fun putting some personality and hand crafting decor myself.  

I made many gifts this year.  It was a blast!  In this photo, I was adding a fun ribbon to a very plain kitchen towel.  How cute is this donut ribbon?!?!!!!  

 

 I recently attended a wedding with a super fun photo booth.  I was absolutely miserable with  sinus infection, but managed to still have a smile on my face. 

The bride asked me to make the wedding cake, decorated sugar cookies, and cake balls for the wedding.  I had to decline on the cake since I'm already so busy with things, but I made the cookies and cake balls for her.  They were delicious!   

Well, that's all for now.  We're about to head over to my in-laws to continue our Christmas celebrations.  

MERRY CHRISTMAS!  

Checker Border Chalkboard Pantry Door

I am in LOVE with the new look of my pantry door.  Oh, don't you worry.... this is the INSIDE.  It's a little hidden gem that I will love and appreciate very much.  

I completely forgot to take a before pic, but here's the inside of the linen closet that's right next to the pantry.  It's exactly the same except for the door handle.  These doors were painted in Ralph Lauren's Architectural Cream.  When I look really close, I can see brush strokes from the last paint job and notice that they were once painted gray.  Who knows how many layers of paint are on these old 1926 doors?  

My original thought was to just paint a chalkboard on the inside of the door.  It's meant to be used for grocery lists, meal planning, doodling, etc.  I may even leave my husband little love notes.   ; )

It seemed a little plain, so I decided I needed to add a checker border to be the "frame" of the chalkboard.  I'm super happy with the results.  However, I may still add a thin black line on the inside of the checker pattern to help define the frame.

All but the bottom portion of the door was 5 inches.  The actual width of the door was 28 inches.  I kept a 1-inch white boarder around the chalkboard, making all but the bottom portion 4 inches.  This allowed me to do 2x2 squares.  I used my clear 6" Fiskars fabric ruler to measure off the door and pencil in my checker pattern.  I then painted each square black with a sponge brush.  No tape was used for this project.  It's not perfect, but that's what I love about it.  It's so VINTAGE!!!

Mirror Transformation

I fell in love with this mirror I found at the Rink Gallery.  It was a great price so I had to have it.  I didn't care much for the color, but thought it would be a fun piece to give a makeover. 

Thanks to Pinterest, I found the proper tutorials to help me achieve the look I was going for.  

I'm very pleased with my finished project.  

Here's a closer look at the detail.  

I've done a LOT of painting this summer.  I painted the master bath, master bedroom, main bath, and have been working on miscellaneous projects such as this mirror.  I'll have to post more photos soon.  It's probably safe to say that I have definitely found another new hobby.  


**Leave me a comment if you'd like me to post some step-by-step photos and list the products I used to complete this project.**