Oooh la la!

I have mentioned to you before that my niece has just built a new house and we have lots of decorating to do. Well I am leaving in a couple of days to go to my sisters house and work on just that! Fun right??? Just craftin' and decorating all day,  three lucky girls!!!  Here is a little something we worked on last time I went.

I am sure you have seen these at stores in all shapes, colors and sizes. We really loved this one because of the base. When we bought it was blue, but of course we had some other plans! We started out spray painting it black and cut that bow off. Visualize here people, I forgot to take a pic.

Hmmm, we found these old lace curtain panels and started cutting strips about 6 inches wide, no real measuring here just eyeballing it. Then we started wrapping them around her and around her and when we tied the ends together it looked a little like a flower, LOVE it!!!

Isn't this cool???? She has such a vintage feel to her.

What a great shape, huh?

She needed a little corsage.

And this little added touch of one of those flowers you burn the edges, you can find out how to make them on my blog here.

This fabric is just gorgeous. My niece picked it up at Walmart when they sold fabric for 1.00 a yard. Does anyone else miss those days????

Ahhh, she is just so pretty! <3 This room is really going to come together beautifully!
I super excited about all that we have before us, keep checking back for pics! Many projects are inspired by fellow bloggers!!!

A new look for the new year!

If you have stopped by before you may notice a new look at Ms Smartie Pants. I was fortunate to find the sweetest and simply wonderful blogger to create a new look for my blog. Courtney has her own blog here. Go by and take a look. She had created some wonderful blogs at an unbelievable low cost. You can pay her through Paypal or you can barter with her. She mentioned she was into those cute flowers for her hair and I am into making them so it seemed like a perfect match! Take a look at some of the photo's of flowers I created just for her.

I have done a tutorial on some of these. I was inspired by many bloggers as I designed these but the first person who peeked my interest was Sachiko at Tea Rose Home. Stop by and look at her blog, she has such great taste!

This is probably my last post for the year. I am excited about the upcoming year. I have lots of new plans for my blog and I am going after Christmas to continue the decorating at my nieces' new beautiful house so I plan to have lots of fun post.

Thanks for stopping by and always encouraging me along the way! I count you all as blessings in my life.

This season is filled with so many "to do" list. I hope you have made a point to slow down and prepare your heart for the celebration of the baby that changed the world. If not it's not too late!
Merry Christmas!

Linking to the Shabby Chic Cottage

More Christmas crafting!

I am actually done with decorating but I saw the most adorable thing at a store and I thought "I can make that", I know we all say that, right??? Well I forgot about it and then the other day came across the picture on my phone I tried to post it for you but the phone and computer aren't talking to each other for the moment, so you are only going to see my version.
This project was/is great because the only thing I needed to purchase were a couple of old Goodwill frames for a buck. Again use your imagination here because I didn't take a picture of the ugly frame. Everything else I had, actually have had it for years!

Yep, isn't that some lovely stuff, my 80's jewelry. Why am I holding onto that stuff you ask??? Because I remember always dressing up in 50's clothes for school events and I have always been sure that the day would come when my daughter would need to dress up for 80's day at school and I wanted to be sure she had the perfect accessories! They have come in handy by the way! Anyway there was a certain something I knew I needed if I still had it, yep, I am in luck! Ok enough rambling, here is what I created.

Isn't he just adorable??? I just love him. He is mounted on a piece of burlap. I used 5 buttons and an old bracelet and earrings for the scarf and hat. All of it is glued with E6000. I can't quit looking at him, he is just too cute for words!  The frame is spray painted black and then accented with a Spanish Gold rub n buff. As I mentioned I saw something very similar at a store and so that was my inspiration but then as I started going thru my stuff I found this pair of earrings and it gave me a thought!

They looked like the perfect angel wings. All of this is old jewelry, except her body. That little doo daddy came clipped onto my jeans. I thought I could use it for something so I didn't throw it away. And again, I painted this frame with the Rustoleum Brown Hammered and touched it up with Silver Rub and Buff. So this is it, any other ideas will have to wait until next year. I still have shopping and wrapping to finish!

I am linking up to The Gypsy's Corner, go check her out.

Welcome to our home!

A few months ago I added this old wrought iron shelf to our front porch and it has really turned out to be fun to decorate through the different seasons.A little bit of spray paint and lovlies to put on the shelves and we are good!

Meet Mr Jack, he was a great find at Goodwill. He is basically a wooden T with a winter coat on. The Goodwill he was purchased at is near one of the largest flea markets in the country so I find some pretty cool homemade stuff there on occasion. This is exactly how he came except I changed out his scarf. His tree lights up too!

Hear is a look at the whole shelf. I am crazy about these little cabins. This has got so little color compared to fall but I am really loving it.

How sweet is this?  Purchased at 2 separate times many years apart but they work so well together.

This is one of my favorite items I have. I bought it to make a coffee table out of, but have never done it because I love it just the way it is.

A little ornament nestled in among fall foliage.

And look at my sweet Rudolph. I have a whole heard of them (do they travel in heards?) in my front yard. A friend of my husbands made them from cedar, love them!

Back to the shelf... here it is all done up!

This stain glass window was purchased the same time and store the snowman was. I think I paid 10.00 for it. By the way did I mention that Jack was only 6.00!!!! What a steal huh?

And how sweet is this, again one of those things that could be made so easily but at the cost of 5.00, why???

I wish I were bundled up under a warm blanket with a fire going in a cabin just like this one.

I completely and totally love this luminary basket!!! I put some lights in the bottom of an empty basket, put pine cones in and spread more lights and more pinecones. These snowball things I got from that flea market after Christmas, great find!!!

You gotta come in closer and look at Jack's hat!  It's a faux racoon! How clever is that?  I fell in love with this guy the minute I saw him!
So how about you? Does your porch welcome your guest as soon as they walk up to your home???

My Christmas Wreath!

Don't you love when a plan comes together and especially when it comes together better than the picture in your head!

 I teased you with this a few days ago. These have become a bit of addiction for me, it's something about playing with fire I think! I showed you how to make them here. Once I made some I began to think hmmm.... what can I make with these other than the usual headband or lapel pin.

I started with one of these inexpensive wreaths from Hob Lob, 2 bucks on sale I think. When I use these straw wreaths I always leave the plastic on that way I don't have messy straw everywhere.

I found this dark olive green fabric in the clearance bin and decided it was just what I was looking for! I cut pieces of it and kinda gathered them and pinned them in with straight pins.

You can see it's messy from the back, no one is looking back there!

Ooops, sideways pic, oh well you get the idea.

I took another sheer green and wrapped it around the wreath and then some metallic gold ribbon. Sorry about these pictures I had to take them at night and they just didn't turn out well.

Ta da! I glued the flowers on and a few leaves and berries and that was it!  I love this so much! The colors are just so pretty together, much better than I imagined!

I finally took this outside so I could get good shots of the color.

Aren't they pretty? I want to make a bunch more and use them as bows on our gifts. Playing with fire worked out well this time!

Linking up to A Vision To Remember, go check it out.

How lovely are your branches?

Do you ever have a year when you don't really care for your tree? That has been my deal this year. I switched from our modge podge of ornaments a couple of years ago and I went all red and gold and I loved my tree but this year, it's just not working for me. I finished it a couple of weeks ago or should I say I finished round 1.

 This was what I started with. The gold mesh stuff is new this year. I don't like it or maybe what I don't like is how I have put it on the tree. At night it almost looks like a copper color. I LOVE copper but not on my tree with the red!

 So I took it all off and tried this, but quickly said no!

Then I tried a bunch of these pouncy blobs (it's a technical term) and shoved them in the tree to see if that would work! Nope, I'm now taking the gold off and putting it away!

So I study the tree and decide I need the gold and I need to fill the tree. So I go out to my front yard and cut a bunch of boxwood off of a bush and spray paint it gold.

 That makes me a little happy and it didn't cost a thing!!!! See that sweet pic of that young boy. He turned 30 today! (Boy does that make me feel old!) When I stopped using my kids fav ornaments I placed their pic on the tree instead. They still complain!!!

I bought a bunch of these last year at Walmart, I just love them! I also have peace and joy.

This is one thing this year that has gotten me so excited!!! I purchased this dress at Goodwill for 1/2 off  8.00 this summer, and I knew just what I wanted to do with it!

No sewing here folks, just cut the top off and place it around the tree. I used the bodice to make these flowers.

 So here is the final product. It is growing on me. I am more of a rustic girl when it comes to trees, so next year I am going to have to change it up a bit!

 Here is a little peak under my tree until I get some presents wrapped. I got him when I was 6 and just loved/love him!!!

And some sweet pillows my daughter made when she was very young.

I'm linking up to Sarah's tree party, come check it out!

Merry Christmas everyone!