Belated Post: Our 2010 Christmas Card

I make our Christmas cards every year.  Yes, I'm crazy.  This year it took me a whole week every night after work and a day or two during naptime.  Here they are...

The circle flap is supposed to be taken off and hung on the tree as an ornament, but no one got it. Sad.

I try to come up with something new and original every year, and I'm really proud of this year's.

I think our photo turned out really well, too.  I just set up my camera on a barstool and set the timer.  I think it's really cute.  Just ignore the fact that my husband isn't wearing his wedding band.  We are still married, he's just forgetful.

Quilled Monogram Plaques

I decided to make gifts for my cousins this Christmas, for no other reason than I'm crazy.  I think they were a hit Christmas morning, so maybe I did something right.  I made 10 total, and they were all completely different, but of course, I didn't get a picture of all of them, so here are a couple.

I started with blank wood plaques I got at JoAnn for a couple bucks (rectangular for the boys, curvy for the girls).  On some of them, I painted the wood opaque white before painting the edge a color, but on most some of them, I just did a light whitewash with a sponge roller.  Then I painted the edge with one of the acrylic paints I had in my stash, and distressed them a little.

I created the monograms in Photoshop (using Rockwell font), printed them, traced the smaller initials onto the plaque, and the larger initial onto fancy scrapbook paper.

Hmm, my first attempt at cutting out an S didn't turn out so well.  I didn't realize I had to trace the reverse onto the paper since I was cutting it out from the back side.  Duh!

Much better the second time around!

I painted the first and middle initials onto the wood using black acrylic.

When I traced the initials onto the wood, I made marks at the top and bottom of the big initial for placement later.  I just Mod Podged it on.

I did some simple quilling, and voila!

After all the quilling was done, I sprayed a glossy clear sealant on them to protect the paper.  You can see from this picture that I started out doing more intricate designs, but each of those took three hours each, and I decided I didn't have enough time for that, so I simplified my design.  I still think they look pretty good, though.

The finished product included a ribbon for hanging!

Here's a close-up of one of the more intricate ones.

I love quilling. It is so fun and rewarding, but time consuming. Remind me to start making my gifts in October next year.

FYI: I've added these to my shop.

My Favorite Ornaments

I've been wanting to do a post on my favorite ornaments so I could play along with Flamingo Toes' Our Favorite Ornaments Party, but my ornaments and I were three states apart. Now that we're all reunited, here they are!

Of course, who doesn't have a s'mores ornament?  We bought this one (obviously) for our first Christmas together.

I bought these ice skates for our "rustic" tree and I love how it looks like they were just haphazardly thrown over the branch.

I love anything Disney, so this Mickey and Minnie ornament makes me happy.  We got it at Disney World last year and it resides on our rustic tree as well.

We bought this ice cream cone ornament at the Southern Christmas Show either last year or the year before (I can't remember). The bottom is an actual mini ice cream cone and the top is a ball ornament. Clever, huh?

My aunt bought me this little owl in New York last month, and I just love him.

  

I bought a set of 4 of these at Target three years ago and they make me smile each time I take them out of the box.

Christmas is only 3 days away... can you believe it?

Christmas Decor 2010

So even though we're only going to be at our house for a week before Christmas, I just had to spend the weekend after Thanksgiving decking the halls.  After all, when we move back home on the 19th, I'm going to be a little preoccupied unpacking so thinking about decorating for Christmas at the same time would be a little overwhelming!

Of course we had to get a real tree, since we didn't get to have one last year.  I love it but it was so hard to decorate because the branches are so dense!  I guess it's better too full than not full enough.  I should have taken some close-up pics of our ornaments, but maybe I will when we get back home.  And I love the new throw I got at Target for $10 to hide the cat scratches on the arm of our lovely leather couch.

Garland on the chandelier: Hobby Lobby - $4.  I think I'll get another strand for next year so I can extend it down the arms as well.  I usually have lovely gold-flecked candle holders on the table as well, but of course those are in Ohio. 

I love these snack plates Steven got from a co-worker last year.  The table runner and napkins I got at Bed Bath & Beyond a couple years ago after Christmas for 75% off.

I love our china.  It doesn't get used nearly enough, but it so pretty just sitting on the table (Waterford Kilbarry Platinum, in case you're interested).  I got the snowflake napkin rings last year at Belk after Christmas.  I think they were only a dollar or two each.  I was going to set out our stemware, but was too afraid of the cats jumping up there and knocking them off.

I made the ribbon card holder a couple years ago.  So easy!  Take some ribbon, make a bow, hot glue it to another piece of ribbon, make a loop on the back for hanging, mod podge or hot glue some wrapping paper onto clothes pins and you're done!  I also added some beaded curlicues as decoration.

I also have all of the Hallmark jingle pals sitting on the stairs (They come out with a new one each year and I have all 6.  I love them.), and Steven's Appalachian Santas on the console table in the foyer.  Somehow I missed getting a picture of those.

I am in a very festive mood.  All I want to do is wear my Santa earrings, my jingle bell necklace, my Christmas socks and undies, drink hot chocolate, and watch Christmas movies.  But I have to work on our Christmas cards, do a ton more shopping, not to mention lots of presents to make... oy.  Why didn't I do all this in October and November so I could enjoy Christmas without the stress?  But the stress is part of what makes Christmas fun, I think.

Hope you all have a very festive and enjoyable holiday season.

A Tour of My Basement

I think I've mentioned before how we're planning on renovating our basement when we move back to NC.  I took some pictures this afternoon of the awful state it's in.  Granted, it looked a lot better when we were actually living here (i.e. I kept it clean), but here it is as it looks right this minute.

Looking down the stairs.  Steven's pennants hang along the railing, and a couple of Cubs signs hang above the stairs.

See that place on the wall below the light that seems a different color than the rest?  That's called crappy drywalling.

Nasty carpet.  Blech.

Our Media Room.  This room will probably just get new carpeting and a cabinet and/or shelves along the back wall.  The paint color looks really tomato-y in the picture, but it's actually a nice deep red (Valspar Cut Ruby) and I really like it.  And I'll probably hang some movie posters with accent lighting.

Our HD projection screen.  LOVE!  I wish the speakers were built into the wall, but the system is brand new (and was very expensive) so I'll just find some way to mask them a little.  Any ideas?

Nasty drop ceiling and fluorescent lighting.  This is getting overhauled.  Probably just a different type of drop ceiling with some recessed lights built in.

We call this the Media Archive Room, but it's really just the closet off the Media Room where we keep our DVDs.  I'm picturing wall-to-wall shelving to hold all our DVDs, CDs, board games, etc.

Looking from the stairs down to the little foyer.  The door on the left is the Media Room, the door straight ahead is our storage room (cinder block walls, water heater, Steven's tool bench, lawn mower, etc).  To the right of the door hangs all of Steven's old license plates.

Looking from the Media Room doorway toward the main area of the basement we call the Game Room.  That cardboard "artwork" is a sign Steven and his friend made when they were playing stickball in their backyards many many years ago.

Here's the motherlode.  That's Steven's (very expensive) poker table there under the sheet, with cheap folding chairs all around.  It used to be turned the other way, but we've already been measuring where all of our furniture is going to go, so that's approximately where the poker table will be when we're finished.  Broken Coca-Cola vending machine (it was so cool while it lasted but it doesn't get cold anymore... piece of junk), unplugged mini-fridge, missing ceiling tile (Our master shower was leaking... actually it's still not fixed but we stopped using it so as not to cause more water damage.  For the amount of time we've been here in the last year, we haven't exactly made it a priority.)  That junk there in the corner is where the TV was when we had one down here.

Bathroom and extra bedroom, which we use as a workout room.

We have actually done a little work in here.  When we moved in, the floor was linoleum, the vanity was lovely honey oak and there was a teeny tiny medicine cabinet above the sink.  We put tile down, painted the vanity black and got a black mirror.  The builder of our house really cut some corners down here (if you can't already tell), so there is no faucet in the bathtub, just a showerhead, even though there is a place for a faucet.  I don't understand that.  And the toilet was placed too far away from the wall I think.  Don't you think it looks like the tank is just leaning against the wall?  Plus the toilet bowl is so big I almost fall in whenever I use it.  I've love to get a larger vanity because there's definitely room for it and maybe a new toilet if that falls in the budget.

This is the "Workout Room."  I put that in quotes because we don't do a whole lot of working out in here.  It's basically where our treadmill went to die.  Probably not a whole lot will happen in here, just new carpet.

Steven's Chicago Cubs memorabilia.

Those floating shelves in the corner hold Steven's shot glass collection, as well as a few other odds and ends.  The door leads into a storage area below the stairs.



Yep, we have cardboard taped onto our door with red duct tape so no one can see in since we're not living here.  Our Appalachian memorabilia is straight ahead and on the right wall.  More Cubs stuff on the left wall.



Ugly doorknobs.  I don't know if replacing these will be in the budget, but it sure is nice to think about.

So here's the plan.





Console table in the foyer. Seating area toward the front of the room (the couch is actually a sectional, but the program I created this in has limited options). The TV will go between the two windows. The poker table will be behind the couch and will have nice new chairs!

The walls will get board and batten (Should I paint the b&b black instead of the traditional white?!  I'm definitely considering it...), the ceiling will get new square ceiling tiles with recessed lighting.  The nasty carpet will be torn up and lovely engineered hardwoods will be installed (except in the Media Room and Workout Room, which will both get new carpet).  The carpet on the stairs will also be torn out and wood treads will replace the nastiness.

I'm totally excited about creating a nice family room down there where we can actually spend some time, other than just when Steven's friends come over to play cards.  We'll probably start on it at the beginning of the year, and don't worry, I'll keep you guys updated on all the progress!